论文关键词：美国文学 浪漫主义 超验主义 现实主义 现代主义
论文摘要：浪漫主义时期是美国文学史上最重要的时期之一。当美国人在大刀阔斧地建设自己的国家时，也开始逐渐意识到逐渐与欧洲的不同。随着不断增强的民族主义意识及民族自豪感，美国人开始希望见到自己的不同与欧洲模式，能表达他们字的美国风情的文学。这个时代伟大的作家充满热情地记录下这个伟大时代的乐观主义精神。随后美国文学进入了超验主义时代。超验主义十分强调个人主义、自立、拒绝传统权威思想。它实际上是对浪漫主义的发展。
然后，美国的国家自信心受到了内战的动摇。内战过后，美国处在迷茫中。在1900年前后这段时期的文学由于美国国内环境的变化而由浪漫主义和超验主义乐观精神转向对社会和人类本质更直接的探讨。从某种角度，现实主义反对浪漫主义的理想主义和怀旧情绪。它主要关注中下层人民的日常生活，而在这种情况下人物性格是社会因素作用的结果，环境是整个事件发展不可分割的部分。
1910年至1930年间被称为现代主义时期。一战后，美国进入了高度繁荣的十年，商业的繁荣程度超过了许多人的想象。20世纪初期，现代机器改变了人们日常生活的节奏、环境和面貌。大批的艺术家和作家获得了不同程度的成功，开始改造传统的艺术形式，试图从中发现新的元素—人们进入机械时代之后所产生的美学共鸣。在这个时期，很多艺术家和文学运动在很大程度上与19世纪的风格、形式及内容迥异。现代的心理学对20世纪早期的文学产生了深刻的影响，大多数优秀的现代主义作家对人类心理学表现出浓厚兴趣。WWW.11665.COm
abstract
romantic period is one of the most important periods in the history of american literature. when americans were constructing their country, they also began to realize their differences from their european counterparts. they began to hope to see an entirely different literature model which expressed american cultures. great writers of that period captured on their pages the enthusiasm and the optimism of that dream. later，american literature came to transcendentalism period which emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of tradition authority. it was actually greatly influenced by romanticism.
however, the country’s confidence was waved by the civil war. after the war, americans got lost. at about 1900s, american literature came to another entirely different age—the age of realism. realists searched for the social and human nature more directly. in part, realism was a reaction against the romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away. it has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications.
the period between 1910 and 1930 is referred to as the era of modernism. as modern machinery had changed the pace, atmosphere, and appearance of daily life in the early 20th century, so many artists and writers, with varying degrees of success, reinvented traditional artistic forms and tried to find radically new ones—an aesthetic echo of what people had come to call “the machine age.” during that period, a large number of artists and literary movements are totally different from those of the 19th-century’s, in style, form and content. modern psychology has a profound impact on the early 20th-century’s literature.
key words: american literature; romanticism; new england transcendentalism; realism; modernism
1. american romanticism
romanticism refers to an artistic and intellectual movement originating in europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual’s experience of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. the romantic period of american literature stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the civil war. it was an age of westward expansion, of the increasing gravity of the slavery question, of an intensification of the spirit of embattled sectionalism in the south, and of a powerful impulse to reform in the north. in literature it was america’s first great creative period, a full flowering of the romantic impulse on american soil.
1.1 the unique characteristics of american romanticism
although greatly influenced by their english counterparts, the american romantic writers revealed unique characteristics of their own in their works and they grew on the native lands. for examp1e，(1) the american national experience of "pioneering into the west" proved to be a rich source of material for american writers to draw upon. they celebrated america's landscape with its virgin forests, meadows, groves, endless prairies, streams, and vast oceans. the wilderness came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral 1aw. (2) the desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of american literature. such a desire is particularly evident in cooper’s leather stocking tales, in thoreau's walden and， later, in mark twain’s adventures of huckleberry finn. (3) with the growth of american national consciousness, american character types speaking local dialects appeared in poetry and fiction with increasing frequency. (4)then the american puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over american moral values and american romanticism. one of the manifestations is the fact that american romantic writers tended more to moralize than their english and european counterparts. (5) besides, a preoccupation with the calvinistic view of origina1 sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of hawthorne, melville and a host of lesser writers.
