本文是一篇文学论文，本文深入分析了17世纪至19世纪教友主义对美国文学的影响。虽然教友会起源于英国，但它对美国社会的影响更大。作为美国文化的独特源泉，教廷主义在北美经历了曲折的发展，最终形成了具有美国特色的价值体系。从某种意义上说，这种发展最好地反映在同时代的文学中。随着不同时期社会环境的变化，教友会本身也在不断地变化和发展，这种变化在文学中有着鲜明的反映。
Chapter One Literature Review
1.1 Studies on Sociology of Literature
Literature and society are inextricably linked. Society runs through literature and occupies an irreplaceable position in literary phenomenon. Likewise, the development of literature has profound cultural and historical roots as well as deep social roots. Therefore, it is particularly important to study literary works from the perspective of sociology of literature. What is the definition of sociology of literature? According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, sociology of literature is “a branch of literary study that examines the relationships between literary works and their social contexts, including patterns of literacy, kinds of audience, modes of publication and dramatic presentation, and the social class positions of authors and readers” (Baldick 1879). That is, the sociology of literature is a study of the relationship between literature and society.
With the development of capitalism, people’s cognition of the relationship between literature and society has become increasingly clear in the eighteenth and nineteenth century in Europe. The germination of sociology of literature can be traced back to two articles of Rousseau—Discours sur les sciences et les arts in 1750 and Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes in 1755. Rousseau expresses his ideas of Cultural Revolution, and for the first time he examines critically at the connection between art literature and material society (qtd. in Fang 7). Moreover, Schiller, Schlegel, G.W. F. Hegel and other poets, critics and philosophers in Germany have also put forward their own views on the problems of literature and society.
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1.2 Studies on Religion and Western Literature
In terms of domestic research, since the revival of Biblical literature research in mainland China in the early 1980s, more and more scholars have devoted themselves to the study of the relationship between world literature and Scripture, which appears in the history of western literature more and more clearly. The main researchers in China are represented by Liang Gong, Yang Huilin and Zhuo Xinping, who are maily focus on Biblical literature. Yang Huilin (1991) analyzes the essential relationship between Christianity and western literature, and the intrinsic manifestation of Christianity in western literature in his article Christianity and Western literature. An Overview of Early Christian Literature published in 2000 mainly discussed the origins of the medieval Christian literature, the representative writers of the early Christian literature, and the earliest Colloquial literature in Western Europe. Liang Gong (2007) broadens the scope of the study in his book East-West Literature in Biblical Perspective. He not only discusses the influence of the Bible on Eastern and Western literature, but also objectively analyzes the cultural quality of the Bible, focusing on the cultural essence of the bible and revealing the contemporary significance of Bible study. In Religion and Literature, Zhou Qun (2009) conducts a comprehensive analysis and elaboration on this grand theme in the case of Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam. In addition, Liu Jianjun (2011) collects 28 articles about religion and literature in the proceedings of Bible Study and Literary Interpretation: Western Religious Culture and Literature symposium.
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Chapter Two Quaker Influence on the 17th Century American Literature
2.1 The Origin of Quakerism
Quakerism, a prominent Protestant sect, is more formally known as the Religious Society of Friends. It was founded during the England Civil War in the seventeenth century. According to Collins English Dictionary, a Quaker refers to “a member of the Religious Society of Friends, a Christian sect founded by George Fox about 1650, whose central belief is the doctrine of the Inner Light. Quakers reject sacraments, ritual, and formal ministry, hold meetings at which any member may speak, and have promoted many causes for social reform” (385). Quakers originally called themselves “Children of the Light”, and then “People of God”, “Royal Seed of God”, and “Friends of the Truth”, resulting in their official name of “Religious Society of Friends”. The word “Quaker” actually comes from a slightly sneaky conversation between Fox and Gervase Bennett in 1650, when he was brought to a trial. Fox warned him to “tremble in the fear of the Lord.” Bennett retorted and replied that “And quake, thou quaker, before the majesty of the law” (qtd. in D. Hamm, Quakers 25). Since then, the word Quaker has been circulated and became the nickname of the Friends.
