美国文学考核大纲

一.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN本杰明.富兰克林( 清教主义Puritanism )Pennsylvania Gazette, 宾夕法尼亚公报( helped to draft The Declaration of Independence )Masterpieces: Autobiography自传, Poor Richar’s Almanac穷查理历书His maxims格言: Diligence is the most of good luck勤奋是好运之母; God helps them who help themselves天助自助者* 翻译13条美德：1.TEMPERANCE. — Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.节制—食不过饱而使思想麻木；饮不及醉而使精神亢奋2.SILENCE. — Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.寡言—于人于己不利的话不说，无意义的话不说3.ORDER. — Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.有序—务使物占其所，事占其时4.RESOLUTION. — Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.决心—该做的事情要下决心去做，务必完成无误。

5.FRUGALITY. — Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing.节俭—花钱务必于人于己有益，绝不浪费6.INDUSTRY. — Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.勤奋—不浪费时间，时间总是花在有用的事情上；停止不必要的行为7.SINCERITY. — Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly ; and , if you speak , speak accordingly.诚实—有害于他人的欺骗行为不做，思想务必正当无邪，说话时要有根据8.JUSTICE. — Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.公正—绝不屈待他人，伤害他人；该给予他人的善举，绝不疏忽9.MODERATION. — Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries, so much as you think they deserye.中庸—避免过激行为；对于自己所受的伤害其怨恨程度应控制在合适的程度之内10.CLEANLINESS. — Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes , or habitation.清洁—绝不容忍身体，衣着和住所的不洁11.TRANQUILLITY. — Be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable.平和—不要被小事乱心，不为常见和不可避免的事而恐慌12.CHASTITY. — Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of yourown or another’s peace or reputation.节欲—若非为了身心健康与传宗接代的缘故尽少作爱，过多作爱而使思想麻木，身体虚弱，或损害自己与他人的安宁和声誉13.HUMILITY. — Imitate Jesus and Socrates.谦恭—模仿耶稣和苏格拉底二. RALPH WALDO EMERSON拉尔夫.沃尔多.爱默生( 唯一神教派超验主义Transcendenralism )Nature, The Divinity school Address在神学院的演讲, Self—Reliance自力更生, The Over—Soul超灵,(美国文艺界的独立宣言：the American Scholar )*P331Our day of dependence , our long apprenticeship to the learningof of other lands,, draws to a close.The millions that around us are rushing into life , cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harnests.我们在学术上依赖别人，长期学习他国的学徒时代，就要结束了.我们周围的万千之众都在生活中激流勇进，奋力搏击，依靠异国赏赐的残羹冷炙只是食不果腹。

美国文学部分(American Literature)一．殖民时期文学（The Literature of the Colonial Period）1．本章考核知识点和考核要求：1) 早期殖民地时期的文学的特点2) 十八世纪美国文学的特点（重点是独立革命前后时期文学）3) 主要的作家、其概况及其代表作品4) 术语：the colonial period, American Puritanism, Puritans, Enlightenment in American, the Great Awakening2．主要作家作品John Smith第一个美国作家A True Relation of Virginia and General History of Virginia.Anne Bradstreet 殖民地时期女诗人The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650)Jonathan Edwards十八世纪上半叶大觉醒时代的代表人物“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林，散文家、科学家、社会活动家，曾参与起草《独立宣言》。

十八世纪美国启蒙思想代言人。

《穷查理历书》Poor Richard’s Almanac（收录格言警句）《致富之道》The Way to Wealth《自传》The Autobiography （富兰克林原意为写给儿子的家书）Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩，散文家、政治家、报刊撰稿人。

《常识》Common Sense ( Paine 最知名的政论文：It was inspired by the first battle of the Revolutionary War—the Battle of Lexington in Concord.)《美国危机》American Crisis《人的权利》Rights of Man《专制体制的崩溃》Downfall of Despotism《理性时代》The Age of ReasonPhilip Freneau 菲利普·弗伦诺，著名的“革命诗人”。

