美国清教徒文学 英文

英语美国文学史复习资料英语美国文学史复习资料一、时期综述（关于清教的应该都是重点）1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：A、narratives 日记B、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：①their voyage to the new land ②adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates andcrops③about dealing with Indians ④guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit3、清教徒的想法：①Puritans want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices.净化信仰和行为方式②wish to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of the Bible to theology.重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位③lo ok upon themselves as a chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God’s will and is not to be accepted.认为自己是上帝选民，对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝。

④Puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been e_aggerated.反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步。

⑤reli gious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.强调上帝严厉的一面，忽视上帝仁慈的一面。

美国文学中的几个主义清教主义： Puritanism 代表人物： Anna Bradstreet ，Benjamin Franklin ，Thomas Paine ，Thomas Jefferson浪漫主义： Romanticism 代表人物：Washington Irving ，Edgar Allan PoeA超验主义：Transcendentalism ；代表人物：Ralph Waldo Emerson ，Emily Dickinson ，Walt Whitman自然主义：Naturalism ；代表人物：Henry D. Thoreau意向主义：Imagism ；代表人物：Ezra Pound心理现实主义：psychological realism ；代表人物：Henry James一清教主义对美国文学的影响清教徒文学传统形成于17世纪，清教主义与其它宗教相比,包含三个层面的价值体系,并对不同时期的美国文学产生了不同的影响,表现出不同时代特征,以清教主义作为参照系,可以说17世纪美国文学是“信仰时代的文学”,18世纪美国文学是“世俗时代的文学”,19世纪美国文学则可称为“宗教批判与宗教道德时代的文学”。

发端于英国的清教主义对美国社会有着更大的影响,“英格兰有过清教革命,却没有创建清教社会;美国没有经历清教革命,却创建了清教社会”①。

并且这种影响以其持久深厚而铸就了美利坚民族的灵魂。

正如朱世达先生所言:“清教传统像一条红线规范了从殖民时代到如今的美国的政治文化与社会文化”②。

作为美国文化一个独特的源头,清教主义在美国经历了由表及里、由明转暗的曲折发展,最终形成有美国特色的清教价值体系,从某种意义上说,文学是这一发展历程的最好见证。

一般而言,宗教都包含信仰与道德两个层面的价值体系。

清教主义的传播和渗入伴随着早期的移民拓荒、定居北美的整个过程。

作为一种教义 ,清教主义不再具有原有的意义 ,但它对新英格兰乃至整个美国由来已久的影响 ,却在美国形成了一种特殊的文化氛围 ,不仅与美国人性格中的个人主义有联系 ,对美国文学的发展和特点也起着重要作用。

1.American Puritanism清教It comes from the American puritans, who were the first immigrants moved to American continent in the 17th century. Original sin, predestination（预言）and salvation（拯救）were the basic ideas of American Puritanism. And, hard-working, piousness（虔诚,尽职），thrift and sobriety（清醒）were praised.Characteristics: 特点1. Idealistic: Puritans pursue the purity and simplicity in worship. They focuse the glory of God, and the angry God.They believe in the doctrine of destiny, original sin, limited atonement2. Practical: Puritans come to Amrican to do business and make profits with the desire of chasing wealth and status. They have to struggle for survival under the severity of the western frontier.3 .The struggle between the spiritual and the material is the basics of the Puritan mind. On the one hand, Puritans chase the purity of the early church.On the other hand, they come to America to earn money. This contradictory will be reflected by their thoughts.4. In a word, it rests on purity, ambition, harding work, and an intense struggling for success.2.Romanticism浪漫主义: the literature term was first applied to the writers of the 18th century in Europe who broke away from the formal rules of classical writing. When it was used in American literature it referred to the writers of the middle of the 19th century who stimulated（刺激）the sentimental emotions of their readers. They wrote of the mysterious of life, love, birth and death. The Romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all kinds of materials, poetry, essays, plays, fictions, history, works of travel, and biography.3.Transcendentalism先验说,超越论:is a philosophic and literary movement that flourished in New England, particular at Concord, as a reaction against Rationalism and Calvinism (理性主义and喀尔文主义). Mainly it stressed intuitive understanding of God, without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind. The representative writers are Emerson and Thoreau.4.American Realism现实主义: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience5.Local colorism乡土文学: is a type of writing that was popular in the late 19th century, particularly among the authors in the south of the U.S.. this style relied heavily on using words, phrases, and slang that were native to the particular region in which the story took place. local colorists tried to immortalize(使不朽) the distinctive natural, social and linguistic features. It is characteristic of vernacular(本国语) language and satirical(讽刺的)humor. A well-known local colorism author was Mark Twain with his books Tom Sowyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.6.Naturalism自然主义: American naturalism was a new and harsher realism.It was initiated in France. American naturalism had been shaped by the war; by the social upheavals（剧变）that undermined the comforting faith of an ear lier age. America’s literary naturalists attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity. Although naturalist literature described the world with sometimes brutal realism, it sometimes also aimed at bettering the world through social reform.7.Stream of consciousness意识流：It is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing thatattempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space, and depicted vividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing incessantly。

