American Literature- The Colonial Period- The Romantic Period- The Realistic Period- The Modern Period The Colonial Period From the Settlement of America( the Early 17th century) To the End of the 18th century.There is now a critical commonplace that American literature did not begin until the Colonial Period, the period stretching toughly from the settlement of America in the early seventeenth century through the end of the eighteenth . The major topic here will be about American Puritanism, the which has exerted an enduring influence in American literature. The major figures to mention will be Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin, who represent the heritage of American Puritanism. Benjamin Franklin - An Outstanding CharacterBenjamin Franklin （1706-1790）was born in 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were Puritan religion. They left England and moved to the English colony of Massachusetts in order to escape persecution for their religion. In Boston, Franklin left school when he was 10 years old and worked for his father for two years. Then he went to work on his brothers newspaper. He became the editor of this paper when he was 16. Because he wanted to be independent, he went to Philadelphia. There he bought his own newspaper. He worked hard and saved his money. And by the age of 24 he was one of the most successful men in Philadelphia.In 1732 Franklin published a book Poor Richards Almanac. Most almanacs contained information for farmers, such as information about the days and weeks of the year and about the weather. To his almanac, Franklin added wise sayings, his observations about life. Some of the sayings are still famous today. For example: “Early to bed ,early to rise makes a man healthy, wealth and wise” “Waste not, want not,” “A penny saved is a penny earned.” In his later years, he wrote the Autobiography Franklin contributed a great deal to his city of Philadelphia. He helped to establish the Philadelphia Library to build the first hospital in Philadelphia. He was the founder of the Academy of Philadelphia which later became the University of Philadelphia. Two of his greatest interests were science and politics. He became famous as an inventor. In one year he invented a new kind of stove, bifocal glasses the lightening rod.He was also a member of the persons who drafted the Declaration of Independence When he was born there was no United States. As he grew so did his nation grow. When he died his country was ready to take its place among the nations of the world. Benjamin Franklin was, some have said, the first American.The Romantic Period -“The American Renaissance” From the end of the 18th Century to the Outbreak of the Civil War(1861)The Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, started with Washington Irvings The Sketch Book and ended with Whitmans Leaves of Grass.The development of the American society nurtured “the literature of a great nation.” The young Republic was flourishing into a politically, economically and culturally independent country. Historically, it was the time of westward expansion. The west boundary had reached to the Pacific by 1860; the number of its states had increased from the original 13 at the time of its independence to 21 by the middle of the 19th century; its total population increased from 4 million in 1790 to 30 million in 1860. Economically, the whole nation was experiencing an industrial transformation, which affected the rural as well as the urban life. Industry was flourishing, as a result, the demand of a large employment, and the technological inventions and innovations all help restructure the economic life. In addition, the sudden influx of immigration gave a big push to the already booming industry.Politically, democracy and equality became the ideal of the new nation.With the founding of the American Independent Government, the nation felt an urge to have its own literary expression, to make known its new experience that other nations did not have: the early Puritan settlement, the confrontation with the Indians, the frontiersmens life, and the wild west. With a strong sense of optimism and the mood of “feeling good” of the whole nation, a spectacular outburst of romantic feeling was brought about in the first half of the 19th century. Foreign literary masters, especially the English counterparts exerted a stimulating impact on the writers of the new world. Born of one common cultural heritage, the American writers shared some common features with the English Romanticists. In most of the American writings in the period, there was a new emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature, which included a liking for the picturesque, the exotic,（異國情調(diào)的） the sensuous, （激發(fā)美感的） the sensational, and the supernatural. Although foreign influences were strong, the great works that demonstrate what American Romantic writings were are typically American. They revealed unique characteristics of their own in their works and they grew on the native lands. For example, the American national experience of “pioneering into the west” proved to be a rich source of material for American writers to draw on. The desire for an escape from society and return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature. Such a desire is particularly evident in Coopers Leather-Stocking Tales In Thoreaus Walden and later In Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThen the American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values. And this Puritan influence over American Romanticism was conspicuously noticeable. The American romantic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts. In Hawthorne, and Melvilles works, we can see signs of the Calvinistic