Part I The Literature of Colonial America
I．Historical Introduction
The colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.)
II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds:
1) Practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people "at home" what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration
2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. III．The First American Writer
The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians.
Captain John Smith is the first American writer.
A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608)
A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612)
General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess Pocahontas
Captain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers.
One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV．Early New England Literature
William Bradford and John Winthrop
John Cotton and Roger Williams
Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor
V．Puritan Thoughts
1. The origin of puritan
In the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his
wife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church of
England. But there was no radical difference between the doctrines of the Church of England and the Catholic Church. A group of people thought the Church of England was too Catholic and wanted to purify the church. Then came the name Puritans.
2. Puritanism -- based on Calvinism
(1) predestination: God's elect
Puritans believed they are predestined before they were born.
Nothing or no good work can change their fate.
They believed the success of one's business is the sign to show he is the God's elect. So the Puritans works very hard, spend very little and invest more for the future business. They lived a very frugal life. This is their ethics.
(2) Origianl sin and total depravity
Man is born sinful. This determines some puritans pessimistic attitude towards life.
(3) Limited atonement (the salvation of a selected few)
(4) theocracy
They combined state with religion. Their government is at least not a liberal one.
The Puritans established American tradition -- intolerant moralism. They strictly punished drunks, adultery & heretics.
Puritans changed gradually due to the severity of frontier environment
3. Influence on American Literature
(1) Its optimism
American literature was from the outset conditioned by the Puritan heritage. It can be said American literature is based on the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. After that, man have an illusion to restore the paradise. The puritans, after arriving at America, believing that God must have sent them to this new land to restore the lost paradise, to build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden. Fired with such a strong sense of mission, they treated life with a tremendous amount of optimism. The optimistic Puritan has exerted a great influence on American literature.
(2) Puritan's metaphorical mode of perception changed gradually into a literary symbolism.
Part II The Literature of Reason And Revolution
I．Historical Introduction
With the growth, especially of industry, there appeared the intense strain with England. The British government did not want colonial industries competing with those in England. The British wanted the colonies to remain politically and economically dependent on the mother country. They took a series of measures to insure this dependence. They prevented colonial economy by requiring Americans to ship raw materials abroad and to import finished goods at prices higher than the cost of making them in this country. Politically, the British government forced dependence
by ruling the colonies from overseas and by taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament.
However, by the mid-eighteenth century, freedom was won as much by the fiery rhetoric of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the eloquence of the Declaration of Independence as by the weapons of Washington. In the seventies of the 18th century, the English colonies in North America rose in arms against their mother country. The War for Independence lasted for 8 years (1776-1783) and ended in the formation of a federative bourgeois democratic republic -- the United States of America. II．American Enlightenment
It was supported by all progressive forces of the country which opposed themselves to the old colonial order and religious obscurantism.
It dealt a decisive blow upon the puritan traditions and brought to life secular education and literature. The spiritual life during that period was to a great degree moulded by it.
The representatives set themselves the task of disseminating knowledge among the people and advocating revolutionary ideas.
The writers injected an invigorating vein into the English language in America as they aimed at clarity and precision of their writings.
At the initial period the spread of the ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to journalism. Writings of Europe were widely read in America. The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of Benjamin Franklin.
III．Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
The Autobiography
Poor Richard’s Almanac
Life
Benjamin Franklin came from a Calvinist background.
He was born into a poor candle-maker’s family. He had very little education. He learned in school only for two years, but he was a voracious reader.
At 12, he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother, a printer.
At 16, he began to publish essays under the pseudonym “Silence Do good” .
At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune.
He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher. In 1727 he founded the Junto club.
Multiple identities:
a printer
a leading author
a politician
a scientist
a inventor
a diplomat
a civic activist
Franklin’s Contributions to Society
He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital.
He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania.
And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.
Franklin’s Contributions to Science
He was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices.
And for his lightning-rod, he was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.”
Franklin’s Contributions to the U.S.
He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:
The Declaration of Independence,
The Treaty of Alliance with France,
The Treaty of Peace with England,
The Constitution
The Autobiography
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was probably the first of its kind in literature. It is the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man.
The Autobiography is, first of all, a Puritan document. It is Puritan because it is a record of self-examination and self-improvement. The meticulous chart of 13 virtues he set for himself to cultivate to combat the tempting vices, the stupendous effort he made to improve his own person, the belief that God helps those who helps themselves and that every calling is a service to God – all these indicate that Franklin was intensely Puritan. Then, the book is also a convincing illustration of the Puritan ethic that, in order to get on in the world, one has to be industrious, frugal, and prudent.
The Autobiography is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenth-century enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free by nature, endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
A look at the style of The Autobiography will readily reveal that it is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness and concision. The plainness of its style, the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the salient features we cannot mistake. The lucidity of the narrative, the absence of
ornaments in wording and of complex, involved structures in syntax, and the Puritan abhorrence of paradox are all graphically demonstrated in the whole of the book. Taken as a whole, it is safe to say that the book is an exemplary illustration of the American style of writing.
IV．Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Common Sense
American Crisis
V．Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
The Declaration of Independence
VI．Philip Freneau (1752-1832)
“Poet of the American Revolution”
“Father of American Poetry”
“Pioneer of the New Romanticism”
“A gifted and versatile lyric poet”
Works
“The Wild Honey Suckle”
“The Indian Burying Ground”
“To a Caty-Did”
Freneau as Father of American Poetry: His major themes are death, nature, transition, and the human in nature. All of these themes become important in 19th century writing.
Life Experience
?He was born in New York.
?At 16, he entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He decided to do a postgraduate study in theology. But two years later he gave it up. While still an undergraduate, he wrote in collaboration with one of his friends (H. H. Brackenridge) a poem entitled “The Rising Glory of America”.
?Later he attended the War of Independence, and he was captured by British army in 1780.
?After being released, he published “The British Prison Ship” in 1781.
?In the same year, he published “To the Memory of the Brave Americans”.
?After war, he supported Jefferson, and contributed greatly to American government.
?But after 50 years old, he lived in poverty. And at last he died in a blizzard.
Main Works
?“The Rising Glory of America” (1772) 《美洲光辉的兴起》
?“The House of Night” (1779,1786) 《夜之屋》
?“The British Prison Ship” (1781) 《英国囚船》
?“To the Memory of the Brave Americans” (1781) 《纪念美国勇士》?“”The Wild Honey Suckle” (1786) 《野忍冬花》
?“The Indian Burying Ground” (1788) 《印第安人墓地》
野忍冬花
（黄杲炘译）
?美好的花呀，你长得：这么秀丽，却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方——
甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，
招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；
没游来荡去的脚来把你踩碎，
没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。
?大自然把你打扮得一身洁白，
她叫你避开庸俗粗鄙的目光，
她布置下树荫把你护卫起来，
又让潺潺的柔波淌过你身旁；
你的夏天就这样静静地消逝，
这时候你日见萎蔫终将安息。?那些难免消逝的美使我销魂，想起你未来的结局我就心疼，
别的那些花儿也不比你幸运——虽开放在伊甸园中也已凋零，无情的寒霜再加秋风的威力，
会叫这花朵消失得一无踪迹。?朝阳和晚露当初曾把你养育，让你这小小的生命来到世上，
原来若乌有，就没什么可失去，因为你的死让你同先前一样；
这来去之间不过是一个钟点——这就是脆弱的花享有的天年。
?This poem is divided into four stanzas. Each stanza consists of six lines, rhyming “ababcc”, and sounds just like music.
