Unit 3 The Literature of Reason and Revolution

(1700-1783)

l     Key Words: Reason and revolution, Franklin, Paine, Jefferson

l    Target: This unit aims at introducing the American literature of Reason and Revolution Period and appreciating some literary figures like Franklin.

l     Study Points:

1.   Reason and revolution;

2.   Benjamin Franklin;

3.   Thomas Paine;

4.   Thomas Jefferson

I.         Historical Background

Ø         America was no longer a wilderness;

Ø         The American War of Independence;

Ø         Writers wrote to understand and report on their lives in the New World;

Ø         The Age of Reason

The Age of Reason

•      Writers of this period were all conscious of belonging to what is called the Age of Reason.

–  by using reason human beings could manage themselves and their societies without depending on authorities and past traditions

–  reason thrived on freedom (of speech, from arbitrary rulers, to experiment, to question)

–  progress through reason: correct social evils, superstition, ignorance and improve the general quality of existence

•      Faith in natural goodness - a human is born without taint or sin; the concept of tabula rasa or blank slate.

•      Perfectibility of a human being - it is possible to improve situations of birth, economy, society, and religion.

•    The sovereignty of reason - echoes of Rene Descartes' cogito ergo sum or I think, therefore, I am (as the first certitude in resolving universal doubt.)

•      Universal benevolence - the attitude of helping everyone.

Concern with Earthly Life

•      little interest in the hereafter or supernatural

•      write on science, ethics or government rather than on religion

•      Optimism - experiments in utopian communities

•      Sense of a person's duty to succeed.

•      Constant search of the self - emphasis on individualism in

–  personal religion

–  study of the Bible for personal interpretation

Typical Spirits

•      Benjamin Franklin (ingenious inventions to make life more comfortable)

•      Thomas Jefferson (hatred of restriction on human inquiry

•      both love moderation and order

•      Thomas Paine (writing for the revolution)

 II.    Benjamin Franklin, The First American (1706-1790)

•      pragmatic individualist,

•      humble origin and vast success has made him the symbol of America (rags to riches)

•      really opens the story of American literature was, typically, far more a Jack-of-all trades than a man of letters. 

•      outstanding as a tradesman, citizen, scientist, statesman and political revolutionary. 

•      in his last years and for a generation after his death, more often referred to as “the father of his country” than was George Washington himself

◆   Life of Franklin

•      born  in 1706 in Boston (the capital of New England Puritanism), the tenth of fifteen children in a poor candle and soap maker’s family

•      leave school before he was eleven

•    at twelve apprenticed to an older brother, a printer in Boston and contributed secretly to his brother/s newspaper under the pseudonym “Silent Dogood.”

•    at 17 he ran away to Philadelphia, worked for printers, increased his skills during 2 years in England, finally set up his own printing press in Philadelphia, which became famous as the publisher of the annual Poor Richard’s Almanac

◆   Primary Works

•      Dogood Papers, 1722;

•      Poor Richard's Almanac (first annual edition), 1732-57;

•      The Pennsylvania Gazette (his weekly newspaper)

•      The General Magazine (the first colonial magazine)

•      The Autobiography

◆  The Autobiography

•     uncompleted, perhaps the first real post revolutionary American writing as well as the first autobiography in English.

•      began in 1771, stops at the years 1788, actually describes only the early less extraordinary part of his life.

•    it gives us a remarkably vivid picture of an active, self-reliant, confident, curious and reasonable individual who took completely for granted the great value of both useful productivity and personal prosperity

•     first-person point of view: immediacy, intimacy, speak to the reader, the limitation, personal opinions, success against faults

◆   Major Themes in Franklin's Writing

•      interest in the individual and society; the creation of an American national identity.

