英美文学选读(2)

自考《英美文学选读》（英）现代文学时期（2）-2二。

识记1. Shaw’s reform ideas：He regarded the establishment of socialism by the emancipation of land and industrial capital from individual and class ownership as the final goal. But on how to achieve it，he differed greatly from the Marxists. He was against the means of violent revolution or armed struggle in achieving the goal of socialism; he also had a distrust of the uneducated working class in fighting against capitalists. This reformist view of his caused him a painful，often conscious，inner conflict between his sincere desire for the new world and his inability to break out of the snobbish intellectual isolation throughout his life and work.2. His major works：Shaw wrote five novels in all the best of which is Cashel Byron’s Profession (1886)，which is about a world-famous prize fighter marrying a priggishly refined lady of property. His criticism is entitled Our Theaters in the Nineties (1931)。

自考《英美文学选读》（美）现代文学时期（2）-1Chapter 3 The Modern Period一。

识记1.The historical and socio-cultural background of the American literature between the two World Wars：(1) The two World Wars：The twentieth century began with a strong sense of social breakdown. The two Wor1d Wars，especially the First World War (l914——l918)，became the emblem of all wars in the twentieth century，which means violence，devastation，blood and death，and made a big impact on the life of the American people and their literary writings.With all these wars the whole wor1d had undergone a dramatic social change， a transformation from order to disorder. America in this period was characterized by economic boom and material prosperity but social chaos，spiritual waste and and moral decay. Economically，with America’s participation in Wor1d War I and the technological revolution，the United States had its booming industry and material prosperity. Socially，the world was disorderly and turbulent. There was a sense of unease and restlessness underneath. Spiritually and morally，there was a decline in moral standard and the first few decades of the twentieth century was best described as a spiritual wasteland. The censor of a great civilization being destroyed or destroying itself，social breakdown，and individual powerlessness and hopelessness became part of the American experience as a result of the First World War，with resulting feelings of fear，loss，disorientation and disillusionment.(2) The impact of Marxism，Freudianism and European modern art on American modern literature：Between the mid-l9th century and the first decade of the 20th century，there had been a big flush of new theories and new ideas in both social and natural sciences，as well as in the field of art in Europe，which played an indispensable ro1e in bringing about modernism and the modernistic writings in the United States.a. Marxism and FreudianismApart from Darwinism，which was still a big influence over the writers of this period，the two thinkers whose ideas had the greatest impact on the period were the German Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund Freud. Marx was a sociologist who believed that the root cause of all behavior was economic，and that the leading feature of the economic life was the division of society into antagonistic classes based on a relation to the means of production. Freud propounded an idea of human beings themselves as grounded in the “unconscious” that controlled a great deal of overt behavior，and made the practice of the psychoanalysis which emphasizes the importance of the unconscious or the irrationa1 in the human psyche. William James，an American psychologist famous for his theory of “stream of consciousness，” and Carl Jung，a Swiss psychiatrist，noted for his “collective unconscious” and “archetypal symbol” as part of modern mythology. Their theories，plus Freud’s interpretation of dreams，have infused modern American literature and made it possible for most of the writers in the modern period to probe into the inner world of human reality.b. European modern art：The implications of modern European arts to modern American writings can also be strong1y felt in the American literature between the wars，even thereafter. In painting，both the French Impressionist and the German Expressionist artists avoided the representation of external realityand depicted the human rea1ity in a rather subjective point of view. This highly personal vision of the world is self-evident in the works by writers such as William Faulkner，Eug ene O’Neill，etc. Cubism，another school of modern painting popular in the early 20th century with its emphasis on the formal structure of a work of art，especially its emphasis on the multiple-perspective viewpoints，had provided the writers with more than one way to explain the reality and engaged the readers in creating order out of fragmentation as we1l. Composers like Igor Stravinsky similar1y produced music in a “modern” mode，featuring dissonance and discontinuity rather than neat formal structure and appealing total harmonies.[Nextpage](3)The expatriate movementThere was a spiritual crisis in the modern period，but a full blossoming of literary writings. The expatriate movement，also called the second American Renaissance，is the most recognizable literary movement that gave rise to the twentieth century American literature. When the First World War broke out，many young men volunteered to take part in “the war to end Wars” only to find that modern warfare was not as glorious or heroic as they thought it to be. Disillusioned and disgusted by the frivolous，greedy，and heedless way of life in America，they began to write and they wrote from their own experiences in the war. Among these young writers were the most prominent figures in American literature，especially in modern American 1iterature. They were basically expatriates who 1eft America and formed a community of writers and artists in Paris，involved with other European novelists and poets in their experimentation on new modes of thought and expression. These writers were later named by an American writer，Gertrude Stein，also an expatriate，“The Lost Generation.”2. The historical and socio-cultural background of the American literature after the World War Ⅱ：What happened immediately after the Second World War in the United States and other parts of the world exerted a tremendous influence on the mentality of Americans. It changed man’s vi ew of himself and the world as well.First of all，the dropping of an atomic bomb over Hiroshima in Japan shocked the whole world and made possible the destruction of the Western civilization. Then a mutual fear and hostility grew between the Eastern and Western courtries with the Cold War，the effect of which could be felt in the form of McCarthyism in the Unites States. Besides，the Korean War and the Vietnam War broadened the gap between the government and the people. The assassination of John F. Kennedy，and of Martin Luther King，spokesman of the American Civil Rights Movement，the resignation of Nixon because of the Water-Gate scandal，etc. intensified the terror and tossed the whole nation again into the grief and despair. The impact of these changes and upheavals on the American society is emotional. People start to question the role of science in human progress and the fear of the misuse of modern science and technology is spreading. They no longer believe in God but start to reconsider the nature of man and man’s capacity for evil. They begin to think of life as a big joke or an absurdity. The world is even more disintegrating and fragmentary and people are even more estranged and despondent.二。

