美国文学简史完全笔记 Chapter 1

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A Concise History of American Literature

What is literature?

Literature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages.

Chapter 1 Colonial Period I. Background: Puritanism

1.features of Puritanism

（1）Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.

（2）Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.

（3）Total depravity

（4）Limited atonement: Only the ※elect§ can be saved.

2.Influence

（1）A group of good qualities 每 hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety （serious and thoughtful） influenced American literature.

（2）It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth 每 garden of Eden.

（3）Symbolism: the American puritan＊s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.

（4）With regard to their writing, the style 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.

II. Overview of the literature

1.types of writing

diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons

2.writers of colonial period

（1）Anne Bradstreet

（2）Edward Taylor

（3）Roger Williams

（4）John Woolman

（5）Thomas Paine

（6）Philip Freneau

III. Jonathan Edwards

1.life