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(1789.9.15—1851.9.14). James Fenimore Cooper. 胡学超 薛冰 李莎莎 万雅思 魏源. 四班二组. J.F.Cooper. First major American novelist, best known for his tales of frontier adventures.
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(1789.9.15—1851.9.14) James Fenimore Cooper 胡学超 薛冰 李莎莎 万雅思 魏源 四班二组
J.F.Cooper • First major American novelist, best known for his tales of frontier adventures.
A prolific writer,whose literature career covers a period of 30 years , publishing 32 novels, 12 works of nonfiction, a play and numerous pamphlets and articles.
James Fennimore Cooper • Life ☞ • Works ☞ • Themes ☞ • styles ☞ • Literary achievements ☞
I. Life • 1789:Born in Burlington,New Jersey; • 1791:Moved to Cooperstown, New York; • 1806-07:Joined the Navyand served on the Sterling; • At the beginning of the 1820s Cooper lived in New York City and participated in its intellectual life and politics. （sea adventures）
1826-1833: Lived in Europe where he wrote romances and unsuccessfully books about democracy, politics, and society; • 1833: Returned to the Unites States, living first in New York City and then in Cooperstown.During the last decades of his life,he was earning less from his books but was forced to go on writing for income; • 1851:Passed away at Otsego Hall.
II.Works • Precaution<戒备>(1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) • The Spy <间谍>(his second novel and a great success) • The Pilot <领航者> • The Littlepage Manuscripts<利特佩奇的手稿> • Leatherstocking Tales <皮袜子故事集>
The Spy 革命历史小说 • Based on Sir Walter Scott'sWaverly series, and tells an adventure tale about the American Revolution.
Sea adventures (i) 海上冒险小说 • He wrote a series of sea adventures, starting from The Pilot (1824), a genuine American sea tale about the exploits of John Paul Jones.
Sea adventures (ii) • The Red Rover (1827); • The Wing-and-wing (1842); • The Two Admirals (1842); • Afloat And Ashore (1844); • Miles Wallingford (1844); • The Sea Lions (1849).
The Leatherstocking Tales 边疆冒险小说 • ④The Pioneers <开拓者>（1823） • ②The Last of the Mohicans<最后的莫希干人> (1826) • ⑤The Prairie <草原> (1827) • ③The Pathfinder <探路者> (1840) • ①The Deerslayer <杀鹿者> (1841)
The Leatherstocking Tales is a series of novels set in the early frontier period of American history.
The Deerslayer depicts Natty Bumppo's experiences as a young man. The events take place in the 1740s in the upstate New York, where Deerslayer is joined by his Mohican friend, Chingachgook, to rescue two frontiersmen.
The Last of the Mohicans is set in the 1757 during the Seven Years’ War between the French and the British. Hawkeye/Bumppo and his friends Chingachgook and Uncas with a group of English civilians are betrayed by their Indian guide Magua. Hawkeye revenges the death of his friend Uncas and an English lady, Cora, and kills Magua.
The Pathfinderis also set during the war, and tells a story of betrayal and love. Jasper Western, a sailor is suspected of being disloyal to the English, is arrested to the despair of Mabel, who is in love with him. The real traitor is Muir,the lieutenant who had accused Jasper. He is killed by Arrowhead, a Tuscarora Indian.
The Pioneers is set in 1793 in Otsego County in the recently settled region of New York state. Natty Bumppo, now known as Leatherstocking, and his friend Oliver Edwards befriend Judge Temple and his daughter Elisabeth. Chingachgook dies in a forest fire in spite of Bumppo's efforts to save him. Oliver Edward's lost grandfather is found and Oliver and Elisabeth are betrothed at the end.
The Prairie is set in 1804. Natty Bumppo meets a wagon train and helps it to evade an Indian raiding party. The travellers endure a prairie fire, a buffalo stampedes, and captured by the Sioux. In the end of the tale Bumppo peacefully dies on the prairie, surrounded by his friends.
Frontier Adventures Through his Leatherstocking series Cooper created the archetype (原形)of the 18th-century frontiersman, Natty Bumppo. He lives free, close to nature, while the settlers bring 'civilization' that destroys the wilderness.
Mohawk Huron Background British and French troops do battle for control of the North American colonies in the 18th century . Were killed Only two Mohicans are left Chingachgook and his son One adopted white man Natty Bumppo Two tribes Was killed Magua protectors • Guided them to the fort • Became a spy of French military • Wanted to betray the tribe-Huron to French Be forced to marry him, but she refused Was killed Cora break through the obstacles to meet father Melvyn（an English colonly） The fort had been besieged by French for a long time. Alice The Last of the Mohicans Was saved Left his land and became a Pathfinder & a Pioneer
III.Theme • patriotism • wilderness vs. civilization • freedom vs. law • order vs. change • aristocrat vs. democrat • natural rights vs. legal rights
IV.Style • highly imaginative; • good at inventing tales; • good at landscape description; • conservative; • characterization wooden and lacking in probability; • language and use of dialect are not authentic.
V.Achievements • He created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.
If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West.
开创美国文学史上三种不同类型的小说： • 革命历史小说：《间谍》1821 • 边疆冒险小说：《拓荒者》1823 • 海上冒险小说：《领航者》1824
Legacy and criticism • Cooper was one of the most popular 19th century American authors, and his work was admired greatly throughout the world. While on his death bed, the Austrian composer Franz Schubert became an avid reader of Cooper's novels. Balzacadmired him greatly. Cooper's stories have been translated into nearly all the languages of Europe and into some of those of Asia.
Though some scholars may dispute Cooper being classified as a Romantic, Victor Hugo pronounced him greater than the great master of modern romance, and this verdict was echoed by a multitude of less famous readers, who were satisfied with no title for their favorite less than that of “the American Scott.”
He was most memorably criticized by Mark Twain whose vicious and amusing review is still read widely in academic circles. His reputation today rests upon the five Leatherstocking tales and some of the maritime stories. His presentation of race relations and native Americans has generated much comment, not all of it sympathetic.
Cooper was also criticized heavily for his depiction of women characters in his work. James Russell Lowell, Cooper’s contemporary and a critic, referred to it poetically in A Fable for Critics, writing, “ …the women he draws from one model don’t vary/All sappy as maples and flat as a prairie."