view of original sin, the mystery of evil and grace (赦免).New England Transcendentalism clearly defined Romantic literary movement.The two Transcendentalists were the most significant writers America has produced so far, Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882) and his young friend Henry David Thoreau, (1817-1862) whose writings have a strong impact on American literature. Emersons Nature(1836) has been called “the Manifesto of American Transcendentalism, and his American Scholar (1837) has been rightly regarded as Americas” Declaration of Intellectual Independence” He exercised a most important influence on the development of an independent American culture.Thoreau .was at first a faithful follower of Emerson, but alienated him somewhat from the master later on. Thoreau built and went to live in a small cottage on Walden Pond two ears and then came back to write about his experience there in his famous book-Walden.Transcendentalism -has been defined philosophically as “the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses.”-the main issues involved were generally philosophical, concerning nature, man and universe.To the transcendentalists man is divine in nature and therefore forever perfectible; but to Hawthorne and Melville, everybody is potentially a sinner, and great moral courage is therefore indispensable for the improvement of human nature, as is shown in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter The writers to be discussed in this chapter include Irving, Hawthorne, Emerson, Whitman, Melville. I. Washington IrvingWashington Irving (1783-1859) one of the first American writers to earn an international reputation, and regarded as an early Romantic writer in the American literary history and Father of the American short stories.Born in New York City, the youngest of 11 children of a wealthy merchant. While quite young, he began to read widely & write juvenile poems, essays, and plays. He received his education at private schools and entered a law office.His first work : A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(1809) won him wide popularity and success. With the publication of The Sketch Book (1820), Irving won a measure of international fame on both sides of the Atlantic. “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”( from The Sketch Book ) which easily trigger off American imagination with their focus on American subjects, American landscape are among the treasures of American language and culture. But Irvings taste was essentially conservative. He imitates Homer, Cervantes, Fielding, Swift and was also absorbed in what he called “the rich mine of German Literature” and he got ideas from German legends for “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”He never preaches ,he only wants his readers amused and relaxed. So we often find ourselves lost in a world that is permeated with (spread to every part ) a dreaming quality. The Gothic elements and the supernatural atmosphere are manipulated in such a way that we could become so engaged and involved in what is happening in a seemingly attractive place. Yet Irving never forgets to associate a certain place with emotion so as to create a true and vivid character. He is worth the honor of being “the American Goldsmith” for his literary craftsmanship.II. Ralph Waldo EmersonRealism: Term applied to literary composition that aims at an interpretation of the actualities of any aspects of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. It is opposed to the concern with the unusual which forms the basis of romance, but it dose not proceed to the philosophy of determinism and a completely amoral attitude. Realism is not limited to any one form. 19th century is considered to mark its origin as a literary movement. The American transition from romance to realism in fiction was indigenous, but it occurred gradually. Typical realistic writers are Howells, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Some critics also include Hamlin Garland in the list. Naturalism:A critical term applied to the method of literary composition that aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man. It holds to the philosophy of determinism and conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by his social and economic environment and circumstances. Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments, and as a determinist he tends toward pessimism. The movement is an outgrowth of 19th-century scientific thought, following in general the biological determinism of Darwins theory, or the economic determinism of Marx.It stems from French literature, in which Zola emphasizes biological determinism, and Flaubert economic determinism. American leaders of the naturalistic movement are considered to include Crane, Norris, Herrick, London, Frederic and Dreiser. The Effect of The First World War: A Turning Point in American Literature The First World War (1914-1918), believed by Americans to be “the war to end wars”, was the first that America had ever fought on foreign soil and it led to bitter disillusionment. It shocked American intellectuals out of their innocent naivety and optimism. At the same time, the war marked the beginning of Americas use of mass production methods and modern technology which altered the life of the whole nation. The First World War was followed, in America, by two decades which were distinctly different from one another and clearly defined. The first, the “Twenties”, lasted from 1919 until the Crash (The great financial crash in 1929 ruined international trade, collapse, esp. of a business or stock-market) at the end of 1929. These ten years were a time of carefree prosperity, isolation from the worlds problems, bewildering