(完整版)美国文学史总结

Ⅰ

Colonial America(17

th

century)

殖民主义时期文学

1.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America and he mistook the native people on

the new continent for Indians.

Character of colonial literature:

a.

content: religious, political

b.

form:

diary,

journal,

letters,

travel

books,

sermons,

history

(personal

literature)

c.

Style: simple. direct, concise

d.

out of humble origins

Early

in

the

17

th

century,

the

English

settlements

in

Virginia

and

Massachusetts

began

the main stream of what we recognize as the American national history.

The

earliest

settlers

in

America

included

Dutch

,

Swedes

,

Germans

,

French

,

Spaniards

,

Italians

and

Portuguese

.

The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at

Jamestown

,

Virginia

in 1607(

北美弗吉尼亚詹姆斯顿

)

2.

Captain Town Smith, the first American writer

3.

Puritan Thoughts:

hard work

,

thrift

(

节俭

), < /p>

piety

(

虔诚

),

sobriety

(

节制

),

这些也成了早期

美国作品主导思想

.

典型的清教徒：

John Cotton

&

Roger William

, John Cotton was called

“

the Patriarch

of New England(

新英格兰教父

)

”

清教徒采用的文学体裁：

na rratives

(

日记

) and

journals

(

游记

)

清教徒在美国的写作内容：

1

）

Their voyage to the new land

2

）

Adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops

3

）

About dealing with Indians

4

）

Guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit

4.

Private literature:

theological

,

moral

,

historical

,

political

5.

The work of two writers,

Anne

Bradstreet

and

Edward

Taylor

, rose to the level of real

poetry. Anne Bradstreet is one of the most interesting of the early poets,

英国最早移民

到美国的诗人

. The best of the Puritan poets was Edward Taylor.

Ⅱ

Reason and Revolution(18

th

century)

理性和革命时期文学

1.

The War for Independence (1776-1783)

ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois

democratic republic - the United States of America.

2.

Bourgeois Enlightenment

3.

Benjamin Franklin:

Poor Richard

’

s Almanac

(

穷人理查德的年鉴

), an annual collection of

proverbs.

The Autobiography

,

18

世纪美国唯一流传至今的自传

?

The

Autobiography

is, first of all, a Puritan document. It is Puritan because it is a record

of self-examination and self-improvement. The Puritans, as a type, were very much given to

self-analysis.

?

The

Autobiography

shows

Franklin

was

spokesman

for

the

new

order

of

18

th

-century

Enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas,

that man is basically good

and free, by nature endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit

of happiness.

?

It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision. The plainness of its style,

the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the

obvious features we cannot mistake.

?

Tone: Optimism

The

American

dream

began

with

the

settlement

of

the

American

continent

–

the

Promised Land

–

the Garden of Eden

–

optimistic about the future

4.

Thomas Paine:

The American Crisis

,

极大恢复士气

5.

Thomas Jefferson:

The Declaration of Independence

6.

Philip Freneau, Father of American Poetry:

The Indian Burring Ground

(

印第安人的坟地

)

The Wild Honey Suckle

(

野忍冬花

)

?

The

poem

is

an

indication

of

the

poet’s

dedication

to

American

subject

matter and the natural scenes on the new continent.

?

Here

in

this

poem

Freneau

deals

with

the

themes

of

loveliness

and

the

transience of life.

?

This poem, well within the melancholy genre, consists of the poet’s pensive

musings on the flower’s story.

?

The first two stanzas picture the advantages of the flower’s country retreat.

?

The next two stanzas unite the theme of the seasons with the thought that all

must die. Death and decay, as well as creation, are so common, so much a part of the

universal law.

Ⅲ

Romanticism(end of the 18

th

century

——

Civil War)

浪漫主义文学

1.

Washington

Irving,

Father

of

American

literature:

Sketch

Book

(

见闻札记

,

the

first

modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature, a collection of essays,

sketches, and tales

)

2.

James

Fenimore

Cooper:

The

Leatherstocking

< br>Tales

(

皮袜子故事集

,

the

American

National Epic) contains of

The Deerslayer

(

杀鹿者

),

The Last of the Mohicans

(

最后的莫

希干人

),

The Pathfinder

(

探路人

),

The Pioneers

(

拓荒者

), and

The Prairie

(

大草原

).

3.

Edgar Allan Poe:

The Raven

(

乌鸦

),

Annabel Lee

(

安娜贝尔< /p>

·

李

),

The Fall of the House of

Ush er

(

鄂榭府崩溃记

)

To Helen

○

Edgar Allan Poe wrote “To Helen” as a reflection on the beauty of Mrs. Jane Stith

Stanard, of Richmond, Va., who died in 1824. She was the mother of one of Poe’s school

classmates, Robert Stanard. When Robert invited Edgar, then 14, to his home (at 19th and

East

Grace

Streets

in

Richmond)

in

1823,

Poe

was

greatly

taken

with

the

27-year- old

woman, who is said to have urged him to write poetry. He was later to write that she was

his first real love.

○

1 stanza

?

Helen: An allusion to Helen of Troy in Greek mythology.

?

Nicean: Of or from Nicea (also spelled Nicaea), a city in ancient Bithynia (now

part of present-day Turkey) near the site of the Trojan War.