?In the first two stanzas, Freneau devoted more attention to the environment of the flower in which he found it than to the appearance of the flower. He conmented on the secluded nature of the place where the honey suckle grew, drawing a conclusion that it was due to nature's protectiveness that the flower was able to lead a peaceful life free from men’s disturbance and destruction.
?But the next stanza immediately changed the tone from silent admiration and appreciation to outright lamentation over the “future’s doom” of the flower – even nature was unable to save the flower from its death.
?And then, Freneau said, “if nothing once, you nothing lose.” It is true in people’s existence. There is fate for the life and death. After one’s death, the only thing he can take away is what he brought when he gave birth to this world.
Part III The Literature of Romanticism
I．Historical Introduction
from early 19th century through the outbreak of the Civil War
1. native factors
It is a period following American Independence. In this period, democracy and political equality became the ideals of the new nation. America was in an economic boom. There is a tremendous sense of optimism and hope among the people. The spirit of the time is, in some measure, responsible for the outburst of romantic feeling.
2. foreign influence
Romanticism emerged in England from 1798 to 1832. It added impetus to the growth of Romanticism in America. In England the general features of the works of the romantics is a dissatisfaction with the bourgeois society. British Romanticism inspired the American imagination. Thus American Romanticism was in a way derivative. II．American Romanticism: American Renaissance
Romanticism (appeared in England in the last years of the 18th century and spread to continental Europe and then) came to America early in the 19th century. It was pluralistic; its manifestations were as varied, as individualistic, and as conflicting as the cultures and the intellects from which it sprang. Yet romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man's societies a source of corruption.
It exalted the individual, which suited the nation's revolutionary heritage and its frontier egalitarianism. It revolted against traditional art forms, which gratified those cramped by the strict limits of neoclassic literature, painting, and architecture. It rejected rationalism, which gladdened those who were opposed to cool, intellectual religious wrapped with the remnants of Calvinism.
Romantic writers placed increasing value on the free expression of emotion and display increasing attention to the spiritual states of their characters. Heroes and heroines exhibited extremes of sensitivity and excitement. The novel of terror became the profitable literary staple that it remains today. Writers of gothic novels sought to arouse in their readers a turbulent sense of the remote, the supernatural, and the terrifying by describing castles and landscapes illuminated by moonlight and haunted by ghosts. A preoccupation with the demonic and the mystery of evil marked by the works of Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and a host of lesser writers.
Early American romanticism was best represented by New England poets William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) in poetry, and James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) and Washington Irving (1783-1859) in fiction.
The later/peak period is represented by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862).
III．Washington Irving
1. Rip Van Winkle
The story, written while Irving was staying with his sister Sarah and her husband Henry van Wart in Birmingham, England, is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War. A villager of Dutch descent escapes his nagging wife by wandering up Kaaterskill Clove near his home town of Palenville, New York in
the Catskill Mountains. After various adventures (in one version of the tale, he encounters the spirits of Henry Hudson and his crew playing ninepins at the top of Kaaterskill Falls), he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep. He wakes up 20 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 else. He immediately gets into trouble when he hails himself a loyal subject of George III, not knowing that in the meantime the American Revolution has taken place and he is not supposed to be a loyal subject of any Hanoverian any longer.
The story has become a part of cultural mythology: even for those who have never read the original story, "Rip Van Winkle" means either a person who sleeps for a long period of time, or one who is inexplicably (perhaps even blissfully) unaware of current events.
Rip Van Winkle has been seen as a symbol of several aspects of America. Rip, like America, is immature, self-centered, careless, anti-intellectual, imaginative, and jolly as the overgrown child. The town itself symbolizes America – forever and rapidly changing. Washington Irving has Rip sleep through his own country’s history, through what we might call the birth pangs of America, and return to the “busy, bustling, disputatious” self-consciously adult United States of America. His conflicts and dreams are those of the nation – the conflict of innocence and experience, work and leisure, the old and the new, the head and the heart.
2. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a sycophantic, lean, lanky, 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, Baltus Van Tassel. As 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 had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary 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 the story of Ichabod was related". Although the nature of the Headless Horseman is left open to interpretation, the story implies that the Horseman was really Brom Bones in disguise.
The creation of archetypes is a particularly subtle feat of Irving’s consummate craftsmanship. We may see in Ichabod Crane a precocious, effect New Englander, shrewd, commercial, a city-slicker, who is rather an interloper, a somewhat destructive force, and who comes along to swindle the villagers. His book learning turns on him, and he is driven away from where he does not belong, so that the serene village remains permanently good and happy.
Brom Bones, on the other hand, is of a Huck Finn-type of country bumpkin, rough, vigorous, boisterous but inwardly very good, a frontier type put out there to shift for
himself.
Thus, the rivalry in love between Ichabod and Brom, viewed in this way, suddenly assumes the dimensions of two ethical groups locked in a kind of historic contest. As to the style of the piece, it represents Irving at his best. The association between a certain local and the inward movement of a character, the emotional loading of almost every line of the story, their effect on the five sense of the reader whose attention is so fully engaged and who feels so much involved in what is happening – all these have placed this and other Irving stories among the best of American short stories.
3. Irving’s Style
(1) Irving avoids moralizing as much as possible. He writes simply to entertain rather to enlighten.
(2) He is good at setting his stories in a magic and fantastic atmosphere. The richness of the atmosphere compensates for the slimness of his plot.
(3) His characters are vivid and true to life. They tend to linger in the mind of the reader.
(4) His writing is full of humor and satire.
(5) two important themes, i.e. the themes of change and search for identify. These themes capture the spirit of Irving’s times and reflect his philosophical thinking on contemporary American social life.
IV. James Fenimore Cooper 詹姆斯费尼莫尔库珀(1789--1851) -- launched two kinds of immensely popular stories → the sea adventure tale and the frontier saga
The Leatherstocking Tales《皮袜子故事集》，regard as “the nearest approach yet to an American epic.” （开创了美国文学的一个重要主题—文明的发展对大自然和它代表的崇高品德的摧残与破坏）Its central figure in the novels, Natty Bumppo (美国文学的一个重要的原型人物—独立不羁、逃避社会、在大自然中需求完美精神世界的班波).