1.2 representative writers and their works
washington irving(1783-1859) was the first american storyteller to be internationally recognized as a man of letters and the first great prose stylist of american romanticism, and his familiar style was destined to provide a model for the prevailing prose narrative of the future. his first book a history of new york from the beginning of the world to the end of the dutch dynasty (1809), written under the name of diedrich knickerbocker, was a great success and won him wide popularity. he is best known for his the sketch book of geoffrey crayon, gent (1819-1820), especially in which two short stories rip van winkle and the legend of sleepy hollow have become american classics. later he wrote works of history and biographies, such as the history of life and voyages of christobra columbus (1828), a chronicle of the conquest of granada and the alhambra (1832). after that, he spent the rest of his life living a life of leisure and comfort, and writing the life of goldsmith (1840) and a five-volume life of washington (1855-1859). he died in 1859.
james fenimore cooper (1789-1851) is respectfully remembered as a master of adventurous narrative and as the creator of an american hero-myth. according to a charming legend, cooper’s first novel precaution (1820) was a response to his wife’s challenge to improve on the current british society fiction, and the failure of this work turned him to historical novels. later, the spy, a tale of the revolution he wrote, became a great success in america and europe. in 1823, cooper published the pioneers (1823), which together with other 4 novels the deerslayer (1841), the last of the mohicans (1826), the pathfinder (1840) and the prairie (1827) became his well-known leather-stocking tales. cooper went on to write over thirty novels, including exciting adventures of the sea like the pilot. cooper created the american historical novel using authentic american subject.
2. new england transcendentalism
american romanticism culminated around the 1840s in what has come to be known as “new england transcendentalism” or “american renaissance” (1836-1855).
2.1 characteristics of new england transcendentalism
the transcendentalist movement, embodied by essayists ralph waldo emerson and henry david thoreau, was a reaction against 18th century rationalism, and closely linked to the romantic movement. it is closely associated with concord, massachusetts, a town near boston, where emerson, thoreau, and a group of other writers lived.
in general, transcendentalism was a liberal philosophy favoring nature over formal religious structure, individual insight over dogma, and humane instinct over social convention. american transcendental romantics pushed radical individualism to the extreme. american writers—then or later —often saw themselves as lonely explorers outside society and convention. the american hero—like herman melville’s captain ahab, or mark twain’s huck finn—typically faced risk, or even certain destruction, in the pursuit of metaphysical self-discovery. for the romantic american writer, nothing was a given. literary and social conventions, far from being helpful, were dangerous. there was tremendous pressure to discover an authentic literary form, content, and voice.
2.2 representative writers and their works
ralph waldo emerson, the towering figure of his era, had a religious sense of mission. although many accused him of subverting christianity, he explained that, for him “to be a good minister, it was necessary to leave the church.” the address he delivered in 1838 at his alma mater, the harvard divinity school, made him unwelcome at harvard for 30 years. in it, emerson accused the church of emphasizing dogma while stifling the spirit. emerson is remarkably consistent in his call for the birth of american individualism inspired by nature. much of his spiritual insight comes from his readings in hinduism, confucianism, and islamic sufism.
henry david thoreau was from a poor family, like emerson, he worked his way through harvard. thoreau’s masterpiece, walden, or life in the woods (1854), is the result of two years, two months, and two days (from 1845 to 1847) he spent living in a cabin he built at walden pond, near concord. this long poetic essay challenges the reader to examine his or her life and live it authentically. thoreau’s essay “civil disobedience,” with its theory of passive resistance based on the moral necessity for the just individual to disobey unjust laws, was an inspiration for mahatma gandhi’s indian independence movement and martin luther king’s struggle for black americans’ civil rights in the 20th century.
