Colonial Literature

1、American LiteratureChapter OnePuritanism in AmericaThey follow the ideas of the Swiss reformer John Calvin.Doctrines:- Predestination- Original sin and total depravity (human beings are basically evil.)- Limited atonement (or the Salvation of a selected few)Puritan values (creeds):Hard work, thrift,

2、 piety, simple tastes.Puritans are more practical, tougher, and to be ever ready for any misfortune and tragic failure.They are optimistic.Puritanism in AmericaWhy did Puritans come to America?- to reform the Church of England- to have an entirely new church- to escape religious persecution* Gods ch

3、osen people* To seek a new Garden of Eden* To build “City of God on earth”P(pán)uritanism in AmericaInfluence - American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature.- American literature is based on a myth, i.e. the Biblical myth of the Garden of

4、 Eden.- Puritanism can be compared with Chinese Confucianism.Three major poets in colonial period:l Anne Bradstreetl Michael Wigglesworthl Edward Taylor 1. Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)Anne Bradstreets Works“Some verses on the Burning of Our House”“The Spirit and the Flesh”Anne Bradstreets Life* She w

5、as born and educated in England.* At the age of 18, she came to America in 1630 with her father and husband. * She had 8 children.the first collection published by English colonists living in America2. Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705)Work: “The Day of Doom” (1662)3. Edward Taylor (1642?-1729)Work: U

6、pon a spider Catching a FlyFeatures of Colonial Poets They were servants of God. They faithfully imitated and transplanted English literary traditions.In English stylePuritan poetsRevolutionary Period (1775-1783)“The Age of Reason”“American Enlightenment” In the 18th century, people believed in mans

7、 own nature and the power of human reason. With Franklin as its spokesman, the 18th century America experienced an age of reason. Words had never been so useful and so important in human history. People wrote a lot of political writings. Numerous pamphlets and printings were published. These works a

8、gitated revolutionary people not only in America but also around the world. The 18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarc

9、hy. Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man. The colonists who would form a new nation were firm believers in the power of reason; they were ambitious, optimistic, practical, politically astute, and self-reliant. Le

10、ading writers and their works Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826): The Declaration of Independence (1776) Thomas Paine(1737-1809): Common Sense (1776) Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Philip Freneau: “The Wild Honey Suckle” 1. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)自傳格言歷書(shū)2. Life Benjamin Franklin came from a Calvinis

11、t background. He was born into a poor candle-makers family. He had very little education. He learned in school only for two years, but he was a voracious reader. At 12, he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother, a printer. At 16, he began to publish essays under the pseudonym “Silence Do good” .

12、At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune. He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher. In 1727 he founded the Junto club.1. Works The Autobiography Poor Richards Almanack Franklins Contributions to ScienceHe was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effectiv

13、e street lighting, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices. And for his lightning-rod, he was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.” Franklins Contributions to the U.S.He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:

14、The Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Alliance with France, The Treaty of Peace with England, The ConstitutionFranklins Contributions to SocietyHe helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital. He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania. And he helped found the American Phil

15、osophical Society. The Autobiography is a record of self-examination and self-improvement. Benjamin Franklin was a spokesman for the new order of the 18th century enlightenment The Autobiography is a how-to-do-it book, a book on the art of self-improvement. (for example, Franklins 13 virtues) Throug

16、h telling a success story of self-reliance, the book celebrates, in fact, the fulfillment of the American dream. The Autobiography is in the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision.3. Evaluation2. Philip Freneau (1752-1832)“Poet of the American Revolution”“Father of American Poetry”

17、“Pioneer of the New Romanticism”1. Works “The Rising Glory of America” (1772) “The House of Night” (1779, 1786) “The British Prison Ship” (1781) “To the Memory of the Brave Americans” (1781) “The Wild Honey Suckle” (1786) “The Indian Burying Ground” (1788) “The Dying Indian: Tomo Chequi”P(pán)oem Appreci

18、ation The Wild Honeysuckle The following poem was published in his Poems (1786) and was virtually unread in the time when he was living. In the poem the poet expresses his keen awareness of the liveliness and transience of nature celebrating the beauty of the frail forest flower, thus showing his de

