美国文学浪漫主义时期

答案:1. B.《瑞普.凡.温克⽽》（Rip Van Winkle）是华盛顿.欧⽂短篇（Washington Irving）⼩说集《札记集》（The Sketch Book）中的⼀篇。

2. B.《睡⾕的传说》（The Legend of Sleeping Hallow）是华盛顿.欧⽂短篇（Washington Irving）⼩说集《札记集》（The Sketch Book）中的⼀篇。

3. C. 《⽪裹腿故事集》（the Leather Stocking Tales）包括5部⼩说，这五部⼩说根据发表的时间先后顺序依次为《开拓者》（The Pioneers），《最后⼀个莫西⼲⼈》（The Last of the Mohicans），《⼤草原》（The Prairie），《探路⼈》（The Pathfinder），《猎⿅⼈》（The Deerslayer）。

4. D.《⽪裹腿故事集》（the Leather Stocking Tales）包括5部⼩说，这五部⼩说根据发表的时间先后顺序依次为《开拓者》（The Pioneers），《最后⼀个莫西⼲⼈》（The Last of the Mohicans），《⼤草原》（The Prairie），《探路⼈》（The Pathfinder），《猎⿅⼈》（The Deerslayer）。

《⽕⼭⼝》（The Crater）是库柏的另⼀部⼩说。

5.B. 《丢失的信》（The Purloined Letter）是爱德加.艾伦.坡（Edgar Allan Poe）创作的侦探⼩说。

6.A. 美国⽂学的浪漫主义时期指从18世纪末到美国内战爆发这段时期，它的起⽌分别以华盛顿.欧⽂（Washington Irving）的《见闻札记》（The Sketch Book）与惠特曼（Whitman）的《草叶集》（Leaves of Grass）为标志。

7.B. 美国⽂学的浪漫主义时期指从18世纪末到美国内战爆发这段时期，它的起⽌分别以华盛顿.欧⽂（Washington Irving）的《见闻札记》（The Sketch Book）与惠特曼（Whitman）的《草叶集》（Leaves of Grass）为标志。

美国文学发展历程探究美国文学的发展历程可以追溯到殖民地时期。

随着欧洲人的移民到北美，他们开始在新大陆建立自己的社会和文化，这促使了美国文学的产生和发展。

以下是美国文学的主要发展阶段。

第一阶段：殖民地时期（17世纪至18世纪）在殖民地时期，美国的文学主要受到英格兰文学的影响。

初期的文学作品多以宗教为主题，例如普林斯顿学院校长埃德温·桑德斯对美国文学的定义认为，它是“真正属于美洲的成就，而不是来自外国或短暂存在的痕迹”。

约翰·丹福斯（John Winthrop）《模範》（Model of Christian Charity）（1630年）是殖民地时期最重要的文学作品之一，强调基督教道德和殖民地社会的建立。

