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American American LiteratureLiterature
IntroductionIntroduction
Historical Background
1.Early history:1) In 1542, Christopher Columbus found
the new continent called America.2) In 1607, Captain John Smith led some
Englishmen across the ocean.3) In 1620, 102 passengers sailed on the
ship Mayflower across the sea and settled on the new continent “New England”.
What do you know about American early history?
Historical Background
2. People:
native inhabitants: Indians
Immigrants mostly from Europe: Spanish; Dutch; French
English immigrants, Jamestown, Virginia, 1607
Puritansa group of religious people
advocated religious &moral principles
Historical Background
3. Belief---Puritanism Puritans wanted to “purify the church” to
its original state, because they thought the church was corrupted and had too many rituals
a code of values a philosophy of life a point of view
Calvinists
took roots in the New World
Doctrines of Puritans
taking religion as the most important thing;
living for glorifying God; believing predestination, original sin, total
depravi, & limited atonement
American Puritanism
Features of American Puritan
idealist dreamthey would build the new land to an Eden on earth.more practical,
tougher
the severe conditionsstruggle for survivalpreoccupied with business and profits
American Puritanism
Enduring shaping influence on literature
①Basis of American literature
went into the
making of American literature
dreamed 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
All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.
American Puritanism
②Contributing to the development of Symbolism: a technique, widely used
Puritans thought that all the simple objects existing in the
world connoted deep meaning.
Symbolism means using symbols in literary works. The symbol means something that represents or stands for abstract deep meaning.
American Puritanism
③Influencing the style of literature: simple, fresh and direct (just as the style of the Authorized Version of Holy Bible)
Without understanding of Puritanism, there can be no good understanding of American culture and literature.
Brief Outline of American Literature
1. Colonial period and Revolutionary period
2.Romanticism3.The age of Realism
4. The Modern period
5. After the WWII
Time:
1607
the Independence War
the settlement of North America
1783
Major topic: American Puritanism
Colonial period and Revolutionary period
Colonial period and Revolutionary period
Benjamin Franklin
Jonathan Edwards
Romanticism
Time:
1783
the Civil War
the Independence War
1861American ideal of democracy & equality, industrialization, westward expansion, foreign influences
literary expansion & expression
possible & inevitable
Romanticism (1783-1861)
Washington Irving
James Fenimore Cooper
Summit of Romanticism-Transcendentalism (American
Renaissance)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry DavidThoreau
Late Romanticism
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Herman Melville
not optimistic
Romantic Poets
Walt Whitman
Emily Dickinson
Romanticism
Edgar Allen Poe
the most controversial & the most misunderstood
The age of RealismThe age of RealismTime:
1861
the First World War
the Civil War
1914
concern for the common-place
offer an objective view
The Age of Realism (1861-1914)
Mark TwainHenry James
Naturalism
Stephen Crane Theodore Dreiser
Conclusion
Early Romanticism
The age of Realism
Colonial period and Revolutionary period
Irving Franklin Cooper Emerson Hawthorne Poe Whitman Dickenson Twain James Dreiser Melville Thoreau
Transcendentalism
Late Romanticism
poets