美國(guó)文學(xué)簡(jiǎn)史常耀信版講義22課件

1、Section II Summit of Romanticism American Transcendentalism,Transcendentalism,Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo

2、 Emerson. Keys: ---The new spirit was neither social, nor political, nor industrial, nor economic, nor literary, nor scientific, nor religious. It was all of them at once. It transcended every phase of life. It is a wh

3、ole new way of thinking.,I. Background: four sources,1. Unitarianism唯一神教派(1) Fatherhood of God (2) Brotherhood of men (3) Leadership of Jesus (4) Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character) (5) Continued

4、progress of mankind (6) Divinity of mankind (7) Depravity of mankind,2. Romantic Idealism Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant) 3. Oriental mysticism Center of the world is “oversoul” 4. Puritanism

5、Eloquent expression in transcendentalism,II. Appearance 1836, “Nature” by Emerson III. Features 1. spirit/oversoul 2. importance of individualism 3. nature – symbol of spirit/God garment of the oversoul 4. focus

6、in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness),IV. Influence,1. It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious toleranc

7、e, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture. 2. It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where op

8、portunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height. 3. It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period in Amer

9、ican literature.,Major writers and Literary Works,Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803----1882),Henry David Thoreau (1817----1862),Louisa May Alcott (1832----1888),Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803----1882),---,,Major Literary Works,Natur

10、eThe American Scholar The PoetDivinity School AddressThe Over-Soul,This work has the clearest statement of Transcendentalist ideas. In it Emerson stated that man should not see nature merely as something to be used;

11、that man’s relationship with nature transcends the idea of usefulness.,Nature,,Nature is a kind of discipline to man. Once you are in nature, totally in solitude, you feel you’re nothing, but you see all. Nature makes pe

12、ople feel transparent and humble. Meanwhile, He saw an important difference between understanding (judging things only according to the senses) and reason.,In The American Scholar, Emerson attacked the influence of tradi

13、tion and the past, and called for a new burst of American creativity.,The American Scholar,,Divinity School Address In Divinity School Address, he celebrated the American stress on the authentic, unique self. He st

14、resses the inner spirit of creativity, that one discerns not through rationality or even common sense, but through intuition, spontaneity, a kind of radical, primary insight. Each person is divine, but also participates

15、in a kind of universal divinity.,Two volumes of Essays---- the most characteristic and influential of his books. In the former of these are those great discourses on Self-Reliance. Emerson believed above all in individua

16、lism, independence of mind, and self-reliance; He admired courage and was not afraid of changing or clashing ideas. Equally important is Emerson’s essay The Over-Soul (1841).,Essays,From the Over-Soul come all ideas and

17、 intelligence: “We do not determine what we think. We only open our senses…and suffer the intellect to see.”,Point of view,(1) One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the “oversoul”

18、. (2) He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature. (3) If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself an

19、d brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”. (4) Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and tha

20、t he makes the world by making himself.,aesthetic ideas,(1) He is a complete man, an eternal man. (2) True poetry and true art should ennoble. (3) The poet should express his thought in symbols. (4) As to theme, Emers

21、on called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself.,Influence,--- positioned as the “father” of American literature. As a poet, preacher, orator, and essayist, he articulated the

22、new nation’s prospects and needs and became a weighty exemplum of the American artist. He becomes the founder of “Transcendentalism” or the spokesman for “Nature”, the “optimist” who does not understand the world’s evil

23、or pain.,He taught school, lectured, served as surveyor for the town of Concord, did odd jobs, worked as Ralph Waldo Emerson's handyman, and helped him edit the Dial, for which he wrote extensively.,Henry David Thore

24、au (1817~1862)Thoreau was educated at Concord Academy and Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1837.,62),,From July 4, 1845, to September 6, 1847, he lived in a cabin he had built near Walden Pond, and during the

25、 summer of 1846, which inspired his work Walden.When Thoreau died in 1862, he had published only two books, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) and Walden (1854）.,His works,(1) Civil Disobedience (1849)(2

26、) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)(3) Walden (1854),Thoreau's essay had a profound influence on reformers worldwide, from Tolstoy in Russia and Gandhi in South Africa and India; to Martin Luther Kin

27、g, and the opposition to the Vietnam War in the United States; to recent demonstrations for civil rights in the former Soviet Union and China.,Civil Disobedience (1849),One critic has called it “a heap of good things rat

28、her than a book”. Its various discussions include a catalog of fish on the Concord River, the poetry of Homer, fights with Indians and the Transcendentalist meaning of sounds. For many readers, the book is a collection o

29、f remarkable essays that lack cohesion and relatedness.,A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849),Walden (1854),,In 1854, Thoreau published his best known, Walden, or Life in the Woods. It shows Thoreau at his b

30、est, and contains all that he had to say to the world. In fact, he is a man of one book, and that book is Walden.,,The thesis of Walden is clearly indicated in the first chapter of the book. True economy has nothing to d

31、o with the ways and means of increasing wealth, with methods for multiplying the superfluities, the "gross necessaries of life." True economy is that which simply provides the flesh with what belongs to the fle

32、sh so that the spirit may go about its own business.,point of view,(1) He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point. (2) He hated the human injustice as repres

33、ented by the slavery system. (3) Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being. (4) He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual

34、 grace of man.,,(5) He was very critical of modern civilization. (6) “Simplicity…simplify!” (7) He was sorely disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society”. (8) He has calm tru

35、st in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.,Louisa May Alcott (1832----1888),My book came out; and people began to think thattopsy-turvy Louisa would amount to something after all...-Louisa May A

