Mainstream ...
The United states of America has a comparatively short story and accordingly what we generally call American literature is confined this short period . The rich native American writings before the colonial period are excluded and sometimes even the unrefined and indistinctive colonial writings could not cout as American literature but merely a branch of branch of British literature, Though the nation won its War of Independence in 1783,its culture 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.
1,The colonial and Revolutionary Periods. 1607-1790 Jonathan Edwards Benjamin Franklin
2,The Romantic Period 1790-1865
Washington Irving 美国文学之父
Ralph Waldo Emerson ；Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as the recognitionin man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively,or of attaining kowledge transcendingthe reach of the senses
Nathaniel Hawthorne <the scarlel Letter>
Edgar Allar Poe
Herman Melville's <Moby Dick>
Poet Walt Whitman
Emily Dickinson "cast her eyes inward to explore the inner feelings of the individual....shy and sensitive ..metaphysical 形而上学 thinking
3,The Realistic Period 1865-1900
Mark twain
Herry James ,重视欧洲的世故主义者，美国的理想主义者
Willian Dean Howells
4,The Naturalistic Period 1900-1914 ,<An American Tragedy>
Theodore Dreiser 《嘉莉妹妹》< He found that the American values were materialistic to the core, Living in such a society with such a valuesystem,the human individual was obssessed with a never-ending,yet meaningless search for satistaction of their desires.One of the desires is money,the other sex,He embraced social Darwinism and advocated the idea of "the survival of the fittest"
5,The Modern Period 1914-
Ernest Hemingway,possessed "despairing courage" It is this courage that enables a man to behave like a man to assert their dignity in the face of adversity.
Poet,Ezra pounds：He defined "image" as something that "presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time"
6,The Contemparary Period
Jewish Writer Saul Bellow <Dangling Man>
The Beat Movement ,Led by Allen Ginsherg ,The word "beat" suggests a non-conformist,rebellious attitude toward convertional values concering sex,religion and the American way of life ,an attitude that results from the feeling of depression and exhaustion and the need to escape into an unconventional communal mode of life
Willian Burroughs , Jack Kerouac
They rejected the carefully written works of this contemporary writters,They wanted to express "raw" emotion as it was felt rather than "cooked" emotion through memory and translation into art.
Literature of the Modern South , Willian Faulkner ,Although most of his stories are set in a small Southen country,their exploration of basic human nature and basic patterns of human behavior make them enduring works in world literature..
Tony Morrison , Alice Walker .....stand for Women's Voives .....Alice Walker ,her works concern sexual and racial realites within black communities and unavoidable connections between family and society as well Alice usually potrays men negatively ,Her fiction weaves back and forth through time and individual perspectives and her characters seek redemption,forgiveness and peace
Eugene O'Neil Americans' greatest playwright ....combining Literary theories of symbolism,naturalism and expression ........He is a sensitive artist , He felt "discordant,broken,faithless rhythm" of his time and tried to probe into the root of human desires and frustrations . The tragic sense of modern man being impotent remained with O'Neil through his career, Most of his plays were very pessimistic ,Leaving the characters without illusion and hope ....
Tennessee Williams ,He was excellent at creating pathetic woman .As a fragile girl , Laura lives in her illusion, only to be smashed to pieces by a male intruder ,who is the symbol of reality ....
Arthur Miller < Death of a salesman>
1,The colonial and Revolutionary Periods. 1607-1790 Jonathan Edwards Benjamin Franklin
2,The Romantic Period 1790-1865
Washington Irving 美国文学之父
Ralph Waldo Emerson ；Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as the recognitionin man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively,or of attaining kowledge transcendingthe reach of the senses
Nathaniel Hawthorne <the scarlel Letter>
Edgar Allar Poe
Herman Melville's <Moby Dick>
Poet Walt Whitman
Emily Dickinson "cast her eyes inward to explore the inner feelings of the individual....shy and sensitive ..metaphysical 形而上学 thinking
3,The Realistic Period 1865-1900
Mark twain
Herry James ,重视欧洲的世故主义者，美国的理想主义者
Willian Dean Howells
4,The Naturalistic Period 1900-1914 ,<An American Tragedy>
Theodore Dreiser 《嘉莉妹妹》< He found that the American values were materialistic to the core, Living in such a society with such a valuesystem,the human individual was obssessed with a never-ending,yet meaningless search for satistaction of their desires.One of the desires is money,the other sex,He embraced social Darwinism and advocated the idea of "the survival of the fittest"
5,The Modern Period 1914-
Ernest Hemingway,possessed "despairing courage" It is this courage that enables a man to behave like a man to assert their dignity in the face of adversity.
Poet,Ezra pounds：He defined "image" as something that "presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time"
6,The Contemparary Period
Jewish Writer Saul Bellow <Dangling Man>
The Beat Movement ,Led by Allen Ginsherg ,The word "beat" suggests a non-conformist,rebellious attitude toward convertional values concering sex,religion and the American way of life ,an attitude that results from the feeling of depression and exhaustion and the need to escape into an unconventional communal mode of life
Willian Burroughs , Jack Kerouac
They rejected the carefully written works of this contemporary writters,They wanted to express "raw" emotion as it was felt rather than "cooked" emotion through memory and translation into art.
Literature of the Modern South , Willian Faulkner ,Although most of his stories are set in a small Southen country,their exploration of basic human nature and basic patterns of human behavior make them enduring works in world literature..
Tony Morrison , Alice Walker .....stand for Women's Voives .....Alice Walker ,her works concern sexual and racial realites within black communities and unavoidable connections between family and society as well Alice usually potrays men negatively ,Her fiction weaves back and forth through time and individual perspectives and her characters seek redemption,forgiveness and peace
Eugene O'Neil Americans' greatest playwright ....combining Literary theories of symbolism,naturalism and expression ........He is a sensitive artist , He felt "discordant,broken,faithless rhythm" of his time and tried to probe into the root of human desires and frustrations . The tragic sense of modern man being impotent remained with O'Neil through his career, Most of his plays were very pessimistic ,Leaving the characters without illusion and hope ....
Tennessee Williams ,He was excellent at creating pathetic woman .As a fragile girl , Laura lives in her illusion, only to be smashed to pieces by a male intruder ,who is the symbol of reality ....
Arthur Miller < Death of a salesman>
