American Romanticism Irving and Cooper(美国浪漫主义精神和新英格兰文学)概要1.ppt

American Romanticism and New England Literature: 1 American Romanticism 1.1. General Introduction 1.2 American Romanticism 1.1 General Introduction ● Time: (the end of the 18th century--- the outbreak of the Civil War) ● Reasons ◆ national influences ◆ Foreign influences ● General features of Romanticism ◆ Stressing emotion rather than reason ◆ Stressing freedom and individuality ◆ Stressing idealism rather than materialism ◆ Writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements 3. The writers emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group. They affirmed the inner life of the self, and cherished strong interest in the past, the wild, the remote, the mysterious and the strange. 1.3 Two Periods and Representatives ● 1770s to 1830s—Early period ● 1830s to 1860s—Late period ● 1770s to 1830s—Early period ◆ Representatives: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and New England poets ◆ Two famous poets: William Cullen Bryant and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow William Cullen Bryant first distinctive American lyric poet; famous poems – “The Yellow Violet” and “To a Waterfowl” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow famous poem – “A Psalm of Life” 《生命颂》 The Song of Hiawatha 《海华沙之歌》----美国人写的第一部印第安人史诗; ● 1830s to 1860s—Late period ◆ Flowering of American literature ◆ Representatives: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe etc. Washington Irving (1783-l859) Contributions 1. the first American writer to earn an international reputation 2. His The Sketch Book marked the beginning of American Romanticism 3. The short story as a genre in American literature began with this book II. Life born in New York City in a wealthy family Read widely and wrote juvenile poems, essays and plays A gentleman lawyer Rip Van Winkle The story is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War. Rip, an