美国文学简史什么是文学？文学是语言的艺术来实现识别的文艺气质，并传达有意义的信息。
第1章殖民时期一，项目背景：清教主义一，特点清教主义（1）宿命：神决定一切之前的事情发生。
（2）原罪：人类天生是邪恶的，并可以通过这种原罪了一代又一代。
（3）总的堕落（4）有限赎罪：※当选§可以保存。
2.Influence（1）A组每艰苦奋斗，勤俭节约，虔诚，庄重（认真周到的）影响了美国文学的优秀品质。
（2）它导致了永恒的神话。
所有文献的基础上每伊甸园的神话。
（3）象征主义：美国的清教徒*隐喻模式的看法，主要是在调用的文学象征，这是典型的美国。
（4）关于他们的写作，风格清新，简单和直接的说辞是平原和诚实，不无淡淡的贵族往往可以追溯到“圣经”的直接影响。
II。
文献综述1。
型式的写作日记，历史，日记，信件，书籍，自传/传记，布道2.writers的殖民时期（1）安妮邓白氏（2）爱德华·泰勒（3）罗杰·威廉斯（4）约翰伍尔曼（5）托马斯·潘恩（6）菲利普FreneauIII。
乔纳森·爱德华兹1.life2.works（1）自由的意志（2）大原罪的学说辩护（3）自然真德3.ideas每超验主义的先锋（1）精神的复兴运动（2）再生人（3）神*的存在（4）清教徒理想主义IV。
本杰明·富兰克林1.life2.works（1）差理查德*年鉴（2）自传3.contribution（1）他帮助了宾夕法尼亚州的医院和美国哲学学会。
（2）他被称为※新普罗米修斯偷火从天上（在这种情况下，电力）§。
（3）一切似乎都在这一个男人，以满足每※万事通§。
赫尔曼·梅尔维尔如此描述他※大师和掌握的没有§。
第2章美国浪漫主义第1节什么是早期浪漫主义时期的浪漫主义呢？古希腊柏拉图的LAN的方法LA文学思潮：18C在英国（1798〜1832）lSchlegel兄弟I.预览：浪漫主义的特点1.subjectivity（1）感觉和情绪，寻找真理（2）强调想象力（3）强调个人主义的每个人的自由，没有英雄崇拜，自然善良的人2.BACK中世纪，尤其中世纪的民间文学（1）奔放的经典规则（2）充满想象力的（3）口语（4）自由的想象力（5）真正的感受：经典回答他们的呼叫3.back自然自然是※呼吸有生命的东西“（卢梭）II。
Transcendentalism refers to a kind of attitude that believes in the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively（直觉地）or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses. In a literal sense, it means the belief that knowledge and principles of reality can be obtained by studying thought, not necessarily by practical experiences.Realism It is, in literature, an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. In part. Realism was a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away.Local Colorism the writings of local colorists are concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town. Local colorists were consciously nostalgic historians of a vanishing way of life, recorders of a present that faded before their eyes.1) The Lost Generationthey had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing which had never been tried before. Among these writers, the most famous are Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dos Passos.Chapter ThreeAmerican Romanticism * Irving * CooperII. Washington Irving (1783-1859)1 Writing StyleIrving’s style can only be described as beautiful though imitative.A. Irving avoids moralizing as much as possible: he wrote to amuse and entertain.B. He was good at enveloping his stories in a rich atmosphere, which is often more than compensation for the slimness of plot.C. His characters are vivid and true so that they tend to linger in the mind of the reader.D. He was such a humorous writer that it is difficult not to smile and occasionally even chuckle.E. His language was finished and musical.2. Literary StatusFather of American literatureThe first professional American writerThe first American Romantic writerThe first American short story writerThe first American imaginative writerto be recognized by the Europeans3. His Works:A History of New York (1809)The Sketch Book (1819-20)The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book, a collection of essays, sketches, and tales, of which the most famous and frequently anthologized are “Rip Van Winkle”and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”Rip Van Winkle《瑞普*凡*温尔克》It is a fantasy tale about a man who somehow stepped outside the main stream of life.Rip Van Winkle is a simple, good-natured, and hen-pecked man. An amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglect, he is loved by all but his wife. One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife ，after drinking some of ghosts of Henry Hudson’s crew’s liquor, he falls asleep. He wakes up twenty years later and returns to his village. He finds out that everything changes.The Legend of Sleepy HollowThe History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828)The Alhambra《阿尔罕伯拉》(1832)Life of Goldsmith, Life of WashingtonTales of a TravelerIII. