Puritanism:the settlement of North American continent by English started in the early 17th century. Under siege from church and crown, it sent an offshoot in the third and fourth decades of the seventeenth century to the northern English colonies in the New World—a migration that laid the foundation for the religious, intellectual, and social order of New England. Puritanism, however was not only a historically specific phenomenon coincident with the founding of New Zealand; it was also a way of being in the world—a style of response to lived experience—that has reverberated through American life ever since. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind. American Puritanism also had a enduring influence on American literature.
Romanticism ：The Romantic Period stretches from the end of the 18th \century through the outbreak of the Civil War.
Romanticism was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. (subjectivity)
For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense.
They emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group, against authority.
They affirmed the inner life of the self, and wanted to be free to develop and express his own inner thoughts.
Transcendentalism:In the realm of art and literature it meant the shattering of pseudo-classic rules and forms in favor of a spirit of freedom, the creation of works filled with the new passion for nature and common humanity and incarnating a fresh sense of the wonder, promise, and romance of life.
Transcendentalism
①The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the oversoul , as the most important thing in the universe.
②The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual is the most important element of Society.
③ The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence.
Realism
As a literary movement, the Age of Realism came into existence after Romanticism with th e Civil War It was a reaction against “the lie” of Romanticism and sentimentalism, and paved the way to Modernism. This literary interest in the so-called “reality” of life started a new period in the American literary writing known as The Age of Realism.
Psychological Realism
It is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities of characters’ thoughts and motivations. And Henry James is considered the founder of psychological realism. He believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator, and not in any facts of which the spectator is unaware. Such realism is therefore merely the obligation that the artist assumes to represent life as he sees it.
Local colorism: local colorism is a type of writing that was popular in the late 19th(1860s—1870s). The feature of local colorism are: (1) presenting a locale distinguished from the outside world; (2)describing the exotic of the picturesque;
(3)glorifying the past; (4) showing things as they are; (5) influence of setting o n characters.
Black humor: the term black humor was created in 1920s, but it was not noticed until 1960s. it was particularly a literary phenomenon in America after WWⅡ. Black humor, in literature, is drama, novel, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic face. Josegh Heller and Kury V onnegut are famous for their novels of black humor. Especially Heller’s Catch—22.
The novels of such writers as Kurt V onnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth contain elements of black humor.
Naturalism: The American naturalists accepted the more negative interpretation of Darwin’s evolutionary theory and used it to accout for the behavior of those characters in literary works who were regarded as more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.2) naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a gloomy philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence.3>Dreiser with his Sister Carrie is a leading figure of his school.
Imagism:A poetic movement of England and the U.S. that flourished from 1909 to 1917. The movement insists on the cre ation of images in poetry by “the direct treatment of the thing” and the economy of wording. “poetic techniques to record exactly the momentary impressions”
Three main principles of the Imagist Movement (1912) :
[1] direct treatment of poetic subjects [2] elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words, to use no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
[3] rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence o f a metronome. 4> pound’s In a Station of the Metro is a well-known poem.
Harlem Renaissance：Harlem Renaissance refers to a period of outstanding literary vigor and creativity that occurred in the United states during the 1920s.2> the Harlem Renaissance changed the images of literature created by many black and white American writers. New black images were no longer obedient and docile. Instead they showed a new confidence and racial pride. 3> the center of this movement was the vast black ghetto of Harlem. In New Y ork City.4> the leading figures are langston Hughes, James W.Johnson.etc
主要作品：The Weary Blues, The Dream keeper and Other Poems, Fine Clothes to the Jew
The Modern Period
Part I The 1920s-1930s ( the second renaissance of American literature)
l The Roaring Twenties (economically)
l The Jazz Age (socially)
l “lost” and “waste land” (spiritually)
There had been a big flush of new theories and new ideas in both social and natural sciences.
Darwinism(Darwin), Socialism (Karl Marx), Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud)
Lost generation:The lost generation is a term first used by Stein to describe the post-war I generation of American writers: men and women haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness brought about by the destructiveness of the war.2>full of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date.3>the three best-known representatives of lost generation are F.Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway and John dos Passos.
The Beat Generation:The Beat Generation is a group of American young writers and artists popular in the 1950s and early 1960s. the member of the beat generation were new bohemian libertines, who engaged in a spontaneous, sometimes messy, creativity. The beat writers produced a body of written work controversial both for its advocacy of non conformity and for its non conforming style. The major writing are jack Kerouac’s on the road and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl.
American Dream
The is the idea held by many in the United States that through hard work, courage and determination one could achieve prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations.
