American Romanticism 1800 - 1860 Introduction of American Romanticism Washington Irving Edgar Allan Poe Ralph Waldo Emerson Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville

Romanticism Romanticism was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense. They stressed the close relationship between man and nature, emphasized individualism and affirmed the inner life of the self. They cherished strong interest in the past, especially the medieval and were attracted by the wild, the irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious, and the strange. Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s: Imagination Intuition Idealism Inspiration Individuality

The Time Range of Romantic American Literature 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.

The social historical and cultural background Economic boom: Industrialism Immigration Westward expansion optimism and hope among people Ideals: Democracy and political equality became the ideals of the new nation.

Common Features of American Romanticism American Romanticism was both imitative and independent. Imitative They put emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature, which included a liking for the picturesque, the exotic, the sensuous, the sensational, and the supernatural. The Americans also placed an increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions and disp1ayed an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters. Heroes and heroines exhibited extremes of sensitivity and excitement. English and European Romanticists

(3) The strong tendency to exalt the individual and the common man was almost a national religion in America. (4) The literary use of the more colorfu1 aspects of the past was also to be found in Irving's effort to exploit the legends of the Hudson River region, and in Cooper's long series of historical tales. (5) In short, American Romanticism is, in a certain way, derivative.

Pre-romanticism 1770-1830s During this period some American writers did begin to attract notice abroad. Although English literary models were still admired and followed, the American writers turned to the American scene and civilization, and found their materials in the culture and history, the lore and landscape of their native land. Irving, Cooper, and Bryant made for themselves the first great names in American literature. All were praised not only in their own country but abroad as well. All have left work that is enjoyable reading today.

Washington Irving (1783--1859) Washington Irving was one of the first American writers to earn an international reputation “Father of American Imaginative literature” “Father of the American short story”

Works A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty by Diedrich Knickerbocker 《纽约外史》

《见闻札记》 The Sketch Book “Rip Van Winkle” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《睡谷的传说》 《瑞普·凡·温克尔》

e) Life of George Washington 1855-1859 c) Bracebridge Hall 1822 d) Oliver Goldsmith 1840 e) Life of George Washington 1855-1859 《布雷斯布里奇庄园》 《哥尔德斯密斯》 《华盛顿传》

Evaluation Washington Irving was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. The short story as a genre in American literature began with Irving’s The Sketch Book. The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American Romanticism

Rip Van Winkle Rip Van Winkle is a national fantasy of an escape from responsibility, a portrait of an overgrown child who sleeps through the period of adult maturity.

Rip Van Winkle is an idle, ambitionless, and inaggressive mortal Rip Van Winkle is an idle, ambitionless, and inaggressive mortal. He is a comic burlesque of traditional American values created by Irving. Being a victim of his wife’s nagging at home, he seeks refuge in the mountains where he meets several mountain spirits ant tastes the liquor left by them out of curiosity. Overwhelmed by the magic power of the drink, Rip falls into a twenty-year sleep. When he wakes up, every thing has undergone a tremendous change. Every thing is strange to him. The village is larger and more populous and young people in the village don’t recognize him. His own house which Dame Van Winkle has always kept in neat order, is now empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned. The portrait of King George on the pole before the village inn has been replaced by the flag of stars and stripes. In places where he used to enjoy peace and ease there is now quarrel and disputes over parties and he is even suspected as a spy. Finally he is recognized by his daughter and taken home. He spends his late years telling his stories to whoever might care to listen to him.

Franklin and Irving ideas show something in common, also quite different. Similarity: individualism: the whole social system is built upon individualism (quite different from Chinese collectivism) Difference: Franklin’s individualism: pragmatic----material interests----How to attain a better, richer life through individual effort----the whole society will become prosperous----influenced by Puritanism----through industrial work----live better Irving’s individualism: romantic----What kind of life to live is chosen by individual self. Nobody can interfere with other’s living----close to nature, live a natural life, more spiritual (your own spirit) Great clash between these ideas. Pragmatic wins the upper hand at that time. The trend of the society is the pragmatic individualism. Irving’s idea is against the mainstream of society. How to solve the problem? ----by sleeping