美文学摘要Puritanism(清教,清教徒主义): doctrines (dɔktrin n. 教条, 教义, 学说), values, features of Am. Puritans, influence on Am. Literature,Features of colonial poetsThe 1st Am. Writer：Captain John SmithKey Points of Enlightenment movement●Originated in Europe in the 17th century●Basic principles: Stressing education; Stressing Reason; Concerns for civil rights●Significance: Accelerating加速social progress; freeing people from the limitations set by prevailing(1．占优势的;主要的2．流行的;普遍的 )Puritanism; Making spiritual preparation for American Revolution Influence on literature:In form: imitating English classical writersIn content: utilitarian ([ju:ˌtɪlɪˌteəri:ən] adj. 1．有效用的;实用的 2．功利(主义)的 n. 功利主义者;实用主义者) tendency (for political or educational purpose)What lessons can we d raw from the poem “the wild honeysuckle”（野金银花）?The wild can also be beautiful. Everyone should take an active attitude toward life. Never avoid challenges for fear of losing something. One can’t achieve anything under the shelter（shelter －简明英汉词典D.J.[ˌʃeltə]n. 1．遮蔽; 保护 2．避难所; 庇护所vt. 掩蔽; 庇护, 保护vi. 躲避, 避难）and protection.Features of American Romanticisma. Imitative: Some of the American Romantic writings were modeled on English and European works. The Romantic Movement proved to be a decisive influence. Without it, the rise of Romanticism would have been impossible. Romanticism writers such as Scott, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron all made a stimulating impact on American literature.b. Independent: From the very beginning, American Romanticism exhibited（陈列，展览；显示，显出；展览品，陈列品，在法庭提出的证物）distinct（截然不同的，完全分开的；清晰的，明白的，明显的）features of its own. It originated from（来自，源于…）a mixture of factors which were altogether American rather than anything else. American Romanticism was in essence（本质上，大体上，事实）the expression of a real new experience and contained “an alien（外国的，外国人的，陌生的，性质不同的）quality”. E.g., the American national experience of pioneering（开发，创始）into the west is a rich fund of material for American writers. It is these Romanticism writers that created an indigenous（土生土长的，生来的，固有的）American literature.c. Puritan influence over American Romanticism was clearly noticeable. E.g., the author tended more to moralize（vi论道德，说教）than writers in England.American Transcendentalism（超验主义，先验论；顿悟）Background:In 1836 a little book Nature came out. It was written by Emerson. It was considered “the Manifesto （ˌmænəˌfestəʊ宣言）of Transcendentalism（ˌtrænsenˌdentl超验主义）”.It started with Emerson’s Nature and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855) The Transcendentalists set up a club called “Transcendentalist（trænsen'dentlist] adj. 先验论者的,超越论者的)Club”. They expressed their views published their journal Dial. The center place is New England and Concord( concord －简明英汉词典D.J.[ˌkɔnˌkɔ:d, ˌkɔŋ-]n. 和谐, 一致, 和睦).Major features1) Emphasis on spirit or the Oversoul as the most important thing in the universe2) The individual as the most important element of society3) Nature as symbolic of the Spirit or GodLimitations:1) The shallow (shallow [ˌʃæləu] adj. 1．浅的2．肤浅的) optimism(n. 乐观, 乐观主义) made itimpossible for them to understand human suffering.2) They cut themselves from life and were trapped by empty talk. They stressed too much on human intuition (in tuition [ˌɪntjuˌiʃən] n.1.直觉2.凭直觉感知的知识).3) They failed to provide solution to problem they found.课后部分习题1. Early in the 17th century, the England settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts began the main stream of what we recognize as the American national history.settlers in America included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards, Italians, and3. The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.4. There was little of the religious ferment（骚乱，动荡）and zeal（热心，热忱，热情）that inspired such a tide of literature to flow Puritan New England.5. The Puritans had come to New England for the sake of religious freedom, while Virginia had been planted mainly as a commercial venture.6.Hard work，thrift（节约，节俭），piety（虔诚，虔敬）and sobriety（清醒，未醉，严肃，节制）were the Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing, including the sermons（布道，说教）,books , and letters of such noted Puritan clergymen as John Cotton and Cotton Mather.True or false: The first American literature was neither American nor really literature.（T）It was not American because it was the work mainly of immigrants from England. It was not literature as we know it---in the form of poetry, essays, or fiction---but rather an interesting mixture of travel accounts and religious writings. The earliest colonial travel accounts are records of the perils（极大危险；危险的事或环境）and frustrations that challenged the courage of America’s first settlers. (P2)1. What are the influences of American Puritanism on American Literature?①Basis of American literaturedreamed of living under a perfect order；worked with courage；hoped to build an Eden of Garden on earth；faced the worst of life with optimism--went into the making of American literatureAll literature is based on a myth--Garden of Eden②Contributing to the development of Symbolism（象征主义）: a technique, widely used。

