(完整word版)英语专业美国文学复习资料。.docx

英语美国文学史复习资料英语美国文学史复习资料一、时期综述（关于清教的应该都是重点）1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：A、narratives 日记B、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：①their voyage to the new land ②adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates andcrops③about dealing with Indians ④guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit3、清教徒的想法：①Puritans want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices.净化信仰和行为方式②wish to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of the Bible to theology.重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位③lo ok upon themselves as a chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God’s will and is not to be accepted.认为自己是上帝选民，对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝。

④Puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been e_aggerated.反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步。

⑤reli gious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.强调上帝严厉的一面，忽视上帝仁慈的一面。

美国文学复习资料美国文学复习资料美国文学是世界文学宝库中的重要组成部分，它以其独特的风格和丰富的内容吸引着广大读者和研究者。

在这篇文章中，我们将为大家提供一些关于美国文学的复习资料，希望能够帮助大家更好地了解和掌握这一领域的知识。

一、美国文学的起源美国文学的起源可以追溯到17世纪早期的殖民地时期。

当时，由于殖民者来自不同的国家和文化背景，美国文学呈现出多元化的特点。

早期的美国文学作品主要以宗教和探险为主题，其中最著名的作品包括《普利茅斯故事》和《马萨诸塞湾殖民地的历史》等。

随着时间的推移，美国文学逐渐发展壮大。

18世纪的启蒙时代，美国文学开始借鉴欧洲文学的思想和风格，融合了理性主义和启蒙思想。

这一时期的代表作品有本杰明·富兰克林的《自传》和托马斯·潘恩的《常识》等。

二、美国文学的经典作品美国文学的经典作品数不胜数，下面我们列举一些代表作品，供大家参考。

1. 马克·吐温的《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》：这是一部以南北战争时期为背景的小说，通过主人公哈克贝利的冒险经历，揭示了奴隶制度的黑暗面和人性的复杂性。

2. 纳撒尼尔·霍桑的《红字》：这是一部关于道德与罪恶的小说，讲述了一个女性因婚外情而被判刑的故事。

小说通过对社会道德观念的探讨，揭示了人性的复杂性和社会的偏见。

3. 威廉·福克纳的《喧哗与骚动》：这是一部以南方小镇为背景的小说，通过对人物内心世界的描写，探讨了种族、阶级和家庭关系等社会问题。

4. 埃米莉·狄金森的诗歌：狄金森是美国文学史上最重要的女性诗人之一，她的诗作以独特的风格和深刻的思想而著称，对后世的诗人产生了深远的影响。

三、美国文学的主题与风格美国文学的主题多种多样，涵盖了社会、政治、种族、性别、宗教等各个方面。

在风格上，美国文学也呈现出多样性，既有浪漫主义的热情奔放，也有现实主义的冷静客观。

此外，美国文学还有一些独特的风格流派，如南方文学、黑人文学和美国现代主义文学等。

选择10X2分填空10X3分名词解释5X4分简答5X4分论述1X10分选择&填空各章重要知识点：包扌臣各历史时期的文学流派特点标志，重要的代表作家及主要作品，作品的主要情节和主要人物。

名词解释&简答BeowulfepicalliterationballadRomanceHeroic CoupletsBlank VerseChaucer and The Canterbuiy Tales WilliamShakespeare&his great works SonnetMetaphysical PoetsThe RenaissanceEnlightenment RomanticismCritical RealismImagismModernismThe Stream of Consciousness 诗歌格律韵式辨析John Milton and Paradise LostJohn Bunyan and The Pilgrim? sProgress HumanismEnlightenmentNeoclassicismSentimantalism浪漫主义的重要诗人和代表作Byronic HeroesDramatic MonologueCritical RealismOedipus Complex 论述ChaucerShakespeareJohn MiltonHenry FieldingCharles DickensJane AustenThomas HardyRenaissance特点：1. There was a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature and an expression of the general dissatisfaction at the Catholic and feudal ideas.2eHumanism is the key-note of the Renaissance.Representative Figures1） Thomas More Utopia2） Thomas Wyatt He was the first to introduce the sonnet into English literature.3） John Lyly the novel Eupheus gave rise to the term "euphuisrrT（绮丽体）euphuism refers to an affectedly elegant literary style of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, characterized by elaborate alliteration, antitheses（对照）,and similes（明喻）•4） Christopher Marlowe Timur （《巾占木丿L》）he is known for his magnificent blank verse,《帖木儿》是一部英雄剧，塑造了一个叱咤风云却又野心勃勃的征服者形象，充分体现了文艺复兴时期的巨人精神。

