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1、精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上History And Anthology Of American LiteraturePart I The Literature of Colonial AmericaThe earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards, Italians, and Portuguese, The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607
2、. At last early in the 17th century, the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts began the main stream of what we recognize as the American history.Two Important New England Settlements：The Plymouth Colony(The Mayflower Compact); The Massachusetts Bay Colony(The Arbella covenant）The first
3、American writings：The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. (wrote in diaries and in journals)Captain John Smith (1580-1631) was the first American writer and he published eight in all. His works always has long titles.Early New England Literatur
4、e1) A literature of ideas: New England had from the beginning a literature of ideas: theological, moral, historical, political. 2) Theocracy: The first intention in Massachusetts was to found a theocracya society in which God would govern through the church. The church thus became the supreme politi
5、cal body. 3) The Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing: Over the years the puritans built a way of life that was in harmony with their somber religion, one that stressed hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety. These were the Puritan values that dominated much of the ear
6、liest American writing, including the sermons, books, and letters of such noted Puritan clergyman as John Cotton and Cotton Mather.4) The American poets: The American poets who emerged in the 17th century adapted the style of established European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange,
7、new environment. Anne Bradstreet was one such poet.William Bradford(威廉布拉德福德): first governor of Plymouth. He wrote The History of Plymouth Plantation. The Pilgrim Fathers: English Puritans who went to America in 1620 and founded the colony of Plymouth, MassachusettsJohn Winthrop(约翰温思罗普): first gover
8、nor at Boston. He wrote The History of New England.Puritan Thoughts:1. What was a Puritan? The “Puritan” was “a would-be purifier”. Puritans wanted to make pure their religious beliefs and practices. 2. What did the Puritans want to do?The Puritans wished to restore simplicity to church services and
9、 the authority of the Bible to theology. They felt that the Church of England was too close to the Church of Rome in doctrine, form of worship, and organization of authority. Another point of controversy was that the Church of England was the established church, that is, the official church of the s
10、tate, and the most extreme Puritans, among them the Plymouth Plantation group, felt the influences of politics and the court had led to corruption within the church. 3. What kind of people were the Puritans?Puritans include people from the humblest to the loftiest ranks of English society, both educ
11、ated and uneducated, poor and rich. Puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts has sometimes been exaggerated, but it is true that their lives were disciplined and hard. Puritans tended to suspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin. Puritan religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wra
12、thful God and to forget his mercy. Puritanism (the practices and doctrines of the Puritans) was the strongest in the New England region and had great influence upon its history, its people and its literature.John Cotton and Roger Williams:contradictory examples of PuritansJohn Cotton 约翰科登The first m
13、ajor intellectual spokesman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sometimes called “the Patriarch of New England”.Roger Williams 罗杰威廉姆斯With Williams begins the history of religious toleration in America, and with him, too, the history of the separation of church and state. Williams advocated the freedom
14、of belief. In him we have a balance to John Cotton. Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor安妮布莱德斯特和爱德华泰勒Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, rose to the level of real poetry.Anne Dudley Bradstreet is one of the most interesting of the early poets.Bradstreets first published work appeared in London: The Tent
15、h Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. Edward Taylor: Puritan Preacher and Poet The best of the Puritan poets was Edward Taylor. His work followed the style and forms of the leading English poets of the mid-seventeenth century. Part II The Literature of Reason and Revolution (18th)Two historical event:
