American Literature The beginning of America

American Literature
    Hello, everybody. Welcome to attend my lecture about American literature. Today I’d like to introduce to you briefly American literature. American literature began with the first English colonies in Virginia and New England. Colonists came to the new world to find religious freedom and prosperity. They came, however, in no spirit of revolution. They came as Englishmen, bringing with them the literary wealth of English legends, ballads (民谣) and poems and the richness of the English language.
    There is space here to discuss only the most important and the best. Even a short summary, however, shows something of the splendid accomplishment of American literature since it emerged from its crude (粗俗的，天然的) colonial beginnings more than 300 years ago.
    The history of American literature is short, roughly about 200 years. Until the War of Independence and the founding of the US, American literature showed its own characteristics as a mirror reflecting the society. American literature was formed and developed at the time of the War of Independence. It showed great importance on the stage of world literature. It is the product of the development of the American society, reflecting the social life of America.
    In addition to the beginning of American literature, we should understand some of the most important terms in different periods. The middle of the 19th century saw the beginning of a truly independent American literature. Thus this period, especially the years 1850- 1855, has been called the American Renaissance. In 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson made a tremendous impact on the intellectual life of America with his little book entitled Nature. That is Transcendentalism (超验主义) which is the summit of American Romanticism. As a literary movement, Realism came in the latter half of the 19th century as a reaction against "the lie" of Romanticism and Sentimentalism. It expressed the concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, and for the familiar and the low. With American Naturalism, writers wrote about the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world, and his lack of dignity in face of the crushing forces of environment and heredity (遗传). The whole picture is somber (忧郁的) and dark, and the general tone is despair. In the 1920s, Imagism appeared as a reaction to the traditional English poetic principle. American literature of the 20th century is different from earlier literature in significant ways. It is possible to list several of its characteristics which are implied in the term "modern":
    1. The scope of modern literature is broad. Writers are able to treat ugliness and violence freely.
    2. The meaning of modern literature is deeper and more complex than in earlier writing because life has become more complex.
    3. Modern writing is technically sophisticated.
    4. If technique is complicated, the language of modern writing is simpler than that of earlier times.
    5. Modern literature exhibits more variety than that of earlier periods.
    To sum up, in today’s lecture we have mentioned briefly the history of American literature, the characteristics and important terms in different development periods. Next lecture we’ll deal with detailed explanations of each period.