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)1. Literary Status:The first American Frontier novelThe first American Sea novelThe first American Spy NovelThe first American Historical NovelHis Leatherstocking Tales as the American National Epic3. His major works:Precaution (1820)The Spy (1821)“The Leatherstocking Tales” includesThe Pioneers (1823)The Last of the Mohicans (1826)The Prairie (1827)The Pathfinder (1840)The Deerslayer (1841)The Leatherstocking Tales is a series of novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper, each featuring the main hero Natty Bumppo, known by European settlers as "Leatherstocking," 'The Pathfinder", and "the trapper" and by the Native Americans as "Deerslayer," "La Longue Carabine"and "Hawkeye". He becomes a type, a representation of a nation struggling to be born, progressing from old age torebirth and youth.5. Writing Features:A. Plot construction:Cooper was good at inventing plots. Hisplots are sometimes quite incredible, but his stories are immensely intriguing.B. Landscape description: His landscape descriptions aremajestic and suggestive of sir Walter Scott, the legendary spirit of whose border tales might have been a source of inspiration for him.C. A rich imagination: He had never been to the frontier andamong the Indians and yet could write five huge epic books about them with his rich imagination. Free from injustice, he treated the American Indians as noble savages.D.Clumsy style: his style is dreadful; his characterizationseems wooden and lacking in probability.6. His Contributiona. Cooper hit upon the native subject of frontier andwilderness.b. He contributed to American literature different subgenres ofnovels: spy novel, sea novel, frontier novel, and historical romance.c. He created the first legendary frontier hero Natty Bumppoas the typical Pioneering figure.d. He introduced the West and the frontier as a usable past intoAmerican literature, thus ushering in the Western tradition into American world of letters.Chapter4New England Transcendentalism * Emerson * ThoreauPrinciples of Emerson’s transcendentalismThe over-soulPrimacy of IndividualPrimacy of NatureII. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)1. Literary Status:“Father of American Essay”,The Concord SageLeader and spokesman of New England Transcendentalism Essayist, poet, philosopher, orator, critic.His major works:A. CollectionsPoems(1847); Representative Men(1850); English Traits (1856)The Conduct of Life (1860); May Day and Other Poems (1867)Society and Solitude(1870); Letters and Social Aims (1876)Essays"Self-Reliance" "Compensation" "The Over-Soul""The Poet" "Experience""Nature" (the Bible and manifesto of the New England Transcendentalism)Emerson’s Nature has been called the “Manifesto of American Transcendentalism”"The American Scholar" (Intellectual Declaration of Independence)His The American Scholar has been rightly regarded as America’s “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”.C. Poems"Concord Hymn""The RhodoraNature(1836): “The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul, Spirit is present everywhere”The book presents a theory of the universe, its origin, present condition, and final destiny. Nature’s voice pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, the summit of American Romanticism/ American Renaissance.The American Scholar(1837): In this essay, Emerson calls for adistinctive American style, dealing with American subjects. Thus, regarded as “America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence”Self-Reliance(1841): This essay focuses on his discussion on the individual’s relation’s with his culture—culture in the broadest definition, thus exploring the implications of the fierce individualism at the heart of his Transcendental faith: the dignity, the ultimate sanctity[holiness] of each human beingThe Over-Soul(1841): It is a philosophic work, in which Emerson gives an explicit discussion on his idea of the over-soul, with a most comprehensive and sensitive analysis of the varieties of religious experienceEvaluation to him:1. He was the first American to call for an independent culture in both Nature and The American Scholar.(America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence).He called on American writers to write about America in a way peculiarly American.2.Emerson’s aesthetics places emphasis on ideas, symbol, andimaginative words, which brought about a revolution in American literature in general and in American poetry in particular.3.He embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert itsown identity in its formative period.4.In modern times he is sometimes dismissed as having no senseof evil, and his optimistic philosophy as so much Transcendentalist folly.Henry Davis Thoreau(1817---1862)His major works:★Walden★Civil DisobedienceChapter 6Walt Whitman (1819-1892)Evaluation•One of the great innovators in American literature.