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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.。
英美文学史5浪漫主义俩个时期的代表人物：第一代：布莱克、彭斯、华兹华斯第二代：拜伦、雪莱、济慈The Romantic Period(1798-1832)浪漫主义----Romantic writing emphasizes emotionsand feelings instead of reason and logic . 浪漫主义强调的是情感和感觉而不是理性和逻辑。
The time begins with the publication of Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads(1798),ending with Walter Scott’s death(1832)浪漫主义开始的标志是华兹华斯的《抒情诗集》（他和S.T Coleridge联合发表的）发表，结束于斯科特的去世。
一．俩大派别：Lake poets湖畔派诗人（又称：Escapist poets逃避诗人Negativepoets消极诗人）: Wordsworth华兹华斯、Southey骚赛、Coleridge柯勒律治Satanic poets魔鬼派(又称：Active poets积极诗人) ：Lord Byron拜伦、Shelley雪莱、Keats济慈二．William Wordsworth威廉.华兹华斯-----poet-laureate桂冠诗人Lake poets湖畔派诗人（又称：Escapist poets逃避诗人Negative poets消极诗人）:Wordsworth华兹华斯、Southey骚赛、Coleridge柯勒律治作品：I wandered Lonely as a Cloud我孤独的漫游，像云朵一样（选自The Daffodils《黄水仙》）She Dwelt Among theUntrodden Ways她居住在人迹罕至的地方（mourning悲伤的、Dwelt居住）补充了解：1.其他作品Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey丁登寺、The Prelude序曲（自传性诗歌Autobiographical poetry）、The Excursion、the Lucy poems《露西诗》2.Symbols are objects used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.符号是用来代表抽象事物的概念His style：simplicity and purity of the language,love of nature,fighting against the conventional forms of the 18th century poetry.简单而纯洁的语言，反传统形式的18世纪诗歌。
. 美国文学部分浪漫主义时期The Romantic Period第一位：washington irving1.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, was a great success.2. The Sketch Book won a international fame on both sides of the Atlantic.3. “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” got ideas form German legends.4. the Bracebrige Hall and Tales of a Traveler.5. the Alhambra is usually regarded as Irving’s “Spanish Skethch Book”. Only because it has a strong flavor of spanish culture.6.Iring’s taste was essentially conservative.7. washing Iving’s has always been regarded as a writer who perfected the best classic sytle that American Literature ever produced.8. Washing Iving is worth the honor of being “the American Goldsmith” for his literary craftsmanship.9. Irving’s pervasive theme of nostalgia怀旧的) for the unrecoverable past is at once made unforgettable.第二位：Emerson1.Transcendentalism ---the romantic period in the history of American literature.2.the chief spokesman of this spiritual movement is Ralph Waldo Emerson3.transcendental club, the unofficial manifesto for the club is Nature.4.Nature did not establish him as an important American writer, his last reputationbegan with the publication of Essays, which convey the best of his philosophical discussions and transcendental pursuits. Such as The American Scholar ,Self-Reliance , The Over-Soul.5.The Poet, a reflection upon the aesthetic problems of the present state of Americanliterature6.The Experience, a discussion about the conflict between idealism and ordinarylife.7.transcendentalism---with its focus on the intuitive konwledge of human beings tograsp the absolute in the universe and the divinity of man. Emerson put forward his philosopy of over-soul, the importance of individual, nature.8.emerson and other transcendentalists believed that there should be a emtotionalcomunication between a individual soul and the universal over-soul.9. a “transparent eyeball” marks a paradoxical state of being, in which one ismerged into nature, the over-soul. While at the same time retaining a unique perception of experience.10.emerson’s essays often have a casual style, for most of them were derived fromhis journals and lectures.11.堪称“the American Scolar”12.in the essay Emerson clearly expresses the main priciples of his transcendentalist pursuitand his love for nature.第三位：Hawthorne1.Hawthorne remains one of the most interesting, yet most ambivalent (矛盾情感)writers in theAmerican literary history.2.The Twice-Told Tales, a collection of short stories which attracted critical attention.3.The Mosses of an Old Manse, Snow-Image and other Twice-Told Tales best demonstrateHawthorne’s early obsessions with the moral and phycological consequences of pride, selfishness and secret guilt that manifest themselves in human beings.4.The Scarlet Letter often regarded as the best of his works, tells a simply but very movingstory in which 4 people living in a Puritan Community are involved in and affected by the sin of adultery in different ways.5.The House of the Seven Gables6.The Blithedale Romance(福谷传奇) is a novel he wrote to reveal his own experiences on theBrook Farm and his own methods as a psychological novelist.7.The Mable Faun(玉石雕像) set in Italy, the book is concerned about the dark aberrations(失常方面) of human spirit.8.The Birthmark9.The Young Goodman Brown –everyone possesses evil secret10.The Minister’s Dark Veil11.The Rappaccini’s Daughter12.Hawthorne’s view of man, human history originates, to a great extent, in Puritanism13.The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter 反清教思想，同时反清教思想on the onehand, it provides him with a subject, on the other hand, with the Puritan world and society as a historical background, he disscusses some of the most improtant issues that concern the moral life of man and human society.14.the structure and form of his writings is always carefully worked out to cater for the thematicconcern.