19、ep love for nature. The poem was written in six-line iambic tetrameter stanzas rhymed on ababcc pattern. The poem is said to anticipate the nineteenth-century romantic use of simple nature imagery. It is considered one of the authors finest nature poems. Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,Hid in

20、this silent, dull retreat,Untouchd thy honeyd blossoms blow,Unseen thy little branches greet: No roving foot shall crush thee here, No busy hand provoke a tear.By Natures self in white arrayd,She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,And planted here the guardian shade,And sent soft waters murmuring by; Thu

21、s quietly thy summer goes, Thy days declining to repose.Smit with those charms, that must decay,I grieve to see your future doom,They died-nor were those flowers more gay,The flowers that did in Eden bloom; Unpitying frosts, and Autumns power Shall leave no vestige of this flower.From morning suns a

22、nd evening dewsAt first thy little being came:If nothing once, you nothing lose,For when you die you are the same; The space between, is but an hour, The frail duration of a flower.The Indian Burying GroundThe poem was published in the poets Miscellaneous Works in 1788. Like “The Wild Honey Suckle”,

23、 it anticipated romantic primitivism and the celebration of the “noble savage”. The poem portrays sympathetically the spirit of the nomadic Indian hunters, who were traditionally buried in a sitting position and with images of the objects they knew in life. It is believed to be the earliest to roman

24、ticize the Indian as a child of nature. The poem was written in ten iambic tetrameter quatrains with the rhyme scheme of “abab”.In spite of all the learned have said;I still my old opinion keep,The posture, that we give the dead,Points out the souls eternal sleep.Not so the ancients of these landsTh

25、e Indian, when from life released,Again is seated with his friends,And shares again the joyous feast.His imaged birds, and painted bowl,And venison, for a journey dressed.Bespeak the nature of the soul,Activity, that knows no rest.His bow, for action ready bent,And arrows, with a head of stone,Can o

26、nly mean that life is spent,And not the old ideas gone.Thou, stranger, that shalt come this way.No fraud upon the dead commitObserve the swelling turf, and sayThey do not lie, but here they sit.Here still a lofty rock remains,On which the curious eye may trace,(Now wasted, half, by wearing rains)The

27、 fancies of a ruder race.Here still an aged elm aspires,Beneath whose farprojecting shade(And which the shepherd still admires)The children of the forest played!There oft a restless Indian queen(Pale Shebah, with her braided hair)And many a barbarous form is seenTo chide the man that lingers there.B

28、y midnight moons, oer moistening dews,In habit for the chase arrayed,The hunter still the deer pursues,The hunter and the deer, a shade!And long shall timorous fancy seeThe painted chief, and pointed spear,And Reasons self shall bow the kneeTo shadows and delusions here.“ Romanticism The term ,Roman

29、ticism, is associated with imagination and boundlessness, as contrasted with classicism, which is commonly associated with reason and restriction. The most profound and comprehensive idea of romanticism is the vision of a greater personal freedom for the individual. vthe economic rise of the middle

30、class, struggling to free itself from feudal and monarchical restrictions;vthe individualism of the Renaissance;vthe Reformation, which was based on the belief in an immediate relationship between man and God;vthe scientific deism, which emphasized the deitys benevolence;vthe psychology of Locke, Ha

31、rtley, and others, who contended that minds are formed by environmental conditions, thus seeming to be indicate that all men are created equal and may be improved by environmental changes;vthe optimistic humanitarianism of Shaftsbury; vthe writings of Rousseau who contended that man is natural good,

32、 institutions also having made him wicked.v1. Appeals to imagination; use of the willing suspension of disbelief. v2. Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, geniality. v3. Subjectivity: in form and meaning.vFrom the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War.vIdeals: Demo

33、cracy and political equality became the ideals of the new nation.vEconomic boom: IndustrialismImmigration Westward expansionoptimism and hope among peoplevAmerican Romanticism was both imitative and independent.ImitativeIndependentEnglish and European RomanticistsEmerson and WhitmanvImitative vIndep

34、endentvhome, family, nature, children and idealized love, etc.vmajor problems of American life, like the westward expansion and democracy and equality, etc.紐約外史 見(jiàn)聞札記 睡谷的傳說(shuō) 瑞普凡溫克爾布雷斯布里奇莊園哥爾德斯密斯華盛頓傳 Knickerbocker Rip Van Winkle View of Sunnyside2. James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851) novelist1) Works. Lea