So how did Quakerism develop? In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church became the dominant religion in the feudal society of Western Europe and placed philosophy, politics, and law under the control of its theology, seeing itself as the “one universal church”. The world, under the leadership of the Pope in Rome, was filled with religious, social and political upheavals. In 1534, the English King, Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church over the matter of his marriage crisis and set up a national Church—The Church of England. This initiated long-term religious reformation movement began in England.
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2.2 Quaker Beliefs and Practices
In order to demonstrate the Quaker influence in American literature, it is necessary to ascertain the beliefs and practices that distinguish Quakerism from other sects in America. However, to make a precise list of all the particular Quaker beliefs and practices is not easy because they were in consistent change and Quakers themselves split into different divisions from 1820s afterwards. This part will summarize four essential beliefs and four social practices of Quakers which are most frequently known to the non-Quaker world.
2.2.1 Essential Beliefs
In spite of the variety of their beliefs, certain ones are universally shared among American Quakers. According to R. John Ullmer, Quakers have “four essential beliefs that can be considered as embodying the basis of their religion”. Two of these can be regarded as “premises”: “A belief that God dwells in every man’s inner being”, and “every man is naturally impelled to goodness”. The other two can be considered as “principles”: “every man must seek to be directed by God’s indwelling through a conversionary experience”, and “all individual conversions and inspirations take place with the concurrence of the community conscience” (12-13).
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Chapter Three Quaker Influence on the 18th Century American Literature ....... 27
3.1 Quakerism in the 18th Century ................................ 27
3.1.1 The Golden Age of Quakerism in America ........................... 27
3.1.2 The Quaker Reform .................................. 28
Chapter Four Quaker Influence on the 19th American Literature ........................ 51
4.1 Quakerism in the 19th Century ................................... 51
4.1.1 The Great Separation ........................... 51
4.1.2 The Orthodox Splits .......................... 53
Chapter Four Quaker Influence on the 19th American Literature
4.1 Quakerism in the 19th Century
The American Quakers experienced a number of challenges in the nineteenth century, and suffered some separations. Different branches of the Society of Friends formed as a result of these separations. Despite the separations, Friends remain united to uphold their discovery and promotion of the truth.
4.1.1 The Great Separation
During the nineteenth century, partially shaped by the Protestant revival, Quakers gradually gave up their plainness and embraced new perspectives on Christ and Biblical authority. England Quakers underwent conversion to become evangelical Christians, and some of them traveled to America to confront American Friends who uphold that the Inner Light must be honored above the Bible. There were also extensive interactions between evangelical Protestants and American Quakers due to their business and missionary relationships. These factors led to the increasing dilution of Quaker beliefs, while the Society of Friends became influenced by external concepts and ideas. There were disputes between Friends groups regarding the meaning of living as a Quaker, while diverging ideas competed among the leadership. Accordingly, the conditions were in place for the Great Separation of 1827-1828.
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Conclusion
The thesis has made an in-depth analysis on the influence of Quakerism on American literature from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century.
Although Quakerism originated in England, it had a greater influence on American society. As a unique source of American culture, Quakerism experienced a tortuous development in North America, and eventually formed a value system with American characteristics. This development is, in a sense, best reflected in its contemporaneous literature. With the changes in social environment in different periods, Quakerism itself changed and developed constantly, and the changes were distinctively mirrored in literature.
Quakerism, a body of Christians, was originated in 1652 during the English Civil War. In the 1660s, in order to avoid persecution, Quakers began to immigrate to the American colonies and developed rapidly there, especially in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was a devout Quaker who wrote many pamphlets and books condemning religious persecution and advocating religious toleration and freedom, leaving his peculiarly Quaker stamp upon American literature.
The eighteenth century witnessed the heyday of the Quaker development. Quakers occupied an important position in both political and economic fields; they strengthened their commitment to pacifism and began to denounce slavery. After the Revolution, they concentrated on a wide variety of reform activities concerning Indian rights, temperance, abolition, education, and feminism. John Woolman and Charles Brockden Brown were prominent Quaker figures who expressed their Quakerism of abolition and equality in their writings. Other writers like Thomas Paine, Benjamin Rush, John Bartram and William Bartram were also influenced by Quakerism.
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