美国历史复习资料

Early Colonial Literature(1607-1700)

1. Social background:

The first permanent English settlement in America was Captain John Smith( made at Jamestown in 1607)

2. Captain John Smith:

1) The mainstay of the Jamestown colony in the critical period of its early existence

2) a true soldier of fortune, venturesome, resolute, self-reliant, resourceful

3) a man of great good sense, and with the grasp on circumstances which belongs to the man of power.

4)

a

man

of

some

literary

craft,

who,

while

leading

the

most

strenuous

life

of

all,

efficiently

protecting

and

heartening his less courageous comrades in all manner of perilous experiences

5) compiled and wrote with much literary skill the picturesque chronicles of the settlement.

3. Puritan:

1)

Puritans was the name given in the 16th century to the more extreme Protestants within the Church of

England

who

thought

the

English

Reformation

had

not

gone

far

enough

in

reforming

the

doctrines

and

structure of the church.

2)

They wanted to purify their national church by eliminating every shred of Catholic influence.

3)

The earliest European settlers of New England were English Protestants who came in search of religious

liberty.

4)

The puritans built a way of life that was in harmony with their somber religion, stressing hard work, thrift,

piety, and sobriety.

4.

American Puritanism :

1)

Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the puritans

2)

Most of these men held ideas in

the mainstream of Calvinistic thought. In

addition

to

believing in

the

absolute sovereignty of God, the total depravity of man, and the complete dependence of human beings on

divine grace for salvation, they stressed the importance of personal religious experience.

3)

A desire to see education and enlightenment for the masses (especially so they could read the Bible for

themselves)

During the whole colonial period Puritanism had direct impact on both religious thought and cultural patterns in

America.

5.

Importance of American Puritanism:

1)

American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American

literature.

2)

It has become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, rather than a set of tenets, so much a part of the

national cultural atmosphere that the Americans breathe. Without some understanding of Puritanism, there can

be no real understanding of American culture and literature.

6. The New England :

1)

Boston

is

its

cultural

center,

New

England

is

perhaps

the

best- defined

region

of

the

U.S.,

with

more

uniformity and more of a shared heritage than other regions of the country.

2)

New England

was

considered the

intellectual and cultural center of early America. Harvard, located in

Massachusetts, was the first college founded in the United States.

7. Earliest American literature:

1)American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American literature.

2) the puritan style of writing

3) the content of the earliest writings (including sermons, travel books, diaries, histories, journals, and letters.)

8. the Biblical myth:

1)

It is a commonplace that American literature is based on a myth, that is, the Biblical myth of the Garden of

Eden.

2)

American literature is in good measure a literary expression of the pious idealism of the American puritan

bequest.

3)

The puritans dreamed of living under a perfect order and worked with indomitable courage and confident

hope toward building a new Garden of Eden in America.

4)

Fired with such a sense of mission, the puritans even looked the worst of life with a tremendous amount of

optimism.

5)

The Puritans favored the ordinary and

simple, the

'plain style.'

This form of writing

was used by many

Puritan authors and was thought to be direct and to the point. The plain style consisted of simple sentences

and everyday used language. It never had figures of speech and especially not any imagery.

6)

Puritans stressed hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety. These were the puritan values that dominated much

of the earliest American writing.

9. Questions:

1)

What is the puritan style of writing?

2)

What is American literature based on?

3)

What was the earliest American literature like?

4)

Define the literary term

“

American Puritanism

”

American Romanticism

(1800 - 1850s)

1. we will work with our own hands

we will speak our own minds

We will walk with our own feet

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. Historical Background:

1)

This is a period of rapid growth and rapid expansion

2)

This is a period of the discussion of social issues

3)

This is a period of the pursuit of new belief

4)

This is a period of the development of education

5)

This is a period of foreign influences

3. Growth and expansion :

1)

increasing Population:

A new nationalism emerged as a result of this sudden influx of immigration.

2)

Spreading industrialization filled people with optimism.

3)

Pushing frontier: 1803, The Louisiana Purchase 1804,Louis and Clark expedition

1830s, a series of wars against native Americans 1846

—

1848, war against Mexico; 1848, discovery of gold in

California, thus the Gold Rush. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 brought about a Gold Rush, which

further pushed the frontier to the end. As a result, an unprecedented optimistic attitude was prevailing among

people.

4.

Social issues :

1)

The woman

’

s issue: In 1837, the first women

’

s college was established in Massachusetts.

2)

The slavery issue:

3)

The new lifestyle. The pursuit of simplicity, utility and perfection remained an American characteristic.

5. The pursuit of new belief :

1)

Democracy and political equality became the ideals of the new nation.

2)

The age of Common man, the egalitarian belief

3)

The Virginia Dynasty (more than 30 years)

6. Foreign influences:

1)

Sir Walter Scott:

with his border tales, helped toward the development of American Indian romance and the romantic description

of landscape in America literature. ( Cooper )

2)

The Gothic tradition and the graveyard tradition came to America and found their way into the works of

Poe, Burns, Byron, Wordsworth, with their lyric poems of love and passion and their concern for nature, added

to the nation

’

s singing strength.

7. American Romanticism :

1)

Against such a historical , social and cultural background did American Romanticism emerge.

