美国文学期末考试复习大纲Ⅰ. 文学史1.American Puritanism (美国请教主义):Puritanism was a religious reform movement that arose within the Church of England in the late 16th century.I.Background: Puritanism1.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 calli ng into beinga 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 literature1.types of writing: diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons2.writers of colonial period(1)Anne Bradstreet(2)Edward Taylor(3)Roger Williams(4)John Woolman(5)Thomas Paine(6)Philip Freneau(7)Jonathan Edwards(8)Benjamin Franklin2.American Enlightenment (美国启蒙运动):Enlightenment is a philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to scrutinize previously accepted doctrines and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms.The American Enlightenment is a term sometimes employed to describe the intellectual culture of the British North American colonies and the early United States (as they became following the American Revolution).It is commonly dated from 1750—1820.Among the leading intellectual figures of this period are Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776—18201.Background: American Revolution——historicalEuropean Enlightenment2.Basic Assumptions:(1)Reg ard ―enlightenment‖ or ―education‖ as the principle means for development of society(2)Show concern for civil rights, democracy in government and tolerance rather than earlier religious mysticism(3)Reconsider the relationship between man & God. Brief-Deism (natural religion)3.Transcendentalism (超验主义):Transcendentalism is literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about1836 to 1860.It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church, developing instead their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world.The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in such essays as Nature (1836) and Self-reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden (1854).I.Background: four sources1.Unitarianism(1)Fatherhood of God(2)Brotherhood of men(3)Leadership of Jesus(4)Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character)(5)Continued progress of mankind(6)Divinity of mankind(7)Depravity of mankind2.Romantic Idealism: Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticism: Center of the world is ―oversoul‖4.Puritanism: Eloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, ―Nature‖ by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/God; garment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature.It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often becameopportunism, and the desire to ―get on‖ obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period in American literature.4.Dark Romanticism1.Dark Romanticism & Gothic FictionSimilarities: darkness, supernatural, featuring charactersDifferences: sheer horror——Gothic Fiction’s purposedark mystery & skepticism of man——Dark Romance’s purpose2.Dark Romanticism——reaction against transcendentalismDark Romanticism is a literary subgenre that emerged from the transcendental philosophical movement popular in 19th century America. Some writers, including Poe, Hawthorne and Melville, found transcendental belief far too optimistic and egotistical and reacted by modifying.3.Dark Romanticism & Transcendentalism:Dark Romantics are much less confident about the notion that perfection is an innate equality of mankind, as believed by transcendentalists. Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom.While both groups believe nature is a deep spiritual force, Dark Romanticism views it in a much more sinister light than does transcendentalism, which sees nature as a divine & universal organic mediator. For Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious, when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil.Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals, falling in their attempts to make changes for the better.4.Fiction:⑪ General term for invented storiesNovel, short story, novellas, romance, fable etc.《堂吉诃德》——the first novel of European⑫ Types of novel:①.Kunstlerroman 成长小说Bildungroman——《麦田守望者》②.Spy novel③.Historical novel④.Campus novel 校园小说⑤.Gothic novel⑥.Epistolary novel⑦.Picaresque novel⑧.Detective novel⑨.Sociological novel⑩.Psychological novel⑬ Elements of fiction:①.Setting (time, place, environment)②.Plot (selected events, cause & effect, structure)——conflict (exposition, rising action/complication, climax, falling action, resolution)③.Character (animal, inanimate things)④.Point of view (first person, third person, multiple)⑤.Theme (different from ―subject‖)⑥.Style (diction, syntax, figure of speech)⑦.Symbol & IronyⅡ. 文学概念1. Allegory (寓言)：Allegory is a story with a symbolic meaning used to teach a moral principle.Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy.Thus, an allegory is a story with two meanings: a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.Many of Hawthorne’s stories are allegories dealing with pride, isolation, love and betray. For example, Y oung Goodman Brown tells Brown’s journey in the forest. After the journey, Brown changed a lot. In fact the story shows Brown’s struggle between goodness and evil and re veals the processes of losing one’s innocence.2. Romance:―Romance‖ is now frequently used as s term to designate a kind of fiction that differs from the novel in being more freely. It is the product of the author’s imagination than the product of an effo rt to represent the actual world with verisimilitude.Romance is a heightened, emotional, and symbolic form of the novel. Romances are not love stories, but serious novels that use special techniques to communicate complex and subtle meanings.Nathaniel Hawthorne is a representative of dark romance, most of his works reveals the dark side of human beings.3. Lyric(抒情诗)：In the modern sense, it is any fairly short poem expressing the personal mood, feeling, or meditation of a single speaker. Lyric poetry is the most extensive category of verse. Lyrics may be composed in almost any meter and on almost every subject, although the most usual emotions presented are those of love and grief. Among the common lyric forms are the sonnet, ode, elegy, and the more personal kinds of hymn.Lyric poetry is genre that does not attempt to tell a story but instead of a more personal nature. It portrays the poet’s own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions.While the genre’s name derived from ―lyre‖, implies that it is intended to be sung, much lyric poetry is meant purely for reading.The most popular form for western lyric poetry to take may be the 14-line sonnet, as practiced by Petrarch and Shakespeare. Lyric poetry shows a bewildering variety of forms, including, increasingly in the 20th century, unrhymed ones.Lyric poetry is the most common type of poetry.5.Allusion:It is one of the figures of speech.An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication.For example, in literature, the snake often represents the evil. It’s an allusion of Bible. In Bible, the snake allured Eve to eat the apple. Thus, they were punished by God.5. T rickster:Trickster always appears in mythology, it’s a kind of literary character.In mythology, and in the study of folklore and relig ion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior.Trickster is the ―rebellion‖ that challenges authority.The trickster is a very important archetype in the history of human kind.H e is the ―wise fool‖.It is he, through his creations that destroy the authority.He exists to question and to cause us to question.He is the Destroyer of the world and at the same time the Savior of us all.For example, Robin Hood, he is a thief, who steals the rich to help the poor. On one hand, a thief is supposed to be punished, but on another hand, he steals the money not for himself but to help others. Thus, we call him a trickster.6.Gothic Fiction:Gothic fiction rises in the late of 18th century.The Gothic relates the individual to the infinite universe.Gothic literature pictures the human condition as an ambiguous mixture of good and evil power that cannot be understood completely by human reason.The Gothic novel or short story is any story which can be describe as dark, mysterious, and grotesque. A Gothic story often has supernatural elements that give it a hint of horror/ terror.Gothic fiction is often psychological (from the villain’s perspective)It has romantic elements: the damsel in distress, the ghost of a loverCreates suspense: never sure what is going to happenIt adopts the use of doppelganger theme.The most familiar Gothic fiction to me is The V ampire Diaries. Similar to the Twilight, it tells a love story between the V ampire and a human being. There are many terror scenes with suspense and a doppelganger in the story. Now The V ampire Diaries is made into TV series. In the TV series, a vampire called Damon is my favorite one.7. Kunstlerroman8. Quest:―quest‖ means search, pursue, go on adventure. The Quest myth/ Quest story, similar to Romance is a genre of literature.The background, such as an imbalanced society, is often challenging.The hero leaves the society. His goals are always noble. He is always on the side of goodness, and his enemies are always evil.The hero must undergoes trials: physical tests—slaying a dragon, battling powerful opponents, rescuing maidens in distress etc.Having completed his quest, the hero returns to society to bring about spiritual transformation and restore the perfect human community.The Captain Ahab in Moby Dick is a hero of quest but not a traditional one, he is a villain hero who tries to conquer the nature.9. Iambic Pentameter:10. Point of View(视角)：It is the relationship of the storyteller or narrator, to the story.A story has a first-person point of view if one of the characters, referred to as ―I‖, tells the story.A story has a limited third-person point of view if the narrator reveals the thoughts of only one character but refers to that character as ―he‖ or ―she‖.A narrator who tells the thoughts of all the characters and who tells things that no one character could know uses the omniscient (all-knowing), or third-person, point of view.For example, in Moby Dick, Melville adopted the first-person narrator, Ishmael was the observer who saw the events of the story and played s minor role in the action.Ⅲ. 重要作家及作品Nathanial Hawthorne (纳撒尼尔·霍桑)1.life2.