Cooper’s Works
(1) Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)
(2) The Spy (his second novel and great success)
(3) Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)
The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie Cooper’s Style
(1) highly imaginative
(2) good at inventing tales
(3) good at landscape description
(4) conservative
(5) characterization wooden and lacking in probability
(6) language and use of dialect not authentic
Literary Achievements
He created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history
of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West.
He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.
V. William Cullen Bryant 威廉卡伦布赖恩特(1794-1878)-- the first American to gain the stature of a major poet.
To a Waterfowl《致水鸟》
The Yellow Violet 《黄色的堇香花》
VI. Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)
American writer, known as a poet and critic but most famous as the first master of the short-story form, especially tales of the mysterious and macabre. The literary merits of Poe's writings have been debated since his death, but his works have remained popular and many major American and European writers have professed their artistic debt to him.
For a long time after his death Poe remained probably the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature.
Emerson dismissed him in three words, “the jingle man.”
Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable.
Henry James made the ruthless statement that “an enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive state of development.”
Whitman, who was the only famous literary figure present at the Poe Memorial Ceremony in Baltimore in 1875, had mixed fe elings about him: he did admit Poe’s genius, but it was “its narrow range and unhealthy, lurid quality” that most impressed him.
T. S. Eliot proclaimed him a critic of the first rank, but charged him with “slipshod writing.”
Poe’s Works
Poetry: The Raven《乌鸦》
Horror Fiction: The Fall of the House of Usher《厄舍大厦的倒塌》
Whodunit: Murders in the Rue Morgue《莫格街谋杀案》
致海伦
海伦，你的美在我的眼里，有如往日尼西亚的三桅船船行在飘香的海上，悠悠地把已倦于漂泊的困乏船员送回他故乡的海岸。
早已习惯于在怒海上飘荡，你典雅的脸庞，你的鬈发，你水神般的风姿带我返航，返回那往时的希腊和罗马，返回那往时的壮丽和辉煌。
看哪！壁龛似的明亮窗户里，我看见你站着，多像尊雕像，一盏玛瑙的灯你拿在手上！塞姬女神哪，神圣的土地
才是你家乡！
In the first stanza, Helen’s beauty is soothing. It provides security and safety. Perhaps the reader is expected to associate Marlowe’s famous line: “Was this the face that launched a thousand sh ips” to Helen’s beauty, for her beauty is as hypnotic for the speaker as were the ships that transported another wanderer – Ulysses - home from Troy.
Throughout the poem, Poe uses allusions to classical names and places, as well as certain kinds of images to create the impression of a far-off idealized, unreal woman, like a Greek statue. Words that support the image of an ideal woman are “hyacinth” and “classic” (line 7), “Naiad airs” (line 8), and “statue-like” (line 12). Helen stands, not like a real wom an, but like a saint in a “window-niche” (line 11). She becomes a symbol both of beauty and of frustration, a romantically idealized, yet inaccessible image of the heart’s desire.
乌鸦
从前一个阴郁的子夜，我独自沉思，慵懒疲竭，
沉思许多古怪而离奇、早已被人遗忘的传闻——
当我开始打盹，几乎入睡，突然传来一阵轻擂，
仿佛有人在轻轻叩击，轻轻叩击我的房门。
“有人来了，”我轻声嘟喃，“正在叩击我的房门——
唯此而已，别无他般。”
哦，我清楚地记得那是在萧瑟的十二月；
每一团奄奄一息的余烬都形成阴影伏在地板。
我当时真盼望翌日；——因为我已经枉费心机
想用书来消除悲哀——消除因失去丽诺尔的悲叹——
因那被天使叫作丽诺尔的少女，她美丽娇艳——
在这儿却默默无闻，直至永远。
那柔软、暗淡、飒飒飘动的每一块紫色窗布
使我心中充满前所未有的恐怖——我毛骨惊然；
为平息我心儿停跳．我站起身反复叨念
“这是有人想进屋，在叩我的房门——。
更深夜半有人想进屋，在叩我的房门；——
唯此而已，别无他般。”
很快我的心变得坚强；不再犹疑，不再彷徨，
“先生，”我说，“或夫人，我求你多多包涵；
刚才我正睡意昏昏，而你来敲门又那么轻，
你来敲门又那么轻，轻轻叩击我的房门，
我差点以为没听见你”——说着我拉开门扇；——
唯有黑夜，别无他般。
凝视着夜色幽幽，我站在门边惊惧良久，
疑惑中似乎梦见从前没人敢梦见的梦幻；
可那未被打破的寂静，没显示任何迹象。
“丽诺尔？”便是我嗫嚅念叨的唯一字眼，
我念叨“丽诺尔！”，回声把这名字轻轻送还，
唯此而已，别无他般。
我转身回到房中，我的整个心烧灼般疼痛，
很快我又听到叩击声，比刚才听起来明显。
“肯定，”我说，“肯定有什么在我的窗棂；
让我瞧瞧是什么在那里，去把那秘密发现——
让我的心先镇静一会儿，去把那秘密发现；——
那不过是风，别无他般！”
我猛然推开窗户，。心儿扑扑直跳就像打鼓，
一只神圣往昔的健壮乌鸦慢慢走进我房间；
它既没向我致意问候；也没有片刻的停留；
而以绅士淑女的风度，栖在我房门的上面——
栖在我房门上方一尊帕拉斯半身雕像上面——
栖坐在那儿，仅如此这般。
于是这只黑鸟把我悲伤的幻觉哄骗成微笑，
以它那老成持重一本正经温文尔雅的容颜，
“虽然冠毛被剪除，”我说，“但你肯定不是懦夫，你这幽灵般可怕的古鸦，漂泊夜的彼岸——
请告诉我你尊姓大名，在黑沉沉的冥府阴间！”
乌鸦答日“永不复述。”
听见如此直率的回答，我惊叹这丑陋的乌鸦，
虽说它的回答不着边际——与提问几乎无关；
因为我们不得不承认，从来没有活着的世人
曾如此有幸地看见一只鸟栖在他房门的面——
鸟或兽栖在他房间门上方的半身雕像上面，
有这种名字“永不复还。”
但那只独栖于肃穆的半身雕像上的乌鸦只说了
这一句话，仿佛它倾泻灵魂就用那一个字眼。
然后它便一声不吭——也不把它的羽毛拍动——
直到我几乎是哺哺自语“其他朋友早已消散——
明晨它也将离我而去——如同我的希望已消散。”这时那鸟说“永不复还。”
惊异于那死寂漠漠被如此恰当的回话打破，
“肯定，”我说，“这句话是它唯一的本钱，
从它不幸动主人那儿学未。一连串无情飞灾
曾接踵而至，直到它主人的歌中有了这字眼——
直到他希望的挽歌中有了这个忧伤的字眼
‘永不复还，永不复还。’”
但那只乌鸦仍然把我悲伤的幻觉哄骗成微笑，
我即刻拖了张软椅到门旁雕像下那只鸟跟前；
然后坐在天鹅绒椅垫上，我开始冥思苦想，
浮想连着浮想，猜度这不祥的古鸟何出此言——
这只狰狞丑陋可怕不吉不祥的古鸟何出此言，
为何聒噪‘永不复还。”
我坐着猜想那意见但没对那鸟说片语只言。
此时，它炯炯发光的眼睛已燃烧进我的心坎；
我依然坐在那儿猜度，把我的头靠得很舒服，
舒舒服服地靠在那被灯光凝视的天鹅绒衬垫，
但被灯光爱慕地凝视着的紫色的天鹅绒衬垫，
她将显出，啊，永不复还！
接着我想，空气变得稠密，被无形香炉熏香，
提香炉的撒拉弗的脚步声响在有簇饰的地板。
“可怜的人，”我呼叫，“是上帝派天使为你送药，
这忘忧药能中止你对失去的丽诺尔的思念；
喝吧如吧，忘掉对失去的丽诺尔的思念！”
乌鸦说“永不复还。”
“先知！”我说“凶兆！——仍是先知，不管是鸟还是魔！是不是魔鬼送你，或是暴风雨抛你来到此岸，
孤独但毫不气馁，在这片妖惑鬼崇的荒原——
在这恐怖萦绕之家——告诉我真话，求你可怜——
基列有香膏吗？——告诉我——告诉我，求你可怜！”
乌鸦说“永不复还。”
