美國(guó)文學(xué)簡(jiǎn)史筆記(常耀信)

1、A Concise History of American LiteratureWhat is literature?Literature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages.Chapter 1 Colonial PeriodI. Background: Puritanism1. features of Puritanism(1) Predestination: God decided everything befor

2、e things occurred.(2) Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.(3) Total depravity(4) Limited atonement: Only the “ elect ” can be saved.2. Influence(1) A group of good qualities hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (seriou

3、s and thoughtful) influenced American literature.(2) It led to the everlast ing myth. All literature is based on a myth-garde n of Ede n.(3) Symbolism: the American puritan' s metaphoricaolfmpeordception was chieflyinstrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly Ameri

4、can.(4) With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.II. Overview of the literature1. types of writingdiaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, au

5、tobiographies/biographies, sermons2. writers of colonial period(1) Anne Bradstreet(2) Edward Taylor(3) Roger Williams(4) John Woolman(5) Thomas Paine(6) Philip FreneauIII. Jonathan Edwards1. life2. works(1) The Freedom of the Will(2) The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3) The Nature of True

6、Virtue3. ideas -pioneer of transcendentalism(1) The spirit of revivalism(2) Regeneration of man(3) God' s presence(4) Puritan idealismIV. Benjamin Franklin1. life2. works(1) Poor Richard A'lmsanac(2) Autobiography3. contribution(1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American P

7、hilosophical Society.(2) He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven ”.(3) Everything seems to meet in this one man “ Jack of all trades ” . Herman Melville thus described him“master of each and mastered by none”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection

8、1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is Romanticism?An approach from ancient Greek: PlatoA literary trend: 18c in Britain (17981832)Schlegel Bros.I. Preview: Characteristics of romanticism1. subjectivity(1) feeling and emotions, finding truth(2) emphasis on imagination(3) emphasis on in dividualism -pers ona

9、l freedom, no hero worship, n atural good ness of human beings2. back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature(1) unrestrained by classical rules(2) full of imagination(3) colloquial language(4) freedom of imagination(5) genuine in feelings: answer their call for classics3. back to naturenature is

10、“breathing living thing” (Rousseau)II. American Romanticism1. Background(1) Political background and economic development(2) Romantic movement in European countries Derivative -foreign influence2. features(1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of “areal new experienceand contained “a

11、n alien quality ” for the simple reason that“the spirit owas radically new and alien.(2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained.(3) The “ newn ess

12、 of America ns as a n atio n is in connection with America n Romanticism.(4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent.III. Washington Irving1. several names attached to Irving(1) first American writer(2) the messenger sent

13、 from the new world to the old world(3) father of American literature2. life3. works(1) A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(2) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication of this.)(3)

14、The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5) The Alhambra4. Literary career: two parts(1) 18091832a. Subjects are either English or Europeanb. Conservative love for the antique(2) 18321859: back to US5. style -beautiful(1) gentility, urban

15、ity, pleasantness(2) avoiding moralizing - amusing and entertaining(3) enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4) vivid and true characters(5) humour -smiling while reading(6) musical languageIV. James Fenimore Cooper1. life2. works(1) Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating AustenPride and Prejudi

16、'ces)(2) The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3) Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3. point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change,

17、aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4. style(1) highly imaginative(2) good at inventing tales(3) good at landscape description(4) conservative(5) characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6) language and use of dialect not authentic5. literary achievementsHe created a my

18、th about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then CooperLeatherstockin'g sTaleseffectively approximates the American national experience

19、 of adventure into the West.He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism -American TranscendentalismI. Background: four sources1. Unitarianism(1) Fatherhood of God(2) Brotherhood of men(3) Leader

20、ship of Jesus(4) Salvation by character (perfection of one's character)(5) Continued progress of mankind(6) Divinity of mankind(7) Depravity of mankind2. Romantic IdealismCenter of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3. Oriental mysticismCenter of the world is“ oversoul ”4. PuritanismEloq

21、uent expression in transcendentalismII. Appearance1836, “ Nature ” by EmersonIII. Features1. spirit/oversoul2. importance of individualism3. n ature -symbol of spirit/God garment of the oversoul4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV. Influence1. It served as an ethical guide to

22、 life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2. It advocated idealism that was great needed

23、 in a rapidly expanded economy whereopportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to“get omn or”al obscured thnecessity for rising to spiritual height.3. It helped to create the first American renaissance -one of the most prolific period in American literature.V. Ralph Waldo Emerson1. life2.

