美国文学史及选读课件.ppt

1、Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)Man of ActionBenjamin Franklin(1706-1790)vA.Status:vone of the greatest founding fathers of the American Nationva rare genius in human history vJack of all trades:essayist,autobiographical writer,printer,scientist,postmaster,almanac maker,orator,statesman,philosopher,poli

2、tical economist,ambassador,parlor man,almost everythingvB.Life and Career(Early Years):v1.Calvinist background in Boston v2.Candle-makers family “poor and obscure”v3.Little formal educationvSelf-taught and self-made v4.Apprentice to his half brother vA runaway boy from Boston to Philadelphia to make

3、 his own fortunevB.Life and Career(A Story of Success)v5.A successful printer who retired at 42v6.He founded the Pennsylvania Hospital,the University of Pennsylvania,the American Philosophical Society,a subscription library.v7.He invented a musical instrument called glass harmonica,the effective str

4、eet lighting,the Franklin stove,bifocal glasses,efficient heating system,and lightning-rod for which he was praised as“the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven”.B.Life and Career(Public Career)v8.A member of the Pennsylvania AssemblyvThe Deputy Postmaster-General for the coloniesvRepresent

5、ative of the colonies in London for 18 years;Minister to France;Minister to Sweden vA delegate to the Continental Congressv9.Member of the Committee of Five to draft the Declaration of Independencev10.A member to draft the documents that created the United States:the Declaration of Independence,the

6、treaty of alliance with France,the constitution.vC.His Major Writings:vPoor Richards Almanac v1.Time:almost a quarter of centuryv2.Content:Literary pieces such as poems and essays,a good many adages,common sense witticismsv3.Sources:he borrowed them from famous writers such as Rabelais,Defoe,Swift a

7、nd Pope and tried to simplify these quotationsv4.Examples:Famous sayings such as“Lost time is never found again”,“God help them that help themselves”,“Fish and visitors stink in three days”,etc.v5.Function:practical,instructive,and amusingThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklinv1.Nature:Probably the

8、first of its kind in literature.A simple yet fascinating record of a mans success.A faithful account of the colorful career of Americas first self-made man.v2.Structure:The book consists of four parts,written at different times.Franklin was 65 when he began to write.v3.Content:v(a)Puritanism:It is f

9、irst of all a Puritan document,a record of self-examination and self-improvement.v(b)Enlightenment:It embodies the new order of the 18th century Enlightenment.(Order and Moderation)Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)vC.His Major Writings:vThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklinv4.Style:This work is written

10、in the pattern of Puritan simplicity,directness,and concision.The most salient features are such as the plainness of its style,the homeliness of imagery,the simplicity of diction,syntax,and expression.v5.Tone:OptimismvThe American dream began with the settlement of the American continent the promise

11、d land the Garden of Eden optimistic about the futureAmerican Romanticism *Irving *CoopervI.American Romanticismv1.Intellectual BackgroundvThe Romantic period stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War.vPolitically:Democracy and political equality became the ide

12、al of the nation;and the two-party political system was in the making.vEconomically:The spread of industrialism,the sudden influx of immigrants,and the pioneers pushing the frontier further west lead to an economic boom.vLiterarily:The new nation cried for newer literary expressions;magazines appear

13、ed in big numbers such as The American Quarterly Review,The Southern Review,The Atlantic Monthly,and Harpers Magazine,facilitating literary expansion in this new country.v2.Foreign Influence(Derivative and Imitative)vThe Romantic movement,which had flourished earlier in the century both in England a

14、nd Europe,proved to be a decisive influence without which the upsurge of American romanticism would hardly have been possible.vThe British romantic writers such as William Wordsworth,Taylor Coleridge,Byron,Robert Burns,Shelley and Sir Walter Scott exerted a great influence upon their American brothe

15、rs.vThe British Romantic literary pieces such as Lyrical Ballads(1798)by Wordsworth and Coleridge and Walter Scotts border tales were esp.prevalent in America.(Scotts Ivanhoe,Rob Roy,The Lady of the Lake,Waverley and The Heart of Midlothian)v3.Native Factors(Different and Distinctive)vAlthough the f

16、oreign influences were strong,American Romanticism exhibited from the very outset distinct features of its English and European counterpart.American romanticism was in essence the expression of“a real new experience”and“a new sensibility”:new place;new faces;new sight,smells,and sounds;new cultural