(精心设计的)15.allegorist预言家 symbolist第四位：walt whitman1.Leaves of Grass is Whitman’s representative work, 体现了American democratic ideals 反映了American Independent War and Cival War.2.Leaves of Grass has nine editions. In this giant work, openness, freedom, individualism areall that concerned him. His aim was nothing less than to express some new poetic feelings and to initiate poetic traditon in which difference should be recognized.3.the poet’s essential purpose was to indentify his ego with the world and more specificallywith the democratic “en-masse” of the America, which is established in the openning lines of the “Song of Myself”4.most of poems in Leaves of Grass sing of the “en-masse”and the self as well.5.politically committed 政治抒情诗such as Dump Taps6.Cavalry Crossing a Ford,Whitman expressed much mouring for the sufferings of the young livesin the battlefield and showed a determination to carry on fighting until the final victory.7.when Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d mournful as these poems are, a reader can detecta thin trace of ecstasy for the victory of the progress.8.Whitman’s potetic style is marked by the use of the poetic”Ⅰ”9.free verse, that is , poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.10.parallelism and phonetic recurrence at the beginning of the lines are contribute to themusicality of his poems.11.one of the most often-used methods in his poems is to make colors and images fleet past themind’s eye of the readers.第五位 Herman Melville1.Moby-Dick is his masterpiece.2.Billy Budd, his second famous work3.Melville’s writings can be divided into two groups, each with something in common in thelight of the thematic concern and imginative focus.4.Typee, Omoo, Mardi which drew from his adventures among the people of the south pacific island.Redburn is a semi-autobiographical novel, concerining the sufferings of a genteel youth among the brutal sailors. Whitejacket relates his life on the United States of man-of –war.5.pierre 作者本意是想发动妇女文学革命，但却遭到强烈反对，结果名声下降。
英国文学史（浪漫主义时期）浪漫主义时期，其实从18世纪中叶已经开始了，罗伯特·彭斯和威廉·布莱克，开了个先河，到19世纪，华兹华斯拉开序幕，再到司各特去世，浪漫主义时代结束，其中鼎盛时期不过30多年，这一时期要讲的主要是六个诗人湖畔派诗人那三个较为消极的还有拜伦雪莱那一伙积极的，再加上浪漫主义时期的小说简·奥斯丁，还有一个司各特。
多的可能会补充。
这块先看看背景，再说一下，浪漫主义为什么会在英国兴起。
一、历史背景政治上来讲，当时英国的情况，应该是工业革命，资本主义迅速发展，成为世界工厂。
文化上面，当时法国大革命，启蒙思想已经到了高潮，人民追求自由、平等之思想已经到了极致，可是呢，法国大革命一结束，启蒙思想家所谓革命之后的理想社会，并没有出现，这个时候，整个社会，都弥漫着一股失望的情绪，对于原来古典主义所谓追求理性的观点，产生了排斥，不少作家开始，追求自我精神世界，强调自由、自然、自我，注重主观精神世界的表现。
这个时候，经过感伤主义和前浪漫主义时期的铺垫，浪漫主义时期来临，诗歌上面得到极大发展，当然流行的都是抒情诗（lyrics），最先开始就是以华兹华斯为代表的湖畔派诗人（Lake poets），这一派因为隐居于英国西北部的湖区得名，又应诗歌题材大多写田园生活，远离尘世，显得十分消极，华兹华斯和柯勒律治合编的《抒情歌谣集》（The lyrical ballads）下面先来讲一下，华兹华斯。
二、代表人物诗歌：1、挚爱自然的华兹华斯（William Wordsworth）华兹华斯出生于一个律师家庭，读书的时候，除了学习拉丁语和古典文学就是流连于山水之间，培养对自然的爱好，后来他去了剑桥大学读书，期间，研究斯宾塞，乔叟等人的文学，随后，徒步旅行到法国，被法国革命提出的“自由”、“平等”的口号所吸引，在那里住了一年多，随后“九月大屠杀”和雅各宾派的恐怖统治，大大地浇灭了他对于革命地热情，在朋友的帮助下，在湖区的乡舍中住了两年，这个时期基本热心于创作，期间还认识了柯勒律治，两个人经常相互切磋诗艺，1798年，就联手出版了《抒情歌谣集》，开一代诗风，诗集没出版的时候，华兹华斯就在致力于写作他自己的《序曲》（The Prelude ），后面就是在他离世之前，分别迁过两次，都在湖区住了七八年。
七、The Romantic Period1、Romanticism: At the turn of the 18th and 19th century, Romanticism came to be the new trend in English literature. It rose and grew under the imperus of Industria Revolution and the French Revolution. It prevailed in England during the period of 1798-1832. Romanticism was expressed almost entirely in Poetry. It was a reaction to neoclassicism. It stressed vitality, powerful emotion, limitles s and dreamlike thoughts, thus making the contrast with neoclassicism which was associated with order, common sense and controlled reason.Generally speaking, the Romanticits expressed the ideology and sentiment of those class of social status who were discontened with and opposed to the development of capitalism. But owing to the difference in political attitude, they split into two schools: the first and the second genetation of Romantic poets.The former was represented by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey. They reflected on the classes who got ruined by the bourgeoisie. By way of protesting agai nst capitalist development, they turned to the past, ie. the “Marry Old England” as their ideal. The younger Rimanticists expressed the aspiration of the class created by capitalism and held out an ideal, though a vague one, of a future society free from pression and exploitation. And they were represented by Byron, Shelley and Keats.2、OdeOde is a long lyrical poem that is serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style, and elaborate in its stanzaic