?

Barks: small sailing vessels.

?

End rhyme: A, B, A,B, B.

○

2 stanza

?

wont: accustomed to

?

Naiad:

Naiads

were

minor

nature

goddesses

in

Greek

and

Roman

mythology. They inhabited and presided over rivers, lakes, streams, and fountains.

?

Naiad airs: Peaceful, gentle breezes or qualities

?

The glory that . . .Rome: These last two lines, beginning with

the glory

that was

, are among the most frequently quoted lines in world literature.

?

End rhyme: A, B, A, B, A.

Half rhyme:

Face

and

Greece

○

3 stanza

?

Psyche:

In

Greek

and

Roman

mythology,

Psyche

was

a

beautiful

princess dear to the god of love, Eros (Cupid), who would visit her in a darkened room in

a palace. One night she used an agate lamp to discover his identity. Later, at the urging of

Eros, Zeus gave her the gift of immortality. Eros then married her.

?

End rhyme: A, B, B, A, B.

?

from the regions which are Holy Land: from ancient Greece and Rome;

from the memory Poe had of Mrs. Stanard

○

Theme

■

Beauty

, as Poe uses the word in the poem, appears to refer to the woman's

soul

as

well

as

her

body.

On

the

one

hand,

he

represents

her

as

Helen

of

Troy

–

the

quintessence

of

physical

beauty

–

at

the

beginning

of

the

poem.

On

the

other,

he

represents her as Psyche

–

the quintessence of soulful beauty

–

at the end of the poem. In

Greek,

psyche

means

soul

.

4.

Transcendental ism(

超验主义

):

?

19th-century

movement

of

writers

and

philosophers

in

New

England

who

were

loosely

bound

together

by

adherence

to

an

idealistic

system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the

innate

goodness

of

man,

and

the

supremacy

of

insight

over

logic

and

experience

for

the

revelation

of

the

deepest

truths.

In

their

religious

quest,

the Transcendentalists rejected the conventions of 18th-century thought; and

what began in dissatisfaction with Unitarianism developed into a repudiation

of the whole established order.

?

Representative

figures:

some

30

men

and

a

couple

of

women

such

as

Emerson,

Thoreau,

Bronson

Alcott,

and

Margaret

Fuller,

most

of

them

teachers

or

clergymen, radicals against rigid rationalism of Unitarianism.

?

Time: 1836-1855

?

Essence:

“

Transcendentalism is idealism” in essence

?

Major Features:

A.

Emphasis on spirit;

B.

The

importance

of

the

individual

as

the

most

important

element

of

society;

C

．

N

ature as symbolic of the Spirit or God

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Father of American Essay, Essayist, poet, philosopher, orator, critic

:

Nature

(the

Bible

and

manifesto(

宣言

)

of

the

New

England

Transcendentalism),

Self-reliance

Henry

David

Thoreau(The

Prophet(

< br>提

倡

者

)

of

Non-Violence

Movement,

he

was

Emerson

’

s truest disciple, who put into practice many of Emerson

’

s theories):

Walden

5.

Nathaniel Hawthorne:

The Scarlet Letter

⑴女主角

honest, calmly face fault

诚实，坦然的面对罪过。

⑵弗洛伊德人格理论：

Id

本我

→

欲望，只要快乐

→Roger

女主角的丈夫

Ego

自我

→

分辨对错，受约束，符合现实

→Hester

女主角

Superego

超我

→ →Dim

女主角的情人，牧师

⑶女主角的自我成长和自我救赎的过程。

Ego growth and redeem by her own of process

“

The Scarlet Letter

”

分析：

It is not a praise of a Hester sinning, but a hymn on the moral

growth of the woman when sinned against. Young Hester borders on being licentious.

Her drive is sexual. She does her best to keep her hold on the magic chain humanity.

Her

life

eventually

acquires

a

real

significance

when

she

reestablishes

a

meaningful

relationship

with

her

fellowmen

Symbolic

of

her

moral

development

is

the

gradual

imperceptible change with the scarlet letter undergoes in meaning. At first it is a token

of

shame,

“Adultery”

but

then

the

genuine

sympathy

a

nd

help

Hester

offered

to

her

fellow villagers’ changes it to “Able”. Later in the story, the letter A appears in the sky,

signifying “Angel”. There is reason to agree with the critical observation that A may

represent

Adamic,

or

prehistoric,

an

archetypal

vice

suggestive

of

“original

sin,”

Dimmesdale,

on

the

other

hand,

banishes

himself

form

society.

Deeply

preoccupied

with himself, he lives a stranger among his admirers. The result is that, whereas Hester

is able to reconstruct her life and win a moral victory, Dimmesdale undergoes the tragic

experience of physical and spiritual disintegration. Between him and Hester they point

to a moral as Hawthorne may intend them to do, that the best policy for man is to be

true, honest, and ever ready to show one’s wo

rst to the outside world.

6.

Herman Melville:

Moby Dick

(

白鲸

)

①

a tremendous chronicle of whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white

whale.

主要讲 述了一个为追捕一只想象中的神秘白鲸的漫长海上故事。②

The book is

steeped in symbolism.

本书达到了象 征主义手法的创作高峰。

③主人公：

Ishmael