American literature

AMERICAN LITERATURE

Early fiction

Transcendentalists

Power of imagination

features of three periods

Past-revolutionary period: no historyPast-revolutionary period: no history

Expending westward: the influence of early Expending westward: the influence of early Puritan teachings remain strongPuritan teachings remain strong

England intellectuals presenting perspectiveEngland intellectuals presenting perspectives of literature and life---imagination and emos of literature and life---imagination and emotiontion

Power of Imagination

Edgar Allan Poe

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Herman Melville

Edgar Allan Poe

He was publishing poems of musical language and extravagant imagery, which made him a worthy rival of the European Romantic poets.

He earned his living as a journalist ,often writing devastating reviews of other writers’ works.

Edgar Allan Poe

IN1835.he also began writing short stories, such as The Maspue of Red Death and The Fall of the House of Usher.

These tales plunged deep into human psychology,and explored the realm of science fiction and the mystery story long before such genres were recognized.

Edgar Allan Poe

Nathaniel Hawthorne

In1837,he published a volume called Twice-Told Tales:stories rich in symbolism and peculiar incidents.

His way of rebelling against the traditional New England outlook on life was to write imaginative”romances”,stories and novels.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Masterpiece—The Scarlet Letter.Set in the Puritan past, this novel is the stark drama of a woman harshly cast out from her community for committing the sin of adultery.

In this novel Hawthorne explored certain moral themes such as guilt pride and emotional repression.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Birthplace

Statue

The Scarlet Letter

Herman Melville

His wealthy father had gone bankrupt and he had worked at many jobs before singing on in 1839 for the first of several sea voyages.

Seven years later,he began writing accounts of his adventures on the open seas and in exotic ports,which won him instant success.Yet he longed to write something more serious.

Herman Melville

Inspired by Hawthorne’s example,he began writing novels on politics and religion.

The public rejected them and discouraged,he published little except poetry for the rest of his life.

Herman Melville

Ironically,the very books that proved unacceptable during his lifetime are the ones most admired today.

Moby Dick

Moby Dick is the name of a big white whale.In this book the author uses a story of a whaling voyage to explore profound themes such as fate,the nature of evil, and the individual’s struggle against the universe.

Moby Dick

Moby Dick

New Visions of America

Walt Whitman

Emerged in the 1850sAsserted a truly American voice Worked hard for a living

Celebrated the American landscape ,the American people ,their speech and the democratic form of government.

Walt Whitman

In 1848,took a trip to the southern city of New Orleans

Gained a new vision of America and began writing poetry.

At the mouth of the Mississippi River ,that great waterway flowing through the heart of the country .

Leaves of Grass Published in 1855 Free-flowing structure, long irregular lines Whitman ventured beyond traditional forms Dwelt on himself as a prototype of “The

American” Won admirers across America and Europe Song of Myself

Reform and liberation

By the 1850s the institution of slavery was practiced chiefly in the southern states of USA

In 1852 ,a New England woman Harriet Beecher Stowe( 哈里叶特 比彻 斯托） wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin,which was an antislavery novel .It portrayed black slaves and created the cruel slaveowners .

The novel led a debated political issue.The southern states determined to be independent in order to preserve the slavery and the Northern fought to preserve the Union ,which led to the Civil War (1861~1865)

Eventually the slavery was abolished in the USA

Uncle Tom’ cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel by American abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe who treats slavery as a central theme. The work was first published on March 20, 1852. The story focuses on the tale of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave, the central character around whose life the other characters—both fellow slaves and slave

owners—revolve. The novel dramatizes the harsh reality of slavery while also showing that Christian love and faith can overcome even something as evil as enslavement of fellow human beings.

Uncle Tom’s cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th

century (and the second best-selling book of the century after the Bible) and is credited with helping to fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold. The book's impact was

so great that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the American Civil War, some historians believe he said, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!"(写了一部书，酿成一

场大战的小妇人。)

Other editions of Uncle Tom’s cabin

Regionalism

The background The introduction of Mark Twain The introduction of 《The Adventures of H

uckleberry Finn》 The development of poetry

The background

Due to the bloody divisive,writers retreated from national theme

As the country had been growing

As pioneers settled new terriories in the west,the writers focused on the differences between the various regions

The most important leader-----William Dean Howells

The introduction of Mark Twain

He was born in 1835 and died in 1910 His old name was Samuel Clemens( 塞缪尔 . 朗荷恩 . 克莱

门斯 ).his pen name was Mark Twain. He grew up in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi

River and received only a basic public education .when he was a child ,he wanted to be a captain.After his father was died ,he had to make a living by himself.He began working in a printer’s shop

His writing style:used dialect,rich in metaphor,newly invented words and drawling rthyms

His famous books: 《在 密西西比河上》 and 《哈克贝里.芬历险记》(The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

简介它描写的是南北战争前的 一个黑奴吉姆，和一个白人孩子的故

事。黑奴吉姆听说女主人要卖掉他，便逃了出来，打算到北方去。逃亡的路上，吉姆遇到了白人小孩哈克，哈克为了逃避父亲的毒打而离家出走。两人乘着木筏，沿着密西西比河航行。途中，两人相依为命，克服了一系列的艰难，结成了深厚的友谊。

它刻画了哈克追求自由，渴望冒险的精神。这部小说开创了美国小说口语化的先河，对后来的作家产生了

巨大的影响。正如美国著名作家，诺贝尔获得者海明威所说的：全部现代美国文学起源于马克吐温的一本名叫《哈克贝里 . 芬历险记》的书……这是我们所有的书中最好的一本。

The development of poetry

While prose fiction in United States was developing in vital imaginative ways ,poetry seemed to recede as an art form.

