美国文学Lecture 2.pptVIP

Lecture 2 Colonial America Puritan and Puritanism in Colonial America Pious idealism Metaphorical mode of perception: the physical phenomenal world was nothing but a symbol of God. Austerity and rigidity Style of Puritan writings Fresh Simple Direct Plain and honest rhetoric With a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible Humble origins of American literature Personal literature in various form: Diaries Histories Journals Letters Commonplace books Travel books sermons The first early 17th-century British settlers in North America Captain John Smith William Bradford John Winthrop Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) Puritan Poet Four elements: the constitutions and ages of man, the seasons of the year, and the chief empires of the ancient world Her works search for a sense of man’s nature and destiny and his mission in the new world. Edward Taylor (1642-1729) Meditative poet, nearest to the English Baroque poets Un-Puritan imagery, however, first and last, a Puritan poet Concerned about how his images speak for God Roger Williams (1603-1683) Puritan dissenter Upholding the spiritual freedom of the individual: civil right John Woolman (1720-1772) Preacher Religious piety, the ideal of humanitarianism, the kind, gentle character of the man Thoreau and the New England Transcendentalists Thomas Paine（1737-1809） Unswerving fight for the right of man Common Sense Philip Freneau （1752-1832） Poet in the service of a nation struggling for independence See life directly: “The Wild Honey Suckle” “The Indian Burying Ground ” Cooper, Emerson, Poe and Melville Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) 18-century novelist The first American novel Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) Religious idealism Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735-1813) Ideal and anti-ideal * Levelheaded common sense * * *