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Unit Two
American Romanticism：from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War Reasons (Why Romanticism emerged?)
1.) Fast development of the new nation (flood of immigrants; pioneers pushing the frontier further west; industrialization; economic boom; a promising new land with prevailed盛行的optimistic moods)
2.)Development of jounalism (Some influential periodicals appeared, such as The Atlantic Monthly. They need more literary productions.)
3.)Foreign influence (Review history of English literature.)(from the 18th century classicism to sentimentalism伤感主义to Pre-Romanticism to Romanticism which can be divided into passive group and active group)(most influential British writers to American Romanticists----Walter Scott)
3. Features of American Romanticism
1) Imitative
2) Independent
3) peculiar American experience (landscape, pioneering to the West, Indian civilization,
new nation's democracy and dreams)
4)Puritan heritage (more moralizing, edifying教化more than mere entertainment)
(careful about love and sex. example: The Scarlet Letter)
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
. His poems are “word music.” Love, among is a recurring theme of his poetry, and his tone is often sad and melancholy.
His literary theories in poetry
To Poe, the most important purpose in poetry is the creation of beauty. The immediate object of poetry is pleasure, not truth.the poem should be short and readable at one sitting (a short period)
his short stories fall into two categories: those of mystery and horror; and those of ratiocination推理
The most fascinating aspect of Poe’s fiction is his deductive skill, he has been often regarded as the father of the modern short story he wrote about dying ladies, about sickness, about abnormal rather than normal love. His subjects and settings are either universal or exotic.
To Helen: becomes a symbol both of beauty and of frustration, a romantically idealized, yet inaccessible image of the heart’s desire.
Style : The language is concise with short sentences without much introduction of the background or characters so to approach the climax of the story soon. contrast and symbolism, puns which also help to make his story unique.