35、therstocking TalesThe Pioneers 1823 4The Last of the Mohicans 1826 .2The Prairie 1827 5The Pathfinder 1840 3The Deerslayer 1841 .1Precaution 1820The Spy 1821 The Pilot 1823 2) LifeBorn into a rich land-holding family of New Jersey, Cooper was one of the new American authors who did not have to worry

36、 about money.He was sent to Yale at 14, but was expelled in his junior year because of improper behavior.He went and spent five years at sea; then, while still in his early twenties, he inherited his fathers vast fortune and settled down to a life of comfort and even luxury.His second book, The Spy,

37、 a novel about the American Revolution, proved to be an immense success. He was a prolific writer, wrote more than thirty novels.FictionPrecaution,1820; The Spy,1821; The Pioneers, 1823;The Pilot, 1824;Lionel Lincoln,1824;The Last of the Mohicans, 1826; The Red Rover,1827;The Prairie, 1827; The Red

38、Rover,1827;The Red Rover, 1828;The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish,1829; The Water Witch,1830The Bravo,1831; The Heidenmauer,1832;The Headsman,1833;The Monikins,1835;Homeward Bound,1838;Home as Found,1838;Mercedes of Castile,1840; The Pathfinder, 1840;The Deerslayer, 1841;The Two Admirals,1842;The Wing-and-Wi

39、ng,1842;Le Mouchoir; an Autobiographical Romance,1843;Ned Myers, 1843;Wyandotte, 1843;Afloat and Ashore,1844;Miles Wallingford: A Sequel to Afloat and Ashore,1844;Satanstoe,1845;The Chain Bearer,1845;The Redskins,1846;The Crater,1847; Jack Tier,1848; Oak Openings, 1849;The Sea Lions,1849;The Ways of

40、 the Hour,1850.Non-Fiction : Notions of the Americans: Picked Up by a Travelling Bachelor, 1828; Sketches of Switzerland,1836;Gleanings in Europe,1837; The American Democrat,1838;The History of the Navy of the United States of America,1839.Title Publication Date Natty Bumppos Age Set in YearThe Pion

41、eers 1823 70 1793 Natty Bumppo first appears as a seasoned scout in advancing years, with the dying Chingachgook, the old Indian chief and his faithful comrade, as the eastern forest frontier begins to disappear and Chingachgook dies.The Last of the Mohicans 1826 40 1757An adventure of the French an

42、d Indian Wars in the Lake George county.The Prairie 1827 90 1804 Set in the new frontier where the Leatherstocking dies.The Pathfinder 1840 40 1757Continuing the same border warfare in the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario country.The Deerslayer 1841 23 1740-45Early adventures with the hostile Hurons on

43、 Lake Otsego, NY. Contributions of CooperThe creation of the famous Leatherstocking saga has cemented his position as our first great national novelist and his influence pervades American literature. In his thirty-two years (1820-1851) of authorship, Cooper produced twenty-nine other long works of f

44、iction and fifteen books - enough to fill forty-eight volumes in the new definitive edition of his Works. Among his achievements:Cooper Creates many “first” in the field of American novels 1. The first successful American historical romance in the vein of Sir Walter Scott (The Spy, 1821). 2. The fir

45、st sea novel (The Pilot, 1824). 3. The first attempt at a fully researched historical novel (Lionel Lincoln, 1825). 4. The first full-scale History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839). 5. The first American international novel of manners (Homeward Bound and Home as Found, 1838). 6. Th

46、e first trilogy in American fiction (Satanstoe, 1845; The Chainbearer, 1845; and The Redskins, 1846). 7. The first and only five-volume epic romance to carry its mythic hero - Natty Bumppo - from youth to old age. 3）EvaluationLeatherstocking Tales is a series of five novels about the frontier of Ame

47、rican settlers.The Pioneers was probably the first true romance of the frontier in American literature.Natty Bumppo represents the ideal American, living a virtuous and free life in Gods world. To him and to Cooper, the wildness is good, pure, perfect, where there is freedom not tainted and fettered