启蒙时期是美国文学发展的重要时期，表达了美国人民对自由、平等和理性的追求。

启蒙时期的代表作家包括本杰明·富兰克林、托马斯·潘恩和托马斯·杰斐逊等。

本杰明·富兰克林的《自传》（1750年至1790年）描述了他的成长和成功经历，被认为是美国第一部经典文学作品之一。

美国独立战争的爆发和美国宪法的制定也启发了许多启蒙时期的作品。

第三阶段：浪漫主义时期（19世纪初至中叶）浪漫主义时期是美国文学发展的高潮期，表达了个人情感和人类内心世界的追求。

浪漫主义时期的代表作家包括华盛顿·欧文、爱德加·爱伦·坡和纳撒尼尔·霍桑等。

华盛顿·欧文的《伊卡博德·克兰普》（1819年）是美国文学中最早的短篇小说之一，展示了对美国历史和传说的迷恋。

爱德加·爱伦·坡的小说和诗歌融合了恐怖、神秘和奇幻元素，对后来的美国文学产生了深远的影响。

现实主义时期强调以真实和客观的方式描写生活。

现实主义时期的代表作家包括马克·吐温、亨利·詹姆斯和斯蒂芬·克莱因等。

马克·吐温的《汤姆·索亚历险记》（1876年）和《哈克贝里·费恩历险记》（1884年）描写了美国南部社会的贫困和不公正。

美国文学史浪漫主义时期文学摘要：浪漫主义时期是美国文学史上最重要的时期之一。

当美国人在大刀阔斧地建设自己的国家时，也开始逐渐意识到逐渐与欧洲的不同。

随着不断增强的民族主义意识及民族自豪感，美国人开始希望见到自己的不同与欧洲模式，能表达他们字的美国风情的文学。

这个时代伟大的作家充满热情地记录下这个伟大时代的乐观主义精神。

随后美国文学进入了超验主义时代。

超验主义十分强调个人主义、自立、拒绝传统权威思想。

它实际上是对浪漫主义的发展。

然后，美国的国家自信心受到了内战的动摇。

内战过后，美国处在迷茫中。

在1900年前后这段时期的文学由于美国国内环境的变化而由浪漫主义和超验主义乐观精神转向对社会和人类本质更直接的探讨。

从某种角度，现实主义反对浪漫主义的理想主义和怀旧情绪。

它主要关注中下层人民的日常生活，而在这种情况下人物性格是社会因素作用的结果，环境是整个事件发展不可分割的部分。

关键词：美国文学史；浪漫主义；文学特点The Romantic Period Literature in the history of AmericanLiteratureAbstract: Romantic Period is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature. When Americans were constructing their country, they also began to realize their differences from their European counterparts. They began to hope to see an entirely different literature model which expressed American cultures. Great writers of that period captured on their pages the enthusiasm and the optimism of that dream. Later，American literature came to Transcendentalism Period which emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of tradition authority. It was actually greatly influenced by romanticism. However, the country’s confidence was waved by the Civil War. After the war, Americans got lost. At about 1900s, American literature came to another entirely different age—the age of Realism. Realists searched for the social and human nature more directly. In part, Realism was a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away. It has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications.Keywords: American Literature History; Romanticism; Literary characteristics1、American RomanticismRomanticism refers to an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual’s experience of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. The romantic period of American literature stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It was an age of westward expansion, of the increasing gravity of the slavery question, of an intensification of the spirit of embattled sectionalism in the South, and of a powerful impulse to reform in the North. In literature it was America’s first great creative period, a full flowering of the romantic impulse on American soil.1.1The unique characteristics of American RomanticismAlthough greatly influenced by their English counterparts, the American romantic writers revealed unique characteristics of their own in their works and they grew on the native lands. For examp1e，(1) the American national experience of "pioneering into the west" proved to be a rich source of material for American writers to draw upon. They celebrated America's landscape with its virgin forests, meadows, groves, endless prairies, streams.and vast oceans. The wilderness came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral 1aw. (2) The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature. Such a desire is particularly evident in Cooper’s Leather Stocking Tales, in Thoreau's Walden and，later, in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (3) With the growth of American national consciousness, American character types speaking local dialects appeared in poetry and fiction with increasing frequency. (4)Then the American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values and American Romanticism. One of the manifestations is the fact that American romantic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts. (5) Besides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of origina1 sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesserwriters.historical reasonsWith the independence of the United States of America, political autonomy, the rise of the economy, and cultural independence, the largest land expansion in American history began during the Romantic period of the United States. As of 1860, the Civil War began, the territory of the United States extended to the western coast of the Pacific Ocean. No one could have predicted the middle of 19th century. The United States expanded from just 13 states in her early days to 21, with a nearly eightfold increase in the number of citizens from 4 million in 1790 to 1860. The total population of the country reached 30 million. At that time, the European bourgeois revolution and technological revolutionThe influence of life, this young country has experienced the rapid industrialization of baptism, the affected area in addition to the United States at each city area, including the vast rural areas. Whether industrial or agricultural development are the extensive use of the steam engine, in the vast continent of the United States, many factories such as a large number of factories set up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, the establishment of the inevitable with the demand for labor force increase, at the same time, when the United States appeared a lot of new inventions, these results quickly applied to the life, the production efficiency is greatly improved. In the romantic period, along with the rapid development of American politics, economy, culture, more and more around the worldImmigrants come to the United States, provide good human resources the arrival of immigrants to the industrial and agricultural development.epilogueThe peak period of Romanticism in American literature was the transcendentalism which appeared later.The concept of transcendentalism was first put forward by the New England Transcendentalism Club in 1830s.For the people of the New World,the idea was gradually accepted by American culture,the two most important writers were Emerson and Thoreau.They are regarded as the archetypal figures of American transcendentalism.Their works play an important role in thespiritual independence of American literature.Transcendentalism emphasizes the help of heaven to help the self-help.Strive to achieve the goal of self-improvement.Two other important writers,Hawthorne and Melvil,insisted on the original sin in the period of the moralism.They believed that only through moral constraints could human nature be promoted.reference documentation[1]Leslie A Fiedler. Love and Death in the merican Novel [M]. Harmondswort: Penguin Books, 1984.[2]Zhang Deming . Huckleberry. Adventures > and adult ceremony [J]. Journal of Zhejiang University, 1999. (4):91-97.[3]Jung .C.G.Conception of Collective unconsciousness [A] .trans by Wang Ai, selected by Ye Shuxian. Myth-archetypal criticism [C] .Xi 'an: Shaanxi normal University Press, 1987.101.[4]Bakhtin. Theory of novels [M] .translated by Bai Chunren, Xiao he .Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 1998.。

美国文学
北美殖民地时期文学
一、科顿•马瑟（1663-1728）
二、乔纳森•爱德华兹（1703-1758）
三、安妮•布拉德斯特里特（1612-1672）
独立革命前后的文学
一、托马斯•潘恩（1737-1809）
二、本杰明•富兰克林（1706-7190）
三、菲力浦•弗瑞诺（1752-1832）
浪漫主义时期
一、华盛顿•欧文（1783-1859）
二、詹姆斯•费尼莫尔•库柏（1789-1851）
三、拉尔夫•华尔多•爱默生（1803-1882）超验主义Transcendentalism
四、纳森尼尔•霍桑（1804-1864）象征主义（Symbolism）
五、亨利•大卫•梭罗（1817-1862）超验主义Transcendentalism
六、埃德加•爱伦•坡（1808-1849）象征主义（Symbolism）
七、赫尔曼•梅尔维尔（1819-1891）象征主义（Symbolism）
八、华尔特•惠特曼（1819-1892）象征主义（Symbolism）
九、爱米莉•狄金森（1830-1886）
十、亨利•沃兹沃斯•朗费罗（1807-1882）
十一、约翰•格林利夫•惠蒂埃（1807-1896）十二、哈丽特•比彻•斯托（1811-1896）
十三、弗雷德里克•道格拉斯（1817-1895
现实主义时期
现代时期。

美国文学
北美殖民地时期文学
一、科顿•马瑟（1663-1728）
二、乔纳森•爱德华兹（1703-1758）
三、安妮•布拉德斯特里特（1612-1672）
独立革命前后的文学
一、托马斯•潘恩（1737-1809）
二、本杰明•富兰克林（1706-7190）
三、菲力浦•弗瑞诺（1752-1832）
浪漫主义时期
一、华盛顿•欧文（1783-1859）
二、詹姆斯•费尼莫尔•库柏（1789-1851）
三、拉尔夫•华尔多•爱默生（1803-1882）超验主义Transcendentalism
四、纳森尼尔•霍桑（1804-1864）象征主义（Symbolism）
五、亨利•大卫•梭罗（1817-1862）超验主义Transcendentalism
六、埃德加•爱伦•坡（1808-1849）象征主义（Symbolism）
七、赫尔曼•梅尔维尔（1819-1891）象征主义（Symbolism）
八、华尔特•惠特曼（1819-1892）象征主义（Symbolism）
九、爱米莉•狄金森（1830-1886）
十、亨利•沃兹沃斯•朗费罗（1807-1882）
十一、约翰•格林利夫•惠蒂埃（1807-1896）十二、哈丽特•比彻•斯托（1811-1896）
十三、弗雷德里克•道格拉斯（1817-1895
现实主义时期
现代时期。

