备课本教研室：文学教研室课程名称：美国文学史及选读任课教师：**德州学院外语系美国文学史及选读课程的教育目标：通过教学,使学生掌握美国文学的发展史及各阶段具有代表性的主要作家及其作品的主要特色，具备一定的分析鉴赏英语文学作品的能力,帮助培养学生的英语思维能力,提高英语整体水平。
课程的基本要求：要求学生有目的、较系统地了解和掌握美国文学的发展史及各阶段具有代表性的主要作家及其作品的主要特色。
课程的重点与难点：对具有代表性的作家的评价，对著名的美国小说和诗歌的分析、鉴赏及评价。
主要参考书目《美国文学简史》（第二版）常耀信南开大学出版社2004《美国文学选读》李宜燮南开大学出版社2000《牛津文学术语辞典》上海外语教育出版社2000《美国文学大纲》吴定柏上海外语教育出版社1998Introduction1.教学的目的和要求：简述美国文学史，包括美国文学史的5个主要阶段，每个阶段的起止时间，主要特点及代表作家，要求学生了解美国文学史概况2.教学重点：美国文学史的五个阶段及起止时间3.教学难点：各个阶段的主要特点4.教学内容Am literature is one lf the youngest national literature in the world. It became a colony of Britain in the early 17th century. And the American Independence War stretched from 1776 to 1783. The short history can be divided into several stages:• 1.the colonial period•It stretched roughly from the settlement of Am in the early 17th C through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607.(A group of people was sent by the English king James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607.They named the James River and build the James town.) Here the major topic will be about Am Puritanism .• 2.the Romantic Period•It covers the first half of the 19th C, which is a period following the national political independence. Around 1840s arose the culmination of the RomanticPeriod---New England Transcendentalism(1836-1855) .• 3.the Age of Realism•It was after the civil war (1861-1865) till the end of the 19th century, covering the latter half of the 19th C. The civil war brought the Romantic period to an end.4.Naturalism(the last decade of the 19th c)•In the last decade of the 19thc, the age of naturalism came into being. Naturalists saw man’s life as governed by two forces---- heredity & environment.5.Modernism•In the decade of the 1920s,there came the age of modernism. (here are many eminent writers in this period, such as T.S Eliot, Earnest Hemingway, William Faulkner, etc.)6.思考题：简介美国文学史Chapter I Literature of Colonial America1.教学的目的和要求：介绍对美国文学及美国文化影响重大的清教主义，要求学生理解清教主义的教义，掌握清教主义对美国文学的影响，，殖民时代的主要作家及启蒙时代的特点2.教学重点：清教主义对美国文学的影响3.教学难点：清教主义的教义，爱德华兹和富兰克林各自的哲学思想4.教学内容•I American Puritanism1.origin of PuritanIn the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th C, the English King Henry VIII(At that time ,the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope’s permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife because she couldn’t bear him a son. But the Pope didn’t allow him to divorce because his wife is the Pope’s niece. Henry VIII became very dissatisfied with the Pope, so he )broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church of England. But there was no radical difference between the doctrines of theChurch of England and the Catholic Church. A group of people thought the Church of England was too Catholic and wanted to purify the church. Then came the name Puritans…Of course they had different religious belief from that of the Catholic Church.2.Puritanism---based on Calvinism•1)predestination: God’s electPuritans believed they are predestined before they were born.Nothing or no good work can change their fate.They believed the success of one’s business is the sign to show he is the God’s elect. So the Puritans works very hard, spend very little and invest more for the future business. They lived a very frugal life. This is their ethics.•2)original sin and total depravityMan is born sinful. This determine some puritans pessimisitic attitude toward life. •3)limited atonement (the salvation of a selected few)•4)theocracyThey combined state with religion. Their government is at least not a liberal one. •(The Puritans established Am tradition---intolerant moralism. They strictly punished drunks, adultery & heretics.Puritans changed gradually due to the severity of frontier environment.Puritannism & ConfucianismConfucianism (修身齐家治国平天下) )3.Influence on Am literature•1)its optimismAmerican literature was from the outset conditioned by the Puritan heritage. It can be said American literature is bases on the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden.(Adam and Eve used to live a carefree life in the Garden of Eden. lured by the snake, they atethe Forbidden Fruit in the apple tree. A peice of apple choked in Adam’s throat , then came Adam’s apple. After knowing the truth, God became very angry and drove them all out of the Garden of Eden. The snake used to walk like man but after that the God force him to crawl. Then man was forced to suffer the labor to keep the whole family and Woman was forced to suffer the agony of baby bearing.) After that, man have an illusion to restore the paradise. The puritans, after arriving at America, believeing that God must have sent them to this new land to restore the lost paradise , to build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden. Fired with such a strong sense of mission, they treated life with a tremendous amount of optimism. The optimistic Puritans has exerted a great influence on American literature,•2)Puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception changed gradually into a literary symbolismII Colonial LiteratureAmerican colonial literature is neither real literature nor Americanwhy?1.Diaries,histories,journals,letters,etc. personal literature in various forms2.Colonial Literature is mainly English literature tradition imitated & transplanted. Anne BradstreetEdward TaylorThey can be called servants of God. Their writings served either God or colonial expansion.Some other colonial writers wrote for civil and religious freedom, and some wrote for America shaking off the fetters of the savage British colonial rule.Roger WilliamsJohn WoolmanThomas PaineOne of most important American prose writers of the 18th Century. He wrote a number of revolutionary works to attack British colonial rule. 1776, he wrote “Common Sense”, which greatly encouraged the painfully fighting people.After the war, he participated in the French Revolution and wrote“The Rights of Man” and “The Age of Reason” to spread the ideals of the French revolution among the people.Philip FreneauHe is the most important poet of the 18th Century, a notable representative of dawning nationalism in American literature.“The Rising Gl ory of America” is a good example.He is the transitional role b/w the neoclassism of the 18th C and the Romanticism of the 19th C. This is clearly manifested in his “The Indian burying Ground” and “The Wild Honey Suckle”III Edwards and Franklin—two representatives of the age of Enlightenment(of the 18th Century)•(The 18th C Am history witnessed two great revolutions: one was Am IndependenceWar, the other was Enlightenment. Enlightenment was several decades earlier than the Revolution, and it helped paved the path for the Independence war in people’s war. (P.28))i.Background: the age of Enlightenment•Toward the latter part of the 17th century, with Newton’s laws of motion and the idea of gravity, a completely new view of the universe came into being. In the minds of some thinking people, the universe became something mechanical subject to certain physical laws instead of to the supervision of God. This brought about a whole set of new ideas, among which was deism（自然神论）。