Theme of the story 1)Superficially, the conflict between husband and wife was presented in the story. In fact, the writer tries to express his idea: the conflict between different ideas of value. wife: follower of Franklin husband: romantic point of view

2) retain his identity search for one’s identity寻求自我 remain faithful to yourself (universal meaning) The old generation usually are conservative during a great change, cannot adapt themselves to the changes, nostalgic The old system seems to be an ideal one. He knew where he was even though he led a poor life. After Independence (King of George---George Washington) a State of democracy is a state of disorder in Rip’s eye (passive romantic school)

3). Nostalgic It is a story of man who has difficulties facing his advancing age Escapism is the dominant feature of Rip’s character. The image of Rip is the product of Irving’s philosophical contemplation over the past history of America He describes the impact and pressure an individual has borne in the difficult pioneering years as well as the psychological setback and response an individual has experienced in a drastically developing world. On one hand, Rip doesn’t want to undertake the responsibility pressed by the cruel reality. On the other hand, he is contented with the existing state of affairs, and even somewhat disgusted with the newly emerging things. Rip’s perplexity reflects the pained heart of the early pioneers in their fight against the hard surroundings and their self. 4) the contradictory impulses in America toward work—the puritan attitude as opposed to the American desire for leisure

The artistic features: "Rip Van Winkle" is not only well-known for Rip's 20-year sleep but also considered a model of perfect English in American Literature and in the English language as well. Washington Irving has always been regarded as a writer who "perfected the best classic style that American Literature ever produced." He has a clear, easy style. 　　(a) There is musicality in almost every line of his prose. 　　(b) He uses genial humor to exaggerate the seriousness of situation. He uses dignified words to produce a half-mocking effect. 　　(c) The Gothic elements and the supernatural atmosphere are manipulated.( Rip Van Winkle was overwhelmed by the magic power of the drink and fell into sleep for 20 years.) 　(d) Irving associates a certain place with the inward movement of a person and to charge his sentences with emotion so as to create a true and vivid character. He is worth the honor of being "the American Goldsmith" for his literary craftsmanship.

Unit 1 Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1706] – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat. As a scientist he was a major figure in the Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and a musical instrument. He formed both the first public lending library in America and first fire department in Pennsylvania. He was an early proponent of colonial unity and as a political writer and activist he, more than anyone, invented the idea of an American nation[1] and as a diplomat during the American Revolution, he secured the French alliance that helped to make independence possible. Franklin's colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, has seen Franklin honored on coinage and money; warships; the names of many towns, counties, educational institutions, namesakes, and companies; and more than two centuries after his death, countless cultural references.

Unit 2 Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849 Famous American Poet, short-story writer and critic. father of modern short story father of detective story father of psychoanalytic criticism Therefore, he is Known for: Tales of mystery and terror stories Introducing the modern detective story

Works Short Stories 《奇异怪诞故事集》 《瓶子里发现的手稿》 《毛格街杀人案》 Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque “MS. Found in a Bottle” C) “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” 《瓶子里发现的手稿》 《毛格街杀人案》

“The Fall of the House of Usher” “The Masque of the Red Death” “The Cask of Amontillado” 《厄舍古屋的倒塌》 《红色死亡的化妆舞会》 《一桶酒的故事》

Poems: The Raven Israfel Annabel Lee To Helen 《乌鸦》 《伊斯拉菲尔》 《安娜贝尔•李》 《致海伦》

Features of his works Allusion Mystery Suspense Gothic Elements Supernatural horrors and an atmosphere of unknown terror pervades the action High emotion, sentimentalism, but also pronounced anger, surprise, and especially terror Use of words indicating fear, mystery, etc.: apparition, devil, ghost, haunted, terror, fright, fainting

Symbol Something that is itself and yet also represents something else Universal symbols embodying universally recognizable meanings Invested symbols given symbolic meaning by the way an author uses them in a literary work

Evaluation Poe remained the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature. Emerson dismissed him in three words “the jingle man” ，Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable. And Whitman was the only famous literary figure present at the Poe Memorial Ceremony in 1875.