•An author during the transition between Transcendentalism and Realism.•His masterpiece is Leaves of Grass (1855), which he spent his entire life writing.Major works1. Leaves of Grass the most influential volume of poems in the history of American literatureSong of Myself An epic poem published in Leaves of Grass using an all-powerful first person narrationEmily Dickinson 1830-1886Style•As part of Dickinson seeking essence or the heart of things,she eliminated inessential language and punctuation from her poems. She leaves out helping verbs and connecting words;she drops endings from verbs and nouns.•It is not always clear what Dickinson’s pronouns refer to;sometimes a pronoun refers to a word which does not appear in the poem. At her best, she achieves breathtaking effects by compressing language•Dickinson’s disregard for the rules of grammar and sentence structure is one reason twentieth century critics found her so appealing; her use of language anticipates the way modern poets used language.•The downside of her language is that the compression may be so drastic that the poem is incomprehensible; it becomes a riddle or intellectual puzzle.•Readers are still saying "What?" in response to some of her poems.Chapter 7Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)1. Literary Position⏹1. father of modern short story⏹2. father of detective story⏹3. father of psychoanalytic criticism3. Works⏹Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque《奇异怪诞故事集》⏹MS. Found in a Bottle《瓶子里发现的手稿》⏹The Murders in the Rue Morgue《毛格街杀人案》⏹The Fall of the House of Usher《厄舍古屋的倒塌》⏹The Masque of the Red Death《红色死亡的化妆舞会》⏹The Cask of Amontillado《一桶酒的故事》⏹The Raven《乌鸦》⏹Israfel《伊斯拉菲尔》⏹Annabel Lee《安娜贝尔•李》⏹To Helen《致海伦》⏹The Poetic Principle《诗歌原理》⏹The Philosophy of Composition《创作哲学》5. His Reputation:French imagists: Baudelaire (1821-1867), Mallarme (1822-1898), and Valery (1871-1945) used Poe as the model for their symbolist school.He is admired for his poetic vocabulary (pure poetry), his themes and his view that underneath human nature is cruel and irrational (ahead of his time)As a tragic young aristocrat who had been betrayed by American societyMajor European writers such as Swinburne (1837-1909), Bernard Shaw (1856-1926) and Dostoevsky (1821-1881) all appreciated Poe’s achievements.It was not until the 20th century when Americans started to learn from the French that Poe became popular in Europe. Chapter 8American Realism1.William Dean HowellsHis Works:☐The Rise of Silas Lapham☐ A Chance Acquaintance☐ A Modern Instance2.Henry JamesHis Works:Literary Career : Three Stages1. 1865~1882: international theme☐The American (1877)☐The Europeans (1878)☐Daisy Miller (1878)☐The Portrait of a Lady (1881)The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880–1881 and then asa book in 1881. It is one of James' most popular long novels,and is regarded by critics as one of his finest.☐Washington Square (1881)2.1882~1895: Novels in the naturalistic mode:The Bostonians, 1886 波士顿人Turning to three dominant subjects:☐The Figure in the Carpet, 1896 地毯上的图案☐What Mazie Knew, 1897 梅瑟所知道的☐The Turn of the Screw, 1898 螺丝在拧紧☐The Beast in the Jungle, 1903 丛林猛兽3.1895~1900: Returning to international themesNovels complex and profound☐The Wings of the Dove, 1902 鸽翼☐The Ambassadors, 1903 奉使记☐The Golden Bowl, 1904 镀金碗Stylist: Henry Jamesnguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurate.2.V ocabulary: large.3.Construction: complicated, intricateJames’ place in American Literature☐Bridging the 19th and 20th c.☐Connecting America and Europe.☐A pioneer in psychological realism☐A “master craftsman”☐Criticized by some because of his focus on the elite (James deals largely with the moral and social problems of middle- and upper-class society. )☐Along with the increasing complexity of his style, his hypersensitive narrators, or protagonists, having alienated James from the common reader, as James himself realized.Mark Twain (1835-1910)Major works1.“Personalized fiction”1.The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day (1873)This novel is about thepost-Civil War boom years in the south called Reconstruction. It satirizes the greed and selfishness in the speculative exploitation of public resources during the administration of Grant.