structure. The prototype was established by the Greek poet Petrarca whose odes were modeled on the songs by the chorus in Greek drama. In modern use, it is a rhymed lyric , often in a form of an address, generally dignigied or exalted in subject, feeling and style, but sometimes symple and familiar. The masterpieces in English ode include, “Ode to the West Wind”, “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.1William W ordsworth(1770-1850)作品：The Prelude(his greatest work) ; Lyrical Ballads(with Coleridge); Tintern Abbey;We Are Seven; My Heart Leaps Up.2)His poetic outlook:①Wordsworth is regarded as a " worshipper of nature." To Wordsworth, nature embodies, human beings in their diverse circumstances. It is nature that gives him "strength & knowledge full of peace."②Common life is Wordsworth's only subject of literary interest. The joys & sorrows of the common people are his themes. His sympathy always goes to the suffering poor, especially poor children.3)Achievement①The most important contribution he has made is that he has started the modern poetry, the poetry of the growing inner self.②He also changed the course of English poetry by using ordinary speech of the language & by advocating a return to nature.Lake poets: Samuel T aylor Coleridge(1772-1834), Robert Southey(1774-1843), William Wordsworth(1770-1850)2W alter Scott(1771-1832)作品：①ballad: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border②Poetry:The Lay of the Last Minstrel; Lady of the Lake③Novels: Wavery; Rob Roy; Ivanhoe3Jane Austen(1775-1817)）作品：①②Sense & Sensibility ③Northanger Abbey ④Mansfield Park⑤Emma ⑥Persuasion.2）写作特色：Jane Austen first gave the novel its modern character through the treatment of everyday life.1）Austen's novels describe a narrow range of society & events：a quiet，prosperous，middle class circle in provincial surroundings，which she knew well from her own experience2）Her subject matter is also limited，for most of her novels deal with the subject of getting married，which was in fact the central problem for the young leisure-class lady of that age，who had no other choice in her life but to find a good husband.3）Austen's interest was in human nature；in her depiction of human nature，instead of being fascinated by great waves of elevated emotion，by passion or heroic experience，she focused on the trivial & petty details of everyday living，which became very interesting through her truthful & lively description.4）Austen's novels are brightened by their witty conversation & omnipresent humor. Her language shines with an exquisite touch of lively gracefulness，elegant & refined，but never showy.4Charles Lamb(1775-1834)作品：①the Essays of Elia,②Tales from Shakespeare,③Dream Children, ④Poor Relations,⑤Speciments ofEnglish Dramatic Poets Contemporary with Shakespeare.5George Gordon, Lord Byron(1788-1824)1) 作品Children Harold’s Pilgrimage; Oriental Tales; Manfred; Cain; Don Juan②Short lyricsWhen We Two Parted; She Walks in Beauty2) Artistic AchievementByronic HeroAs a leading Romanticist, Byron's chief contribution is his creation of the " Byronic hero," a proud & mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions & powers, the Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in an evil society, & would fight single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion or in moral principles with unconquerable wills & inexhaustible energies. The conflict is usually one of rebellious individuals against outworn social systems & convention. Such a hero appears first in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, & then further developed in later works such as Oriented Tales, Manfred, & Don Juan in different guises. The figure is, to some extent, modeled on the life & personality of Byron himself, & makes Byron famous both at home and abroad.6Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822)作品：Prose:Defence of PoetryPoem: A Song: “Men of England”;"To a Skylark" ；"Ode to the West Wind";Queen Mab; The Revolt of Islam; The Maspue of Anarchy.7John Keats(1795-1821)”墓志铭：Here lies one whose name was writ in water.1）作品：Endymion; Ode to a Nightingale; Ode on an Grecian Urn; Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St.Agnes,& Other Poems.2)济慈四大颂歌:①Ode to a Nightingale;②Ode on a Grecian Urn ③To Autumn;④To Melncholy。