“先知！”我说，“凶兆！——仍是先知、不管是鸟是魔！凭我们头顶的苍天起誓——凭我们都崇拜的上帝起誓——告诉这充满悲伤的灵魂。它能否在遥远的仙境
拥抱被天使叫作丽诺尔的少女，她纤尘不染——
拥抱被天使叫作丽诺尔的少女，她美丽娇艳。”
乌鸦说“永不复还。”
“让这话做我们的道别之辞，鸟或魔！”我突然叫道——“回你的暴风雨中去吧，回你黑沉沉的冥府阴间！
别留下黑色羽毛作为你的灵魂谎言的象征！
留给我完整的孤独！——快从我门上的雕像滚蛋！
从我心中带走你的嘴；从我房门带走你的外观！”
乌鸦说“永不复还。”
那乌鸦并没飞去，它仍然栖息，仍然栖息
在房门上方那苍白的帕拉斯半身雕像上面；
而它的眼光与正在做梦的魔鬼眼光一模一样，
照在它身上的灯光把它的阴影投射在地板；
而我的灵魂，会从那团在地板上漂浮的阴暗
被擢升么——永不复还！
The Raven is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. The raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references.
安娜贝尔.李
很久很久以前，
在一个滨海的国度里，
住着一位少女你或许认得，
她的芳名叫安娜贝尔.李；
这少女活着没有别的愿望，
只为和我俩情相许。
那会儿我还是个孩子，她也未脱稚气，在这个滨海的国度里；
可我们的爱超越一切，无人能及——我和我的安娜贝尔.李；
我们爱得那样深，连天上的六翼天使也把我和她妒嫉。
这就是那不幸的根源，很久以前
在这个滨海的国度里，
夜里一阵寒风从白云端吹起，冻僵了我的安娜贝尔.李；
于是她那些高贵的亲戚来到凡间
把她从我的身边夺去，
将她关进一座坟墓
在这个滨海的国度里。
这些天使们在天上，不及我们一半快活，于是他们把我和她妒嫉——
对——就是这个缘故（谁不晓得呢，在这个滨海的国度里）
云端刮起了寒风，
冻僵并带走了我的安娜贝尔.李。
可我们的爱情远远地胜利
那些年纪长于我们的人——
那些智慧胜于我们的人——
无论是天上的天使，
还是海底的恶魔，
都不能将我们的灵魂分离，
我和我美丽的安娜贝尔.李。
因为月亮的每一丝清辉都勾起我的回忆
梦里那美丽的安娜贝尔.李
群星的每一次升空都令我觉得秋波在闪动
那是我美丽的安娜贝尔.李
就这样，伴着潮水，我整夜躺在她身旁
我亲爱的——我亲爱的——我的生命，我的新娘，
在海边那座坟茔里，
在大海边她的墓穴里。
"Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are jealous. He retains his love for her even after her death. There has been debate over who, if anyone, was the inspiration for "Annabel Lee". Though many women have been suggested, Poe's wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe is one of the
more credible candidates. Written in 1849, it was not published until shortly after Poe's death that same year.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The story surrounds the baffling double murder of Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter in the Rue Morgue, a fictional street in Paris. Newspaper accounts of the murder reveal that the mother's throat is so badly cut that her head is barely attached and the daughter, after being strangled, has been stuffed into the chimney. The murder occurs in an inaccessible room on the fourth floor locked from the inside. Neighbors who hear the murder give contradictory accounts, claiming they hear the murderer speaking a different language. The speech is unclear, they say, and they admit to not knowing the language they are claiming to have heard.
Paris natives Dupin and his friend, the unnamed narrator of the story, read these newspaper accounts with interest. The two live in seclusion and allow no visitors. They have cut off contact with "former associates" and venture outside only at night. "We existed within ourselves alone", the narrator explains. When a man named Adolphe Le Bon has been imprisoned though no evidence exists pointing to his guilt, Dupin is so intrigued that he offers his services to "G–", the prefect of police.
Because none of the witnesses can agree on the language the murderer spoke, Dupin concludes they were not hearing a human voice at all. He finds a hair at the scene of the murder that is quite unusual; "this is no human hair", he concludes. Dupin puts an advertisement in the newspaper asking if anyone has lost an "Ourang-Outang". The ad is answered by a sailor who comes to Dupin at his home. The sailor offers a reward for the orangutan's return; Dupin asks for all the information the sailor has about the murders in the Rue Morgue. The sailor reveals that he had been keeping a captive orangutan obtained while ashore in Borneo. The animal escaped with the sailor's shaving straight razor. When he pursued the orangutan, it escaped by scaling a wall and climbing up a lightning rod, entering the apartment in the Rue Morgue through a window.
Once in the room, the surprised Madame L'Espanaye could not defend herself as the orangutan attempted to shave her in imitation of the sailor's daily routine. The bloody deed incited it to fury and it squeezed the daughter's throat until she died. The orangutan then became aware of its master's whip, which it feared, and it attempted to hide the body by stuffing it into the chimney. The sailor, aware of the "murder", panicked and fled, allowing the orangutan to escape. The prefect of police, upon hearing this story, mentions that people should mind their own business. Dupin responds that G– is "too cunning to be profound."
Ligeia
The unnamed narrator describes the qualities of Ligeia, a beautiful, passionate and intellectual woman, raven-haired and dark-eyed, that he thinks he remembers meeting "in some large, old decaying city near the Rhine." He is unable to recall anything about the history of Ligeia, including her family's name, but remembers her beautiful appearance. Her beauty, however, is not conventional. He describes her as emaciated, with some "strangeness." He describes her face in detail, from her "faultless" forehead
to the "divine orbs" of her eyes. They marry, and Ligeia impresses her husband with her immense knowledge of physical and mathematical science, and her proficiency in classical languages. She begins to show her husband her knowledge of metaphysical and "forbidden" wisdom.
