本单元具体教学内容、教学基本要求、单元重点与难点

第一周：美国殖民时期文学（2节）

1. 教学内容

Chapter 1 Colonial Period

I.Background: Puritanism

(1)features of Puritanism

(2)Influence

II.Overview of the literature

(1)types of writing

(2)writers of colonial period

1)Anne Bradstreet

2)Jonathan Edwards

3)Philip Freneau

III.Close reading and works analysis

（1）Sinner in the Hands of Angry God

（2）Verse upon the Burning of Our House

（3）Wild Honey Suckle

IV. cultural comparison, ascetic monk;vs puritan

    American Puritanism Vs British Puritanism

2.  教学基本要求

1）To make students acquire some information about the types of writing and representative authors in early American literature.

2）To develop students’ understanding of the thinking patterns and cultural soils of early American literature.

3)To improve students’ abilities to interpret and appreciate the poems and sermons in early American literature.

4)To enhance students’ cross-cultural communication language skills and competence

5)To improve students’ ability to judge the religious aspects in literary works in different culture.

 

 

3. 单元重点、难点 

重点.

1)Features and influence of American puritanism

2)Puritanical thinking mode in American literary works.

3) Religious and contemplative aspect in American literary works

   

难点

Puritanical thinking mode in American literary works.

I. Background: Puritanism

1. features of Puritanism

(1) Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.

(2) Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.

(3) Total depravity

(4) Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.

2. Influence

(1) A group of good qualities – hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.

(2) It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.

(3) Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.

(4) With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.

II. Overview of the literature

1. types of writing

diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons

2. writers of colonial period

(1) Anne Bradstreet

(2) Edward Taylor

(3) Roger Williams

(4) John Woolman

(5) Thomas Paine

(6) Philip Freneau