试析美国文学发展的时代性

方舟

1 Introduction
　　Literature is always the mirror of its times and is always rooted in certain social realty and social thoughts. This is also true with American literature and social reality and social thoughts play a most important part in the development of each literary form and stage of American literature. In order to have a better understanding of American literature, it is very important to examine the social reality and social thoughts in which American literature is rooted.
　　2 How American Literature Develops with Its Times
　　To start with, American Puritanism takes the dominant position in the colonial ideology. The principal reason is that the first settlers are mostly serious and religious people advocating highly religious and moralistic values and principles. Thus, influenced by these social thoughts, the literature in this period takes the form of religious and moralistic Puritanism, which mainly deals with the themes of hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.
　　Later, in the 18th century, the colonial people are trying to break away from the British rule. On such a political background, the literature takes the form of Rationalism, which advocates reason, independence and revolutionary ideas. The writers at that time are mostly political and patriotic, reflecting the people’s strong political desires. One of the representative works in that period is Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis, which consists of a series of pamphlets and gives much impetus to North American colonies’ independence movement.
　　Then, after America gains independence, America’s industry and economy begin to grow rapidly and America becomes a strong nation. With the independence and its various legal documents, American people are filled with the sense of democracy and equality. Moreover, the westward expansion also contributes to the formation of the American people’s character. All these factors together produce a strong sense of optimism and hope among the American people. Thus, the literary expression of this romantic feeling—Romanism, comes into bEing.The new literary form seeks moral enthusiasm and faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception. In this kind of writings, writers admire wild beauty (not man-made) and feelings (not thought). This is exactly the reflection of the contemporary reality. The romantic stage comes to an end when the Civil War breaks out.