英美文学导论 ( 第七讲 ) 主讲教师 : 林春 阳

The Literature of Romanticism

Ⅰ.Historical Background  In 1810 the population of the 17 th century totaled little more than 7,000,000. About 55 years later, at the beginning of the Civil War, the number of states had doubled.  Before 1860, the United States had begun to have change into an industrial and urban society.  Through the first half of the century the pursuits of simplicity, utility, and perfection remained an American characteristics.  By the 1850s the level of education and literacy had risen significantly.

Ⅱ.Literature  The attitudes of the America’s writers were shaped by their New World environments and an array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe.  Romantic values were prominent in American politics, art, and philosophy until the Civil War.  Literature ceased to be primarily didactic, a servant of politics and religion.  Romantic writers placed increasing value on the free expression of emotion and displayed increasing atten- -tion to the psychic states of their characters.  Nationalism stimulated a grater literary interest in the America’s language and its common people.  At the mid-century a cultural reawakening brought a “flowering of New England”.

Ⅲ.the main writers  Edgar Allan Poe (1809—1849)  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)  Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804—1864)  Herman Melville (1819—1891)  Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)

Edgar Allan Poe (1809—1849) HHe is novelist, poet and critic. HHis works 1. Poem collections (1) “Tamerlane and Other Poems” ( 帖木尔 )—first poem col- -lection (2) “Al Araaf” ( 艾尔阿拉夫 ) (3) “Poems” ( 诗集 ) (4) “The Raven and Other Poems” ( 乌鸦及其他诗篇 )—It is gaining the popularity of the society 2. Short novels He is good at the Gothic novels and detective novels. He is referred as the founder of the detective novels in the western. (1) “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque” ( 述异集 )

(2) “Tales” ( 故事集 ) (3) Famous novels: (a) “The Fall of the House of Usher” ( 厄舍古厦的倒塌 ) (b) “The Masque of the Red Death” ( 红色死亡的假面舞会 ) (c) “Ligeia” ( 莉盖亚 ) (d) “The Black Cat” ( 黑猫 ) (e) “The Cask of Amontillado” ( 阿芒提拉多的酒桶 ) (f) “Murders in the Rue Morgue” ( 莫格街谋杀案 ) (g) “The Purloined Letter” ( 被窃的信件 ) (h) “The Gold Bug” ( 金甲虫 ) 3. Literary theory He is strict with the purity art. (1) “The Philosophy of Composition” ( 创作哲学 ) (2) “The Poetic Principle” ( 诗歌原理 )

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)  He is good at prose and poem and responsible for bri- -nging Transcendentalism to New England.  His main works 1. “Nature”( 论自然 )—proclaiming the Transcendentalism 2. “The American Scholar” ( 论美国学者 )—declaring the Humanism psychology 3. “The Divinity School Address” ( 神学院致辞 ) 4. Collecting the most famous prose works (1) “Essays: First Series” ( 论文集 ) (2) “Essays: Second Series” ( 论文集 : 第二集 ) 5. “Representative Men” ( 人类代表 )—the biography of Shakespeare etc. and the comments to them

6. “English Traits” ( 英国特征 )—the experience of his two visit to Europe 7. “The Conduct of Life” ( 人生的行为 )—mature idea of Humanisms and limited in human 8. “Poems” ( 诗集 ) 9. “May-Day and Other Pieces” ( 五月节 )

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804—1864) HHe is the novelist. HHe began to write the novels from the forties before that he wrote the short novels. TThe brief of the life 1804 born in a colonial family 1809 his father died 1825 published “Fanshawe” in his own money 1838 married and working in the customer office 1842 arriving in Concord and writing the novels 1853 as a consular in Liverpool 1864 died while traveling with Pierce with four novels

 The main works 1. Short novels (1) “Fanshawe” ( 范肖 ) (2) “Twice-told Tales” ( 故事重述 ) (3) “Mosses from an Old Manse” ( 古宅青苔 ) 2. Novels (1) “The Scarlet Letter” ( 红字 )—made him famous (2) “The House of the Seven Gables” ( 带有七个尖角阁 房子 ) (3) “The Blithedale Romance” ( 福谷传奇 ) (4) “The Marble Faun”( 玉石雕像 ) 3. Some children’s readings.

Herman Melville (1819—1891)  He is the novelist and poet.  The brief of life 1819 born in a merchant family 1830 the death of his father 1834 left the school and made a living 1839 as a sailor 1866 working in the customer office  The main works The novels 1. “Typee” ( 泰比 ) 2. “Ommoo” ( 欧穆 )—as the travel diary to reporting the aboriginal people

3.The novels about the voyage life (1) “Mardi” ( 玛地 ) (2) “Redburn” ( 雷得本 ) (3) “Moby Dick” ( 白鲸 ) (4) “White Jacket” ( 白衣人 ) (5) “The Confidence Man” ( 骗子的化装表演 ) (6) “Billy Budd” ( 毕利伯德 )—the last novel The poems 1. “Battle Pieces” ( 战事集 )—the first poem collections be about the civil war 2. “Clarel” ( 克拉瑞尔 )—long poem 3. “John Marr and Other Sailors” ( 约翰玛尔和其他水手 ) 4. “Timoleon” ( 梯摩里昂 )

Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862) HHe is the philosophy, prose and poet. HHe is Emerson’s truest disciple about Transcendentalism. TTwo representative things about Transcendentalism: 1. Two-year residence at Walden Pond—live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life 2. Be arrest for failure to pay a trifling sum in taxes and spent a night in Concord jail. HHe had refused the payment deliberately because his dis- -approved of slavery and of the government’s conduct of the Mexican. SSo he wrote “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” ( 论公民 的不服从 ) He stated that no man should violate his cons- -cience at the command of a government.

19 th -century American Poets  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  Walt Whitman  Emily Dickinson

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807—1882)  He translated the European poems and influenced the American Romanticism poems.  The brief of life 1807 born in a lawyer family 1822 studied in Cambridge 1836 as the professor of modern language in Harvard 1855 resigned the professor  The main works 1. “Voices of the Night” ( 夜吟 ) 2. “Ballads and Other Poems” ( 歌谣及其他 ) 3. “Evangeline” ( 伊凡杰林 ) 4. “The Song of Hiawatha” ( 海伊华沙之歌 ) 5. “A Psalm of Life” ( 生命颂 )—the complete to China

Walt Whitman(1819—1892)  He is the greatest modern poet who is making strong impact to America.  Although he lived in the 19 th century, his democratic thoughts and free verse are all beyond the limit of the age.  The brief of life 1819 born in a poor family 1823 removed to New York 1839 as the journalist 1848 a travel made him want to describe American 1855 publish the first poem collection including 12 long poems without name  The main works “Leaves of Grass” ( 草叶集 )—revised the ninth

Emily Dickinson(1830—1886)  As the same as Whitman, Dickinson’s poems are beyond the age.  She wrote 1775 poems but small of these publish- -ed during her life time.  She began to write the poems from  Her poems was influenced by Emerson’s poem.  Her poems foreheads the birth of the 20 th century poem.