17、factor(American Indians).vAmerican Puritanism as a cultural heritage rendered American moral values basically puritan.Public atmosphere of the nation predominantly conditioned social life,cultural taste,and literary expression.One of its obvious manifestations is the fact that American Romantic writ

18、ers tended more to moralize and use symbols than their English and European brothers.vAs a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work,American Romanticism was both imitative and distinctive,both derivative and independent.vthe star spangled banner vOh,say can you see,by the dawns early

19、 lightvWhat so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming?vWhose broad stripes and bright stars,through the perilous fightvOer the ramparts we watched,were so gallantly streaming?vAnd the rockets red glare,the bombs bursting in airvGave proof through the night that our flag was still therevO s

20、ay,does that star-spangled banner yet wavevOer the land of the free and the home of the brave?vO say,does that star-spangled banner yet wavevOer the land of the free and the home of the brave?vII.Washington Irving(1783-1859)v1.Literary Statusv Father of American literaturev The first professional Am

21、erican writerv The first American Romantic writerv The first American short story writerv The first American imaginative writer to be recognized by the Europeansv v2.Life v Born into a wealthy New York merchant family v Read widely from very early age studied law v Cared for his family business in E

22、nglandv Went bankrupt wrote to support himself American Romanticism *Irving *Cooperv3.His Works:vA History of New York(1809)纽约外史vThe Sketch Book(1819-20)见闻札记vThe History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus(1828)vThe Alhambra(1832)阿尔罕伯拉vLife of Goldsmith,Life of Washington vThe short stor

23、y as a genre in American literature probably began with Irvings The Sketch Book,a collection of essays,sketches,and tales,of which the most famous and frequently anthologized are“Rip Van Winkle”and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.v4.Division of his writings:vIrvings career can be roughly divided into

24、two important phases,the English period which span from his first book up to 1832 and the American period stretching over the remaining years of his life.v5.Writing StylevIrvings style can only be described as beautiful though imitative.vA.Irving avoids moralizing as much as possible:he wrote to amu

25、se and entertain.vB.He was good at enveloping his stories in a rich atmosphere,which is often more than compensation for the slimness of plot.vC.His characters are vivid and true so that they tend to linger in the mind of the reader.vD.He was such a humorous writer that it is difficult not to smile

26、and occasionally even chuckle.vE.His language was finished and musical.v6.His Masterpiecesv“Rip Van Winkle”got suggestions from a German source.Irving changed the setting of the original and added conflicts of his own to make it American.It is a fantasy tale about a man who somehow stepped outside t

27、he main stream of life.vRip Van Winkle is a simple,good-natured,and hen-pecked man.He does everything except take care of his own farm and family.He helps everyone except his wife and his own folks.So he is welcome everywhere except at home.“He is one of those happy mortals,who take the world easy,e

28、at white bread or brown,whichever can be got with least thought or trouble,and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound.”Plot Summery of“Rip Van Winkle”v The story of Rip Van Winkle is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War.Rip Van Winkle,a villager of Dutch des

29、cent,lives in a nice village at the foot of New Yorks Catskill Mountains.An amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglect,he is loved by all but his wife.One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife by wandering up the mountains.After encountering strangely dressed men,rumored to be the

30、 ghosts of Henry Hudsons crew,who are playing nine-pin,and after drinking some of their liquor,he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep.vHe wakes up twenty years later and returns to his village.He finds out that his wife is dead and his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere

31、else.He immediately gets into trouble when he hails himself a loyal subject of King George III,not knowing that in the meantime the American Revolution has taken place.An old local recognizes him,however,and Rips now grown daughter eventually puts him up.As Rip resumes his habit of idleness in the v

32、illage,and his tale is solemnly believed by the old Dutch settlers,certain hen-pecked husbands especially wish they shared Rips luck.v“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”narrates the memorable event of an apparently headless horseman throwing his head at his rival in love,and the memorable character of Ich

33、abod.Plot Summery of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”vThe story is set about 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town，New York，in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow.It tells the story of Ichabod Crane,a lean,lanky,and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut who competes with Abraham B

34、rom Bones Van Brunt,the town rowdy,for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel,the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer.vAs Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night,he is pursued by the Headless Horseman，who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who