2)

Coming 20 years later than its British counterpart, American Romanticism was regarded as a period of

Renaissance in art and literature in the United States. (significance)

8. Characteristics of Romanticism :

1)

an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society

—

reliance on the subconscious, the inner life

2)

an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination

—

rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed

formality, order and authority

3)

a profound love for nature

—

nature as a source of knowledge, nature as a refuge from the present, nature

as a revelation of the holy spirit

4)

the use of fanciful subject matters

—

sense of terror, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queer

9. Uniqueness of American Romanticism :

1)

The new subject matter

A.

The

Westward

Movement,

the

pioneering

into

the

West,

provided

the

American

writers

with

the

best

subject and materials. The wilderness always filled them with hope and drove them to look for an ideal world.

B.

The newness as a nation, with people

’

s ideals of individualism and freedom, their dream that America

was to be built into a new Garden of Eden, was strong enough to inspire romantic imagination.

2)

Both imitative and innovative.

A.

Imitative :

it is derivative.

Writers

such

as

Washington

Irving,

Henry

Wadsworth

Longfellow

and

Bryant,

Whittier

and

Lowell

treated

traditional literary themes by using traditional techniques.

B.

Innovative: it is also independent. James Fenimore Cooper was one of the earliest writers to deal with

American subject matter

—

the Westward Movement.

In writers like Emerson and Whitman, we do hear voices different from those in the European tradition. They

not only treated American subject matter but also used innovative techniques. (Free verse)

American Romanticists

一．

Washington Irving

1. Life

：

1

）

Irving visited several European countries and stayed there for many years. His writings about the New

World aroused European interest.

2

）

In the early part of the 19th century, New York City was the center of American writing. Irving

’

s book

created a lot of interest in the local history of New York, but it was humorous rather than a serious history of the

city.

2. Works

：

1)

His

first

book

A

History

of

New

York

,

written

under

the

name

of

Diedrich

Knickerbocker,

was

a

great

success and won him wide popularity.

2)

With the publication of The Sketch Book, he won a measure of international recognition

3)

His most famous book The Sketch Book contains two of the best-loved stories from American literature:

“

Rip Van Winkle

”

《瑞普·凡·温克尔》

and

“

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

”睡谷的传说》

3. Characteristics:

1)

His style can be described as beautiful.(P60 Para1)

2)

He was good at enveloping his stories in an atmosphere.

3)

The humor has built itself into the very texture of his writings.

4)

His characters are vivid and true.

5)

He avoided moralizing as much as possible.(P61 belletrist, belles-lettres)

4. Importance:

1)

father of American short stories;

2)

the first who won international fame;

3)

The Sketch Book

also marked the beginning of American Romanticism.

5. Essay:

1)

Essay---relatively short literary composition in prose, in which a writer discusses a topic, usually restricted

in scope, or tries to persuade the reader to accept a particular point of view.

2)

Modern essay originated from Montaigne

’

s

“

Essais

”

(1580)

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3)

The

important

essayist

at

this

period

is

Bacon.

He

borrowed

the

title

for

his

collection

of

brief

prose

writings.(1597)

Both Bacon and Montaigne relied on quotations, examples, and figures of speech. Bacon

’

s are almost purely

expositive and with moral purpose.

4)

Essay---the 19th century (the popularity and diversity)

In

the

19th century periodicals increased

and modern magazines

sprang up, they were instrumental to

the

rapid development of essays. Under this

encouragement appeared a number of brilliant essayists, such as

Lamb, Hazlitt, Hunt and De Quincy.

They did not write according to the old rules and models of classicism but made the informal essay a pliable

vehicle for expressing the writer

’

s own personality, thus bringing into English literature the familiar essay.

The informal essay is often called the familiar or personal essay.

5)

Formal and informal essay

The informal essay is personal, intimate, relaxed, conversational, and frequently humorous.

The formal essay is dogmatic, impersonal, systematic, and expository.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and

rhetoric able to contend.

6.

‘

‘

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

’

’

:

1)

Setting:

It

takes place in Sleepy Hollow, a snug rural valley.

2)

Conflict:

Constructed from German tales but set in America, it is a classic tale of the conflict between city and country,

and between brains and brawn.

3)

Characters:

Ichabod Crane courts Katrina Van T

assel, but is frightened away by his rival, Brom Bones, masquerading as

the headless horseman.

4)

Style:

The story demonstrates the two qualities for which Irving is best known: his humor, and his ability to create

vivid descriptive imagery.

7. City versus Country :

1)

“

The

Legend

of

Sleepy

Hollow

”

dramatizes

a

conflict

between

two

cultures

—

those

of

the

Yankee

city-dweller and the backwoodsman

—

that was to become a major theme in American literature.

2)

City versus Country : One of the great themes of American literature and American folklore is the clash

between

the

city

and

the

country,

between

civilization

and

the

wilderness.

As

the

theme

is

played

out

in

literature around the world, it carries one of two interpretations: either the city is seen as beautiful, civilized, rich,

clean and safe, and the country is ugly, dirty and dangerous, or else the city is dirty and dangerous, populated

by swindlers who love nothing better than tricking the kind, gentle.

二．

James Fenimore Cooper

(1789-1851)

1. Father of American fiction;