I. Historical Introduction
(1) At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the vast continental area that was to become the United States had been probed only slightly by English and European explorers. At last early in the seventeenth century, the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts began the main stream of what we recognize as the American national history.
(2) The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Among the members of the small band of Jamestown settlers was Captain John Smith, an English soldier of fortune. His reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been described as the first distinctly American literature written in English.
II. The First American Writer
(1) Captain John Smith became the first American writer. His first work is A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony, a letter to the Virginia Company in London, defending the handling of the settlement and proclaiming the merits of the new land.
(2) His next book was A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country (1612). Like many similar accounts of the period, the book was a guide to the country and an invitation to the bold spirits needed to enlarge and strengthen the English plantations in the new land.
(3) Smith published eight in all. He may not have been a modest man, but it is clear that he contributed more to the survival of the Jamestown colony than did anyone else.
Ⅲ.Early New England Literature
The Puritans in New England had embraced hardships, together with the discipline of a harsh church for a very long time. Over the years the Puritans built a way of life that was in harmony with their somber religion, one that stressed hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety. These were the Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing, including the sermons, books, and letters of such noted Puritan clergymen as John Cotton and Cotton Mather. During his life Cotton Mather wrote more than 450 works, an impressive output of religious writings that demonstrate that he was an example, as well as an advocate, of the Puritan ideal of hard work.
Ⅳ. William Bradford and John Winthrop
(1) William Bradford was the first governor of Plymouth, and his representative work is The History of Plymouth Plantation.
(2) Bradford wrote much of his History in the midst of the events he describes. In addition to History, Bradford left a wealth of letters, other prose writings about the colony, and even a narrative poem.
(3) When he died, the New England colonies mourned him, in words written later by Cotton Mather, as “a common blessing and father to them all”.
(4) John Winthrop was the first governor in Boston, and his notable work is The History of New England.
(5) Winthrop’s work is notable for its candid, simplicity and honesty.
(6) Both The History of Plymouth Plantation and The History of New England are the most valuable kind of historical source—an account of events by a man who has been a major figure of his time. Both were written, not from literary ambition, but from a sense of the need to record important events in permanent form.
V. Puritan Thoughts
(1) As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to make pure their religious beliefs and practices. The Puritan was a “would-be purifier.” The word was coined by the opponents of the group and was applied to them in scorn; it was intended to ridicule them as persons who thought themselves holier or better than others. The undaunted Puritans claimed the name for themselves, adopting it as a badge of honor.
(2) The Puritans wished to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of the Bible to theology.
(3) Puritans included people from the humblest to the loftiest ranks of English society, educated and uneducated, poor and rich. Their faults were those common to persons who hold extreme opinions. The Puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people, and it followed logically that anyone who challenged their way of life was opposing God’s will and was not to be accepted. They were thus zealous in defense of their own beliefs but often intolerant of the beliefs of others.
(4) Puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exaggerated, but it is true that their lives were disciplined and hard. Puritans tended to suspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin.
(5) Puritan religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God and to forget His mercy.
VI. John Cotton and Roger Williams
(1) John Cotton was the first major intellectual spokesman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and sometimes he was called “the Patriarch of New England”.
(2) John Cotton wrote several books of hard-hitting Puritan argument, but his primary influence was through the pulpit.
(3) Through John Cotton we can see an important characteristic of the Puritans. They were much more concerned with authority than with democracy.
(4) Cotton was partly responsible for Roger Williams’s exile from Massachusetts. However, whatever faults and limitations he may have had, John Cotton’s firmness and devotion to his beliefs always demanded respect.
(5) Roger Williams had been educated in law at Cambridge University. Instead of following that calling, he entered the church and was caught up in the Puritan tide. When he came to the Massachusetts colonies in 1631, he was more democratic in his view of church government than the leaders of any of the settlements. As a result he was soon in disagreement with them, which eventually led to his exile to what is now Rhode Island.
