Part 1 American Puritanism – Colonial Period.pptVIP

Part 1 American Puritanism to Enlightenment – Colonial Period American Puritanism Literary Scene in North Colonies ( Puritan and Enlightened ) Southern Plantation Middle Colonies American Puritanism and Chinese Confucianism I. American Puritanism (north colonies): Puritans: The settlement of the North American continent by the English began in the early part of the 17th century (“Mayflower”,1620) – on America’s northern seacoast – New England – the first settles who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them Puritans. II. Literary Scene in northern colonies ( Puritan and Enlightened): i. theme: about their own new experiences -- voyage to the new land, about adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops, about dealing with Indians, about the land which stretched before them – unimaginable and immense, with rich dense forests and deep blue lakes and rich soil – all seemed possible through hard work and faith III. Southern Plantation: a landed aristocracy, its own intelligentsia IV. Middle Colonies: American toleration -- Dutch, Swedish – New York, Pennsylvania – all nationalities’ folk stories providing for the materials for later Romantic writers, such as Washington Irving V. Comparison between American Puritanism and Chinese Confucianism Confucius Confucianism -- the moral and religious system of China founded Confucius by the end of the 6th c. B.C. His original sayings ( Analects ) were edited with commentaries by Mencius in the 4th B.C., and his philosophy was further developed by Chu His in the 12th c. and by Wang Yang-ming in the 16th c. * * Puritans were originally devout members of the Church of England By the time of Elizabeth’s reign, the church of England was clearly Protestant in respect to its separation from Rome. During the reign of Queen Mary – immigrating to America searching for religious freedom ii. Ideal of Puritans: They were idealists to “purify” the rituals of the churc