Lectures on American Literature——美国文学讲义

美国文学之父the father of

American literature

Unit 2美国文学之父The Father of American Literature

2.1美国文学之父The Father of American Literature(1)

Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, was the first

American writer to specifically dwell on American themes,

American language and the American point of view. He was a

master at rendering the different colloquial dialects of American

English into writing so the reader can really “hear” the accent

while reading the words. Twain was known particularly for his

interest in portraying the American point of view. Tired of

European writers who came to tour the United States and then go

home to write critical things of it, Twain took to touring Europe

and writing frankly (and critically) of what he saw there. Twain

was also the first American writer to produce a tremendous

1 AMERICAN LITERATURE

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot --- Little Gidding

Literature represents the language of a people, their culture and

their tradition. But the reading of literature is more important to us

than just a historical or cultural activity. Literature introduces us to

new worlds of experience. When we enjoy the comedies and the

tragedies of poems, stories, and plays, we may also grow and

evolve through our literary journey with books.

American literature is a literature that has recorded the stories of a

search. Early explorers searched for new lands and new wealth.

The puritans searched for a place that would become the ideal

community, one of which God would approve. Many Americans

lecture2美国文学

American Literature

◆The literature of the Colonial Period 殖民地时期的文学

1.narratives and journals are the major forms in this period

2.Captain John Smith

The first American writer

A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note

as Hath Happened in

Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony—a letter《关于弗吉尼亚的真实叙述》

A Map of Virginia: With a Description of the Country

3.William Bradford—The History of Plymouth Plantation

4.John Winthrop—The History of New England

5.Roger William—A Key into the Language of America; A

Help to the Language of the Natives

in That Part of America Called New England

6.Anne Bradstreet 威廉. 布拉德斯特里特—the first colonist

poet.

The Flesh and the Spirit 肉与灵

As Weary Pilgrim 疲惫的朝圣者

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America 第十位缪斯

◆The Literature around the Revolution of Independence

第十七讲

Chapter 5: American literature at the turn

of the century

1. Naturalism in America: Emile Zola

(1840-1902) wrote in the late 19th century

that the purpose of a novelist was to be

a scientist, to place his characters in a

situation and then to watch the

influence of heredity and environment

destroy them, or they were good

enough to overcome the hostile force of

heredity and environment. Therefore,

heredity and environment had an

influence over human ability to survive.

This was picked up and applied in

American literature as well. In the last

decade of the 19th century in America,

some intelligent writers began to see

that human beings were no longer free

and strong in a cold, indifferent world

and that human life was governed by the two crushing forces of heredity and

environment. They held that Howellsian