1美国文学课件

This tradition continued into the following century, when Puritan Jonathan Edwards and non-Puritans such as Phillis Wheatley and John Woolman reflected on their faith in poems and journals. Other writers, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, produced more public literature designed to entertain people or further their political aims. In its emphasis on human potential and reason, much of this literature reflects the prevailing sentiments of its era, often called the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason.
Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles...they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies; no houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succor...savage barbarians...were readier to fill their sides with arrows than otherwise. And for the reason it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms...all stand upon them with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue (William Bradford’s diary about his first view of the colony)
Literature of the Colonists
The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of the settlers. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, about adopting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops, about dealing with Indians. They wrote in diaries and in journals. They wrote letters and contracts and government charters and religious and political statements. They wrote about the land which stretched before them with rich dense forest and deep-blue lakes and rich soil. Among these none-too-remarkable documents protrude the reports of Captain John Smith, whose reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been described as the first distinctly American literature to be written in English.
Some central themes emerge from this literature. Because of the nature of their endeavor, for example, Captain John Smith and other chroniclers of settlement in the 17th century often addressed the subjects of will and work, the relationship between humans and nature, and the differences between European and Native American cultures. In this same century, Puritans such as Anne Bradstreet and John Winthrop wrote about their spiritual feelings and quests, Bradstreet in very personal poems and a journal, Winthrop in both a famous public sermon and an intimate journal.
IN THE name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the 11 of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domine 1620.
American Literature of the Colonial Period
Background and Distinguished Writer
Historical Background
Striving for Colonies European nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States. By 1650, however, England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast.
The Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was drawn up on the Mayflower, under these circumstances as described by Gov. William Bradford: "This day, before we came to harbor, observing some not well affected to unity and concord, but gave some appearance of faction, it was thought good there should be an association and agreement, that we should combine together in one body, and to submit to such government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make and choose, and set our hands to this that follows, word for word. . ."