☐The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) a novel set in the South before the Civil War that criticizes racism and the disastrous effects of slavery on the victimizer and the victim alike. It reveals to us a Mark Twain whose conscience as a white southerner was tormented by fear and remorse.☐The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)A classic book written for boys about their particular horrors and joys☐The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)2. Travel fiction:☐The Innocents Abroad (or The New Pilgrim’s Progress)(1869) 《傻子国外旅行记》This is the fictionalized account of Mark Twain’s steamboat tour to Europe and Israel. The pilgrims are real people that Mark Twain knew.☐Roughing It (1873) 《艰难生涯》recounts his early adventures as a miner and journalist in a jocular, often scoffing way/ a “nonfiction novel,”: a novel that employs the conventions of fiction to tell a true story / New journalism新新闻体：以报导者主观的反应为特点的新闻学,常含有虚构成分2. Travel fiction:☐Life on the Mississippi (1883) （密西西比河上的生活）combines an autobiographical account of his experiences as a river pilot with a visit to the Mississippi nearly two decades after he left it;3. Historical RomanceThe Prince and the Pauper (1882)（王子与贫儿）, a children's book, focuses on switched identities in Tudor England(1485-1603). It is a carefully structured historical romance with many humorous situations☐A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur‘s Court（在亚瑟王朝廷中的康涅狄格州美国人）(1889)satirizes oppression, cruelty,aristocracy and feudalism in Arthurian England(6th century). It isa parable of colonialization. A representative of moderntechnology and ideas came to a historically backward feudal society and offered to develop the Arthurian world and rid it of superstition, however, he destroyed rather than modernized it.4. Tall tales⏹The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865)《卡拉维拉斯县驰名的跳蛙》 a tale filled with the kind of exaggeration and comedy that characterize the frontier life.Twain's first book in 1867 /collects 27 stories that were previously published in magazines and newspapers.⏹The title story first appeared in print in 1865 / "The NotoriousJumping Frog of Calaveras County" / "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog."⏹The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900) 《败坏了哈德莱堡的人》is an ingeniously plotted parable of a town proud of its reputation for honesty with the motto “Lead Us Not Into Temptation.” However, the citizens surrender to a stranger’s temptation of gold, and in the end Hadleyburg changes to a new name and revises its motto to “Lead Us Into Temptation.”In the novel, his obsessive vision of humanity as greedy, oafish, hypocritical, cruel and predatory was wholly apparent.5. Anti-imperialist:The essay “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” (1901)is a response to the Boxer rebellion in China. It is a scathing political attack against imperialismFeatures / Contributions☐As a literary artist:⏹He made colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literarymedium in the literary history of the country. His success in creating this plain but evocative language precipitated the end of American reverence for British and European culture.⏹He is justly renowned as a humorist of his time but successivegenerations of writers, however, recognized the role that Twain played in creating a truly American literature.⏹Twain's work was inspired by the unconventional West and thepopularity of his work marked the end of the domination of American Literature by New England writers.⏹His adherence to American themes, settings, and language sethim apart from many other novelists of the day and had a powerful effect on such later American writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, both of whom pointed to Twain as an inspiration for their own writing.Chapter NineAmerican Naturalism1.Stephen Crane (1871 –1900)Short stories:The Open Boat《海上扁舟》H. G. Wells holds it beyond all question, the crown of all his work.The Blue Hotel《蓝色旅馆》Poems:The Black Riders and Other Lines《黑衣骑士及其他》War is Kind《战争是仁慈的》Fictions:Stephen Crane's fiction is typically categorized as representative of Naturalism, Realism, Impressionism or a mixture of the three.