自考《英美文学选读》（英）现代文学时期（2）-1三。

应用：1. What is Modernism?Modernism was a complex and diverse international movement in all creative arts，originating about the end of the 19th century. It provided the greatest renaissance of the 20th century. After the First World War，all kinds of literary trends of modernism appeared：symbolism，expressionism，surrealism，cubism，futurism，Dadaism，imagism and stream of consciousness. Towards the 1920s，these trends converged into a mighty torrent of modernist movement，which swept across the whole Europe and America. It has also been called “the tradition of the new”-a conscious rejection of established rules，traditions and conventions，and “the dehumanization of art”-pushing into the background traditional notions of the individual and society. The major figures that were associated with Modernism were Kafka，Picasso，Pound，Webern，Eliot，Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Modernism was somewhat curbed in the 1930s. But after the Second World War，a variety of modernism，or post-modernism，like existentialist literature，theater of the absurd，new novels and black humor，rose with the spur of the existentialist idea that “the world was absurd，and the human life was an agony.”Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base. The major themes of the modernist literature are the distorted，alienated and ill relationships between man and nature，man and society，man and man，and man and himself. The modernist writers concentrate more on the private than on the public，more on the subjective than on the objective. They are mainly concerned with the inner being of an individual. By advocating a free experimentation on new forms and new techniques in literary creation，Modernism casts away almost all the traditional elements in literature such as story，plot，character，chronological narration，etc.，which are essential to realism. As a result，the works created by the modernist writers are often labeled as anti-novel，anti-poetry and anti-drama.2. The basic philosophy or characteristics of Modernism in literature：Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base. One characteristic of English Modernism is “the dehumanization of art”. The major themes of the modernist literature are the distorted，alienated and ill relationships between man and nature，man and society，man and man，and man and himself. The modernist writers concentrate more on the private than on the public，more on the subjective than on the objective. They are mainly concerned with the inner being of an individual. Therefore，they pay more attention to the psychic time than the chronological one. In their writings，the past，the present and the future are mingled together and exist at the same time in the consciousness of an individual.Modernism is，in many aspects，a reaction against realism. It rejects rationalism，which is the theoretical base of realism; it excludes from its major concern the external，objective，material world，which is the only creative source of realism; by advocating a free experimentation on new forms and new techniques in literary creation，it casts away almost all the traditional elements in literature such as story，plot，character，chronological narration，etc.，which are essential to realism. As a result，the works created by the modernist writers are often labeled as anti-novel，anti-poetry and anti-drama.I. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)一。