walt whitman was a part-time carpenter and man of the people, whose brilliant, innovative work expressed the country’s democratic spirit. his leaves of grass (1855), which he rewrote and revised throughout his life, contains “song of myself,” the most stunningly original poem ever written by an american.the poem’s innovative, unrhymed, free-verse form, open celebration of sexuality, vibrant democratic sensibility, and extreme romantic assertion that the poet’s self was one with the universe and the reader, permanently altered the course of american poetry.
emily dickinson is, in a sense, a link between her era and the literary sensitivities of the 20th century. she never married, and she led an unconventional life that was outwardly uneventful but was full of inner intensity. she loved nature and found deep inspiration in the birds, animals, plants, and changing seasons of the new england countryside. dickinson spent the latter part of her life as a recluse, due to an extremely sensitive psyche and possibly to make time for writing. dickinson’s terse, frequently imagistic style is even more modern and innovative than whitman’s. she sometimes shows a terrifying existential awareness. her clean, clear, chiseled poems, rediscovered in the 1950s, are some of the most fascinating and challenging in american literature.
nathaniel hawthorne (born nathaniel hathorne; july 4, 1804 – may 19, 1864) was an american novelist and short story writer. hawthorne is best known today for his many short stories (he called them "tales") and his four major romances written between 1850 and 1860: the scarlet letter (1850), the house of the seven gables (1851), the blithedale romance (1852) and the marble faun (1860). another novel-length romance, fanshawe was published anonymously in 1828. hawthorne defined a romance as being radically different from a novel by not being concerned with the possible or probable course of ordinary experience. many of his works are inspired by puritan new england, combining historical romance loaded with symbolism and deep psychological themes, bordering on surrealism. hawthorne's works belong to romanticism or, more specifically, dark romanticism, cautionary tales that suggest that guilt, sin, and evil are the most inherent natural qualities of humanity. his later writings would also reflect his negative view of the transcendentalism movement.
edgar allan poe (january 19, 1809 – october 7, 1849) was one of the most widely read and influential american writers. at the age of 18, he published his first book of poetry. in 1838 poe published his only novel, the narrative of arthur gordon. he died in 1849. during a short life of poverty, anxiety, and fantastic tragedy, poe achieved the establishment of a new symbolic poetry; the formalization of the new short story and the slow development of an important critical theory. poe is best known for his poems and horror stories. among his works are the stories the fall of the house of usher, william wilson, ligeia and the cask of amontillado, and the poems the raven, annabel lee, sonnet—to science, to helen and israfel.
the civil war brought the romantic period to an end. the age of realism came into existence.
3. the age of realism
as a literary movement, realism came in the latter half of the nineteenth century as a reaction against “the lie” of romanticism and sentimentalism. it expressed the concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, and for the familiar and low.
3.1 literature features in realism period
the american authors lumped together as “realists” seem to have some features in common: “verisimilitude of detail derived from observation,” the effort to approach the norm of experience—a reliance on the representative in plot, setting, and character, and to offer an objective rather than an idealized view of human nature and experience.
local colorism as a trend first made its presence felt in the late 1860s and early 70s. local colorist concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. the tended to idealize and glorify, but they never forgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life.
naturalism is a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as a passive victims of natural forces and social environment. the most significant work of naturalism in english is dreiser’s sister carrie (1900).