After an unspecified length of time Ligeia becomes ill, struggles internally with human mortality, and ultimately dies. The narrator, grief-stricken, buys and refurbishes an abbey in England. He soon enters into a loveless marriage with "the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine."
In the second month of the marriage, Rowena begins to suffer from worsening fever and anxiety. One night, when she is about to faint, the narrator pours her a goblet of wine. Drugged with opium, he sees (or thinks he sees) drops of "a brilliant and ruby colored fluid" fall into the goblet. Her condition rapidly worsens, and a few days later she dies and her body is wrapped for burial.
As the narrator keeps vigil overnight, he notices a brief return of color to Rowena's cheeks. She repeatedly shows signs of reviving, before relapsing into apparent death. As he attempts resuscitation, the revivals become progressively stronger, but the relapses more final. As dawn breaks, and the narrator is sitting emotionally exhausted from the night's struggle, the shrouded body revives once more, stands and walks into the middle of the room. When he touches the figure, its head bandages fall away to reveal masses of raven hair and dark eyes: Rowena has transformed into Ligeia.
The Tell-Tale Heart
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a first-person narrative of an unnamed narrator who insists he is sane but suffering from a disease (nervousness) which causes "over-acuteness of the senses". The old man with whom he lives has a clouded, pale, blue "vulture-like" eye which so distresses the narrator that he plots to murder the old man, though the narrator states that he loves the old man, and hates only the eye. The narrator insists that his careful precision in committing the murder shows that he cannot possibly be insane. For seven nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room, a process which takes him a full hour. However, the old man's vulture eye is always closed, making it impossible to "do the work".
On the eighth night, the old man awakens and sits up in his own bed while the narrator performs his nightly ritual. The narrator does not draw back and, after some time, decides to open his lantern. A single ray of light shines out and lands precisely on the old man's eye, revealing that it is wide open. Hearing the old man's heart beating unusually and dangerously quick from terror, the narrator decides to strike, jumping out with a loud yell and smothering the old man with his own bed. The narrator dismembers the body and conceals the pieces under the floorboards, making certain to hide all signs of the crime. Even so, the old man's scream during the night causes a neighbor to report to the police. The narrator invites the three arriving officers in to look around. He claims that the screams heard were his own in a nightmare and that the man is absent in the country. Confident that they will not find any evidence of the murder, the narrator brings chairs for them and they sit in the old man's room, right on the very spot where the body is concealed, yet they suspect
nothing, as the narrator has a pleasant and easy manner about him.
The narrator, however, begins to hear a faint noise. As the noise grows louder, the narrator comes to the conclusion that it is the heartbeat of the old man coming from under the floorboards. The sound increases steadily, though the officers seem to pay no attention to it. Shocked by the constant beating of the heart and a feeling that not only are the officers aware of the sound, but that they also suspect him, the narrator confesses to killing the old man and tells them to tear up the floorboards to reveal the body.
The Fall of the House of Usher
The tale opens with the unnamed narrator arriving at the house of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, having received a letter from him in a distant part of the country complaining of an illness and asking for his help. Although Poe wrote this short story before the invention of modern psychological science, Roderick's symptoms can be described according to its terminology.
They include hyperesthesia (hypersensitivity to light, sounds, smells, and tastes), hypochondria (an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness), and acute anxiety. It is revealed that Roderick's twin sister, Madeline, is also ill and falls into cataleptic, death-like trances. The narrator is impressed with Roderick's paintings, and attempts to cheer him by reading with him and listening to his improvised musical compositions on the guitar. Roderick sings "The Haunted Palace", then tells the narrator that he believes the house he lives in to be sentient, and that this sentience arises from the arrangement of the masonry and vegetation surrounding it. Roderick later informs the narrator that his sister has died and insists that she be entombed for two weeks in a vault (family tomb) in the house before being permanently buried. The narrator helps Roderick put the body in the tomb, and he notes that Madeline has rosy cheeks, as some do after death. They inter her, but over the next week both Roderick and the narrator find themselves becoming increasingly agitated for no apparent reason. A storm begins. Roderick comes to the narrator's bedroom, which is situated directly above the vault, and throws open his window to the storm. He notices that the tarn surrounding the house seems to glow in the dark, as it glowed in Roderick Usher's paintings, although there is no lightning.
The narrator attempts to calm Roderick by reading aloud The Mad Trist, a novel involving a knight named Ethelred who breaks into a hermit's dwelling in an attempt to escape an approaching storm, only to find a palace of gold guarded by a dragon. He also finds hanging on the wall a shield of shining brass of which is written a legend: that the one who slays the dragon wins the shield. With a stroke of his mace, Ethelred kills the dragon, who dies with a piercing shriek, and proceeds to take the shield, which falls to the floor with an unnerving clatter.
As the narrator reads of the knight's forcible entry into the dwelling, cracking and ripping sounds are heard somewhere in the house. When the dragon is described as shrieking as it dies, a shriek is heard, again within the house. As he relates the shield falling from off the wall, a reverberation, metallic and hollow, can be heard. Roderick becomes increasingly hysterical, and eventually exclaims that these sounds are being
made by his sister, who was in fact alive when she was entombed and that Roderick knew that she was alive. The bedroom door is then blown open to reveal Madeline standing there. She falls on her brother, and both land on the floor as corpses. The narrator then flees the house, and, as he does so, notices a flash of light causing him to look back upon the House of Usher, in time to watch it break in two, the fragments sinking into the tarn.
Analysis
The Fall of the House of Usher shows Poe's ability to create an emotional tone in his work, specifically feelings of fear, doom, and guilt. These emotions center on Roderick Usher who, like many Poe characters, suffers from an unnamed disease. The illness manifests physically but is based in Roderick's mental or even moral state. He is sick, it is suggested, because he expects to be sick based on his family's history of illness and is, therefore, essentially a hypochondriac. Similarly, he buries his sister alive because he expects to bury her alive, creating his own self-fulfilling prophecy.
The House of Usher, itself doubly referring both to the actual structure and the family, plays a significant role in the story. It is the first "character" that the narrator introduces to the reader, presented with a humanized description: its windows are described as "eye-like" twice in the first paragraph. The fissure that develops in its side is symbolic of the decay of the Usher family and the house "dies" along with the two Usher siblings. This connection was emphasized in Roderick's poem The Haunted Palace which seems to be a direct reference to the house that foreshadows doom.
The Collapsing Mansion: Decline of the Usher family.
The “Vacant eye-like” Windows of the Mansion: (1) Hollow, cadaverous eyes of Roderick Usher; (2) Madeline Usher’s cataleptic gaze; (3) the vacuit y of life in the Usher mansion.
