美国文学第二单元.pptVIP

Chapter 2 Early Romantics I. OVERVIEW 1. Background The term “Romantics”as a designation for a school of literature opposed to the Classic was first used by the German critic Friedrich von Schlegel at the beginning of the 19th century. Neoclassicism, as represented by John Dryden and Alexander Pope, esteemed objectivity, harmony, rationality, dignity, proportion, and moderation. 2 . Characteristics Romanticism was a rebellion against the objective of rationalism. For romantics, the feelings, intuitions, and emotions were more important than reason and common sense. Romantics did not think of the world as a ticking watch made by God. They emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group, against authority. They affirmed the inner life of the self, and wanted each person to be free to develop and express his own inner thoughts. They cherished strong interest in the past, especially the medieval. They were attracted by the wild, the irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious, and the strange. They were interested in variety. ballad, lyric, sentimental comedy, problem novel, historical novel, gothic romance, metrical romance, sonnet, and critical essay. 3. American Romanticism Background (1) American romanticism stretched from the end of the 18th century to the Civil War. (2) burgeoining industrialism, great immigration, westward expansion. Distinct features American romantics tended to moralize, to edify rather than to entertain. American romanticism presented an entirely new experience alien to European culture. New England poets (1) Bryant and Longfellow belonged to the New England poets who represented the elite educated society in New England. (2) New England poets represented the ideals of the genteel 19th century culture, and their poems represented the morality which the culture admired. (3) These poets are also criticized because their subject matter is only of one kind, the picturesque. II.H