Chapter 3 The Romantic Period1. The Romantic Period: The Romantic period is the period generally said to have begun in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads and to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scott’s death and the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament. It is emphasized the special qualities of each individual’s mind.2.Social background:a. during this period, England itself had experienced profound economic and social changes. The primarily agricultural society had been replaced by a modern industrialized one.b. With the British Industrial Revolution coming into its full swing, the capitalist class came to dominate not only the means of production, but also trade and world market.3.The Romantic Movement: it expressed a more or less negative attitude toward the existing social and political conditions that came with industrialization and the growing importance of the bourgeoise. The romantics demontrated a a strong reaction against the dominant modes of thinking of the 18th-century writers and philosophers. They saw man as an individual in the solitary state. Thus, the Romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction from the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit.The Romantic period is an age of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution. Wordsworth and Coleridge were the major representatives of this movement. Wordsworth defines the poet as a “man speaking to men”, and poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” Imagination, defined by Coleridge, is the vital faculty that creates new wholes out of disparate elements. The Romantics not only extol the faculty of imamgination, but also elevate the concepts of spontaneity and inspiration, regarding them as something crucial for true poetry. The natural world comes to the forefront of the poetic imagination. Nature is not only the major source of the poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject mattre. It is in solitude, in communion with the natural universe, that man can exercise this most valuable of faculties.Romantics also tend to be nationalistic, defending the great poets and dramatists of their own national heritage against the advocates of classical rules.Poetry: to the Romantics, poetry should be free from all rules.they would turn to the humble people and the common everyday life for subjects.Prose: It’s also a great age of prose. With education greatly developed for the middle-class people, there was a rapid growth in the reading public and an increasing demand for reading materials.Romantics made literary comments on the writers with high standards, which paved the way for the development of a new and valuable type of critical writings. Colerige, Hazlitt, Lamb, and De Quincey were the leading figures in this new development.Novel: the 2 major novelists of the period are Jane Austen and Walter Scott.Gothic novel: a tyoe of romantic fiction that predominated in the late 18th century, was one of the Romantic movement. Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural, which strongly appeal to the reader’s emotion. With is description of the dark, irritional side of human nature, the Gothic form exerted a great influence over the writers of the Romantic period.3. Ballads: the most important form of popular literature; flourished during the 15th century; Most written down in 18th century; mostly written in quatrains; Most important is the Robin Hood ballads.4. Romanticism: it is romanticism is a literary trend. It prevailed in England during the period of 1798-1832. Romanticists were discontent with and opposed to the development of capitalism. They split into two groups.Some Romantic writers reflected the thinking of those classes which had been ruined by the bourgeoisie called Passive Romantic poets represented by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey.Others expressed the aspiration of the labouring classes called Active or Revolutionary Romantic poets represented by Byron and Shelley and Keats.5. Lake Poets:Wordsworth, Coleridge and Robert Southey have often been mentioned as the “Lake Poets” because they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England6. Byronic Hero a proud, mysterious rebelling figure of noble origin rights all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and is against any kind of tyrannical rules; It appeared first in Childe H arold’s Pilgrimage and then further developed in later works as the Oriental Tales, Manfred and Don Juan; the figure is somewhat modeled on the life and personality of Byron himself, and makes Byron famous both at home and abroad.7. Main Writers:A. William Blake(1757-1827):1. Literarily, Blake was the first important Romantic poet, showing a comtempt for the rule of reason, opposing the calssical tradition of the 18th century,and treasuring the individual’s imagination.2. His first printed work, Poetic Skelches, is a collection of youthful verse. Joy, laughter, love and harmony are the prevailing notes.3. The Songs of Innocence is a lovely volume of of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and sufferings. The wretched child described in “The Chimney Sweeper,”orphaned, exploited, yet touched by visionary rapture, evokes unbearable poignancy when he finally puts his trust in the order of the universe as he knows it. Blake experimented in meter and rhyme