美国文学重点
From the end of the18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War.Started with Washington Irving's
-Walt Whitman,whose
one of the first American writers to earn an international reputation,an early Romantic writer,and Father of the American short stories,“the American Goldsmith”regarded as a writer who “perfected the best classic style that American literature ever produced.”
First novel纽约外史won him wide popularity
→contains German folk tales
It is not only well-known for Rip’s20-year sleep but also considered a model of perfect English in American literature and in the English language as well.
-the spokesman of New England Transcendentalism（超验主义）
movement
READING:excerpt from Nature
Interior(内部)of the heart,‘there is evil in every human heart,which may remain latent,perhaps, through the whole life,but circumstances may rouse it to activity’,so in almost every book, Hawthorne discuss and
READING:Young Goodman Brown小伙子布朗
Openness,freedom,individualism
I-me,my nation(society),Free verse（自由体诗）,Envelope structure（信件结构）,Catalogue (Listing)
A new ideal,a new world,a new life-style
READING;1.There Was a Child Went Forth 2.Cavalry Crossing a Ford 3.Song of Myself
-a master of allegory and symbolism,like Hawthorne
READING:excerpt from Moby-Dick
Ishmael both as a character and a narrator；the captain,Ahab is a monomaniac(狂热者)whose single purpose is to capture the fierce,cunning(狡猾的)white whale,Moby Dick,which had torn away his leg.
Realistic period–“the Gilded(富有的)Age”,the poor poorer and the rich richer,people's attention was now directed to the interesting features of everyday existence
Local colorism,social Darwinism,bestiality,beyond man's control
3dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells(美国现实文学先驱),Mark Twain and Henry James.
?Henry James–“inner world”of man
?Howells–focused on rising middle class
?Mark Twain–his own region and people,particular“local colorism”
?Local colorists–Sarah Orne Jewett,Joseph Kirkland and Hamlin Garland.
-the true father of American literature
Local colorist,vernacular（方言）,simple sentence,wide-ranging humor,both realistically and symbolically,'the damned human race'
Finn>哈克贝里·费恩历险记(for adults)prove themselves to be the in American literature READING;excerpt from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn READING;excerpt from –the first American writer to conceive his career in international theme -the forerunner of the20th-century“stream of consciousness”novel and the founder of psychological realism,interior monologue,free association,his language is not so easy to understand 早期 中期 晚期 Based on her own experiences,her sorrows and joys,“letter to the world”,about religious and immortality（永生）,love,nature 1)her poems have no titles 2)dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence（节奏）and capital letters as a means of emphasis. READING; description of a moment of death Dickinson makes the train part of nature by animalizing it,like a horse. 我爱看它舔食一哩又一哩 因为我不能停步等候死神 -America's literary naturalists Case history including everything Determinism（决定论）(heredity遗传biological& environment),Darwinist idea（达尔文主义）of‘survival of the fittest’,‘the jungle law’（弱肉强食原则） Trilogy of Desire欲望三部曲- After Carrie deserts Hurstwood,he is in great despair.He turns the gas on in a cheap lodging-house and ends his life,while at the same time Carrie is rocking comfortably in her luxuriant hotel room. The modern period-the second American Renaissance,the expatriate(侨民)movement,“the Lost Generation”,a transformation from order to disorder Seize the day,enjoy the present,spiritual wasteland,collective unconscious,psychoanalysis(心理分析) Imagist movement,Jazz Age “the Lost Generation”–Ezra Pound,William Carlos Williams,Robert Frost Two thinkers of this period:German Karl Marx(马克思)and the Austrian Sigmund Freud（弗洛伊德） William James–famous for his theory of“stream of consciousness” E.E.Cummings,always used“i”instead of“I”,protest against self-importance -a leading spokesman of the'Imagist Movement'(意象主义) -3main principles:1)direct treatment of poetic subjects,2)elimination of ornamental words, 3)rhythmical(韵律)composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence of a metronome(节拍器). -He translate some ancient Greek and Chinese works READING;1.In a Station of the Metro 2.The River-Merchant's Wife:A Letter 3.A Pact 盟约agreement with Whitman's free verse -four times awarded Pulitzer Prize,pastoral life and scene. Frost is liked by the Americans because the subject and the landscape of his poems are forever New England and his simplicity never fails to reveal some profound truth. READING;1.After Apple-Picking 2.The Road Not Taken 3.Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening –America’s greatest playwright,‘founder of the American drama’,won the Pulitzer Prize four times and was the only dramatist ever to win a Nobel Prize. READING;excerpt from The Hairy Ape -spokesman of the Jazz Age,‘Dollar Decade’,1920s A double vision of the Jazz Age,both an insider and an outsider American Dream He shows a particular interest in the upper-class society,especially young people. READING;excerpt from The Great Gatsby了不起的盖茨比 Gatsby is a mythical figure whose intensity of dream partakes of a state of mind that embodies America itself;he is the last of the romantic heroes -awarded the Nobel Prize ’Iceberg style’,‘Code hero’,‘grace under pressure’重压下的风度, The use of short,simple and conventional word 永别了,武器about the tragic love affair of a wounded American soldier with a British nurse. -awarded a Nobel Prize American South,Yoknapatawpha Country,imprisonment in the past Stream of consciousness,multiple points of view,内心独白,时序颠倒 READING;excerpt from A Rose for Emily New England Transcendentalism: Philosophically, Transcendentalism means the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses. New England Transcendentalism stress the importance of the Over-soul, the Individual and Nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is enabling and the individual is divine and therefore, self-reliant. The leading figure of New England Transcendentalism is Emerson and Thoreau. American Romanticism: It is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature that stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. Being a period of the great flowering of American literat ure, it is also called “the American Renaissance.” American romantic works emphasize the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature. Romanticists include such literary figures as Washington Irving, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and some others. Free Verse: Poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme American Puritanism: The first settlers who came to America wer e called “Puritans”, so named after because they wished to “purify” the religious practice in the church. They established their own religious and moral principles as American Puritanism, which stressed predestination, original sin, total depravity, and li mited atonement from God’s grace. American Puritanism is one of the enduring influences in American thought and American literature. American Puritanism was greatly influenced by Calvinism. Symbolism: Symbolism is the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships. American Literature: Literature refers to body of work which for whatever reason deserves to be preserved as part of the reproduction of meaning within a given culture. It mainly includes novel, drama, poetry, short stories, biography and some other forms. American Literature refers to literature written by Americans in English. Epic A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down. Analysis "To a Waterfowl" is written in iambic trimeter and iambic pentameter, consisting of eight stanzas of four lines. The poem represents early stages of American Romanticism through celebration of Nature and God's presence within Nature. Bryant is acknowledged as skillful at depicting American scenery but his natural details are often combined with a universal moral, as in "To a Waterfowl" Figures of speech alliteration metaphor anaphora personification: Part I The Literature of Colonial America I．