第一章--殖民地时期及独立革命时期的美国文学

第一章第一章 殖民地时期及独立革命时期的美国文学 I 知识结构知识结构 The revolutionary American literature 独立 革命时期 Anne Bradstreet Edward Taylor 泰勒泰勒 Roger Williams 威廉斯威廉斯 Philip Freneau 弗瑞诺 Benjamin Franklin 富兰克林 Thomas Paine 潘恩潘恩 Jonathan Edwards 爱德华兹 Thomas Jefferson 杰斐逊 II 知识点精讲知识点精讲 1 时代背景时代背景 1 The Native American and their culture Indians Before Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent there was no real literature 2 Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent in 1492 3 Captain Christopher Newport reached Virginia in 1607 4 Puritans came to the New England area by Mayflower 五月花号 in 1620 The colonial and revolutionary American literature 1607 1781 1815 殖民地时期及独立革命时期 The colonial American literature 殖民地时期 Captain John Smith 史密斯 literature William Bradford 布拉德福布拉德福 德德 literature In 1629 the puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony 马 萨诸塞湾 Puritans came to America out of various reasons but it should be remembered that they were a group of serious religious people advocating highly religious and moral principles It is true that they wished to escape religious persecution and the English government regarded its American colony as an ideal dumping ground for the undesirables but they were also determined to find a place where they could worship in the way they thought true Christians should They regarded themselves as God s chosen people they were meant to reestablish a commonwealth based on the teachings of the Bible restore the lost paradise and build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden 5 The puritan migration began The settlement of the North American continent by the English began in the early part of the seventeenth century The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them Puritans They carried with them to America a code of values a philosophy of life and a point of view which in time took root in the New World and became what is popularly known as American Puritanism 6 The British Industrial revolution 1750 1830 spurred the economy in American colonies in American there was War of Independence 1776 1783 the spiritual life of the colonies Enlightenment began to appear Thus this period was the literature of reason and revolution 1781 1815 2 名词解释名词解释 1 Puritans 清教徒 They are one division of English Protestant They regarded the reformation of the church under Elizabeth as incomplete and called for further purification The 17th century American Puritans included two parts Separatists and Massachusetts Bay Group Their religious doctrines are original sin total depravity predestination and limited atonement or the salvation of a selected few through a special infusion of grace from God They regarded themselves as chosen people of God They were meant to reestablish a commonwealth based on the teachings of the Bible restore the lost paradise and build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden They opposed arts and pleasure They suspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin They are opposed to mysticism and pantheism because these tended to destroy the transcendence of God They embraced hardships industry and frugality They favored a disciplined hard somber ascetic and harsh life Their attitudes toward work work itself is good in addition to what it achieves that time saved by efficiency or good fortune should be spent in doing further work Pushing the frontiers with them as they moved further and further westward they became more practical as indeed they had to be A doctrinaire opportunist came perhaps closest to the American Puritan ideal for man 2 American Puritanism 美国清教主义 It is a religious and political movement Through it one sees emerging the right of the individual to political and religious independence It has become to some extent so much a state of mind rather than a set of tenets a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the Americans breathe that we may state with a degree of safety that without some understanding of Puritanism there can be no real understanding of American culture and literature American Puritanism has been by and large a healthy legacy to the Americans 3 American Dream 美国梦 The American Dream is the faith held by many in the United States of America that through hard work courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself usually through financial prosperity These were values held by many early European settlers and have been passed on to subsequent generations Nowadays the American Dream has led to an emphasis on material wealth as a measure of success and or happiness 4 Great Awakening 宗教大觉醒 Great Awakening is a series of religious revivals that swept over the American colonies about the middle of the 18th century It resulted in doctrinal changes and influenced social and political thought In New England it was started 1734 by the rousing preaching of Jonathan Edwards 3 作家作品作家作品 1 Captain John Smith 1580 1631 约翰 史密斯 first American writer Captain John Smith was one of the first early 17th century British settlers in North America He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown Virginia His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess Pocahontas Another thing he wrote about that became historically important is his description of the fertile and vast new continent in his A Description of New England His narrative reveals the early settlers vision of the new land as something capable of being built into a new Garden of Eden His contributions There was the famous John Smith s description of New England as a promising virgin land which came to the attention of many people in England and Europe and drew many of them over to the New World His description of American was filled with themes myths images scenes characters and events that were a foundation for the nation s literature He lured the Pilgrims into fleeing here and creating a new land 2 William Bradford 1590 1657 威廉 布拉德福德 the first governor of the Plymouth