美国文学史复习大纲一：作家作品1.Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio(小镇畸人，1919) The Triumph of the Egg(鸡蛋的胜利，1921)2.John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath(愤怒的葡萄，1939，strong sociological novel,1940年获普利策奖（Pulitzer Prize)),1962年获诺贝尔文学奖①the foremost novelist of the American Depression.美国大萧条时期最杰出的小说家。

②代表作：“Of Mice and Men”《人鼠之间》portrayed the tragic friendship between two migrant workers “The Grapes of Wrath”《愤怒的葡萄》regarded as masterpiece ,showed the migration of the Okies from the Dust Bowls to California ,a migration that ended in broken dreams and misery but at the same time affirmed the ability of the common people to endure and prevail. Theme : strength comes from unity i-we ;faith in life; struggle to live better2.John Dos Passos: 约翰多斯帕索斯His trilogy U.S.A(美利坚)---The 42nd Parallel(北纬42度，1930), 1919(1932), The Big Money(1936), Three Soldiers。

英美文学（2）复习大纲1. Multiple Choices （30 points）基本的文学史实，包括不同时期文学的特点，主要作家的作品以及写作特点等。

2. Gap Filling (10 points)主要作家的代表作3. Definition of Terms (20 points)ImageryWords or phrases that create pictures, or images, in the reader’s mind.American TranscendentalismAme rican Transcendentalism or “New England Transcendentalism” or “American Renaissance” is more of a tendency, an attitude, than the philosophy of Transcendentalists. To “transcend” something is to rise above it, to pass beyond its limits. The major features of New England Transcendentalism can be summarized as the follows:Firstly, the Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirits, or the Over soul, as the most import thing in the Universe.Secondly, they stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society.Thirdly, they offered a fresh perception of nature as symbol of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Transcendentalism is based on the belie f that the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of senses.As a philosophical and literary movement, Transcendentalism flourished in New England from 1830s to the Civil War. Its doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in Emerson and Thoreau.Free VerseFree Verse is a verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern. Although most free verse belongs to the 19th and 20th centuries, it can be found in earlier literature, particularly in the Psalms of the Bible.NaturalismAn extreme form of realism. Naturalistic writers usually depict the sordid side of life and show characters who are severely, if not hopelessly, limited by their environment or heredity.ImagismIt is an influential literary movement that took place in Europe and America from about 1910 to 1920. The imagist poet creates a single sharp image that evokes an emotional response in the reader. Imagism was in a reaction to the “bad habits” of the 19th century poets who were too explicit in their commentary and too repetitious in their subjects, patterns, and meters.Local ColoristsA group of writers who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of specific regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, the other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on. The major local colorists are Hamlin Garland, Mark Twain.Lost GenerationThis term has been used again and again to describe the people of the postwar years. When the First World War broke out, many young men volunteered to take part in “the war to end all 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 experience in the war. Among these young writers were the most prominent figures in American literature, especially in modern American literature, for example, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, etc. They were basically expatriates who left 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. They were later called by an American writer, Gertrude Stein, also expatriates, “The Lost Generation”.Hemingway HeroesThose protagonists in Hemingway’s fiction, who survive in the process if seeking to master the code known as “grace under pressure” with honesty, the discipline, and the restraint.American Puritanism1. 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 religionAmerican Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature. It has become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, rather than a set of tenets, so much a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the Americans breathe. Without some understanding of Puritanism, there can be no real understanding of American culture and literature.The Jazz Agethe era that immediately followed World War I and lasted until the beginning of the Depression, during which jazz increased in popularity. It was a reaction to the austerity and hardship of the war and was characterized by extravagance and hedonism.4. Questions (22 points)Because I could not stop for DeathSong of MyselfThe Road Not TakenPactIn a Station of the Metro5. Topic Discussion(18 points)Summarize the story of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and comment on the theme of the novel。

美国文学部分(American Literature)一．殖民时期文学（The Literature of the Colonial Period）1．本章考核知识点和考核要求：1) 早期殖民地时期的文学的特点2) 十八世纪美国文学的特点（重点是独立革命前后时期文学）3) 主要的作家、其概况及其代表作品4) 术语：the colonial period, American Puritanism, Puritans, Enlightenment in American, the Great Awakening2．主要作家作品John Smith第一个美国作家A True Relation of Virginia and General History of Virginia.Anne Bradstreet 殖民地时期女诗人The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650)Jonathan Edwards十八世纪上半叶大觉醒时代的代表人物“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林，散文家、科学家、社会活动家，曾参与起草《独立宣言》。

