美国文学史及选读(上册)PPT

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1、111Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)Man of Action12Benjamin 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

2、,political economist,ambassador,parlor man,almost everything13vB.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

3、to make his own fortune14vB.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 effe

4、ctive street 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”.15B.Life and Career(Public Career)v8.A member of the Pennsylvania AssemblyvThe Deputy Postmaster-General for the colonie

5、svRepresentative 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 Indepe

6、ndence,the treaty of alliance with France,the constitution.16vC.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,

7、Defoe,Swift and 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 amusing17The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklinv1.Natur

8、e:Probably the 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)Pur

9、itanism:It is first 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)18Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)vC.His Major Writings:vThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklinv4.Style:This

10、 work is written 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 cont

11、inent the promised land the Garden of Eden optimistic about the future192021222324252627282930313233American 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:

12、Democracy and political equality became the ideal of the nation;and the two-party political system was in the making.34vEconomically: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 crie

13、d for newer literary expressions;magazines appeared 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.35v2.Foreign Influence(Derivative and Imitative)vThe Romantic movement,which had

14、flourished earlier in the century both in England and 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 e

15、xerted a great influence upon their American brothers.36vThe 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)37v3.N

16、ative Factors(Different and Distinctive)vAlthough the foreign 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 pl

17、ace;new faces;new sight,smells,and sounds;new cultural factor(American Indians).38vAmerican 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 obvio

18、us manifestations is the fact that American Romantic writers 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.39vthe

19、star spangled banner vOh,say can you see,by the dawns early 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 airvGav

20、e proof through the night that our flag was still therevO say,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?40vII.Washington Irving(1783-1859)v1.Literary Sta

21、tusv Father of American literaturev The first professional American writerv The first American Romantic writerv The first American short story writerv The first American imaginative writer to be recognized by the Europeansv 41v2.Life v Born into a wealthy New York merchant family v Read widely from

22、very early age studied law v Cared for his family business in Englandv Went bankrupt wrote to support himself 42American 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 Alhambr

23、a(1832)阿尔罕伯拉vLife of Goldsmith,Life of Washington 43vThe short story 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.Di

24、vision of his writings:vIrvings career can be roughly divided into 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.44v5.Writing StylevIrvings style can only be described as beautiful though imit

25、ative.vA.Irving avoids moralizing as much as possible:he wrote to amuse 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.45vC.His characters are vivid and true so that they tend to linger in the mind of the rea

26、der.vD.He was such a humorous writer that it is difficult not to smile and occasionally even chuckle.vE.His language was finished and musical.46v6.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 i

27、t American.It is a fantasy tale about a man who somehow stepped outside the main stream of life.47vRip 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

28、 except at home.“He is one of those happy mortals,who take the world easy,eat 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.”48Plot Summery of“Rip Van Winkle”v The story of Rip Van Winkle is set in the years before an

29、d after the American Revolutionary War.Rip Van Winkle,a villager of Dutch descent,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 wanderin

30、g up the mountains.After encountering strangely dressed men,rumored to be the 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.49vHe wakes up twenty years later and returns to his village.He finds out th

31、at his wife is dead and his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere 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 grow

32、n daughter eventually puts him up.As Rip resumes his habit of idleness in the village,and his tale is solemnly believed by the old Dutch settlers,certain hen-pecked husbands especially wish they shared Rips luck.5051v“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”narrates the memorable event of an apparently headless

33、 horseman throwing his head at his rival in love,and the memorable character of Ichabod.Plot Summery of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”52vThe 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,

34、and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut who competes with Abraham Brom 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.53vAs Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night,he i

35、s pursued by the Headless Horseman，who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who 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

36、town,leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones,who was to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related.5455vIII.James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851)v1.Literary Status:vThe first American Frontier novelvThe first American Sea novelvThe first American Spy NovelvThe first American Historica

37、l NovelvHis Leatherstocking Tales as the American National Epic 56v2.Life:vLocally famous family 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.57

38、3.His major works:vPrecaution(1820)vThe Spy(1821)v“The Leatherstocking Tales”includesvThe Pioneers(1823)vThe Last of the Mohicans(1826)vThe Prairie(1827)vThe Pathfinder(1840)vThe Deerslayer(1841)583.His major works:3.A.The Leatherstocking Tales is a series of novels by American writer James Fenimore

39、 Cooper,each featuring the main hero Natty Bumppo,known by European settlers as Leatherstocking,The Pathfinder,and the trapper and by the Native Americans as Deerslayer,and Hawkeye.59vB.Natty Bumppo first appears to be a real frontieersman in his crube cabin,a man of flesh and blood in the virgin fo

40、rests of North America.But as he moves out of The Pioneers into the world of The Last of the Mohicans,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

41、 born,progressing from old age to rebirth and youth.60vC.The five Cooper tales constitute a mythic reproduction 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 enjoy

42、s another lease of youth in The Deerslayer.vD.Bumppos growth and progress embodies none other than the American quest for an ideal community;through this character Cooper tried to create a national myth of his own.61v5.Writing Features:vA.Plot construction:Cooper was good at inventing plots.His plot

43、s are sometimes quite incredible,but his stories are immensely intriguing.vB.Landscape description:His 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.62vC.A rich imagination:He had neve

44、r been to the frontier and among the Indians and yet could write five huge epic books about them with his 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.63v6.His

45、Contributionva.Cooper hit upon the native subject of frontier and wilderness.vb.He contributed to American literature different subgenres of novels:spy novel,sea novel,frontier novel,and historical romance.64vc.He created the first legendary frontier hero Natty Bumppo as the typical Pioneering figur