16、I. The American War for Independence 1775-1783II. EnlightenmentTheology dominated the Puritan phase of American writing. Politics was now the great subject to command the attention of the best minds. Benjamin Franklin (本杰明富兰克1706-1790) Representative works: 1. Poor Richards Almanac; 2. The Autobiogr
17、aphy:An introduction of his life to his own son, including four parts written in different times. The first success story of self-made Americans;Thomas Paine（托马斯佩因1737-1809）: Revolutionary War patriot and pamphleteer.Major works:1.The Case of the Officers of the Excise (1772);2. Common Sense (1776);
18、3. The American Crisis (1776-1783);4. The Rights of Man (1791 - 92).Thomas Jefferson(托马斯杰弗逊1743-1826): Author of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was an act of the Second Continental Congress, adopted on July 4, 1776, which declared that the Thirteen Colonies in North
19、 America were Free and Independent States. Philip Freneau (菲利浦弗瑞诺1752 - 1832)Philip Morin Freneau was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. Remembered as the poet of the American Revolution and the father of American poetry, he was a transitional figure in American literature.“The Wild Honey S
20、uckle” His nature poem, “The Wild Honey Suckle” , is considered an early seed to the later Transcendentalist movement taken up by William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Inthispoemthepoetexpressedakeenaware-ness ofthelovelinessandtransience of nature. Henotonlymeditatedo
21、nMortality butalsocelebratednature. The poemimplies that life anddeath areinevitablelawofnature.“Thewildhoneysuckle” isPhilip Freneaus most widelyreadnaturallyricwiththe themeoftransience.Thecentral imageisa native wildflower, whichmakesadrasticdifferencefromeliteflower imagestypicalof traditional E
22、nglishpoems.Thepoemshowedstrongfeelingsfor thenaturalbeauty, which wasthe characteristicof romanticpoets.Thepoemwaswritteninregular6-linetetrameterstanzas, rhyming: ababcc. Thestructure ofthe poemisregular, soithastheneoclassicqualityofproportion andbalance. Theline“ thespaceisbutanhour“ containsahy
23、perbolestressingthetransience of life. Thetoneofthepoemisbothsentimentaland optimistic.Part III The Literature of RomanticismLiterary Characteristics: Romanticism; Transcendentalism.1. RomanticismThe attitudes of Americas writers were shaped by their New World environment and an array of ideas inher
24、ited from the romantic traditions of Europe. A new romanticism had appeared in England in the last years of the 18th century. It spread to continental Europe and then came to America early in the 19th century.Romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in the
25、 value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and mans societies a source of corruption.Romantic values were prominent in American politics, art, and philosophy until the Civil War. 2. Transcendentalism (超验主义)The phase of New Engl
26、and Transcendentalism is the summit of American Romanticism.It is a philosophical view, a notion, a concept, an idea, a way of looking at things, a set of attitudes about man, God, and the universe, a way of how to get to the basic truth of the universe. Transcendentalism has been defined philosophi
27、cally as the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses. The representative writers of Transcendentalism are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.3.The growth of cultural nationalism aroused American artists
28、to write patriotic songs, to paint vast panorama of American scenes, and to design monumental buildings that would register the grandeur of the American people and their land.A.Art-music: most American music remained derivative; Francis Scott Keys “Star Spangled Banner”-painting: the Hudson River Sc
29、hool-architecture: Gothic buildingsB. Literature:1)Literature ceased to be primarily didactic, a servant of politics and religion.2) Imaginative literature became intense, personal, and symbolic as more writers came to perceive themselves as prophets and seers. Moved by a call for a national literat
30、ure, writers celebrated Americas meadows, groves, and streams, its endless prairies, dense forests, and vast oceans. 3) The desire for an escape from society, and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature4) Romantic writers displayed increasing attention to the psychic
31、states of their characters. 5) Nationalism stimulated a greater literary interest in Americas language and its common people. Noah Webster: An American Dictionary of the English Language. 6) New England literary renaissance (“flowering of New England”) Washington Irving (华盛顿欧文1783-1859) .1) Irving i
32、s the first belletrist in American literature, writing for pleasure at a time when writing was practical and for useful purposes. 2) He is the first American literary humorist. 3) He has written the first modern short stories. The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irv