美国文学史脉络美国文学是世界文学发展的重要组成部分，其独特的历史和文化背景使得美国文学在世界文坛上有着重要的地位。

美国文学的发展脉络承载着美国国家意识的形成和演变，同时也反映了社会和文化的变迁。

本文将以时间为线索，回顾美国文学的发展历程，并探讨不同时期的代表性作品和文学思潮。

一、殖民地时期（17世纪初-18世纪初）殖民地时期是美国文学的起源阶段。

在这一时期，早期的英国移民带来了宗教、政治和文化的影响，这种影响对后来美国文学的发展产生了深远的影响。

早期殖民地文学的主要形式是宗教文学，代表作品有威廉·布莱德福的《普利茅斯殖民地纪事》和安妮·布拉德斯特里特的《新英格兰纪实》。

二、启蒙时期（18世纪中叶-19世纪初）启蒙时期是美国文学发展的关键时期，这一时期受到了欧洲启蒙运动的影响，同时也受到了美国独立战争和建国过程的影响。

启蒙时期的作家主张人人平等、追求自由和独立，代表作品有托马斯·潘恩的《常识》和本杰明·富兰克林的《自传》。

同时，启蒙时期也涌现了一些重要的政治文学作品，如托马斯·杰斐逊的《独立宣言》和詹姆斯·麦迪逊、亚历山大·汉密尔顿、约翰·杰伊等人的《联邦党人文集》。

三、浪漫主义时期（19世纪中叶-19世纪末）浪漫主义时期是美国文学的黄金时代，这一时期的作家们主张个性主义、独立思考和自然的崇拜。

代表作家有华盛顿·欧文的《睡谷传奇》和爱默生的《自然》。

同时，浪漫主义时期也涌现了大量的诗人，如亨利·沃兹华斯·朗费罗、爱德加·爱伦·坡和怀特曼等人。

这一时期的诗歌作品表达了对自然和个人内心世界的探索，具有强烈的情感色彩和超越现实的思考。

四、现实主义时期（19世纪末-20世纪初）现实主义时期是美国文学发展的转折点，这一时期的作家开始关注社会现实问题，反映工业化和城市化对个人的冲击。

美国文学浪漫主义时期浪漫主义时期开始于十八世纪末,到内战爆发为止,是美国文学史上最重要的时期。

华盛顿·欧文出版的《见闻札记》标志着美国文学的开端,惠特曼的《草叶集》是浪漫主义时期文学的压卷之作。

浪漫主义时期的文学是美国文学的繁荣时期,所以也称为"美国的文艺复兴。

"美国社会的发展哺育了"一个伟大民族的文学"。

年轻的美国没有历史的沉重包袱,很快在政治、经济和文化方面成长为一个独立的国家。

这一时期也是美国历史上西部扩张时期,到1860年领土已开拓到太平洋西岸。

到十九世纪中叶,美国已由原来的十三个州扩大到二十一个州,人口从1790年的四百万增至1860年的三千万。

在经济上,年轻的美国经历向工业的转化,影响所及不仅仅是城市,而且也包括农村。

蒸汽动力在工、农业生产上的运用、工厂的建立、劳动力的大量需求以及科技上的发明创造使经济生活得到了重组。

另外,大量移民促进了工业更加蓬勃的发展。

政治上,民主与平等成为这个年轻国家的理想,产生了两党制。

值得一提的是这个国家的文学和文化生活。

随着独立的美国政府的成立,美国人民已感到需要有美国文学,表达美国人民所特有的经历:早期清教徒的殖民,与印第安人的遭遇,边疆开发者的生活以及西部荒原等。

这个年轻国家的文学富有想象,已产生了一种文学环境。

报刊杂志如雨后春笋,出现了一大批文学读者,形成了十九世纪上半叶蓬勃的浪漫主义的文学思潮。

外国的,尤其是英国的文学大师对美国作家产生了重大影响。

美国作家由于秉承了与英国一样的文化传统,形成了同英国一样的浪漫主义风格。

欧文(Irving)、库柏(Cooper),坡(Poe),弗伦诺(Freneau)和布雷恩特(Bryant)一一反古典主义时期的文学样式和文学思潮,开创了较新的小说和诗歌形式。

这一时期大多数美国文学作品中,普遍强调文学的想象力和情感因素,注重生动的描写、异国情调的表达、感官的体会和对超自然力的描述。

第一章美国浪漫主义时期一、美国浪漫主义时期概述Ⅰ.本章学习目的和要求通过本章学习，了解１９世纪初期至中叶美国文学产生的历史、文化背景；认识该时期文学创作的基本待征、基本主张，及其对同时代和后期美国文学的影响；了解该时期主要作家的文学创作生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题思想、人物刻画、语言风格等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品并了解其思想内容和艺术特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。

Ⅱ.本章重点及难点：1．浪漫主义时期美国文学的特点2．主要作家的创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、思想意义。

