Colonial Period
Lecture 1
I. An Outline of History & Anthology of American Literature Part One The Literature of Colonial America
1.Puritanism
2.Anne Bradstreet
Part Two The Literature of Reason and Revolution
1.Benjamin Franklin
2.Philip Freneau
Part Three The Literature of Romanticism
1.American Romanticism
2.Washington Irving
3.James Fenimore Cooper
4.William Cullen Bryant
5.Edgar Allan Poe
6.Transcendentalism
7.Ralph Waldo Emerson
8.Henry David Thoreau
9.Nathaniel Hawthorne
10.Herman Melville
11.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
12.Walt Whitman
13.Emily Dickinson
Part Four The Literature of Realism
1. American Realism
2. Harriet Beecher Stowe
3.Mark Twain
4.Henry James
5.Naturalism
6.Jack London
7.Theodore Dreiser
Part Five Twentieth-Century Literature
1.Modernism
2.Ezra Pound
3.Robert Frost
4.Carl Sandburg
5.T. S. Eliot
6.Eugene O’Neil
7.Tennessee Williams
8.Arthur Miller
9. F. Scott Fitzgerald
10.Ernest Hemingway
11.John Steinbeck
12.William Faulkner
II. Course Objectives:
1.Have a brief knowledge of the development of American literature.
2.Develop a greater understanding representative works of American literature.
3.Understand the social life and thematic ideas represented in the works.
4.Increase abilities of literary appreciation and analysis by commanding the criteria
and approaches of correctly criticizing and evaluating literary works.
5.Make a close reading of the selected works and improve English language.
III. Studying Approaches:
Through reading and studying, we should learn to know the historical and cultural background of each period of history of American literature. Get to learn the general features, basic thoughts of each important literary trend, and its influence on the contemporary and later literature. Get to know the representative writers of each period, and their life of creation, thoughts of writing, and artistic features. Meanwhile, get to know the thematic ideas, character analysis, language style, etc, in their masterpiece. It is very important to read and analyze the literary works to improve our appreciation and evaluation abilities of the literary arts.
1.Analytical Approach:
It provides you with the critical terms of the basic elements that comprise a story, a poem, a play, or an essay, such as plot, character, setting, point of view, theme, symbol, allegory, style and tone, etc.
In reading and learning literature, we should think of such questions:
1)How does the setting create the mood?
2)How does the protagonist relate to other characters?
3)What is the central image of the poemand how does it reveal the theme?
4)What is the thesis statement?
5)How is the plot of one story developed and its main idea unfolded?
6)What are the social problems presented in a novel and what is the social
significance of the work?
2.Thematic Approach:
This method settles the problem: “What is the story, the poem, the play or the
essay about?” Literature is a way of knowing about life and society, and it exists in a relationship to the world of shared human experience, which focus on ideas about human emotions, life philosophy, social development and revolution, to be specific, peace and violence, alienation and involvement, men and women, love and responsibility, the nature of humanity, the reality of death, society and individual, etc.
3.Historical Approach:
It aims at illustrating the historical development of literature. All literature exists in time and bears the imprint of the period and culture. To have a better understanding of the literature, we have to learn about the historical background and information of that time. We may find there exist a successive trend of literature. In has different ideas in different period of history.
Lecture 2 Part one: The literature of Colonial America
I.Historical Background
This period refers to time span from the early in the seventeenth century when permanent English settlement began in Virginia and Massachusetts, to the mid-eighteenth century before the War for Independence (1776-1783).
1.Literature of the colonial America.
