I want to know the history of American literature

First, the colonial era and early America.

The earliest European immigrants from this new continent were mainly Puritans who settled in New England and Roman Catholics in Massachusetts. Although there are many differences in their teachings, they all believe in Calvinism: they live only to suffer, and their only hope is to be God's "voters", go to heaven after death and believe in "original sin". The literary works at this time mainly reflected these ideas, which came down in one continuous line with European literature.

Representative writers: Coton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, Anne braz Tritt, edward tylor.

Second, after the victory of the18th century war of independence, the American economy and society entered a period of stable development.

This period is the period of enlightenment literature movement, and the main literary guiding ideology is deism, which emphasizes rationality and holds that "the movement of the universe begins with God". Everything in nature is "the incarnation of God". Life in this world is no longer a difficult rebirth in the afterlife, but an elimination of inequality in race, gender and belief, and the establishment of its own "paradise on earth".

The main features are: most writers are active advocates and participants in the American War of Independence; In addition to deism, the guiding ideology of literature also includes rationalism and neoclassicism, and the early romanticism began to sprout at the end of 18. Literature mainly includes history, diaries and political comments, as well as poems, satirical sketches and stories to persuade people to be good. /kloc-at the end of 0/8, the drama also appeared.

A large number of excellent prose works appeared during the Enlightenment, most of which were written by the founding fathers, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson.

Three. /kloc-during the civil war in the 0/9th century

Literature in this period developed romanticism, realism and naturalism successively.

Romanticism: The period from 65438+70s in 2008 to 65438+30s in 2009 was the initial stage of romanticism, which reached its peak in the first 30 years of the civil war (1830- 1860). After the civil war, it gradually declined and turned to realism. Romanticism pays attention to imagination, passion and personality liberation, and believes that human nature is good, and the means to eradicate evil and save mankind is to abandon all traditional shackles, destroy all stereotypes and return to the original state of nature. Transcendentalism is one of the branches, which emphasizes "the unity of man and nature" and holds that God, human beings and nature are all components of "oversoul".

Representative writers and works: Nature by Emerson, Walden by Thoreau, The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne, Moby Dick by Melville and Leaves of Grass by Whitman.

Realism: It is the inevitable product of American political and economic development, and it is promoted by the western development movement, industrialization and scientific and technological progress. Realistic writers generally believe in pragmatism and democracy. They pursue and reflect the relative truth with obvious effect and confirmed by experience. Their subjects are ordinary things of ordinary people, which is the highest expression of middle-class art.

Howells is the founder of realism. He discovered Mark Twain, encouraged and helped Henry James, and influenced naturalist writers Fran Knowles and Stephen Crane.

Naturalism: it is the development and continuation of realism, and the product of the combination of realism and "analysis method" and "law of cause and effect" emphasized by19th century science. It is sometimes called "pessimistic realism", which holds that man is a weak animal, put into a mechanized world and become a victim of several forces (including environment, nature, heredity, etc.). ) it's hard to control in this world.

Its milestones are: the publication of Zola's novels in 1970s and 1980s in 19, Klein's Red Medal of Courage in 1990s, Sister Carrie by Dreiser in 1900, The Financier in 19 12, and American's.

Fourthly, American literature in the 20th century experienced two world wars and spanned three eras.

A) Gentle Age (1880- 19 14, Gentle Age): This is a cross-century era of American economic prosperity. There is an ambiguous relationship between American literature and European literature at this time, which is essentially Europe, America, Europe and New England. At this time, nationalism represented by theodore roosevelt has a strong reflection in literature, and people are still obsessed with the cultural ties and differences between the United States and Europe.

B) Jazz Age (19 18- 1929, Jazz Age): After World War I, a generation of unrestrained, disillusioned and cynical young people emerged, which Gertrude Stein called "the lost generation".

C) Economic depression era (1929- 194 1, depression era): The cynical attitude in the 1920s turned into indignant pessimism at this time, and in the 1930s, American literature turned to "social protest literature", "psychological research" and the pursuit of human spiritual world.