Part one:Answer: 1—60A,B,D,D,C/ D,A,B,A,D/ A,A,D,D,B/ C,C,B,D,CD A B D B/ A C B C D/ C D C D A/ B,A,C,A,DB,C,C,B,A/ D,A,B,D,D/ A,A,D,D,B/ C,C,A,D,C11.Hawthorne’s masterpiece, one of the greatest novels of the world is The Scarlet Letter.2.Emerson’s first startling book is Nature.3.Ralph Waldo Emerson is the chief spokesman of this spiritual movement ofTranscendentalism.4.Washington Irving is worth the honor of being “for his literary craftsmanship for his literarycraftsmanship.5.The colonial influence over American Romanticism made American Romantic writers moremoralize than their English counter-parts.6.The impact of Darwin's evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to another school of realism: American Naturalism.7.In the first part of the 20th century, apart from Darwinism, there were two thinkers theGerman Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund Freud, whose ideas had the greatest impact on the period.8. In his poetry, Robert Frost made the colloquial New England speech into a poetic expression.The theme of returning to nature could be read in Leather-Stocking Tales by Cooper.10. About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statements is not true? DA. It's very hard to say that it is a love story or a story of sin.B. It's a highly symbolic story and the author is a master of symbolism.C. It's mainlyabout the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin upon the main characters and the people in general.D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel.11. Ezra Pound showed great interest in Chinese literature and translated the poetry of Li Bai into English.12. Eli ot’s first major poem (1917 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock , has been called the first masterpiece of modernism in English.13. The Fitzgerald lived so extravagantly that they frequently spent more money than Fitzgerald earned for parties, liquor, entertaining their friends and traveling. It was this living style that nicknamed the decade of the 1920s as The Roaring Twenties,The Jazz age andThe Dollar Decade.14. Hemingway was badly wounded in Italy and sent to a hospital where he fell in love with a nurse. These two persons later became the characters of his novel A Farewell to Arms15. The Grapes of Wrath tells the Joad family’s life from the time they were evicted from their farm in Oklahoma until their first winter in California.16. Faulkner wrote about the society in the South by inventing families which represented different social forces: the old decaying upper class; the rising, ambitious, unscrupulous class of the “poor Whites”; and the Negroes who laboured for both of them.17. In Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, he used a technique called stream of consciousness , in which the whole story was told through the thoughts of four characters.18. Faulkner’s novel The Sound and the Fury describes the decay and downfall of an old southern aristocratic family, symbolizing the old social order, told from four different points of view.19. To Faulkner, the primary duty of a writer was to explore and represent the infinite possibilities inherent in human life. Therefore a writer should observe with no judgment whatsoever and reduce authorial intrusion to the lowest minimum.20. Which of the following is right about American fiction from 1945 onwards?A group of new writers who survived the war wrote about their ideals within the artistic field.1. The Beat Generation is a large group including San Francisco writers, the name referred simultaneously_______, through drugs, and alcohol.• A. to their sense that society was worn out• B. to their interest in new forms of experience• C. to the rhythm of jazz2. In the Depression Age, John Steinbeck is the famous leftist for his sympathetic story about drifting farm laborers and factory workers.3. The 1940s saw the flourishing of a new contingent of writers, including R. P. Warren, A. Miller, T. Williams, K. A. Porter and E. Welty. All but Miller were from the South4. The Great God Brown fuses symbolism, poetry, and the affirmation of a pagan idealism to show how materialistic civilization denies the life—giving impulses to and destruction of the genuine art.5. The realistic schools led by Mark Twain and Henry James differ in their understanding of the truth6. Eliot’s first major poem (1917) has been called the first masterpiece of modernism in English.A. The Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockB. The Waste LandC. Four QuartetsD. Preludes7. Which story is William Dean Howells’ masterpiece on the American spirit of the self-made man?A. A Modern InstanceB. The Luck of Roaring CampC. The Rise of Silas LaphamD. A Woman’s Reason8. Which of the following is depicted as the mythical county in William Faulkner'snovels?A. Cambridge.B. YoknapatawphaC. Mississippi.D.Tagliamento9. “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.”This line is the shortest poem written by ______.A. T. S. EliotB. Robert FrostC. Ezra PoundD.E. E. Cummings10. Which couple of the following are not written by Henry James?A. The Portrait of A Lady and The EuropeansB. The Wings of the Dove and The AmbassadorsC. What Maisie Knows and The BostoniansD. The Genius and The Gilded Age11. __________ is said to be a “historical novel”by Faulkner.A. Go Down, MosesB. Light in AugustC. Absalom, AbsalomD. The Sound and the Fury12. Which of the following is said of the American naturalists?A. They preferred to have their own region and people at the forefront of thestories.B. Their characteristic setting is usually an isolated town.C. Human should be united because they had to adapt themselves to changingharsh environment.D. Their characters were conceived more or less complex combinations ofinherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.13. The great sea adventure story Moby-Dick is usually considered______.A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the artistic truth and beautyB. an adventurous exploration into man's relationship with natureC. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universeD. a simple whaling tale or sea adventure14. The American 30s lasted from the Crash, through the ensuing Great Depression,until the outbreak of the 2nd World War 1939. This was a period of _______.A. a new social consciousnessB. bleaknessC. important social movementsD. All above15. As to the great American poet Ezra Pound, which of the following statements is not true?A. His language is usually oblique yet marvelously compressed and his poetry isdense with personal, literary, and historical allusions.B. His artistic talents are on full display in the history of the Imagist Movement.C. From his analysis of the Chinese ideogram Pound learned to anchor his poeticlanguage in concrete, perceptual reality, and to organize images into larger patterns through juxtaposition.D. For he was politically controversial and notorious for what he did in thewartime, his literary achievement and influence are somewhat reduced.16. Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt presents a documentary picture of the narrow and limited ______.A. up-class mindB. middle-class mindC. proletarianD. ordinary people17. In A Rose for Emily, Faulkner makes best use of ______ devices in narration.A. romanticB. realisticC. gothicD. modernist18. American diction in the 1960s and 1970s proves to be different from itspredecessors. It is always referred to as “_______”.A. ImagismB. black humorC. new fictionD. the Beat Generation19. As an autobiographical play, O’Neill’s ______ (1951) has gained its status as aworld classic and simultaneously marks the climax of his literary career and the coming of age of American drama.A.Long Day’s Journey into NightB. The Hairy ApeC. Desire under the ElmsD. The Iceman Cometh20. Tender Is the Night is a ______ by Fitzgerald.A. short storyB. novellaC. poemD. novel1. Which of the following notions is not of literature?A. local colorB. sub-consciousnessC. stream of consciousnessD. naturalism2. As Fitzgerald’s writing style is concerned, which of the following is true?A. The author dropped off the device of having events observed by a “centralconsciousness”.B. His intervening passages of narration leave the tedious process of transition tothe author’s imagination.C. His diction and metaphors are partially original and details accurate.D. The scenic methods are employed, each of which consists of one or moredramatic scenes.3. The Age of Realism in the literary history of the U. S. refers to the period from______ to ______.A. 1861—1914B. 1863—1918C. 1865—1914D. 1865—19454. ______ is not the representative writer in the Age of Realism in the literary historyof the U.S.A. Henry JamesB. Emily DickinsonC. William Dean HowellsD. Mark Twain5. ______ explores the scrupulous individualism in a world of fantastic speculationand unstable values, and gives its name to the get-rich-quick years of the postCivil War era.A. Innocents AbroadB. The Gilded AgeC. Roughing ItD. The Middle Year s6. The impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the American thought and theinfluence of the 19th century French literature and the American men of letters gave rise to another powerful school of realism of American literature: American ______.A. RomanticismB. TranscendentalismC. The Lost GenerationD. Naturalism7. In the first part of the 20th century, apart from Darwinism, there were two importantthinkers, ______, whose ideas had the greatest impact on the writing of American modernist period.A. the German Karl Marx and the Austrian Sigmund FreudB. the German Karl Marx and the American Sigmund FreudC. the Swiss Carl Jung and the American William JamesD. the Austrian Karl Marx and the German Sigmund Freud8. In his poetry, Robert Frost made the colloquial ______ speech into a poeticexpression.A. EnglandB. New EnglandC. PlymouthD. Boston9. As the theme of New England Transcendentalism, returning to nature could be read in Walden by ______.A. CooperB. TwainC. IrvingD. Thoreau10. About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statements is not true?A. It’s very hard to say that it is a love story or a story of sin.B. It’s a highly symbolic story and the author is a master of symbolism.C. It’s mainly about the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin upon the main characters and the people in general.D. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel.11. ________ showed great interest in Chinese literature and translated the poetry of Li Bai into English.A. Ezra PoundB. Robert FrostC. T. S. EliotD.E. E. Cummings12.Psychological realists take the psychologist view that _______ shapes up the social life.A. subconscious instinctB. intuitive and self-reliantC. evil in human heartD. the circumstance of no freedom of choice13. The Fitzgerald lived so extravagantly that they frequently spent more money thanFitzgerald earned for parties, liquor, entertaining their friends and traveling. It is this living style that nicknamed the decade of the 1920s as .A. The Roaring TwentiesB. The Jazz ageC. The Dollar DecadeD. All of above14. Hemingway was badly wounded in Italy and sent to a hospital where he fell inlove with a nurse. They later became the characters of his novel .A. The Old Man and the SeaB. For Whom the Bell TollsC. The Sun Also RisesD. A Farewell to Arms15. ______ tells the Joad family’s life from the time they were evicted from their farmin Oklahoma until their first winter in California.A. Of Mice and MenB. The Grapes of WrathC. The Great GatsbyD. For Whom the Bell Tolls16. In the first half of the 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering period which is called “_____”.A. the English RenaissanceB. the Second RenaissanceC. the American RenaissanceD. the Salem Renaissance17. In Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, he used a technique called , inwhich the whole story was told through the thoughts of four characters.A. symbolismB. imagismC. the stream of consciousnessD. naturalism18. As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally concerning ______.A. nature, man and the universeB. the relationship between man and womanC. the development of Romanticism in American literatureD. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism19. To Faulkner, the primary duty of a writer is to explore and represent the infinitepossibilities inherent in human life. Therefore a writer should ______.A. observe with no judgment whatsoeverB. reduce authorial intrusion to the lowest minimumC. observe at a great distance and sometimes participate in the eventsD. both A and B20. Which of the following just depicts the American fiction in the field of literaturefrom 1945 onwards?A. Black fiction began to attract critical attention during the 1950s.B. There appeared a significant group of Jewish-American writers whose workswere set against the Jewish experience and tradition.C. A group of new writers who survived the war wrote about their ideals, seekingvitality in more widely popular material.D. American fiction in the 1950s and 1960s proves to be a harvest which derivedfrom its predecessors.Answer: 1—60A,B,D,D,C/ D,A,B,A,D/ A,A,D,D,B/ C,C,B,D,CD A B D B/ A C B C D/ C D C D A/ B,A,C,A,DB,C,C,B,A/ D,A,B,D,D/ A,A,D,D,B/ C,C,A,D,CPart Two1. Leather-stocking Tales F. Cooper frontier literature2. The Portrait of a Woman H. James psychological realism3. The Sketch Book W. Irving American short stories4. The 22 Catch J. Heller fiction of black humour5. Leaves of Grass W. Whitman free verse6. The Sound and the Fury W. Faulkner the stream of consciousness7. The Call of Wild J. London leftist and muckraker8. Nature R. W. Emerson transcendentalism9. The Great Gatsby F. S. Fitzgerald T he Jazz Age10. The Grapes of Wrath J. Steinbeck Depression literature and mild leftist1. Howl A. Ginsberg the beat generation2. The Zoo Story E. Albee absurdist theatre3. The Purloined Letter E. A. Poe detective stories4. The Native Son R. Wright H arlem Renaissance and black novels5. The Scarlet Letter N. Hawthorne black vision6. The Sun also Rises E. Hemingway the lost generation and war novels7. Autobiography B. Franklin individualism8. The Waste Land T. S. Eliot imagist poetry9. Sister Carrie T. Dreiser naturalism10. Adventures of Huckleberry Fin M. Twain local colorismPart Three1. Who are the forerunners of American naturalism?2. Who is considered the representative of the American literary school of last century: the Lost Generation and what did these men of letters call themselves?3. Which four fictional schools successively came into being in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 60s of the 20th century?4. Who is the most outstanding novelist of the 30th decade of last century and what are his earliest best seller and his greatest book?5. Which names are always associated with the stream-of-consciousness?6. As the following naturalists’example, which two novels are Stephen Crane’s main works ?7. What four literary branches consist of the American realism?8. What skills of literary creation does the 20th century stream-of-consciousness of American literature often include?9. Which three periods consist of the main development of American literature?10. What special names are given to the 20s, 30s, and 50s of the 20th century?11. Who are the forerunners of the first three main branches of American realism?12. By what historical events are the three main periods of American literature briefly divided?13. What renaissances successively appeared in the development of American literature?14. What expressive forms does post-modernism have?15. During the South Renaissance, what literary schools was formed one after another by nearly the same key members?16. What are the three main branches of knowledge covered by the Course of American Literature?17. Which main literary schools played the role in American early modernism of the 20s to 30s of the 20th century?18. What features does romanticism have in its style?19. What are the features of expression of American Romanticism?20.Part Three answer1. A. Stephen Crane, B. Frank Norris C. Theodore Dreiser2. A. Ernest Hemingway, B. exiles/expatriates3. A. the Lost Generation fiction, B. the leftist fiction,C. the south fiction,D. the Beat Generation fiction4. A. John Steinbeck B. Of Mice and Men , C. The Grapes of Wrath5. A. William James, B. Henry James, C. Sigmund Freud,D. Carl G. Jung,E. James Joyce,F. T.S. Eliot,6. A.《Maggie: A Girl of the Streets》 B.《The Red Badge of Courage》7. A. social realism, B. psychological realism, C. regionalism, D. naturalism8. A. interior monologue, B. free-association, C. multi-level structure9. A. the period of Romanticism, B. the period of Realism, C. the period of Modernism10. A. The Jazz Age, B. The Red Decade, C. The Timid Decade11. A. W.D. Howells for social realism, B. Mark Twain for regionalism,C. H. James for psychological realism12. A. the War of Independence—the Civil War, B. the Civil War—World War I,C. World War I—World War II—the end of last century13. A. the 1st American Renaissance in romantic period,B. the 2nd American Renaissance during the 20s—30s of the 20th century,C. the Harlem Renaissance during the 30s of the 20th century,D. the South Renaissance during the 40s of the 20th century14. A. black humor, B. fiction of absurdity,C. meta-fiction,D. avant-garde fiction15. A. Fugitives B. Agrarians C. The New Criticism16. A. the history of literature, B. reading of literary works, C. the criticismof literature17. A. the Lost Generation, B. muckraking realism, C. leftist naturalism18. A. imaginative fiction B. ideal emotion C. heroism D. musicality in lines E. gothic and supernatural atmosphere19. A. attention to mental states B. escaping from society and return to natureC. celebration of the landscape with its virginD. influence of puritan strict moral lawsPart FourThe source of New England Transcendentalism is both ________ and ____________.Transcendentalism advocates ________ and _______ of man and nature. Emerson’s _______ is honored as the declaration of transcendentalism and of independence of literature while The American Scholar as the ______ of Intellectual independence.Washington Irving is well known as a writer of ______ and his best ones collected in _______ are Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.James Cooper is well known as the early novelist whose famous stories are collected in his collection of novels: _________. The five collected long stories are his masterpieces that are good examples of the pioneering _______ of American literature.The early sprouting period of American literature is often divided into two halves of _______ and __________The puritans from England came to the new world on purpose to seek for freedom _______, freedom of speech and freedom _________. of religionTwo books by Franklin which is the most widely read are ________ and _________. Melville’s outlook on life was influenced by Hawthorne’s _______, Shakespearean tragic vision and Emersonian ________.Edgar Allen Poe was honored as a _______ of the new style of poetry and American ________, such as The Purloined Letter.Part Four answerAmericans Puritanism European romanticismharmony unityNature manifestoshort stories The Sketch BookThe Leather-stocking Tales west fictionliterature of colonial America literature of reason and revolution.of religion from wantPoor Richard’s Almanac Autobiography of Franklinblack vision Transcendentalismpioneer analyzing novel。