全国自考英美文学选读（综合）模拟试卷2(题后含答案及解析)全部题型 2. 阅读理解 3. 简答题 4. 论述题阅读理解1．To bow and sue for graceWith suppliant knee, and deify his power...—that were low indeed,That were an ignominy, and shame beneathThis downfall;...Questions:A. Who is the author?B. What is the title of the poem?C. What is the main idea?正确答案：A. John Milton.B. Paradise Lost.C. To beg God for mercy and worship his power were more shameful and disgraceful than this downfall. 涉及知识点：阅读理解2．I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.Questions:A. Identify the author and the work.B. What are the two principal beliefs that the poet set in this poem?正确答案：A. From Walt Whitman’ s “Song of Myself”.B. The two beliefs are the belief in the theory of universality and the belief in the singularity and equality of all beings in value. 涉及知识点：阅读理解3．“...Only Miss Emily’s house was left, rifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores. “Questions:A. Identify the author and the title of the story from which the quoted lines are taken.B. What is the meaning of “an eyesore among eyesores”?C. What does this quoted passage indicate?正确答案：A. Faulkner, A Rose for Emily.B. The most unpleasant thing to look at.C. The house is a perfect mirror image of the owner who is stubborn and coquettish and deliberately detaches herself from the communal life in this small town. 涉及知识点：阅读理解简答题4．As a novelist Jane Austen writes within a very ______ sphere. The subject matter, the character range, the social setting, and plots are all restricted to the ______ of the late 18th-century England, concerning three or four landed gentry families with their daily routine life.正确答案：Shelley eulogized the powerful west wind and expressed his eagerness to enjoy the boundless freedom from the reality. 涉及知识点：简答题5．Analyze the character of Jane Eyre taken from Jane Eyre.正确答案：A. Jane Eyre, an orphan child with a fiery spirit and a longing to love and be loved, a poor, plain, little governess who dares to love her master.B. In Chapter XXIII, Jane finds herself hopelessly in love with Mr. Rochester but she is aware that her love is out of the question. When forced to confront Mr. Rochester, she desperately and openly declares her equality with him and her love for him. 涉及知识点：简答题6．What are the features of Whitman’ s poetry?正确答案：A. His poetic style is marked by the use of poetic “I”.B. He adopted”free verse” , poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.C. The images in his poems are unconventional.D. He uses oral English.E. His vocabulary is amazing.F. Parallelism and phonetic recurrence are used at the beginning of the lines. 涉及知识点：简答题7．Some of Hemingway’ s heroes are regarded as the Hemingway code heroes. Whatever the differences in experience and age, they all have something in common which Hemingway values. What are the characteristics of the Hemingway code hero?正确答案：A. They have seen the cold world and for one cause or another, they boldly and courageously face the reality; whatever the result is, they are ready to live with grace under pressure.B. Almost all his heroes are” soldiers” either in a narrow or broad sense. They are out there to fight against nature or the world, or even themselves. But no matter where the battleground is and how tragic the ending is, they will never be defeated.C. Hemingway himself is one of those Code heroes; some critics say his protagonists are autobiographical, for they share something that is Hemingway’ s. 涉及知识点：简答题论述题8．Robinson Crusoe is universally considered as Daniel Defoe’ s masterpiece. Robinson, apparently, is cast as a typical 18th-century pioneer colonist. Give a brief comment on Robinson Crusoe.正确答案：A. In Robinson Crusoe, Defoe traces the growth of Robinson from a naive and artless youth into a shrewd and hardened man, tempered by numerous trials in his eventful life. The realistic account of the successful struggle of Robinsonsingle-handedly against the hostile nature forms the best part of the novel.B. Robinson is here a real hero; a typical eighteenth-century English middle-class man, with a great capacity for work, inexhaustible energy, courage, patience and persistence in overcoming obstacles, in struggling against the hosr tile natural environment. He is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist.C. In describing Robinson’ s life on the island, Defoe glorifies human labor and the puritan fortitude, which save Robinson from despair and are a source of pride and happiness. He toils for the sake of subsistence, and the fruits of his labor are his own. 涉及知识点：论述题9．Make a brief comment on Elizabeth ‘ s character in Pride and Prejudice.正确答案：A. Elizabeth is clever, alert, observant. She is more observant and less charitable than Jane in recognizing the characters of Bingley’ s sisters. She recognizes Mr. Collins’ character in his letter and after meeting him turns down firmly and with dignity his patronizing proposal. She is able to match wits with Darcy several times and with Colonel Fitzwilliam, earning their respect and admiration.B. Fearless and frank, not rattled by the attack of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, she wins a notable victory, sending her Ladyship away completely routed. She is independent but not infallible in her judgment—taken in by the charm of the worthless Wickham. She cannot be blamed for misjudging Darcy.C. She shows flexibility, discernment, and honesty of mind when she reads Darcy’ s defense in his letter and admits the justice of much of what he says, thus beginning to lose her prejudice against him. She recognizes and values true worth when she encounters it in Jane, the Gardiners, and, near the end of the novel, in Darcy. She sees more clearly than her father the danger of sending Lydia to Brighton.D. She is able to control her emotions at times of stress —when she first encounters Darcy at Pemberley; when she realizes that she loves Darcy and has good reason to fear that she has lost him,she waits without repining for time to bring a solution. She is witty, fun-loving, recognizes humor in herself and in others, but ridiculing only folly, nonsense, and inconsistencies. She recognizes the follies of her own family and their shortcomings as well as their virtues.E. She is considerate of others but quite capable of asserting herself when occasion demands. She has a playful and unaffected manner, sunny disposition, natural animation, sense of fun, and sweet reasonableness. She is ready to laugh at herself and everything save “what is wise and good”. She shows a sense of humor by telling what Darcy has said about her at the Meryton ball. 涉及知识点：论述题10．Take Mark Twain’ s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as an example to illustrate the statement that Mark Twain was a unique writer in American literature.正确答案：A. Mark Twain shaped the world’ s view of America and made an extensive combination of American folk humor and serious literature.B. The novel has become a great contribution to the legacy of American literature.C. The novel is written in a language that is totally different from the rhetorical language used byMark Twain’ s contemporary writers such as Emerson, Poe and Melville. It is simple, direct, lucid and faithful to the colloquial speech. This style of colloquialism is best described as “ vernacular”.D. He successfully used local color and historical settings to illustrate and shed light on the contemporary society. That’ s why he is known as a local colorist.E. Mark Twain’ s humor is remarkable, too. Most of his works tend to be funny, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks, etc. Some of them are typically tall tales. And a great deal of his humor is characterized by puns, straight-faced exaggeration, repetition, and anti-climax. He uses his humor to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism. 涉及知识点：论述题。

