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