文学体裁：诗歌poem，小说novel，戏剧dramaOrigin起源：Christianity 基督教→ bible 圣经Myth 神话The Romance of king Arthur and his knights 亚瑟王和他的骑士（笔记）一、The Anglo-Saxon period (449-1066)1、这个时期的文学作品分类：pagan(异教徒) Christian(基督徒)2、代表作：The Song of Beowulf 《贝奥武甫》( national epic 民族史诗) 采用了隐喻手法3、Alliteration 押头韵（写作手法）例子：of man was the mildest and most beloved,To his kin the kindest, keenest for praise.二、The Anglo-Norman period (1066-1350)Canto 诗章1、romance 传奇文学2、代表作：Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (高文爵士和绿衣骑士) 是一首押头韵的长诗三、Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) 杰弗里.乔叟时期1、the father of English poetry 英国诗歌之父2、heroic couplet 英雄双韵体：a verse unit consisting of two rhymed(押韵) lines in iambic pentameter(五步抑扬格)3、代表作：the Canterbury Tales 坎特伯雷的故事(英国文学史的开端)大致内容：the pilgrims are people from various parts of England, representatives of various walks of life and social groups.朝圣者都是来自英国的各地的人,代表着社会的各个不同阶层和社会团体小说特点：each of the narrators tells his tale in a peculiar manner, thus revealing his own views and character.这些叙述者以自己特色的方式讲述自己的故事，无形中表明了各自的观点，展示了各自的性格。