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun3.point of view(1)Evil is at the core of human life, ―that blackness in Hawthorne‖(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.4.aesthetic美学的ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yetnot to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5.style – typical romantic writer(1)the use of symbols(2)revelation of characters’ psychology(3)the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of viewThe Scarlet Letter, （adultery）1.About the story:(1)The story of Hester Prynne Set: the 17th century(2)What is situated immediately outside the door of the prison in which Hester is kept: A rosebush(3)How does Hester support herself financially: as a seamstress(4)She always wears: black(5)―A‖ represents: adultery2.Major characters in the story:(1)Hester Prynne: wears ―A‖; ―A‖ defines her identity(2)Arthur Dimmesdale: wears ―A‖ in his heart; his soul never in peace (invisible wearer)(3)Roger Chillingworth: the maker of scarlet letter(4)Pearl: the p roduct/result of ―A‖3.Symbolism: (special movement in literature; the use of symbols)In ―The Scarlet Letter‖:(1)The rosebush: passion(2)The forest: an ungovernable place(3)The scarlet letter: adultery; sin(4)Pearl: wildness; passion(5)The meteor: community4.Refuse to take off ―A‖:(1)For Hester, to remove scarlet letter would be to acknowledge the power it has in determining who she is(2)She is determined to transform its meaning and her identity(3)She wants to be the one who controls its meaning(4)She stands as a self-appointed reminder of the evils society can commitYoung Goodman Brown1. Psychological interpretation——Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychology):(1)superego——consciousness——the principle of morality 超我(2)ego——subconsciousness——the principle of reality 自我(3)id——unconsciousness——the principle of pleasure 本我Brown’s journey is psychological as well as physical:Village, a place of light and order——Forest, a place of darkness and wildnessconsciousness——unconsciousnessvillage——superego——FaithBrown——egoforest——id——SatanHawthorne saw the dangers of an overactive suppression of libido and the consequent development of tyrannous superego.2. Men, Women, and the loss of Faith:Despite the literary sexism of his day, Hawthorne portrays women as powerful moral agents.Although Faith is not a three-dimensional character, the story centers on her husband’s rejection of her. Women are victimized.Women——angle in the house——do not have desires, rights and needsFallen women——prostitutes, witches, and mad womenFaith to Brown is female sexuality; Satan to Brown is patriarchal authority3. Female images:Innocents vs. Temptresses:(1)Governor’s wife, Goody Cloyse, prostitutes, maidens, witches, Quaker women, Faith(2)Sex is seen as alluring and dangerous(3)Brown is an empty and failed husband and fatherHerman Melville (赫尔曼·麦尔维尔)1.life(1)Typee 《泰皮》(2)Omio 《殴穆》(3)Mardi 《玛地》(4)Redburn 《雷德本》(5)White Jacket 《白外衣》(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre 《皮埃尔》(8)Billy Budd 《比利·巴德》3.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of ―Everlasting Nay‖ (negative attitudetowards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multipleview of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or onthe route (Moby Dick)Moby Dick《白鲸》：Moby-Dick, often considered the greatest American novel, is a masterpiece with many layers. It is a sea adventure, an exciting chase after a destructive and mysterious creature. The enormous white whale Moby-Dick torments Captain Ahab, who is obsessed with finding and killing Moby-Dick, having lost a leg in a previous encounter with the whale, and Ahab’s burning desire for revenge really is the center of the story. At the novel’s end, Ahab finds and attacks Moby-Dick, but the terrible whale takes Ahab, his ship Pequod, and nearly all its crew down to a watery grave with him.1. An encyclopedia of everythingA Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fates (extreme individualism)2. Image of ship: ship on the sea is the human soul search the meaning in the universe.3. Purpose——noble: he think Moby Dick as an evilHero: he is a hero but not a traditional hero (he does not stand for goodness); a villain hero4. Byronic hero (create by Byron): mad, bad, dangerous to know, obsessive——rebellions: challenge the authority; unconventional; right the wrongSatanic: revengeful; rebellious; the fight between God & Satan5. The Pequod——a symbol of doom(named after a native American tribe in Massachusetts; did not long survived of white men(extincted); is painted gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones)The sailors are of different ethics——all people in American (individual)Queequeg’s Coffin——life boat; life6. Theme of Moby Dick:(1)Melville’s bleak view (negative attitude) the sense of futility and meaninglessness of the w orld. His attitude to life is―Everlasting Nay‖. Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futility.The adventure of killing Moby Dick is meaningless. Ahab tries to control it, which leads to his doom.Modern life——the loss of faith, the sense of futility——well expressed in Moby Dick(2)Alienation (far away from each other): exists between man & man, man & society, and man & nature.(3)Loneliness and suicidal individualism——the basic pattern of 19th century American life(individualism causing disaster and death)——Moby Dick is a negative reflection upon Transcendentalism.