William Bradford led the Mayflower endeavor and became the first governor of the Plymouth Plantation that he established with his group of Pilgrim Fathers His Of Plymouth Plantation 普利茅斯殖民史 records along with other things of a historic nature the deliberations that the first settlers of North America had regarding their colonizing undertaking In chapter IV Showing the Reasons and Causes of their Removal Bradford states the fourth reason for their departure for the new world when he says that his people had a great hope and inward zeal to do the spadework for disseminating the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the new world and they were even willing to be stepping stones for others in doing this great work The religious and idealistic nature of their adventure into the unknown world is self evident The characteristics of the Of Plymouth Plantation 普利茅斯殖 民史 are simplicity full of earnestness direct reporting It is readable and moving 3 John Winthrop 温斯罗普温斯罗普 1588 1649 The first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony John Winthrop the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony states in this speech of his that there was the cause between God and his people who entered into a covenant with God for this work of building a new garden of Eden in the new world John Winthrop s works are A Model of Christian Charity 基督 教仁爱的典范 which is a speech and The History of New England 新英格兰的历史 4 Anne Bradstreet 1612 1672 安妮 布雷兹特里特 a Puritan poet The American poets who emerged in the 17th century adapted the style of established European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange new environment Anne Bradstreet 1612 1672 was one such poet The argument of most of Anne Bradstreet s poems is essentially about the justice of God s ways with His Puritan flock Her works search for a sense of man s nature and destiny and his mission in the new world One more thing to note about Anne Bradstreet is her description of the early settlers life in the new world For example As Weary Pilgrim 疲 倦的朝圣者 one devoted to God as much as any of her other poems offers some hints of the hardships that they suffered in their first days there Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet who wrote ponderous Verses of interminable inter locking poems on the four elements the constitutions and ages of man the seasons of the year and the chief empires of the ancient world Her poems made such a stir in England that she became known as the Tenth Muse who appeared in America Most of other verses have fallen into the obscurity of time but her gentle Contemplations 沉思 are still read today The ninth offers the reader an insight into the mentality of the early Puritans pioneering in a new world When the poet heard the grasshopper and the cricket sing she thought of this as their praising their Creator and searched her own soul accordingly It is evident that she saw something metaphysical inhering in the physical a mode of perception that was singularly Puritan Her other poems such as To My Dear and Loving Husband 致我亲爱的丈夫 and In Reference to Her Children however denote the human side of her being clearly Take To My Dear and Loving Husband for instance Coming from a devout Puritan these lines are surprising because they reveal the inner soul scape of the Puritans so graphically Read Anne Bradstreet s poems on her children and grandchildren and it will be clear that the love the care and the happiness that comes from family life are all the important to her indeed The Flesh and the Spirit 灵魂和肉体灵魂和肉体 The struggle between the two impulses spiritual and material is perennial and constitutes the basic texture of the Puritan mind Her poem The Flesh and the Spirit depicting as it does two sisters arguing about their values is a good illustration The Flesh one of the twin sisters is forthright with her assertion of her views about the importance of this world while the Spirit the other tries to convince her of the greatness of the Kingdom of God The Spirit seems to be winning as she has a much longer and more final argument to offer The twin sisters are evidently the integral parts of one Puritan mind 5 Edward Taylor 1642 1729 爱德华 泰勒 Edward Taylor 1642 1729 was a meditative poet In his splendid exotic images Taylor came nearest to the English baroque poets For all his indulgence in his un Puritan imagery however he was first and last a Puritan poet concerned about how his images speak for God A good example is his poem Huswifery 家务 which indicates that he saw religious significance in a simple daily incident like a housewife spinning The spinning wheel the distaff the flyers the spool the reel and the yarn have all acquired a metaphysical significance in the symbolic Puritan eyes of Edward Taylor In his interesting poem Upon a Spider Catching a Fly 蜘蛛捕 捉苍蝇之遐想 Taylor sees the spider as a symbol of Hell with its traps It is obvious that Taylor has faith in God who can save the erring or possibly sinful humankind from the evil designs of Hell 6 Roger Williams 1603 1683 罗杰 威廉斯 Roger Williams was one of the greatest Puritan dissenters in the early days of Puritan theocracy in New England He came to America in 1630 and began to preach for civil and religious liberty and against the Puritan oligarchy of Boston His call for democratic government and his opposition to the eviction of the Indians from their ancestral properties incurred the wrath and hatred of such orthodox Puritans as John Cotton 1584 1652 who banished him from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 He lived for a while with the Indians before immigrating to Rhode Island where he established the Rhode Island Way to encourage religious toleration and protect Indian rights Williams published his The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience 血腥的迫害教义 1644 furiously attacking the soul killing requirement of religious conformity and vigorously upholding the spiritual freedom of the individual 