social change and a feverish pursuit of pleasure. The second decade, the “Thirties”, lasted from the Crash, through the Great Depression, until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. The twenty years between the two world wars were a time of great literary creativity. Six American writers won the Nobel Prize for Literature: Sinclair Lewis, 1930; Eugene ONeill,1936; T.S. Eliot, 1948; William Faulkner, 1950; Ernest Hemingway, 1954; John Steinbeck, 1962.The Twenties brought a rush of new inventions and manufacturing techniques which changed the way people lived. People moved away from the countryside in large numbers. Women won the right to vote and became independent financially. Cars became commonplace and people began to move about among all regions of the country. Radios, movies, an abundance of standardized national products and national advertising all helped to turn America into a greedily consuming society. America turned its back on the world; it became absorbed in making money. The middle class frantically pursued individual “success” and personal enjoyment. Millions of people became quite consumeristic and lived beyond their means. A new generation of postwar writers heaped scorn on such a society and many of them went into voluntary exile in Europe. In the pre-war period, America had in general , followed European styles in art, music and literature. Most Americans suspected that their culture was inferior but they had a smug feeling that they were energetic, more moral, more inventive and more democratic than Europeans. Such writers as Mark Twain, Jack London, Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser pointed out the contradictions between what Americans preached and what they practiced. When the First World War broke out, many idealistic young Americans volunteered to take part in the “war to end wars” and test their own bravery. Later they discovered that modern warfare was not glorious or heroic. They saw the best youth being slaughtered. Disillusioned by slogans of patriotism and glory, these young Americans began to write. They wrote from their own experiences in the war, and their own observations, ignoring previous literary styles. They tried to make Americans see themselves with fresh, new eyes. Tow areas on which the writers concentrated their criticism: The failure of communication among Americans The failure of American societyWhy did they go into voluntary exile in Europe? The expatriates chose Paris as their place of exile because France had the kind of civilized, highly cultured, relaxed, tolerant society which they admired. Foreigners were treated hospitably there, without curiosity or stir, and allowed to pursue their own work without interference. Most of the serious American writers in Paris were very young. They came from the East or the Middle West of the U.S.A., and most of them had been shocked or wounded in the war. An American woman writer named Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), who was the first important Jewish writer in America , had lived in Paris since 1903, welcomed these young writers to her apartment which was already famous as a literary salon. Gertrude Stein was the advisor, friend, and confidante of some of the great French and American artists and writers of the time. Ezra Pound, an influential poet and critic, joined her group for a few years in the early 1920s. Together, they encouraged and helped such young writers as the novelist Ernest Hemingway and E.E. Cummings, both of whom had suffered in the war, and the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. The poet T.S. Eliot visited while Pound edited the long poem which established his reputation. Many other writers were drawn to Gertrude Steins home. She called them “The Lost Generation”, a name stuck to them, because they had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing which had never been tried before. In America, other writers who did not flee to Paris also joined the movement of social criticism. Sinclair Lewis caricatured and satirized the middle class in novels. H.L. Mencken ridiculed it in his newspaper. Sherwood Anderson and Eugene ONeill tried to show the true nature, and often the tragedy, of people living in an indifferent and greedy society. The “Twenties” had been typified by brash, optimistic, middle class businessmen. The “Thirties” were typified by grimly serious workers, determined to organize, to wrest power away from the bosses and take their rightful place in American society.By 1933, America was close to economic collapse. The “Thirties” produced a different type of writer. These new writers no longer stood aloof from a society which they despised. Instead, they took part in political and social movements. They spoke out on behalf of oppressed and suffering people. For the first time in American literature, writers understood that their words could be used as political weapons. John Steinbeck, a good case in point, wrote movingly about the lives of poor farmers. William Faulkner wrote profoundly about the disintegration of the old social system in the Southern states, and its effects on the lives of modern people, both black and white. Katherine Anne Porter frequently wrote about the ways in which political beliefs affected different types and classes of Americans. Richard Wright, a black novelist and Langston Hughes, a black poet, were the first Negro writers to achieve national fame. They both wrote powerfully on behalf of the black people. Poet Robert Frost wrote compassionately about common people, workers and farmers. The Second World War brought to a close a twenty-year period in American literary history which has never been equaled for productive energy, high quali