美国文学史-考试资料(全).docVIP

An Overview of American Literature 1. Colonial period (early 17th—late 18th) 2. Romantic period (first half of 19th) 3. Realism (after 1865) 4. Naturalism (last decade of the 19th ) 5. Modernism (the first half of the 20th) American Literature The Literature of the Colonial Period The first view of America Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles…they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies; no houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succour…savage barbarians were readier to fill their sides with arrows than otherwise. And for the reason it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country , know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms …the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wide and savage hue. --from William Bradford’s History of Plimmoth Plantation A Wealth of Natural Resources He is a bad fisher who cannot kill on one day with his hooke and line, one, two, or three hundred Cods. --John Smith, A Description of New England A sup of New England’s air is better than a whole draft of old England’s ale. --Francis Higginson, New-England’s Planatation The Colonies Jamestown, Virginia 1607 New England 1620 Massachusetts Bay 1630 American Puritanism “Puritans” American Puritanism American Puritanism stressed predestination, original sin, total depravity, and limited atonement from God’s grace. A way of life that stressed hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety. “He was a visionary who never forget that two plus two equals four; he was a soldier of Jehovah who never came out on the losing side of a bargain… He was a practical idealist…His creed was the revealed word of God and his life was the rule of moderation; his beliefs were handed down on high and his conduct was regulated by expediency. He was a doctrinaire and an opportunist.” Literature of Early Settlements A literary expres