7 John Woolman 1720 1772 约翰 伍尔曼 Born into a pious Quaker family in New Jersey John Woolman was early convinced that true religion consisted in an inward life in which the heart loved and respected God and learned to exercise true justice and goodness toward men and brutes alike His Journal 1774 veritably notes down his experience and feeling during witnessing the slave trade revealing the cruel truth of black slave selling Besides he has the courage to criticize himself and pursue self perfection which is consequently consideration as a Quaker classic of the inner Light and countless non Quaker readers have been touched by its exquisite purity and grace His essays are Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes and A Plea for the Poor in which he tried to plead for the rights of all men and for the abolition of the slavery system He also kept a Journal for the most part of his life recording his spiritual experiences of inward communication with God 8 Thomas Paine 1737 1809 托马斯 潘恩 The life of Thomas Paine was one of continual unswerving fight for the rights of man He was a propagandist and a major influence in the American Revolution He wrote a number of works of such a revolutionary and inflammatory character that it is no exaggeration to state that he helped to spur and inspire two greatest revolutions that his age witnessed His main works were a series of pamphlets His Common Sense 常识 declaring as it did that Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil In its worst state an intolerable one attacked British monarchy and added fuel to the fire which was soon to bring the colossus of its colonial rule down in flames The booklet was warmly received in the colonies both as a justification for their cause of independence and as an encouragement to the painfully fighting people Paine became a major influence in the American Revolution His American Crisis 美国危机 series of pamphlets came out at one of the darkest moments of the revolution when Washington s troops had just suffered one of the worst defeats in the war and were in the process of retreating These are the times that try men s souls it declared The harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph Here the word try was in a sense of test to the limit and subject to great hardships Later he participated in the French Revolution and wrote The Rights of Man 人权 and The Age of Reason 理性的时代 spreading the ideals of the French Revolution among the people 9 Thomas Jefferson 1743 1826 托马斯 杰弗逊 Thomas Jefferson was a resourceful and intelligent man He played different roles in his life He was an enlightener an aristocrat a lawyer scientist inventor musician linguist architect diplomat and a writer He was one of the men who drafted The Declaration of Independence 独立宣言 It was adopted on July 4 1776 announcing the birth of a new nation and a philosophy of human freedom It was a statement of American principles and a review of the Causes of the quarrel with Britain In The Declaration of Independence people instilled a sense of their own importance and inspired struggle for personal freedom self government and a dignified place in society 10 Philip Freneau 1752 1832 菲利普 弗瑞诺 poet of the revolution and Father of American Poetry Philip Freneau was important in American literary history in a number of ways a He used his poetic talents in the service of a nation struggling for independence writing verses for the righteous cause of his people and exposing British colonial savageries b He was a most notable representative of dawning nationalism in American literature c Almost alone of his generation Freneau managed to peer through the pervasive atmosphere of imitativeness see life around directly and appreciate the natural scenes on the new continent and the native Indian civilization His main works were The Rising Glory of America 美国荣誉 的崛起 1772 The Wild Honey Suckle 野忍冬花 1786 The Indian Burying Ground 印第安墓地 1788 and The Dying Indian Tomo Chequi Take The Wild Honey Suckle for instance Stanza 1 the flowers hidden in the retreat Stanza 2 Nature makes their beauty Stanza 3 he revealed not only his tolerance of a different way of life but also his admiration for it 11 Charles Brockden Brown 查尔斯 布洛克登 布朗 Charles Brockden Brown is one of the most prominent among these writers a His first novel Wieland 威兰 or The Transformation An American Tale 1798 has been regarded as the first American novel b Basically Brown was an imitator The Gothic features of his works are a good illustration c He awared that his inspiration was rooted in his own land its new life and energy which he felt offered the writers with areas of exploration different from European subjects Brown believed that his novels were all about his country and his people and that he employed new narrative techniques hitherto unheeded by his predecessors d Another thing of historic significance that Brown did was his description of his characters inner world e His four major novels Edgar huntly 1799 Ormond 1799 Arthur Mervyn 1800 as well as Weland are all solid evidence of his literary beliefs put into practice f Brown began to explore the emotional world of his characters and found that man is not always controlled by reason and that sensual experiences passion and illusion could all impact human thinking and emotional responses He became aware that the subconscious is mystic and unfathomable and that art is a necessary medium to externalize the deeper impulses of the human psyche In a manner of speaking Brown s works can be read as psychological novels His protagonists Wieland or Huntly or Ormond all exhibit the essential characteristics of a neurotic 12 Jonathan Edwards 1703 1758 乔纳森 爱德华兹 Edwards was born into a very religious New England family Well prepared by his father he entered Yale at the age of 13 After graduation in 1720 he stayed on at Yale for a couple of years before he went to a New York Scotch Presbyterian church In 1723 he returned to Yale took his