美国文学教案

美国文学教案

History of American Literature

From Washington Irving to Mark Twain

I. Writings before the Romanticism

Questions to ponder: 1. What are the main features of the writings before the romanticism? 2. What is Puritanism? And how did it influence American literature? 3. What was the mission of the Puritan settlers? 4. How did the social and political events encourage the growth of the new nation?

Important Social and Historical Events 1．Jamestown Colony ( 1607 ) in the South

The first settlers from the Virginia Company, came to the New World for mercantile purposes.

2．Plymouth ( 1620 ) in the North

● 他们双膝跪下，感激上帝带他们越过了浩瀚汹涌的大洋，把他们从危险

和苦难中解救出来，使他们安全无恙地又一次踏上了坚实的大地?? ---威廉·布雷德福总督，1620，11 ● Although we have our differences, we are all God’s children and as such we

be but specks in the vastness of this ocean, but precious unto our Lord and together we are voyagers, pilgrims, and look to Thine infinite mercy and providence.

---- William Bradford, on the Mayflower

● 我要讴歌基督教创造的奇迹。为逃避欧洲的腐败堕落，他们来到美洲的

海滩；??感谢上帝的庇佑，把印第安人的荒芜之地变得辉煌灿烂。 ---科顿·马瑟 3. Massachusetts Bay ( 1630 )

● 我们将成为整个世界的山巅之城 ( a city set upon a hill )，全世界人民的

眼睛都将看着我们。如果我们在实现这一事业的过程中欺骗了上帝，如果上帝不再像今天那样帮助我们，那么我们终将成为世人的笑柄。 ---约翰·温思罗普

● They established a government, with town meetings, popular elections, and

official policies, and also Harvard College in 1636.

Early Writers

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1. Anne Bradstreet ( 1617-1672 ) 安妮·布拉兹特里特

Anne Bradstreet was the first American poet. She came to America with her husband when she was 18, settling in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Though a mother of 8 children, she managed to write poems. Her first volume of poetry was published in London, entitled The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America ( 1650 )《第十位诗神》.

2. Jonathan Edwards ( 1702-1758 ) 乔纳森·爱德华兹

Jonathan Edwards was a talent and a great thinker, who learned Latin at 6, and began his religious education at 7, partly influenced by his father, a powerful minister. He was not very strong in accepting Puritan ideas, but after his serious illness, before graduating from Yale College, he turned toward God. Jonathan Edwards was a family man and a very good minister as well, with 11 children and 20 years of church service. He was remembered for his contributions to The Great Awakening, which lasted for nearly ten years in New England. His representative works:

1. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God ( 1741 ) 《罪人在愤怒的上帝手中》 2. Freedom of Will ( 1754 ) 《意志自由》

3. The Nature of True Virtue 《真正美德的本质》

4. Concerning the End for Which God Created the World 《论上帝创造世界的

目的》

3. Benjamin Franklin ( 1706-1790 ) 本杰明·富兰克林

● If to be venerated for benevolence, if to be admired for talents, if to be

esteemed for patriotism, if to be beloved for philanthropy, can gratify the human mind, you must have the pleasing consolation to know that you have not lived in vain. And I flatter myself that it will not be ranked among the least grateful occurrences of your life to be assured that so long as I retain my memory, you will be thought on with respect, veneration, and affection by your sincere friend. [ George Washington in a letter to Benjamin Franklin, Sept 23, 1789]

[如果说为善行而受到崇敬，为才能而受到钦佩，为爱国而受到尊重，为仁慈而受到爱戴，能使人心得到满足的话，那么，您必定会欣慰地感到，您的一生没有虚度。同时，我认为，您可将这样一个信念当作您一生最大的快乐之一：只要我的记忆尚存，您将永远被您真诚的朋友尊重、敬仰和爱戴的心情所怀念。]