(6) With Williams begins the history of religious toleration in America, and with him, too, the history of the separation of church and state. Williams’s toleration did not stem from a lack of religious convictions. Instead, it sprang from the idea that simply to be virtuous in conduct and devout in belief did not give anyone the right to force belief on others.
(7) He was exiled by the leaders of Puritan for his different creeds, and later, he founded a community which he called Providence, because of “God’s merciful providence to him in his distress”.
VII. Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor
(1) Anne Bradstreet is one of the most interesting of the early poets. Both her father and her husband were governors of Massachusetts, all came here on the first voyage of the Arbella in June 1630.
(2) Her first published work appeared in London titled as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America.
(3) Some of Anne Bradstreet’s poetic ventures were overambitious, but she wrote well when she dealt with the simple events of her daily life.
(4) The best of the Puritan poets was Edward Taylor, who came from England as a young man and attended Harvard, later entering the major profession of the time, the ministry.
(5) He is the most accomplished poetic craftsman of the early years. His work followed the style and forms of the leading English poets of the mid-seventeenth century, and although Taylor was not the best of these, he showed an authentic poetic ability.
(6) Most of Taylor’s work treated religious themes, with many poems based directly on the Psalms.
(7) Taylor did not publish any of his work. His poems were found in manuscript in 1937, more than two hundred years after his death. This discovery brought Taylor to immediate prominence in the colonial literary history, and enriched American poetic heritage. A complete edition of Taylor’s poems appeared in 1960.
| 一、历史背景
⑴直到17世纪初，美国所在的广袤大陆才被英国及少数几个欧洲国家的探险家涉足。17世纪晚期，定居在弗吉尼亚和马萨诸塞州的英国殖民者开始了被我们看作是美国民族史的主流生活。