《美国文学简史》考研常耀信版考研复习笔记和考研真题第1章殖民地时期的美国1.1 复习笔记I. American Puritanism（美国清教主义）The settlement of North American continent by the English began in the early part of the seventeenth century. The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. In 1620, the ship Mayflower carried about one hundred Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The first settlers in America were quite a few of them Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons. They carried with them American Puritanism which took root in the New World and became the most enduring shaping influence in American thought and American literature.英国向北美的移民活动开始于17世纪上半叶。

英国于1607年在北美建立了第一个永久性海外殖民区：弗吉尼亚州的詹姆斯敦。

1620年“五月花”号载运100余名移民抵达马萨诸塞州的普利茅斯。

很多美国早期的移民是清教徒，他们出于多种原因来到美国。

他们信奉的清教主义后来在新大陆生根发芽，并对美国思想和美国文学产生了根深蒂固的影响。

Part 1American Puritanism to Enlightenment – Colonial PeriodI.American Puritanism (north colonies):i.Puritans: The settlement of the North American continent by the English began in theearly part of the 17th century (―Mayflower‖,1620) – on America’s northern seacoast– New England – the first settles who became the founding fathers of the Americannation were quite a few of them Puritans.ii.Ideal of Puritans: They were idealists to ―purify‖ the rituals of the church, to lessen the authority of bishops, believing that the church should be restored to the ―purity‖of the first century church as establish by Jesus Christ himself.⏹By the time of Elizabeth’s reign, the church of England was clearly Protestant inrespect to its separation from Rome.⏹Puritans were originally devout members of the Church of England⏹The reign of Queen Mary – immigrating to America searching for religious freedom–ironically: the term of ―Puritanism‖implies religious intolerance, bigotry,austerity of taste, killingjoy way of life. why? ( They persecuted the witch or thosewhom the community deemed ―hellish‖– Hawthorn’s The Scarlet Letter ) TypicalPuritan’s way of life – in harmony with their somber religion, stressing hard work,thrift, piety, and sobriety; the most popular image – a teetotaler, gaunt, lank-haired,wearing a black steeple hat – in fact a distortion, evoking for a time, antipathy anddisgustiii.Puritanism: Puritans were a group of serious, religious people, they had their own code of values, a philosophy of life, and their point of viewA: Three basic puritan tenets:⏹God’s absolute sovereignty -- God is all-powerful and asserts His influence in everyevent of human life⏹Original Sin –AS a result of Adam and Eve’s eating the forbidden fruit, allhumanity is completely wicked.⏹Predestination – Human races is predestined by God (John Calvin)(Tenets of John Calvin: The state should be the servant of the church. ―original depravity‖, ―In Adam’s fall, we sinned all‖– man cannot redeem his original sinfulness–―Redemption, therefore, must be a free gift from God. Only He and no one else maydecide who is to be saved and who is to go to hell –―Predestination‖– Christ, therefore,did not die for all, but only for those who are to be saved )B. An ethic was developed around hard work: The drive for money and the acquisitionof wealth through work may not be a step toward salvation ( since there was no choice)but perhaps a sign that one was saved. If life were a discovery of whether or notsomeone was saved, then every event was significant. Of one acted in a way that wasnot in accordance with this belief, then one was surely not saved and definitely a threatto the existing order.C. Many writers regarded the settlers as God’s agents, sent under His ―wonder workingprovidence‖ to make homes for His chosen and to convert or destroy the Indians whomthey felt were sent by the devil to disturb their progress. The writing brought home tothe average church member a fear and wonder for God’s workings – nothing was writtenfor mere amusement – plain style, Biblical allusion (quotation, sermons)iv.American Myth:⏹American literature is based on a myth – the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden⏹ A literary expression of the pious idealism of the American Puritan bequest –optimistic⏹Religious and utilitarian -- reflecting those people’s striving for salvation, especiallymateriallyv.American Dream (basically optimistic)⏹religiously pious and practical⏹west land to explore, unlimited opportunities, forbidding natural surroundings thatintriguing people’s fighting spirit –― A sup of New England’s air is better than awhole draft of old England’s ale‖ Francis Higginson New Englan’s Plantation 1630 )–The very severity of the frontier conditions taught the American Puritans to betougher, to be every ready for any misfortunes and tragic failures that might lie inwait for them.