● The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer ( like the cover of an old book, its

contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding ), lies here, food for worms, but the work shall not be lost, for it will ( as he believed ) appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by Author. Epitaph on Himself ( composed in 1728 ) ● Printer, philosopher, scientist, author and patriot, impeccable husband and

citizen, why isn’t he an archetype? Pioneers, Oh Pioneers! Benjamin was one of the greatest pioneers of the United States. [ D.H. Lawrence, Studies in

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Classic American Literature ]

4. Thomas Jefferson （ 1743-1826）托马斯·杰斐逊

The third American president, Jefferson was a president with many talents, showing a great interest in art, gardening, architecture, and literature. He was the father of The Declaration of Independence, Virginia University, and American Democratic Party.

“我们认为下述真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主赋予他们若干不可让与的权利，其中包括生存权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。” Social and Historical Background Year Events 1800 1800 Census: Population about 5.3 million people The Library of Congress was established. Thomas Jefferson was chosen as president. 1802 July 4, United States Military Academy opened at West Point, N.Y., and among its cadets would be Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Edgar Allan Poe [艾德加·爱伦·坡]. 1803 May, Louisiana purchase ($15 million) doubled the land areas of the United States. August 31, Lewis and Clark expedition set out down the Ohio River, and they would complete a 3-year journey to the West Coast. 1804 Jefferson won a second term as president, with George Clinton as vice president. 1805 May, members of the Lewis and Clark expedition saw the Rocky Mountains, and in November, they saw the Pacific Ocean. 1806 Noah Webster issued his Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. The Cumberland Road was built to facilitate western settlement. 1807 Washington Irving [华盛顿·欧文], his brother William, and James Kirke Paulding started an anonymous satirical magazine, Salmagundi 《杂拌》. 1809 Washington Irving, History of New York 《纽约外史》 1810 Third national census recorded 7,239,881 people John Jacob Astor founded the Pacific Fur Company. 1812 State of Louisiana entered the union. 1814 August 24-25, British forces invaded Washington and set fire to the Capitol, the White House and other buildings. 1815 The North American Review ( 1815-1939) 1816 In Philadelphia, African Americans established the first African Methodist Church. Indiana was admitted to the union as a free state.

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1817 1818 1819 James Monroe inaugurated as fifth president of the U.S. William Cullen Bryant [威廉·卡伦· 布莱恩特], Thanatopsis 《死亡的冥想》 Congress limited the number of stripes on the flag to 13 for the original colonies. William Cullen Bryant, To a Waterfowl 《致水鸟》 Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle 《瑞普·凡·温克尔》appeared in May 1819 first installment of the Sketch Book 《见闻札记》. Literary Schools and Social Trends

● The Knickerbokers / Knickerboker Group [纽约作家；纽约派作家]

The name came from the book Knickerboker’s History of New York written by Washington Irving. It referred to a group of young writers in New York during the first half of the 19th century. The group was formed by chance and geography, as New York City was becoming the literary capital of America. And its important writers were:

1. Washington Irving

2. James Fenimore Cooper 3. William Cullen Bryant

4. Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) 5. Fitzgreene Halleck (1790-1867) 6. John Howard Payne (1791-1852) 7. Samuel Woodworth (1784-1842) 8. George P. Morris (1802-1864)

9. Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-1884)

But ironically, of the three major Knickerbokers, only Irving was a native of New York City. James F. Cooper was from New Jersey, and William C. Bryant from Massachusetts. Their literature was a popular art, and they wrote to entertain and did their best work in belles-letters---poetry, fiction, and the informal essay. Some works have survived such as Rip Van Winkle, The Last of the Mohicans 《最后一个莫希干人》, and Thanatopsis. Besides, the group emerged simultaneously with America’s first group of landscape painters, the Hudson River school. Its members were not only the contemporaries of the Knickerbokers but their friends as well.

● Puritanism [清教主义]

所以，让我们选择生活， 这样，我们和我们的后代， 可以聆听上帝的声音， 永不离开上帝， 因为上帝是我们的生命，

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