美国文学期末复习提纲2012

2012美国文学复习提纲

1.Match the literary work in column B with the author in the column A. (20 points)

2. Decide the following statements true or false. (10 points)

3. Define the following literary terms (20 points)

一、时间(1分);二、代表人物(1分);三;主要特征(2分);四、文学文化意义(1分)

Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” and “the code hero”

Iceberg theory: It was firstly proposed by Ernest Hemingway, the representative writer of the Lost Generation, in Death In the Afternoon (1932) which has

such a description “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it

being above water.”

The theory suggests that the writer include in the text only a small portion of what he knows, leaving about ninety percent of the content a mystery that grows beneath the

surface of the writing. It‟s influence as a stylist was nearly expressed in the praise of the

Nobel Prize Committee about “his powerful style-forming mastery of the art” of writing

modern fiction.

The code hero: Term Coined by Philip Young in 1952 to refer to Hemingway characters that have learned to control the chaos in their lives, chaos in the form of

physical or mental stress, sometimes both. As Bertrand Russell comments, Hemingway‟s

heroes have such kind of courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert this

dignity in face of diversity. A code hero could be destroyed but not defeated.

Modernism:

Modernism is an omnibus term for a number of tendencies in the arts which were prominent in the first half of the 20th c.; In English literature it includes symbolism,

futurism, expressionism, imagism, dada, and surrealism. It is particularly associated

with the writings of T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce etc. Broadly, Modernism

reflects the impact upon literature of the psychology of Freud and the anthropology of

Sir J. Frazer, as expressed in The Golden Bough (1890-1915). A sense of cultural

relativism is pervasive in much modernist writing, as is an awareness of the irrational

and the workings of the unconscious mind. Modernist literature is a literature of

discontinuity, both historically, being based upon a sharp rejection of the procedures

and values of the immediate past, to which it adopts an adversary stance; and

aesthetically.

The Lost Generation:

The "Lost Generation" is a term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway in his novel, "The Sun Also Rises" used to refer to his generation; those who experienced alienation

The "Lost Generation" is a term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway in his novel, "The Sun Also Rises" used to refer to his generation; those who experienced alienation

and the loss of ideals yet unable to come to terms with the new era when civilization had

gone mad resulting from World War I .This generation included distinguished artists

such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot

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