American Romantic Literature

Part III The Literature of Romanticism ( From the end of 18th century to 1865)

• Historical Introduction• Early Romanticism: Washington Irving and

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow• Late Romanticism:Walt Whitman, Emily Dic

kinson and Edgar Allan Poe (poets)• Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson

and Henry David Thoreau (essayists)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne &Herman Melville (novelists)

Historical Introduction

• Geographically, America expanded its frontier through westarward movement. The land and the population in the United States was largely increased.

• Economically, it began the industrialization and urbanization.(automation and technology led to sharp contrast of riches and poverty)

• Politically, people enjoyed more freedom. • Culturally, cultural nationalism prospered.• Literary Ideas:Romanticism and Transcendentalism (novels,

short stories and poems replaced sermons and manifestos as America’s principal literary forms

wars and a period of rapid growth

• 1812, war with Britain • 1830s, a series of wars against native Americans • 1846—1848, war against Mexico • 1848, discovery of gold in California, thus the Gold

Rush • 1859, first oil well drilled in Pennsylvania • 1861—1865, Civil War • 1869, the first transcontinental railway constructed

Period of rapid growth and expansion

• In 1810, the population totaled 7,000,000. Fifty-years later, at the beginning of Civil War, the population reached 31,000,000. A new nationalism emerged as a result of this sudden influx of immigration.

• The spread of industrialization filled people with optimism. The invention and practice of the sewing machine, the flour mill, the cotton grin, the telegraph and the assembly line greatly increased the production.

• The discovery of gold in California in 1848 brought about a Gold Rush, which further pushed the frontier to the end. As a result, an unprecedented optimistic attitude was prevailing among people.

a period of discussion of social issues

• The woman’s issue. Some women asked for their rights to vote and to own property. In 1837, the first women’s college was established in Massachusetts.

• The slavery issue. Slavery existed together with the anti-slavery conceptions. It was with the help of thousands of slaves that the expansion of the economy became possible.

American Romanticism

• Against such a historical and social background did American Romanticism emerge. Coming 20 years later than its British counterpart, American Romanticism was regarded as a period of Renaissance in art and literature in the United States.

• “… romanticism remained one of the glories of the age. It accelerated the spread of democracy to the downtrodden and the poor. It revitalized art and established new ways of perceiving humanity and the universe. And it remained evident today…” (AAL 1:565).

Reasons for flourishment

• The spread of industrialization, the influx of immigration and the westward movement produced an economic boom and a strong sense of optimism and hope among people.

• The desire for intellectual independence brought about the fertilization of literary milieu. Magazines increased in number, which included The North American Review, The American Quarterly Review, The New England Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, etc. The appearance of these magazines provided a media for people to express their opinions.

• European romanticism reached the Continent when young people who traveled to Europe to educate themselves came back to America. With their help, the spirit of romanticism was spread.

• Such philosophers as Immanuel Kant (German idealism 德国唯心主义 ) and Auguste Comte (French positivism 法国实证主义 ) were introduced to America, whose works were widely read among intellectuals.

• As far as literature is concerned, influences are also obvious. – Sir Walter Scott, with his border tales, helped toward the developm

ent of American Indian romance and the romantic description of landscape in America literature.

– The Gothic tradition and the graveyard tradition came to America and found their way into the works of Poe.

– Burns, Byron, Wordsworth, with their lyric poems of love and passion and their concern for nature, added to the nation’s singing strength

Characteristics of Romanticism

• an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society—reliance on the subconscious, the inner life, the abnormal psychology

• an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination—rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed formality, order and authority

• a profound love for nature—nature as a source of knowledge, nature as a refuge from the present, nature as a revelation of the holy spirit

• the quest for beauty—pure beauty • the use of antique and fanciful subject matters—sense of t

error, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queer

Uniqueness of American Romanticism

• The Westward Movement, the pioneering into the West, provided the American writers with the best subject and materials. The wilderness always filled them with hope and drove them to look for an ideal world.

• The newness as a nation, with people’s ideals of individualism and freedom, their dream that America was to be built into a new Garden of Eden, was strong enough to inspire romantic imagination.

• American moral values were basically Puritan. As a result, many writers tend to moralize more than their English counterpart. They intended to edify rather than to entertain. Subjects like sex and love were particularly shunned.

• The immigration in large numbers brought in mingling of races, which made American literature take on a variety in subject matter.