and introduced bold metrical innovations which could not be found in the poetry of his contemporaries.4. The Songs of Experience paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a malancholy tone. The little chinmney sweeper sings “notes of woe” while his parents go to the church and praise “God & his Priest & King”—the very intrument of their repression. A number of poems in the Songs of Experience also find a counterpart in the Songs of Experience. The 2 books hold the similar subject-matter, but the tone, emphasis and conclusion differ.5. Childhood is central to Blake’s concern in the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience, and this concern gives the 2 books a strong social and historical reference. The two “Chimney Sweeper”poems are good examples to reveal the relation between an economic ciecumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor, and an ideological circumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making people compliant to exploitation. The poem from the Songs of Innocence indicates the conditions which make religion a consolation, a prospect “illusionary happiness;”the poem from the Songs of Experience reveals the nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor children.6. Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell marks his entry into maturity. The poem plays the double role both as a satire and a revolutionary prophecy. Blake explores the relationship of the contrries. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence. The “Marriage”means the reconciliation of the contraries, not the subordination of the one to the other.Main works: Poetical SketchesSongs of Innocence is a lovely volume of poemsHoly Thursday reminds us terribly of a world of loss and institutional cruelty.Songs of Experience paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone.Marriage of Heaven and HellThe book of UrizenThe Book of LosThe Four ZoasMilton7. Language Character: he writes his poems in plain and direct language. His poems often carry the lyric beauty with immense compression of meaning. He distrusts the abstractness and tends to embody his views with visual images. Symbolism in wide range is also a distinctive feature of his poetry.B. William Wordsworth(1770-1850) In 1842 he received a government pension, and in the following year he succeeded Southey as Poet Laureate.Lyrical Ballads:But the Lyrical Ballads differs in marked ways from his early poetry, notably the uncompromising simplicity of much of the language, the strong sympathy not merely with the poor in general but with particular, dramatized examples of them, and the fusion of natural description with expressions of inward states of mind.Short poems:According to the subjects, Wordsworth’s short poems can be calssified into two groups: poems about nature and poems about human life.Wordsworth is regarde as a “worshipper of nature.”He can penetrate to the heart of things and give the reader the very life of nature. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”is perhaps the most anthologized poem in english literature, and one that takes us to the core of Wordsworth’s poetic beliefs. It’s nature that gives him “strength and knowledge full of peace.”Wordswoth thinks that common life is the only subject of literary interest. The joys and sorrows of the common people are his themes. “The Solitary Reaper” and “To a Highland Girl” use rural figures to suggest the timeless mystery of sorrowful humanity and its radiant beauty. In its daring use of subject matter and sense of the authenticity of the experience of the poorest, “Resolution and Independence ” is the triumphant conclusion of ideas first developed in the Lyrical Ballads.Wordsworth is a poet in memory of the past. To him, life is a cyclical journey. Its beginning finally turns out to be its end. His philosophy of life is presented in his masterpiece The Prelude.Wordsworth deliberate simplicity and refusal to decorate the truth of experience produced a kind of pure and profoud poetry which no othr poet has ever equaled. He maintained that the scenes and events of everyday life and the speech of ordinary people were the raw material of which poetry could and should be made.Main Works:Descriptive Sketches, and Evening WalkLyrical Ballads.The PreludePoems in Two VolumesOde: Intimations of ImmortalityResolution and Independence.The ExcursionPoets: The Sparrow’s Nest, To a Skylark, To the Cuckoo, To a Butterfly, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud( is perhaps the most anthologized poem in English literature.), An Evening Walk, My Heart Leaps up, Tintern AbbeyThe ThornThe sailor’s motherMichael,The Affliction of MargaretThe Old Cumberland BeggarLucy PoemsThe Idiot BoyMan, the heart of man, and human life.The Solitary ReaperTo a Highland GirlThe Ruined CottageThe PreludeLanguage