⏹individual success – individualismII.Literary Scene ( Puritan and Enlightened ):i.theme: about their voyage to the new land, about adapting themselves to unfamiliarclimates and crops, about dealing with Indians, about the land which stretched beforethem – unimaginable and immense, with rich dense forests and deep blue lakes andrich soil – all seemed possible through hard work and faithii.form: English literary tradition imitatednguage style: fresh, simple and direct, plain and homely, honest rhetoric, Biblical allusioniv.representatives:( William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, Thomas Paine )A. Philip Freneau – religious freedom – dawning nationalism, American subject matter,poet of American revolution-- The Wild Honey Suckle-- The Indian Burying GroundB. Jonathan Edwards –religious ecstasy –influence upon later years: Emerson,anticipating 18th c. TranscendentalismC. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)⏹opposite of Edwards: the paradox of Puritan materialism and immateriality⏹Jack-of-all-trades, a self-made man⏹The symbol of the Age of Enlightenment, age of Reason – leading to the Age ofRomanticism⏹Poor Richard’s Allmanac⏹Autobiography – how a man should live his life, 13virtues,(industrious, frugal, prudent etc.)-- a Puritan document: self-examination andself-improvement, self-reliance, the fulfillment of the―American Dream‖–sense of optimism revolution --romantic-- spokesman for the new order of 18th c. AmericanEnlightenment: Man is basically good and free, by natureendowed by God with certain inalienable rights of libertyand the pursuit of happiness – benevolence of God--style: simplicity, directness, concision, plainness,homeliness of imageryD. An opposite tone: pessimisticSt. John de Crevecoeur⏹He saw and spoke of the illusory nature of that American dream, being aware ofthe existence of slavery, avarice, violence, famine and disease – all forms of evilthat he thought the American had not left behind with his migration to this sideof the Atlantic⏹Thus almost at the very beginning, the New World had in its constitution theelements of the old, and the ideal had as its twin brother – the anti-ideal⏹Leading to the note of pessimism first clearly heard and heeded in Mark Twain’sThe Gilded AgeIII.Southern Plantation: a landed aristocracy, its own intelligentsiaIV.Middle Colonies: American toleration--Dutch, Swedish – New York, Pennsylvania – all nationalities’ folk stories providing forthe materials for later Romantic writers, such as Washington Irvingparison between American Puritanism and Chinese Confucianism ( after-class discussion)⏹Confucius⏹Confucianism-- the moral and religious system of China founded Confucius by the end of the6th c. B.C. His original sayings ( Analects ) were edited with commentaries byMencius in the 4th B.C., and his philosophy was further developed by Chu Hisin the 12th c. and by Wang Yang-ming in the 16th c.-- Basically it is a system of ethical precepts—benevolentlove, righteousness, decorum, wise leadership, sincerity – designed to inspireand presence the good management of family and society.-- A theological dimension was introduced in the 2nd c. B.C. when Tung Chung-Shurelated the five virtues to a cosmic order governed by Shang-Ti ( ruler of heaven) towhom the emperor was immediately responsible. It became the official doctrineof Imperial China under the Han Dynasty ( 2nd c. B.C. –2nd c. A.D.). Ritualsacrifice in appointed shrines characterized Confucianism from the 1st c.B.C. untilthe People’s Republic of 1949.-- Eclipsed by Taoism and Buddhism from the 3rd c. to the 7th c., Confucianism wasrevived and made the state religion under the Tang Dynasty (618-906)-- Neo-Confucianism, strong between the 10th c. and the 13th c.. opposed thesupernatural quietistic tendencies of Buddhism and Taoism, advocating a humanisticsearch for truth.-- From the 2nd c. B.C. until the 20th c., Confucianism was the distinctive philosophyof China, and the basis of social organization, education and administration.。

