第一部分 殖民地时期的美国文学
第1章 约翰·史密斯
1.1 复习笔记
I. Historical Introduction (历史背景)
(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 colonies that became the first United States were for the most part sustained by English traditions, ruled by English laws, supported by English commerce, and named after English monarchs and English lands.
(3) The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of the settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, about adapting to new life and dealing with Indians; they wrote letters, contracts, government charters, religious and political statements.
(4) 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.
(1) 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世纪早期，英国人最终在弗吉尼亚和马萨诸塞定居，奠定了人们熟知的美国主流文化的基础。
(2) 成为第一个联邦的殖民地大部分是由英国的传统维系，受英国法律管辖，依靠英国商贸，以英国君主和领地命名。
(3) 美国早期文学就是这些殖民者写的叙述文和日记，主要是关于他们来到这块新大陆的航海历程，如何适应岛上的新生活，如何和当地印第安人打交道；还有信件、契约、政府宪章、宗教和政治声明。
(4) 1607年，英国殖民者在弗吉尼亚詹姆斯敦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。
II. Early New England Literature (早期新英格兰文学)
New England had from the beginning a literature of ideas: theological, moral, historical and political. The Puritans, who had come to New England for the sake of religious freedom, 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.
新英格兰文学打一开始就充满了各种各样的思想，内容涉及神学、道德、历史和政治等话题。清教徒来到新英格兰是为了获得宗教自由，他们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。
III. Puritan Thoughts (清教徒的思想)
(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. They felt the corruption within the Church of England from which they wished to break free.
(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) Puritans’ lives were disciplined and hard, and they 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.
(1) 从字面上讲，清教徒想要净化他们的信仰和行为，他们是“灵魂将要得到净化的人”。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。
(2) 清教徒希望恢复教堂的朴素和圣洁，以及《圣经》的神学权威。他们看到英国国教的腐败，因此想脱离国教。
(3) 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。
(4) 清教徒们过着一种自律艰苦的生活，他们倾向于将快乐和欢笑看成是一种罪恶的表现。
(5) 清教徒的宗教教育倾向于过分强调上帝严厉的一面，而忽略了上帝仁慈的一面。
IV. John Smith(1580－1631) (约翰·史密斯)
(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 (1608), a letter to the Virginia Company in London, defending the handling of the settlement and proclaiming the merits of the new land. His next book was A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country (1612). The book was a guide to the country and an invitation to the bold spirits needed to enlarge and strengthen the English plantation in the new land.
(2) Smith published eight in all, some of which explored the history of New England. The ideas reflected in his works eventually become a basic principle of American history: the need of “workers” instead of “gentlemen” for the tough job of planting colonies and pushing the frontiers westward.
(1) 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：《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚垦荒以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》，信中回应了关于开辟殖民地的意见，赞扬了新大陆的优越之处。他随后又写了《弗吉尼亚地图：一个乡村的描述》。这本书是一本指南，也成为了冒险家来新大陆进一步扩大这里的种植业的邀请函。
(2) 史密斯共出版了8部作品，部分是关于新英格兰的历史。史密斯作品中反映的思想——面对建立殖民地和“西进”的艰巨任务，美国需要“工人”而不是“绅士”——慢慢演变成了美国历史的基本思想。