1.The History of American literatureThe literature of Colonial American (1607-1765)The literature of Reason and Revolution(1765—18世纪末）The literature of Romanticism（1800—1865）The literature of Realism（1865—1918）The literature of Modernism（1918－1945）The contemporary literature (1945－Now)2.Benjamin Franklin The AutobiographyThat good fortune, when I reflected on it, which is frequently the case, has induced me something to say that were it left to my choice, I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end, only asking the advantage authors have of correcting in a second edition some faults of the first.3.Thomas Jefferson The Declaration of IndependenceWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.4.Edgar Allan Poe The Cask of AmontilladoI must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.5.Washington Irving Rip Van Winkle ( The Sketch Book )“Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but, sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.”Interpretations of Rip Van WinkleA New Critical Approach: A peaceful village before Revolution Natural world in the mountains ; A noisy world after revolution ------Irving was unwilling to accept a modern democratic America ------both Rip and Irving prefer the past and a dream-like worldA Feminist Approach : Rip is a good person with more advantages than disadvantages, and readers always show sympathy on him because he has such bad-tempered wife. It seems that he has good reason to go out from his family. He was forced to go out .In fact , Rip: a lazy ,foolish man,an irresponsible father,a hard-hearted husband.His wife :a hard-working ,thrift woman, a kind ,responsible mother, an able, brave woman.6.Summit of Romanticism (American Transcendentalism)Emerson Nature & Self-RelianceThoreau WaldenNature : Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, -- master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages.Self Reliance:Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.Walden:1 A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.2 I have frequently seen a poet withdraw , having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmers supposed that he had got a few apples only.3 The hollow and lichen-covered apple trees, gnawed by rabbits, showing what kind of neighbors I should have.4 But I would say to my fellows, once for all, as long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the country jail.5 As I have said , I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.6 The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it.7 The Harivansa says,“An abode without birds is like a meat without seasoning.”such was not my abode, for I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds, not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them8 “There was a shepherd that did live, And held his thoughts as high .As were the mounts whereon his flocks. Did hourly feed his by”What should we think of the shepherd’s life if his flocks always wandered to higher pastures than his thoughts?Purpose : 1.escaping the effects of the Industrial Revolution by leading to a simpler life.2.simplifying life and reducing expenditures, increasing writings time3.putting into practice the Transcendentalist beliefIdeas : 1. the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.2 .was very critical of modern civilization.3.spiritual richness is real wealth7.Hawthorne The Scarlet LetterHester Prynne--1.confesses her guilty, faces the future optimistically，helps others2. able to construct her life, wins a moral success3. moral growth-----angelDimmesdale----1.hides his guilty first2.undergoes the physical and spiritual tormentsChillingworth--morally degrades by his pursuit of revengePearl----1, it means treasure ( the treasure to her mother. )2, Came out of an ugly shell but is beautifulTheme: 1 Don’t intend to tell a love story2 assumes the universalityof guilty3 explores the complexities and ambiguities of man’s choices4 focuses his attention on the moral, emotional, and psychological effects of the sin on the people.8.Longfellow A Paslm of Life / The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls / I shot an Arrow / My Lost Youth / The Rainy DayThe tide rises,The Tide Falls (1879)The tide rises, the tide falls, The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;Along the sea-sands damp and brown, The traveler hastens toward the town,And the tide rises, the tide falls.Darkness settles on roofs and walls,But the sea in the darkness calls;The little waves, with their soft white hands,Efface the footprints in the sands,And the tide rises, the tide falls.The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls, Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;The day returns, but nevermore . Returns the traveler to the shore,And the tide rises, the tide falls.My Lost YouthOften I think of the beautiful townThat is seated by the sea;Often in thought go up and downThe pleasant streets of that dear old town,And my youth comes back to me.And a verse of a Lapland songIs haunting my memory still'A boy's will is the wind's will,And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughtsI shot an arrowI shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where;For, so swiftly it flew, the sight. Could not follow it in its flight.I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where;For who has sight so keen and strong,That it can follow the flight of song?Long, long afterward, in an oak. I found the arrow, still unbroken;And the song, from beginning to end,I found again in the heart of a friend.9.Edgar Allan Poe To Helen Annabel Lee “The Raven”For the moon never beams without bringing me dreamsOf the beautiful ANNABEL LEE ；And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyesOf the beautiful ANNABEL LEE ；And so，all the night-tide , I lie down by the sideOf my darling —my darling —my life and my bride，In her sepulcher there by the sea—，In her tomb by the sounding sea.10.Emily Dickinson I Started Early-Took My Dog- I am NobodyTo Make a Prairie Success is counted sweetestI started Early -- Took my Dog -- And visited the Sea --The Mermaids in the Basement Came out to look at me --And Frigates -- in the Upper Floor Extended Hempen Hands --Presuming Me to be a Mouse -- Aground -- upon the Sands --But no Man moved Me -- till the Tide Went past my simple Shoe --And past my Apron -- and my Belt -- And past my Bodice -- too --And made as He would eat me up --As wholly as a Dew Upon a Dandelion's Sleeve --And then -- I started -- too -- And He -- He followed -- close behind --I felt his Silver Heel Upon my Ankle -- Then my ShoesWould overflow with Pearl --Until We met the Solid Town -- No One He seemed to know --And bowing -- with a Might look -- At me -- The Sea withdrew --1 The speaker is extremely frightened by the sea.2.The speaker also seems attracted to the sea.3. The speaker runs to town to escape the sea.4. She has a conflicted relationship to the sea.5. she is attracted to sth that frightens her---her self consciousness may mean she has some desire about which she feels guilty.Water, The seaThe unconscious, the emotions, the desire, the sexuality.The speaker’s conflicted attitude toward the sea implies a conflicted attitude toward sex (sex both attract and frightens her)11.Whitman Leaves of Grass One's Self I Sing O Captain! My Captain(free verse)The "ship" is intended to represent the United States of America, while its "fearful trip" recalls the troubles of the American Civil War. The "Captain" is Lincoln himself. (metaphor ) Rrhyme scheme : a a b b c d e d12.Mark Twain (realism) The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras CountyThe Adventure of Tom Sawyer13.Naturalism Theodore Sister CarrieStephen Crane The Open Boat1. Sister CarrieOh, Carrie, Carrie! Oh, blind strivings of the human heart! Onward, onward, it saith(say), and where beauty leads, there it follows. Whether it be the tinkle of a lone sheep bell o‘er some quiet landscape, or the glimmer of beauty in sylvan places, or the show of soul in some passing eye, the heart knows and makes answer, following. It is when the feet weary and hope seems vain that the heartaches and the longings arise. Know, then, that for you is neither surfeit(过量）nor content. In your rocking-chair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel.2. The Open BoatNaturalism in the story1,The indifference of natureThe oiler was the most skilled and capable manIf nature were just, The oiler would be the last of the four men who should have died. The oiler’s death and lack of explanation surrounding it reinforce the randomness of nature’s whims and symbolize the indifference of nature toward manIn the story a bird watches them and is completely indifferent.2,The survival of the fittestWhile the cook, captain, and correspondent all depend on a manmade or naturally occurring device to help them to the shore, the oiler goes it alone, relying only on his human strength and not on his more evolved capacity for thought and strategy.The “fittest”are the men who have relied on man’s ability to intelligently adapt and create.3,Man’s insignificance and aloneness in the universeThey think the man sees them. Then they think they see two men, then a crowd and perhaps a boat being rolled down to the shore. They stubbornly think that help is on the way as the shadows lengthen and the sea and sky turn black.14.Sherwood Anderson The Triumph of The EggThe Egg’s Symbolic Meanings :1.The Egg: The Robber2.The Egg: Beautiful But Fragile American Dream3 The Egg: The Old Unsolved Riddle15.Anne Porter The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (Stream-of-Consciousness Narration)16.F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great GatsbyEast Egg represents the established aristocracy, West Egg the self-made richThe unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals.Do you think Gatsby deserves to be called “the great”?It is complicated to say Gatsby deserves to be “great”or not.For one thing, Gatsby’s capacity to dream makes him “great”. Gatsby was ambitious, hardworking, generous and passionate. He was so extremely loyal to his love Daisy that he could do anything to get Daisy back: he did shady business to earn money and social position; he threw luxurious parties just to draw Daisy’s attention; he could take the blame for a death that he did not cause. Gatsby never gave up his idealistic dream while striving for material joy. Gatsby kept on making efforts to balance the both sides. In this respect, he is great.For another thing, Gatsby never realized that Daisy wasn’t the girl he loved anymore. He is not so wise and he can not see the people clearly. Gatsby was so innocent that he staked everything on his dreams, not realizing that his dreams are unworthy of him. In this respect, He wasn’t sober enough to be great.17.Ernest Hemingway (Iceberg theory)A Clean, Well-lighted Place The Old Man and The Sea18.Modern Poetry ImagismPound In a Station of the MetroWilliam Carlos Williams Spring and All The Red Wheelbarrow so much depends upon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.19.Robert FrostFire And IceThe Road Not TakenStopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningWhose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though; (woods 象征着大自然，而village 象征着人类社会)He will not see me stopping here,To watch his woods fill up with snow (snow --- purity )My little horse must think it queer，To stop without a farmhouse near,Between the woods and frozen lake，The darkest evening of the year.He gives his harness bells a shake, (he---My horse,Personification )To ask if there is some mistake.The only other sound’s the sweep, (Alliteration )Of easy wind and downy flake.The woods are lovely, dark and deep, (Alliteration )But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.Rhyme : interlocking enclosed rhyme (aaba ,bbcb,ccdc, dddd)Rhetorical DeviceAlliteration---sound & sleep; dark & deepPersonification “he”—horse “My little horse must think it queer.”Repetition (重复) “and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.( Superficial meaning: there is still a long distance before the speaker arrives at home and sleeps. Implied meaning: there are still numerous responsibilities before the speaker’s life comes to an end.SymbolismWoods--The mystery of nature; the temptations in our lifeVillage & He (the owner of the woods)—Human world & societySnow--Something of purityPromises--The unavoidable responsibilities & obligationsMiles--Long distance; the heavy duty of lifeSleep--Rest during night; the end of life (death)I am on my way--The journey of life20.Eugene O’Neill Desire Under the Elms (Abbie,Eben,Ephraim, Simeon ,Peter)21.Toni Morrison Recitatif。

