A Brief Survey of American Literature I. Colonial Period ( ) II. Enlightenment and Revolution Period (1765- end of 18 th century) III. Romantic Period ( ) IV. Realistic Period ( ) V. Modern Period ( ) VI. Contemporary American Literature ( )

I. Colonial Period ( ) Background: Puritanism  features of Puritanism Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred. Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation. Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.  Influence A group of good qualities – hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.

Types of Writing 1 、清教徒采用的文学体裁： A 、 narratives 日记 B 、 journals 游记 2 、清教徒的写作内容： ① their voyage to the new land ② adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops ③ about dealing with Indians ④ endless bounty, bold spirit

II. Enlightenment and Revolution Period (1765- end of 18 th century) Background: The war for Independence ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republic – the United States of America. Type of Writing Prose (of Reasoning) ， political writings and orations

Important Writers Benjamin Franklin （ ） one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath. As an author he had power of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor, sarcastic Works: Poor Richard’s Almanac Autobiography

Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Independence Thomas Paine Common Sense William Hill Brown The Power of Sympathy Philip Freneau --“Father of American Poetry” The Wild Honey Suckle

III. Romantic Period ( ) Background: Independence of British government Array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe Romanticism ： 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. Transcendentalism: as a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematized. It exalted feeling over reason, individual expression over the restraints of law and custom.

III. Romantic Period ( ) Background The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature. Nationalism stimulated a greater literary interest in America’s language. In 1828 Noah Webster published “An American Dictionary of the English Language”. American character types speaking local dialects appeared in poetry and fiction with increasing frequency.

III. Romantic Period ( ) Literary forms ： Novels, short stories, and poems replaced sermons and manifestos as America’s principal literary forms.

Important Writers Washington Irving ( ) --the first great prose stylist of American romanticism. Sketch Book:the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Rip Van Winkle

James Fenimore Cooper ( ) -- launched two kinds of immensely popular stories → the sea adventure tale and the frontier saga The Leatherstocking Tales regard as “the nearest approach yet to an American epic.” Its central figure in the novels, Natty Bumppo

Edgar Allan Poe （ ） -- editor, poet, literary critic ， often used grotesque or fantastic events. Poetry: The Raven Horror Fiction: The Fall of the House of Usher Whodunit: Murders in the Rue Morgue

Ralph Waldo Emersion ( ) -- best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century -- believed above all in individualism, independence of mind, and self-reliance Nature Self-Reliance 打破神学统治，强调人 在宇宙万物中的地位， 对确立民主思想和发展 民族文化起了极大作用。

Henry David Thoreau 梭罗 Walden Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Herman Melville Moby Dick Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom‘s Cabin

IV. Realistic Period ( ) Background ① Mechanization ② Urbanization ③ Industrialization Local Color Literature

IV. Realistic Period ( ) Background 美国现实主义文学的代表作家：豪威尔斯 (William Dean Howells), 马克. 吐温 (Mark Twain) 和詹姆斯 (Henry James).

William Dean Howells ( ) American realist author and literary critic. “Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.” ----Criticism and Fiction

Mark Twain ( ) Samuel Langhorne Clemens, well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which has been called “the Great American Novel”, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).

Henry James ( ) American-born writer, gifted with talents in literature, psychology, and philosophy. Novel of manners

Naturalism Stephen Crane:The Red Badge of Courage, Frank Norris: McTeague ) Jack London): The Call of the Wild

现实主义和自然主义文学运动中成就最大的是德 莱塞 (Theodore Dreiser, ) 。他出身贫 苦, 自幼过着颠沛流离的艰难生活, 饱尝失业和贫 穷的痛苦, 对下层人民有深刻的了解和深厚的同 情。 其作品《嘉莉妹妹》 (Sister Carrie) 由于描写乡 村姑娘为生活所迫而沦落但最后成为名演员的故 事被指责为伤风败俗, 曾一度遭到禁止。然而, 德 莱塞并未退却, 又以同样的主题写了《珍妮姑娘》 (Jennie Gerhardt) 。 代表作《美国的悲剧》 (An American Tragedy) 被评论界称颂为 “ 美国最伟大的小说 ”, 以感人的故 事深刻阐明主人公克莱德是美国社会制度的受害 者, 他的堕落应由社会负责。

V. Modern Period ( ) Background: 这时期作家们一心寻求能够反映社会分崩 离析和道德沦丧的手法技巧, 不完整的片断 和不连贯性成为作品形式上的主要的特点。 故事往往在突厄中开始, 发展进程没有一定 的逻辑或说明, 结尾也不提供解决问题的方 式。叙述角度，声音，语气也不断变换。 描述方面最大的变化是从外部世界转向内 心, 从客观转向主观。

Literary Figures and Works Modernism started from Poetry. Three types of poets: 1. Vachel Lindsay 2. Ezra Pound 3. Robert Frost, Edward Arlington Robinson