⼆。

美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家 Ⅰ。

Washington Irving（1783-l859） Irving''s position in American literature Washington Irving was one of the first American writers to earn an international reputation， and regarded as an early Romantic writer in the merican literary history and Father of the American short stories. ⼀。

⼀般识记 His life and major works Washington Irving was born in New York City in a wealthy family. From a very early age he began to read widely and write juvenile poems， essays， and plays. In l798， he conc1uded his education at private schools and entered a law office， but he loved writing more. His first successful work is A History Of New York from the Beginning Of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty，which， written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker， won him wide popularity after it came out in 1809. With the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon， Gent. in serials between 1819 and 1820， Irving won a measure of international fame on both sides of the Atlantic. The book contains familiar essays on the Eng1ish life and Americanized versions of European folk tales like "Rip Van Winkle＂， and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Geoffrey Crayon is a carefully contrived persona and behind Crayon stands Irving， juxtaposing the Old World and the New， and manipulating his own antiquarian interest with artistic perspectives. The major work of his later years was The Life of George Washington. ⼆。

英美文学选读（2）Selected Readings of British and American Literature (2)一、基本信息课程代码：2020124课程学分：2面向专业：英语课程性质：专业必修课课程类型：理论教学课开课院系：外国语学院英语系使用教材：主教材：1、《美国文学史及选读》（第1册）（第2版），吴伟仁主编，外语教学与研究出版社，2008.2、《美国文学史及选读》（第2册）（第2版），吴伟仁主编，外语教学与研究出版社，2008.参考教材：《美国文学》，左金梅编，中国海洋大学出版社，2006.先修课程：《高级英语》（1）、《英美文学选读》（1）并修课程：《高级英语》（2）后续课程：《高级英语》（3）二、课程简介英美文学选读课程主要从英美两国历史、语言、文化发展的角度，介绍英美两国文学各历史阶段的主要背景，文学文化思潮，文学流派，社会政治、经济、文化等对文学发展的影响，主要作家的文学生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格和思想意义等。

本课程旨在培养英语专业学生理解、掌握英美文学的基本理论知识和鉴赏英美文学原著的能力。

英美文学课程的开设有利于提高学生的语言运用能力、提升学生对文学原著鉴赏的水平，培养学生的文学审美意识，使学生在宏观把握文学课程的知识点的同时，增强语言功底，增强对英美文学原著的理解，特别是对作品中表现的社会生活和人物思想感情的理解，增强他们分析作品的艺术特色的能力、掌握正确评价文学作品的标准和方法，对英美两国文学形成与发展的全貌有一个概括的了解，为以后的研究打下坚实基础。

三、选课建议英美文学选读课程是英语专业高年级学生的必修课程，属于提升拔高课程，其前提是学生应具有扎实的语言基本功、一定的文学知识和初步的科学研究方法。

四、课程与培养学生能力的关联性五、课程学习目标通过本课程的学习，学生应知道英美两国文学的形成与发展过程，熟悉部分西方文化，了解西方主要文学流派和主要文学作家，理解文学的本质与基本特征，掌握文学批评的基本知识和方法。