十八世纪美国启蒙思想代言人。

《穷查理历书》Poor Richard’s Almanac（收录格言警句）《致富之道》The Way to Wealth《自传》The Autobiography （富兰克林原意为写给儿子的家书）Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩，散文家、政治家、报刊撰稿人。

《常识》Common Sense ( Paine 最知名的政论文：It was inspired by the first battle of the Revolutionary War—the Battle of Lexington in Concord.)《美国危机》American Crisis《人的权利》Rights of Man《专制体制的崩溃》Downfall of Despotism《理性时代》The Age of ReasonPhilip Freneau 菲利普·弗伦诺，著名的“革命诗人”。

英美文学选读自学考试大纲一、考试简介英美文学选读自学考试旨在测试考生对于英美文学的基本概念、发展历程、重要作家及其作品的掌握程度，以及对于英美文学的基本理论和分析方法的了解和运用能力。

考试形式为闭卷笔试，考试时间为180分钟，满分为100分。

二、考试内容1、英美文学基本概念及发展历程（20%）测试考生对于英美文学的基本概念、发展历程和重要时期的了解和掌握程度。

2、英美文学重要作家及其作品（30%）测试考生对于英美文学的重要作家及其代表作品的了解和掌握程度，包括但不限于莎士比亚、简·奥斯汀、托尔斯泰、海明威等。

3、英美文学的基本理论和分析方法（30%）测试考生对于英美文学的基本理论和分析方法的了解和掌握程度，包括但不限于新批评、结构主义、后现代主义等。

4、阅读理解与写作能力（20%）测试考生的阅读理解能力和写作能力，包括对于所给文本的理解、分析、评价和论述能力。

三、考试形式及题型1、单项选择题（20分）要求考生从四个选项中选择一个最符合题意的答案。

2、多项选择题（20分）要求考生从五个选项中选择两个或以上的答案。

21、简答题（20分）要求考生用简短的语言回答问题，考查考生的理解和概括能力。

211、分析题（30分）要求考生对所给的文学作品进行分析、评价和论述，考查考生的分析能力和语言表达能力。

2111、写作题（10分）要求考生根据给定的题目和要求进行写作，考查考生的写作能力和语言表达能力。

四、自学建议系统学习英美文学基本知识：了解英美文学的发展历程、重要时期和流派，掌握基本概念和理论。

阅读重要作家作品：选择一些经典作家及其代表作品进行阅读和研究，深入了解作家的创作风格和思想内涵。

培养阅读和分析能力：通过阅读和分析文学作品，提高自己的阅读能力和分析能力，掌握基本的文学分析方法。

加强写作训练：通过写作练习，提高自己的写作能力和语言表达能力，为考试做好准备。

英美文学选读复习资料一、英国文学1、文艺复兴时期：代表人物：莎士比亚、培根、哈姆雷特等。

《美国文学作品选读》课程考核大纲【考核目的】了解学生对基本文学概念、文学流派及代表作家、文学表现手法、文学人物、文学现象和各种文学术语的掌握。

考核学生对文学作品的理解分析能力和鉴赏能力，帮助学生认识到本课程的学习重点和难点，为以后的深入学习提供可依靠的途径和方法。

【课程学习的基础】《美国文学史及作品选读》课是英语专业的必修课，学生在此前应完成了精读、泛读、写作等基本技能训练，掌握了一定的专业知识和技能，具备一定的语言表达能力和分析论述能力。

