19 and American literature in the 20th century.

The continental United States is vast in land and rich in products. Indians have been pioneering and working here for a long time, creating culture and literature with national characteristics. However, these folk oral literatures were not paid enough attention by later European immigrants, leaving little imprint on American culture. American literature is fundamentally a kind of literature deeply influenced by European traditional culture. However, the pioneering spirit and free thoughts of immigrants enabled them to quickly break through the barriers of European culture and form a new literature with democracy, freedom and individualism as its core concepts. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the United States is still a multi-ethnic country. Cultural diversity and national enterprising spirit make American literature present a complicated and changeable situation.

Before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the prose works of Franklin (1706- 1790) and others were euphemistic and profound, humorous or simple and vigorous, which were the embryonic form of American literature. After entering the19th century, American literature has advanced by leaps and bounds, and a number of writers with international influence have emerged. Romantic literature dominated in the early stage and realistic literature dominated in the later stage.

American romantic literature is not only rooted in the idealism and exploration enthusiasm of the local emerging bourgeoisie, but also deeply influenced by European romantic thoughts, which develops rapidly and is an indispensable part of western romantic literature. American romantic literature is generally divided into two periods. In the early stage, there were Irving, Cooper, Bryant and Poe, and in the later stage, there were Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville and Whitman. Pre-literature and post-literature have both continuity and differences in subject matter, theme, characters and style. The themes of early literature are mostly folklore, rural customs, colonial development and struggle. The themes are mostly to marvel at the great changes in society, to praise the courage and resourcefulness of personality, to yearn for the eternal harmony between man and nature, and between people. The characters are mostly comic images and idealized heroes of the people, and their styles are mostly humorous and bold. In the later period of literature, the theme was expanded, such as Xanadu, adventure at sea, conflict between morality and emotion, etc. This has become a new topic of concern; The theme wavers between emphasizing human intuition, emotion and unlimited potential and advocating conversion to religion, self-denial and abstinence, and advocating moral integrity; On the basis of keeping the legend, the characters present complex contradictions and profound personality connotation; Because the writer's personality characteristics are obvious, it is difficult to generalize his style. Generally speaking, it has gradually changed from the heroic and free-spirited in the early stage to strange and profound, with a strong mysterious and sad tone.

Irving (1783- 1859) is the first American writer who enjoys an international reputation. His first important work, History of new york, mocked the ruling style and absurd colonial prejudice of Dutch colonists, and won wide acclaim from European and American writers and readers. The representative work Experience Notes (1820) is a collection of essays, sketches and short stories with humorous style and elegant writing style, which often combines wonderful fantasy with accurate realism. Rip Dream is regarded as the beginning of American short stories. Cooper (1789- 185 1) is based on the historical legends and real life of the American nation, especially the frontier novel The Story of Leather Socks, which describes the western development and colonial war. Cooper's novel style is simple and magnificent, and the plot is complex and fascinating. The Last Moxigan Man (1826) is the most popular of the five parts of The Story of Leather Socks, among which Nadi Bambo, a hunter nicknamed Leather Socks, has epic heroic moral courage and extraordinary skills, and is a famous image in the history of American literature. Bryant (1794- 1878) is a poet who is good at describing natural scenery. His poetic style resembles Wordsworth, an English poet, and he often gets the feeling of life under the inspiration of ordinary daily life and pastoral scenery. The main poetry collections are Waterbirds and African Chiefs. His poetics had a great influence on American poetry creation in later generations.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809- 1849) is the best among the early romantic writers. His creation involves many styles, especially poems and novels. His poetry theory and creation have an aesthetic tendency, holding that "poetry is a rhythmic creation of beauty" and emphasizing musicality, obscurity and overall unity. Representative works include The Crow (1845) and Annabel Lee. These poems express melancholy and sad mourning feelings with soothing rhythm and peculiar and unique images, and achieve the organic unity of form and content. His poems and poetics were not paid enough attention in the United States at that time, but were regarded as the standard by later European symbolist poets. Poe wrote nearly 70 short stories in his life, which can be roughly divided into horror novels and mystery novels in terms of types and styles. The first few novels are deeply influenced by German Hopman and British Gothic novels, with strange plots, mysterious atmosphere and grotesque characters, but they can all use a humorous style to dispel the atmosphere of terror and tension and achieve a sense of aesthetic psychological balance. His representative works include The Collapse of Asher's Old House and Black Cat. The latter kind of novels focus on solving crimes, and those who solve crimes often rely on scientific knowledge and strict logical reasoning to solve crimes. Representative works include Murder in Moge Street and Stolen Letters. The detective methods and character types of such novels are often imitated by later detective novels, so Poe is regarded as the originator of western detective novels.