Historical Introduction The colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.) II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds: 1) Practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people "at home" what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration 2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. III．The First American Writer The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians. Captain John Smith is the first American writer. A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608) A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612) General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess Pocahontas Captain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers. One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV．Early New England Literature William Bradford and John Winthrop John Cotton and Roger Williams Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor V．Puritan Thoughts 1. The origin of puritan In the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church of 第13章美国犹太作家 Ⅰ.Fill in the blanks. Saul Bellow’s first novel was_____written in1944. 【答案】Dangling man 【解析】索尔·贝娄的第一部长篇小说《晃来晃去的人》（Dangling man）1944年问世。 Ⅱ.Multiple Choice 1.Which of the following is NOT a southern writer in the USA? A.Saul Bellow B.Tennessee Williams C.Eudora Welty D.Flannery O’Connor 【答案】A 【解析】索尔·贝娄是著名的犹太作家，他出生于加拿大，在芝加哥长大，因而不是南方作家。 2.Which of the following is NOT a Jewish Nobel Prize writer? A.Saul Bellow B.Joseph Brodsky C.Isaac Bashevis Singer D.Ralph Waldo Ellison 【答案】D 【解析】索尔·贝娄、艾萨克·巴什维斯·辛格和约瑟夫·布罗茨基均为著名的美国犹太作家，曾获得诺贝尔文学奖。拉尔夫·华尔多·埃利森为非裔美国作家，其代表作为《看不到的人》。 Ⅲ.Explain the following term. Modernism Key:It’s a general term applied to the wide range of experimental and avant-garde trends in literature of the early20th century,including Symbolism, Futurism,Expressionism,Imagism,Vorticism,Dada,and Surrealism.Modernist literature is characterized chiefly by a rejection of19th century traditions:the conventions of realism,for instance,were abandoned by Franz Kafka and other novelists,and by expressionist drama,while several poets rejected traditional meters in favor of free verse.Modernist writers tended to see themselves as an avant-garde disengaged from bourgeois values,and disturbed their readers by adopting complex and difficult new forms and styles.In fiction,the accepted continuity of chronological development was upset by Joseph Conrad,and William Faulkner,while James Joyce and Virginia Woolf attempted new ways of tracing the flow of characters’thoughts in their stream-of-consciousness styles.In poetry, Ezra Pound and T.S.Eliot replaced the logical exposition of thoughts with collages of fragmentary images and complex allusions.Modernist writing is predominantly cosmopolitan,and often expresses a sense of urban cultural dislocation,along with an awareness of new anthropological and psychological theories.Its favored 湖州师范学院外国语学院2008— 2009学年第二学期 《美国文学》期末考试试卷（A卷）答案暨评分标准 I. Write the names of the authors. (10%) ①Walt Whitman ②Edgar Allen Poe ③Wallace Stevens ④Franklin Norris ⑤Stephen Crane ⑥William Faulkner ⑦Sinclair Lewis ⑧John Steinbeck ⑨Langston Hughes ⑩Tennessee Williams II. Fill in the following blanks with appropriate information.（10%） ①New England ②Regionalism or Local color writing ③semi-autobiographical ④anti-realism ⑤Imagist ⑥Santiago ⑦multiple narrations or points of view ⑧1930 ⑨Harlem Renaissance ⑩Eugene O’Neill III. Choose only one answer form the four choices as the most appropriate answer. （20%） 1－5. A D C B B 6－10. D B E B A IV. Identify the author and the title of the work from which each of the following excerpts is taken. And then answer the question after each excerpt. (20%) Passage 1 the author: Walt Whitman (1%) the title of the work : Songs of Myself (1%) Question: What is the poet celebrating? (2%) The poet is celebrating individualism and nationalism, singing of all those people who form the American nationality. Introduction 1. The Youngest