American Literature1.American puritanismIn the early part of the 17th century, the settlement of the North American continent by the English began. Quite a few of the first settlers were Puritans. They carried with them to American a code of values, a philodophy of life and a point of view, whivh is popularly known as American Puritarism.American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and literature.1.puritans accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin, total depravity andlimited atonement from God’s grace.2.they went to prove that they are God’s chosen people enjoying his blessing on thisearth as in heaven.3.they are both doctrinaire and oppotunist.Influence on American literature:1. American literature is based on a myth-the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. Puritans dreamed of building a new Garden of Eden in America.Fired with such a sence of mission, the puritans were optimistic, which has a great influence on American literature.2. The American Puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception helps swvelop a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.3. With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct, the rhetoric is plain and honest, whith have great influence on American writing.2.American RomanticismTime: from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. Background:1.erican political, economic and cultural independence developed fast.2.reign influences stimulated the growth of romanticism in American.Features:1.American national experience of pioneering into the west provided rich materialfor American writers.2.puritanism had a noticeable influence on American Romanticism. AmericanRomantic authors tended more to moralize than their English and European cournterparts.3.American’s ideals of indiividualism and political equality and their dream thatAmerican was to be a new Garden of Eden did probably produce a feeling of newness, a feeling stronge enough to inspire the romantic imagination.4.American Romanticism was both imitative and independent.Main contents:The exotic landscape, the frontier life, the westward expansion, the myth of a New Garden of Eden in America(the native materials),New England Poems. Representatives: New England Poets-Longfellow and so on.Writers: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper3.New England TranscendentalismBackground:1.Ralph Waldo Emerson published Nature in 1836 which represented a new way ofintellectual thinking in American: the universe is composed of Nature and the soul.Spirit is present everywhere.2.in 1836, some New Englanders organized the Transcendental Club.Major features:1.the Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the oversoul, as the mostimportant things in the universe.2.the Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual.3.the Transcendectalists regard nature as symbolic of the spirit or God. Representatives: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Dickinson.The phrase of New England Transcendentalism was the product of a combination of foreign influences and the American Puritan tradition(it begun with the introduction of idealistic philosophy from Germany and France; it was actually Romanticism on the Puritan Soul). It never had a systematic philosophy, it borrowed from many sourses, but lacked of logical connection, finally, it turned to mysticism.4.The Age of RealismBackground:1.after American Civil War, increasing industrialization and mechanization of thecountry produced extremes of wealth and poverty.2.the fact that the frontier was closing ruined people’s hope th escape troubles overthe next hill and have a better life ahead.3.by the 1870s, New England Renaisance had waned. The age of Romanticism andTranscendentalism was by and large over. Meanwhile, younger writers oppeared on the scene.Time:In the batter half of the 19th century, realism came as a literary movement against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism.Major features:1.realism is the theory of writing in which familiar aspects of contemporany lifeand everyday scences are represented in a straightforward or mother-of-fact manner.2.open ending(means real life is complex and cannot be fully understood).3.focus on the lives of the common people.4.emphasize objectivity.Represenrarives: William Dean Howells, Herry James, Mark Twain.5.Local colorismLocal colorism became dominant in the late 1860s and early 1870s. It originated from the frontier humorists with their “tall tales”. It presents a locale which is distinguished from the outside world；It describes the exotic and the picturesque；It describes things that are not common in other regions；It shows things as they are；It glorifies the past；It stresses the influence of setting on character.Representative: Mark Twain—“The adventures of Huckleberry Finn”; “The adventures of Tom Sawyer”.The local colorists formed an important part of the realistic movement. Their truthful depiction of the common people in their commonplace lives added strength to the fight for realism.6.American naturalismNew idea about man and man’s place in the universe bagan to take root in Amarican. Living in a cold, indifferent and essentially Godless world, man was no longer free in any sense of the word. He was completely thrown upon himself for survival. The outlook of many rising authors and intellectuals have changed, and an attitude of gloom and despair which characterize American literature of this period.7.American Imagism:Imagism was flourished from 1909-1917. It was one of the most essential techniques of writing poetry in modern period with a spirit of revolt against conventions, anti—romantic and anti-victorian.It produced free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern. Imagism tried to record objective observations of an object or a situation without interpretation or comment by the poet. (suggestion rather than compete statement). Imagism helped to open the first pages of modern American poetry.The most outstanding figures: Ezra Pound ( His famous books are Cathy, Canto) and T.S. Eliot ( The Wasteland, Four Quarters)English Literature1.The English RenaissanceThe English Renaissance or the rebirth of letters was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century。