3．分析讨论选读作品Ⅲ.本章考核知识点和考核要求：1.美国浪漫主义时期概述(1)．"识记"内容：美国浪漫主义文学产生的社会历史及文化背景(2)．"领会"内容：美国浪漫主义在文学上的表现a.欧洲浪漫主义文学的影响b.美国本土文学的崛起及其待证(3)．"应用"内容：清教主义、超验主义、象征主义、自由诗等名词的解释2.美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家Ａ．华盛顿·欧文1．一般识记：欧文的生平及创作主涯2．识记：《纽约外史》《见闻札记》3．领会：欧文的创作领域、创作思想，及其作品的艺术风格4.应用：选读《瑞普·凡·温可尔》的主题及其艺术特色Ｂ．拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生1．一般识记：．爱默生的生平及创作生涯2．识记：爱默生的超验主义思想3．领会：（1）爱默生的散文：《论自然》《论自助》《论美国学者》等（2）．爱默生与梭罗：梭罗的超验主义思想和他的《沃尔登》4．应用：《论自然》节选：爱默生的基本哲学思想及自然观Ｃ．纳撒尼尔·霍桑1．一般识记：霍桑的生平及创作主涯2．识记：霍桑的长短篇小说3．领会：（1）《红字》的主题、心理描写、象征手法和、小说结构（2）霍桑的清教主义思想及加尔文教条中的"原罪"对霍桑的影响（人性本恶的观点）（3）霍桑对浪漫主义小说的贡献4．应用：选读《小伙子布朗》的主题结构、象征手法及语言特色Ｄ．华尔特·惠特曼1．一般识记：惠特曼的生平及其创作生涯2．识记：惠特曼的民主思想3．领会：（1）惠特曼的《草叶集》的主创意图、思想感情及诗体形式、语言风格（2）．惠特曼的个人主义4．应用：选读《草叶集》诗选："一个孩子的成长"、"涉水的骑兵'"、"自己之歌"的主题结构、诗歌的艺术特色、语言风格Ｅ．赫尔曼·麦尔维尔1．一般识记：麦尔维尔的生平及创作生涯2．识记：麦尔维尔的早期作品：《玛地》《雷得本》《白外衣》，后期作品《皮埃尔》《骗子的化装表演》《比利伯德》等3．领会：《白鲸》的（1）主题：表层及深层意义（2）小说结构：浪漫主义和现实主义的统一（3）象征手法和寓言的运用（4）语言特色4．应用：选读《白鲸》最后一章的节选：主题思想、人物刻画、象征手法、语言特色Chapter l The Romantic Period(一)"识记"内容：1.The origin of Romantic American literatureThe Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It started with the publication of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass.2.The American Renaissance or New England Renaissance is a period of the great flowering of American literature, from the i830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War. It came of age as an expression of a national spirit. One of the most important influences in the period was that of the Transcendentalists, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau. The Transcendentalists contributed to the founding of a new national culture based on native elements. Apart from the Transcendentalists, there emerged during this period great imaginativewriters ---Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman---whose novels and poetry left a permanent imprint on American literature.3.Its social historical and cultural backgroundThe development of the American society nurtured "the literature of a great nation." America was flourishing into a politically, economically and culturally independent country. Historically, it was the time of westward expansion in America economically, the whole nation was experiencing an industrial transformation. Politically, democracy and equa1ity became the ideal of the new nation, and the two-party system came into being. Worthy of mention is the literary and cultural life of the country. With the founding of the American Independent Government, the nation felt an urge to have its own literary expression, to make known its new experience that other nations did not have: the early Puritan settlement, the confrontation with the Indians, the frontiersmen's life, and the wild west. Besides, the nation's literary milieu was ready for the Romantic movement as we11. Thus, with a strong sense of optimism, a spectacular outburst of romantic feeling was brought about in the first ha1f of the 19th century.4.Major writers of this periodThere emerged a great host of men of letters during this period, among whom the better-known are poets such as Philip Freneau, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wordsworth Long Fellow, James Russel Lowell, John Greenleaf Whitter, Edgar Ellen Poe, and, especially, Walt Whitman, whose Leaves Of Grass established him as the most popular American poet of the 19th century. The fiction of the American Romantic period is an original and diverse body of work. It ranges from the comic fables of Washington Irving to the The Gothic tales of Edgar Allen Poe, from the frontier adventures of James Fenimore Cooper to the narrative quests of Herman Melville, from the psycho1ogical romances of Nathaniel Hawthorne to the social realism of Rebecca Harding Davis.(二)．领会内容1.The impact of European Romanticism on American Romanticism Foreign literary masters, especially the English counterparts exerted a stimulating impact on the writers of the new world. Born of one common cultural heritage, the American writers shared some common features with the English Romanticists. They revolted against the literary forms and ideas of the period of classicism by developing some relatively new forms of fiction or poetry.(1) They put emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature, which included a liking for the picturesque, the exotic,the sensuous, the sensational, and the supernatural.(2) The Americans also placed an increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions and disp1ayed an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters.Heroes and heroines exhibited extremes of sensitivity and excitement.(3) The strong tendency to exalt the individual and the common man was almost a national religion in America. Writers like Freneau, Bryant, and Cooper showed a great interest in external nature in their respective works.(4) The literary use of the more colorfu1 aspects of the past was also to be found in Irving's effort to exploit the legends of the Hudson River region, and in Cooper's long series of historical tales.(5)In short, American Romanticism is, in a certain way, derivative.2.The unique characteristics of American RomanticismAlthough greatly influenced by their English counterparts, the American romantic writers revealed unique characteristics of their own in their works and they grew on the native lands. For examp1e,(1) the American national experience of "pioneering into the west" proved to be a rich source of material for American writers to draw upon. They celebrated America's landscape with its virgin forests, meadows, groves, endless prairies, streams, and vast oceans. The wilderness came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral 1aw. (2)The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature.Such a desire is particularly evident in Cooper's Leather Stocking Tales, in Thoreau's Walden and, later, in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (3) With the growth of American national consciousness,American character types speaking local dialects appeared in poetry and fiction with increasing frequency. (4) Then the American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values and American Romanticism. One of the manifestations is the fact that American romantic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts. (5) Besides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of origina1 sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesser writers.(三)．应用内容1. The American Puritanism and its great influence over American moral values, as is shown in American romantic writings.(1) American PuritanismPuritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. (The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church, who came into existence in the reigns Queen Elizabeth and King James Ⅰ.The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quitea few of them Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons, but it should be remembered that they were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They felt that the Church of England was too close to the Church of Rome in doctrine form of worship, and organization of authority.) The American Puritans, like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to complete "purity".They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. But in the grim struggle for survival that followed immediately after their arrival in America, they became more and more practical, as indeed they had to be. Puritans were noted for a spirit of moral and religious earnestness that determinated their whole way of life. Puritans' lives were extremely disciplined and hard. They drove out of their settlements all those opinions that seemed dangerous to them, and history has criticized their actions. Yet in the persecution of what they considered error, the Puritans were no worse than many other movements in history. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind and American values. American Puritanism also had a conspicuously noticeable and an enduring influence on American literature. It had become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so much a part of the national cultural atmosphere, rather than a set of tenets.