先修课程不在考核范围之内。

【考核的内容范围】本课程的考核主要包括基本文学概念、文学流派及代表作家、文学表现手法、文学人物、文学现象和各种文学术语。

【考核的具体内容】第一部分文学基础知识介绍知识点：1．什么是文学2．文学的基本概念和要素3．学习文学的方法4．美国文学历史简介考核目标：1．识记：文学的基本分类2．理解：文学的基本概念和要素3．运用：学习文学的有效方法和途径第二部分殖民时期的文学知识点：1．美国殖民时期文学概述2．北美拓殖的开始3．美国清教主义思想4．美国清教主义思想对早期美国文学的影响5．殖民时期的代表作家及作品考核目标：1．识记：（1）安妮•布雷兹特里特（Anne Bradstreet）（2）爱德华•泰勒（Edward Taylor）（3）迈克尔•维哥斯沃斯(Michael Wigglesworth) 及代表作品2．理解：早期北美殖民地时期文学状况3．运用：殖民地时期文学的主要特征第三部分独立革命时期的文学知识点：1．独立时期文学的主要特征2．启蒙运动及主要思想3．启蒙运动的代表：本杰明•富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）考核目标：1．识记：（1）托马斯•杰弗逊（2）托马斯•潘恩(Thomas Paine) （3）本杰明•富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）2．理解：启蒙运动3．运用：（1）启蒙运动的主要思想（2）本杰明•富兰克林Benjamin Franklin）的思想意识及精神风貌第四部分浪漫主义时期的文学1．英格兰超验主义2．欧洲浪漫主义文学的影响3．美国浪漫主义文学的特4．美国本土文学的崛起及其特征5．浪漫主义时期代表作家及作品考核目标：1．识记：（1）华盛顿•欧文（Washington Irving）（2）詹姆斯•弗尼莫•库柏（James Fenimore Cooper）（3）威廉姆•卡兰•布赖恩特（William Cullen Bryant）（4）埃德加•爱伦•坡（Edgar Allan Poe）（5）纳撒尼尔•霍桑（Nathaniel Hawthorne）（6）拉多夫•瓦尔多•爱默生(Ralph Waldo Emerson) （7）亨利•大卫•梭罗（Henry David Thoreau）（8）赫曼•麦尔维尔（HermanMelville）（9）沃尔特•惠特曼（Walt Whitman）（10）艾米莉•狄金森（Emily Dickinson）及其作品。