The Tarn, a Small Lake Encircling the Mansion and Reflecting Its Image: (1) Madeline as the twin of Roderick, reflecting his image and personality; (2) the image of reality which Roderick and the narrator perceive; though the water of the tarn reflects details exactly, the image is upside down, leaving open the possibility that Roderick and the narrator see a false reality; (3) the desire of the Ushers to isolate themselves from the outside world.
The Bridge Over the Tarn: The narrator as Roderick Usher’s only link to the outside world.
The name Usher: An usher is a doorkeeper. In this sense, Roderick Usher opens the door to a frightening world for the narrator.
The Storm: The turbulent emotions experienced by the characters.
VII. American Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about 1836 to 1860. It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church, developing instead their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world. Transcendentalism derived some of its basic
idealistic concepts from romantic German philosophy, and from such English authors as Carlyle, Coleridge, and Wordsworth. Its mystical aspects were partly influenced by Indian and Chinese religious teachings. Although transcendentalism was never a rigorously systematic philosophy, it had some basic tenets that were generally shared by its adherents.
The belief that god is immanent in each person and in nature and that individual intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority. The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in such essays as Nature (1836), and Self-Reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden (1854).
“The universe is composed of Nature and the Soul.”
“spirit is present everywhere.”
Background: four sources
1. Unitarianism
(1) Fatherhood of God
(2) Brotherhood of men
(3) Leadership of Jesus
(4) Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character)
(5) Continued progress of mankind
(6) Divinity of mankind
(7) Depravity of mankind
2. Romantic Idealism
Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)
3. Oriental mysticism
Center of the world is “oversoul”
4. Puritanism
Eloquent expression in transcendentalism
Features
1. spirit/oversoul (The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. It existed in nature and man alike and constituted the chief element of the universe.)
2. importance of individualism (Individual was the most important element of society.)
3. nature – symbol of spirit/God (Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. It was garment of the Oversoul Therefore it could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind. “Go back to nature, sink yourself into its influence, and you’ll become spiritually whole again.”)
4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)
Influence
1. It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.
2. It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.
3. It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period in American literature.
VIII. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
His Works:
Nature
The American Scholar
The Divinity School Address
Essays
Representative Men
English Traits
Poems
point of view
(1) One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the “oversoul”.
(2) He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.
(3) If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”.
(4) Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by making himself.
IX. Henry David Thoreau （1817-1862）
Walden
(1) He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.
(2) He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.
(3) Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being.
(4) He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.
(5) He was very critical of modern civilization.
(6) “Simplicity…simplify!”
(7) He was sorely disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society”.
(8) He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men. X. Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)
Much of Hawthorne's writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the
The literature of colonial America John Smith 1）The1st American writer 2）作品“reports of exploration”have been de scribed as the1st distinctly American literatur e written in English,attracted Pilgrims(朝圣者) &the Puritans. 3）1608，写了封信“A true Relation of Such O ccurance&Accidents of Note as Hath Happen ed in Virginia Since the1st planting of That c olony” 4）1612，第二本书“A map of Virginia:with a Description of the Country” 5）他一共出版了八本书，公司破产以后做了向导，he sought a post as guide to the pilgrims. 1624，“General History of Virginia”讲述How the Indian princess Pocahonats Saved him. 6）他早期记录和反映的思想慢慢演变成了美国历史的基本思想，这种思想推动了美国边疆的西移。7）早期英格兰文学主要关于theological(神学), moral(道德),historical and political.
The Puritans in New England embraced hards hips,together with the discipline of a harsh church.They had toughness,purpose and cha racter,they grappled strongly with challenges they set themselves.他们的基本价值观：hard w ork,thrift,piety and sobriety.（也是美国作品的主导思想） William Bradford&John Withrop 1）William Bradford：“The History of Plymouth Plantation”（从1630年写起，关于一群清教徒从英国出发到Amsterdam最后到新大陆的过程）Cotton Mather评价：“a common blessing and father to them all.” 2）John Withrop：“The History of New England”（1630，登上Arbella号去Massachusetts并keep a journal and to the rest of his life.1826年出版）3）Puritans -Puritans wanted to make pure their religious beliefs and practices.The Puritan was Would-be purifier. -Looked upon themselves as a choosen peol
大物知识点总结 第一部分声现象及物态变化 （一）声现象 1. 声音的发生：一切正在发声的物体都在振动，振动停止，发声也就停止。声音是由物体的振动产生的，但并不是所有的振动都会发出声音。 2. 声音的传播：声音的传播需要介质，真空不能传声 （1）声音要靠一切气体，液体、固体作媒介传播出去，这些作为传播媒介的物质称为介质。登上月球的宇航员即使面对面交谈，也需要靠无线电，那就是因为月球上没有空气，真空不能传声 （2）声间在不同介质中传播速度不同 3. 回声：声音在传播过程中，遇到障碍物被反射回来人再次听到的声音叫回声 （1）区别回声与原声的条件：回声到达人的耳朵比原声晚0.1秒以上。 （2）低于0.1秒时，则反射回来的声间只能使原声加强。 （3）利用回声可测海深或发声体距障碍物有多运 4. 音调：声音的高低叫音调，它是由发声体振动频率决定的，频率越大，音调越高。 5. 响度：声音的大小叫响度，响度跟发声体振动的振幅大小有关，还跟声源到人耳的距离远近有关 6. 音色：不同发声体所发出的声音的品质叫音色 7. 噪声及来源 从物理角度看，噪声是指发声体做无规则地杂乱无章振动时发出的声音。从环保角度看，凡是妨碍人们正常休息、学习和工作的声音都属于噪声。 8. 声音等级的划分 人们用分贝来划分声音的等级，30dB—40dB是较理想的安静环境，超过50dB 就会影响睡眠，70dB以上会干扰谈话，影响工作效率，长期生活在90dB以上的噪声环境中，会影响听力。 9. 噪声减弱的途径：可以在声源处、传播过程中和人耳处减弱 （二）物态变化 1 温度：物体的冷热程度叫温度