⑵1617年，英国殖民者在弗吉尼亚詹姆斯顿建立了第一个在北美的永久性殖民地。英国雇佣兵约翰·史密斯上尉就是这批殖民者中的一员。17世纪初，他发表的关于探寻新大陆的报告被认为是第一部用英语写作的美国文学作品。
二、第一位美国作家
⑴约翰·史密斯成为第一位美国作家。他的第一个作品是寄给在伦敦的弗吉尼亚公司的一封信，回应了关于开辟殖民地的意见，赞扬了新大陆的优越之处。
⑵他随后又写了《弗吉尼亚地图：一个乡村的描述》。像当时一些报告文学一样，这是一本去美国的指南，也是一封请柬，召唤着那些需要在新大陆拓展、强大英国种植园的勇敢的灵魂的到来。
⑶史密斯共出版了8部作品。或许他不是一个谦虚的人，但是显然，他对詹姆斯殖民地的贡献是无人能及的。
三、早期新英格兰文学
新英格兰的清教徒长期地忍受着困苦和教堂严酷的教规。通过多年的努力，他们养成了一种与他们忧郁的宗教相适应的生活方式，即勤劳、节俭、虔诚和节制。这些主要价值观充分体现在他们的作品中，包括一些著名的牧师如约翰·科顿和科顿·马瑟等的布道词，书籍和信件等。科顿·马瑟毕生创作了450多部书，作品充分体现了他是努力工作这一宗教理念的典范和倡导者。
四、威廉·布拉德福德和约翰·温斯罗普
⑴威廉·布拉德福德是普利茅斯的第一位统治者，代表作品是《普利茅斯种植园史》。
⑵布拉德福德在他的《历史》中写下了很多自己亲身经历的事件。除了《历史》，他还写了大量的诗歌，散文和叙事诗等。
⑶他去世时，整个新英格兰殖民地都为他哀悼。科顿·马瑟后来为他题词，称他是“众人之福，众人之父”。
⑷温斯罗普是波士顿的第一位统治者，代表作是《新英格兰史》。
⑸温斯罗普的作品坦率、质朴、真实。
⑹《普利茅斯种植园史》和《新英格兰史》是非常珍贵的历史资料，记录了作者所处时代的重大历史事件。作者的写作不是出于创作的兴趣，而是出于一种将重大事件永久记录下来的需要。
五、清教徒的思想
⑴从字面上讲，清教徒想要净化他们的信仰和行为，他们是“净化者”。这一词是由他们的对手造出来讽刺他们的，用来嘲讽那些自认为更圣洁、更美好的人。这些无畏的清教徒接受了这一称呼，并视其为荣誉的象征。
⑵清教徒希望恢复教堂的朴素和圣洁，以及《圣经》的神学权威。
⑶清教徒涵盖英国社会中最卑微到最高贵的人，受过教育的和没受过教育的人，贫穷的和富裕的人。他们的共同不足是对事物看法过分极端。清教徒认为自己是上帝选定的人，而那些与他们生活方式不同的人就是违背上帝的意愿，不被接受。他们热衷于为自己的信仰辩护，而通常难以容忍其他信仰。
⑷说清教徒反对快乐和艺术有时是言过其实，但是他们确实过着一种自律艰苦的生活。清教徒倾向于将快乐和欢笑看成是一种罪恶的表现。
⑸清教徒的宗教教育向于过分强调上帝严厉的一面，而忽略了上帝仁慈的一面。
六、约翰·科顿和罗杰·威廉姆斯
⑴约翰·科顿是马萨诸塞湾殖民地第一个知识分子的主要发言人，有时被称为“新英格兰的族长”。
⑵约翰·科顿写了几本有力地说明清教徒理论的书，但是他的主要影响在于他的讲道。
⑶通过约翰·科顿我们可以看到清教徒的主要特点。他们关注更多的是权威而不是民主。
⑷科顿对威廉姆斯被流放到马萨诸塞州一事负有部分责任。然而，不管科顿有着怎样的缺点和局限，他对于信仰的坚定和贡献都是值得敬佩的。
⑸威廉姆斯曾在剑桥大学学习法律，但是没有从事法律相关的工作，而是进入教堂，沉浸在清教流派中。当他于1631年来到马萨诸塞殖民地时，他的宗教观点比殖民的任何领导人都要民主。由于存在分歧，最终他被流放到现在的罗德岛州。
⑹罗杰·威廉姆斯开创了美国宗教容忍异己的历史，也开创了美国政教分离的历史。威廉姆斯的容忍不是来自于对宗教信仰的不坚定。相反，是来自于一种朴素的思想，即行为正直，信仰虔诚，没有任何权力将信仰强加于任何人。
⑺由于与其他清教领袖坚信的教义相异，威廉姆斯被流放，后来，他建立了一个叫“天意”的社区，因为“逆境中上帝赐予他仁慈的天意”。
七、安妮·布拉兹特里特和爱德华·泰勒
⑴安妮·布拉兹特里特是早期诗人中最为风趣的诗人之一。她的父亲和丈夫都曾当过马萨诸塞州的州长，他们都是第一批乘“阿贝拉”到来的殖民者。
⑵她的第一部作品在伦敦出版，名为《美国新崛起的第十位缪斯女神》。
⑶安妮·布拉兹特里特的一些诗歌主题过于宏大，但是她对一些日常生活中的小事描写得很到位。
⑷爱德华·泰勒是清教徒诗人中最优秀的一位，青年时期来自英国，读完哈佛大学后成为一位专职牧师。
⑸他是早期诗歌成就最突出的一位诗人。他采用的是17世纪中期英国主流诗人的写作形式和风格。尽管泰勒不是这些诗人中最出色的一位，但是她显示出了真正的诗歌才能。
⑹泰勒的大部分作品是以宗教为主题的，并且许多作品直接是基于《圣经》而作的。
⑺泰勒没有出版任何作品。直到他去世两百余年后的1937年，他的手稿才被发现。这一发现立刻使得泰勒成为美国殖民时期文学的重要代表人物，丰富了美国的诗歌传统。1960年，泰勒的一部完整的诗歌集出版问世。
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