1.Puritanism (清教主义)：Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.1.) simply speaking , American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans,who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions.2.)In content it means scrupulous ,moral rigor ,eapecially hostility to social pleasure and religion .3.)with time passing it became a dominant factor in American life , one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and literature .to some extentit is a state of mind , a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes ,rather than a set of tenets.4.) Actually it is a code of values , a philosophy of life and a point of view in American minds , also a two-faceted tradition of religious idealism and level -headed in common sense .5) Major topic:American Puritanism IntroductionThere were no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and tribal cultures, American writing began with the work of English adventurers and colonists in the New World chiefly for the benefit of readers in the mother country.Therefore the writing in this period was essentially two kinds:(1) practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people “at home” what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration;(2) highly theoretical, generally polemical^辩的)，discussions of religious questions.2.The American Romanticism(浪漫主义)I.What is Romanticism a literary movement flourished as a cultural force the early period and the late period.associated with imagination and boundlessness, as an historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th centuries. The most clearly defined romantic literary movement in the U. S.A was Transcendentalism.Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, and those of the late periodcontain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.□.Features of A merican romanticism（1）It was the expression of “a real new experience（全新体验）”.（2）American Puritanism was a cultural heritage. Many American romantic writings intended to edify（启发）more than they entertained.⑶American Romanticism is full of “newness（新奇）”. Ideals：Individualism; political equality Dream：America: a new Garden of Eden （4）American romanticism was both imitative and independent.3..transcendentalism、（超验主义）transcendentalism: It stressed the power of intuition, believing that people could learn things both from the outside world by means of the five senses and from the inner world by intuition. It took nature as symbolic of spirit or God. All things in nature were symbols of the spiritual, of God’s presence. It emphasized the significance o f the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish. Transcendentalists envisioned religion as an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal “Oversoul”.4.Naturalism: It views human beings as animals in the natural world responding to environmental forces and internal stresses and drives, over none of which they have control and none of which they fully understand. The literary naturalists have a major difference from the realists. They look at a different spot to find real life.5.Free verse: It is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length and that attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it uses the cadences of natural speech.6.International novel: IN brings together persons of various nationalities who represent certain characteristics of their own countries.7.the lost generation: reveals the huge destruction of the wars to the young generation. It describes the Americans who remained in Paris as a colonyof “expatriates”. They were lost in disillusionment.8.American Dream: American dream means the belief that everyone can succeed as long as he/she works hard enough. It usually implies a successful andsatisfying life. It usually framed in terms of American capitalism （资本主义），its associated purported meritocracy,（知识界精华）and the freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Bill of Rights9.American Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience .10.Black Humor:also called Black Comedy, writing that juxtaposes morbid or ghastly elements with comical ones. The term did not come into common use until the 1960s. Then it was applied to the works of the novelists Nathanael West, Vladimir Nabokov, and Joseph Heller. The latter's Catch-22 （1961） is a notable example, in which Captain Yossarian battles the horrors of air warfare over the Mediterranean during World War II with hilarious irrationalities matching the stupidities of the military system. The term black comedy has been applied to playwrights in the Theatre of the Absurd.11.Local colorism: as a trend became dominant in American literature in the 1860s and early 1870s, it is defined by Hamlin Garland as having such quality of texture and background that it could not have been written in any other place or by anyone else than a native stories of local colorism have a quality of circumstantial（详细的）authenticity（确实性）,as local colorists tried to immortalize（使不朽）the distinctive natural, social and linguistic features. It is characteristic of vernacular（本国语） language and satirical （讽刺的）humor12.Code HeroGeneral Features:1.He has great physical potential and courage.2.The “ code heroes ” have strong willpower.3.Thirdly , another important feature of the “code heroes" is their loyalty.4.Fourthly , the" code heroes "maintain great dignity in all situations.5.Fifthly , the “code heroes ” are endowed with certain specialized skills , such as fishing , bull fighting , and hunting , etc6.the “code heroes "are always put in some touch-and go situations, what the heroes must always face up to is their own personal fear of death and the threat of destruction, and it is this obstacle, death, that they have to overcome.13.iceberg theory:The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.2 American TranscendentalismAs a philosophical and literary movement, American Transcendentalism （also known as “ American Renaissance"） flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War. It is the high tide of American romanticism and its doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in Emerson and Thoreau. Transcendentalists spoke for the cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society.Transcendentalism 超验主义（+ H. D. Thoreau; NathanielHawthorne;)The major features of Transcendentalism:①The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. 思想超灵宇宙②The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual is the most important element of Society.个体+社会③The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence.自然+上帝3 Stream of Consciousness 意识流or “interior monologue”,内心独白is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce.。