24、works(1) Nature(2) Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet3. point of view(1) One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the “ oversoul ”.(2) He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a

25、 spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3) If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine inhimself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”.(4) Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world

26、, and that he makes the world by making himself.4. aesthetic ideas(1) He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2) True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3) The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4) As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone

27、 poem in itself.5. his influenceVI. Henry David Thoreau1. life2. works(1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2) Walden(3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3. point of view(1) He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.(2) He hated t

28、he human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3) Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man' s spiri-tubaelinwge. ll(4) He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5) He was very critical of modern ci

29、vilization.(6) “ Simplicity simplify! ”(7) He was sorely disgusted with “ theinundations of the dirty institutions of men' s odd-fellow society ”.(8) He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men. Section 3 Late RomanticismI. Nathaniel Hawthorne1. life2. works(

30、1) Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2) The Scarlet Letter(3) The House of the Seven Gables(4) The Marble Faun3. point of view(1) Evil is at the core of human life,“that blackness in Hawthorne”(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can

31、 be passed from generation to generation (causality).(3) He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4) He has disgust in science.4. aesthetic ideas(1) He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2) He was convinced that romance

32、was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5. style -typical romantic writer(1) the use of symbols(2) revelation of characters' psychology(3) the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)

33、 his stories are parable (parable inform) - to teach a lesson(5) use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty-multiple point ofviewII. Herman Melville1. life2. works(1) Typee(2) Omio(3) Mardi(4) Redburn(5) White Jacket(6) Moby Dick(7) Pierre(8) Billy Budd3. point of view(1) He nev

34、er seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of“ Everlasting Nay ” (negative attitude towards life).(2) One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejecti

35、on and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts overthe comforting 19c idea of progress4. style(1) Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2) He tends to write periodic chapters.(3) His rich rhy

36、thmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised.(4) His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5) He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)Romantic PoetsI. Walt Whitman1. lif

37、e2. work: Leaves of Grass (9 editions)(1) Song of Myself(2) There Was a Child Went Forth(3) Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4) Democratic Vistas(5) Passage to India(6) Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking3. themes - “ Catalogue of American and Europeanthought ”He had been influenced by many American and Euro

38、pean thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson 's individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything): equality of things and beings divinity of everything immanence of God democrac

39、y evolution of cosmos multiplicity of nature self-reliant spirit death, beauty of death expansion of America brotherhood and social solidarity (unity of nations in the world) pursuit of love and happiness4. style:“ free verse ”(1) no fixed rhyme or scheme(2) parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3) phone

40、tic recurrence(4) the habit of using snapshots(5) the use of a certain pronoun“I ”(6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7) use of conventional image(8) strong tendency to use oral English(9) vocabulary -powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(10) sen

41、tences -catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines5. influence(1) His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2) He took over Whitman 's vision of the p-poreotphet and poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3) He has b

42、een compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4) Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.II. Emily Dickenson1. life2. works(1) My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2) Because I Can 't Stop for Death(3) I Heard a Fly Buzz -When I die

43、d(4) Mine -by the Right of the White Election(5) Wild Nights -Wild Nights3. themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1) religion -doubt and belief about religious subjects(2) death and immortality(3) love -suffering and frustration caused by love(4) physical aspect of desire(5) nature -kind

44、 and cruel(6) free will and human responsibility4. style(1) poems without titles(2) severe economy of expression(3) directness, brevity(4) musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5) capital letters -emphasis(6) short poems, mainly two stanzas(7) rhetoric techniques: personification -make some of a

45、bstract ideas vividIII. Comparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1. Similarities:(1) Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance ”.(2) Technically, they both added to t

46、he literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedomin form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry.2. differences:(1) Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the

47、individual.(2) Whereas Whitman is “national ” in his outlook, Dickinson is“regional(3) Dickinson has the “cataloguetechnique (”direct, simple style) which Whitman doesn 't have.Edgar Allen PoeI. LifeII. Works1. short stories(1) ratiocinative storiesa. Ms Found in a Bottleb. The Murders in the Ru

48、e Morguec. The Purloined Letter(2) Revenge, death and rebirtha. The Fall of the House of Usherb. Ligeiac. The Masque of the Red Death(3) Literary theorya. The Philosophy of Compositionb. The Poetic Principlec. Review of HawthorneT'wicse-told TalesIII. Themes1. death predominant theme in Poe '

49、; s writing“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe's writings is dead.2. disintegration (separation) of life3. horror4. negative thoughts of scienceIV. Aesthetic ideas1. The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality.2. The poems sho

50、uld be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V. Style traditional, but not easy toreadVI. Reputation:“the jingle man”(Emerson)VII. His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI. Background: From Romanti

51、cism toRealism1. the three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period(1) industrialism vs. agrarian(2) culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west(3) plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility2. 1880's urbanization: from free competition to monopoly capitalism3. the closing of

52、American frontierII. Characteristics1. truthful description of life2. typical character under typical circumstance3. objective rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life“Realistic writers are like scientists.”4. open-ending:Life is complex and cannot be fully understood. It l

53、eaves much room for readers to think by themselves.5. concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustrations of characters in an environment of sordidness and depravityIII. Three Giants in Realistic Period1. William Dean Howells “Dean of American Realism ”(1) Realistic principl

54、esa. Realism is “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”.b. The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of American life”.c. Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells 'fisctional representation.d. Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals bu

55、t includes acentral concern with“motives ” and psychological conflicts.e. He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, and avoids such themes as illicit love.f. Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense of something“ desultory, unfinished, imperfect”.g.

56、 Characters should have solidity of specification and be real.h. Interpreting sympathetically the “commonfeelings of commonplace people ”was best suited as a technique to express the spirit of America.i. He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with current- 8 -humanitarian ideals.j

57、. Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates all things.k. With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjective evaluations on books but should follow the detached scientist in accurate description, interpretation, and classification.(2) Worksa. The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(3) Features of His Worksa. Optimistic ton