美国文学复习提纲平时35。

期末65。

1．Match the literary work in column B with the author in the column A. (20 points)2. Decide the following statements true or false. (10 points)3. Define the following literary terms (20 points)一、时间（1分）；二、代表人物（1分）；三；主要特征（2分）；四、文学文化意义（1分）Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” and “the code hero”Iceberg theory:It was firstly proposed by Ernest Hemingway, the representative writer of the Lost Generation, in Death In the Afternoon (1932) which has such a description “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.”The theory suggests that the writer include in the text only a small portion of what he knows, leaving about ninety percent of the content a mystery that grows beneath the surface of the writing. It‟s influence as a stylist was nearly expressed in the praise of the Nobel Prize Committee about “his powerful style-forming mastery of the art” of writing modern fiction.The code hero: Term Coined by Philip Young in 1952 to refer to Hemingway characters that have learned to control the chaos in their lives, chaos in the form of physical or mental stress, sometimes both. As Bertrand Russell comments, Hemingway‟s heroes have such kind of courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert this dignity in face of diversity. A code hero could be destroyed but not defeated.Modernism:Modernism is an omnibus term for a number of tendencies in the arts which were prominent in the first half of the 20th c.; In English literature it includes symbolism, futurism, expressionism, imagism, dada, and surrealism. It is particularly associated with the writings of T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce etc. Broadly, Modernism reflects the impact upon literature of the psychology of Freud and the anthropology of Sir J. Frazer, as expressed in The Golden Bough (1890-1915). A sense of cultural relativism is pervasive in much modernist writing, as is an awareness of the irrational and the workings of the unconscious mind. Modernist literature is a literature of discontinuity, both historically, being based upon a sharp rejection of the procedures and values of the immediate past, to which it adopts an adversary stance; and aesthetically.The Lost Generation:The "Lost Generation" is a term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway in his novel, "The Sun Also Rises" used to refer to his generation; those who experienced alienation and the loss of ideals yet unable to come to terms with the new era when civilization had gone mad resulting from World War I .This generation included distinguished artists such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. EliotThe beat generation:The Beat Generation is a term for a group of American writers who came into prominence during the 1950s and offered a radical critique of middle class American values. The beats celebrated individual freedom, Zen Buddhism, and the free use of drugs;they attacked the conformity, complacency, and commercialism of the “tranquilized fifties.” The most prominent members of the group were the poet Allen Ginsberg and the novelist Jack Kerouac.New Criticism:The New Criticism is a movement in American literary criticism from the 1930s to the 1960s, which name comes from John Crowe Ransom‟s book The New Criticism (1941).The basic principle of New Criticism was to locate the meaning of a literary work not in the intention of the author nor in the experience of the reader, but in “the text itself,”the internal relations of language that constitute a “poem.”Also to be avoided, or at least subordinated to close reading, were “extrinsic” (that is, not dealing exclusively with the language of the text) approaches to the study of literature: social, psychological, economic, political, or historical.When it was at its peak, New Criticism greatly influenced both literary critics in their evaluation of literary works and poets in their writing of poems.Postmodernism:In literature, Postmodernism is a term used to describe characteristics of some contemporary literature that distinguish it from the literature of modernism. Where modernist literature was characterized by its commitment to the value of a unified, coherent work of art employing symbol and myth, exhibiting alienation from ordinary life, postmodernism celebrates incoherence, discontinuity, parody, popular culture, and the principle of metafiction. Postmodernism has combined formal experimentalism with powerful social and cultural criticism.Stream of Consciousness:The term was originally a psychological term to refer to the continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind. In literature it refers to a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. As an important device of modernist fiction and its later imitators, the technique was pioneered by Dorothy Richardson in Pilgrimage (1915-35) and by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922), and further developed by Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway (1925) and William Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury (1928).4. text analysis: 6选3 (30 points)In a Station of the Metro:1. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians “apparition”?Pound contrasts the factual, mundane image that he actually witnessed with a metaphor from nature and thus infuses this “apparition” with visual beauty. There is a quick transition from the statement of the first line to the second line‟s vivid metaphor; this …super-pository‟ technique exemplifies the Japanese haiku style. The word “apparition” is considered crucial as it evokes a mystical and supernatural sense of imprecision which is then reinforced by the metaphor of the second line.2. What do “petals” and “bough” stand for?The plosive word …Petals‟ conjures ideas of delicate, feminine beauty which contrasts with the bleakness of the …wet, black bough‟.The Red Wheelbarrow:1. How does the first two lines differ from the other pairs of lines?There is no exact thing presented in the 1st two lines. But, by adding those first four words the meanings of the poem just explode into a million different possible meanings.2. What is the meaning of “depends upon” in the 1st pair of lines?