The famous poets:poetic giant Whitman died in the 1880s and Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Her poetry mixed gaiety and gloom She was good at imagination and she was a

lso more than a little in love with death Writing style ； brief

Realistic movement

1. Setting

As the wounds of the civil war slowly healed, many Americans became discontented with the growing materialism of society in the United States.

2. Realistic Movement

Definition of naturalists Some naturalists and their writing

“regional writers”

Drop their narrow provincial focus

Still using realistic descriptions of everyday life

Concentrated increasingly upon the grimmer aspects of reality and a deterministic view of life

naturalists

linked with

European naturalists

3. The exploration of the fate of the individual

Henry James :The Wing of the Dove , The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl

Edith Wharton: The house of Mirth, The Age of Innocence

Naturalists and writings

William Dean Howells : The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885 ) who led the American realistic movement

Stephen Crane: Maggie, A girl of the Streets (1893)

Theodore Dreiser : Sister Carrie (1900) Stephen Crane: The Red Badge of Courage (1893) the first impressionistic novel Upton Sinclair: The Jungle (1906) Jack London : Call of the Wide (1903 )

Three brilliant novels

In the three brilliant novels Henry James plunged deep into the characters and personalities of his subjects.

His subjects were chiefly wealthy cultured Americans living in Europe but like the lower-class characters of the naturalists’ novels, James’ people were trapped in their environment, struggling to find happiness .

Writing style

Psychological rather than social Draw his readers close to his characters’

mental and emotional processes Increasingly complex , focused attention

away from action and setting and onto what the characters were feeling

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was one of James’ close friends and literary followers.

Her writings

The two were considered shocking because The two were considered shocking because

they described young urban women who fellthey described young urban women who fell

into sexual sin.into sexual sin.

Introduction of Sister Carrie Caroline Meeber, known as Carrie, leaves her home at age eighteen and takes the train to Chicago. On the train, she meets a man named Drouet. The man then pays the rent for her. Carrie knows the second important man in her life through Drouet. The man's name is Hurstwood, the manager of one of the top bars in the city. Hurstwood woos Carrie on the first day they meet, finally getting her to kiss him. He falls madly in love with her. They then start a kind of intimate relationship. When Hurstwood is almost out of money, Carrie is given a spot in the chorus line of a Broadway show. She leaves Hurstwood at last. Drouet moves to New York and tries to reestablish his relationship with Carrie, but she brushes him off. Hurstwood, in despair, commits suicide by gassing himself with methane in his hotel room one night. Carrie meanwhile has become unhappy with her state in the world, wishing that she could perform drama rather than comedy.

Sister Carrie shocked the public. It was so controversial. The book’s theme is mainly about sexual impropriety. Even worse, Dreiser made no moral judgements on his characters’ actions. The author wrote about infidelity and prostitution as natural occurrences in the course of human relationships. He wrote about his characters with pity, compassion, and a sense of awe.

Jack London

Jack London (1876-1916), American writer, whose work combined powerful realism and humanitarian sentiment.

After completing grammar school, London worked at various odd jobs, and in 1897 and 1898 he participated in the Alaska gold rush. Upon his return to the San Francisco area, he began to write about his experiences.

During his brief but colorful life, London wrote more than 50 books, experienced enormous popular success as an author, worked as a war correspondent, and undertook two stormy marriages.

Depression, Realism and Escapism

Realism in the depression ,most novelists focus on social forces

In the west : John Steinbeck(1902-1968) told sympathetic stories about drifting farm labors and factory workers

His 1939 masterpiece: The Grapes of Wrath （《愤怒的葡萄》）

Escapism Historical fiction: allow readers to retreat to past Margaret Mitchell :Gone With the Wind （《飘》）

After WWII :writers wrote intelligent novels showing how the pressure of war highlight men’s characters

Joseph Heller:1961 Catch 22----a satiric war novel

Postwar Voices and the “Beat Generation” (1)

Postwar voices :diversity ， incorporated black writers and black protest into the mainstream of American literature

Black writers: Richard Wright: Native Son Ralph Ellison :Invisible Man James Badwin : his characteristic themes are hatred of racism and celebration of se

xuality (novel) Go Tell It on the Mountain; (essay) The Fire Next TimeAmerican Jewish writers: Shawl Bellow :not only focused on Jewish characters, social questions ,but distinctively

Jewish sense of humor Issac Bashevis Singer Both Bellow and Singer won the Nobel Prize for Literature In the theater Tennessee Williams :The Glass Menagerie ;Street Car Named Desire Arthur Miller: portrayed the common pressured by society . his greatest play :Death of a Salesman,a big success in China

Postwar Voices and the “Beat Generation”(2)

The “Beat Generation” a name that referred simultaneously to the rhythm of ja

zz music ,to their sense that the society was worn out ,and to their interest in new forms of experience,through drugs ,alcohol ,or Eastern mysticism

San Francisco writers were part of it Poet Alan Ginsberg: Howl While other writers did not espouse the lifestyle of the Be

ats, they also viewed the world on a comic ,absurd light

J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye (《麦田守望者》）

The American Voices The feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s fueled creative ene

rgies for women writers Black women writers : Toni Morrison (a professor at Princeton University, the first Africa

n-American writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature) :Song of Solomon; Beloved

Alice Walker Chinese-American writers: Moxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior;Chinese Men Amy Tan :The Joy Luck Club （《喜福会》）