National Literature 1781 (Independence War) --- 2012= about 200 years 2. Great achievement: 1930-1980, nine American writers won the Nobel Prize The Periods of American Literature 1.The colonial period (约1607 - 1765) 2. The period of enlightenment and Independence War (1765-1800) 3. The romantic period (1800 - 1865) 4. The realistic period (1865 - 1914) 5. The period of modernism (1914 - 1945) 6. The Contemporary Literature (1945 -) Chapter I Colonial America American Puritanism 1. The beliefs and practices characteristic of Puritans(most of whom were Calvinists who wished to purify the Church of England of its Catholic aspects) 2. Strictness and austerity in conduct and religion Puritans‘ religio us belief: Calvinism ◆John Calvin, the great French theologian. The principal concepts: 1) Original sin and total depravity. 2) Predestination 3) Salvation of selected few ◆ The Puritans carried with them to America a code of values, a philosophy of life, and a point of view, which, in time, took root in the New world and became what is known as American Puritanism. (p11) The Influence of Puritanism on American Literature 1) Idealism（optimism） 2) Symbolism 3) Simplicity in writing Significance of Puritanism With time passing it became a dominant factor in American life, one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American Literature. To some extent it is a state of mind, a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes, rather than a set of tenets. Time: From the arrival of the first settlers in the early 17th century to the end of the 18th century Literary Features 1. Forms Personal literature in various forms --- diaries, histories, common books (札记)，journals, letters, travel books, sermons etc. 2. Content 1) practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people ―at home‖ what life was like in the new world 2) highly theoretical discussions of religious questions. 3. Style In Style, English literary traditions were imitated and transplanted. Early writers in the colonial period John Smith, a captain, one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia; the writer of A Description of New England. William Bradford, the first governor of the Plymouth Plantation, his writing: Of Plymouth Plantation (P16) John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, In his famous speech A Model of Christian Charity ,he states that there was a agreement between God and his people of building a new Garden of Eden in the new world. (P17) Therefore let us choose life, 所以，让我们选择生活， that we and our seed 这样，我们和我们的后代， may live by obeying His 可以听从上帝的声音， voice and cleaving to Him, 须臾不离上帝， for He is our life and 因为，上帝是我们的生命， our prosperity. 我们的兴旺 1 1、The Colonial Period（1607-1765） American Puritanism ( in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th) 北美第一位女诗人Anne Bradstreet(宗教气息，夫妻恩爱) Edward Taylor 都受英国玄学派影响（metaphysical） 2、The Enlightenment and Revolution Period Benjamin Franklin:Poor Richard's Almanac The Autobiography---“美国梦”的根源 3、American Romanticism（end of 18th to the civil war） American writers emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature. 早期浪漫主义Washington Irving father of American Literature 大四美国文学期末考试题型及例题： 1.选择/对错60分（40道选择，20个对错） 2.名词解释10分（5个） 3.选段配对10分（5个） 4.问答20分（10/2） 1．历史：Father / poetess… 2. 名作家：Hemingway, Faulkner, Poe, Hawthorne, Emerson 3．作品：The W asteland/Moby Dick/Scarlet Letter 1.a)选择题（40个，40分） 1. At the age of reason and revolution, Americans were influenced by the European movement called the ________. A. Chartist Movement B. Romanticist Movement C. Enlightenment Movement D. Modernist Movement 2. Which is NOT connected to Benjamin Franklin? ________ A. He was born in a poor family. B. He was a pious puritan. C. He was phrased as “Jack of all trades”. D. He was a master of diplomacy. 