A Brief Summary of the History of American Literature（一）

浪漫主義時(shí)期是美國(guó)文學(xué)史上最重要的時(shí)期之一。當(dāng)美國(guó)人在大刀闊斧地建設(shè)自己的國(guó)家時(shí)，也開(kāi)始逐漸意識(shí)到逐漸與歐洲的不同。隨著不斷增強(qiáng)的民族主義意識(shí)及民族自豪感，美國(guó)人開(kāi)始希望見(jiàn)到自己的不同與歐洲模式，能表達(dá)他們字的美國(guó)風(fēng)情的文學(xué)。這個(gè)時(shí)代偉大的作家充滿熱情地記錄下這個(gè)偉大時(shí)代的樂(lè)觀主義精神。隨后美國(guó)文學(xué)進(jìn)入了超驗(yàn)主義時(shí)代。超驗(yàn)主義十分強(qiáng)調(diào)個(gè)人主義、自立、拒絕傳統(tǒng)權(quán)威思想。它實(shí)際上是對(duì)浪漫主義的發(fā)展。

然后，美國(guó)的國(guó)家自信心受到了內(nèi)戰(zhàn)的動(dòng)搖。內(nèi)戰(zhàn)過(guò)后，美國(guó)處在迷茫中。在1900年前后這段時(shí)期的文學(xué)由于美國(guó)國(guó)內(nèi)環(huán)境的變化而由浪漫主義和超驗(yàn)主義樂(lè)觀精神轉(zhuǎn)向?qū)ι鐣?huì)和人類本質(zhì)更直接的探討。從某種角度，現(xiàn)實(shí)主義反對(duì)浪漫主義的理想主義和懷舊情緒。它主要關(guān)注中下層人民的日常生活，而在這種情況下人物性格是社會(huì)因素作用的結(jié)果，環(huán)境是整個(gè)事件發(fā)展不可分割的部分。

1910年至1930年間被稱為現(xiàn)代主義時(shí)期。一戰(zhàn)后，美國(guó)進(jìn)入了高度繁榮的十年，商業(yè)的繁榮程度超過(guò)了許多人的想象。20世紀(jì)初期，現(xiàn)代機(jī)器改變了人們?nèi)粘Ｉ畹墓?jié)奏、環(huán)境和面貌。大批的藝術(shù)家和作家獲得了不同程度的成功，開(kāi)始改造傳統(tǒng)的藝術(shù)形式，試圖從中發(fā)現(xiàn)新的元素—人們進(jìn)入機(jī)械時(shí)代之后所產(chǎn)生的美學(xué)共鳴。在這個(gè)時(shí)期，很多藝術(shù)家和文學(xué)運(yùn)動(dòng)在很大程度上與19世紀(jì)的風(fēng)格、形式及內(nèi)容迥異。現(xiàn)代的心理學(xué)對(duì)20世紀(jì)早期的文學(xué)產(chǎn)生了深刻的影響，大多數(shù)優(yōu)秀的現(xiàn)代主義作家對(duì)人類心理學(xué)表現(xiàn)出濃厚興趣。

Abstract

Romantic Period is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature. When Americans were constructing their country, they also began to realize their differences from their European counterparts. They began to hope to see an entirely different literature model which expressed American cultures. Great writers of that period captured on their pages the enthusiasm and the optimism of that dream. Later，American literature came to Transcendentalism Period which emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of tradition authority. It was actually greatly influenced by romanticism.

However, the country’s confidence was waved by the Civil War. After the war, Americans got lost. At about 1900s, American literature came to another entirely different age—the age of Realism. Realists searched for the social and human nature more directly. In part, Realism was a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away. It has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications.

The period between 1910 and 1930 is referred to as the era of Modernism. As modern machinery had changed the pace, atmosphere, and appearance of daily life in the early 20th century, so many artists and writers, with varying degrees of success, reinvented traditional artistic forms and tried to find radically new ones—an aesthetic echo of what people had come to call “the machine age.” During that period, a large number of artists and literary movements are totally different from those of the 19th-century’s, in style, form and content. Modern psychology has a profound impact on the early 20th-century’s literature.

Key words: American literature; Romanticism; New England Transcendentalism; Realism; Modernism

1. American Romanticism

Romanticism refers to an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual’s experience of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. The romantic period of American literature stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It was an age of westward expansion, of the increasing gravity of the slavery question, of an intensification of the spirit of embattled sectionalism in the South, and of a powerful impulse to reform in the North. In literature it was America’s first great creative period, a full flowering of the romantic impulse on American soil.