American Literature week 1－sweetannie的部落格

Week One (2015.9.16) --- Orientation

Create your own blog: take notes in class & do the research after class

Short review on Emglish Vocabulary and Etymology (reference book)

Notice: always preview for the quiz!

1865 - end of the American Civil War

widely known in the United States as simply the Civil War as well as ohter sectional names, was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy.

CivilWar

A Streetcar Named Desire (sparknotes)

a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams which reeceived the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was directed by Elia Kazanand starred Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden. The London production opened in 1949 with Bonar Colleano, Vivien Leigh, and Renee Asherson and was directed by Laurence Olivier. The drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often regarded among the finest of American plays of the 20th century, alongside Long Day's Journey into Noght and Death of a Salesman.

a_streetcar_named_desire_01

"that which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet"

Juliet:

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet.

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

And for that name, which is no part of thee

Take all myself.

literature: artistic, creative, imaginative

Intro to American Literature: Why is Literature Appealing? --- pleasure, knowledge, experiences, apprciation, relaxation

William Blake: to see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour.

A Robin Redbreast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeons
Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions.
A Dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State.
A Horse misus’d upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fiber from the Brain does tear.
...



Romantic Period: individualistic, humanism, emotional

Romanticism (also the Romantic era or the Romantic period) was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850.

Founding Fathers

The term Founding Fathers of the United States of America refers broadly to those individuals of the Thirteen British Colonies in North America who led the American Revolution against the authority of the British Crown and established the United States of America.