The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America. Allegory is a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor. Allegories are written in the form of fables, parables, poems, stories, and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has characters, a setting, as well as other types of symbols, that have both literal and figurative meanings. One well-known example of an allegory is Dante’s The Divine Comedy.In Inferno, Dante is on a pilgrimage to try to understand his own life, but his character also represents every man who is in search of his purpose in the world.
Alliteration is a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds. The repetition can be located at the beginning of successive words or inside the words. Poets often use alliteration to audibly represent the action that is taking place.
Aside is an actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage. An aside is usually used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking. Asides are important because they increase an audience's involvement in a play by giving them vital information pertaining what is happening, both inside of a character's mind and in the plot of the play.
Gothic is a literary style popular during the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. This style usually portrayed fantastic tales dealing with horror, despair, the grotesque and other “dark” subjects. Gothic literature was named for the apparent influence of the dark gothic architecture of the period on the genre. Also, many of these Gothic tales took places in such “gothic” surroundings. Other times, this story of darkness may occur in a more everyday setting, such as the quaint house where the man goes mad from the "beating" of his guilt in Edgar Allan Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart.”In essence, these stories were romances, largely due to their love of the imaginary over the logical, and were told from many different points of view.
Catharsis is an emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety. According to Aristotle, catharsis is the marking feature and ultimate end of any tragic artistic work.
imagery: A common term of variable meaning, imagery includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature. It signifies all the sensory perceptions referred to in a poem, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor. Surrealism is an artistic movement doing away with the restrictions of realism and verisimilitude that might be imposed on an artist. In this movement, the artist sought to do away with conscious control and instead respond to the irrational urges of the subconscious mind. From this results the hallucinatory, bizarre, often nightmarish quality of surrealistic paintings and writings. Sample surrealist writers include Frank O'Hara, John Ashberry, and Franz Kafka.
Puritanism
American Puritanism was practice and belief of Puritans. Puritans were the people who wanted to purify the Church of England and then were persecuted in England. They came to America for various reasons. But because they were a group of serious and religious people, they carried a code of value and a philosophy of life. To them, religion was the most important thing. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin, total depravity and limited atonement for God’s grace. They also believed in hard working, piety and sobriety. In a word, American Puritanism exerted great influences upon American thought and literature.