(2) One of the manifestations is the fact that American romantic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts. Besides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of origina1 sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesser writers.2. New England TranscendentalismNew England Transcendentalism is the mot clearly defined Romantic literary movement in this period. It was started in the area around Concord, Mass. by a group of intellectual and the literary men of the United States such as Emerson, Henry David Thoreau who were members of an informal club, i. e. the Transcendental Club in New England in the l830s. The transcendentalists reacted against the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism in Boston. They adhered to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation , the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths. The writings of the transcendentalists prepared the ground of their contemporaries such as Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.The main issues involved in the debate were generally philosophical, concerning nature, man and the universe. Basically, Transcendentalismhas been defined philosophical1y as "the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses." Emerson once proclaimed in a speech, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism inc1ude the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-re1iant.3. American Romanticists differed in their understanding of human nature.To the transcendentalists such as Emerson and Thoreau, man is divine in nature and therefore forever perfectible; but to Hawthorne and Melville, everybody is potentially a sinner, and great moral courage is therefore indispensab1e for the improvement of human nature, as is shown in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.二.美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家Ⅰ. Washington Irving(1783-l859)Irving's position in American literature Washington Irving was one of the first American writers to earn an international reputation, and regarded as an early Romantic writer in the merican literary history and Father of the American short stories.一．一般识记His life and major worksWashington Irving was born in New York City in a wealthy family. From a very early age he began to read widely and write juvenile poems, essays, and plays. In l798, he conc1uded his education at private schools and entered a law office, but he loved writing more.His first successful work is A History Of New York from the Beginning Of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, which, written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker, won him wide popularity after it came out in 1809. With the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in serials between 1819 and 1820, Irving won a measure of international fame on both sides of the Atlantic. The book contains familiar essays on the Eng1ish life and Americanized versions of European folk tales like "Rip Van Winkle ＂, and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Geoffrey Crayon is a carefully contrived persona and behind Crayon stands Irving, juxtaposing the Old World and the New, and manipulating his own antiquarian interest with artistic perspectives.The major work of his later years was The Life of George Washington.二．识记1.Irving's great indebtedness to European literatureMost of Irving's subject matter are borrowed heavily from European sources, which are chiefly Germanic. Irving's relationship with the Old World in terms of his literary imagination can hardly be ignored considering his success both abroad and at home.A History of New York is a patchwork of references, echoes, and burlesques. He parodies or imitates Homer, Cervantes, Fielding, Swift and many other favorites of his. He was also absorbed in German Literature and got ideas from German legends for two of his famous stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Alhambra is usually regarded as Irving's "Spanish Sketch Book" simply because it has a strong flavor of Spanish culture. Most of the thirty-three essays in The Sketch Book were written in England, filled with English scenes and quotations from English authors and faithful to British orthography. Washington Irving brought to the new nation what its peop1e desired most in a man of 1etters the respect of the Old World.2.Irving's unique contribution to American literatureIrving's contribution to American literature is unique in more than one way. He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. Although greatly influenced by European literature, Irving gave his works distinctive American flavor. "Rip Van Winkle" or "The Legend of Sleepy Hol1ow", however exotic these stories are, are among the treasures of the American language and culture. These two stories easily trigger off American imagination with their focus on American subjects, American landscape, and, in Irving's case, the legends of the Hudson River region of the fresh young 1and. It is not the sketches about the Old World but the tales about America that made Washington Irving a household word and his fame enduring.He was father of American short stories. And later in the hands of Hawthorne and Melville the short story attained a degree of perfection.三．领会1.Irving's theme of conservatism as is revealed in "Rip Van Winkle"Irving's taste was essentia1ly conservative and always exa1ted a disappearing past.This socia1 conservatism and literary preference for the past is revea1ed, to some extent, in his famous story "Rip Van Winkle." The story is a tale remembered mostly for Rip's 20-year s1eep, set against the background of the inevitably changing America. Rip went to sleep before the War of Independence and woke up after it. The change that had occurred in the 20 years he slept was to him not always for the better. The revolution upset the natural order of things. In the story Irving ski1lfu1ly presents to us paralleled juxtapositions of two totally different worlds before and after Rip's 20 years' s1eep. By moving Rip back and forth from a noisy world with his wife on the farm to a wild but peaceful natural world in the mountains, and from a pre-Revolution villageto a George Washington era, lrving describes Rip's response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both the narrator and Irving agree on the preferabi1ity of the past to the present, and the preferability of a dream-like world to the real one. Irving never seemed to accept a modern democratic America.2.Irving's literary craftsmanshipWashington Irving has always been regarded as a writer who "perfected the best classic style that American Literature ever produced."(1) We get a strong sense impression as we read him along, since the language he used best reveals what a Romantic writer can do with words. We hear rather than read, for there is musicality in almost every line of his prose.(2) We seldom learn a mora1 lesson because he wants us amused and relaxed. So we often find ourselves lost in a world that is permeated witha dreaming quality.(3) The Gothic elements and the supernatural atmosphere are manipulated in such a way that we could become so engaged and involved in what is happening in a seemingly exotic place.(4) Yet Irving never forgets to associate a certain place with the inward movement of a person and to charge his sentences with emotion so as to create a true and vivid character. He is worth the honor of being "the American Goldsmith" for his literary craftsmanship.四．应用Selected Reading:An Excerpt from "Rip Van Winkle"The story of Rip Van WinkleRip, an indolent good-natured Dutch-American, lives with his shrewish wife in a village on the Hudson during the years before the Revolution. One day while hunting in the Catskills with his dog Wolf, he meets a dwarflike stranger dressed in the ancient Dutch fashion. He helps him to carry a keg, and with him joins a party silently playing a game of ninepins. After drinking of the liquor they provide, Rip falls into a sleep which lasts 20 years, during which the Revolutionary War takes place. He awakes as an old man and returns to his home village that has greatly altered. Upon entering the village, he is greeted by his old dog, which dies of the excitement and then learns that his wife has long been dead. Rip is almost forgotten but he goes to live with his daughter, now the mother of a family, and is soon befriended with his generosity and cheerfulness.This excerpt below is taken from the story, describing for us Rip's difficulties at home, which he often escapes by going to the local inn to spend his time with his friends and sometimes by going hunting in thewoods with his dog, and then focusing on Rip 's return from his 20 years' sleep to his greatly altered home village. Here, Irving's pervasive theme of nostalgia for the unrecoverable past is at once made unforgettable.What are the theme and the artistic features of "Rip Van Winkle"?(1) The theme:Irving's taste was essentia1ly conservative and always exa1ted a disappearing past.This socia1 conservatism and literary preference for the past is revea1ed, to some extent, in his famous story "Rip Van Winkle." The story is a tale remembered mostly for Rip's 20-year s1eep, set against the background of the inevitably changing America. Rip went to sleep before the War of Independence and woke up after it. The change that had occurred in the 20 years he slept was to him not always for the better. The revolution upset the natural order of things. In the story Irving ski1lfu1ly presents to us paralleled juxtapositions of two totally different worlds before and after Rip's 20 years' s1eep. By moving Rip back and forth from a noisy world with his wife on the farm to a wild but peaceful natural world in the mountains, and from a pre-Revolution village to a George Washington era, lrving describes Rip's response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both the narrator and Irving agree on the preferabi1ity of the past to the present, and the preferability of a dream-like world to the real one. Irving never seemed to accept a modern democratic America.