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1、American Literature,江苏工业学院 黄成洲,第一讲：The Colonial Period and 17 Century Literature of Puritanism,American literature may be among the youngest national literatures in the world. Its real history is only about two hundred years. (October 1781, the Revolutionary War). However, American literature swiftl
2、y developed, well matured, began to receive international recognition, and has exercised great effect upon world literature. The American writers have brought out some of the worlds best literature.,I: The division of American literature,American literature can be divided into several stages: 1. Col
3、onial period 2. Period of Enlightenment 3. New England Transcendentalism 4. Romantic Age 5. The Age of Realism 6. American Naturalism 7. American modernism 8. American Renaissances,II: The time of American literature,It was after American independence that American literature began to take place.,I.
4、 The Colonial Period and 17th Century literature of Puritanism,The English settlement in America began in 1607. Captain Christopher Newport anchored his three storm-beaten ships near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. The English settlers laid out Jamsetown as their first permanent settlement in America.
5、The early settlers were so-called Separatists and Puritans, who managed to escape to the New World to avoid the religious persecution. The puritans were members of the Church of England who at first wished to reform or purify its doctrines, however, their own firm belief and disconformity with the C
6、hurch finally led to their withdrawal from it and Puritan exodus(出游，退出).,1. American Puritanism,The settlement of the North American continent by the English began in the early part of the seventeenth century. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few
7、 of them Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons, but it should be remembered that they were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. They carried with them to America a code of values, a philosophy of life, and a point of view, which, in
8、time, took root in the New World and became what is popularly known as American Puritanism.,American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature. It has become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so much a part of the national cultural
9、 atmosphere that the Americans breathe, that we may state with a degree of safety that, without some understanding of Puritanism, there can be no real understanding of American culture and literature.,Although the English government saw the colonization of the North American continent as a means of
10、alleviating its own problems, a large number of the settlers themselves left home in the first years of the seventeenth century in earnest quest of an ideal of their own. It is true that they wished to escape religious persecution - and the English government regarded its American colony as an ideal
11、 dumping ground for the undesirables, but they were also determined to find a place where they could worship in the way they thought true Christians should. When they arrived and saw the virgin forests, the virgin land, and the vast expanse of wilderness that stretched miles around before them, they
12、 became aware that God must have sent them there for a definite purpose and that, as Gods chosen people, they were meant to reestablish a commonwealth based on the teachings of the Bible, restore the lost paradise, and build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden.,2. The Belief of the Puritans:,Th
13、e American Puritans, like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the Church should be restored to the “purity“ of the first-century Church as established by Jesus Christ Himself. To them, religion was a matter of primary importance. They made it their chief business to see th
14、at man lived and thought and acted in a way which tended to the glory of God. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement (or the salvation of a selected few) through a special infusion of grace from God, all that John Calvin (1509-1564), the
15、 great French theologian who lived in Geneva, had preached. It was this kind of religious belief that they brought with them into the wilderness. There they meant to prove that they were Gods chosen people enjoying His blessings on this earth as in heaven.,The Condition of the Time for the Puritans,
16、In the grim struggle for survival that followed immediately after their arrival in America, the character of the people underwent a significant change. Pushing the frontiers with them as they moved further and further westward, they became more and more preoccupied with business and profits. They became, in a word, more practical, as indeed they had to be. The very severity of the frontier conditions taught the American Puritans to be tougher, to be ever ready for any misfortune and tragic