⼆该时期的重要作家 I. William Blake 1.⼀般识记： His life English poet， artist， & philosopher， born in London England， Nov 28， 1757， and died in London， Aug12，1827. Blake made distinguished contributions to both Literature & art. He ranks with great poets in the English language & may be considered the earliest of the major English Romantic poets. His poems range from lyrics of childlike simplicity to mystical or prophetic works of great complexity. As an artist he is best known for his engravings， which are among the masterpieces of graphic art. 2. 识记 His political， religious & literary views Blake never tried to fit into the world； he was a rebel innocently & completely all his life. He was politically of the permanent left & mixed a good deal with the radicals like Thomas Paine& William Godwin. Like Shelley， Blake strongly criticized the capitalists'' cruel exploitation， saying that the "dark satanic mills left men unemployed， killed children & forced prostitution." Meanwhile he cherished great expectations & enthusiasm for the French Revolution， & regarded it as a necessary stage leading to the millennium predicted by the biblical prophets. Literarily Blake was the first important Romantic poet， showing contempt for the rule of reason， opposing the classical tradition of the 18th century & treasuring the individual''s imagination. 3. 领会 His poems （1） Early works The Songs of Innocence （1809） is a lovely volume of poems， presenting a happy & innocent world， though not without its evils & sufferings. For instance， " Holy Thursday" with its vision of charity children lit " with a radiance all their own" reminds us terribly of a world of loss & institutional cruelty. The wretched child described in " The Chimney Sweeper，" orphaned， exploited， yet touched by visionary rapture， evokes unbearable poignancy when he finally puts his trust in the order of the universe as he knows it. His Songs of Experience （1794） paints a different world， a world of misery，poverty， disease， war & repression with a melancholy tone. The benighted England becomes the world of the dark wood & of the weeping prophet. The orphans of " Holy Thursday" are now "fed with cold & usurious hand." The little chimneysweeper sings "notes of woe" while his parents go to church & praise "God & his Priest & King"——the very instruments of their repression. In "London"， the city is no longer a paradise， but becomes the seat of poverty & despair，of man alienated from his true self. Blake''s Marriageof Heaven & Hell （1790） marks his entry into maturity. The poem was composed during the climax of the French Revolution & it plays the double role both as a satire & a revolutionary prophecy. In this poem， Blake explores the relationship of the contraries. Attraction & repulsion， reason & energy， love & hate，are necessary to human existence. Life is a continual conflict of give & take， a pairing of opposites， of good & evil， of innocence & experience， of body & soul. "Without contraries，" Blake states， "there is no progression." The "marriage，" to Blake， means the reconciliation of the contraries， not the subordination of the one to the other. （2） Later works In his later period， Blake wrote quite a few prophetic books， which reveal him as the prophet of universal political & spiritual freedom and show the poet himself as the spokesman of revolt. The major ones are： The Book ofUrizen（1794），The Book of Los（1795）。

