American Literature
Introduction
Historical Background
1.Early history:
1) What
In 1542,
found
doChristopher
you know Columbus
about American
the new
continent called America.
early
history?
2) In 1607, Captain John Smith led some
Englishmen across the ocean.
3) In 1620, 102 passengers sailed on the
ship Mayflower across the sea and
settled on the new continent “New
England”.
Historical Background
2. People:
native inhabitants: Indians
Immigrants mostly from Europe: Spanish;
Dutch; French
English immigrants, Jamestown, Virginia,
1607
Puritans
advocated religious
&moral principles
a group of
religious people
Historical Background
Calvinists
a code of values
a philosophy of life
a point of view
took roots in the New World
3. Belief---Puritanism
 Puritans wanted to “purify the church” to
its original state, because they thought the
church was corrupted and had too many
rituals
Doctrines of Puritans
taking religion as the most important thing;
living for glorifying God;
believing predestination, original sin, total
depravi, & limited atonement
American Puritanism
Features of American Puritan
idealist
dream
more practical,
tougher
they would build
the new land to
an Eden on earth.
the severe conditions
struggle for survival
preoccupied with business and profits
American Puritanism
Enduring shaping influence on literature
①Basis of American literature
dreamed of living under a
perfect order
worked with courage
hoped to build an Eden of
Garden on earth
faced the worst of life with
optimism
went into
the making
of
American
literature
All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.
American Puritanism
②Contributing to the development of
Symbolism: a technique, widely used
Symbolism means using symbols in literary
works. The symbol means something that
represents or stands for abstract deep
meaning.
Puritans thought that all the
simple objects existing in the
world connoted deep meaning.
American Puritanism
③Influencing the style of literature:
simple, fresh and direct (just as the
style of the Authorized Version of Holy
Bible)
Without understanding of Puritanism,
there can be no good understanding of
American culture and literature.
Brief Outline of American
Literature
1. Colonial period and
Revolutionary
period
2.Romanticism
5. After the WWII
4. The Modern
period
3.The age of
Realism
Colonial period and Revolutionary period
Time:
the settlement of North America
the Independence War
Major topic: American Puritanism
1607
1783
Colonial period and Revolutionary period
Benjamin Franklin
Jonathan Edwards
Romanticism
Time:
the Independence War
the Civil War
American ideal of
democracy & equality,
industrialization,
westward expansion,
foreign influences
1783
1861
possible &
inevitable
literary
expansion &
expression
Romanticism (1783-1861)
Washington Irving
James Fenimore Cooper
Summit of Romanticism-Transcendentalism
(American Renaissance)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry DavidThoreau
Late Romanticism
not
optimistic
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Herman Melville
Romantic Poets
Walt Whitman
Emily Dickinson
Romanticism
the most
controversial
& the most
misunderstood
Edgar Allen Poe
The age of Realism
Time:
the Civil War
1861
the First World War
1914
concern for the common-place
offer an objective view
The Age of Realism (1861-1914)
Henry James
Mark Twain
Naturalism
Stephen Crane
Theodore Dreiser
Conclusion
Colonial period and
Revolutionary period
Early Romanticism
Transcendentalism
Late Romanticism
The age of Realism
Irving
Franklin
Cooper
Emerson
Hawthorne
Poe
Whitman
Dickenson
Twain
James
Dreiser
Melville
Thoreau
poets