(4)Rejection and quest:V oyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and valuesHenry David Thoreau1.life(1)A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3)A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw natur e as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritualwell-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.(6)―Simplicity…simplify!‖(7)He was sorely disgusted with ―the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society‖.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.WaldenEdgar Allen PoeI.LifeII.Works1.short stories(1)ratiocinative storiesa.Ms Found in a Bottleb.The Murders in the Rue Morguec.The Purloined Letter(2)Revenge, death and rebirtha.The Fall of the House of Usherb.Ligeiac.The Masque of the Red Death(3)Literary theorya.The Philosophy of Compositionb.The Poetic Principlec.Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told TalesIII.Themes1.death – predominant t heme in Poe’s writing―Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.‖2.disintegration (separation) of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIV.A esthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. Hecalls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V.Style – traditional, but not easy to readVI.R eputation: ―the jingle man‖ (Emerson)VII.His influencesWalt Whitman1.life2.work: Leaves of Grass (9 editions)(1)Song of Myself(2)There Was a Child Went Forth(3)Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4)Democratic V istas(5)Passage to India(6)Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking3.themes –―Catalogue of American and European thought‖He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson’s individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything):●equality of things and beings●divinity of everything●immanence of God●democracy●evolution of cosmos●multiplicity of nature●self-reliant spirit●death, beauty of death●expansion of America●brotherhood and social solidarity (unity of nations in the world)●pursuit of love and happiness4.style: ―free verse‖(1)no fixed rhyme or scheme(2)parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3)phonetic recurrence(4)the habit of using snapshots(5)the use of a certain pronoun ―I‖(6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(10)sentences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines5.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated andEuropeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.Ralph Waldo Emerson (拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生)1.life (American philosopher, poet and essayist; the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism)2.works(1)Nature——his first book expressing the main principle of Transcendentalism. It is regarded as ―American’sDeclaration of Intellec tual Independence‖(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet3.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the ―oversoul‖.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of aspiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become betterand even perfect. This is what Emerson means by ―the infinitude of man‖.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by makinghimself.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2)True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3)The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceWashington Irving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father of American literature2.life3.works(1)A History of New Y ork from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication ofthis.)(3)The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4)A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra4.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US5.style – beautiful(1)gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4)vivid and true characters(5)humour – smiling while reading(6)musical languageJames Fenimore Cooper1.life (―father of American novelists‖; the creation of the west frontier and its heroes)2.works(1)Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3.point of viewThe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape description(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic5.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Benjamin Franklin1.life (printer, enlightener, inventor, scientist, statesman, diplomat)2.works(9)Poor Richard’s Almanac(10)Autobiography——form: the first autobiography of Americanmeaning: American dream & individualismself-improvement; business (contents); prototype of American success (significance); Puritanism and enlightenment spirits 3.contribution(11)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.(12)He was called ―the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven‖.(13)Everything seems to meet in this one man –―Jack of all trades‖. Herman Melville thus described him ―master of each and mas tered by none‖.(14)Aid Jefferson in writing The Declaration of IndependenceThomas Paine1.father of the American Revolution2.propagandist, pamphleteer, a master of persuasion who understands the power of language to move a man to action3.main works:(1)The American Crisis(2)Common Sense(3)The Right of Man(4)The Age of Reason。
