《ppt3WashingtonIrving.ppt》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《ppt3WashingtonIrving.ppt（23页珍藏版）》请在三一办公上搜索。
1、American Literature,Part ThreeThe Literature of RomanticismIEarly romanticism(1780-1860),3.1.Historical Background,English Romanticism:Publication of Lyrical Ballads in1798-Death of Walter Scott in 1832 Characteristics:Imagination Idealization of Nature Individualism Glorification of the commonplace
2、 The lure of the exotic(gothic romanticism),American Romanticism,The Romantic period stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War.(1800-1860)A nation bursting into new life cried for literary expression.rapid economic,political and cultural development,swift expan
3、sion,great immigration,burgeoning industrialization European influences of Romanticism counter-Enlightenment:emphasis on intuition,imagination,and feeling.Nature:a place free from societys judgement and restrictions.strive made by Americans-cultural independence,Features of American Romanticism,Puri
4、tan influence:tending to moralize,to edify rather than to entertainA feeling of newness:unique subject of The New WorldThe diversity of American romanticism:conventional yet popular poetry of The Fireside Poets(Longfellow 朗费罗，with the themes of“home,family and children,nature and idealized love”)com
5、ic fables of Washington Irving;gothic tales of Edgar Allen Poe,the frontier adventures of James Fenimore Cooper;the psychological romances of Nathanial Hawthorne,3.2 Washington Irving 欧文(1783-1859),Father of American literaturefirst professional American writerfirst American Romantic writer first Am
6、erican short story writerfirst native American author to win worldwide fame.,Life,Born into a wealthy New York merchant family Read widely from very early age-studied law Cared for his family business in England Went bankrupt wrote to support himself,Literary Works,A History of New York from the Beg
7、inning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty 纽约外史(1809)The Sketch Book/The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon,Gent.见闻札记(18191820)“Rip Wan Winkle”瑞普.凡.温克尔“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”睡谷的传说The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus 哥仑布传(1828)The Life of George Washington 华盛顿传(18551
8、859)Irvings career can be roughly divided into two important phases,the English period which span from his first book up to 1832&the American period stretching over the remaining years of his life.,“Rip Van Winkle”,Setting:Hudson River Valley(New England)in the years before and after the American Re
9、volutionary War.Rip Van Winkle:a simple,good-natured,and hen-pecked man.He does everything except take care of his own farm and family.He helps everyone except his wife and his own folks.So he is welcome everywhere except at home.“He is one of those happy mortals,who take the world easy,eat white br
10、ead or brown,whichever can be got with least thought or trouble,and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound.”,Plot Summary of“Rip Van Winkle”,Rip Van Winkle,a villager of Dutch descent,lives in a nice village at the foot of New Yorks Catskill Mountains.An amiable man whose home and farm
11、 suffer from his lazy neglect,he is loved by all but his wife.One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife by wandering up the mountains.After encountering strangely dressed men who are playing nine-pin,and after drinking some of their liquor,he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep.,He wak
12、es up twenty years later and returns to his village.He finds out that his wife is dead and his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere else.He immediately gets into trouble when he hails himself a loyal subject of King George III,not knowing that in the meantime the American Revolution ha
13、s taken place.An old local recognizes him,however,and Rips now grown daughter eventually puts him up.As Rip resumes his habit of idleness in the village,and his tale is solemnly believed by the old Dutch settlers,certain hen-pecked husbands especially wish they shared Rips luck.,What is the truth of
14、 this story?,Rips“the other American dream”-Rips confused state of mind upon waking from his 20-year slumber.How could everything have changed overnight?a metaphor:The confusion is a true reflection of the psychological difficulty Americans at the time felt in understanding their recent national his
15、tory.an illustration of Irvings argument that change-and revolution-upset the natural order of things,and of the fact that Irving never seemed to accept a modern democratic America,Writing Characteristics,Conservative Style:Beautiful though imitative Rich atmosphere,vivid&true character,finished,mus
16、ical and humorous language vs.slim plot aim of writing:to entertain,but not to moralize(he wrote for pleasure and to produce pleasure),The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”narrates the memorable event of an apparently headless horseman throwing his head at his rival in love,and t
17、he memorable character of Ichabod.,The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town，New York，in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow.It tells the story of Ichabod Crane,a lean,lanky,and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut who competes with Abraham Brom Bones Van Br
18、unt,the town rowdy,for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel,the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer.,Plot Summary of“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”,As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night,he is pursued by the Headless Horseman，who is supposedly the g
19、host of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during some nameless battle of the American Revolution War,and who rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head.Ichabod mysteriously disappears from town,leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones,who was to look e
20、xceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related.,A city slicker vs.a country bumpkin,Constructed from German tales but set in America,it is a classic tale of the conflict between city and country,and between brains and brawn.Ichabod:A native of Connecticut,a precocious,effete New Englan
21、der,shrewd,commercial,a city slicker,who is rather an interloper,a somewhat destructive force,in village life,and who comes along to swindle the villagers Brom Bones:a country bumpkin,rough,vigorous,boisterous but inwardly very good.,3.3 James Cooper(1789-1859),The first American Frontier novelThe f
22、irst American Sea novelThe first American Spy NovelThe first American Historical NovelHis Leatherstocking Tales as the American National Epic,Life,Locally famous family Yale University at 14 five years at sea comfortable life began to write accidentally failed in his first novel Precaution his secon
23、d novel The Spy(Harvey Birch)firmly established with his The Leatherstocking Tales,a series of five novels about the frontier life,Literary Works,The Pilot 领航者(1832)the Leather-Stocking Tales 皮袜子故事集 the main hero Natty Bumppo,known by European settlers as Leatherstocking,The Pathfinder,and the trapp
24、er and by the Native Americans as Deerslayer,La Longue Carabine and Hawkeye.1.The Deerslayer 打鹿将(1841)-youth 2.The Last of the Mohicans-middle-aged maturity 最后一个莫希干人(1826)3.The Pathfinder 探路者(1840)-in the late 30s 4.The Pioneers 拓荒者(1823)-old 5.The Prairie 大草原(1827)-dying,Natty Pumppo,first appears
25、to be a real frontiersman,a man of flesh and blood in the virgin forests of North America.Gradually gathering more and more of a halo of a legendary and mythic nature around him,becoming a representation of a nation struggling to be born,progressing from old age to rebirth and youth.Bumppos growth a
26、nd progress embodies none other than the American quest for an ideal community;through this character Cooper tried to create a national myth of his own.,Writing Features,A.intriguing plot constructionB.majestic landscape description,suggestive of sir Walter Scott,the legendary spirit of whose border
27、 tales might have been a source of inspiration for him.C.A rich imagination:He had never been to the frontier and among the Indians and yet could write five huge epic books about them with his rich imagination.D.Clumsy style:his style is dreadful;his characterization seems wooden and lacking in prob
28、ability.,Coopers Defects,Mark Twain in the essay entitled“Fenimore Coopers Literary Offences”:a.improbabilities,b.Dialogue is often awkward,c.Characters lack depth.d.little sensuous immediacy;e.scene and characters are imagined rather than visualized.,Coopers contribution,introducing the West and the frontier as a usable past into American literature,creating the first legendary frontier hero Natty Bumppo as the typical Pioneering figure.contributing to American literature different subgenres of novels:spy novel,sea novel,frontier novel,and historical romance.,