3.2 representative writers and their works
mark twain [pseudonym of samuel langhorne clemens] (1835-1910) was an american humorist, lecturer, essayist, and author. his primary works are the innocents abroad, the adventures of tom sawyer, life on the mississippi, the adventures of huckleberry finn, the prince and the pauper, a connecticut yankee in king arthur's court.
mark twain was the true father of american literature. he intentionally deviates from classical genteel and tends to use local dialects, colloquial language, even black english, slang, clipped structures and ungrammatical sentences. he was a combination of realism with romanticism. his works combine american folk humor and serious literature, characterize a local culture, elements such as speech, customs, and more peculiar to one particular place. the physical settings, and people’s behavior and thoughts are different from the other places.
william dean howells （1837-1920）was born in a small town in ohio and brought up in the humble surroundings of the rough-and-ready american midwest. he had little education but was widely read.
stephen crane (1871-1900) was born into a new jersey methodist clergyman’s family. it is no exaggeration to state that crane anticipated the chief phenomena of american literature in the first few decades of 20th-century. crane’s best short stories include “open boat,” “the blue hotel,” and “an experiment in misery,” all reinforcing the basic crane motif of environment and heredity overwhelming man.
theodore dreiser (1871-1945) has been a controversial figure in american literary history. the revival of naturalism in the 1930s enthroned dreiser as the guide and pioneer for the latter-day naturalists such as james t. farrell, john o’ hara, for it is in dreiser’s works that american naturalism is said to have come of age.
there are many other great writers in this period, such as edwin arlington robinson, jack london, o. henry, and so on. they have made great contribution to the world’s literature.
4. the age of modernism
4.1. characteristics of modernism
the large cultural wave of modernism, which emerged in europe, and then spread to the united states in the early years of the 20th century, expressed a sense of modern life through art as a sharp break from the past. as modern machinery had changed the pace, atmosphere, and appearance of daily life in the early 20th century, so many artists and writers, with varying degrees of success, reinvented traditional artistic forms and tried to find radically new ones—an aesthetic echo of what people had come to call “the machine age.”
american drama imitated english and european theater until well into the 20th century. not until the 20th century would serious american plays attempt aesthetic innovation.
4.2. representative writers
thomas stearns eliot (1888-1965) was born in st. louis, missouri, on september 26, 1888. he studied at harvard, the sorbonne, and oxford. in 1927, he became a british subject. in 1917, he published the love song of j. alfred prufrock. and in 1920, eliot began the waste land, which compelled immediate critical attention. after the hollow men and the sweeney agonistes, which continue the waste land’s critique of modern civilization, he turned increasingly to poems of religious doubt and reconciliation. the four quartets are poems written after his conversion to christian faith. eliot’s conservative critical essays in tradition and the individual talent tended to carry as much weight as his poetry.
robert lee frost was perhaps the most popular and beloved of 20th-century american poets. he was born in california. like eliot and pound, he went to england, attracted by new movements in poetry there. he wrote of traditional farm life in new england (part of the northeastern united states), appealing to a nostalgia for the old ways. among frost’s volumes of poetry are new hampshire, a witness tree, steeple bush, and in the clearing. a masque of reason and a masque of mercy were blank verse plays. his poems are concerned with human tragedies and fears, his reaction to the complexities of life, and his ultimate acceptance of his burdens. frost was awarded the pulitzer prize for poetry in 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943.
ernest hemingway (1899-1961) was an american novelist and short-story writer. he is ranked among one of the greatest american writers of the 20th century. hemingway’s first books, three stories and ten poems (1923), in our time (short stories, 1924), and the torrents of spring (a novel, 1926), attracted attention primarily because of his style. with the publication of the sun also rises (1926), he was recognized as the spokesman of the “lost generation”.
eugene o’neill is the great figure of american theater. his numerous plays combine enormous technical originality with freshness of vision and emotional depth. o’neill’s earliest dramas concern the working class and poor; later works explore subjective realms, and underscore his reading in freud and his anguished attempt to come to terms with his dead mother, father, and brother.
conclusion
romantic period stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the civil war. later american literature came to transcendentalism period which emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of tradition authority. the civil war brought the romantic period to an end. the age of realism came into existence, which was against “the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism”. the period between 1910 and 1930 is referred to as the era of modernism. during that period, a large number of artists and literary movements are totally different from those of the 19th-century’s, in style, form and content.
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