文学特征：1、environment：①shaped by their New World environment美洲大陆新环境②array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe.欧洲早期浪漫主义思潮2、美国文学特点:pluralistic多元化，manifestations表现形式: Varied多样, Individualistic个人主义,Conflicting矛盾3、romanticism的特点：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.浪漫主义之间大部分是相通的，都注重道德，强调个人主义价值观和直觉感受，并且认为自然是美的源头，人类社会是腐败之源。
★4、transcendentalism超验主义：①as a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical norsystematized. It exalted feeling over reason, individual expression over the restraints of law and custom. 不讲逻辑，不讲系统，只强调超越理性的感受，超越法律和世俗束缚的个人表达。
②they spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of Americansociety.呼吁文化复兴，反对美国社会的拜金主义。
③they believed in the transcendence of “Oversoul,” an all-pervading power forgoodness from which all things come and of which all things are a part.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。
④it could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind. “Goback to nature, sink yourself back into its influence and you’ll become spiritually whole again.” The natural implication of a ll this was, of course, that things in nature tended to become symbolic, and the physical world was a symbol of the spiritual. This in turn added to the tradition of literary symbolism in American literature.⑤代表人物：Emerson爱默生，believed that man was a part of absolute good。
人性本善Thoreau 梭罗，beheld divinity in the “unspotted innocence” of nature. 自然才是神圣的“洁白无瑕”5、Literary forms文学形式：Novels, short stories, and poems replaced sermonsand manifestos as America’s principal literary forms.长篇小说、短篇故事和诗歌取代说教类及宣言类作品成为美国主要的文学形式。
6、Imaginative literature想象类文学7、the wilderness came to function almost as a dramatic character that illustrated moral law.戏剧化特色的野性讽喻了时代的道德准则。
8、The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature. 逃离社会，回到自然成为了美国文学永恒的创作习惯。
9、Nationalism stimulated a greater literary interest in America’s language. In 1828 Noah Webster published “An American Dictionary of the English Language”. American character types speaking local dialects appeared in poetry and fiction with increasing frequency. 受民族主义影响，作家的目光转向了美国本土的语言，具有美国特征的本土方言开始在诗歌和小说中大量涌现。
10、At mid-century a cultural reawakening brought a “flowering of New England.” Led by Hawthorne, Emerson, and Thoreau. New England →Transcendentalism, 从新英格兰文学到超验主义。
二、代表作家：1、Washington Irving华盛顿.欧文the first great belletrist 第一个纯文学作家，划线部分为三个主要contribution①the first great prose stylist of American romanticism. 美国第一位浪漫主义散文文体作家②“Sketch Book”《见闻札记》, the first modern short stories and the first greatAmerican juvenile literature.现代文学史上第一部短篇小说和美国第一部伟大的青少年文学读物。
③Irving restored the waning Gothic romances which Poe soon infused withpsychological subtleties.重振了没落的哥特式浪漫主义小说，随后坡在此基础上，把心理学的一些知识融入了这种体裁。
④“Legends of the Conquest of Spain”《西班牙征服记》⑤manner 形式>matter 内容；avoid moralization教化to entertain娱乐/amuse消遣2、James Fenimore Cooper 詹姆斯.芬尼莫.库珀①contribution: launched two kinds of immensely popular stories →the seaadventure tale and the frontier saga开创了两种流传极广的小说体裁，边疆传奇小说和海上传奇小说。
②“Leatherstocking Tales”《皮袜子故事集》，包括“The Deerslayer”《杀鹿者》、“The Last of the Mohicans”《最后的莫希干人》、“The Pathfinder”《探路人》、“The Pioneers”《拓荒者》、“The Prairie”《大草原》, regard as “the nearest approach yet to an American epic.” 被认为是迄今为止美国最接近史诗的作品。
③the central figure in the novels, Natty Bumppo. 小说的中心人物，纳蒂.班波3、William Cullen Bryant 威廉.卡伦.布莱恩特poet 诗人①as Irving had shown that American prose had cone of age, so Bryantdemonstrated to European readers that American poetry was ready to demand serious attention.当欧文预示美国散文时代的到来时，布莱恩特向欧洲读者证实了美国的诗歌达到相当高的水平。
②He was the first American to gain the stature of a major poet.第一个获得美国主要诗人称号的作家。
③“To a Waterfowl”《致水鸟》the most perfect brief poem in the language. 用美国英语写作的最完美的短诗。
4、Edgar Allan Poe 埃德加.阿伦.坡①show his true talents as an editor, poet, literary critic. 编辑、诗人、文学评论家。
②Graham’s Magazine 格雷厄姆杂志（坡的工作场所）③“The Fall of the House of Usher”《鄂谢府崩溃记》、“The Raven”《乌鸦》thetitle poem of a collection, “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque”《述异集》first collection of short stories. 第一部短篇小说集。
④often use grotesque or fantastic events.擅长描写哥特式和幻想类的小说。
readability 可读性→totality of impression 开门见山，加强印象compression 浓缩finality 要求结局5、Ralph Waldo Emersion 拉尔夫.沃尔多.爱默生①be responsible for bringing Transcendentalism to New England, 是把超验主义引入新英格兰的先驱。