Lecture 2

American Literature

Objectives

Enable the Ss to know the background, representative writers and their works of the Enlightenment period in American literary history;

Enable the Ss to know the thirteen moral virtues in Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography;

Enable the Ss to learn to appreciate Philip Freneau’s “The Wild Honey Suckle”

Teaching Material

Benjamin Franklin:

Autobiography Philip Freneau:

“The Wild Honey Suckle”

Teaching Methodology

Lecturing Poems appreciation and analysis

Chapter TwoEnlightenment and

Revolutionary Period (1750-1810)

“The Age of Reason”

“American Enlightenment”

• In the 18th century, people believed in man’s own nature and the power of human reason. With Franklin as its spokesman, the 18th century America experienced an age of reason.

• Words had never been so useful and so important in human history. People wrote a lot of political writings. Numerous pamphlets and printings were published. These works agitated revolutionary people not only in America but also around the world.

• The 18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarchy.

• Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man.

• The colonists who would form a new nation were firm believers in the power of reason; they were ambitious, inquisitive, optimistic, practical, politically astute, and self-reliant.

Leading writers and their works

• Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758):

-The Great Doctrine of Original Sin defended(1758)

• Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826):

-The Declaration of Independence (1776)

• Thomas Paine(1737-1809):

-Common Sense (1776)

• Benjamin Franklin:

Autobiography

• Philip Freneau:

“The Wild Honey Suckle”

Jonathan Edwards

• Born into a very religious New England family, educated in Yale

• The first modern American and the country’s last medieval man

• He represents the element of piety, the religious passion, the aspect of emotion and ecstacy, of New England tradition

• Edwards was a great deal of a transcendentalist

Thomas Paine

-to fight for the rights of man

-to help spur and inspire two greatest revolution

-He became a major influence in the American Revolution

-Common Sense, American Crisis, The Rights of Man, The Age of Reason

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

• He was the symbol of America in the Age of Enlightenment (Age of Reason).

• He brought the colonial era to a close.

《自传》 《格言历书》

2. LifeBenjamin Franklin came from a Calvinist background.

He was born into a poor candle-maker’s family. He had very little education. He learned in school only for two years, but he was a voracious reader.

At 12, he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother, a printer.

At 16, he began to publish essays under the pseudonym “Silence Do good” .

At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune.

He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher. In 1727 he founded the Junto club.

1. Works

• The Autobiography• Poor Richard’s Almanac

Franklin’s Contributions to ScienceHe was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices.

And for his lightning-rod, he was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.”

Franklin’s Contributions to the U.S.He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:

The Declaration of Independence,

The Treaty of Alliance with France,

The Treaty of Peace with England,

The Constitution

Franklin’s Contributions to Society

He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital. He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania. And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.

The Autobiography is a record of self-examination and self-improvement.

Benjamin Franklin was a spokesman for the new order of the 18th century enlightenment

The Autobiography is a how-to-do-it book, a book on the art of self-improvement. (for example, Franklin’s 13 virtues)

Through telling a success story of self-reliance, the book celebrates, in fact, the fulfillment of the American dream.

The Autobiography is in the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision.

3. Evaluation

Questions Answering

• 1. What are the thirteen names of moral virtues that Franklin enumerated? … (P 282)

2. Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

“Poet of the American Revolution”

“Father of American Poetry” “Pioneer of the New

Romanticism” “A gifted and versatile lyric

poet”

《《美洲光辉的兴起美洲光辉的兴起》》

《《夜之屋夜之屋》》

《《英国囚船英国囚船》》

1. Works

• “The Rising Glory of America” (1772)

• “The House of Night” (1779, 1786)

• “The British Prison Ship” (1781)

• “To the Memory of the Brave Americans” (1781)

• “The Wild Honey Suckle” (1786)

• “The Indian Burying Ground” (1788)

• “The Dying Indian: Tomo Chequi” 《《纪念美国勇士纪念美国勇士》》

《《野金银花野金银花》》

《《印第安人墓地印第安人墓地》》

《《奄奄一息的印第安人：奄奄一息的印第安人：托姆托姆 ··察吉察吉》》

Philip Freneau The Wild Honey Suckle中英对照

• Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,• Hid in this silent, dull retreat,• Untouched thy honeyed blossoms

blow,• Unseen thy little branches greet:• No roving foot shall crush thee here,• No busy hand provoke a tear

Philip Freneau The Wild Honey Suckle中英对照• By Nature's self in white arrayed,

• She bade thee shun the vulger eye,

• And planted here the guardian shade,

• And sent soft waters murmuring by;

• Thus quietly thy summer goes,

• Thy days declining to repose.

Philip Freneau The Wild Honey Suckle中英对照• Smit with those chams,t hat must

decay,

•  I grieve to see your future doom;

•  They died--nor were those flowers more gay,

•  The flowers that did in Eden bloom;

•  Unpitying frosts, and Autumn's power

•  Shall leave no vestige of this flower.

Philip Freneau The Wild Honey Suckle中英对照• From morning suns and evening dews

• At first thy little being came:

• If nothing once,you nothing lose,

• For when you die you are the same;

• The space between,is but an hour,

•  The frail duration of flower.

Philip Freneau The Wild Honey Suckle中英对照• 美好的花呀，你长得：这么秀丽，却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方——甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；没游来荡去的脚来把你踩碎，没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。大自然把你打扮得一身洁白，她叫你避开庸俗粗鄙的目光，她布置下树荫把你护卫起来，又让潺潺的柔波淌过你身旁；你的夏天就这样静静地消逝，这时候你日见萎蔫终将安息。那些难免消逝的美使我销魂

Philip Freneau The Wild Honey Suckle中英对照• ，想起你未来的结局我就心疼，别的那些花儿也不比你幸运——虽开放在伊甸园中也已凋零，无情的寒霜再加秋风的威力，会叫这花朵消失得一无踪迹。朝阳和晚露当初曾把你养育，让你这小小的生命来到世上，原来若乌有，就没什么可失去，因为你的死让你同先前一样；这来去之间不过是一个钟点——这就是脆弱的花享有的天年。

Assignment

• 1. Read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “American Scholar” and be ready to answer the questions afterwards.