第9章地方色彩小说?马克?吐温 9.1复习笔记 I.Local Colorism（地方色彩主义） The vogue of local color fiction was the outgrowth of historical and aesthetic forces that had been gathering energy since early19th century.Local colorism as a literary trend first made its presence felt in the late1860s and early seventies.It is a variation of American literary realism. Local colorists were consciously nostalgic historians of a vanishing way of life,recorders of a present that faded before their eyes.They concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions.They tended to idealize and glorify,but they never forgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life.Major local colorists are Bret Harte,Hanlin Garland, Harriet Beecher Stowe,Kate Chopin and Mark Twain. 地方色彩小说的流行是自19世纪早期以来历史和艺术力量凝聚的产物。作为一种文学潮流，地方色彩主义在19世纪60年代晚期和70年代早期初展头角。它是美国现实主义文学的一个分支。 地方色彩主义作家是怀念正在消逝的生活方式的历史家，他们记录了在他们眼前逝去的现在。他们致力于展示描述自己地方的特色，倾向于赞颂地方生活并将其理想化，但是他们又注意不失地方生活的真实色彩。主要的地方色彩主义作家包括布莱特·哈特、汉林·加兰德、哈里耶特·比彻·斯托、凯特·肖邦及马克·吐温等。 II.Mark Twain(1835-1910)（马克·吐温） 1.Life（生平） Mark Twain,pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens,is a great literary giant of America. He was brought up in the small town of Hannibal,Missouri,on the Mississippi River.He was twelve when his father died and he had to leave school.He was successively a printer’s apprentice,a tramp printer,a silver miner,a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi,and a frontier journalist in Nevada and California.This knocking about gave him wide knowledge of humanity. With the publication of his frontier tale,he became nationally famous.His first novel The Gilded Age was an artistic failure,but it gave its name to the American of the post-bellum period.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was his masterwork.Mark Twain was essentially an affirmative writer.But toward the latter part of his life,due to some tragic events,he changed to an almost
多余人 “多余人”是19世纪俄国文学中贵族知识分子的一种典型。这些形象大多具有较高的文化修养，接受启蒙思想的影响，厌倦上流社会的生活，渴望有所作为，他们的出现是社会意识觉醒的一种体现。但是这一类形象往往以自我为中心，没有明确的生活目标，缺乏行动的能力和勇气，因此在社会上无所适从，结局是悲剧性的。普希金笔下的奥涅金成为俄国文学史上第一个“多余人”的形象，莱蒙托夫笔下的毕巧林，屠格涅夫笔下的罗亭，冈察洛夫笔下的奥勃洛摩夫等人都属于这一类典型。 小人物 19世纪俄罗斯文学中由普希金开创的一类艺术形象。他们在社会中官阶卑微，地位低下，生活贫苦，但又逆来顺受，安分守已，性格懦弱，胆小怕事，成为显赫的大人物治下被侮辱、被损害的牺牲者。普希金以其短篇小说《驿站长》开了俄国文学中描写“小人物”的先河。随后，果戈理、陀思妥耶夫斯基、契诃夫等，都在自己的创作中塑造了“小人物”形象。 批判现实主义 批判现实主义是19世纪30年代在法国出现，后在19世纪中后期和20世纪初期的欧美具有极大影响的一种文学思潮。批判现实主义文学突出特点就是真实和广阔地反映社会生活，深刻地揭露现实矛盾和批判社会罪恶；同情社会下层的小人物，反映他们的悲惨命运和内心痛苦；塑造典型环境中的典型人物，并注意细节的真实。但不少作家以抽象的人道主义为出发点来批判黑暗现实，难以找到准确变革社会的道路。批判现实主义文学取得了很高的成就，各种文学体裁均有佳作，其中尤以长篇小说为最。优秀作家众多，如巴尔扎克、托尔斯泰、易卜生等。 自然派 是俄国19世纪40-50年代形成的现实主义文学流派的别称，奠基人是果戈理，名称由别林斯基提出；自然派的特点是，真实地反映现实生活，批判黑暗腐朽的专制农奴制，描写下层小人物的不幸命运，具有民主主义和人道主义倾向；果戈理是当时现实主义文学的盟主，自他以后的一系列现实主义作家屠格涅夫、赫尔岑、冈察洛夫、涅克拉索夫等都是自然派作家。 新人 “新人”指的是19世纪中叶在俄国文学中出现的具有民主主义思想倾向的平民知识分子形象。这些形象尽管个性相异，但大多出身平民，具有坚定的意志、明确的理想，以及实干精神和自我牺牲精神。屠格涅夫在小说《前夜》中最早塑造出了“新人”英沙洛夫的形象，但车尔尼雪夫斯基小说《怎么办？》中的“新人”罗普霍夫等形象则更为典型。 “含泪的笑” 果戈理独特的艺术手法。他认为艺术家不仅应当真实地反映生活，而且应当对生活进行审判，即“通过世界上人们看得见的笑容和人们看不见的、不知道的眼泪来观察生活。”正是这种“笑声”和“眼泪”的交集、喜剧和悲剧的结合，加强了果戈理讽刺艺术的揭露和抬批判力量。 《人间喜剧》 《人间喜剧》是巴尔扎克主要创作的总称，内分风俗研究、哲学研究和分析研究三大类。
第3章美国浪漫主义欧文库柏 3.1 复习笔记 I. Overview of American Romanticism（美国浪漫主义简介） In the history of American literature, the Romantic period is one of the most important periods. It stretched from the end of the eighteenth century through the outbreak of the civil war. 美国文学中的浪漫主义时期开始于18世纪末，到南北战争爆发为止，是美国文学史上的重要阶段。 1. Background（背景） (1) A nation bursting into new life cried for literary expression. The buoyant mood of the nation and the spirit of the times seemed in some measure responsible for the spectacular outburst of romantic feeling. The literary milieu proved fertile and conductive to the imagination. Magazine appeared in ever-increasing numbers. They played an important role in facilitating literary expansion. (2) Foreign influences added incentive to the growth of romanticism. The Romantic Movement, which had flourished earlier in the century both in England
