【正文】 ements. His research on electricity, his famous experiment with his kite line and many others made him the preeminent scientist of his day. 5) Literally, he really opened the story of American literature. In the Scottish philosopher David Hume‘s eyes he was America‘s ―first great man of letters‖. 3. Major Works ?Poor Richard’s Almanac ? Maxims（ 諺語，格言） and axioms（ 哲理，格言） a) Lost time is never found again. b) A penny saved is a penny earned. c) God help them that help themselves. d) Fish and visitors stink in three days. a) Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. b) Ale in, truth out. c) Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation. d) Diligence is the Mother of Good Luck. e) One Today is worth two tomorrow. Autobiography Themes: a. It is the first real biography in the United States . It gives us the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born, being the faithful account of the colorful career of America‘s first selfmade man. b. It is a story about the secular American dream and Franklin39。s particular application of mon sense in the brand new world of opportunity. c It is a puritan document. There are many descriptions of his scientific scheme of selfexamination and selfimprovement. He stressed puritan ideas like hard work, frugality, piety and sobriety. d It is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was a spokesman for the new order of eighteenth century enlightenment, believing that man is basically good and free by nature, endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. e language: f It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision(洗練清新，風(fēng)格純樸） . The plainness of its style, the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the salient features we cannot mistake. About the selected reading (p27) 1. the reasons why he wrote the Autobiography 2. the journey he left Boston for Philadelphia: Why did he leave Boston? How did he arrive in Philadelphia? 3. features of the style 4. Think about Puritanism 5. Read R. W. Emerson in Unit 3 and H. D. Thoreau in Unit 6 I. What is Romanticism ? Simply speaking, Romanticism is a literary movement which flourished as a cultural force throughout the 19th C and it can be divided into the early period and the late period. Also it remains powerful in contemporary literature and art. ? Romanticism, a term that is associated with imagination and boundlessness, is contrasted with classicism, which is monly associated with reason and restriction. A romantic attitude may be detected in literature of any period, but as an historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th centuries, in reaction to more rational literary, philosophic, artistic, religious, and economic standards.... The most clearly defined romantic literary movement in the U. S. was Transcendentalism. ? The representatives of the early period includes Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, and those of the late period contain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe. A. Washington Irving(17831859 ) fame ? “Father of American Imaginative literature‖ ? ―Father of the American short story‖ ? His Works： A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty by Diedrich Knickerbocker ? The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent 《 見聞札記 》 ? “Rip Van Winkle《 瑞普 凡 溫克爾 》 ? “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《 睡谷的傳說 》 ? c) Bracebridge Hall 1822 《 布雷斯布里奇莊園 》 ? d) Oliver Goldsmith 1840《 哥爾德斯密斯 》 e) Life of Gee Washington 18551859 《 華盛頓傳 》 ? The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book, A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, SKETCHES, AND TALES. It also marked the beginning of American Romanticism. ? In his life Cooper wrote over thirty novels which can be divided into frontier novels, detective novels and reference novels. He considered The Pathfinder 探路人 (1840) and The Deerslayer殺鹿者 (1841) his best works. ? The unifying thread of the five novels collectively known as the LeatherStocking Tales皮裹腿故事集 is the life of Natty Bumppo, Cooper‘s finest achievement. They constitute a vast prose epic with the North American continent as setting, Indian tribes as Characters, and great wars and westward migration as social background. The novels bring to life frontier America from 1740 to 1804. B. James Fenimore Cooper (17891851) Major Works 1) The Pioneers拓荒者 (1823): Natty Bumppo first appears as a seasoned scout in advancing years, with the dying Chingachgook, the old Indian chief and his faithful rade, as the eastern forest frontier begins to disappear and Chingachgook dies. 2) The Last of the Mohicans最后的莫希干人 (1826): An adventure of the French and Indian Wars in the Lake Gee county. 3) The Prairie大草原 (1827): Set in the new frontier where the Leatherstocking dies. 4) The Pathfinder(1840): Continuing the same border warfare in the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario county. 5) The Deerslayer(1841): Early adventures with the hostile Hurons on Lake Otsego, NY. ? It is a 19thcentury movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought. ? The overall movement shared similar philosophies. These philosophies rested on the Lockian concept of Idealism and Kant39。s belief in intuition. ? Emerson defined it as ―idealism‖ simply. In reality it was far more plex collection of beliefs: that the spark of divinity lies within man。 that everything in the wo