2摄氏温度：把冰水混合物的温度规定为0度，把1标准大气压下沸水的温度规定为100度。 3温度计 （1）原理：液体的热胀冷缩的性质制成的 （2）构造：玻璃壳、毛细管、玻璃泡、刻度及液体 （3）使用：使用温度计以前，要注意观察量程和认清分度值 4.使用温度计做到以下三点 ①温度计与待测物体充分接触 ②待示数稳定后再读数 ③读数时，视线要与液面上表面相平，温度计仍与待测物体紧密接触 5.体温计，实验温度计，寒暑表的主要区别 构造量程分度值用法 体温计玻璃泡上方有缩口 35—42℃ 0.1℃①离开人体读数 ②用前需甩 实验温度计无—20—100℃ 1℃不能离开被测物读数，也不能甩 寒暑表无—30 —50℃ 1℃同上 6.熔化和凝固 物质从固态变成液态叫熔化，熔化要吸热 物质从液态变成固态叫凝固，凝固要放热 7.熔点和凝固点 （1）固体分晶体和非晶体两类 （2）熔点：晶体都有一定的熔化温度，叫熔点 （3）凝固点：晶体者有一定的凝固温度，叫凝固点 同一种物质的凝固点跟它的熔点相同 8.物质从液态变为气态叫汽化，汽化有两种不同的方式：蒸发和沸腾，这两种方式都要吸热 9.蒸发现象 （1）定义：蒸发是液体在任何温度下都能发生的，并且只在液体表面发生的汽化现象 （2）影响蒸发快慢的因素：液体温度高低，液体表面积大小，液体表面空气流动的快慢
History and Anthology of American Literature Part I The Literature of Colonial America 1.Historical Introduction ·The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. ·Among the members of the small band of Jamestown settlers was Captain John Smith. His reports of exploration have been described as the first distinctly American literature written in English. 2.Early New England Literature ·The American poets who emerged in the 17 century adapted the style of established European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange, new environment. Anne Bradstreet was one such poet. John Smith 1.The first American writer. 2.Works: (1)A true Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (2)A Map of Virginia with a Description of the Country (3)The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles William Bradford & John Winthrop 1.William Bradford: 曾任普利茅斯总督 ·Work: Of Plymouth Plantation《普利茅斯垦殖记》 2.John Winthrop: 曾任马萨诸塞湾总督，波士顿总督 ·Work: The History of New England from 1630 to 1649《新英格兰历史：1630-1649》 John Cotton & Roger Williams 1.John Cotton: 清教徒牧师和作家 ·The first major intellectual spokesman of Massachusetts Bay Colony was John Cotton, sometimes called “the Patriarch of New England”. 2.Roger Williams: 出生于伦敦的进步宗教思想家，曾长期受到英国殖民当局的迫害 ·He was interested in the Indian language ·Work：A Key into the Language of America 《阿美利加语言的钥匙》 Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor 1.Anne Bradstreet：美国第一位作品得以发表的女诗人 ·Work：The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America《第十位缪斯》 2.Edward Taylor：美国清教派牧师和诗人，被公认为美国19世纪前最重要的诗人 ·The best of the Puritan poets Part II The Literature of Reason and Revolution 1.Background: In the seventies of the eighteenth century the English colonies in North America rose in arms against their mother country. The War of Independence lasted for eight years(1775-1783) and ended in the formation of a federative bourgeois democratic republic—the United States of America. 2.American Enlightenment（美国启蒙运动）dealt a decisive blow to the Puritan traditions and brought to life secular
Part I The Literature of Colonial America I．Historical Introduction The colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.) II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds: 1) Practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people "at home" what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration 2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. III．The First American Writer The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians. Captain John Smith is the first American writer. A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608) A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612) General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess Pocahontas Captain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers. One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV．Early New England Literature William Bradford and John Winthrop John Cotton and Roger Williams Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor V．Puritan Thoughts 1. The origin of puritan In the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church of
美国文学史梗概 一、殖民地时代和美国建国初期 最早来自这片新大陆的欧洲移民主要是定居在新英格兰的清教徒和马萨诸塞的罗马天主教徒，二者虽然在教义上有很多不同之处，但他们都信奉加尔文主义：人生在世只是为了受苦受难，而他们唯一的希望是争做上帝的“选民”，死后进天国，相信“原罪”。这时的文学作品也主要反映了这些思想，和欧洲文学一脉相承。 代表作家：考顿·马瑟，乔纳森·爱德华兹，安妮·布拉兹特里特，爱德华·泰勒。 二、18世纪独立战争胜利后，美国经济社会进入稳步发展时期 这一时期是启蒙运动时期（the Enlightenment）,从字面上讲，启蒙运
动就是启迪蒙昧，反对愚昧主义，提倡普及文化教育的运动。但就其精神实质上看，它是宣扬资产阶级政治思想体系的运动，并非单纯是文学运动。它是文艺复兴时期资产阶级反封建、反禁欲、反教会斗争的继续和发展，直接为一七八九年的法国大革命奠定了思想基础。启蒙思想家们从人文主义者手里进一步从理论上证明封建制度的不合理，从而提出一整套哲学理论，政治纲领和社会改革方案，要求建立一个以“理性”为基础的社会。他们用政治自由对抗专制暴政，用信仰自由对抗宗教压迫，用自然神论和无神论来摧毁天主教权威和宗教偶像，用“天赋人权”的口号来反对“君权神授”的观点，用“人人在法律面前平等”来反对贵族的等级特权，进而建立资产阶级的政权。是欧洲第二次思想解放运动。） 主要文学指导思想是“自然神论”（Deism），这个思想认为虽然上帝创造了宇宙和它存在的规则，但是在此之
后上帝并不再对这个世界的发展产生影响。自然神论反对蒙昧主义和神秘主义，否定迷信和各种违反自然规律的“奇迹”；认为上帝不过是“世界理性”或“有智慧的意志”；上帝作为世界的“始因”或“造物主”，它在创世之后就不再干预世界事务，而让世界按照它本身的规律存在和发展下去；主张用“理性宗教”代替“天启宗教”。人生在世，不再是受苦受难以换取来世的新生，而是要消灭种族、性别和信仰的不平等，建立自己的“人间乐园”。 启蒙运动中出现大量优秀的散文作品，并多出自开国元勋之手，如本杰明·富兰克林，托马斯·潘恩，以及托马斯·杰斐逊。 三、19世纪南北战争时期 这一时期的文学先后发展了浪漫主义，现实主义和自然主义。
Captain John Smith (first American writer). Anne Bradstreet；The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America （colonists living） Edward Taylor(the best puritan poet) John Cotton ”the Patriarch of New England” teacher spiritual leader Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography Poor Richard’s Almanack Thomas Jefferson： Political Career Thoughts The Declaration of Independence we hold truth to be self-evidence Philip Freneau“Father of American Poetry” The Wild Honey Suckle American Romanticism optimism and hope Nationalism Washington Irving“Father of American Literature short story”The first “Pure Writer” A History of New York The Sketch Book marked the beginning of American Romanticism! “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”Rip Van Winkle James Fenimore Cooper Father of American sea and frontier novels Leather stocking Tales The Last of the Mohicans The Pioneers The Prairie The Pathfinder The Deerslayer Edgar Allan Poe father of detective story and horror fiction Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque “MS. Found in a Bottle” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” “The Fall of the House of Usher”“The Masque of the Red Death”“The
1、The Colonial Period（1607-1765） American Puritanism ( in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th) 北美第一位女诗人Anne Bradstreet(宗教气息，夫妻恩爱) Edward Taylor 都受英国玄学派影响（metaphysical） 2、The Enlightenment and Revolution Period Benjamin Franklin:Poor Richard's Almanac The Autobiography---“美国梦”的根源 3、American Romanticism（end of 18th to the civil war） American writers emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature. 早期浪漫主义Washington Irving father of American Literature
