《美国文学简史》考研常耀信版考研复习笔记和考研真题
第1章　殖民地时期的美国
1.1　复习笔记
I. American Puritanism（美国清教主义）
The settlement of North American continent by the English began in the early part of the seventeenth century. The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. In 1620, the ship Mayflower carried about one hundred Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The first settlers in America were quite a few of them Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons. They carried with them American Puritanism which took root in the New World and became the most enduring shaping influence in American thought and American literature.
英国向北美的移民活动开始于17世纪上半叶。英国于1607年在北美建立了第一个永久性海外殖民区：弗吉尼亚州的詹姆斯敦。1620年“五月花”号载运100余名移民抵达马萨诸塞州的普利
茅斯。很多美国早期的移民是清教徒，他们出于多种原因来到美国。他们信奉的清教主义后来在新大陆生根发芽，并对美国思想和美国文学产生了根深蒂固的影响。
1．Doctrines of Puritanism（清教主义的教义）
The Puritans accepted the doctrine predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement (or the salvation of a selected few), which theologian John Calvin had preached.
清教徒信奉神学家约翰·加尔文宣扬的预设定论，原罪，彻底的堕落，有限制的救赎等神学主张。
2．The influence of Puritanism on American literature（清教主义对美国文学的影响）
(1) The idealism of Puritan had exerted a great influence on American writers.
It is a common place that American literature—or Anglo-American literature—is based on a myth, that is, the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. This literature is in good measure a li
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terary expression of the pious idealism of the American Puritan bequest. The Puritan dreamed of living under a perfect order and worked with courage and hope toward building a new Garden of Eden in America, where man could at long last live the way he should. Fired with such a sense of mission, the Puritan looked upon even the worst of life in the face with a tremendous amount of optimism. All this went, in due time, into the making of American literature. The spirit of optimism burst into the pages of so many American authors.
(2) The American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.
Puritan doctrine and literary practice contributed to no small extent to the development of an indigenous symbolism. To the pious Puritan the physical phenomenal world was nothing but a symbol of God. Every passage of life, en-meshed in the vast context of God’s plan, possessed a delegated meaning. It is impossible to overlook the very symbolizing process that was constantly at work in Puritan minds. This process became, in time, part of the intell
ectual tradition in which American authors were brought up along with their people. For Jonathan Edwards, Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, Howells and many others, symbolism as a technique has become a common practice. This peculiar mode of perception was an essential part of their upbringing.
(3) With regard to technique, the simplicity which characterize the Puritan style of writing greatly influenced the American literature.
The style of the writing of the Puritan writers is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible. All this left an indelible imprint on American writing.
(1) 清教徒的理想主义对美国作家的文学创作产生了深远的影响。
从总体来看，美国文学——至少是白人的美国文学——是建筑在《圣经》伊甸园神话基础上的文学。在很大程度上，它是美国清教主义遗产——虔诚理想主义的一种文学形式。清教徒梦想着生活在一种完善的秩序之下，怀着勇气和希望在美国建立新的伊甸园，以使得他们能
最终过上理想的生活。在这种使命感的鼓舞下，他们面对艰难险阻却充满乐观主义情绪。这些都成为美国文学产生发展的重要滋养。乐观主义弥漫在许多美国作家的作品里。
(2) 美国清教徒形象地观察事物的方式导致了具有典型美国文学特点的象征主义的产生。
清教神学和清教徒的文学实践是美国本土象征主义发展的主要原因。在虔诚的清教徒看来，现实的大千世界只是上帝的象征而已。生活中的一切现象都是上帝意图的组成部分和具体表现。很容易发现这种在清教徒思维中经常发生的象征过程。随着时间的推移，这一过程便成为美国人民和作家赖以成长的文化传统的一部分。乔纳森·爱德华兹，爱默生，霍桑，麦尔维尔来说，象征主义已成为一种常用的技巧。清教徒这种独特的观察世界的方式是他们所受教育的一个基本构成部分。
(3) 在写作技巧方面，清教徒作品的朴实无华也深刻地影响了美国文学。
清教徒作家的写作风格是语言清新、简单、直接；修辞简朴、诚挚，带有圣经直接影响下的高贵气质。这些都给美国文学留下了持久的印迹。
II. Overview of the colonial literature（殖民地文学简介）
American literature grew out of humble origins. Diaries, histories, journals, letters, commonplace books, travel books, sermons, in short, personal literature in its various forms, occupied a major position in the literature of the early colonial period.
美国文学由很多粗糙的文体发展而来。日记、稗史、札记、书信、备忘录、游记及布道文稿等在内的各种形式的私人文字，在早期殖民时期的文学中占据着主要地位。
1．Major writers of colonial period（殖民地时期主要作家）
(1) John Smith (1580-1631)（约翰·斯密斯）
Captain John Smith was one of the founders of the colony Jamestown, Virginia. His writing about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers.
In The General History of Virginia he wrote about his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas.

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