美国文学简史笔记（常耀信）

美国文学简史笔记（常耀信）

A Concise History of American Literature
What is literature?
Literature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages.
Chapter 1 Colonial Period
I.    Background: Puritanism
1.    features of Puritanism
(1)    Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.
(2)    Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.
(3)    Total depravity
(4)    Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.
2.    Influence
(1)    A group of good qualities – hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.
(2)    It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.
(3)    Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.
(4)    With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.
II.    Overview of the literature
1.    types of writing
diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons
2.    writers of colonial period
(1)    Anne Bradstreet
(2)    Edward Taylor
(3)    Roger Williams
(4)    John Woolman
(5)    Thomas Paine
(6)    Philip Freneau

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