Colonial PeriodI. Historical Background:The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. The first settlers advocated highly religious and moral principles. They carried with them to America a code of values and a philosophy of life-Puritanism.II. Thought, Culture:American Puritanism was one of the most enduring influences on American thought and American literature. To some extent, it has become a state of mind. Puritanism is the religious beliefs of Puritans. They intended to “purify” the Church of England, so they came to America for the sake of religious freedom, and they wished to escape religious persecution. Their way of life was based on the doctrines. Puritan values dominated literature in colonial America, and greatly influenced the whole American literature.III. Literature:American literature grew out of humble origins. They mostly had close relationship with religion. There were such noted Puritan who was said the first American writer, because he first described New England as a promising virgin land. His writings about North America became the source of information, which aroused the attention of many people in England and Europe, and drew them over to this New World.Anne Bradstreet. The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America Edward Taylor. These two figures were the faithful disciple of the God. Revolutionary PeriodI. Historical Background:From the middle of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, North America had experienced great turbulence and social change. The mixture and alternation between the old and new, was the characteristic of this period. The ideas of the Enlightenment dealt a heavy blow to Puritanism. II. Literary Figures:1. Benjamin Franklin. His ideas were expressed through his two famous literary works, Poor Richards Almanac and Autobiography.(1) Poor Richards Almanac-an annual collection of proverbs. (2) Autobiography-it is a how-to-do-good book, and sets autobiography as a literary genre in American literature. Style: 2. Thomas Paine.a most important revolutionary activist and political writer during the war of Independence. Common Sense The American Crisis The Rights of Man3. Thomas Jefferson.the main drafter of “The Declaration of Independence.”the third president of the United States.P. 374. Philip Freneau.the first important American poet, called “Father of American poetry.” a transitional figure from the Enlightenment to the Romantic period.His poems are featured with lyric beauty + heartfelt pathos P.45 The Wild Honey SuckleP.46 The Indian Burying GroundLecture 2Teaching aim: to have an understanding of the historical background of romantic period and its influence on literature; to comprehend the essence of romanticism.Teaching procedure: 1. Review; 2. historical background; 3. stages of the development of literature; 4. major writers and their representative works.Romanticism PeriodWe are now dealing with one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, the Romantic Period, which stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War (1861).I. Stimulating Factors:This period saw a rising America which declared its political, economic and cultural independence. Such a scene of prosperity cried for literary expression. The other incentive was the influence of Europe. II. Features:Although foreign influences were strong, American Romanticism presented distinct features of its own. 1.common features，P552. “newness.” It expresses “a real new experience.” 3. form, P. 57.4. content, P. 58. a .nature b. psychic states Washington Irving (1783-1859)“the father of American literature.”I. The Sketch Book: It is the first collection of short stories. It also marked the beginning of American Romanticism.In the series of tales in The Sketch Book, the most famous and frequently anthologized are Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Rip Van Winkle The Legend of Sleepy Hollow The purpose of this story is for fun and pleasure, with a light satirical notion on pedantrism as represented by the protagonist-Crane.II. Conclusion:Content: Irvings stories carry a strong romantic sensibility, with a special interest in remoteness, the Gothic and supernatural elements.Style: humorous, familiar and graceful. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)l the first frontier novelist. the first writer of sea adventures. Cooper created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. The work that established his fame in American literature was Leatherstocking Tales. It offers some fictional version of the American national experience of adventure into the West. The importance of the frontier and the wilderness in American literature was for the first time well illustrated in Leatherstocking Tales.