48、 by any forms of human institutions. Natty Bumppo is a veritable embodiment of human virtues like innocence, simplicity, honesty and generosity, a man born with an immaculate sense of good and evil and right and wrong.Cooper is a mythic writer. His preface to the Leatherstocking series indicates tha

49、t he wrote with increasing consciousness to create a mythic figure. Cooper is good at inventing plots. His plots are sometimes quite incredible.Cooper has been known as a powerful yet clumsy writer. His style is dreadful, his characterization wooden and lacking in probability, and his language, his

50、use of dialect, is not authentic.Anyhow, Cooper did help to introduce the “western tradition” into American literature.3. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) the first American lyric poet of distinction1) Worksa) Poems 1821b) The Fountain 1842詩(shī)選詩(shī)選泉泉c) The White-Footed Deer 1844 d) A Forest Hymn 1860e)

51、 The Flood of Years 1878白蹄鹿白蹄鹿森林賦森林賦似水流年似水流年f) “To a Waterfowl” 1815g) “Thanatopsis” 1817h) “The Yellow Violet” 1814致水鳥(niǎo)致水鳥(niǎo)死亡隨想死亡隨想黃色堇香花黃色堇香花2）Life Bryant was a poet, and editor. He was born into a doctors family in Massachusetts. He started to write poems when he was 14 years old. Bryant quitted his

52、 study in university and then became a lawyer. In 1825, he turned to journalism. In 1827, he became an editor for Evening Post and wrote a lot of political criticism. But it is his poetry which made him popular among people.v He was influenced by Graveyard School in England and wrote “Thanatopsis”.

53、His best works are his lyric poems about nature and so his style is quite similar to that of Wordsworth.father of modern short storyfather of detective storyfather of psychoanalytic criticismTales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque“MS. Found in a Bottle” a)C) “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”奇異怪誕故事集瓶子

54、里發(fā)現(xiàn)的手稿毛格街殺人案“The Fall of the House of Usher”“The Masque of the Red Death”“The Cask of Amontillado”厄舍古屋的厄舍古屋的倒塌倒塌紅色死亡的化妝舞會(huì)一桶酒的故事The RavenIsrafel Annabel Lee To Helen烏鴉烏鴉伊斯拉菲爾伊斯拉菲爾安娜貝爾安娜貝爾李李致海倫致海倫The Poetic Principle The Philosophy of Composition詩(shī)歌原理詩(shī)歌原理 創(chuàng)作創(chuàng)作哲學(xué)哲學(xué) Famous American Poet, short-story writ

55、er and critic. Poe remained the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature. Emerson dismissed him in three words “the jingle man” ，Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable. And Whitman was the only famous literary figure present at the Poe M

56、emorial Ceremony in 1875. Ironically, it was in Europe that Poe enjoyed respect and welcome. Bernard Shaw said: “Poe was the greatest journalistic critic of his time; his poetry is exquisitely refined; and his tales are “complete works of art”. Poes reputation was first made in France. Charles Baude

57、laire said that “Edgar Poe, who isnt much in America, must become a great man in France.” Today, Poes particular power has ensured his position among the greatest writers of the world. The majority of critics today, in America as well as in the world, have recognized the real, unique importance of P

58、oe as a great writer of fiction, a poet of the first rank, and a critic of acumen and insight. His works are read the world over. His influence in world-wide in modern literature. Twice-Told Tales1837 Mosses from an Old Manse1843The Scarlet Letter1850Collections of short stories故事故事重述重述古宅青苔古宅青苔紅字紅字T

59、he House of the Seven Gables1851The Blithedale Romance 1852The Marble Faun 1860七個(gè)尖角閣的房子七個(gè)尖角閣的房子福谷傳奇福谷傳奇大理石雕像大理石雕像“Young Goodman Brown”“The Ministers Black Veil”“Dr. Rappacinis Daughter”好小伙好小伙兒布朗兒布朗教長(zhǎng)的教長(zhǎng)的黑面紗黑面紗拉普齊拉普齊尼博士的尼博士的女兒女兒Hawthorne was born in Salem Massachusetts. Some of his ancestors were men

60、 of prominence in the Puritan theocracy of seventeenth-century New England. One of them was a colonial magistrate, notorious for his part in the persecution of the Quakers, and another was a judge at the Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692.When Nathaniel was four, his father died on a voyage in Surinam,