The later development of American romantic literature is closely related to the "Transcendentalism" thought that arose in the 1930s and 40s of 19. Transcendentalism is influenced by Kant's transcendental philosophy and European liberalism. It holds that nature contains the ultimate truth, and every natural phenomenon is a symbol of a certain spirit. People can intuitively understand the spirit of the universe without relying on the teaching of traditional historical documents such as poetry and philosophy. Man is God to a certain extent, and should fully believe in his wisdom and strength. Transcendentalism is a humanistic trend of thought from the ideological root, which is aimed at materialism, money worship and mediocre philosophy in capitalist society and has positive significance of the times. Because it is influenced by transcendentalism and pantheism, it is also mysterious.

The works of many American romantic writers are full of transcendental thoughts of advocating self and liberating individuality. Emerson (1803- 1882) is the founder of transcendentalism. He organized the Transcendentalism Club and published a series of papers promoting Transcendentalism, including On Nature (1836), On Self-help, Speaking in a Theological Seminary, etc. His thoughts influenced a generation of romantic writers, such as Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville and Whitman. Thoreau (18 17- 1862) was a practitioner of transcendentalism. He once lived alone in the Woods near Walden Lake for more than two years, during which he spent most of his time walking and meditating. He wrote his inspiration from nature and thoughts on the true meaning of life into Walden Lake (1854).

Longfellow (1807- 1882) drew nourishment from ancient Indian myths and legends, and created the first derivative epic Song of Haiwarsaw (1855) in the history of American literature, which shaped the moving image of Indian cultural superman. Melville (1819-1891) is good at navigation, exploration and exotic themes. Moby Dick (185 1) is a masterpiece with epic momentum and tragic beauty. His works are illustrated by a hard and tragic whaling experience.

Since the 1920s of 19, the voice of American society against slavery has been growing, and abolitionist literature has emerged. From the progressive standpoint of opposing slavery, abolitionist literature describes the inhuman life of slaves, exposes the brutal behavior of slave owners oppressing slaves, criticizes the brutality and reactiveness of slavery, promotes the development of abolitionist movement, and lays the foundation for the prosperity of American critical realism. The representative writers of abolitionist literature are Mrs. Stowe (181-kloc-0/896) and Hildreth (1807- 1865). Their masterpieces are Uncle Tom's Cabin and White Slave.

After the civil war, American capitalism advanced by leaps and bounds. At the same time, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened, social discontent has increased, and the critical intention of literature has also strengthened. Under the influence of the realistic tradition of abolitionist literature and local literature, critical realism has replaced romanticism as the mainstream of American literature. Howells, O Henry, Norris, Klein and Jack London are all important writers of this genre.

Howells (1837- 1920) is the founder of American critical realism, and his masterpiece The Rise of Silas lapham (1885) created an American capitalist with morality and credibility. O 'Henry (1862- 19 10) is a famous short story writer, who describes the tragicomedy of little people with humorous style and subtle warning at the end. His representative works include The Last Rattan Leaf, The Police and Hymns. In Octopus, Norris (1870- 1902) describes the crime of monopolizing farmers' wealth in the rapid development. Klein's psychological realism novel The Red Medal of Courage (187 1- 1900) makes him unique in American literature. Jack London's works (1876- 19 16) are deeply influenced by social Darwinism and are good at describing the tenacious character of individual strugglers in the sinister environment of the jungle. His novella The Call of the Wilderness shows the cruelty of the jungle principle in capitalist society with a life-and-death struggle between animals, and his masterpiece Martin Eden (1909) reveals the oppression and destruction of American talented young people by bourgeois philosophy and commercial culture with the tragic fate of individual strugglers, which is the first to involve the theme of disillusionment of the "American Dream".

In this period of American literature, the works of black writers chestnut (1858- 1932) and du bois (1868- 1963) are remarkable for their distinctive anti-racist features and democratic tendencies. In addition, the poetess Dickinson (1830- 1888) was highly praised by imagist poets in Britain and America in the 20th century for her vivid and philosophical image.