•Maggie: A Girl of the Streetsthe first naturalistic; Critics would later call the novel "the first dark flower of American Naturalism" for its distinctive elements of naturalistic fiction•The Red Badge of Courage•his masterpiece•one of the finest books of American literature;Significant Style•Crane's works reflect many of the major artistic concerns at the end of the nineteenth century, especially naturalism,impressionism, and symbolism.•His works insist that people live in a universe of vast and indifferent natural forces, not in a world of divine providence or a certain moral order. "A Man Said to the Universe" is useful in identifying this aspect of Crane.Many readers (including Hamlin Garland and Joseph Conrad, who were personal friends of Crane) have used the term impressionist to describe Crane's vivid renderings of moments of visual beauty and uncertainty.•Crane's vivid and explosive prose styles distinguish his works from those by many other writers who are labeled naturalists. Writing features1.Syntax is direct and simplees symbols3.careful in choosing narrative point of view4.vivid color, animal imagery, stereotyped characters, colloquialEnglish, and simple and straightforward narration.Frank Norris(1870-1902)Works of Frank NorrisTheme:Depictions of suffering caused by corrupt and greedy turn-of-the-century corporate monopolies✓Mc Teague (1899) 《麦克提格》His trilogy on the production, distribution and consumption of wheat:The Octopus (1901) 《章鱼》His most glaring metaphor is that of the tentacles of the railway tracks spreadingand choking the countryside in the appropriately titledbook The Octopus.It is based on an actual clash in 1880 between farmers in the San Joaquin Valley(圣华金河) and the SouthPacific railroad. The land is assigned to the railroadcompany, and then rented to the farmers. But therailroad raises the price of the land. After that the freightrate is also raised so much that the farmers are ruinedaltogether. All of the farmers are crushed under thewheels of the railroad. Some of them die, others go mad.The pit 《深渊》The Wolf (Never Written)✓The Responsibilities of the Novelist (1903)《小说家的责任》Theodore Dreiser 西奥多·德莱塞(1871-1945)Dreiser’s Major Works1) Sister Carrie«嘉莉妹妹»2) Jennie Gerhardt «珍妮姑娘»3) The Trilogy of Desire«欲望三步曲»(1) The Financier«金融家»(2) The Titan«巨人»(3) The Stoic«斯尔葛»4) The Genius «天才»an autobiographical work5) An American Tragedy «美国悲剧»(it was banned in Boston in 1927)6)The Bulwark《堡垒》Dreiser’s Style•Without good construction•deficient characterization•lack in imagination•Simple words•Journalistic method of reiteration重复新闻手法•Techniques in painting (word-picture, sharp contrast, truth in color, movement in outline)Evaluation•He faced every form of attack that a serious artist could encounter misunderstanding, misrepresentation, artistic isolation and commercial seduction. But he survived to lead the rebellion of the 1900s.•Dreiser has been a controversial figure in American literary history.•His works are powerful in their portrayal of the changing American life, but his style is considered crude.•It is in Dreiser’s works that American naturalism is said to have come of age.•Dreiser’s novels are formless at times and awkwardly written, and his characterization is found deficient and his prose pedestrian and dull, yet his very energy proves to be more thana compensation.•Dreiser’s stories are always solid and intensely interesting with their simple but highly moving characters. Dreiser is good at employing the journalistic method of reiteration to burn a central impression into the reader’s mind.For a commemorative service in 1947, H. L. Mencken wrote a eulogy in which he stuck by the argument that he had been making for over thirty-five years: despite Dreiser's flaws as a stylist, "the fact remains that he is a great artist, and that no other American of his generation left so wide and handsome a mark upon the national letters•American writing, before and after his time, differed almost as much as biology before and after Darwin. He was a man oflarge originality, of profound feeling, and of unshakable courage. All of us who write are better off because he lived, worked, and hoped."•Here lies the power and permanence that have made Dreiser one of America’s foremost novelists.Jack London(1876-1916)Works•London's most famous novels:The Call of the Wild 《野性的呼唤》White Fang 《白牙》The Sea-Wolf 《海狼》The Iron Heel 《铁蹄》Martin Eden 《马丁·伊甸》•Love of Life One of his most famous short fiction。