Ironically, it was in Europe that Poe enjoyed respect and welcome. Bernard Shaw said: “Poe was ‘the greatest journalistic critic of his time; his poetry is exquisitely refined; and his tales are “complete works of art”. Poe’s reputation was first made in France. Charles Baudelaire said that “Edgar Poe, who isn’t much in America, must become a great man in France.” Today, Poe’s particular power has ensured his position among the greatest writers of the world. The majority of critics today, in America as well as in the world, have recognized the real, unique importance of Poe as a great writer of fiction, a poet of the first rank, and a critic of acumen and insight. His works are read the world over. His influence in world-wide in modern literature.

New England Transcendentalism New England Transcendentalism is the mot clearly defined Romantic literary movement in this period. It was started in the area around Concord, Mass. by a group of intellectual and the literary men of the United States such as Emerson, Henry David Thoreau who were members of an informal club, i. e. the Transcendental Club in New England in the l830s. The transcendentalists reacted against the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism in Boston. They adhered to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation , the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.

The writings of the transcendentalists prepared the ground of their contemporaries such as Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The main issues involved in the debate were generally philosophical, concerning nature, man and the universe. Basically, Transcendentalism has been defined philosophical1y as "the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses." Emerson once proclaimed in a speech, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant.

What is transcendentalism? A philosophical movement that sought to have individuals “transcend” to a higher spiritual level To achieve this goal, the individual had to seek spiritual, not material, greatness and essential truths of life through intuition The focus in on the human spirit A philosophy that is interested in the natural world and its relationship to humanity

There is a need to explore nature thoroughly, by doing this man can come to know himself As a result of exploration, man discovers that the human spirit is reflected in nature. A philosophy that seeks a life in harmony with nature A philosophy that feels that nature is symbolic of the inner man (nature/man are the same) A philosophy that rebels against the material world and organized religion Belief that all people can access god (spirituality) through themselves.

Ideas become more important than things A philosophy that believes in individualism A philosophy that feels that imitation is suicide A philosophy that believes that All people, animals, things are connected and share the same soul. Called the Over Soul.

American Transcendentalism Began by Emerson and Thoreau as a literary movement. Basic belief: “By meditating, by communing with nature through art, man transcends his senses and finds beauty, goodness, and truth” While Transcendentalism never spread more than 50 miles from Boston. It is said to be inspirations for the following: Walt Whitman and Robert Frost Civil Rights Movement of the 20th Century.

Unit 3 Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882 Unitarian minister Poet and essayist Founded the Transcendental Club Popular lecturer Banned from Harvard for 40 years following his Divinity School address Supporter of abolitionism

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1st American Philosopher Most influential writer of the 19th century Americanism comes from him Founder of Transcendentalism Against Deism Wrote “Self Reliance”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Nature (1836) 《论自然 》 The American Scholar (1837) 《美国学者》 Divinity School Address (1838) 《神学院演说》 Self-Reliance《论自立》 Essays: First Series (1841) Essays: Second Series (1844)

Nature Emerson’s first published work was Nature (1836), which contains the gist of his transcendental attitude towards the phenomenal world, as a kind of beautiful symbol of the inner spiritual life, floating dreamlike before the eye, yet, it is to be noted, having discipline as one of its lessons for the attentive soul. As soon as it was published, it met with a mild reception. This work has the clearest statement of Transcendentalist ideas. In it Emerson stated that man should not see nature merely as something to be used; that man’s relationship with nature transcends the idea of usefulness. Nature is a kind of discipline to man. Once you are in nature, totally in solitude, you feel you’re nothing, but you see all. Nature makes people feel transparent and humble. Meanwhile, He saw an important difference between understanding (judging things only according to the senses) and reason.

Emerson and “The American Scholar” --- “America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence Address delivered to Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard, 1837. Emerson speaking to people who would go on to become important men in society: lawyers, judges, politicians. He has two goals: (1) to encourage Americans to stop modeling themselves after Europe, specifically in literature, and to develop a distinctive American literature—calls for a national bard (2) to reach their full potential as thinkers, scholars, individuals

Unit 6 Henry David Thoreau Schoolteacher, essayist, poet Most famous for Walden and Civil Disobedience Influenced environmental movement Supporter of abolitionism

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 《在康考德和梅里马克河上的一周》 Walden《瓦尔登湖》

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) From 1845 to 1847, Thoreau lived alone in a hut he built for himself on the north shore of Walden Pond, a few miles from Concord. While there, he wrote A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). The book is loosely organized around the story of a river trip which he had once taken with his brother. Most of the material was actually from his journal. One critic has called it “a heap of good things rather than a book”. Its various discussions include a catalog of fish on the Concord River, the poetry of Homer, fights with Indians and the Transcendentalist meaning of sounds. For many readers, the book is a collection of remarkable essays that lack cohesion and relatedness.