自考《英美文学选读》（美）现代文学时期（2）-22) The Lost GenerationIt refers to，in general，the post-World WarⅠgeneration，but specifically a group of expatriate disillusioned intellectuals and artists，who experimented on new modes of thought and expression by rebelling against former ideals and values and replacing them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. The remark of Gertrude Stein，“You are all a lost generation，“addressed to Hemingway，was used as an epigraph to the latter’s novel The Sun Also Rises，which brilliantly describes those expatriates who had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing. The generation was “lost” in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U.S. that seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial，materialistic，and emotional barren. The term embraces Hemingway，F. Scott Fitzgerald，Ezra Pound，E.E.Cummings，and many other writers who made Paris the center of their literary activities in the 1920s.3) What is Expressionism?Expressionism is used to describe the works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision，transforming nature rather than imitating it. In literature it is often considered a revolt against realism and naturalism，a seeking to achieve a psychological or spiritual reality rather than to record external events.In drama，the expressionist work was characterized by a bizarre distortion of reality. Expressionist writers’s concern was with general truths rather than with particular situations，hence they explored in their plays the predicaments of representative symbolic types rather than of fully developed individualized characters. Emphasis was laid not on the outer world，which is merely sketched in and barely defined in place or time，but on the internal，on an individual’s mental state; hence the imitation of life is replaced in Expressionist drama by the ecstatic evocation of states of mind. In America，Eugene O’Neille’s Emperor Jones，The Hairy Ape，etc. are typical plays that employ Expressionism.4) The concept of “wasteland” in relation to the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literatureThe Waste Land is a poem written by T.S.Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of the contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair of the post-War era has appeared over and again in the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literature. Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the Jazz Age. Beneath the masks of relaxation and joviality，there was only sterility，meaninglessness and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance，there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway，the leading spokesman of the Lost Generation，dramatized in his novels the sense of loss and despair among the post-war generation who are physically and psychologically scarred. Though disillusioned in the post-war period，h e strove to bring about man’s “grace under pressure” and tried to bring out the idea that man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually. William Faulkner exemplified T.S. Eliot’s concept of modern society as a wasteland in a dramatic way. He created his own mythical kingdom that mirrored not only the decline of the Southern society but also the spiritual wasteland of the whole American society. He condemned the mechanized，industrialized society that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decrease those essential human values such as courage，fortitude，honesty and goodness.2. Postwar American literature1) The Beat GenerationAlso called Beat Movement，it is an American social and literary movement originating in the 1950s. Beat Generation writings expressed profound dissatisfaction with contemporary American society and endorsed an alternative set of values. They rejected traditional forms and advocated personal release，purification，and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness.Beat poets sought to liberate poetry from academic preciosity and bring it “back to the streets.” Allen Ginsberg and other major figures of the movement，such as the novelist Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder，advocated a kind of free，unstructured composition in which the writer put down his thoughts and feelings without plan or revision-to convey the immediacy of experience-an approach that led to the production of much undisciplined and incoherent verbiage on the part of their imitators.2) The pluralism of postwar American fiction：American fiction from 1945 onwards is a bigger story than poetry and drama.a. War fiction： A group of new writers who survived the war wrote about their traumatic experience within the military machine and on European and Pacific battlefields，among whom we have Norman Mailer and Herman Wouk.b. Southern literature：Robert Penn Warren and Flannery O’Conner are representatives of the talented Southern writers，who followed Faulkner’s footsteps in portraying the decadence and evil in the Southern society in a Gothic manner.