Before the Revolutionary War (1776-1781), “The first American literature was neither American nor really literature. It was not American because it was the work mainly of immigrants from England. It was not literature as we know it---in the form of poetry, essay, or fiction---but rather an interesting mixture of travel accounts and religious writing.” (Bode, Book One)
The dissenting religious doctrines of Puritans and Pilgrims alike had been formed by the teachings of Martin Luther (1483-1546) and John Calvin (1509-1564). From Luther and Calvin they took th eir idea of the “priesthood of all believers” and their faith in the right of individuals to read and interpret the Bible. From Calvin’s Instites of the Christian Religion (1536-1559) they adopted their theological tenets: of total depravity, that all men were born corrupted by the original sin of Adam; of Limited atonement, that Jesus’ sacrifice had earned God’s forgiveness, or grace, only for the few “elect,” whereas the mass of men were condemned to hell; of irresistible grace, that the election of any man was ordained by God, that no man could earn his way to heaven by his own good works nor could he lose his saving faith once God had granted it; and of predestination, that at the beginning of time an omnipotent God had predestined all events and chosen all who would be saved.
The first notably American literature was written by Captain John Smith. His reports of exploration were strongly shaped by a New World consciosness.
He was one of the survivals of the first movers to Jamestown of Virginia in 1607. Born in England of poor farmers, he was a soldier in the war of Europe and Near East, diplomatic, military, and amorous. In Jamestown, the first colony, he emerged as the leader, traded with Indians. His description of the new world stimulated colonial investment and lured settlers to the new world, among them the puritans who used his maps and surveys in seeking a New Jerusalem in America he had named “New England.” He was once captured by Indians. His tale of capture and salvation has become one of the most potent of all American myths. He is the chief source of what we know about the Virginia Indians before they were conquered and all but destroyed by the White man.
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II.Puritanism
1.Introduction:
Puritanism emerged in England around 1500s, and it came to America in
the early 1700s. It aims to purify the church of England of hierarchy, ritual,
church ornament, superstitious customs that they thought to be. They didn’t
agree with Roman Catholic Popery and wanted to reform and return to more
primitive principles, to simplicity. They rejected the authority of popes and
bishops, insisting that the Bible as interpreted by a learned clergy was the
sole authority in religion.
In England, Puritanism was considered a radical movement in politics as well as in religion. Puritans were harshly persecuted. To seek religious
freedom and material advantage, they emigrated to the New England and
there they established a theocracy.
2.Puritan thoughts( principles)
The Puritan theology was based on the teachings of John Calvin(1509-1564), who was a famous reformer in France. The basic principles of Calvinism can be summed up as:
a.Total depravity
All men were born corrupted by the original sin of Adam. Man is unable to
work out his own salvation.
b.Unconditional election
God, in his absolute sovereignty, saves some and damnsothers as he pleases.
God is the highest authority, a king and a ruler. The people saved by God are
“the elect”. Puritans believed they were the chosen people by God.
c.Limited atoment.
Jesus’ sacrifice had earned God’s forgiveness, or grace, only for the few
“elect,” whereas the mass of men were condemned to hell
d.Irresistible Grace
The election of any man was ordained by God, and no man could earn his
way to heaven by his own good works nor could he lose his saving faith once
God had granted it
e.Predestination
At the beginning of time an omnipotent God had predestined all events and
chosen all who would be saved.
3. Representative Writers:
i.William Bradford (1590-1657): Of Plymouth Plantation(written in
1630-1650, published in 1856), a historian
ii.John Winthrop(1588-1649): The Journal(1630-1649 )
iii.Captain John Smith (1580-1631): A Map of Virginia with a Description of the Country(1612), about the immigrants’ life in
early America
iv.Cotton Mather (1663-1728): Poets:
v.Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672):
vi.Edward Taylor (1642-1729, discovered in 1930s)
Lecture 3 Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672):
She was the first notable poet in American literature, an authentic Puritan voice with a simplicity and force rarely founded in her contemporaries.
