常耀信美国文学史教案.doc

Lecture 1 1. Self-introduction 2. Introduction of the course ⑴Similar with History of English Literature ⑵Course book: A Survey of American Literature by Chang Yaoxin; good and authoritative one; a little bit difficult and lack in order; prepare a notebook and copy the outline I provide ⑶Especially important to your graduate entrance examination ⑷Suggestions: 左金梅《美国文学》青岛海洋出版社（条理较好）；李公昭《20世纪美国文学导论》（可以帮助理解20世纪美国文学）；吴伟仁《美国文学史及选读》（很多学校考研的指定书目，但过于简单） ⑷ Preview; taking notes; homework (two papers); attendance Chapter 1 Colonial America (US is a quite special country in the world. Although it only has a very short history, it is the most powerful country today. ) 1. Historical Background ⑴ In 1942, Christopher Columbus found the new continent called America. ⑵ Immigrants: Spanish (they built the first town on the new continent); Dutch (they built New York city at the beginning stage); French (today still lots of people’s mother tongue is French in North America) ⑶ English immigrants, Jamestown, Virginia, 1607 1620 “May Flower”, Plymouth (Imagine: transportation not convenient, why some many immigrants left their hometown and came to such a remote place as America? Economic reasons; Religious reasons) (Reformation and religious conflicts in Europe; persecution of Protestants) 2. American Puritanism（清教主义） ⑴ Puritans=Calvinists ◆ John Calvin, a theologian, Puritans believed most doctrines preached by him, so they were also called Calvinists ◆ Puritans wanted to “purify the church” to its original state, because they thought the church was corrupted and had too many rituals ◆ To be a Puritan: taking religion as the most important thing; living for glorifying God; believing predestination（命运天定）, original sin（原罪，人生下来就是有罪的，因为人类的祖先亚当和夏娃是有罪的）, total depravity（人类是完全堕落的，所以人要处处小心自己的行为，要尽可能做到最好以取悦上帝）, limited atonement（有限救赎，只有被上帝选中的人才能得到上帝的拯救） ◆ Life style of Puritans: pious, austerity of taste, diligence and thrift, rigid sense o