Part I The Literature of Colonial AmericaI．Historical IntroductionThe colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.)II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds:1) Practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people "at home" what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. III．The First American WriterThe first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians.Captain John Smith is the first American writer.A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608)A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612)General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess PocahontasCaptain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers.One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV．Early New England LiteratureWilliam Bradford and John WinthropJohn Cotton and Roger WilliamsAnne Bradstreet and Edward TaylorV．Puritan Thoughts1. The origin of puritanIn the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce hiswife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church ofEngland. But there was no radical difference between the doctrines of the Church of England and the Catholic Church. A group of people thought the Church of England was too Catholic and wanted to purify the church. Then came the name Puritans.2. Puritanism -- based on Calvinism(1) predestination: God's electPuritans believed they are predestined before they were born.Nothing or no good work can change their fate.They believed the success of one's business is the sign to show he is the God's elect. So the Puritans works very hard, spend very little and invest more for the future business. They lived a very frugal life. This is their ethics.(2) Origianl sin and total depravityMan is born sinful. This determines some puritans pessimistic attitude towards life.(3) Limited atonement (the salvation of a selected few)(4) theocracyThey combined state with religion. Their government is at least not a liberal one.The Puritans established American tradition -- intolerant moralism. They strictly punished drunks, adultery & heretics.Puritans changed gradually due to the severity of frontier environment3. Influence on American Literature(1) Its optimismAmerican literature was from the outset conditioned by the Puritan heritage. It can be said American literature is based on the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. After that, man have an illusion to restore the paradise. The puritans, after arriving at America, believing that God must have sent them to this new land to restore the lost paradise, to build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden. Fired with such a strong sense of mission, they treated life with a tremendous amount of optimism. The optimistic Puritan has exerted a great influence on American literature.(2) Puritan's metaphorical mode of perception changed gradually into a literary symbolism.Part II The Literature of Reason And RevolutionI．Historical IntroductionWith the growth, especially of industry, there appeared the intense strain with England. The British government did not want colonial industries competing with those in England. The British wanted the colonies to remain politically and economically dependent on the mother country. They took a series of measures to insure this dependence. They prevented colonial economy by requiring Americans to ship raw materials abroad and to import finished goods at prices higher than the cost of making them in this country. Politically, the British government forced dependenceby ruling the colonies from overseas and by taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament.However, by the mid-eighteenth century, freedom was won as much by the fiery rhetoric of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the eloquence of the Declaration of Independence as by the weapons of Washington. In the seventies of the 18th century, the English colonies in North America rose in arms against their mother country. The War for Independence lasted for 8 years (1776-1783) and ended in the formation of a federative bourgeois democratic republic -- the United States of America. II．American EnlightenmentIt was supported by all progressive forces of the country which opposed themselves to the old colonial order and religious obscurantism.It dealt a decisive blow upon the puritan traditions and brought to life secular education and literature. The spiritual life during that period was to a great degree moulded by it.The representatives set themselves the task of disseminating knowledge among the people and advocating revolutionary ideas.The writers injected an invigorating vein into the English language in America as they aimed at clarity and precision of their writings.At the initial period the spread of the ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to journalism. Writings of Europe were widely read in America. The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of Benjamin Franklin.III．Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)The AutobiographyPoor Richard’s AlmanacLifeBenjamin Franklin came from a Calvinist background.He was born into a poor candle-maker’s family. He had very little education. He learned in school only for two years, but he was a voracious reader.At 12, he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother, a printer.At 16, he began to publish essays under the pseudonym “Silence Do good” .At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune.He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher. In 1727 he founded the Junto club.Multiple identities:a printera leading authora politiciana scientista inventora diplomata civic activistFranklin’s Contributions to SocietyHe helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital.He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania.And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.Franklin’s Contributions to ScienceHe was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices.And for his lightning-rod, he was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.”Franklin’s Contributions to the U.S.He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:The Declaration of Independence,The Treaty of Alliance with France,The Treaty of Peace with England,The ConstitutionThe AutobiographyThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was probably the first of its kind in literature. It is the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man.The Autobiography is, first of all, a Puritan document. It is Puritan because it is a record of self-examination and self-improvement. The meticulous chart of 13 virtues he set for himself to cultivate to combat the tempting vices, the stupendous effort he made to improve his own person, the belief that God helps those who helps themselves and that every calling is a service to God – all these indicate that Franklin was intensely Puritan. Then, the book is also a convincing illustration of the Puritan ethic that, in order to get on in the world, one has to be industrious, frugal, and prudent.The Autobiography is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenth-century enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free by nature, endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.A look at the style of The Autobiography will readily reveal that it is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness and concision. The plainness of its style, the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the salient features we cannot mistake. The lucidity of the narrative, the absence ofornaments in wording and of complex, involved structures in syntax, and the Puritan abhorrence of paradox are all graphically demonstrated in the whole of the book. Taken as a whole, it is safe to say that the book is an exemplary illustration of the American style of writing.IV．Thomas Paine (1737-1809)Common SenseAmerican CrisisV．Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)The Declaration of IndependenceVI．Philip Freneau (1752-1832)“Poet of the American Revolution”“Father of American Poetry”“Pioneer of the New Romanticism”“A gifted and versatile lyric poet”Works“The Wild Honey Suckle”“The Indian Burying Ground”“To a Caty-Did”Freneau as Father of American Poetry: His major themes are death, nature, transition, and the human in nature. All of these themes become important in 19th century writing.Life Experience►He was born in New York.►At 16, he entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He decided to do a postgraduate study in theology. But two years later he gave it up. While still an undergraduate, he wrote in collaboration with one of his friends (H. H. Brackenridge) a poem entitled “The Rising Glory of America”.►Later he attended the War of Independence, and he was captured by British army in 1780.►After being released, he published “The British Prison Ship” in 1781.►In the same year, he published “To the Memory of the Brave Americans”.►After war, he supported Jefferson, and contributed greatly to American government.►But after 50 years old, he lived in poverty. And at last he died in a blizzard.Main Works►“The Rising Glory of America” (1772) 《美洲光辉的兴起》►“The House of Night” (1779,1786) 《夜之屋》►“The British Prison Ship” (1781) 《英国囚船》►“To the Memory of the Brave Americans” (1781) 《纪念美国勇士》►“”The Wild Honey Suckle” (1786) 《野忍冬花》►“The Indian Burying Ground” (1788) 《印第安人墓地》野忍冬花（黄杲炘译）►美好的花呀，你长得：这么秀丽，却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方——甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；没游来荡去的脚来把你踩碎，没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。