A m e r i c a n P u r i t a n i s m美国清教主义Simply speaking, American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions.美国清教主义指的是清教徒的精神和理想的定居在北美大陆十七世纪初期由于内容的宗教迫害;It migration that laid the foundation for the religious, intellectual, and social order of New England. 它为新英格兰奠定了宗教,知识和社会秩序的基础; Puritans adhered to the Five Points of Calvinism as codified at the Synod of Dort: unconditional election, limited atonement, total depravity, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints. 清教徒遵循加尔文派于多特宗教会议上制定的五点信条：无条件拣选,有限救赎,完全堕落,不可抗拒的恩典,以及圣徒的坚守;It is basis of American literature. All literature is based on a myth –garden of Eden.It contributing to the development of Symbolism: a technique, widely used.它是美国文学的基础;所有文学基于一个神话——伊甸园;它的发展导致的象征主义:技术,广泛使用;American Romanticism 美国浪漫主义The 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.浪漫主义时期是美国文学历史上最重要的时期,从18世纪末延伸至爆发内战;它始于华盛顿·欧文的见闻札记,以惠特曼的草叶集结束;In literature it was America’s first great creative period, a full flowering of the romantic impulse on American soil. 在文学上,这个时期是美国第一次伟大的创作期,浪漫主义的种子在北美的土壤里生根发芽;American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience”and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien.美国浪漫主义在本质上是一个“全新的经历”的表达,因为这个新大陆充满着生机和活力而使美国的浪漫主义蕴含异国的气质;Puritan influence over American romanticism was conspicuously noticeable. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained.清教主义对美国浪漫主义有着显着的影响;浪漫主义作家往往更讲道德;许多浪漫主义作品旨在陶冶他们过瘾了;Subjectivity, back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature, back to nature is romanticism’s characteristics. 主体性,回到中世纪,尤其是中世纪民间文学,回归自然是浪漫主义的特征;It stressing emotion rather than reason, stressing freedom and individuality, Idealism rather than materialism. Writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements. 强调情感,而不是原因,强调自由和个性,理想主义,而不是唯物主义;写关于自然、中世纪的传说和超自然的元素American Transcendentalism 美国超验主义It is the summit of American Romanticism. The beliefs that God is immanent in each person and in nature and that individual intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority. 它是美国浪漫主义的顶峰;超验主义者认为人人都有内在的神性,只有通过接触自然才能使神性与人的天性相融合,从而超验主义十分强调个人主义、自立、拒绝传统权威思想;The transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. They stressed the importance of the individual. Taking nature as the symbol of the Spirit. 超验主义者强调精神,或超灵,认为它是是宇宙中最重要的事情;他们强调个人的重要性,以自然为精神的象征;It helped to create the first American renaissance –one of the most prolific period in American literature. It marked the independence of American literature. 建立第一个美国文艺复兴时期,美国文学中最多产时期之一;标志着美国文学的独立;The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Emerson in such essays as Nature, and Self-Reliance and by Thoreau in his book Walden.