(2) The artistic features:"Rip Van Winkle" is not only well-known for Rip's 20-year sleep but also considered a model of perfect English in American Literature and in the English language as well. Washington Irving has always been regarded as a writer who "perfected the best classic style that American Literature ever produced." He has a clear, easy style.(a) We get a strong sense impression as we read him along, since the language he used best reveals what a Romantic writer can do with words. We hear rather than read, for there is musicality in almost every line of his prose.(b) We seldom learn a mora1 lesson because he wants us amused and relaxed.So we often find ourselves lost in a world that is permeated with a dreaming quality. He uses genial humor to exaggerate the seriousness of situation. He uses dignified words to produce a half-mocking effect.(c)The Gothic elements and the supernatural atmosphere are manipulated in such a way that we could become so engaged and involved in what is happening in a seemingly exotic place.( Rip Van Winkle was overwhelmed by the magic power of the drink and fell into sleep for 20 years.)(d)Yet Irving never forgets to associate a certain place with theinward movement of a person and to charge his sentences with emotion so as to create a true and vivid character. He is worth the honor of being "the American Goldsmith" for his literary craftsmanship.II. Ralph Waldo Emerson一.一般识记His life: Ralph Waldo Emerson is the chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism, which is unanimously agreed to be the summit of the Romantic period in the history of American literature.Emerson was son of a Unitarian minister. Though born of an impoverished family, Emerson never failed to receive some formal education. Whi1e a student at Harvard he began keeping journals, a practice he continued throughout his 1if e. He later drew on the journal for materials for his essays and poetry. After Harvard, he taught as a schoolmaster, which he soon gave up for the study of theology. He began preaching in 1826 and three years later he became a pastor in a church in Boston. Emerson was ardent at first in his service in religion, but gradually grew skeptical of the beliefs of the church; feeling Unitarianism intolerable, he finally left the ministry in l832.Emerson was greatly influenced by European Romanticism. He Carlyle, and listened to some famous Romantic poets like Coleridge and Wordsworth. Through his acquaintance with these men he became closely involved with German idea1ism and Transcendentalism. After he was back from Europe, Emerson retreated to a quiet study at Concord, Massachusetts, where he began to pursue his new path of "self-reliance." Emerson formed a club there at Concord with peop1e like Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, which was later known as the Transcendenta1 Club. And the unofficial manifesto for the Club was Nature(l836), Emerson's first little book, which established him ever since as the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism. Nature was the fundamental document of his philosophy and expressed also his constant, deeply-felt love for nature. It was called "the Manifesto of American Transcendentalism". He also helped to found and edit for a time the Transcendental journal, The Dial. Emerson lived an intel1ectually active and significant life between the mid-1830s and the mid-1840s, 1ecturing all over the country, and occasionally, abroad. He preached his Transcendental pursuit and his reputation expanded dramatically with his lectures and his essays. Though the rest of Emerson's life was a slow anticlimax to his midd1e years, people continued to honor the most influentia1 prophet and the intellectua1 liberator of their age, and his reputation as a family man of conventional life and a decent, solid citizen has remained always.二．识记内容：His major works:Emerson is generally known as an essayist. During all his life he worked steadily at a succession of essays, usually derived from his journals or lectures he had already given. Nature did not establish him as an important American writer. His lasting reputation began only with the publication of Essays(1841 ). Many of his famous essays are included in Essay, which convey the best of his philosophical discussions and transcendental pursuits, such as The American Scholar, Self Reliance, The Over Soul.The second collection of Emerson's essays, Essays: Second Series (1844) demonstrated even more thorough1y than the first that Emerson's intellect had sharpened in the years since Nature. The Poet and Exprience are examples, the former a reflection upon the aesthetic problems in terms of the present state of literature in America and the latter a discussion about the conflict between idealism and ordinary 1ife.三．领会1. Emersonian TranscendentalismEmersonian Transcendentalism is actual1y a philosophical school which absorbed some ideological concerns of American Puritanism and European Romanticism, with its focus on the intuitive knowledge of human beings to grasp the absolute in the universe and the divinity of man. In his essays, Emerson put forward his philosophy of the over-sou1, the importance of the Individual, and Nature.(1) Emerson's philosophy of the over-sou1Emerson rejected both the formal religion of the churches and the Deistic philosophy; instead he based his religion on an intuitive belief in an ultimate unity, which he called the "over-soul."Emerson and other Transcendentalists believed in the transcendence of "over-soul". It is an impersonal force that is eternal, moral, harmonious, and beneficient in tendency. They believed that there should be an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal "oversoul", since the over-sou1 is an all-pervading power from which all things come from and of which a1l are a part. One of the tendencies of the "over-soul " is to express itself in form, hence the world of nature as an emanation of the world of spirit. Emerson's remarkable image of "a transparent eyebal1" marks a paradoxical state of being, in which one is merged into nature, the over-soul, whi1e at the same time retaining a unique perception of the experience.(2) Emerson's philosophy of the importance of the IndividualEmerson is affirmative about man's intuitive knowledge, with which a man can trust himself to decide what is right and to act accordingly. The ideal individual should be a self-reliant man. "Trust thyself," hewrote in Self Reliance, by which he means to convince people that the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite.(3) Emerson's view on natureEmerson's nature is emblematic of the spiritual world, alive with God's overwhelming presence. It mediates between man and God, and its voice leads to higher truth; hence, it exercises a healthy and restorative inf1uence on human mind. "Go back to nature, sink yourse1f back into its inf1uence and you'1l become spiritually who1e again." By employing nature as a big symbol of the Spirit, or God, or the over-soul, Emerson has brought the Puritan 1egacy of symbolism to its perfection.Emersonian Transcendentalism inspired a whole generation of famous American authors like Thoreau, Whitman, and Dickinson.2.Thoreau's TranscendentalismHenry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is most often mentioned as inspired by Emerson, the most representative of the phi1osophical and literary school which is American Transcendenta1ism. Thoreau embraced his master's ideas as a disciple. In 1845 he built a cabin on some land belonging to Emerson by Walden Pond and moved in to live there in a very simple manner for a litt1e over two years, which gave birth to a great transcendentalist work Walden (1854). The book not only fully demonstrates Emersonian ideas of self-reliance but also develops and tests Thoreau's own transcendental philosophy.(1)For Thoreau, nature is not merely symbolic, but divine in itself and human beings can receive precise communication from the natural world by way of pure senses. So he was often alone in the woods or by the pond, lost in spiritual communion with nature.(2)Thoreau strongly believed in se1f-culture and was eager to identify himself with the Transcendental image of the self-reliant man. To achieve personal spiritual perfection, he thinks, the most important thing for men to do with their lives is to be self- sufficient, so he sought to reduce his physical needs and material comforts to a minimum to get spiritual richness.(3)His positiveness about the importance of individual conscience was such that he even considered the society fetters of the freedom of individuals.Though Thoreau became more than Emerson's disciple eventually, his indebtedness to Nature and its author has never been over1ooked.3. The style of Emerson's essaysEmerson's essays often have a casual style, for most of them were derived from his journals or lectures. They are usually characterized by a series of short, declarative sentences, which are not quite logically。