“Hardness and aesthetics of life.”One’s-self I singThe 1855 "Song of Myself" had announced that the "word of the modern" was "a word en masse," and eventually Whitman would revise this 1867 Inscription to affirm that "En-Masse" was also "the word Democratic." In a modern, democratic society, as Tocqueville had said, no intermediate allegiances stand between the individual citizen and the entire body politic. The Self is indeed separate, isolated; it has renounced party and creed and local custom, all mediating bodies that provide a system of preference or exclusion."One‟s-Self I sing, a simple separate person," run the opening lines of Leaves of Grass from 1871 on, "Yet utter the word Democratic." A poetic universe of productive tension is hinted by that "Yet"; the tense equipoise between individualism and democracy, this poem suggests, is the foundational theme of Whitman‟s book. The poem then goes on to introduce the site and symbol for this reconciliation of individual to mass: the body, "physiology from top to toe." We receive individual identity through our body, . . . yet at the same time, physicality, and especially physical affection, are universal, binding us together in common humanity. Much of the boldly progressive politics of Whitman‟s poetry will follow from this emphasis on the body; thus his introduction of the theme of "physiology" is followed by his (then quite radical) insistence on the political equality of male and female.The poet he imagines in the 1855 preface is, like his ideal republic, balanced between self and other: "The soul has that measureless pride which consists in never acknowledging any lessons but its own. But it has sympathy as measureless as its pride and the one balances the other and neither can stretch too far while it stretches in company with the other. The inmost secrets of art sleep with the twain. The greatest poet has lain close betwixt both and they are vital to his style and thoughts."This vision of a poet stretching within a universe bounded by pride and sympathy had as its political analogue the paradox of an American republic poised between self-interest and public virtue, liberty and union, the interests of the many and the good of the one. The secretof Whitman's art and the American Union, the paradox of many in one, eventually became the opening inscription and balancing frame of Leaves of Grass:One's-Self I sing, a simple separate person,Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.Balanced between the separate person and the en masse, the politics of Leaves of Grass is neither liberal nor bourgeois in the classical sense of the terms; rather, the poems represent the republican ideals of early-nineteenth-century artisan radicalism, emphasizing the interlinked values of independence and community, personal wealth and commonwealth.The open boatNature’s Indifference to ManDespite the narrator‟s profusion of animistic (animal-like), humanistic (manlike), and deistic (godlike) characterizations of nature, Crane makes clear that nature is ultimately indifferent to the plight of man, possessing no consciousness that we can understand. As the stranded men progress through the story, the reality of nature‟s lack of concern for them becomes increasingly clear. The narrator highlights this development by changing the way he describes the sea. Early in the story, the sea snarls, hisses, and bucks like a bronco; later, it merely “paces to and fro,” no longer an actor in the men‟s drama. In reality, the sea does not change at all; onl y the men‟s perception of the sea changes. The unaltered activity of the gulls, clouds, and tides illustrates that nature does not behave any differently in light of the men‟s struggle to survive.Crane strengthens the idea that nature is indifferent to man by showing that it is as randomly helpful as it is hurtful. For every malevolent whim that the men suffer, they experience an unexpected good turn in the form of a favorable wind or calm night. The fact that the men almost seem to get assistance from nature destroys the notion of nature as an entirely hostile force. Nothing highlights this point so much as the correspondent‟s final rescue. Plowed to shore and saved by a freak wave, the correspondent must embrace the fact that the very thing that has put him in harm‟s way has saved him. This freak wave, however, may also be responsible for killing the much hardier oiler, a turn of events that demonstrates two ideas: nature is as much a harsh punisher as it is a benefactor, and nature does not act out of any motivation that can be understood in human terms.Man’s Insignificance in the Universe“The Open Boat” conveys a feeling of loneliness that comes from man‟s understanding that he is alone in the universe and insignificant in its workings. Underneath the men‟s and narrator‟s collective rants at fate and the universe is the fear of nothingness. They have an egotistical belief that they should have a role in the universe, that their existence should mean something. When the correspondent realizes by section VI that fate will not answer his pleas, he settles into despair. His subsequent recollection of the poem about the soldier who lies dying in Algiers reflects his feelings of alienation at being displaced from his position in the universe. Like the soldier who dies in alien territory, the correspondent fears that he too will perish without a connection to whatever gives him his sense of self.Throughout “The Open Boat,” the correspondent understands pain to be the necessary byproduct of his efforts to overcome nature, the willful enemy. He comes to value hissuffering because it is nobly derived; in the earlier sections, the correspondent, whom the narrator says is cynical, is often cheerful and talkative in his descriptions of the physical pain he experien ces. By the end of the story, however, the correspondent‟s new awareness that the universe is unconcerned with the situation‟s outcome makes him physically and spiritually weary. He decides that there is no higher purpose to surviving other than prolonging a life that is meaningless. His comment in section VII that the coldness of the water is simply “sad” underscores this despair. At this point, all sensations of pain and pleasure are merely physical and