46、e.vd.He introduced the West and the frontier as a usable past into American literature,thus ushering the Western tradition into American world of letters.65The Last of the MohicansvMajor Duncan and David GamutvCora and AlicevHawkeye and his Mohican friends,Chicachgook and his son UncasvHuron Magua 6

47、667686970717273747576777879808182831 stanza84858687888990 New England Transcendentalism*Emerson*Thoreau 91vI.New England Transcendentalism v1.Time:vIn 1836,a little book came out which made a tremendous impact on the intellectual life of America.It was entitled Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson.The New

48、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 American Romanticism into a new phase,the phase of New England Transcendentalism,the summit of American Romanticism.92v2.Essence:“Transcendent

49、alism 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 informal club,the Transcendentalist club,and met to discuss matters of interest to the life of the nation as a whole.They expressed th

50、eir views,published their journal,the Dial,and made their voice heard.1840-192993v4.Representative figures:some 30 men and a couple of women such as Emerson,Thoreau,Bronson Alcott,and Margaret Fuller,most of them teachers or clergymen,radicals against rigid rationalism of Unitarianism.94v5.Major Fea

51、tures:vA.Emphasis on spirit,or Oversoul vomnipresent,omniscient,omnipotentvB.the importance of the individual as the most important element of society vThe regeneration of the society could only come about through the regeneration of the individual,through his self-perfection,self-culture,self-impro

52、vement,self-reliancevC.Nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God vNature was not purely matter.It was the garment of the Oversoul.IndividualNatureOversoul95v6.The product of a combination of foreign influences and the American Puritan tradition.vGerman philosophy:Schelling,Fichte,KantvFrench philosoph

53、y:Cousin,Collard,Gerando,JouffroyvEnglish critics:Thomas Carlyles Sartor-Resartus Coleridges Aids to ReflectionvOriental mysticism:Hindu works Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita Chinese Confucius and MenciusIndividualNatureOversoul96vII.Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)v1.Literary Status:v“Father of American

54、 Essay”,vThe Concord SagevLeader and spokesman of New England TranscendentalismvEssayist,poet,philosopher,orator,critic97v2.Life:vBoston,Massachusetts Boston Latin School Harvard College rejecting Calvinist tenets run a school for young ladies abandoned a Unitarian minister tour in Europe his return

55、 to America promulgating Transcendentalism9899100101102v3.His major works:vA.CollectionsvPoems(1847);Representative Men(1850);English Traits(1856)vSociety and Solitude(1870);Letters and Social Aims(1876)vB.EssaysvSelf-Reliance Compensation The Over-Soul vThe Poet Experience vNature(the Bible and man

56、ifesto of the New England Transcendentalism)vThe American Scholar(Intellectual Declaration of Independence)vC.PoemsvConcord Hymn The Rhodora 103vIII.Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862)v1.Literary Status:vThe Prophet of Non-Violence MovementvAdvocate of New England TranscendentalismvAmerican author,natura

57、list,transcendentalist,tax resister,development critic,sage writer and philosopher.104v2.Life:vpencil-makers family Harvard friendship with Emerson trip on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers in 1839 a cabin on Walden Pond and moved in on July 4 and lived there for over 2 years since 1845 a night in ja

58、il for a poll-tax of$2105v3.Major Works:v“Civil Disobedience or Resistance to Civil Government”(1849)vA Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers(1849)vWalden(1854)106v4.Walden,Thoreaus MasterpiecevA.a great Transcendentalist work and Thoreaus masterpiecevB.a faithful record of his reflections when h

59、e was in solitary communion with nature vC.a book on self-culture and human perfectability;a book about man,what he is and what he should be and must be.vD.prophet of individualism in American literature critical of modern civilization which was degrading and enslaving man.“Civilized man is the slav

60、e of matter”a medicine for the fatal modern craze for monetary success in the wake of modern mechanization and commercialization“Simplicity,Simplify”107vE.he was impatient with the overstress on the external development of human beings such as railroad,telegraphvF.Regeneration became a major themati

61、c concern of Walden and decided the structural framework:Walden unfolds in a single year,and progresses through summer and autumn to winter,and finally to a climax in the renaissance of spring.vG.Walden exhibits Thoreaus calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.The b

62、ook concludes on a clear note of optimism and hope.108109 Two Giants in Novel-writingHawthorne and Melville110Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)I.Literary Status Greatest Romance-writer Pioneering psychological novelist Moral novelist II.Life 1804,July 4,in Salem,Massachusetts,a Puritan family Ancestors

63、 role in the Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692 Bowdoin College read widely writing tales and novels111112Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)III.Major Works Short story collection:Twice-Told Tales(1837)Moses from an Old Manse(1846)Romances:The Scarlet Letter(1850)The House of the Seven Gables(1851)The Blithe

64、dale Romance(1852)The Marble Faun(1860)113Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)IV.Hawthornes Black Vision of Life All his life,Hawthorne seems to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life.Most of his works deal with evil one way or another.A.Evil exists in the human heart(“Earthy Holocaust”)B.Everyon

65、e possesses some evil secret(“Young Goodman Brown”)C.Everyone seems to cover up his innermost evil(“The Ministers Black Veil”)D.Evil seems to be mans birthmark.114 E.Evil comes out of evil though it may take many generations F.One source of evil is overweening intellect.(The tension between the head

66、 and the heart)Hawthornes intellectual characters are usually villains,dreadful because devoid of fellow feelings.(Hollingsworth,Chillingworth,Dr.Rappaccini Hawthornes negative attitude toward science is reflected in his writings and characterizations).115Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)V.Hawthorne and his romance Romance is in Hawthornes mind the predestined form of American narrative.VI.The analysis of his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter 1.Story and Plot:an aging English scholar Chillingworth his