character: he can penetrate to the heart of things and give the reader the very life of nature. And he thinks that common life is the only subject of literary interest. The joys and sorrows of the common people are his themes. His sympathy always goes to the suffering poor.He is the leading figure of the English romantic poetry, the focal poetic voice of the period. His is a voice of searchingly comprehensive humanity and one that inspires his audience to see the world freshly, sympathetically and naturally. The most important contribution he has made is that he has not only started the modern poetry, the poetry of the growing inner self, but also changed the course of English poetry by using ordinary speech of the language and by advocating a return to natureC. Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822)he grew up with violent revolutionary ideas, so he held a lifelong aversion to crulty, injusticce, authority, institutional religion and the formal shams of respectable society, condemming war, tyranny and exploitation. He realized that the evil was also in man’s mind. Even after a revolution, that is after the restoration of human morality and creativity, the evil deep in man’s heart might again be loosed. So he predicated that only through gradual and suitable reforms of the existing institutions couls benevolence be universally established and none of the evils would survive in this “genuin society,”where people could live together happily, freely and peacefully.Shelley expressed his love of freedom and his hatredtoward tyranny in several of his lyrics. One of the greatest political lyrics is “Men of England.” It is not only a war cry calling upon all working people to risse up against their political oppressors, but an address to them pointing out the intolerable injustice of economic exploitation. The poem was later to become a rallying song of the British Comuunist Party.Best of all the well-known lyric pieces is Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” here Shelley’s rhapsodic and declamatory tendencies find a subject perfectly suited to them. The autumn wind, burying the dead year, preparing for a new spring, becoms an image of Shelley himself, as he would want to be, in its freedom, its destructive-constructive potential, its universality. The whole poem had a logic of feeling,a not easily analyzable progression that leads to the triumphant, hopeful and convincing conclusion: if winter comes, can spring be far behind?Shelley’s greatest achievement is his four-act poetic drama, Prometheus Unbound. The play is an exultant work in praise of humankind’s potential, and Shelley himself recognized it as “the most perfect of my products.”Main works:The Necessity of Atheism, Queen Mab: a Philosophical Poem, Alastor, or The Spirit of SolitudePoem: Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, Mont BlancJulian and Maddalo, The Revolt of Islam, the Cenci, Prometheus Unbound, Adonais, Hellas,Prose: Defence of PoetryLyrics:genuine society,“Ode to Liberty”,“Old to Naples”“Sonnet: England in 1819”, The Cloud, To a Shylark, Ode to the West WindPolitical lyrics: Men of EnglandElegy: Adonais is a elegy for John Keats’s early deathTerza rimaPersonal Characters: he grew up with violent revolutionary ideas under the influence of the free thinkers like Hume and Godwin, so he held a life long aversion to cruelty, injustice, authority, institutional religion andthe formal shams of respectable society, condemning war, tyranny and exploitation. He expressed his love for freedom and his hatred toward tyranny in several of his lyrics such as “Ode to Liberty”,“Old to Naples”“Sonnet: England in 1819”Shelley is one of the leading Romantic poets, and intense and original lyrical poet in the English language. Like Blake, he has a reputation as a difficult poet: erudite, imagistically complex, full of classical and mythological allusions. His style abounds in personification and metaphor and other figures of speech which describe vividly what we see and feel. Or express what passionately moves us.D: Jane Austen(1755-1817): born in a country clergyman’s family:Main Works:Novel: Sense and SensibilityPride and Prejudice(the most popular)Northanger AbbeyMansfield ParkEmmaPersuasionThe WatsonsFragment of a NovelPlan of a NovelPersonal Characters: she holds the ideals of the landlord class in politics, religion and moral principles; and her works show clearly her firm belief in the predominance of reason over passion, the sense of responsibility, good manners and clear—sighted judgment over the Romantic tendencies of emotion and individuality.Her Works’ Characters: his works’s concern is about human beings in their personal relationships. Because of this, her novels have a universal significance. It is her c onviction that a man’s relationship to his wife and children is at