American Romanticism----imitative and innovative

• . On the one hand, it is derivative. Writers such as Washington Irving, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Bryant, Whittier and Lowell treated traditional literary themes by using traditional techniques.

• On the other hand, it is also independent. James Fenimore Cooper was one of the earliest writers to deal with American subject matter—the Westward Movement. In writers like Emerson and Whitman, we do hear voices different from those in the European tradition. They not only treated American subject matter but also used innovative techniques.

Edgar Allan Poe

• Poet, editor, literary critic

• The first writer of the detective story

• He was the father of psychoanalytic criticism

• a pioneer in poetic and fictional techniques

1809-1849

Life Introduction

• A foster child by John Allan• Life full of disasters psychologically crippling childhood, bitter literary s

quabbles, overwhelming poverty, failed publishing ventures and an unsuccessful attempt at suicide. After the death of his wife, Poe took to drinking and gambling and was always in debt. One winter night, he was found unconscious on the street and died the next day in hospital.

His literary reputation

• Poe remained the most misunderstood and the most controversial writer in American literary history.

• However, Poe’s achievement as a poet, a short story writer and a literary critic cannot be neglected. Poe enjoys a higher reputation in Europe. Only in recent years, he begins to be accepted at home.

• Poe’s poetics influenced the devotees of “art for art’s sake”. He was the father of psychoanalytic criticism and detective story. His position in world literature nowadays was secure.

As a Literary Critic• For a short story,

– It must be brief, readable at one sitting, in order to ensure the totality of impression.

– The first sentence should bring out the single effect of the story.

– No word should be wasted. – It must reveal some logical truth. – It should end with the last sentence, leavin

g a sense of finality with the reader.

For a poem

• It should be short, readable at one sitting. • Its chief aim is to produce a feeling of beauty. “… the death

… of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.”

• “Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetic tones.”

• The artistry of the poem lies in the way it is said. • Poe defines poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty”.

Main Works• As a Short Story Writer----Gothic tradition, marked by terror

and horror “The Masque of the Red Death” “The Fall of the House of Usher”

• As a poet To Helen Annabel Lee The Raven

As a literary critic The Philosophy of Composition

Main topics in short stories

• Poe probes into the subconscious condition of the mindand believes that every mind is half mad or capable ofslipping into insanity. As a result, his characters are mostlyneurotics, having no sense of their identity, no name, noplace nor parentage, wandering from place to place andalienated from society. Horror comes form the workings ofAn irrational mind, driven to insanity by a perverse, irrationalforce—an elementary impulse in man.

Analysis of “The Raven”

• Virginia Clemm,his first cousin whom he married when she was only 13 years old. Virginia died of tuberculosis at a young age of 24. EAP wrote this poem during her illness of TB when he felt certain of her impending death. TB at that time and age was the new plague and struck the population in epidemic proportions. It was a disease that had no cure.

Writing Backgrounds

Discussion Questions

• Why is this poem entitled “The Raven” ?

• In your opinion, what does the raven represent?

• What does the word “Lenore” mean?

• How do you understand the word “Nevermore”?

Study Objects

• The poetic form

• The main idea of each stanza

• The images (raven and other images)

• The tone (what contributes to this tone)

• The symbolic meanings

• The theme

Structure division

• Part one (stanza 1-5)

• Part two (stanza 6-11)

• Part three (stanza 12-18)

Appreciating “The Raven” (※※)

• Beauty in form• The poem is composed of 18 six-line stanzas, t

he first five lines being trochaic octameter, and the sixth line a trochaic tetrameter.

• Rhyme• Internal Rhyme• Alliteration• Repetition

Part 1: (stanza 1-5)• Part 1: (Stanza 1-5) A lonely man tries to ease his “sorrow for the lost Le

nore,” by distracting his mind with old books of “forgotten lore”. He is interuppted while he is “nearly napping,” by a “tapping on his chamber door.” as he opens up the door, he finds “darkness there and nothing more.” Into the darkness he whispers, “Lenore,” hoping his lost love had come back, but all that could be heard was “an echo murmured back the word “Lenore”.