Walden (1854) In 1854, Thoreau published the book by which he will always be best known, Walden, or Life in the Woods. It is by far the deepest, richest, and most closely jointed of his books. It shows Thoreau at his best, and contains all that he had to say to the world. In fact, he is a man of one book, and that book is Walden. Thoreau's Walden is mythic, poetic, fictitious, fabulous, and metaphoric in the best senses of these terms. In it the artistically recreated real-life experience (itself an experiment in "artistic" living) becomes a symbolic model or paradigm for an embodied spiritual quest for the disembodied, for a journey from the "gross" to the divine "necessaries of life." The thesis of Walden is clearly indicated in the first chapter of the book. True economy has nothing to do with the ways and means of increasing wealth, with methods for multiplying the superfluities, the "gross necessaries of life." True economy is that which simply provides the flesh with what belongs to the flesh so that the spirit may go about its own business.

Walden (1854) The problem for Thoreau is that people don't seem to know this. People seem to believe that the "gross necessaries of life" represent all that there is to their humanity. This, as Thoreau sees it, is a social fiction which the people of everyday reality take to be a God-given truth. Thoreau's strategy in Walden is to expose this social fiction for what it really is, namely, a false fiction, a fiction that represents the triumph of the flesh over the spirit. The atmosphere of Walden is always serene and free from cloud or storm. Rain and winter come in their season; but they never seem to touch him; the rain does not wet, and the winter does not chill. There may be a thousand nooks in New England more beautiful than Walden, but they remain unknown, while the pine-clad slope which this strange being discovered and haunted for two years is charted as a permanent addition to the worldwide map of Romance.

Unit 5 Nathaniel Hawthorne

Collections of short stories Works Collections of short stories 《故事重述》 Twice-Told Tales 1837 Mosses from an Old Manse 1843 The Scarlet Letter 1850 《古宅青苔》 《红字》

The House of the Seven Gables 1851 The Blithedale Romance 1852 The Marble Faun 1860 《七个尖角阁的房子》 《福谷传奇》 《大理石雕像》

“The Minister’s Black Veil” “Dr. Rappacini’s Daughter” “Young Goodman Brown” “The Minister’s Black Veil” “Dr. Rappacini’s Daughter” 《好小伙儿布朗》 《拉普齐尼博士的女儿》 《教长的黑面纱》

Major Themes in Hawthorne's Fiction Alienation - a character is in a state of isolation because of self-cause, or societal cause, or a combination of both. Initiation - involves the attempts of an alienated character to get rid of his isolated condition. Problem of Guilt -a character's sense of guilt forced by the puritanical heritage or by society; also guilt vs. innocence.

Pride - Hawthorne treats pride as evil Pride - Hawthorne treats pride as evil. He illustrates the following aspects of pride in various characters: physical pride (Robin), spiritual pride (Goodman Brown, Ethan Brand), and intellectual pride (Rappaccini). Puritan New England - used as a background and setting in many tales. Italian background - especially in The Marble Faun. Allegory - Hawthorne's writing is allegorical, didactic and moralistic.

Other themes include individual vs. society, self-fulfillment vs Other themes include individual vs. society, self-fulfillment vs. accommodation or frustration, hypocrisy vs. integrity, love vs. hate, exploitation vs. hurting, and fate vs. free will.

The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter represents the height of Hawthorne's literary genius; dense with terse descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.

Features of his works setting Puritan New England themes Evil & sin Idea Feature technique Puritan New England Evil & sin “black vision” toward human beings Ambiguity symbolism

The Scarlet Letter Hester Chillingworth Dimmesdale Sin Pearl evil Adultery Alone/Alienation Able Admirable Angel