浪漫主义时期的美国文学.ppt

American Romanticism American Romanticism: its imitativeness and its distinctiveness A new independent country booming in economy, culture and politics, crying for literary expression : the sense of optimism and hope Foreign influence: American Romanticism is derivative The comparison of American and British Romanticism The subjects might be new, yet the writing technique and way of expression are traditional and even stereotyped. More restrictive cultural atmosphere due to the influence of the Puritanism: more moral concern than emotional expression Writing for the expression of optimism and hope as a new-born nation rather than melancholy and depression surfacing lines of verses by some British romantic poets More romantic stories than poems as the case in Britain Washington Irving (1783-1859) James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) Herman Melville (1819-1891) Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) Washington Irving (1783-1859) He did a number of things that have been regarded as the first of their kind in America: The first world-renowned American writer as the Father of American literature The initiation of short story as a genre The initiator of American Romanticism Two phrases of his literary undertaking A lover of European antique A painter of American landscape His style: American Goldsmith 4. His masterpieces: The Sketch Book Rip Van Winkle Irving’s conservative attitude toward a modern democratic post-war America James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) A mythic writer; American Scott James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) A mythic writer; American Scott New England Transcendentalism Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th century. It is sometimes called American Transcendentalism. Three features of tra