概述美国浪漫主义文学经历了独立战争、南北战争的美国，到19世纪末，已完成了向帝国主义的过渡。

1．浪漫主义文学19世纪初，美国希望通过浪漫主义文学的努力建立民族文学，开始了约半个多世纪的浪漫主义运动，一般以1829年为界分为前后两期。

（1）前期浪漫主义①欧文有“美国文学之父”之称，他的代表作是一部包括散文、随感、故事等在内的《见闻札记》，其中最著名的是《隔普·凡·温克尔》、《睡谷的传说》等短篇小说。

②詹姆斯·费尼莫·库珀因创作了一批“纯粹美国式”的长篇小说而在文学史上占据重要地位。

他开创了美国文学史上三种不同的小说形式，即以《间谍》为代表的革命历史小说，以《开拓者》为代表的边疆题材小说和以《水手》为代表的航海生活小说。

（2）后期浪漫主义①以超验主义为思想基础的后期浪漫主义文学的出现，标志着美国文学逐步进入了成熟阶段。

宣扬人的本性、人的智慧和创造力、人的个人意志和绝对自由，是后期浪漫主义的基本内容。

②后期浪漫主义在理论和创作上的最早代表是拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生，影响最大的浪漫主义小说家是纳撒尼尔·霍桑。

霍桑的思想偏于保守，常以抽象的善恶观点来观察分析社会现象，长篇小说《红字》被认为是他的代表作。

③朗费罗，是浪漫主义诗歌的代表。

19世纪最杰出的民主诗人惠特曼的诗作的出现，代表着浪漫主义文学的最高成就，也使美国文学真正获得了世界性的声誉。

2．现实主义文学现实主义文学在反对南方蓄奴制的斗争中形成的废奴文学，对残酷反动的蓄奴制进行了深刻的揭露和批判，表现了强烈的民主倾向，这方面的重要作品有理查·希尔德烈斯的《白奴》和哈里叶特·比彻·斯托夫人的《汤姆大伯的小屋》。

3．象征主义文学（1）南方作家艾德加·爱伦·坡是象征主义文学的鼻祖。

（2）他把创作视为脱离现实和超感觉的纯粹主观思维的过程，提倡“纯艺术”、“纯诗歌”。

美国文学发展历程探究美国文学发展历程可以追溯到16世纪，当时欧洲殖民者开始在北美定居。

随着时间的推移，美国文学不断发展，展现了一些显著的特点和主题。

第一阶段：殖民时期美国文学的起源可以追溯到殖民时期，主要是英国殖民者通过传统浪漫、历史和神话来记录和传播其文化。

最著名的文学作品包括威廉·布莱克斯通的《红色字母》和托马斯·哈丁的《梦在一个夏日的午后》。

18世纪中期，美国开始出现了革命性的思想和理念，这也影响了美国文学的发展。

美国启蒙时期的作家们致力于传达理性、自由和平等的思想，其中最有代表性的作家是托马斯·潘恩、本杰明·富兰克林和托马斯·杰斐逊。

他们的作品包括政治论文、科学论文和启蒙小说等。

第三阶段：浪漫主义时期在19世纪初期，美国开始出现了一种新的文学潮流——浪漫主义。

这一时期的文学作品主要是以个人和情感为基础，这种写作方式在其它方面也有所体现，例如创作诗歌、绘画和音乐。

美国最具代表性的浪漫主义作家包括爱德华·波和威廉·坎伯尔·布莱安特，他们的作品大受欢迎，对美国文学产生了深远的影响。

20世纪初期，美国文学经历了一个重要的转变，从浪漫主义转向现实主义。

现实主义作家关注的是现实世界中的个人和社会问题，他们试图以真实和客观的方式表现现实。

美国最著名的现实主义作家包括马克·吐温、亨利·詹姆士和斯蒂芬·克莱恩。

20世纪30年代，美国文学经历了又一次巨大的转变，进入了现代主义时期。

现代主义作家反叛传统的写作方式，他们试图以新的方式表现现实世界。

著名的现代主义作家包括欧内斯特·海明威、弗里德里希·尼采和托马斯·曼。

总结美国文学发展经历了一个多世纪的历程，每个时期都有其特点和主题。

殖民时期的作品主要是以文化传播为主题，启蒙时期的作品致力于传达自由和平等的理念，浪漫主义时期的作品强调情感和个人主义，现实主义时期的作品追求真实和客观表现，现代主义时期的作品反叛传统，后现代主义时期的作品突破传统的写作规则和方式。

美国浪漫主义‎时期是指开始‎于十八世纪末‎，到内战爆发为‎止这一段是美‎国文学史上最‎重要的时期。

浪漫主义文学‎的基本特征：强烈的主观色‎彩，偏爱表现主观‎思想，注重抒发个人‎的感受和体验‎。

重主观，轻客观和重自‎我表现，轻客观模仿。

喜欢描写和歌‎颂大自然。

（尤为突出）作者们喜欢将‎自己的理解人‎物置身于纯朴‎宁静的大自然‎中，衬托现实社会‎的丑恶及自身‎理解的美好。

重视中世纪民‎间文学。

想象比较丰富‎、感情真挚、表达自由、语言朴素自然‎。

注重艺术效果‎。

美国浪漫主义‎文学的代表人‎物有惠特曼、霍桑、华盛顿·欧文等浪漫主义时期‎开始于十八世‎纪末,到内战爆发为‎止,是美国文学史‎上最重要的时‎期。

华盛顿·欧文出版的《见闻札记》标志着美国浪‎漫主义文学的‎开端,惠特曼的《草叶集》是浪漫主义时‎期文学的压卷‎之作。

浪漫主义时期‎的文学是美国‎文学的繁荣时‎期,所以也称为"美国的文艺复‎兴。

美国社会的发‎展哺育了"一个伟大民族‎的文学"。

年轻的美国没‎有历史的沉重‎包袱,很快在政治、经济和文化方‎面成长为一个‎独立的国家。

这一时期也是‎美国历史上西‎部扩张时期,到1860年‎领土已开拓到‎太平洋西岸。

到十九世纪中‎叶,美国已由原来‎的十三个州扩‎大到二十一个‎州,人口从179‎0年的四百万‎增至1860年的‎三千万。

在经济上,年轻的美国经‎历向工业的转‎化,影响所及不仅‎仅是城市,而且也包括农‎村。

蒸汽动力在工‎、农业生产上的‎运用、工厂的建立、劳动力的大量‎需求以及科技‎上的发明创造‎使经济生活得‎到了重组。

另外,大量移民促进‎了工业更加蓬‎勃的发展。

政治上,民主与平等成‎为这个年轻国‎家的理想,产生了两党制‎。

值得一提的是‎这个国家的文‎学和文化生活‎。

随着独立的美‎国政府的成立‎,美国人民已感‎到需要有美国‎文学,表达美国人民‎所特有的经历‎:早期清教徒的‎殖民, 与印第安人的‎遭遇,边疆开发者的‎生活以及西部‎荒原等。