The speaker’s phychological changes

• It’s some visiter tapping at my chamber door.• Thrilled me----filled me with fantastic terror…• My soul grew stronger; hesitating no longer.• Wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams…• All my soul within me burning

Appreciating the changes of findings

• Only this, and nothing more

• Nameless here for evermore

• This it is and nothing more

• Darkness there, and nothing more

• Merely this, and nothing more

• It’s the wind, and nothing more

Part 2 (Stanza 6-11)

• With a burning soul, the man returns to his chamber, and this time he can hear a tapping at the window lattice. As he “flung open the shutter,” “in there stepped a stately raven,” the bird of ill-omen. The raven perched on the bust of Pallas, the godess of wisdom in greek mythology, above his chamber door.

• The man asks the raven for his name, and surprisingly it answers, and croaks “Nevermore.” The man knows that the bird does not speak from wisdom, but has been taught by “some unhappy master,” and that the word “nevermore” it is only “stock and store.”

Stanza 7 & 8

• 我猛然推开窗户，。心儿扑扑直跳就像打鼓， 一只神圣往昔的健壮乌鸦慢慢走进我房间； 它既没向我致意问候；也没有片刻的停留； 而以绅士淑女的风度，栖在我房门的上面—— 栖在我房门上方一尊帕拉斯半身雕像上面—— 栖坐在那儿，仅如此这般。

于是这只黑鸟把我悲伤的幻觉哄骗成微笑， 以它那老成持重一本正经温文尔雅的容颜， “虽然冠毛被剪除，”我说，“但你肯定不是懦夫， 你这幽灵般可怕的古鸦，漂泊来自夜的彼岸—— 请告诉我你尊姓大名，在黑沉沉的冥府阴间！” 乌鸦答日“永不复还。”

Stanza 9 & 10

• 听见如此直率的回答，我惊叹这丑陋的乌鸦， 虽说它的回答不着边际——与提问几乎无关； 因为我们不得不承认，从来没有活着的世人 曾如此有幸地看见一只鸟栖在他房门的面—— 鸟或兽栖在他房间门上方的半身雕像上面， 有这种名字“水不复还。”

但那只独栖于肃穆的半身雕像上的乌鸦只说了 这一句话，仿佛它倾泻灵魂就用那一个字眼。 然后它便一声不吭——也不把它的羽毛拍动—— 直到我几乎是哺哺自语“其他朋友早已消散—— 明晨它也将离我而去——如同我的希望已消散。” 这时那鸟说“永不复还。”

Part 3 (Stanza 12-18)• The man welcomes the raven,and is afraid that the raven w

ill ne gone in the morning. However, the raven answers, “nevermore” tha man smiled, and pulled up a chair, interested in what the raven meant in croaking such a word. The chair, where Lenore once sat, brought back painful memories.

• The man, who now knows that the irrational creaure can only utter such a word. But still, he anticipates the bird’s response. “Is there balm in Gilead?”— “Nevermore”. “Can Lenore be found in paradise”----”nevermore”. “Take thy form from off my door!”---- “nevermore”. Finally, the man concedes, realizing that to continue the dialogue would be in pointless. And his “soul from out that shadow” that the raven throws on the floor, “shall be lifted”--- “nevermore”

Stanza12 & 13

• 但那只乌鸦仍然把我悲伤的幻觉哄骗成微笑， 我即刻拖了张软椅到门旁雕像下那只鸟跟前； 然后坐在天鹅绒椅垫上，我开始冥思苦想， 浮想连着浮想，猜度这不祥的古鸟何出此言—— 这只狰狞丑陋可怕不吉不祥的古鸟何出此言， 为何聒噪‘永不复还。”

我坐着猜想那意见但没对那鸟说片语只言。 此时，它炯炯发光的眼睛已燃烧进我的心坎； 我依然坐在那儿猜度，把我的头靠得很舒服， 舒舒服服地靠在那被灯光凝视的天鹅绒衬垫， 但被灯光爱慕地凝视着的紫色的天鹅绒衬垫， 她将显出，啊，永不复还！

Stanza14 、 15 & 16

• 接着我想，空气变得稠密，被无形香炉熏香， 提香炉的撒拉弗的脚步声响在有簇饰的地板。 “可怜的人，”我呼叫，“是上帝派天使为你送药， 这忘忧药能中止你对失去的丽诺尔的思念； 喝吧如吧，忘掉对失去的丽诺尔的思念！” 乌鸦说“永不复还。”