1、人物再现法 它是巴尔扎克在《人间喜剧》中所运用的艺术手法，他通过顺叙、倒叙、对比、侧写等再现方式，让同一个人物在不同的作品中反复出现。《人间喜剧》中的再现人物共有400多个，散见在75部作品之中。这样前后呼应，相互联系，既将数量庞大的作品联结组合成一个统一的整体，同时又刻画出了人物性格发展的全过程。 2、社会问题剧 1868—1891年，挪威剧作家易卜生用散文写了9部以社会和家庭问题为内容的现实主义戏剧；这些剧本分两类：一类处理社会政治问题，如《青年同盟》、《社会支柱》等；一类处理婚姻家庭问题，如《玩偶之家》等；这些作品大胆揭露资产阶级道德的堕落、婚姻的不合理、家庭生活的虚伪、思想的庸俗偏狭及资产阶级民主政治的破产；“社会问题剧”以其丰富的社会内容和高度的艺术技巧震动了西方舞台，引起一场戏剧革命。 3、自然派 是俄国19世纪40－50年代形成的现实主义文学流派的别称，奠基人是果戈理，名称由别林斯基提出；自然派的特点是，真实地反映现实生活，批判黑暗腐朽的专制农奴制，描写下层小人物的不幸命运，具有民主主义和人道主义倾向；果戈理是当时现实主义文学的盟主，自他以后的一系列现实主义作家屠格涅夫、赫尔岑、冈察洛夫、涅克拉索夫等都是自然派作家。 4、多余人 19 世纪30年代以后俄国文学史中出现的一类贵族青年典型；他们受过启蒙思想的影响，不满现实，但贵族生活方式使他们缺乏明确的目标，最终一事无成。成为“永远不会站在政府方面”，同时也“永远不能够站到人民方面”的“多余人”；普希金笔下的奥涅金成为俄国文学史上第一个“多余人”的形象，莱蒙托夫笔下的毕巧林，屠格涅夫笔下的罗亭，冈察洛夫笔下的奥勃洛摩夫等人都属于这一类典型。 5、托尔斯泰主义 是托尔斯泰晚年提出的所谓拯救俄国人民和人类的政治和道德主张；它的基本内容是“勿以暴力抗恶”、“道德自我完善”和“博爱”，其核心是“不以暴力抗恶”。托尔斯泰主义是空想的，客观上有麻醉人民、阻碍革命发展的消极作用，但作为资产阶级革命快要到来时人民思想和情绪的表现者，托尔斯泰的出发点是伟大的。 6、冰山原则
美国文学作者作品 Edwards: 爱德华兹 The Freedom of the Will 《论意志自由》 Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended 《论原罪》 The Nature of True Virtue 《论真实德行的本原》 名篇：Personal Narrative 《自述》 Sinners in the hands of an Angry God 《愤怒上帝手中之罪》 Benjamin Franklin:本杰明·富兰克林 Poor Richard’s Almanac《穷理查德年历》Autobiography 《自传》 Washington Irving:华盛顿·欧文 A History of New York《纽约外传》The Sketch Book 《见文札记》名篇：Rip Van Winkle《瑞普·温·凡克尔》 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 《睡谷传奇》 James Fenimore Cooper:詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库柏Leatherstocking Tales 《皮袜子故事集》 The Pioneer 《拓荒者》The Prairie 《大草原》 The Last of Mohicans《最后的莫希干人》 The Pathfinder《探路人》The Deerslayer 《猎鹿者》
Ralph Waldo Emerson:拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生 Nature 《论自然》Self-Reliance 《论自立》Essays 《随笔集》名篇：The American Scholar 《美国学者》（has been regarded as “American Declaration of Intellectual Independence”被誉为美国思想的独立宣言） The Poet Henry David Thoreau:亨利·戴维·梭罗 Walden 《瓦尔登湖》 Nathaniel Hawthorne:纳撒尼尔·霍桑 The Scarlet Letter《红字》 The House of the Seven Gables 《七个尖角阁的房子》 Mosses from an Old Manse《古厦青苔》 The Blithedale Romance《福谷传奇》 The Marble Faun 《玉石神像》 Ethan Brand 《伊桑布兰德》 Young Goodman Brown 《好小伙子布朗》 Dr. Heidggeger’s Experiment 《海德格博士的体验》 The Ambitions Guest 《野心勃勃的客人》 The Greast Stone Face 《巨石脸》
第19章美国戏剧 19.1 复习笔记 I. Overview of American drama（美国戏剧概述） American drama began in 1916 when the Provincetown Players produced Eugene O’Neil’s first play, Bound East for Cardiff. It is true that there were no great masters in the theater comparable in stature to such major figures in fiction as Melville or James, but there had been people who did spadework for the rise of American drama in the 1920s. There was a renaissance of drama in the 1920s. American drama began the process of developing itself into a department of American literature equal in significance to both poetry and the novel. The theater of the Depression was not depressing. Like other branches of literature the drama was preoccupied with social concern. The staging of Tennessee Williams’The Glass Menagerie on Broadway in 1945 was an even of unusual significance, as it marked American drama’s coming of age. The late fifties saw a temporary decline in dramatic productions, but in the next decade, American drama picked up a good deal of fresh energy. With the passage of time there has appeared the increasingly more obvious tendency to “decentralize”from Broadway with more and more plays stages Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway. And from the end of the sixties.
