所有文學都是從詩歌開始的
中文:詩經、楚辭
英國: Beowulf
→ 便於傳達，文字的發展還不成熟

美國1776年獨立
The Age of Discovery is a historical period of European global exploration that started in the early 15th century.
→1492哥倫布(Christopher Columbus)發現新大陸
(西班牙找到海到性質的哥倫布，往東或往西，本來要尋找印度，結果找到美國) ______________________________________________________________

About the syllabus:
課程目標Objectives
Students would be able to know how to read, understand, and appreciate the great books as well as the major literary genres of American literature from the poetry of Anne Bradstreet of theColonial America to Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire (play) for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1947, in the context of its cultural, historic, philosophical, political, artistic background and development.

Blog: do the research after the class and take the note in the class
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Youtube: Intro to American Literature
From the video:
man of letters 文人
→ Robert Frost的詩淺顯易懂(像白居易的林邊詩人)

Basic qualities of American writer: independent, individualistic, critically, innovative
First American Author: Captain John Smith
First American man of letters: Washington Irving  

Rip Van Winkle
It is a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819 as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. (一個歐洲的民間傳說，硬掰成荷蘭人)
Puritan
Thomas Paine

→ common sense: 管的最少的政府就是最好的政府(影響法國大革命)