stories, and poems replaced sermons and manifestos as America’s principal literary forms.
8． From the early 1800s to the civil war 美国是一个充满矛盾的国家，人们既有各种精神上的幻想，又有日益强烈的物质主义的现实需求。美国人生生活上、艺术上开始努力寻找新的自由及理念，社会的冲突及极端想法在血腥的国内战争中达到了顶峰was a land of paradoxes, a land stirred by spiritual dreams and shaped by the realities of a growing materialism. Americans had sought new liberties and new ideas in life and art, but conflicts of their society had culminated in a bloody civil war.
一、Washington Irving华盛顿·欧文1783-1859
1. 他是美国第一位浪漫主义散文文体作家，大众化风格was the first great prose stylist of American romanticismfamiliar style.
2. 他的作品简单明了，但绝不是一些业余作家的平淡无味，这归因于他始终把作品同自己的人格特征结合起来，作品中尽量表现出自己的个性the apparent ease of his writing is not simply that of the gifted amateur; it results from his purposeful identification of his whole personality with what he wrote。他温文尔雅，放眼世界，幽默谦虚，他用自己大气，优雅的写作风格与美国本土的一些特点进行有机结合，最后形成自己的风格he was urbane and worldly, yet humorous and gentle, his great and graceful style combine with American roots shaped his independent literary personality。他是第一个不折不扣的纯文学作
家，他写作纯是为快乐和为了创造快乐he was the first great belletrist, writing always for pleasure, and to produce pleasure.
3．教材作品：《作者自叙》：“The Author’s Account of Himself”;《睡谷传奇》：“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.
二、James Fenimore Cooper詹姆斯·芬尼莫·库珀1789-1851 1．美国第一位凭着胆识走上文坛的著名小说家the first important American novelist began his literary career on a dare.
2．库珀开创了两种流传极广的小说体裁，即边疆传奇小说和海上传奇小说 Cooper launched two kinds of immensely popular stories: the sea adventure tale, and the frontier saga. 1824年《领航者》最为成功“The Pilot” the best of his many sea romances. 1839年他写过第一部美国式正官方历史《美国海军》 he wrote the first official history of the U.S. Navy.
3．库珀边疆小说《皮袜子故事集》由5部小说共同组成，阿伦·内文斯（历史学家）认为这五部小说是迄今为止美国最接近史诗的一部大作，his frontier stories “Leather Stocking Tales” including five novels: The Last of the Mohicans”. Allan Nevins calls these five novels “the nearest approach yet to an American epic”.通过这些人物的描写，作者记录了当时美国人思想意识，还使欧洲人意识到美国with a vast group of supporting characters, virtuous or villainous, Cooper made the American conscious of his past, and made the European conscious of American.
4．教材作品：《最后的莫希干人》：“The Last of The Mohicans” 三、William Cullen Bryant威廉·卡伦·布莱恩特1794-1878 1. 1817年伟大史诗《死之思考》（希腊语），人们一致认为这是当时美国最杰出的一篇诗作the stately poem called ”Thanatopsis” (Greek, meaning “view of death”) introduced the best poet to appear in American up to that time.Bryant merits a reputation as a poet.
2. 《致水鸟》是其巅峰之作，“用美国英语写作的最完美的短诗”，“To a Waterfowl” is perhaps the peak of his work,“Most perfect brief poem in the language”.
3. 当欧文用自己的作品预示美国散文时代的到来时，布莱恩特向欧洲读者证实了美国的诗歌也达到了相当高的水平，他是第一个获得美国主要诗人称号的作家As Irving had shown that American prose had come of age, so Bryant demonstrated to European readers that American poetry was ready to demand serious attention. He was the first American to gain the stature of a major poet. 4. 教材作品：《死之思考》：“Thanatopsis” 《致水鸟》：“To a Waterfowl”
四、Edgar Allan Poe埃德加·阿伦·坡1809-1849.
1. ( 南方文学信使)坡充分展示了自己作为编辑、诗人、文学评论家、小说作家的杰出才能showed his true talents as an editor, a poet, a literary critic, and a writer of fiction.
2. 1845 年诗集《乌鸦》出版“The Raven” was published as the title
poem of a collection 在欧洲，坡被人们称作诗歌与小说二种文学创作风格的探路者，对法国文坛一些作家影响特别深远in Europe, he was hailed as a pioneer in poetic and fictional techniques. His influence was especially strong on many French writers. 3. 教材作品：《给海伦》：“To Helen” 《乌鸦》：“ The Raven”
《安娜贝尔·李》“ Annabel Lee”
《鄂榭府崩溃记》“The Fall of the House of Usher”
五、Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生1803-1882 1．他是把超验主义思想引入新英格兰的先驱，被看作是超验主义运动的领袖he was responsible for bringingTranscendentalism to New England and was recognized throughout his life as the leader of the movement 爱默生首先强调的是个人主义、思想独立和自强 he believed above all in individualism, independence of mind and self-reliance他崇尚英勇，并不忌讳变化和有冲突的思想he admired courage, he was not afraid of changing or clashing ideas.
2．他的散文同他的诗歌一样极富个性，他的许多随笔是由日记中的一些词条，演讲中的内容，笔记里的东西等整理出来的，这些作品往往缺乏比较好的组织结构；然而他构句的水平却相当高超，一些经过推敲后的句子不仅思想深刻，而且让人难以忘怀his prose style is sometimes as highly individual as his poetry. Many of his essays were put together from his journal entries, speeches, and random notes, and they
are often somewhat disorganized. Yet his skill in polishing each sentence into a striking thought makes his writing memorable. 3．教材作品：《论自然》：“Nature”; 《论自助》：“Self-Reliance”
六、Henry David Thoreau亨利·戴维·梭罗1817-1862
1．他是爱默生最忠实的信徒，是他把爱默生的许多理论付诸了实践he was Emerson’s truest disciple, who put intopractice many of Emerson’s theories.
2．教材作品：《沃尔登我生活的地方；我为何生活》：“Walden Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”在这部书中阐释了他去体验这种生活的原因，他认为一个一星期最好工作一天，而剩下的六天时间则用来思索，他也认为人类心灵的自助和独立最为重要，每个人都应该发现自己的生活方式he explained many of the beliefs that led him to try this kind of life. He thought it better for a man to work one day a week and the rest of the week could be devoted to thought. For Thoreau, as for Emerson, self-reliance and independence of mind ranked above all each should find out his own way of living. 七、Nathaniel Hawthorne纳撒尼尔·霍桑
1．他是通过观察和聆听别人谈话来获得创作素材的，听人家讲的一些新英格兰口头故事、民间传说及各种鬼怪趣事Hawthorne gathered his material by observing and listening to others whose talk was filled with New England Lore, legend, and superstition.