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。

Unit 2埃德加·爱伦·坡(Edgar Allan Poe,1809—1849)，小说家、诗人、批评家。

幼年时不幸父母双亡，无依无靠,心灵蒙受创伤,后由商人约翰·爱伦作为义子收养。

1815年至1820年，他在伦敦就读小学，接受了英国传统的文化教育，后返回美国在弗吉尼亚大学、西点军校读书，1831年因违反校记被西点军校除名。

此后，他一度以出卖文稿谋生，始终为生活的贫困所缠绕，后曾担任《南方文学使者》等多家刊物的编辑或评论家。

1847年妻子病故，他颇为悲伤，精神恍惚,常常不能自已，1849年因酗酒丧生。

自青少年开始，埃德加·爱伦·坡(Edgar Allan Poe)便对文学表现出浓厚的兴趣，博览了古今大量的作品，而且很早显露出创作的天分。

1827年，他自费出版了第一部诗集《帖木尔》(Tamerlane and Other Poems)，随后出版的诗集包括《艾尔·阿拉夫》(Al Araaf, 1829)、《诗集》(Poems, 1831)和《乌鸦及其他诗篇》(The Raven and Other Poems, 1845)。

他的诗歌《乌鸦》1845年问世后，受到美国乃至欧洲文学届的普遍好评，他的旷世奇才由此得到了社会的认同。

与诗歌相比，他在短篇小说方面的成就更为显著，尤其长于创作哥特式的小说和侦探小说，作品主要收入《述异集》(Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840)与《故事集》(Tales, 1845)。

其中,脍炙人口的名篇佳作有《厄舍古厦的倒塌》(“The Fall of the House of Usher”)、《红色死亡假面舞会》(“The Masque of the Red Death”)、《莉盖亚》(“Ligeia”)、《黑猫》(“The Black Cat”)、《阿芒提拉多的酒桶》(“The Cask of Amontillado”)、《莫格街谋杀案》(“Murders in the Rue Morgue”)、《被窃的信件》(“The Purloined Letter”)和《金甲虫》(“The Gold Bug”)。

