1、(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, autobiogr
2、aphies/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 Virtue3.ideas pionee
3、r of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)Gods presence(4)Puritan idealismIV.Benjamin Franklin(1)Poor Richards Almanac(2)Autobiography3.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus
4、 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 1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is Romanticism?An approach from an
5、cient 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 individualism personal freedom, no hero worship, natural goodness of human beings2.back to
6、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 “breathing living thing” (Rousseau)II.American Romanticism1.Background(1)Politi
7、cal background and economic development(2)Romantic movement in European countriesDerivative foreign influence2.features(1)American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically n
8、ew 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 “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism.(4)As
9、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 from the new world to the old world(3)father of American literature2.life3.works(1)
10、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)The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus(4)A Chronicle of the Conquest
11、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, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmospher
12、e(4)vivid and true characters(5)humour smiling while reading(6)musical languageIV.James Fenimore Cooper(1)Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austens Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Dee
13、rslayer, 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, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape de
14、scription(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic5.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settler
15、s exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Coopers Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literatu
16、re.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism American Transcendentalism four sources1.Unitarianism(1)Fatherhood of God(2)Brotherhood of men(3)Leadership of Jesus(4)Salvation by character (perfection of ones character)(5)Continued progress of mankind(6)Divinity of mankind(7)Depravity of mankind2.Romantic Ideal
17、ismCenter of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticismCenter of the world is “oversoul”4.PuritanismEloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, “Nature” by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature symbol of spirit/Godgarment of the
18、 oversoul4.focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to 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 fo
19、rward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.3.It helped to create the f
20、irst American renaissance one of the most prolific period in American literature.V.Ralph Waldo Emerson(1)Nature(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet(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 mos
21、t sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to be你们e better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man
22、”.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by making himself.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a 你们plete 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
23、 upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceVI.Henry David Thoreau(1)A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3)A Plea for John Brown (an essay)(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspok
24、en on the point.(2)He hated the 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 mans spiritual well-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very c
25、ritical of modern civilization.(6)“Simplicitysimplify!”(7)He was sorely disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutions of mens 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 Hawthorne(1)Two coll
26、ections 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 Faun(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 be passed from generation to g
27、eneration (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.(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 was the predestined form of American narrative. To te
28、ll 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)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 of viewII.Herman Melville
copyright@ 2008-2022 冰豆网网站版权所有
经营许可证编号:鄂ICP备2022015515号-1