3. Ernest Hemingway is noted for the following EXCEPT ________. A. Lost Generation B. Iceberg theory C. American Dream D. Code Heroes 4. Which character is NOT from The Scarlet Letter? ________ A. Hester Prynne B. Roger Chillingworth C. Captain Ahab D. Pearl 5. Jack London’s semi-biographical novel ________well presents the disillusionment of American Dream. A. The American Tragedy B. The Call of the Wild C. Martin Eden D. The Grapes of Wrath b)判断对错题（20个，20分） 1. Poe’s masterpiece “To Helen” is written to memorize his deceased wife. (F) 2. The tone of “Annabel Lee” is optimistic and hopeful. (F) 3. Mark Twain's novel Jumping Frog was an artistic failure, but it gave its name to the America of the postbellum period which it attempts to satirize. (F) 4. Sister Carrie ended up in tragedy because she could not control her fate. (F) 学习资料收集于网络，仅供参考 1. 2. 6.Transcendentalism: is literature，philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about 1836 to1860. It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reaching against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church, their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world instead. Transcendentalism derived some of its basic idealistic concepts from romantic German philosophy, and from such English authors as Carlyle，Coleridge, and Wordsworth. The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in such essays as Nature and Self-Reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden. .Symbolism象征主义：It is the writing technique of using symbols. It's a literary movement that arose in France in the last half of the 19th century and that greatly influenced many English writer, particularly poets, of the 20th century. It enables poets to compress a very complex idea or set of ideas into one image or even one word. It's one of the most powerful devices that poets employ in creation. 8.American naturalism：this term was created by Emile Zola. Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory played an important role in naturalism. In the works off naturalism，characters were conceived as complex combinations of inherited attributes and habits conditioned by social and economic forces. At th century，the end of the 19this pessimistic form of realism appeared in america. Naturalism attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness. Characters in the works of naturalism were dominated by their environment and heredity. Naturalism emphasized：the world was around；men had no free will；religious“truth”were illusory；the destiny of human beings was misery in life and oblivion in death. The dominant figures in naturalism were Stephen crane，Frank Norris, Jack London and Theodore Dreiser. 3.The lost generation: included the young English and American expatriates as well 美国文学研究 一、作者及其主要作品 梭罗《瓦尔登，或林中生活》 霍桑《红字》短篇小说如《教长的黑面纱》《小伙子布朗》等 麦尔维尔《白鲸》 爱伦·坡《怪诞故事集》 惠特曼《草叶集》 亨利·詹姆斯《一位女士的画像》 马克·吐温《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》《神秘的陌生人》 德莱塞《美国的悲剧》 杰克·伦敦《马丁·伊登》、《野性的呼唤》、《海狼》、《白牙》 T·S·艾略特《荒原》（诗歌） 菲茨杰拉德《了不起的盖茨比》 海明威《太阳照常升起》 福克纳《喧哗与骚动》 尤今·奥尼尔《毛猿》《琼斯皇》《进入黑夜的漫长旅程》（戏剧）斯坦贝克《愤怒的葡萄》 索尔·贝娄《洪堡的礼物》、《挂起来的人》 诺曼·梅勒《裸者与死者》 塞林格《麦田里的守望者》 厄普代克《兔子，跑吧》（“兔子四部曲”） 海勒《第二十二条军规》 纳博科夫《洛丽塔》 凯鲁亚克《在路上》 威廉斯《玻璃动物园》（戏剧） 米勒《推销员之死》（戏剧） 拉尔夫·埃里森《看不见的人》 托尼·莫里森《所罗门之歌》 爱丽丝·沃克《紫色》 谭恩美《喜福会》 独立战争前后的文学 富兰克林《自传》《穷查理历书》《致富之路》 托马斯·潘恩《常识》《人的权利》《理性的时代》 托马斯·杰弗逊《独立宣言》 克里夫古尔《一个美国农夫的信》 弗瑞诺《野忍冬花》《印第安人墓地》《纪念英勇的美国人》 查尔斯·布罗克丹·布朗《韦兰德》 二、简答题+论述题 1.美国文学的诞生及一般特色 1)历史背景：1775-81年的北美独立战争；1783年美利坚合众国的成 立；1861-65年的南北战争。独立战争以后，特别是进入19世纪之 后，独立的美国文学开始诞生。 2)美国文学的一般特色： A.早期人少地多，为个人理想的实现提供了很大的空间和可能性， 因此美国文学富于民主自由精神，个人主义、个性解放的观念 较为强烈； B.这是一个由各国移民组成的国家，所以文学的内容、思想倾向和 艺术风格都呈现出多样性、庞杂性； C.许多作家直接来自社会下层，使得文学的生活气息浓郁，平民色 彩鲜明，具有开朗、豪放的特点； D.由于美国作家的敏感、好奇，使得美国文学浪潮迭起，日新月异， 瞬息万变。 3)它是一种个人主义和冒险精神的文学，一种扩张和探索的文学，一 种种族冲突和帝国征服的文学，一种大规模移民和种族关系紧张的 文学，一种资产阶级家庭生活和个人自由与社会限制不断斗争的文 学······最后，这是一种始终由于有关身份的双重焦点而著称的文 学：一方面它把这个国家奉为未来的土地，“明天之国”，试图制造 一种关于“美国”的救世神话；另一方面它又进行自我折磨，对于 身为“美国人”意味着什么怀着一种极其痛苦的焦虑。 ——《剑桥美国文学史》2.浪漫主义时期的美国文学 1)浪漫主义产生的背景： A.独立战争的胜利、美国的独立发展 B.欧洲浪漫主义运动的盛行 C.美国大陆新的自然和社会风貌 2)前后两代浪漫主义： 前期：以纽约为根据地的作家，如欧文、库柏 后期：以波士顿为中心的新英格兰文化圈 3.早期浪漫主义文学（30年代以前）美国文学重点的名词解释
美国文学史-知识点梳理
吴定柏《美国文学大纲》(第2版)(章节题库 美国犹太作家)【圣才出品】
《美国文学》期末考试试卷(A卷)答案
常耀信美国文学知识点
美国文学选读期末考试重点
大四美国文学期末考试题型及例题
美国文学重点名词解释
美国文学史考点整理
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