第一部分　殖民地時期的美國文學

第1章　約翰·史密斯

1.1　復習筆記

I. Historical Introduction (歷史背景)

(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世紀初，美國所在的廣袤大陸才被英國及少數幾個歐洲國家的探險家涉足。17世紀早期，英國人最終在弗吉尼亞和馬薩諸塞定居，奠定了人們熟知的美國主流文化的基礎。

(2) 成為第一個聯邦的殖民地大部分是由英國的傳統維系，受英國法律管轄，依靠英國商貿，以英國君主和領地命名。

(3) 美國早期文學就是這些殖民者寫的敘述文和日記，主要是關于他們來到這塊新大陸的航海歷程，如何適應島上的新生活，如何和當地印第安人打交道；還有信件、契約、政府憲章、宗教和政治聲明。

(4) 1607年，英國殖民者在弗吉尼亞詹姆斯敦建立了第一個在北美的永久性殖民地。英國雇傭兵約翰·史密斯上尉就是這批殖民者中的一員。17世紀初，他發表的關于探尋新大陸的報告被認為是第一部用英語寫作的美國文學作品。

II. Early New England Literature (早期新英格蘭文學)

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.

新英格蘭文學打一開始就充滿了各種各樣的思想，內容涉及神學、道德、歷史和政治等話題。清教徒來到新英格蘭是為了獲得宗教自由，他們長期地忍受著困苦和教堂嚴酷的教規。通過多年的努力，他們養成了一種與他們憂郁的宗教相適應的生活方式，即勤勞、節儉、虔誠和節制。這些主要價值觀充分體現在他們的作品中，包括一些著名的牧師如約翰·科頓和科頓·馬瑟等的布道詞、書籍和信件等。

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) 從字面上講，清教徒想要凈化他們的信仰和行為，他們是“靈魂將要得到凈化的人”。這一詞是由他們的對手造出來諷刺他們的，用來嘲諷那些自認為更圣潔、更美好的人。這些無畏的清教徒接受了這一稱呼，并視其為榮譽的象征。

(2) 清教徒希望恢復教堂的樸素和圣潔，以及《圣經》的神學權威。他們看到英國國教的腐敗，因此想脫離國教。

(3) 清教徒涵蓋英國社會中最卑微到最高貴的人，受過教育的和沒受過教育的人，貧窮的和富裕的人。他們的共同不足是對事物看法過分極端。清教徒認為自己是上帝選定的人，而那些與他們生活方式不同的人就是違背上帝的意愿，不被接受。他們熱衷于為自己的信仰辯護，而通常難以容忍其他信仰。

(4) 清教徒們過著一種自律艱苦的生活，他們傾向于將快樂和歡笑看成是一種罪惡的表現。

(5) 清教徒的宗教教育傾向于過分強調上帝嚴厲的一面，而忽略了上帝仁慈的一面。

IV. John Smith(1580－1631) (約翰·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) 約翰·史密斯成為第一位美國作家。他的第一個作品是寄給在倫敦的弗吉尼亞公司的一封信：《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亞墾荒以來發生的各種事件的真實介紹》，信中回應了關于開辟殖民地的意見，贊揚了新大陸的優越之處。他隨后又寫了《弗吉尼亞地圖：一個鄉村的描述》。這本書是一本指南，也成為了冒險家來新大陸進一步擴大這里的種植業的邀請函。

(2) 史密斯共出版了8部作品，部分是關于新英格蘭的歷史。史密斯作品中反映的思想——面對建立殖民地和“西進”的艱巨任務，美國需要“工人”而不是“紳士”——慢慢演變成了美國歷史的基本思想。