History And Anthology of American Literature （6） 附：作者及作品 一、殖民主义时期The Literature of Colonial America 1．船长约翰·史密斯Captain John Smith 《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚垦荒以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》 “A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony” 《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》 “A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country” 《弗吉尼亚通史》“General History of Virginia” 2．威廉·布拉德福德William Bradford 《普利茅斯开发历史》“The History of Plymouth Plantation”3．约翰·温思罗普John Winthrop 《新英格兰历史》“The History of New England” 4．罗杰·威廉姆斯Roger Williams 《开启美国语言的钥匙》”A Key into the Language of America” 或叫《美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南》 Or “A Help to the Language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England ” 5．安妮·布莱德斯特Anne Bradstreet 《在美洲诞生的第十个谬斯》 ”The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America” 二、理性和革命时期文学The Literature of Reason and Revolution 1。本杰明·富兰克林Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) ※《自传》“ The Autobiography ” 《穷人理查德的年鉴》“Poor Richard’s Almanac” 2。托马斯·佩因Thomas Paine (1737-1809) ※《美国危机》“The American Crisis” 《收税官的案子》“The Case of the Officers of the Excise”《常识》“Common Sense” 《人权》“Rights of Man” 《理性的时代》“The Age of Reason” 《土地公平》“Agrarian Justice” 3。托马斯·杰弗逊Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) ※《独立宣言》“The Declaration of I ndependence” 4。菲利浦·弗瑞诺Philip Freneau (1752-1832) ※《野忍冬花》“The Wild Honey Suckle” ※《印第安人的坟地》“The Indian Burying Ground” ※《致凯提·迪德》“To a Caty-Did” 《想象的力量》“The Power of Fancy” 《夜屋》“The House of Night” 《英国囚船》“The British Prison Ship” 《战争后期弗瑞诺主要诗歌集》 “The Poems of Philip Freneau Written Chiefly During the Late War” 《札记》“Miscellaneous Works” 三、浪漫主义文学The Literature of Romanticism 1。华盛顿·欧文Washington Irving (1783-1859) ※《作者自叙》“The Author’s Account of Himself” ※《睡谷传奇》“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《见闻札记》“Sketch Book” 《乔纳森·欧尔德斯泰尔》“Jonathan Oldstyle” 《纽约外史》“A History of New York” 《布雷斯布里奇庄园》“Bracebridge Hall” 《旅行者故事》“Tales of Traveller” 《查理二世》或《快乐君主》“Charles the Second” Or “The Merry Monarch” 《克里斯托弗·哥伦布生平及航海历史》 “A History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus” 《格拉纳达征服编年史》”A Chronicle of the Conquest of Grandada” 《哥伦布同伴航海及发现》 ”V oyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus” 《阿尔罕布拉》“Alhambra” 《西班牙征服传说》“Legends of the Conquest of Spain” 《草原游记》“A Tour on the Prairies” 《阿斯托里亚》“Astoria” 《博纳维尔船长历险记》“The Adventures of Captain Bonneville” 《奥立弗·戈尔德史密斯》”Life of Oliver Goldsmith” 《乔治·华盛顿传》“Life of George Washington” 2．詹姆斯·芬尼莫·库珀James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) ※《最后的莫希干人》“The Last of the Mohicans” 《间谍》“The Spy” 《领航者》“The Pilot” 《美国海军》“U.S. Navy” 《皮袜子故事集》“Leather Stocking Tales” 包括《杀鹿者》、《探路人》”The Deerslayer”, ”The Pathfinder” 《最后的莫希干人》“The Last of the Mohicans” 《拓荒者》、《大草原》“The Pioneers”, “The Praire” 3。威廉·卡伦·布莱恩特William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) ※《死之思考》“Thanatopsis” ※《致水鸟》“To a Waterfowl” 4。埃德加·阿伦·坡Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) ※《给海伦》“To Helen” ※《乌鸦》“The Raven” ※《安娜贝尔·李》“Annabel Lee” ※《鄂榭府崩溃记》“The Fall of the House of Usher” 《金瓶子城的方德先生》“Ms. Found in a Bottle” 《述异集》“Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque” 5。拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) ※《论自然》“Nature” ※《论自助》“Self-Reliance” 《美国学者》“The American Scholar” 《神学院致辞》“The Divinity School Address” 《随笔集》“Essays” 《代表》“Representative Men” 《英国人》“English Traits” 《诗集》“Poems” 6。亨利·戴维·梭罗Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) ※《沃尔登我生活的地方我为何生活》 1
英国概况 1，英国名称：The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) 2，地理位置：Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles, the largest island in Europe and the eighth-largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of Continental Europe, with Ireland to the west, and makes up the largest part of the territory of the state known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is surrounded by over 1,000[citation needed] smaller islands and islets. 或者回答British mainland western Europe from Great Britain and Ireland, north-east and many nearby islands， She east by the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, up to the North Atlantic off Iceland, Yugoslavia and the European continent, separated only by a strip of water, the English Channel 3, 英国首都：London 4,组成部分：England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland 5,民族：England Welsh、Scotch、Irish 6, 英国国旗：the Union Flag英国国歌：God Save The Queen 天佑女7，三次外族入侵：ⅠRoman Conquest；43AD, the roman empire
美国文学史及选读试题上册 姓名：班级：学号 I. Multiple Choice 20’ I. 1. Who is different from others according to the division of writing period? A. Washington Irving B.William Cullen Bryant C. Captain John Smith D. James Fenimore Cooper 2. The American Romantic Period lasted roughly from ____ to ____. A. 1798-1832 B. 1810-1860 C. 1860-1864 D. 1776-1783 3. How many syllables are there in this first line of Raven? (“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,”) A. 11 B. 12 C. 13 D. 16 4. What dominated the Puritan phase of American writing? A. theology B. literature C. esthetics D. revolution 5. At the initial period of the spread of ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to ____. A. typography B. journalism C. revolution D. the development of paper-making industry 6. Who has been called the “Father of American Literature”? A. Walt Scott B. Geoffrey Chaucer C. Washington Irving D. Philip Freneau 7. Who is the first American prose stylist that acquired international fame? A. Captain John Smith B. Washington Irving C. Benjamin Franklin D. E. A. Poe 8. Who is the writer of To a Waterfowl? A. Anne Bradstreet B. Thomas Hardy C. William Cullen Bryant D. Walt Whitman 9. Thomas Paine is a ____. A. novelist B. dramatist C. poet D. pamphleteer 10. Edgar Allan Poe mainly writes ____ A. short stories B. literary critic theories C. poems D. dramas II. Blank-Filling 20’ 1. ____’s reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been described as the first distinctly American literature to be written in English. 2. Hard work, ____, piety, and ____were the Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing, including the sermons, books and letters of such noted Puritan clergymen as John Cotton and Cotton Mather. 3. Most Puritan verse was decidedly plodding, but the work of two writers, Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, rose to the level of____ 4. From 1732 to 1785, Franklin wrote and published his famous ____, an annual collection of proverbs. 5. On January 10, 1776, Paine’s famous pamphlet ____ appeared. It boldly advocated a