Chapter 8,Literature and Arts,Contents,Warming-up,Who is your favorite American writer? Which American novel do you like most? Do you know the American Nobel Prize Winners in Literature?,American Nobel Prize Winners in Literature (1901 - present),1930 - Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) American writer. Received the 1930 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters.” 1936 - Eugene Gladstone ONeill (1888-1953) American writer. Eugene (Gladstone) ONeill won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, and Pulitzer Prizes for four of his plays. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature “for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy.“,American Nobel Prize Winners in Literature (1901 - present),1938 - Pearl Buck (1892-1973) Pseudonym for Pearl Walsh ne Sydenstricker. American writer. Received the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.” 1949 - William Faulkner (1897-1962) American writer. Received the 1949 Nobel in Literature “for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.”,American Nobel Prize Winners in Literature (1901 - present),1954 - Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer. Brevity was his specialty. Received the 1954 Nobel in Literature “for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.” 1962-John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer. Received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception.”,American Nobel Prize Winners in Literature (1901 - present),1976 - Saul Bellow (1915-2005) American writer. Received the 1976 Nobel Prize for Literature “for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work.” 1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish/American writer. Received the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life.”,American Nobel Prize Winners in Literature (1901 - present),1980 - Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) Polish/American writer. Received the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature for voicing “mans exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts.” 1987 - Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996) Russian/American writer. Received the 1987 Nobel Prize for Literature “for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity.”,American Nobel Prize Winners in Literature (1901 - present),1993 - Toni Morrison (1931- ) American writer. Received the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature for “novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import,” giving “life to an essential aspect of American reality.”,New words and expressions,predestination: n. the theory or the belief that everything that happens has been decided or planned in advance by God or by fate and that humans cannot change it 宿命论；命定说 Would you accept the concept of predestination? depravity: n. the state of being morally bad 堕落；腐化 The boy has gone deep in depravity. obscure: adj. of undistinguished or humble station or reputation 身份卑微的 The president is of obscure origin.,New words and expressions,amoral: adj. not admitting of moral distinctions or judgments; neither moral nor immoral 超道德的, 非道德范围 Science is completely amoral. coincidental: adj. happening by chance; not planned 巧合；碰巧；非计划之中的 The similarity between these two essays is too great to be coincidental.,Introduction,Like other national literatures, American literature was shaped by the history of the country that produced it. For almost a century and a half, America was merely a group of colonies. The colonial writings could not count as American literature but merely a branch of British literature. Though America became the United States, a nation, in 1783, its cultural independence did not arrive until the mid-19th century. Therefore, the history of American literature is also the story of the slow emergence of native elements and national characteristics.,Culture,E,E,The Contemporary Period (1939- ),Literature The Colonial Period (1607-1775),American literature at first was naturally a colonial literature. American literature finds its deep root in Puritanism, which stresses predestination, original sin, total depravity, and the salvation of a selected few who would receive Gods grace. Its two significant aspects are represented by two figures Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790),Literature Revolutionary Period (1775-1790),The Revolutionary Period refers to the period between 1765 when the Stamp Act was passed and 1790. Thomas Jefferson,He was remembered as the drafter of t