美国文学大纲讲义.docx

Literature of Colonial America (17th. C.)Native American Literature Traditional---oral; sacred stories, folktales, and songs as part of the rituals of annual festivals, tribal traditions, and narrative accounts of gods and heroes; metric pattern A story of creation Literature of Colonial SettlementsBackground Neither American nor really literature--- by immigrants from England; travel accounts and religious writings; Few literary works---four main reasons Colonization Spanish conquest: 16th. C.--- 18th. C. English conquest: majority of the 17th. C. immigrant; 1607, Jamestown, Virginia; 1620, Plymouth, the austere Pilgrims; 1630, Massachusetts Bay, Puritans---New England colonies Puritanism Doctrines: predestination, original sin, total depravity (sobriety and thrifty, hardworking), limited atonement from God’s grace, education ?Literature of early settlements A city on the mountain, a new Garden of Eden Types: histories, travel accounts, biographies, diaries, letters, autobiographies, sermons, poems Works: Histories, travel accounts: Francis Higginson--- New England’s Plantation; John Smith--- A Map of Virginia and a Description of the Country; William Bradford---Of Plimmoth Plantation Poetry: Anne Bradstreet --- The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America, domestic and religious topics Edward Taylor --- metaphysical, The Poems of Edward Taylor Characteristics Puritan writings: utilitarian, polemical, didactic, symbolic, plain, useful Literature of the 18th CBackground 1) prominent genre: the prose of the great philosopher-statesmen 2) Embodied Puritan na?ve idealism and crude materialism: Calvinist beliefs and deism 3) Jonathan Edward: sense of true religious feeling Benjamin Franklin 1) Poor Richard’s Almanac (1732-1785): practical wisdom, collecting proverbs of different countries and turning them into American English 2) Autobiography (1771-1790): family history and efforts to learn virtue 3) Style: clear, plain, formal, but informal in material organization T