How to treat the stages of American literary history? How to divide the period of American literary history?

Due to the lack of long history and cultural accumulation, early American literature was not native national literature, but transplanted from European literature, especially English literature. Most of the works have traces of imitation, and most of the creative materials are collected from the European continent. For example, washington irving's Sketchbooks are mostly set in Britain, with romantic legends, descriptions of British customs and travel notes. Puritanism has a profound influence on American literature, especially on early American literature. Whether poetry, travel notes or religious works, early literary works are full of religious colors, revealing the inner world and spiritual feelings of people living in that era. With the development of the times and the influx of new ideas, Puritanism is constantly experiencing an upsurge.

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Puritanism in colonial literary works is mainly manifested in two aspects: on the one hand, the poetess Anne blaise.

Bradstreet's poems and theologian Jonathan Edwards's religious works are the representatives of piety and idealism in the Puritan tradition; On the other hand, Benjamin Franklin's autobiography embodies the puritan tradition of pragmatism.

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In his personal narrative, Edwards said, "I often feel sweet and happy because I meditate on God and his glory and the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think God is glorious and lovely ... God has supreme authority, and God gives people grace for nothing ... People absolutely need to rely on the operation of the Holy Spirit, which is glorious for me and makes me happy. I am most willing to come before God, worship him as the highest God, and pray for his mercy. " The purpose of his works is to awaken people's original sin consciousness, admit that God is everywhere, obey God, and pursue spiritual integration with God, so as to obtain inner joy and satisfaction. Compared with Edwards, Franklin was influenced by Puritanism and Enlightenment. Most of the 65,438+03 virtues listed in his autobiography are beliefs advocated by Puritanism. Franklin paid more attention to the real world, proved himself to be God's voter through self-struggle, and created wealth from scratch. The American image represented by Franklin is the concentrated embodiment of the "American Dream". His works reflect the era when the North American people woke up and pursued a rich and happy life during the rise of capitalism.

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/kloc-Romantic literature that pervaded the European continent at the beginning of the 0/9th century began to influence the United States. It advocated a series of ideas such as paying attention to the spirit, advocating the individual and praising nature, which combined with Puritanism in North America to produce transcendentalism, representing the highest stage of American romanticism. Ralph emerson's Nature and henry thoreau's Walden are masterpieces of transcendentalism. Influenced by Edwards, they emphasized the importance of human spirit in their works. Man is sacred because he can embody the existence of God and at the same time eulogize nature enthusiastically. In order to practice his transcendentalism, Thoreau spent more than two years in the fields near Walton Lake, praising the harmony between nature and man and nature and criticizing the money worship that began to prevail in the United States.

Socialism and materialism believe that the true value of life can only be found in nature.