名词解释 1荷马史诗： 相传是公元前9至前8世纪由一个名叫荷马的盲诗人根据小亚细亚口头流传的史诗短歌综合编成的，因而被称为荷马史诗。 荷马史诗包括《伊利亚特》和《奥德塞》两部分，各有24卷，均以特洛依战争为背景。《伊利亚特》写战争本身，描写阿喀琉斯的愤怒及战争最后51天内发生的事件；《奥德塞》写希腊英雄奥德修斯在战争结束后回返家乡的经历。 荷马史诗的主题是歌颂希腊全民族的光荣史迹，赞美勇敢、正义、无私、勤劳等善良品德，讴歌克服一切困难的乐观主义精神，肯定人与生活的价值。荷马史诗充满了浓厚的宿命论思想，人与人之间的斗争成为神与神之间斗争的缩影。荷马史诗塑造了一系列的英雄人物，结构巧妙，布局完整，比喻丰富。它不仅是欧洲文学史上最早的优秀作品，也是研究希腊早期社会的重要文献。 2英雄史诗： 又叫英雄叙事诗，是在民间长期口口相传，以歌颂民族英雄为内容的人民文学，是中世纪欧洲文学的重要成就。根据史诗形成的时间和表现内容，可分为早期英雄史诗和后期英雄史诗。 前期英雄史诗形成于中世纪初期，具有较浓的神魔色彩和巫术气氛，著名的有《贝奥武甫》、《埃达》等，歌颂部落英雄的光荣事迹。后期英雄史诗形成于封建国家逐渐形成的中世纪中期，中心主题是爱国主义和英雄主义。主要作品有法国的《罗兰之歌》，西斑牙的《熙德之歌》，德国的《尼伯龙根之歌》，俄国斯的《伊戈尔远征记》。 3《工作与时日》： 古希腊流传下来的第一首以现实生活为题材的诗作，作者是赫希俄德，较详细地记载了古希腊时期的种种宗教祭日赫从事不同工作时的黄道吉日。诗人最后总结说，在不朽的众神面前，聪明人的工作是无可指责的，因为他懂得吉兆，所以能够避免犯罪。该作具有史诗的体裁，但实际上可以说一部道德格言集和农业历书。风格清新自然，平易简洁。 4《俄狄浦斯王》： 是古希腊悲剧家索福克勒斯的代表作。取材于英雄传说，写忒拜王子俄狄浦斯反抗杀父娶母的神示，然而又逃不出命运支配的故事。悲剧从传说故事将近结尾的地方写起，当时俄狄浦斯已是忒拜国王，时值瘟疫流行，按照神示，只有追查出杀死先王的凶手，才能免除瘟疫，挽救忒拜城。全剧以此为起点，在追查凶手的过程中展示了悲剧主人公的思想性格。当俄狄浦斯查明凶手就是自己时，他刺瞎双眼，自愿放逐。通过俄狄浦斯的遭遇，作者颂扬了悲剧主人公的坚强意志和人民对国家的负责精神。这样一个英雄却受着命运的捉弄，这样，索福克勒斯对命运的合理性提出了怀疑，表现了雅典自由民在社会灾难面前的斗争精神和悲愤情绪。以此作品为代表的索福克勒斯的悲剧艺术，标志者希腊悲剧的成熟。索福克勒斯把人物放在尖锐的冲突中并通过人物对比方法来塑造，因而人物的动作性强，性格比较突出。 5阿里斯托芬： 被誉为“喜剧之父”。他留下的完整剧本有11部，代表作为《阿卡奈人》，他的喜剧涉及当时许多重大的政治和社会问题，对战争与和平问题尤其关心。其
American Puritanism: Puritanism was a religious reform movement that arose within the Church of England in the late sixteenth century. Under siege from church and crown, it sent an offshoot in the third and forth decades of the seventeenth century to the northern English colonies in the New World--- a migration that laid the foundation for the religious, intellectual, and social order of New England, Puritanism, however,was not only a historically specific phenomenon coincident with the founding of New England; it was also a way of being in the world---a style of response to lived experience---that has reverberated through American life ever since. Doctrinally, Puritans adhered to the Five Points of Calvinism as codified at the Synod of Dort in 1619:(1) unconditional election ( the idea that God had decreed who was damned and who was saved from before the beginning of the world); (2) limited atonement ( the idea that Christ died for the elect only); (3) total depravity (humanity's utter corruption since the Fall); (4) irresistible grace (regeneration as entirely a work of God, which cannot be resisted and to which the sinner contributes nothing); and (5) the perseverance of the saints (the elect, despite their backsliding and faintness of heart , cannot fall away from grace). American Dream: The American Dream is the faith held by many in the United States of America that through hard work, courage, and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations. Nowadays the American Dream has led to an emphasis on material wealth as a measure of success and\ or happiness. Gothic tradition: Gothic novel or Gothic romance is a story of terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old castle or monastery. In an extended sense, many novels that do not have a medievalized setting, but which share a comparably sinister, grotesque, or chaustrophobic atmosphere have been classed as Gothic. It contributed to the new emotional climate of Romanticism. Historical novel: a novel in which the action takes place during a specific historical period well before the time of writing ( often one or two generations before, sometimes several centuries), and in which some attempt is made to depict accurately the customs and mentality of the period. The central character---real or imagined---is usually subject to divided loyalties within a larger historic conflict of which readers know the outcome. The pioneers of this genre were Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper American Romanticism:Romanticism refers to an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. The romantic period in American literature stretched from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil
《美国文学选读》课程标准 一、课程性质与任务 美国文学选读是英语专业高年级的选修课。它与英美文学史密切结合，使学生在接触到浩繁的文学作品的同时，可以对繁杂的文学现象加以整理和梳理，并形成自己阅读文学作品的习惯，开阔视野，在学习过程中把握正确的理解文学作品的方法。美国文学选读通过向学生介绍文学作品及其作品创作的历史文化背景，培养学生阅读文学作品的兴趣，增强语感，增进学生对美国社会、历史、文化以及生活习俗的了解，提高他们对西方文学的欣赏能力及批评能力。 二、课程教学目标 1．知识目标 1）文学知识：通过本课程的学习，学生应深入、直观地理解各个时期的美国文学作品，把握其思想、语言及创作技巧上的特点；另外，还应对美国的文学评论流变具备相对清晰的认识。 2）语言知识：本课程是通过介绍不同文体的文学作品，深化学生对英语语言的认知、理解和应用的能力。并通过对不同时期英语原文资料的阅读和解析，以一种更加直观的方式了解这门语言的发展。 2．能力目标 1）文学作品鉴赏能力：通过作者作品的讲解，学生可以对作品的社会历史价值和艺术价值进行评价，培养并提高自我的鉴赏能力； 2）语言表达能力：通过课堂和课下阅读及评价任务的完成，学生的口头和书面表达能力能够得到全面的提高； 3）思辩能力：课上小组讨论环节和presentation环节能够激发学生的思辩能力，助其开拓思路，同时也为以后对英语的有效使用打下基础。 3．素质目标 1）文学文化修养：本课程作为英语专业高年级学生的素养课，旨在培养学生对美国文学及文化的理解，可以使学生以直观的方式全面接触这种语言和文化，并形成独立的开放的文化观，进一步强化其跨文化意识； 2）基本的研究素质：本课程通过对文学评论的介绍和讲解向学生传授文学鉴赏的不同视角，可使其具备基本的文学研究素质； 3）文学翻译的基础：本课程通过对文学作品的细读向学生介绍文字背后的人文、历史、政治、哲学及美学等因素，可为文学翻译课程提供较好的材料，并做好前期准备。 三、课程基本信息和内容要求
财大翻译综合常耀信《美国文学简史》考研考点总结 第1章殖民地时期的美国 1.1 复习笔记 I. American Puritanism（美国清教主义） The settlement of North American continent by the English began in the early part of the seventeenth century. The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. In 1620, the ship Mayflower carried about one hundred Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The first settlers in America were quite a few of them Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons. They carried with them American Puritanism which took root in the New World and became the most enduring shaping influence in American thought and American literature. 英国向北美的移民活动开始于17世纪上半叶。英国于1607年在北美建立了第一个永久性海外殖民区：弗吉尼亚州的詹姆斯敦。1620年“五月花”号载运100余名移民抵达马萨诸塞州的普利茅斯。很多美国早期的移民是清教徒，他们出于多种原因来到美国。他们信奉的清教主义后来在新大陆生根发芽，并对美国思想和美国文学产生了根深蒂固的影响。 1．Doctrines of Puritanism（清教主义的教义）
第22章纽约派诗人?沉思型诗歌?黑山派诗人 22.1 复习笔记 I. The New York School（纽约派诗人） 1. Features of the New York School（纽约派诗歌的特点） The so-called New York School became well known with the publication of Donald Allen’s 1960 anthology. The poets of the New York School were different in their separate pursuits, but their poetry reveals something they shared in common. (1) For one thing, they were all vehemently up against the dominant New Critical values such as the impersonal presentation of images, and tried to assert their individual poetic voice. (2) They also introduced the popular and the low features of life into their writings like popular songs, comic strip figures, and Hollywood movies. (3) Thirdly, they exhibited a huge sense of humor, offering room as their poems did for elements like the vulgar and the sentimental. (4) Finally, they experimented with Surrealism, for a while. 所谓的纽约派是随着唐纳德·艾伦1960年发表的文集而出名的。纽约派诗人的追求各异，但他们的诗歌都有相同的特点。
A Concise History of American Literature What is literature? Literature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages. Chapter 1 Colonial Period I.Background: Puritanism 1.features of Puritanism (1)Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred. (2)Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation. (3)Total depravity (4)Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved. 2.Influence (1) A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature. (2)It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden. (3)Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American. (4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible. II.Overview of the literature 1.types of writing diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons 2.writers of colonial period (1)Anne Bradstreet (2)Edward Taylor (3)Roger Williams (4)John Woolman (5)Thomas Paine (6)Philip Freneau III.Jonathan Edwards 1.life 2.works (1)The Freedom of the Will (2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended (3)The Nature of True Virtue 3.ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism (1)The spirit of revivalism (2)Regeneration of man (3)God’s presence (4)Puritan idealism IV.Benjamin Franklin 1.life 2.works (1)Poor Richard’s Almanac (2)Autobiography 3.contribution (1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.