超验主义思想在爱默生的论自然和论自立以及梭罗的瓦尔登湖等书中表现的淋漓尽致;Free verse 自由诗Free verse is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length and that attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure; it uses the cadences of nature speech. Free verse does so in a looser way. Whitman’s poetry is an example of free verse at its most impressive. Such as the Song of Myself. Whitman who pioneered the form and made it acceptable in American poetry. 自由诗是一种诗体,押韵和句子长度都不规则,而是采取正常说话的方式,避免固定的诗体结构;它使用大自然的韵律演讲;自由诗比较松散;惠特曼的诗歌是自由诗的最好例子;例如自我之歌;惠特曼被认为是美国自由诗的先驱;Alliteration 头韵It refers to the repetition of the same sounds----usually initial consonants of words or of stressed syllables----in any sequence of neighboring words:”Landscape-lover, lord of language”Tennyson. Such poetry, in which alliteration rather than rhyme is the chief principle of repetition, is known as alliteration verse. 头韵是两个单词或两个单词以上的首字母相同,形成悦耳的读音,最常见的押头韵的短语”Landscape-lover, lord of language”丁尼生;主要使用重复头韵的诗歌被称为头韵体诗歌,其元音相互押韵;Scarlet Letter A: Adultery to Able to Angel Nathaniel Hawthorne Characters: Hester Prynne heroine, attractive, active towards the sinRoger Chillingworth Hester's husband, emotionless, only thinking about revenge, real vallain in the novel, signifying pure intellect which was merciless in Hawthorne's mindArthur Dimmesdale a handsome and admirable young priest, contraditionary on the sin he made with Hester, being a brave man at last Theme: The theme of the story should be the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin on people.Scarlet Letter is a cultural allegory, in which the author indirectly tells the future of Puritanism.Scarlet Letter is a sample in which American Romanticism adapted itself to American Puritanism.Because of the strong influence of Puritanism in American society, Hawthorne only expressed his ideas on the sin indirectly by employing symbolism.Moby Dick Herman MelvilleMoby-dick is regarded as the Great American Novel, the first American prose epic. known as the whaling encyclopedia.Moby-Dick tells the story how Ahab,the captain of a whaling ship,is determined to kill the white whale for it has crippled one of his legs.Ambiguity You can understand his Moby Dick differently.First, it can be understand as a tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming odds in an indifferent and even hostile universe. Thus, Captain Ahab is a hero who dares to fight though he failed at last.Nowadays some new research indicated that the story means man should protect the nature otherwise man will be punished as those whalers in the story were punished by the whale.Symbolismthe voyage: the search for the ultimate truth of experience.Moby Dick: the final mystery of the universe which man will do well to desist from pursuing.style: periodical chapters; rich rhythmical prose; great poetical power.。