33、ingsThe Sketch Book.4) He is the first to write history and biography as entertainment5) He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. Washington Irving, (1783-1859) American author, short story writer, essayist, poet, travel book writer, biographer, and colu
34、mnist. Two famous short stories in The Sketch Book: Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a short story by Washington Irving. The story is set in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Icha
35、bod Crane, a priggish schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham Brom Bones Van Brunt, a buff and tough man, for the hand of eighteen-year-old Katrina Van Tassel. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow follows a tradition of folk tales and poems involving a supernatural wild chase.James Fennimore
36、 Cooper (詹姆斯芬尼莫库珀1789-1851): The first important American novelist begin his literary career on a dare.The Leatherstocking Tales (1823 - 41):The Deerslayer (1841) The Last of the Mohicans (1826) The Pathfinder (1840) The Pioneer (1823) The Prairie (1827) Natty Bumppo:several names for the same chara
37、cter: Hawk-eye, the Pathfinder, the Deerslayer, Leatherstocking; a typical frontier man: honest, simple, innocent, generous; represents brotherhood of man, nature and freedom; an ideal American, or a perfect example / father image of the frontier man.William Cullen Bryant (威廉卡伦布莱恩特1794-1878)Thanatop
38、sis (view of death)- masterpiece of American poetryThis poem had three main points it wished to make, the final one being the most important:1) Live life fully in order to die well and comfortably.2) In death, all are joined with Nature and with each other for eternity.3) This comfort and togetherne
39、ss in death may only be obtained through death. What Greek words were combined to make the title? How do the meanings of these words contribute to the meaning of the poem? -Thanatos (death) Opsis (seeing).The title presents the poem as a way of seeing death.Define the following words; consider the c
40、ontext of the poem: shroud, pall, narrow house, and sepulcher. How do these words and their meanings impact the meaning of the poem? -All of these words are associated with death and burial. This furthers the idea of the poem presenting a way of looking at death.The tone of this poem shifts. What is
41、 the tone in the first part of the poem? When does the tone shift? What is the tone after the shift? -The tone in the first part of the poem is forbidding, stern, final and then shifts to one of comfort.How is this poem an example of a historical piece? -It represents part of the view of the time pe
42、riod.How is this a Romantic poem? -The speaker hears the voice of nature, turns to nature for comfort. It presents a William Wordsworths nature. The recurring theme of death seems to be quite constant throughout the genre of Romanticism. Bryant attempts to make death a comfortable feeling, referring
43、 to the word couch as something you can simply curl up and feel good in.How is this a Calvinist poem? -Look at the poem as religious counsel. Many elements of Calvinistic beliefs are present.To a WaterfowlBryants poem begins with a waterfowl in flight and a hunter below. The birds instinct allows it
44、 to fly to safety. In spite of the danger, hardships and temptations on the way, the bird continues its flight to its destination. As the speaker watches the bird, he ponders the mysteries of migration. Bryant parallels the birds instinct to a Power. Even though humans have no real instinct to guide
45、 them to safety, there is a Power or God that will guide them to safety. In the last paragraph of the poem Bryant seems to be comparing our life with God to that of a waterfowl. He says: He who from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread
46、alone, Will lead my steps aright. He is saying that throughout our life wherever we go God is going to be with us guiding us down the right path. And in times when we think we must go alone, he too will be with us then. He never leaves us long enough for us to fall, just long enough for us to learn
47、from what we do. Edgar Allan Poe (埃德加阿伦坡18091849): The father of the modern detective story.American poet, short-story writer, and literary critic The Fall of the House of Usher is a short story of Gothic horror written in first-person point of view. Major characters 1. Narrator, a friend of the mas
48、ter of the House of Usher. When he visits his friend, he witnesses terrifying events.2. Roderick Usher, the master of the house. He suffers from a depressing malaise characterized by strange behavior. 3. Madeline Usher, twin sister of Roderick. She also suffers from a strange illness. After apparently dying, she rises from her coffin. Main Theme The central theme of The Fall of the House of