“先知！”我说“凶兆！——仍是先知，不管是鸟还是魔！ 是不是魔鬼送你，或是暴风雨抛你来到此岸， 孤独但毫不气馁，在这片妖惑鬼崇的荒原—— 在这恐怖萦绕之家——告诉我真话，求你可怜—— 基列有香膏吗？——告诉我——告诉我，求你可怜！” 乌鸦说“永不复还。”

“先知！”我说，“凶兆！——仍是先知、不管是鸟是魔！ 凭我们头顶的苍天起誓——凭我们都崇拜的上帝起誓—— 告诉这充满悲伤的灵魂。它能否在遥远的仙境 拥抱被天使叫作丽诺尔的少女，她纤尘不染—— 拥抱被天使叫作丽诺尔的少女，她美丽娇艳。” 乌鸦说“永不复还。”

Beauty in Imagery

The abudant images in Satnza 14• The air grew denser (sense of tactile)• Perfumed from an unseen censer (sense of smell)

olfactory sense• Faint foot-falls tinkled (auditory image)• The tufted floor (visual image)

Stanza 17 & 18

• 让这话做我们的道别之辞，鸟或魔！”我突然叫道—— “回你的暴风雨中去吧，回你黑沉沉的冥府阴间！ 别留下黑色羽毛作为你的灵魂谎言的象征！ 留给我完整的孤独！——快从我门上的雕像滚蛋！ 从我心中带走你的嘴；从我房门带走你的外观！” 乌鸦说“永不复还。”

那乌鸦并没飞去，它仍然栖息，仍然栖息 在房门上方那苍白的帕拉斯半身雕像上面； 而它的眼光与正在做梦的魔鬼眼光一模一样， 照在它身上的灯光把它的阴影投射在地板； 而我的灵魂，会从那团在地板上漂浮的阴暗 被擢升么——永不复还！

Tone (※)• Tone: melancholy and sad• What contributed to the melancholy tone?• Phonetics: a. Long vowels and dipthongs b. Echoing effect of consonants (-ing): napping, ra

pping, tapping, repeating, entreating, hesitating, wondering, fearing,

• The image: the raven, midnight. • Time and space• The minimum word: nevermore

Symbols and Personification (※)

• What are the symbolic meanings of the following things?

• The Raven

• The bust of Pallas

• The chamber door

• The cushioned seat

a. Raven--- as birds of ill-omen, symbolizing death Poe used a non-reasoning creature to utter the wo

rd. It would make little sense to use a human, since the human could reason to answer the question. It is important that the answers to the questions are already known, to illustrate the self-torture to which the narrator exposes himself.

b. The bust of Pallas --- symbolizing wisdom the raven perched on the bust of Pallas. The spea

ker believed that the raven spoke from wisdom and was not just repeating its only “stock and store. The non-reasoning bird standing on the reasoning goddess suggests the corrupted society.

c. Midnight and December--- symbolizing the end of something

d. The chamber door: the boundary dividing the two lovers into two different worlds.

e. The cushioned seat: symbolizing their beautiful love.

Nevermore

• The minimum musical word, but has the rich connotations in different context

• The name of the raven and the only word that the raven can utter. It seems irreasonable and even absurd, but it hightlights the philosophical narration.

• What people valued in life is like what the raven uttered, once lost, never gained?

• With the word of “Nevermore”, the speaker pushed himself into self-torment.

Theme (※)

• Sadness over the death

• Seeking for the lost beauty

对于诗歌主题，坡认为最富诗意的是 ”美女之夭亡和失美之悲伤“

Summary (1)

• It is an elegy, expressing the sorrow or grief over somebody’s sudden death.

• It is not long, 108 lines, readable at one sitting.

• The poetic theme is the lamentation over the death of a beautiful woman.

Summary (2)

• The general tone of the poem is melancholy. • It reads very rhythmical, with different varieties of r

hymes. • The poem is composed of 18 six-line stanzas, the

first five lines being trochaic octameter, and the sixth line a trochaic tetrameter.

• The repetition of the / / sound at the end of different rhymes and the refrain (lines repeated at the end of stanzas or a poem for expressive effect), “nevermore”, suggest mourning and grief.

• The rhyming scheme of the poem is abcbbb.

Homework

• Make a self study of “to Helen” and “Annabel Lee”

• Analyze the gothic elements in “The Fall of the House of Usher”(厄榭尔房子的倒塌） .