1.Life Introduction:
She was born in England, and raised on the estate of the Earl of Lincoln, where her father, Thomas Dudley, was steward, or manager of business affairs. At sixteen, she married Simon Bradstreet, a sturdy Puritan and a graduate of Cambridge University. Two years later, she went to Massachusetts Bay Colony with her husband, the Dudleys, and John Winthrop. She confronted a primitive life and became a dutiful housewife and raised eight children. In the midst of her household task, she stole time to read and write poetry. In 1650, her poems were published under the title The Tenth Muse Laterly Sprung Up in America, which was the first published volume of poetry written by a settler in the American colonies. She called it an “ill-formed offsp ring,” “my rambling brat in print” It dwelt on the vanity of wordly pleasures, the brevity of life, and resignation to God’s will. In 1678, it was published in a second edition. She had achieved a simpler, more lyrical poetry expressing a mind whose instinctive emotionalism conflicted with the Puritan conscience it had absorbed. Today her work stands with that of Edward Taylor as part of the true poetry of seventeenth-century New England. She was one of the first women in America to speak in her own behalf, and her lyrics remained unsurpassed by any woman writer until the nineteenth century and the coming of Emily Dickinson.
To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
Metric pattern: iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is aabb ccde ffgg. The last two line constitute a heroic couplet.
In this poem, Anne Bradstreet insists on the greatness of her love by saying how impossible it is to describe, evaluate, and repay. She refuses to elaborate on each statement. This dramatically reveals the main theme---that true love is untranslatable. At first, the poetess, in a voice speaking to other women, tells us she and her husband are so close as on united. She can feel only happiness in her husband. Her husband’s love is more treasurable or valuable than “whole mines of gold, and the great fortune in the East. Her love is no less. The fire of her love is so strong that rivers cannot put it out.
She thinks her husband has given her too much love that she cannot repay. Therefore she wishes her husband be repaid by heavenly blessing. Their sincere love is durable and will last forever as long as they are alive. It will even continue to exist after their death. Here we see love is so intensive that it can conquer powerful death and go beyond time and space.
So, in simple images the poetess expresses the immeasurable value of love between man and his wife. The last line shows the Puritan idea of election.
In the first ten lines the poetess has established the durability and greatness of her love. When she proposes that their love can be made of timeless feeling, we can feel the persuasiveness. The last two lines are like the concluding couplet of a sonnet in the way they summarize, explain and solve the problem.
Upon Burning of My House
In silent night when rest I took,
For sorrow near I did not look,
I waken'd was with thund'ring noise
And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice. That fearful sound of "fire" and "fire,"
Let no man know is my Desire.
I starting up, the light did spy,
And to my God my heart did cry
To straighten me in my Distress
And not to leave me succourless.
Then coming out, behold a space
The flame consume my dwelling place. And when I could no longer look,
I blest his grace that gave and took,
That laid my goods now in the dust. Yea, so it was, and so 'twas just.
It was his own; it was not mine.
Far be it that I should repine,
He might of all justly bereft
But yet sufficient for us left.
When by the Ruins oft I past
My sorrowing eyes aside did cast
And here and there the places spy
Where oft I sate and long did lie.
Here stood that Trunk, and there that chest, There lay that store I counted best,
My pleasant things in ashes lie
And them behold no more shall I.
Supplementary Reading 3:
Chief Seattle's Letter
"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people. We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family. The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors.
If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.
When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.
As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know - there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We ARE all brothers after all."
Under the roof no guest shall sit,
Nor at thy Table eat a bit.
No pleasant talk shall 'ere be told
Nor things recounted done of old.
No Candle 'ere shall shine in Thee,
Nor bridegroom's voice ere heard shall bee. In silence ever shalt thou lie.
Adieu, Adieu, All's Vanity.
Then straight I 'gin my heart to chide:
And did thy wealth on earth abide,
Didst fix thy hope on mouldring dust,
The arm of flesh didst make thy trust? Raise up thy thoughts above the sky
That dunghill mists away may fly.
Thou hast a house on high erect
Fram'd by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished
Stands permanent, though this be fled.
It's purchased and paid for too
By him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by his gift is made thine own.
There's wealth enough; I need no more. Farewell, my pelf; farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love;
My hope and Treasure lies above.