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American Puritanism 美国清教主义

Simply speaking, American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions.美国清教主义指的是清教徒的精神和理想的定居在北美大陆十七世纪初期由于内容的宗教迫害。

It migration that laid the foundation for the religious, intellectual, and social order of New England. 它为新英格兰奠定了宗教，知识和社会秩序的基础。

Puritans adhered to the Five Points of Calvinism as codified at the Synod of Dort: unconditional election, limited atonement, total depravity, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints. 清教徒遵循加尔文派于多特宗教会议上制定的五点信条：无条件拣选，有限救赎，完全堕落，不可抗拒的恩典，以及圣徒的坚守。 It is basis of American literature. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden. It contributing to the development of Symbolism: a technique, widely used. 它是美国文学的基础。所有文学基于一个神话——伊甸园。 它的发展导致的象征主义:技术,广泛使用。

American Romanticism 美国浪漫主义

The Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It started with the publication of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

浪漫主义时期是美国文学历史上最重要的时期,从18世纪末延伸至爆发内战。它始于华盛顿·欧文的《见闻札记》,以惠特曼的《草叶集》结束。

In literature it was America’s first great creative period, a full flowering of the romantic impulse on American soil. 在文学上，这个时期是美国第一次伟大的创作期，浪漫主义的种子在北美的土壤里生根发芽。

American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience” and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien. 美国浪漫主义在本质上是一个“全新的经历”的表达，因为这个新大陆充满着生机和活力而使美国的浪漫主义蕴含异国的气质。 Puritan influence over American romanticism was conspicuously noticeable.

American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained.

清教主义对美国浪漫主义有着显著的影响。浪漫主义作家往往更讲道德。许多浪漫主义作品旨在陶冶他们过瘾了。

Subjectivity, back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature, back to nature is romanticism’s characteristics. 主体性，回到中世纪，尤其是中世纪民间文学，回归自然是 浪漫主义的特征。

It stressing emotion rather than reason, stressing freedom and individuality, Idealism rather than materialism. Writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements. 强调情感,而不是原因，强调自由和个性，理想主义,而不是唯物主义。写关于自然、中世纪的传说和超自然的元素

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American Transcendentalism 美国超验主义

It is the summit of American Romanticism. The beliefs that God is immanent in each person and in nature and that individual intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority. 它是美国浪漫主义的顶峰。超验主义者认为人人都有内在的神性，只有通过接触自然才能使神性与人的天性相融合，从而超验主义十分强调个人主义、自立、拒绝传统权威思想。

The transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. They stressed the importance of the individual. Taking nature as the symbol of the Spirit. 超验主义者强调精神，或超灵，认为它是是宇宙中最重要的事情。他们强调个人的重要性，以自然为精神的象征。

It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period in American literature. It marked the independence of American literature. 建立第一个美国文艺复兴时期,美国文学中最多产时期之一。标志着美国文学的独立。 The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Emerson in such essays as Nature, and Self-Reliance and by Thoreau in his book Walden.

超验主义思想在爱默生的《论自然》和《论自立》以及梭罗的《瓦尔登湖》等书中表现的淋漓尽致。

Free verse 自由诗

Free verse is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length and that attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure; it uses the cadences of nature speech. Free verse does so in a looser way. Whitman’s poetry is an example of free verse at its most impressive. Such as the Song of Myself. Whitman who pioneered the form and made it acceptable in American poetry. 自由诗是一种诗体，押韵和句子长度都不规则，而是采取正常说话的方式，避免固定的诗体结构。它使用大自然的韵律演讲。自由诗比较松散。惠特曼的诗歌是自由诗的最好例子。例如《自我之歌》。 惠特曼被认为是美国自由诗的先驱。

Alliteration 头韵

It refers to the repetition of the same sounds----usually initial consonants of words or of stressed syllables----in any sequence of neighboring words:”Landscape-lover, lord of language”(Tennyson). Such poetry, in which alliteration rather than rhyme is the chief principle of repetition, is known as alliteration verse. 头韵是两个单词或两个单词以上的首字母相同，形成悦耳的读音，最常见的押头韵的短语”Landscape-lover, lord of language”(丁尼生)。主要使用重复头韵的诗歌被称为头韵体诗歌，其元音相互押韵。

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Scarlet Letter (A: Adultery to Able to Angel) Nathaniel Hawthorne Characters: Hester Prynne (heroine, attractive, active towards the sin)

Roger Chillingworth (Hester's husband, emotionless, only thinking about revenge, real vallain in the novel, signifying pure intellect which was merciless in Hawthorne's mind)

Arthur Dimmesdale (a handsome and admirable young priest, contraditionary on the sin he made with Hester, being a brave man at last)

Theme: The theme of the story should be the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin on people.

Scarlet Letter is a cultural allegory, in which the author indirectly tells the future of Puritanism.

Scarlet Letter is a sample in which American Romanticism adapted itself to American Puritanism.(Because of the strong influence of Puritanism in American society, Hawthorne only expressed his ideas on the sin indirectly by employing symbolism.)

Moby Dick Herman Melville

Moby-dick is regarded as the Great American Novel, the first American prose epic. known as the whaling encyclopedia.

Moby-Dick tells the story how Ahab,the captain of a whaling ship,is determined to kill the white whale for it has crippled one of his legs.

Ambiguity (You can understand his Moby Dick differently.)

First, it can be understand as a tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming odds in an indifferent and even hostile universe. Thus, Captain Ahab is a hero who dares to fight though he failed at last.

Nowadays some new research indicated that the story means man should protect the nature otherwise man will be punished as those whalers in the story were punished by the whale. Symbolism

the voyage: the search for the ultimate truth of experience.

Moby Dick: the final mystery of the universe which man will do well to desist from pursuing.

style: periodical chapters; rich rhythmical prose; great poetical power.

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