• In 1840 Emerson helped Margaret Fuller to launch The Dial (1840-44), an open forum for new ideas on the reformation of society.
• Emerson's health started to fail after the partial burning of his house in 1872. He made his last tour abroad in 1872-1873, and then withdrew more and more from public life. Emerson died on April 27, 1882 in Concord.
American Literature
The Romantic Period
(the end of the 18th century ----the outbreak of the Civil War. )
the first American Renaissance Historical background
Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Most of his ancestors were clergymen as was his father. He was educated in Boston and Harvard, and graduated in 1821. In 1825 he began to study at the Harvard Divinity School and next year he was licensed to preach by the Middlesex Association of Ministers. Emerson became a pastor at the Second Unitarian Church of Boston in 1830. • Three years later he had a crisis of faith , finding that he "was not interested" in the rite (仪式) of Communion (宗教团体). Emerson's controversial views caused his resignation (辞 职).
约翰尼-德普(Johnny Depp) 克里斯蒂娜-里奇(Christina Ricci) 米兰达-理查森(Miranda Richardson) 卡斯帕-范-迪恩(Casper Van Dien)
导 演：蒂姆-伯顿 (Tim Burton) 种 类：恐怖片
被誉为“美国文学之父”的华盛顿-欧文的经典 之作《睡谷传奇》自1912年首次搬上银幕以来， 曾有多个电影版本相继面世，其中迪斯尼的卡通 版《无头骑士传奇》最为深入人心。曾执导《蝙 蝠侠》、《火星人大入侵》的大导演蒂姆 -伯顿 在这部经过重构的新片中再度运用极具个性化的 电影语言，在戏剧化与幽默感兼顾的情况下将欧 文的小说原著提升到一个新高度。同时，曾为 《星球大战》系列影片以及《魔鬼终结者》等片 制作数码特效的工业光魔公司，成功为影片营造 出的令人毛骨悚然的恐怖场面将使本片毫无争议 地跻身经典恐怖片之列。
(1) American westward expansion (美国西部扩展)---“拓荒小说”
(2) New England Transcendental Movement (新英格兰超验主义运 动)-----”宗教性”、“象征”
New England Transcendental Movement
Principles of Emersonian Transcendentalism
(2) Fascination about the past and the exotic
(3) free expression of emotion and display of the psychic states of the characters.
(4) Pay attention to the description of the individual and the common man
father of American literature.
The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book, a collection of essays, sketches, and tales,
the most famous story are “Rip Van Winkle” (瑞普. 凡. 温克尔) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (睡谷的传说)
Sleepy Hollow (沉睡谷/断头谷)
派拉蒙影片公司(Paramount, USA) 1999年 出品 主 演：
James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851)
Natty Bumppo
Leatherstocking Tales: a serious of five novels about the frontier life of American settles
The Pioneers The Last of the Mohicans The Prairie The Pathfinder The Deerslayer
• The theme:
• The author, through this novel, reveals his conservative view about the bourgeois revolution (i.e. the independent war through which the emperor was overthrown), and criticized that the revolution didn’t bring benefits to American people. However, the figure of Winkle become an absurd remainder (时代的落伍者).
From 1804 to 1806 he travelled widely in Europe.
Irving's career as a writer started in journals and newspapers.
Major points
the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (拉尔夫. 华尔多. 爱默生, 1803-1882)
• A major American poet, essayist, philosopher. • The major representative of the American
Transcendental Movement.
Biography
Born of a wealthy merchant in New York City as the youngest of 11 children. Early in his life Irving developed a passion for books. He studied law privately but practiced only briefly.
• Harvard ostracized (排斥) him for many years, but his message attracted young disciples (信徒), who joined the informal Transcendental Club (established in 1836).
the Oversoul---- nature as symbol
the individual
Features of literature of this period
(1) Description of national experience of “pioneering into the west” (西部开拓)
• Rip Van Winkle (瑞普. 凡. 温克尔) • It tells the story of the hero Rip Van Winkle’s
peculiar encounter. The hero, Rip Van Winkle, is a naive (天真的), honest, and warmhearted but poor farmer. The other day, he met a short man and helped him to carry his belongings and then was treated with drink. Winkle was drunk and slept for 20 years from then on. Winkle found that everything was enormously changed after he woke up from the long sleep. The undisturbed (peaceful) and uncultured small village where he used to live became a modern town which is full of noise and crowd. Winkle who used to a quiet life was unable to understand all those “tragic changes”.