least as important a part of his life as his concerns about his belief and career. Her thought is that if one wants to know about a man’s talents, one should see him at work, but if one wan ts to know about his nature and temper, one should see him at home. Austen shows a human being not at moments of crisis, but in the most trivial incidents of everyday life. She write within a very narrow sphere. The subject matter, the character range, the social setting, and plots are all restricted to the provincial life of the late 18th century England. Concerning three or four landed gentry families with their daily routine life.Her novels’ structure is exquisitely deft, the characterization in the hig hest degree memorable, while the irony has a radiant shrewdness unmatched elsewhere. Her works’ at one delightful and profound, are among the supreme achievements of English literature. With trenchant observation and in meticulous details, she presents the quiet, day-to-day country life of the upper-middle-class English.G: Questions and answers:1. what are the characteristics of the Romantic literature? Please discuss the above question in relation to one or two examples.a. in poetry writing, the romanticists employed new theories and innovated new techniques, for example, the preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads acts as a manifesto for the new school.b. the romanticists not only extol the faculty of imagination, but also elevate the concepts of spontaneity and inspiration.c. they regarded nature as the major source of poetic imagery and the dominant subject.d. romantics also tend to be nationalistic.2.Make a contrast between the two generations of Romantic poets during the Romantic AgeThe poetic ideals announced by Wordsworth and Coleridge provided a major inspiration for the brilliant young writers who made up the second generation of English Romantic poets. Wordsworth and Coleridge both became more conservative politically after the democratic idealism. The second generation of Romantic poets are revolutionary in thinking. They set themselves against the bourgeois society and the ruling class.3.what are Austen’s writing features?Jane Austen is one of the realistic novelists. Aust en’s work has a very narrow literary field. Her novels showa wealth of humor, wit and delicate satire.4. what is the historical and cultural background of English Romanticism?a. Historically, it was provoked by the French Revolution and the English Industrial Revolution.b. Culturally, the publication of French philosopher Rousseau’s two books provided necessary guiding principles for the French Revolution which aroused great sympathy and enthusiasm in England;c. England experienced profound economic and social changes: the enclosure movement and the agricultural mechanization; the capitalist class grasped the political power and came to dominate the English society.H. topic discussion:1. Discuss the artistic features of Shelley’s poems.A. Percy Bysshe Shelly is an intense and original lyrical poet in the English language.B. His poems are full of classical and mythological allusions.C. His style abounds in personification and metaphor and other figures of speechD. He describes vividly what we see and feel, or expresses what passionately moves us.2. What does Wordsworth mean when he said “All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility”?This sentence is considered as the principle of Wordsworth’s poetry c reation which was set forth in the preface to the Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth appealed directly on individual sensations, as the foundation in the creation and appreciation of poetry.3. How do you describe the writing style of Jane Austen? What is the significance of her works?Jane Austen is a writer of the 18th century through she lived mainly in the 19th century. She holds the ideals of the landlord class in politics, religion, and moral principles. Austen’s main literary concern is about human beings in their personal relationships. Austen defined her stories within a very narrow sphere.。
6.Romanticism 浪漫主义时期文学特征：1.Background①shaped by their New World environment美洲大陆新环境②array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe.欧洲早期浪漫主义思潮2.美国文学特点:pluralistic多元化，manifestations表现形式: Varied多样, Individualistic个人主义,Conflicting矛盾3.romanticism的特点Frequently shared certain general characteristics; moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man’s societies a source of corruption.浪漫主义之间大部分是相通的，都注重道德，强调个人主义价值观和直觉感受，并且认为自然是美的源头，人类社会是腐败之源。
4.transcendentalism超验主义：①As a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematized.It exalted feeling over reason, individual expression over the restraints of lawand custom.不讲逻辑，不讲系统，只强调超越理性的感受，超越法律和世俗束缚的个人表达。
②They spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of Americansociety.呼吁文化复兴，反对美国社会的拜金主义。
