2012 二专美国文学1.pptVIP

Henry David Thoreau American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, best-known for his autobiographical story of life in the woods, WALDEN (1854). His Life Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, which was center of his life. Thoreau studied at Concord Academy (1828-33), and at Harvard University, graduating in 1837. From 1837-38 Thoreau worked in his fathers pencil factory, and later in 1844 and 1849-50. A decisive turning point in Thoreaus life came when he met Emerson in Concord. He was a member of Emerson household from 1841 to 1843, earning his living as a handyman. He lived alone in Walden Pond from March 1845 to September 1847. Depending on his own mental and physical resources. He raised his own food and spent very little money, but devoted most of his time to study and meditation. He described his experiences in his book Walden; or, Life in the Woods. The facts of Thoreaus life are appropriately spare for one who wrote, Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand. . . . As he recommended to others, Thoreau actively sought this simplicity in his circumstances in order to enjoy extraordinary richness in his intellectual and spiritual life, and his writings testify to his success. The Characteristics of Romanticism Imagination, emotion, and freedom are certainly the focal points of romanticism. Any list of particular characteristics of the literature of romanticism includes: 1. subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; 2. spontaneity; 3. freedom from rules; 4. the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason and devotion to beauty; 5.love of and worship of nature; 6. fascination with the past, especially the myths and mysticism of the middle ages. The Early American Romantics William Cullen Bryant and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -- The New England poets. James Fenimore Cooper – the first successful American novelist wh