[Nextpage]c. Jewish literature：By the 1950s a significant group of Jewish-American writers had appeared and one of them was Saul Bellow. Their works，drawing on the Jewish experience of suffering and endurance，tradition and the Jewish religion，examined subtly the dismantling of the self by an intolerable modern history. Other iportant Jewish writers include Bernard Malamud，Issac Bashevis Singer，and Philip Roth. Saul Bellow placed emphasis upon the power of intellect. The power to understand their own experience，to judge their lives rationally，to think well，is considered a high virtue. Self-teaching is at the heart of all his novels as his Jewish heroes or anti-heroes seek a rational interpretation of the world through their own experiences in it.d. Black fiction：It began to attract critical attention during this period too. The two major figures are Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison，both of whom captured the wide attention of the white readers by truthfully，openly，and shockingly describing the life of black people as they knew it from their own experience. For the first time in the history of American writings，African writers started to question their identity as a group and as an individual.e. Other important writers who were writing at the time include J.D.Salinger and John Updike. Salinger is considered to be a spokesman for the alienated youth in the post-war era and his The Catcher in the Rye (1951) is regarded as a students’ classic. Updike’s Rabbit novels examine the middle-class values and portray the troubled relationships in people’s private life and their internal decay under the stress of the modern times.f. “new fiction” or Novels of absurdity：American fiction in the 1960s and 1970s proves to be different from its predecessors in that the writers started to depart from the conventions of the novel writing and experimented with some new forms. Hence，it is referred to as “new fiction，”with Kurt Vonnegut，Joseph Heller，John Bath，and Thomas Pynchon at its forefront. Roughly speaking，these writers shared the same belief that human beings are trapped in a meaningless world and that neither God nor man can make sense of the human condition. What’s more，this absurdist vision is integrated with an absurd form，which is characterized by comic exaggerations，ironic uses of parodies，multiple realities，often two-dimensional characters，and a combination of fantastic events with realistic presentations.g. Literature of ethnic groups：More recently American literature is alive with a diversity of interests. Writers from different ethnic and multicultural backgrounds，including women writers，African-Americans，Asian-Americans，and Indian-Americans，are beginning to make their voices heard and they are writing about American experience and consciousness from quite a fresh outlook，hence，bringing vitality to the American literary imagination.3.The literary characteristics of American modern literature：1) Theme：In general terms，much serious literature written from 1912 onwards attempted to convey a vision of social breakdown and mora1 decay and t he writer’s task was to develop techniques that could represent a break with the past. Thus，the defining formal characteristics of the modernistic works are discontinuity and fragmentation.2) Technical experimentation：An awareness of the irrational and the workings of the unconscious mind are pervasive in much modernistic writing. Technically，modernism was marked by a persistent experimentalism. It rejected the traditional framework of narrative，description，and rational exposition in poetry and prose，in favor of a stream of consciousness presentation of personality，a dependence on the poetic image as the essential vehicle of aesthetic communication，and upon myth as a characteristic structural principle.Compared with earlier writings，modern American writings are notable for what they omit ——the explanations，interpretations，connections，and summaries. There are shifts in perspective，voice，and tone，but the biggest shift is from the external to the internal，from the public to the private，from the chronological to the psychic，from the objective description to the subjective projection. Modern American writers in general emphasize the concrete sensory images or details as the direct conveyer of experience. They strive for directness，compression，and vividness and are sparing of words. Modern fiction prefer suggestiveness and tend to employ the first person narration or limit the reader to the “central consciousness” or one character’s point of view. This limitation accorded with the modernistic vision that truth does not exist objectively but is the product of a personal interaction with reality. As a result，the effect of modern American writings is surprising，unsettling。