36、lcott, 1855,,Louisa May Alcott's novel brings to life vividly the life of New England during the nineteenth century. A life that was tranquil, secure, and productive. It is little wonder, for she drew on her own and

37、on her family's experiences for her work.,,Little Women ，published in 1869, and has gone on to become one of America's classics, which is based on her own family life in Concord, Massachusetts.,,,Little Women is

38、 a cheerful, wholesome account of the daily life of a highly principled family. It is considered one of the earliest realistic novels suitable for older children; and, as a children's story.the language is often st

39、ilted. Alcott also tends to moralize. But the book also holds a personal charm for grownups, who may see their own carefree childhood - the simple joys of youth and deep love of family - mirrored in its pages.,Romantic

40、ist Poets,Life story:Born on Long Island, New York, Walt Whitman was the son of a poor Quaker farmer-carpenter, little school education but wide reading. He became interested in politics, moving toward abolitionism. In

41、 1842 he became editor of The New York Aurora.Four years later he assumed editorship of the Brooklyn Eagle.,Walt Whitman (1819-1892),,His early works include Franklin Evans (1842), written in the form of a novel.In 184

42、8, he traveled south to work on the New Orleans Crescent. The experience of the vastness of the American landscape and the variety of its people made a deep impression on him, which inspired him and turned his attention

43、increasingly toward poetry.,Walt Whitman (1819-1892),Leaves of Grass His Leaves of Grass (1855), contains “Song of Myself”, ---the most stunningly original poem ever written by an American. Leaves of Grass was inspired

44、 largely by Emerson’s writings, especially his essay “The Poet”, which predicted a robust, open-hearted, universal kind of poet uncannily like Whitman himself. The poem’s innovative, unrhymed, free-verse form, open cele

45、bration of sexuality, vibrant democratic sensibility, and extreme Romantic assertion that the poet’s self was one with the poem, the universe, and the reader permanently altered the course of American poetry.,Whitman inv

46、ented the myth of democratic America. He daringly turned upside down the general opinion that America was too brash and new to be poetic. --- “The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fu

47、llest poetical nature. The United States is essentially the greatest poem.”,,,Leaves of Grass --- the major work of Walt WhitmanBoth the form and content of the poems in Leaves of Grass were revolutionary; His belief t

48、hat poetry should include the lowly, the profane, even the obscene, have had enormous influence.,,His intention in writing Leaves of Grass, he said, was to create a truly American poem, one “proportionate to our continen

49、t, with its powerful races of men, its tremendous historic events, its great oceans, its mountains, and its illimitable prairies.” But the poem goes beyond its specifically American subject to deal with the universal the

50、mes of nature, fertility, and mortality.Leaves of Grass is as vast, energetic, and natural as the American continent,The poem set forth the major themes of Whitman’s early work: the poet’s celebration of the self and of

51、 its relation to the common men and women for whom “l(fā)eaves of grass” is a metaphor; the beauty and spiritual inheritance of the natural world; and the omnipresence and immortality of the cosmic “I” who “ sings” the poem.

52、,Analysis of Song of Myself,,The poem displays the influence of Emerson’s thought, and Emerson himself hailed it as “ the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed.” The display of the

53、multiplicity of American life --- the long, free-verse lines and its endless catalogues –“ I will not have a single person slighted or left away. / the kept woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited”,Song of Myself,Three

54、Themes,The idea of the self;The identification of the self with other selves;The poet’s relationship with the elements of nature and the universe.,Houses and rooms represent civilization; Perfumes signify individual

55、selves; The atmosphere symbolizes the universal self.,,Images&Symbols,,Interpretation of “self”---The self is conceived of as a spiritual entity which remains relatively permanent in and through the changing flux

56、 of ideas and experiences which constitute its conscious life. The self comprises ideas, experiences, psychological states, and spiritual insights. The concept of self is the most significant aspect of Whitman’s mind and

57、 art.,I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,The mason singing his as he

58、makes ready for work, or leaves off work,The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stan

59、ds,,I hear America singing,The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of

60、 the girl sewing or washing,Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,The day what belongs to the day--at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,Singing with open mouths their strong

61、 melodious songs.,,,,Analysis of I hear America singing This poem underscores Whitman’s basic attitude toward America, which is part of his ideal of human life. The American nation has based its faith on the creativ

62、eness of labor, which Whitman glorifies in this poem.,,The catalog of craftsmen covers not only the length and breadth of the American continent but also the large and varied field of American achievement. This poem expr

63、esses Whitman’s love of America—its vitality, variety, and the massive achievement which is the outcome of the creative endeavor of all its people. It also illustrates Whitman’s technique of using catalogs consisting

64、 of a list of people.,Influence and significance He invented a completely new and completely American form of poetic expression, which freed American poems from the old English traditions. To him, message was always m

65、ore important than form, and he was the first to explore fully the possibilities of free verse. Whitman developed his style to suit his message and the audience he hoped to reach. He strongly believed that Americans h

66、ad a special role to play in the future of mankind.,,Emily Dickinson (1830-1886),born in 1830 into a Calvinist family of Amherst, Massachusetts. an energetic and outgoing woman while attending the Academy and Seminary，

67、while, during her mid-twenties Emily began to grow reclusive.,particularly stirred by the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom she deeply admired. By the 1860s, she lived in almost total physical isolation from the outside

68、 world, but actively maintained many correspondences and read widely.,She never married, and she led an unconventional life that was outwardly uneventful but was full of inner intensity. She loved nature and found deep

69、inspiration in the birds, animals, plants, and changing seasons of the New England countryside. She lived a quiet, very private life in her little hometown，therefore no mention of the war or any other great national eve