外国文学史名词解释 荷马史诗：包括《伊利昂纪》和《奥德修纪》，是古希腊最早的两部史诗，一般认为是吟颂诗人荷马所作，故称荷马史诗。这两部史诗描写发生于公元前12世纪的特洛亚战争，各分二十四卷，反映了氏族制度趋于瓦解，向奴隶社会过渡时期广泛的社会生活，塑造了一系列英雄形象，具有很高的认识价值和艺术成就。 荷马史诗包括《伊利亚特》和《奥德塞》两部分，各有24卷，均以特洛依战争为背景。《伊利亚特》写战争本身，描写阿喀琉斯的愤怒及战争最后51天内发生的事件；《奥德塞》写希腊英雄奥德修斯在战争结束后回返家乡的经历。荷马史诗的主题是歌颂希腊全民族的光荣史迹，赞美勇敢、正义、无私、勤劳等善良品德，讴歌克服一切困难的乐观主义精神，肯定人与生活的价值。荷马史诗充满了浓厚的宿命论思想，人与人之间的斗争成为神与神之间斗争的缩影。荷马史诗塑造了一系列的英雄人物，结构巧妙，布局完整，比喻丰富。它不仅是欧洲文学史上最早的优秀作品，也是研究希腊早期社会的重要文献。 麦凯纳斯文学集团──公元前27年，屋大维创立罗马帝国，保护文人，鼓励创作。他的亲信麦凯纳斯笼络许多卓有才华的作家组成了一个文学集团，中括当时的三个一流诗人维吉尔、贺拉斯和奥维德，史称麦凯纳斯文学集团。它代表着罗马文学的黄金时代。 三联剧──又称三部曲，古希腊悲剧中最妆的固定格式，指情节连贯，内容相关的三部悲剧。它们既有相对独立性，有各自的剧名，能独立成篇，又有内在联系，可合成一组悲剧，有总的剧名，表达统一的主题。后成为三部内容各自独立而又相互联系的文学作品的统称。 荷马问题──关于《伊利亚特》和《奥德修纪》的作者和史诗形成的问题，自古以来就众说纷纭。古希腊的希罗多德、柏拉图和亚里士多德等历史学家和哲学家都肯定它们为荷马所作，但与同时，也有人对荷马的出生地点、生活年代和诗歌创作提出了疑问。18世纪之前，文学史家虽然注意到了上述疑问，但并不否认两部史诗系荷马所作。1795年以后，德国学者沃尔夫等发表专著，指出荷马史诗并非一人所作，于是引起西方学者的长期争论，从而形成了著名的“荷马问题”。 奥林波斯神统：相传奥林波斯山上居住了一个神的大家族。众神之王掌管天上人间，其它神有太阳神阿波罗、月神阿忒弥斯等。他们和人同形同性，有时还和人间美貌男女恋爱，不同之处他们长生不死。众神没有主宰人类的绝对力量，体现了希腊神话的民主性和进步性。奥林帕斯神系──古希腊神话中以宙斯为中心的神的家族，因其住在奥林帕斯山止而得名。奥林帕斯神系是按原始社会后期父权制氏族的方式、以宙斯为首的12个主神组成的神系，乃古希腊神话中内容最丰富、流传最广泛、影响最深远的神话。 骑士文学──中古欧洲的一种封建世俗文学，它鲜明地反映了封建主阶级的意识，繁盛在12─13世纪。骑士文学分骑士抒情诗和骑士叙事诗两大类，前者以南法普罗旺斯为中心，主要写骑士对贵妇人的爱和崇拜，以《破晓歌》最为著名；后者以北法为中心，主要写骑士为获得荣誉和爱情所进行的各种冒险活动，流传最广的是亚瑟王与他的圆桌骑的故事，如《特里斯丹和绮瑟》。骑士叙事诗有一定的反封建、反禁欲主义的意义，在艺术手法上也为近代长时代。 文艺复兴：是14-17世纪初欧洲一系列新兴资产阶级思想文化运动的总称。它以发掘、整理和研究古希腊罗马的文化遗产、复兴古典文化为标志，并借此反对封建观念和中世纪宗教教义的束缚，建立适应新兴资产阶级的新思想新文化。文艺复兴开辟了欧洲历史上的新纪元，是西方近代文化的开端。人文主义：人文主义是文艺复兴时期新兴资产阶级反封建反教会斗争中形成的思想体系，也是这一时期进步文学的中心思想。主要内容表现在：用人权反对神权，用个性解放反对禁欲主义，用理性反对蒙昧主义，在政治思想上拥护中央集权，反对封建割据。其中以人为本的思想和理性精神来自古希腊罗马文化，其平等、博爱的思想来自基督教精神，因此人文主义可以说是古代文化与中世纪文化的继承和发展。
