1.The Literature of Colonial America殖民主义时期的文学17世纪早期English and European explorers开始登陆美洲。
在他们之前100多年Caribbean Islands, Mexico and other Parts of South America已被the Spanish占领。
17th早期English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts(弗吉尼亚和马萨诸塞)开始了美国历史美国最早殖民者(earliest settlers)included Dutch ,Swedes ,Germans ,French ,Spaniards ,Italians and Portuguese (荷兰人，瑞典人，德国人，法国人，西班牙人，意大利人及葡萄牙人等)。
美国早期文学主要为the narratives and journals of these settlements采用in diaries and in journals(日记和日志)，他们写关于the land with dense forests and deep-blue lakes and rich soil. 第一批美国永久居民：the first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown,Virginia in 1607(北美弗吉尼亚詹姆斯顿)。
船长约翰·史密斯Captain John Smith他的作品(reports of exploration)17th早期出版，被认为是美国第一部真正意义上的文学作品in the early 1600s,have been described as the first distinctly American literature written in English.他讲述了filled with themes, myths, images, scenes, character and events,吸引了朝圣者和清教徒前往lure the Pilgrims and the Puritans.美国第一位作家：1608年Captain John Smith写了封信《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”.他的第二本书1612年《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》“A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country”.他一共出版了八本书，其中有关于新英格兰的历史及描述。
其破产后做为向导sought a post as guide to the Pilgrims.他1624年《弗吉尼亚通史》“General History of Virginia”,讲述了传奇故事how the Indian princess Pocahontas( 波卡洪特斯)saved him.他保存了殖民者在Jamestown早期开荒史及explored the rivers and bays around the Chesapeake region(切萨皮克地区)，最重要的是he saw from the beginning what was eventually to be a basic principle of American history, the need of “workers”instead of “gentlemen”for the tough job of planting colonies and pushing the frontiers westward.早期新英格兰文学主要关于theological, moral, historical and political.清教徒坚韧耐劳，严格遵守教义the Puritans in New England embraced hardships, together with the discipline of a harsh church想建立神权社会found a theocracy,他们生活简朴，意志坚定，我行我素，不屈不挠地斗争they had toughness, purpose and character, they grappled strongly with challenges they set themselves.他们的基本价值观：注重勤劳，节俭，虔诚和节制hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety这些也成了早期美国作品主导思想。
2.Roger Williams他写过《开启美国语言的钥匙》或也叫做《美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南》“A Key into the Language of America”or “A Help to the language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England”3.Edward Taylor清教徒诗人中最杰出的一位the best of the Puritan poets 他的作品遵循了十七世纪中期一些杰出诗人风格和形式his work followed they style and forms of the leading English poets of the mid-seventeenth century。
他大部分作品关于宗教的，大部分诗歌直接以赞美诗为基础进行创作的most of Taylor’s work treated religious themes, with many poems based directly on the Psalms.在世时没出版过作品，1937年发现手稿，1960年泰勒诗歌全集。
4.托马斯·杰弗逊《独立宣言》Thomas Jefferson “Declaration of Independence1785年杰弗逊：《弗吉尼亚洲的声明》Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia”;5.Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林《穷人理查德的年鉴》“Poor Richard’s Almanac”，他最好作品收录在《自传》“Autobiography”6.Washington Irving华盛顿·欧文Bracebridge Hall布雷斯布里奇田庄(1822)，The Legend of Sleepy Hollow《睡谷传奇》，Tales of a Traveller旅客谈(1824)，Christopher Columbus (1828)，《作者自叙》：“The Author’s Account of Himself”7.James Fenimore Cooper詹姆斯·芬尼莫·库珀The Spy (1821): a historical novelThe Pilot (1824): a sea novelLeatherstocking Tales皮裹腿故事集(1823-1841): frontier novelsThe Last Mohicans (1826) (Colonial War betw. Britain and France)8.William Cullen Bryant威廉·卡伦·布莱恩特《死之思考》：“Thanatopsis”《致水鸟》：“To a Waterfowl”9.Edgar Allan Poe埃德加·阿伦·坡《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”10.Philip Freneau 菲利浦·弗瑞诺美国革命诗人”（the poet of the Revolution）;“美国诗歌之父”（Father of American Poetry）. 《想象的力量》（The Power of Fancy、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”11.Transcendentalism (essayists, poets, novelists)超验主义超验主义（1830s—the Civil War）：既不讲究逻辑，也不讲究系统，它只强调超越理性的感受，超越法律和世俗束缚的个人表达，他们相信精神上的超越，相信无所不能的善的力量，强调善为万物之源，万物都是善的一部分as a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematized. It exalted feeling over reason, individual expression over the restraints of law and custom. They believed in the transcendence of the “Oversoul”, an all-pervading power for goodness from which all things come and of which all things are a part..Features：(1) stress on Oversoul, that is spirit.(2) stress the importance of individual.(3) fresh conception of nature.Significance：(1) inspired a whole generation of writers such as Whitman, Melville and Dickinson.(2) dresses man’s subjective initiative as opposed to materialism.(3) liberated people from Calvin’s original sin12.Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生The Divinity School Address神学院致辞(1838)Essays (1841/1847)、Representative Men (1850)、English Traits (1856)、Poems (1847)《论自然》：“Nature”; 《论自助》：“Self-Reliance”13.Henry David Thoreau亨利·戴维·梭罗1854年，梭罗根据他在沃尔登湖畔居住两年经历写出名作《瓦尔登湖》“Walden”, the superb book came out of his two-year’s residence at Walden Pond 在这部书中阐释了他去体验这种生活的原因，他认为一个一星期最好工作一天，而剩下的六天时间则用来思索，他也认为人类心灵的自助和独立最为重要，每个人都应该发现自己的生活方式he explained many of the beliefs that led him to try this kind of life. He thought it better for a man to work one day a week and the rest of the week could be devoted to thought. For Thoreau, as for Emerson, self-reliance and independence of mind ranked above all each should find out his own way of living. Walden：(1)on self-cultivation and human perfectibility, elevated from Puritan original sin, believe in inner virtue and inwardly grace(2) criticism on civilization and capitalism(3) only truth and knowledge can’t be taken away, trust in future and in man作品：A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers康考德和梅里马克河上的一周(1849) Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)Civil Disobedience 不服从论(1849, an address)14：Nathaniel Hawthorne纳撒尼尔·霍桑霍桑独特的才能主要表现在他能够通过一些极具象征意义的故事来触摸人类灵魂深处的道德品质，最好的例证便是波士顿清教徒引以自娱的《红字》，小说的每一个字，每一幅画面和每一个事件都能够达到了一个特定的效果，它讲述了关于罪的故事，罪对不同人的影响以及有些人获得拯救的故事Hawthorne’s unique gift was for the creation of strongly symbolic stories which touch the deepest roots of man’s moral nature. The finest example is the recreation of Puritan Boston, “The Scarlet Letter”. In this novel each word, image, and event works toward a single effect. It is a complex story of guilt, its effects upon various persons, and how deliverance is obtained for some of them.在他的短篇小说中，他通过活生生，极有象征意味的想象来体现人类社会的一些重大道德问题his ability to create vivid and symbolic images that embody great moral questions appear strongly in his short stories。