James_Fenimore_Cooper-课件.pptVIP

2. James Fenimore Cooper  詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀 (1789-1851) novelist James F. Cooper (1789-1851) Father of American Novels The Leatherstocking Tales The antithesis between nature and modern civilization Enduring themes in American literature: ---- man society, freedom law; ---- social progress natural world; ---- to destroy or to build James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851) America’s first successful popular novelist; the first border writer Created a myth about the formative period of American nation Helped introduce the “western” tradition into American literature 1. Works. The Spy 1821 《间谍》 The Pilot 1823 《水手》 Leatherstocking Tales 《皮袜子故事集》 Leatherstocking Tales 《皮袜子故事集》 The Pioneers 1823 《拓荒者》 The Last of the Mohicans 1826 《最后的莫希干人》 The Prairie 1827 《大草原》 The Pathfinder 1840 《探路人》 The Deerslayer 1841 《杀鹿者》 2. Life Born into a rich land-holding family of New Jersey, Cooper was one of the new American authors who did not have to worry about money. He was sent to Yale at 13, but was expelled in his junior year because of improper behavior. He went and spent five years at sea; then, while still in his early twenties, he inherited his father’s vast fortune and settled down to a life of comfort and even luxury. His second book, The Spy, a novel about the American Revolution, proved to be an immense success. 3. His Skills He is good at making plots. All his novels are full of myths. The fact that he had never been to the frontier and among the Indians and yet could write five huge epic books about them is an eloquent proof of the richness of his imagination. He created the first Indians to appear in American fiction and probably the first group of noble savages. He hit upon the native subject of frontier and wilderness, and helped to introduce the “Western” tradition into American literature. 4）Evaluation (1) Leatherstocking Tales is a series of five novels about the frontier of American set