班扬 John Bunyan A. 作品风格 a. Bunyan's style was modeled after that of the English Bible. b. He used concrete and living language and vivid details. c. He made it possible for the reader of the least education to share the pleasure of reading his novel. B. 代表作 a. The Pilgrim's Progress is the most successful religious allegory in the English language b. Its predominant metaphor- life as a journey- is simple and familiar. 蒲柏 Alexander Pope A. 现实批评观 a. He upheld the existing social system as an ideal one, but he was not entirely blind to the rapid moral, political and cultural deterioration. b. He published The Rape of the Lock and use the mock epic form to retell the cutting of the lock, to ridicule the trivial incident and to satirize the foolish, meaningless life of the lords and ladies in the aristocratic bourgeois society of the eighteenth century England. B. ⽂学观He strongly advocated neoclassicism. C. 代表作品 An Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad,An Essay on Man. The translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The edition of Shakespeare's plays. 笛福 Daniel Defoe A. 主要作品 a. The first novel: Robinson Crusoe. b. four other novels: Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack and Roxana. c. The pseudo-factual account of Great Plague: A Journal the Plague Year. B. 代表作 a. Robinson Crusoe, an adventure story very much in the spirit of the time, is universally considered his masterpiece. b. Robinson is here a real her a typical eighteenth-century English middle-class man. c. He is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. In describing Robinson's life on the island, Defoe glorifies human labor and the Puritan fortitude. 斯威夫特 Jonathan Swift A. 创作: a. The works to establish his name: A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books established his name as a satirist. b. The Drapier's letters He published, under the pseudonym of Drapier, a series of letters. Even today Swift is still respected as a national hero in Ireland. c. The greatest satiric work: He wrote and published his greatest satiric work, Gulliver's Travels. B. 代表作 a. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan's best fictional work. The book contains four parts: His experience in Lilliput, Alone in Brobdingnag, Visit to the Flying Island and Account of his discoveries in the Houyhnhnm land. In structure, the four parts make an organic whole. b. Gulliver gives an account of some aspects of Lilliputian life and obviously alludes to the similar ridiculous practices or tricks of the English government. 费尔丁 Henry Fielding A. 戏剧创作 The best known are The coffee-House Politician, The Tragedy of Tragedies, Pasquin, and The Historical Register for the Year1736. B. ⼩说创作 a. The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his friend Mr. Abraham Adams, the book quickly turns into a great novel of the open road, a "comic epic in prose". b. The History of Jonathan Wild the Great, points out the Great Man is no better than a great gangster. c. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling and The History of Amelia. The former is a masterpiece on the subject of human nature and the latter the story of the unfortunate life of an idealized woman.。