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American Literature
an
puritanism
In the early part of the
17
th
century, the settlement
of the North American continent by
the
English began. Quite a few of the first settlers
were Puritans. They carried with
them
to American a code of values, a philodophy of life
and a point of view, whivh is
popularly
known as American Puritarism.
American
Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping
influences in American
thought and
literature.
1.
puritans accepted the doctrine of
predestination, original sin, total depravity and
limited atonement from God’s
grace.
2.
they went to prove that they are God’s
chosen people enjoying his blessing on this
earth as in heaven.
3.
they are both
doctrinaire and oppotunist.
Influence
on American literature:
1. American
literature is based on a myth-the Biblical myth of
the Garden of Eden.
Puritans dreamed of
building a new Garden of Eden in America.
Fired with
such a sence of
mission, the puritans were optimistic, which has
a
great
influence
on American literature.
2. The American
Puritan’s metaphorical mode of
perception helps swvelop a literary
symbolism which is distinctly American.
3.
With
regard
to
their
writing,
the
style
is
fresh,
simple
and
direct,
the
rhetoric
is
plain
and honest, whith have great influence on American
writing.
an Romanticism
Time: from the end of the
18
th
century to the outbreak
of the Civil War.
Background:
political, economic and
cultural independence developed fast.
influences stimulated the growth of romanticism in
American.
Features:
1.
American
national experience of pioneering into the west
provided rich material
for American
writers.
2.
puritanism
had
a
noticeable
influence
on
American
Romanticism.
American
Romantic
authors
tended
more
to
moralize
than
their
English
and
European
cournterparts.
3.
American’s
ideals
of
indiividualism
and
political
equality
and
their
dream
that
American
was
to
be
a
new
Garden
of
Eden
did
probably
produce
a
feeling
of
newness, a feeling
stronge enough to inspire the romantic
imagination.
4.
American Romanticism was both imitative
and independent.
Main contents:
The exotic landscape, the frontier
life, the westward
expansion, the myth
of a
New
Garden of Eden in
America(the native materials),New England Poems.
Representatives: New England Poets-
Longfellow and so on.
Writers:
Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper
England Transcendentalism
Background:
1.
Ralph Waldo Emerson published Nature in
1836 which represented a new way of
intellectual thinking in American: the
universe is composed of Nature and the soul.
Spirit is present everywhere.
2.
in 1836, some
New Englanders organized the Transcendental Club.
Major features:
1.
the
Transcendentalists
placed
emphasis
on
spirit,
or
the
oversoul,
as
the
most
important things in the
universe.
2.
the
Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the
individual.
3.
the Transcendectalists regard nature as
symbolic of the spirit or God.
Representatives: Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Henry David Thoreau, Dickinson.
The
phrase of New England Transcendentalism was the
product of a combination of
foreign
influences and the American Puritan tradition(it
begun with the introduction of
idealistic philosophy from Germany and
France; it was actually Romanticism on the
Puritan Soul). It never had a
systematic philosophy, it borrowed from many
sourses,
but lacked of logical
connection, finally, it turned to mysticism.
Age of Realism
Background:
1.
after American
Civil War, increasing industrialization and
mechanization of the
country produced
extremes of wealth and poverty.
2.
the fact that
the frontier
was closing ruined
people’s hope th escape troubles over
the next hill and have a better life
ahead.
3.
by the
1870s, New England Renaisance had waned. The age
of Romanticism and
Transcendentalism
was by and large over. Meanwhile, younger writers
oppeared
on the scene.
Time:
In the batter half of the
19
th
century, realism came
as a literary movement against the
lie
of romanticism and sentimentalism.
Major features:
1.
realism
is
the
theory
of
writing
in
which
familiar
aspects
of
contemporany
life
and
everyday
scences
are
represented
in
a
straightforward
or
mother-of-fact
manner.
2.
open
ending(means real life is complex and cannot be
fully understood).
3.
focus on the lives of the common
people.
4.
emphasize objectivity.
Represenrarives: William Dean Howells,
Herry James, Mark Twain.
colorism
Local colorism became dominant in the
late 1860s and early 1870s. It originated from
the frontier humorists with their “tall
tales”. It presents a locale which is
distinguished
from the outside
world
；
It describes the
exotic and the
picturesque
；
It describes
things
that are not common in other
regions
；
It shows things as
they are
；
It glorifies the
past
；
It stresses the
influence of setting on character.
Representative:
Mark
Twain
—“The
adventures
of
Huckleberry
Finn”;
“The
adventures of Tom
Sawyer”.
The local colorists
formed an important part of the realistic
movement. Their truthful
depiction
of
the
common
people
in
their
commonplace
lives
added
strength
to
the
fight for realism.
an naturalism
New
idea about man and man’s place in the
universe bagan to take root in Amarican.
Living in a cold, indifferent and
essentially Godless world, man was no longer free
in
any
sense
of
the
word.
He
was
completely
thrown
upon
himself
for
survival.
The
outlook
of
many
rising
authors
and
intellectuals
have
changed,
and
an
attitude
of
gloom and despair which characterize
American literature of this period.
an
Imagism:
Imagism was
flourished from 1909-1917. It was one of the most
essential techniques
of
writing
poetry
in
modern
period
with
a
spirit
of
revolt
against
conventions,
anti
—
romantic
and
produced
free
verse
without
imposing
a
rhythmical
pattern.
Imagism tried to
record objective observations of an object
or a
situation
without
interpretation
or
comment
by
the
poet.
(suggestion
rather
than
compete statement).
Imagism helped to open the first
pages of modern American
most outstanding figures: Ezra Pound ( His famous
books are Cathy, Canto)
and T.S. Eliot
( The Wasteland, Four Quarters)
English
Literature
English Renaissance
The English Renaissance or the rebirth
of letters was a cultural and artistic movement
in England dating from the early 16th
century to the early 17th
century
。
it sprang first
in
Italy
in
the
14th
century
and
gradually
spread
all
over
Europe.
Two
features
are
striking of this movement. the one is a
thirsting curiosity for the classical literature.
Another feature of the
renaissance is
the keen
interest
in
the activities
of humanity.
The major literary figures
in the English Renaissance include:Francis
Bacon
（
essays
“of
studies”
）
,Christopher
Marlowe
Thomas More ( utopia), William
Shakespeare ( many great
comedies and
tragedies,
sonnet ), Edmund Spenser.
metaphysical poets
The metaphysical poets were a loose
group of British lyric poets of the 17th century,
who shared an interest in metaphysical
concerns and a common way of investigating
them, and whose work was characterized
by mysticism in content and fantasticality in
form.
Its
founder
is
John
Donne
and
representatives
are
George
Herbert,
Andrew
Marvell.
tenment
Enlightenment was an
intellectual movement in Europe begun in 18th
century. With
the
effect
of
Industrial
Revolution,
social
life
changed
a
lot.
Enlightenment
was
an
expression
of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism.
The enlighteners fought
against class
inequality, stagnation, prejudice and other
survivals of feudalism. They
attempt to
place all branches of science at the service of
mankind by connecting them
with the
actual needs and requirements of people. English
enlighteners of 18th century
strove
to
bring
it
to
an
end
by
clearing
away
the
feudal
ideas
with
the
bourgeois
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