35、 had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during some nameless battle of the American Revolution War,and who rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head.Ichabod mysteriously disappears from town,leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones,who was to look exceedingly knowing whenever t

36、he story of Ichabod was related.vIII.James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851)v1.Literary Status:vThe first American Frontier novelvThe first American Sea novelvThe first American Spy NovelvThe first American Historical NovelvHis Leatherstocking Tales as the American National Epic v2.Life:vLocally famous fam

37、ily Yale University at 14 five years at sea comfortable life began to write accidentally failed in his first novel Precaution his second novel The Spy firmly established with his The Leatherstocking Tales.3.His major works:vPrecaution(1820)vThe Spy(1821)v“The Leatherstocking Tales”includesvThe Pione

38、ers(1823)vThe Last of the Mohicans(1826)vThe Prairie(1827)vThe Pathfinder(1840)vThe Deerslayer(1841)3.His major works:3.A.The Leatherstocking Tales is a series of novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper,each featuring the main hero Natty Bumppo,known by European settlers as Leatherstocking,T

39、he Pathfinder,and the trapper and by the Native Americans as Deerslayer,and Hawkeye.vB.Natty Bumppo first appears to be a real frontieersman in his crube cabin,a man of flesh and blood in the virgin forests of North America.But as he moves out of The Pioneers into the world of The Last of the Mohica

40、ns,The Prairie,The Pathfinder,and The Deerslayer,he does so gathering more and more of a halo of a legendary and mythic nature around him.He becomes a type,a representation of a nation struggling to be born,progressing from old age to rebirth and youth.vC.The five Cooper tales constitute a mythic re

41、production of the whole process:the old and dying Leatherstocking in The Pioneers and The Prairie relives another phase of middle-age maturity in The Last of the Mohicans and The Pathfinder and enjoys another lease of youth in The Deerslayer.vD.Bumppos growth and progress embodies none other than th

42、e American quest for an ideal community;through this character Cooper tried to create a national myth of his own.v5.Writing Features:vA.Plot construction:Cooper was good at inventing plots.His plots are sometimes quite incredible,but his stories are immensely intriguing.vB.Landscape description:His

43、landscape descriptions are majestic and suggestive of sir Walter Scott,the legendary spirit of whose border tales might have been a source of inspiration for him.vC.A rich imagination:He had never been to the frontier and among the Indians and yet could write five huge epic books about them with his

44、 rich imagination.Free from injustice,he treated the American Indians as noble savages.vD.Clumsy style:his style is dreadful;his characterization seems wooden and lacking in probability.v6.His Contributionva.Cooper hit upon the native subject of frontier and wilderness.vb.He contributed to American

45、literature different subgenres of novels:spy novel,sea novel,frontier novel,and historical romance.vc.He created the first legendary frontier hero Natty Bumppo as the typical Pioneering figure.vd.He introduced the West and the frontier as a usable past into American literature,thus ushering the West

46、ern tradition into American world of letters.The Last of the MohicansvMajor Duncan and David GamutvCora and AlicevHawkeye and his Mohican friends,Chicachgook and his son UncasvHuron Magua 1 stanza New England Transcendentalism*Emerson*Thoreau vI.New England Transcendentalism v1.Time:vIn 1836,a littl

47、e book came out which made a tremendous impact on the intellectual life of America.It was entitled Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson.The New World was thrilled to hear the new voice it uttered.A whole new way of thinking began to exert its influence on the consciousness of man.Natures voice pushed Ameri

48、can Romanticism into a new phase,the phase of New England Transcendentalism,the summit of American Romanticism.v2.Essence:“Transcendentalism is idealism”in essence.v3.Background:Some New Englanders who were not quite happy about the materialistic-oriented life of their time formed themselves into an

49、 informal club,the Transcendentalist club,and met to discuss matters of interest to the life of the nation as a whole.They expressed their views,published their journal,the Dial,and made their voice heard.1840-1929v4.Representative figures:some 30 men and a couple of women such as Emerson,Thoreau,Br

50、onson Alcott,and Margaret Fuller,most of them teachers or clergymen,radicals against rigid rationalism of Unitarianism.v5.Major Features:vA.Emphasis on spirit,or Oversoul vomnipresent,omniscient,omnipotentvB.the importance of the individual as the most important element of society vThe regeneration