•      tension between aristocracy and democracy; the awareness of America as distinct in values and interests from those of England

•      tension between appearance and reality; shift from an other worldly to a this worldly viewpoint

•      tension between romantic idealism and pragmatic rationalism

•      theory should be tested primarily by experience not logic; reason should be tested pragmatically

◆  Poor Richard's Almanac

•      an annual collection of proverbs

•     emphasis on commercial success in these almanacs explains why Franklin has come down in American history as the perfect representative of the American Dream of “rags to riches.” 

•      stress on the importance of working hard to make money and saving to reinvest it to make more

•      the idea that happiness depended in the first place on economic success

•     optimistically believed success was within the grasp of any normal American who worked hard, lived modestly and remained alert to seize every opportunity for practical advancement. 

•      no man could be virtuous or happy unless he did his best to improve the life of his society and his own life.

◆  Sayings from Poor Richard's Almanac

•      A penny saved is a penny earned.

•      They that won’t be counselled can’t be helped.

•      Creditors have better memories than debtors.

•      A word to the wise is sufficient.

•      He that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.

◆   Style of Franklin

•      a brilliant writer, with a definite gift for writing

•      has power of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor, sometimes sarcastic

•      perfect the Puritan plain style, “smooth, clear and short writings”

◆   More about Franklin

III.   Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

The Most Persuasive Rhetorician of the Cause for Independence

•      the most persuasive rhetorician of the cause for independence.

•      born in England, the son of a staymaker

•   in 1774, at the age of 37, recognized by Franklin because of his peculiar talents, and made his way to Philadelphia, where he edited the Pennsylvania Magazine owned and published by Franklin

•      in 1776, his famous pamphlet Common Sense came out, bringing the separatist agitation to a crisis. 

•      the most articulate spokesman of the American Revolution, his chief contribution was a series of sixteen pamphlets entitled The American Crisis

◆  Works of Thomas Paine

•      Common Sense (1776) urged an immediate declaration of independence

•      The American Crisis (Dec. 1776-April 1783), a series of 16 pamphlets in support of the Revolutionary War

•      The Rights of Man (1791-2), a defense of the French Revolution against the attacks of Edmund Burke

•      The Age of Reason (1794-5), his great deistic (自然神论的)work

◆  The Aphoristic Style (格言风格)

Although Paine’s language is simple and blunt, he composes some sentences with extra care, achieving what is called an aphoristic style.  These are memorable statements in themselves: What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly”; “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”  In each case Paine cuts and polished the sentence to make it stand out.

Question

In the first paragraph, Paine criticizes the “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot.”  To what sort of people does his phrase refer?

◆   More about Thomas Paine

IV.   Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

•      President of the U.S., first Secretary of State, and Minister to France, Governor of Virginia, and Congress, Thomas Jefferson once

•      drew up the program of studies for the U of Virginia

•      collected ten thousand books which were sold and formed the basis for the Library of Congress

•      founding the University of Virginia, designing much of its buildings and campus

•      author of the Declaration of Independence

•       writing and supporting the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

◆  Readings

•      Poems by Anne Bradstreet

•      The Autobiography

•      The American Crisis

•      The Declaration of Independence

•      The Wild Honey Suckle

◆   More about Thomas Jefferson

Study Questions

1.    The essential difference between the writers of Puritan New England and those of the American Enlightenment is that the former believed that man was irrational and basically corrupt and the latter believed man rational and basically good." Discuss.

2.    Why is it significant that America's first black writers are Puritans? In what sense could a shared religious belief be important for racial relations in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century?

Reading Questions

1.    Comment on the language style of Franklin’s The Autobiography.

2.    In ways does The Autobiography tell you about Franklin’s pragmatic individualism?

Reference Books:

q      Chang Yaoxin: A Survey of American Literature, the 2^nd edition. Tianjin: Nankai University Press, 2003.12

q      Liu Cunbo: Selected Readings in British and American Literature, Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2001

q       李翠葶，李正栓：《美国文学学习指南》，北京：清华大学出版社，2002

q       万　莉，陈范霞：《英美文学选读》，北京：光明日报社，2001

q    吴定柏：《美国文学大纲》，上海：上海外语教育出版社，1998

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