I.Some Historical Facts ★★★The earliest inhabitants: Britons （a tribe of Celts）Britain: "the land of Britons" © Now, the Three Famous Conquests:A.The Roman Conquest （55BC-410AD）1.Britain was invaded by the Romans under the leadership of Julius Caesar in 55 BC, and was completely subjugated to the Roman Empire in 78 A.D.2.Roman mode of life came across to Britain:Conquerors— theaters; bathsnative Britons— slaves3.Roman Empire began to decline at the beginning of the 5th C.In 410 A. D. all the Roman troops withdrew and never returned.B.The Anglo-Saxon Conquest （449-1066）In 449 A.D., Britain was invaded by three Germanic tribes from the Northeast of Europe:Angles （盎格鲁人）Saxons （撒克逊人）Jutes （朱特人）C.The Norman Conquest （1066-1485）French-speaking Normans, under the leadership of Duke William （William the Conqueror） came in 1066.After defeating the English at Hastings, William was crowned as the King of England. In the Anglo-Norman period, the prominent kind of literature, Romances, were at first all in French.At the end of the 14th century, English became dominant once more.II. Anglo-Saxon LiteratureAnglo-Saxon Poetry★★1.Pagan Poetry （世俗诗）Also called secular poetry, it does not contain any specific Christian doctrine. It was represented by Beowulf （贝奥武甫）.2.Religious Poetry （宗教诗）Also called Christian poetry, it is mainly on biblical stories and saints9 lives. But sometimes there is a mixture of Christian and pagan （异教徒）ideas. It is represented by Caedmon （凯德蒙）and Cynewulf （基涅武甫）・National epic （民族史诗）★★National epic: epic written in vernacular （本国的）languages, namely, the languages of various national states that came into being in the Middle Ages.It was the starting point of a gradual transition of European literature from Latin culture to a culture that was the combination of a variety of national characteristics. Poetic Features of “Beowulf （贝奥武甫）★★★i.The use of alliteration （头韵）is one of its most striking features.In alliterative verse, certain stressed or accented words in a line begin with the same consonant. There are 4 stresses in a line generally, of which three or two show alliteration.ii.The use of kennings:Kenning （代喻）:compound words that serve as metaphor, used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry.For example: "storm of swords" is a kenning for "battle".iii.The use of understatements（抑言陈述）or euphemism （委婉语），e.g.: "not troublesome" > very welcome"need not praise" > a right to condemniv.The basically pagan poem has an evident Christian overlay.e.g.:（l） "God" or "Lord" is frequently mentioned as the omnipotent supreme being, along with such Christian concepts as the belief in "future life".（2）Grendel is said to be descendant of the errant biblical figure, Cain.The Religious Poetry ★★The religious poetry is also called Christian poetry. It is mainly on biblical stories and saints9lives. But sometimes there is a mixture of Christian and pagan ideas in these poems. It is represented by Caedmon and Cynewulf.Anglo-Saxon Prose （散文）★★Prose literature did not show its appearance until the 8th century.There were two famous prose writers:Venerable Bede （比德）Alfred the Great （阿尔弗烈德大王）Anglo-Norman Literatures^1066, the year of the Norman conquest, marks the beginning of Anglo-Norman period （1066-1485）.Ca. 1200: the beginning of the Middle English Literature.A. Romance ★★★Romance （骑士文学），mostly in French, is the dominant kind of literature in the Anglo-Norman period.It is a long composition in verse or prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. It generally concerns knights and involves a large amount of fighting as well as a number of miscellaneous adventures.Essential features of the Romanced ★★1.It lacks general resemblance （相似）to truth or reality.2.It exaggerates the vices （罪恶）of human nature and idealizes the virtues.3.It contains perilous （危险的）adventures more or less remote from ordinary life.4.It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to lady.5.The central character of the romance is the knight, a man of noble birth, skilled in the use of weapons. He is commonly described as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournaments, or fighting for his lord in battle. He is devoted to the church and the king.The Matters of Britain★★★This Cycle mainly deals with the exploits （功绩）of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the culmination （高潮）of the Arthurian romances.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight**Sir Gawain and the Green Knight （《高文爵士和绿衣骑士》），a verse romance of 2530 lines, derived from Celtic legend. It was considered as the best of Arthurian romance.English Ballads (民歌)★★1.It is oral literature of the English people (esp. peasants).2.It is a story told in song, usu. in 4-line stanzas, with the 2nd and the 4th lines rhymed.3.Its subject matters: young lovers9 struggle against patriarchy (父权制)；conflict between love and wealth; cruelty of jealousy; criticism of the civil war (1337〜1453) between England and France.; matters of class struggle.Robin Hood Ballads: most noted.Translation of the Bible**1. John Wycliffe (1320-1384), the first attempt to translate the Latin version of the Bible into Middle English.King James9 version (the Authorized Version) (1611)Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)杰弗里•乔叟(GeoffreyChaucer) ★★★Father of English poetryThe first great poet writing in Middle EnglishFounder of English realismMain WorksThe Romance of the Rose《玫瑰传奇》The House of Fame《声誉殿堂》Troilus and Criseide《特罗伊拉斯和克莱西德》The Canterbury Tales《坎特伯雷故事集》Chaucer's Contributions★★★i.Chaucer made the London dialect the standard for modern English language, and was the first to write in English. In doing so, established English as the literary language of the country.ii.He introduced ( from France and Italy) the rhymed stanza (诗节)of various types, esp. heroic couplet (英雄偶句诗),to take the place of the old alliterative verse.iii.His works give a comprehensive picture of Chaucer's time; For his true-to-life (写实的)depictions, Chaucer is generally regarded as the forerunner of English realism.iv.Chaucer's gentle satire （讽束!j） and mild irony made him a pioneering English humorist writer.The Canterbury Tales （坎特伯雷故事集）（1387-1400）***1.The outline of the storyThe story opens with a general prologue telling that on a spring evening, at the Tabard Inn （泰巴旅店）,at the South end of London Bridge, Chaucer meets 29 pilgrims ready for Canterbury and he joins them.Suggested by the host of the inn, each is to tell 2 stories going and 2 returning. The best teller will be treated with a fine supper, by the host.Clearly, the structure of The Canterbury Tales is indebted to Boccaccio's Decameron （《十日谈》）.As a gigantic plan, 120 stories should be told but only 24 were written.But these tales cover practically all the major types of medieval literature: a. romance;b. folk tale;c. beast fable （1 申话）；d. adventures;e. saint's life;f. allegorical tale （寓言）;g. sermon （训诫）;h. alchemical account （炼丹术）,etc.2.The General Prologue （总序言）The Canterbury Tales consists of three parts:The General Prologue,24 tales, four of which left unfinished,Separate prologues to each tale.The General Prologue was considered the best part of the whole work, which supplies a picture of people from all walks of life in the medieval England. It in essence serves asa guide.3.The charactersAll kinds of people except the highest and the lowest are represented by these thirty pilgrims （朝圣者）：The gentle class （2申士阶层）is represented by the knight, the squire （骑士扈从）, the monk, the prioress （女修道院院长）,the Oxford scholar, and the Franklin （地主）; The burgher class （市民阶层）is represented by the wealthy trademan, thehaberdasher（月艮装店主），the carpenter, the landed proprietor（土地业主），the weaver, the tapestry-maker （挂毯商）,and the Wife of Bath （巴斯夫人）；The professionals are represented by the lawyer and the physician.Rhymed ★Alliteration （头韵）：stressed words in a line begin with the same consonant, e.g.: great, grewAssonance （谐韵）:stressed words in a line share the same vowel （谐元韵），e.g.: great, failRhyme （尾韵）：Identity or sameness of terminal sounds in poetic lines or in words, e.g.: great, bait Feet （音步）feet: small groups of syllables （音节）,i.e. the combination of a strong stress and one or two weak stresses.simply put （简言之）:Combination of one stressed syllable （重读音节）& one or two unstressed syllables （非重读音节）e.g. hazel; to swell;The clock struck one.Four standard（1）iambic （抑扬格,n. iamb）an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable:defeat return（2）anapestic （抑抑扬格,n. anapest）two unstressed syllables t a stressed:understand with a leap（3）trochaic （扬抑格,n. trochee）a stressed an unstressed:listen double（4）dactylic （扬抑抑格,n. dactyl）a stressed 一 two unstressed syllables: Here we go merrilyNumber of feet in a(1)monometer 单音步(one foot)(2)dimeter 二音步(two feet)(3)trimeter 三音步(three feet )(4) tetrameter 四音步(fourfbet )(5) pentameter 五音步(five feet )(6) hexameter 六音步(six feet)(7) heptameter 七音步(sevenfeet)(8) octameterMeter (韵律)八音步(eightfeet)The meter of a line (诗行的韵律)not only includes the predominant foot of the line, but also the number of feet that it contains.rhymed stanza (押＜尾＞韵诗节)Rhymed: correspondence of terminal sounds of words, or of lines of verse.Stanza: a group of lines in a repeated pattern that form a unit within a larger poem.List of stanza names according to number of lines:2lines = Couplet (对联)3lines = Tercet (三行诗)4lines = Quatrain (四行诗)5lines = Cinquain (五彳亍诗)6lines = Sestet (六行诗)7lines = Septet (七行诗)8lines = Octave (八行诗)heroic couplet (英雄诗体，英雄双韵句)It is a rhymed couplet (押韵对句)：a pair of rhyming lines in iambic pentameter.rhyming scheme (韵法)英语诗歌的行与行之间的押韵格式称韵法。