了解美国文学史分期,简述各期文学创作特点(120字左右1、第一阶段：殖民时期（约1607-1765）这一时期大约从1607年JohnSmith船长带领第一批移民在北美大陆建立第一个英国殖民地Jamestown到1765殖民地人们愤怒抗议英国政府颁布的印花税法。

2、第二阶段：启蒙时期与独立战争时期（1765-18世纪末）这是北美人民争取独立、建立美利坚和中和国的时期。

18世纪30年代，在欧洲启蒙主义和自然神论等哲学思潮的影响下，上帝的作用大大削弱，清教徒们掀起一场“大觉醒”运动。

18世纪末期，北美大陆的政治形势发展很快，从1765年英国殖民者第一次反对英国政府的印花税到1789年美国联邦政府成立，文学作品主要围绕着革命的必要性、革命的前途和方向、政府的形式与性质等问题。

3、浪漫主义时期（1800-1865）19世纪初，美国完全摆脱了对英国的依赖，以独立国家的身份进入世界政治舞台。

民族文学开始全面繁荣，逐渐打破英国文学在美国的垄断局面。

这时期作家们跟英国浪漫主义作家一样，强调文学的想象力和感情色彩，反对古典主义的形式和观点，歌颂大自然，崇尚个人和普通人的思想感情，并且寻根问祖，发幽古之思情。

特别是以爱默生为代表的超验主义（Transcendentalism）的倡导, 这些作家们主张人能超越感觉和理性而直接认识真理，摒弃以神为中心的清教教义。

4、现实主义时期（1865-1918）南北战争（1861-1865）以后到第一次世界大战爆发，美国完成了从农业社会到工业社会的转化，社会面貌和经济生活开始发生急剧的变化。

工业化带来了蓬勃兴旺的发展，同时也带来了政治日趋腐败，政界丑闻屡见不鲜，是人们重新认识新的生活和新开发的土地。

于是乡土文学得到了很大的发展。

5、现代主义时期（1918-1945）自20世纪开始，美国文学进入新的时代。

第一次世界大战对美国人的思想和精神面貌产生极大的影响。

人们对于自由民主的信念开始动摇，普遍感到迷茫，甚至绝望。

英美文学选读中文翻译及重点习题答案美国文学(AMERICAN LITERATURE)第一章浪漫主义时期(The Romantic Period)一、背景知识(Background knowledge)1、历史背景(Historical background)（1）美国清教（2）美国西进运动（3）新英格兰超验主义运动2、主要特点(General characteristics)（1）衍生的美国浪漫主义作品(American Romantic writings as being derivative) （a）强调文学的想象力和情感特质（b）倡导情感的自由表达和人物心理状态的展示（c）颂扬普通人和作为个体的人（d）迷恋历史和异国情调（2）本土的美国浪漫主义作品(American Romantic writings on the native grounds) （a）全国性“西部拓荒”的体验（b）自然/美国山水风光的作用（c）清教道德（d）超验主义哲学二、本时期主要作家(Major writers of the period)A、华盛顿·欧文（Washington Irving,1783-1859）1、观点(Points of view)（1）社会保守主义(Social conservatism)总体上看，欧文是保守主义者。

他不喜欢疆土扩张以及当时席卷整个大陆的政治、文化的急剧变化。

因此通常欧文在故事中以正在不可避免地变化着的美国为背景，并对过去的荣耀和安宁的古老公社生活时时流露出哀惋叹息。

这种对人类万物皆无常，或人生苦短的伤感浸染了欧文的大多数作品。

然而，欧文并不是强求时间停止，或者逆转历史进程，而是暗示人类舍稳求变时丢掉了重要的价值观念。

（2）怀古的文学偏好(Literary preference for the past)在欧文看来，文学想象力应该孕育于有着丰富历史文化的土地之上，具体体现于岁月沉积而成的珍宝中，如破败的城堡、坍塌的塔楼、艺术的珍品、高度文明社会的精妙物件以及远古和当地风俗的古怪意趣。

美国文学中的浪漫主义思潮浪漫主义是一种欧洲文化上升期的思潮，在艺术和文学中得到了广泛的应用。

第一次浪漫主义运动在18世纪末和19世纪初达到高峰，而美国的浪漫主义思潮在19世纪初期也开始流行。

美国文学中的浪漫主义思潮源远流长，不仅影响了美国的文学，也影响了全世界的文学。

一、美国浪漫主义文学的形成背景美国的浪漫主义文学在十九世纪初期形成，那个时期正是美国独立后的商业和工业发展时期。

美国社会开放、自由、富有创造力的气氛滋生了一种民族精神。

在美国，与欧洲浪漫主义运动相似的思潮组织被成立，通行的思想是人应该拥有自由的生活与自由的精神。

二、美国浪漫主义文学的特点1. 对自然的崇拜浪漫主义文学中，自然是一种重要的元素，它给人以启示和力量。

这种对自然的推崇和崇拜是美国浪漫主义文学初期发展的一个特点。

由此可以看出，在浪漫主义文学中，自然被视为医治人心灵创伤的办法。

美国作家们喜欢在他们的作品中描绘大自然的恢弘之美，来体现他们对大自然的敬畏与推崇。

2. 主人公的内心在美国浪漫主义文学中，个体主义和内省被视为非常重要的因素。

这个时期的作家们试图在他们的作品中刻画主人公的内心和感情状态。

在这个阶段，个人的独立与自主被视作非常重要的。

因此，在作品中主角的成长和个性的塑造已成为美国浪漫主义文学最重要的特点。

浪漫主义文学强调人的内心感受，尤其是对理想和崇高的感受。

3. 对过去的回归美国浪漫主义文学中，对传统的看法变得与众不同，没有从传统中快速觉醒的信念，但是，它强调去初探传统的形态，或通过重新审视旧的文化传统来创新。

美国浪漫主义文学中的作家们由于对旧有的文化复兴的追求，因而创造了许多历史题材的作品。

三、美国浪漫主义文学的代表作家及其作品1. 华盛顿·欧文欧文是19世纪美国浪漫派文学的代表人物，他的作品充满了清新的浪漫主义情调，并获得了广泛的认可。

最具代表性的作品包括《河谷传说》、《狄德里克小教堂》和《伊斯特里比地区的传说》。