美国文学殖民地时期的文学
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History And Anthology Of American Literature
Part I The Literature of Colonial America
Historical Introduction
The First American Writings & Writers
Puritan Thoughts
Historical Introduction
1. The discovery of the American continent by Christopher Columbus in 1492
Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America
2. English and European explorers
The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards, Italians, and
Portuguese, each group settling in different parts of the continent and they all contributed to the
forming of the American civilization, but the colonies that became the first United States were for
the most part English sustained by English traditions, ruled by English laws, supported by English
commerce, and named after English monarchs and English lands.
3. English and European settlements
The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia
in 1607. At last early in the 17th century, the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts
began the main stream of what we recognize as the American history.
Two Important New England Settlements→ (Map) The Plymouth Colony
Flagship Mayflower arrives – 1620 Leader - William Bradford Settlers known as Pilgrims (朝圣者，朝觐者,清教徒前辈移民) and Separatists (主张脱离英国国教者) "The Mayflower Compact"
provides for social, religious, and economic freedom, while still maintaining ties to Great Britain.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony Flagship Arbella arrives – 1630 Leader - John Winthrop Settlers
are mostly Puritans or Congregational (公理会教派的) Puritans "The Arbella Covenant" clearly
establishes a religious and theocratic (神权政治的) settlement, free of ties to Great Britain.
4. The first American writings
The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these
settlements. They wrote in diaries and in journals. They wrote letters and contracts and
government charters and religious and political statements. They wrote about their voyage
to the new land, about adapting themselves to the unfamiliar climates and crops, about
dealing with Indians. All seemed possible to them in the new world through hard work
and faith.
1) Captain John Smith
His reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, were the first distinctly American
literature to be written in English. Smith’s descriptions of America were filled with
themes, myths, images, scenes, characters, and events that were a foundation for the
nation’s literature. He portrayed English North America as a land of endless bounty.
His vision helped lure the Pilgrims and the Puritans who saw themselves as new saints with a
spiritual mission to flee the Old World and create a New Israel (Jerusalem---Heaven on earth), a
New Promised Land, in the America that John Smith had described.
2) The writers of the Southern and Middle Colonies
The writers of the Southern and Middle Colonies who followed John Smith made their
greatest contribution to American literature in the 18th century, in the Age of Reason and
Revolution. William Byrd II Thomas Jefferson
Until that time, literature developed slowly, especially in the South. Farms widely dispersed.
Towns were few. Illiteracy was high. And there was little of the religious ferment and zeal that
inspired such a tide of literature to flow from Puritan New England.
The First American Writer
Captain John Smith (1580-1631) was the first American writer and he published eight in
all.
1) A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in
Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608), defending the handling of the
settlement and proclaiming the merits of the new land
2) A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country (1612), a guide to the country
and an invitation to the bold sprits needed to enlarge and strengthen the English
plantations in the new land
3) General History of Virginia (1624), containing his most famous tale of how the Indian
princess Pocahontas saved him from the wrath of her father Powhatan
Captain John Smith contributed more to the survival of the Jamestown colony than did
anyone else. And he saw from the beginning what was eventually to be a basic principle
of American history, the need of “workers” instead of “gentlemen” for the tough job of
planting colonies and pushing the frontiers westward.
Early New England Literature
New England: → (Map)
A region of the northeast United States comprising the modern states of Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
1) A literature of ideas: New England had from the beginning a literature of ideas: theological,