1. Beowulf赏析 英国现存最早、最完整的民族史诗。1反映当时部落社会的面貌。背景取自欧洲。2古Anglo-Saxon人崇拜英雄的部落文化。政治观点：“王”，权利来自武力，王权的继承还需要仁义。3历史事实+神话传说。 主人公Beowulf英勇顽强。自我牺牲精神。爱护臣民。有责任感。 简洁明快。头韵。隐喻：用复合词来比喻某种事物或现象。 2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight赏析 传奇文学是贵族人生理想的反映，与平民百姓没有丝毫的关系。 头韵诗。2个主题：1砍头游戏检验Gawain的勇敢和信守诺言。2女主人的诱惑检验Gawain的诚实和忠贞。 以重读音节为基础的韵律。每一个stanza后面有一个只有一个重读音节的短促诗句，再加一个abab韵的4行诗节。语言朴素自然，流畅通顺。 反映出Norman征服的宗教影响：基督教成统治地位。Gawain是基督徒，拥有人的弱点。他在困境中祈求圣母玛利亚的帮助，又因死亡的威胁而背弃诺言。他身上有亚当的影子，原罪的概念。 3. Chaucer特点 “英国诗歌之父”。人文主义。现实主义。明快、诙谐。伦敦方言创作。首创heroic couplet。钟情于中世纪的文学形式。第一个用韵脚韵律诗，以重音-音节为基础的格律诗。 一方面用贵族式的理想眼光看待生活。一方面又以现实的态度思考。 1法国影响时期—2意大利影响时期—3成熟时期 强调人权，今生今世幸福快乐的权利，反对神权与禁欲主义。反对滥用宗教教义。 人物：个人与社会关系的主题。突出人物之间性格冲突和物质利益矛盾。幽默讽刺地描写了新兴资产阶级所反感的阶级出身问题。人物形象是立体的，有独特的气质和性格。 押尾韵。八音节对偶句（octosyllabic couplet），iambic pentameter的heroic couplet。 4. Canterbury T ales赏析 现实主义。但未能摆脱中世纪的偏见。 轻松、欢快 文艺复兴的先驱。人生来就有谋求世俗幸福的权利。 General Prologue+24个故事。每个故事有“小引”、“开场语”、“结束语”。 General Prologue：赞扬骑士、骑士之子、乡勇。讽刺院长嬷嬷的矫揉造作。 24个故事题材：多是关于爱情婚姻。还有揭露了宗教的压迫、僧侣的道德败坏、官吏的专横。 Iambic pentameter couplet, 即heroic couplet 5. Hamlet赏析 Shakespeare的巅峰之作。尽管讲的是丹麦故事。但反映的却是英国的事情。人文主义。对他所生活的那个时代的方方面面进行了评论。复仇悲剧。 家丑引起Hamlet对美好世界、人类善良的怀疑。个人悲剧演变成社会的悲剧，变成铲除罪恶、匡扶正义的巨大社会责任心。Hamlet的悲剧在于，他的责任是如此艰巨，自己又是日次势孤力单。他的弱点：多愁善感，疑虑重重；善于思考，贫于行动。他代表了善于思考，贫于行动的新兴资产阶级。 6. The Merchant of V enice赏析 Shylock—唯利是图，爱财如命的拜金主义者。作为犹太民族受到歧视和迫害。 Portia—人文主义者对新女性的理想 7. Francis Bacon