【正文】 they entertained.(3) The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism.(4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent.II. Washington Irving: Father of American Literature1. several names attached to Irving(1) first American writer(2) the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3) father of American literature2. life3. works(1) A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(2) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication of this.)(3) The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus(4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5) The Alhambra4. Literary career: two parts(1) 1809~1832a. Subjects are either English or Europeanb. Conservative love for the antique(2) 1832~1859: back to USIII. James Fenimore Cooper1. life2. works(1) Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2) The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3) Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3. point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4. literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – New England TranscendentalismI. Mark: 1836, “Nature” by EmersonII. Definition: As a philosophical and literary movement, Transcendentalism flourished in New England from 1830s to the outbreak of the civil war. Its representatives were Emerson and Thoreau. Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. The transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. The transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Ralph Waldo Emerson1. life2. works(1) Nature (The Bible of New England Transcendentalism)(2) Two essays: The American Scholar (America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence), The Poet3. aesthetic ideas(1) He is a plete man, an eternal man.(2) True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3) The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4) As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself.III. Henry David Thoreau1. life2. works(1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2) Walden(3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3. point of view(1) He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.(2) He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3) Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual wellbeing.(4) He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5) He was very critical of modern civilization.(6) “Simplicity…simplify!”(7) He was sorely disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s oddfellow society”.(8) He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI. Nathaniel Hawthorne1. life2. works(1) Two collections of short stories: Twicetold Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2) The Scarlet Letter(3) The House of the Seven Gables(4) The Marble Faun3. point of view(1) Evil is at the core of human life, “that blackness in Hawthorne”(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality).(3) He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4) He has disgust in science.4. aesthetic ideas(1) He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2) He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5. style – typical romantic writer(1) the use of symbols(2) revelation of characters’ psychology(3) the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4) his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5) use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of viewII. Herman Melville1. life2. works(1) White Jacket(2) Moby Dick3. point of view(1) He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of “Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2) One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the forting 19c idea of progress4. style(1) Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2) He tends to write periodic chapters.(3) His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic powe