have no spiritual meaning.A clean well-lighted placeLife as NothingnessIn “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway suggests that life has no meaning and that man is an insignificant speck in a great sea of nothingness. The older waiter makes this idea as clear as he can when he says, “It was all a nothing and man was a no thing too.” When he substitutes the Spanish word nada (nothing) into the prayers he recites, he indicates that religion, to which many people turn to find meaning and purpose, is also just nothingness. Rather than pray with the actual words, “Our Father wh o art in heaven,” the older waiter says, “Our nada who art in nada”—effectively wiping out both God and the idea of heaven in one breath. Not everyone is aware of the nothingness, however. For example, the younger waiter hurtles through his life hastily and happily, unaware of any reason why he should lament. For the old man, the older waiter, and the other people who need late-night cafés, however, the idea of nothingness is overwhelming and leads to despair.The Struggle to Deal with DespairThe old man and older waiter in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” struggle to find a way to deal with their despair, but even their best method simply subdues the despair rather than cures it. The old man has tried to stave off despair in several unsuccessful ways. We learn that he has money, but money has not helped. We learn that he was once married, but he no longer has a wife. We also learn that he has unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide in a desperate attempt to quell the despair for good. The only way the old man can deal with his despair now is to sit for hours in a clean, well-lit café. Deaf, he can feel the quietness of the nighttime and the café, and although he is essentially in his own private world, sitting by himself in the café is not the same as being alone.The older waiter, in his mocking prayers filled with the word nada, shows that religion is not a viable method of dealing with despair, and his solution is the same as the old man‟s: he waits out the nighttime in cafés. He is particular about the type of café he likes: the café must be well lit and clean. Bars and bodegas, although many are open all night, do not lessen despair because they are not clean, and patrons often must stand at the bar rather than sit at a table. The old man and the older waiter also glean solace from routine. The ritualistic café-sitting and drinking help them deal with despair because it makes life predictable. Routine is something they can control and manage, unlike the vast nothingness that surrounds them.A rose for EmilyTradition versus ChangeThrough the mysterious figure of Emily Grierson, Faulkner conveys the struggle that comes from trying to maintain tradition in the face of widespread, radical change. Jefferson is at a crossroads, embracing a modern, more commercial future while still perched on the edge of the past, from the faded glory of the Grierson home to the town cemetery where anonymous Civil War soldiers have been laid to rest. Emily herself is a tradition, steadfastly staying the same over the years despite many changes in her community. She is in many ways a mixed blessing. As a living monument to the past, she represents the traditions that people wish to respect and honor; however, she is also a burden and entirely cut off from the outside world, nursing eccentricities that others cannot understand.Emily lives in a timeless vacuum and world of her own making. Refusing to have metallic numbers affixed to the side of her house when the town receives modern mail service, she is out of touch with the reality that constantly threatens to break through her carefully sealed perimeters. Garages and cotton gins have replaced the grand antebellum homes. The aldermen try to break with the unofficial agreement about taxes once forged between Colonel Sartoris and Emily. This new and younger generation of leaders brings in Homer‟s company to pave the sidewalks. Although Jefferson still highly regards traditional notions of honor and reputation, the narrator is critical of the old men in their Confederate uniforms who ga ther for Emily‟s funeral. For them as for her, time is relative. The past is not a faint glimmer but an ever-present, idealized realm. Emily‟s macabre bridal chamber is an extreme attempt to stop time and prevent change, although doing so comes at the expense of human life.The Power of DeathDeath hangs over “A Rose for Emily,” from the narrator‟s mention of Emily‟s death at the beginning of the story through the description of Emily‟s death-haunted life to the foundering of tradition in the face of modern changes. In every case, death prevails over every attempt to master it. Emily, a fixture in the community, gives in to death slowly. The narrator compares her to a drowned woman, a bloated and pale figure left too long in the water. In the same description, he refers to her small, spare skeleton—she is practically dead on her feet. Emily stands as an emblem of the Old South, a grand lady whose respectability and charm rapidly decline through the years, much like the outdated sensibilities the Griersons represent. The death of the old social order will prevail, despite many townspeople‟s attempts to stay true to the old ways.Emily attempts to exert power over death by denying the fact of death itself. Her bizarre relationship to the dead bodies of the men she has loved—her necrophilia—is revealed first when her father dies. Unable to admit that he has died, Emily clings to the controlling paternal figure whose denial and control became the only—yet extreme—form of love she knew. She gives up his body only reluctantly. When Homer dies, Emily refuses to acknowledge it once again—although this time, she herself was responsible for bringing about the death. In killing Homer, she was able to keep him near her. However, Homer‟s lifelessness rendered him permanently distant. Emily and Homer‟s grotesque marriage reveals Emily‟s disturbing attempt to fuse life and death. However, death ultimately triumphs.5. Writing: focus on the main characters in the following texts. 5选2。

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。