美国文学,作家整理

THE LITERATURE OF ROMANTICISM

The Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature. It stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It started with the publication of Washington Irving's THE SKETCH BOOK, ended with Whitman's LEAVES OF GRASS. Next, I mainly introduce a few famous writers in this period.

Washington Irving was one of the first American writers to earn an international reputation, and regarded as an early Romantic writer in the American literary history . Irving was born into a wealthy New York merchant family. From a very early age, he began to read widely and write juvenile poems, essays and plays. Later, he studied law. His first book A HISTORY OF NEW YORK, written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker, was a great success and won him wide popularity. In 1815, he went to England to take care of his family business there, and when it failed, had to write to support himself. With the publication of THE SKETCH BOOK, he won a measure of international recognition. In 1826, as an American diplomatic attaché, he was sent to Spain, where he gathered material for his writing. From 1829 to 1832, he was secretary of the U.S Legation in London. Then when he was fifty, he returned to America and bought “Sunnyside”, his famous home. There he spent the rest of his life, living a life of leisure and comfort. Washington Irving 's stories carry a strong romantic sensibility, with a special interest in remoteness, the Gothic and supernatural elements, and permeated with a dreaming quality. His style is humorous, familiar and graceful, making him an early prose stylist in American literature. His major works are A HISTORY OF NEW YORK, THE SKETCH BOOK OF GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT, BRACEBRIDGE HALL, OLIVER GOLDSMITH and LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.

James Fenimore Cooper was born into a rich family of New Jersey, Cooper was one of the few American authors who did not have to worry about money. He was sent to Yale at 14, but was expelled in his junior year because of improper behavior. Among a series of pranks, one of them was to train a donkey to sit in a professor's chair. Encouraged by his father, Cooper joined the Navy and served on the ship, 1806-07. 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. he started his writing career on a dare from his wife. His writing is powerful yet clumsy. He is good at inventing plots. His style is dreadful. Cooper’s major works are THE SPY(It is about espionage against the British during the Revolutionary War), THE PILOT, THE TWO ADMIRALS and so on. In addition, Cooper Creates many “first” in the field of American novels. He was the first writer of sea novels. He was the first excellent writer of border novels. He was the first writer of series novels. He was the first romantic writer with rationalism. He was the first writer in Am. appreciated by many writers of different nationalities and different generations. He was a mythic writer and created a myth about the formative period of the Am.

Edgar Allan Poe, son of Actress Eliza Poe and Actor David Poe Jr., born 19th of January 1809, was mostly known for his poems and short tales and his literary

criticism. He has been given credit for inventing the detective story and his psychological thrillers have been influences for many writers worldwide. Poe was simultaneously a romantic dreamer and a rationalist, a fantast and a realist. On the one hand he was much given to the world of imagination and fancy and on the other hand, he was logical to a fault with an intuitive faculty. In theme, Poe anticipated 20th century literature in his treatment of the disintegration of the self in a world of nothingness and nada，a world where there is neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help from pain. To describe the disintegrating process of the soul, Poe was particularly interested in the deep abyss of the unconscious and subconscious mental activity of the people and sometimes Poe revealed this area of human experience with alarming accuracy. Poe’s assumption seems to be that every mind is half mad or capable of slipping into insanity. As a result of this, his fictional characters are mostly neurot ics. Poe’s major works are THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO, THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE and so on.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, He was an American lecturer, philosopher, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. His original profession and calling was as a Unitarian minister, left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking. Emerson became one of America's best known and best loved 19th century figures. His major works is NATURE,THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR and EAASYS. Emerson wrote on a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets, but developing certain ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability for man to realize almost anything, and the relationship between the soul and the surrounding world. Emerson's "nature" was more philosophical than naturalistic; "Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul."

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book WALDEN, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.

Herman Melville, American author, best-known for his novels of the sea and his masterpiece MOBY-DICK(1851), a whaling adventure dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne. "I have written a wicked book and feel as spotless as the lamb," Melville wrote to Hawthorne. The work was only recognized as a masterpiece 30 years after Melville's death. The fictionalized travel narrative of TYPEE(1846) was Melville's most popular book during his lifetime. Herman Melville was born in New York City

into an established merchant family. He was the third child of eight. His father, Allan Melvill, an importer of French dry goods, became bankrupt and insane, dying when Melville was 12. TYPEE, an account of his stay with the cannibals, was first published in Britain, like most of his works. The book sold roughly 6,000 copies in its first two years. Its sequel, OMOO (1847), was based on his experiences in Polynesian Islands, and gained a huge success as the first one. Throughout his career Melville enjoyed a rather higher estimation in Britain than in America. His older brother Gansevoort held a government position in London, and helped to launch Melville's career. From his third book, MARDI AND A VOYAGE THITHER(1849), Melville started to take distance to the expectations of his readers.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the son of Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah Wadsworth Longfellow. He was born February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine. Portland was a seaport, and this gave its citizens a breadth of view lacking in the more insular New England towns. The variety of people and the activity of the harbors stirred the mind of the boy and gave him a curiosity about life beyond his own immediate experience. He was sent to school when he was only three years old. When he was six, the following report of him was received at home: "Master Henry Longfellow is one of the best boys we have in school. He spells and reads very well. He can also add and multiply numbers. His conduct last quarter was very correct and amiable." Longfellow's poetry are popular. There are two reasons. First, he had the gift of easy rhyme. He wrote poetry as a bird sings, with natural grace and melody. Read or heard once or twice, his rhyme and meters cling to the mind long after the sense may be forgotten. Second, Longfellow wrote on obvious themes which appeal to all kinds of people. His poems are easily understood; they sing their way into the consciousness of those who read them. Above all, there is a joyousness in them, a spirit of optimism and faith in the goodness of life which evokes immediate response in the emotions of his readers. Longfellow's first collection of poems entitled VOICES OF THE NIGHT appeared in 1838. His other works are BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS, POEMS ON SLAVERY and so on.

To sum up, we can find that writers in this period share nine place. Their works all overflow of powerful feeling, create a world of imagination, return to nature for material, sympathy with the humble and glorification of commonplace, express the genius of individual, interest in Milton and Elizabethan Age for literature model, interest in old stories and medieval romances, rebellius spirit and express the mood of melancholy and gloomy.