美国文学史考试复习资料全1美国文学史复习（colonialism)第一部分殖民主义时期的文学一、时期综述1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：a、narratives 日记b、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：1）their voyage to the new land2) Adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops 3) About deal ing with Indians4) Guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit3、清教徒的思想：1）puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology.3look upon themselves as chosen people, and it follow logically tha t anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God's will and is not to be accepted.4）puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exagge rated. 步5）religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.。

4、典型的清教徒：John Cotton & Roger William他们的不同：John Cotton was much more concerned with authority thanwith democrac y;William begins the history of religious toleration in America.5、William的宗教观点：Toleration did not stem from a lack of religious convictions. Instead , it sprang from the idea that simply to be virtuous in conduct an d devout in belief did not give anyone the right to force belief o n others. He also felt that no political order or church system cou ld identify itself directly with Go6、英国最早移民到美国的诗人：Anne Bradstreet7、在殖民时期最好的清教徒诗人：the best of Puritan poets is Edward Tayor.学习指南：1、Could you give a description of American Puritans? 关于美国清教徒的描绘Like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to the "purity" of the first·c entury church as established by Jesus Christ himself. To them religion was a matter of primary importance. They made it their chief busi ness to see that man lived and thought and acted in a way which t ended to the glory of God. They accepted the doctrine of predestinat ion, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God, all that John Calvin, the gre at French theologian who lived in Geneva had preached It was this kind of religious belief that they brought with them into the wild ness. There they meaant to prove that were God's chosen people enjoy ing his blessings on this earth as in Heaven.2，，Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety were the Puritan valuesthat d ominated much of the earliest American writing.3、The work of two writers, Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor, rose to t he level of real poetry.4．The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spani ards Italian, and Portuguese.美国文学史复习2（reasoning and revolution) )一、美国的性质：The war for Independence ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republic - the United States of America. 联邦的资产阶级民主共和国--美利坚合众国。

一Colonial America1.The first English colony: Jamestown in Virginia in 16072Puritanism :Influence on American value system: simplicity, freedom, independence, hard work, etc. 3Anne Bradstreet，once called “Tenth Muse”二Reason and Revolution1.Benjamin Franklin---Poor Richard’s AlmanacModeled on farmers’annual calendar; kept publishing for many years;includes many classical sayings,2.Thomas PaineCommon Sense: a strong push for the Revolution Warfour parts (British enslavement of the colonies; praising democratic election; America’s economic and military potential to protect the rights of people)三RomanticismAn expression of an individual’s feeling and experiences; imagination & natureThe first literary Renaissance, in the history of American literature. It stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War. It st arted with the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.1.Washington Irving (1783-1859)(1)Literary status: the first American to earn an international reputation; Father of the American short stories(2)Tow short stories----“Rip V an Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”: Americanized versions of European folk tales, from German legends, but achieving a distinct American tone and theme(3)The Sketch Book:The first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature, winning him international popularity2.James Fenimore Cooperthe first major American writer to deal imaginatively with American life, a critic of the political, social and religious problems of the day.Leatherstocking TalesIncluding: The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinder, The DeerslayerCentre Character: Natty Bumppo (an ideal romantically; various names: Leatherstocking, Deerslayer, Pathfinder, Hawkeye; with two noble red men: Mohican Chief Chingachgook and his son, Uncas)3.William Cullen BryantLiterary status: one of America’s earliest naturalist poets; “the American Wordsworth”most famous poems: “Thanatopsis”; “To a Waterfowl”4.Edgar Allen PoeThe Raven:The poem is a verse-narrative and has 108 lines in 18 stanzas.TranscendentalismNature’s voice pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, thesummit of American Romanticism.5.Henry David ThoreauLiterary status: a thorough practitioner of Transcendentalism; greatly influenced by Emerson (more radical)Civil Disobedience(在什么情况下写的：没交战争税，入狱)Walden (Walden is a faithful record of his reflections when he was in solitary communion with nature, an eloquent indication that he not only embraced Emerson’s Transcendentalist philosophy but went even further to illustrate that pantheistic quality of nature.)6Nathaniel HawthorneThe Scarlet Letter 《红字》(a simple but very moving story in which four people living in a Puritan community are involved in and affected by the sin of adultery in different ways, showing the reader the tension between society and individuals)7.Herman Melvillea master of allegory and symbolismmost of his novels based on sea sailors and adventur e except The Confidence-Man(1857) Literary achievements: Moby Dick四Realism1Walt Whitman ---Innovative poetic form: “free verse 自由体诗” (poetry without a fixed beator regular rhyme scheme; intriguing the reader’s own imagination); a looser and more open-ended syntactical structure; lines and sentences of different lengths; few compound sentences2.Theodore Dreiser(填空题)(1)欲望三部曲The Financier The Titan The Stoic(2) American Tragedy为什么叫美国悲剧-------典型地反应了当时美国人对财富的追求2.Mark Twain(1)The Gilded Age 《镀金时代》: written in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner, exploring the individualism in a world of unstable values, naming the get-rich-quick years of the post-Civil War(2).Mark Twain的贡献：making colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of the country3.Henry James(1)the first American writer to conceive his career in international termsInternational themes：the clashes between two different cultures and the emotional and moral problems of Americans in Europe, or Europeans in America 主题：inner world(2)The Portrait of A Lady -------It incarnates the clash between the Old World and the New World in the life journey of an American girl in a European environment(3)International theme--American innocence in face of European sophistication4 .Bret Harte in the 1860s was the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularity,presenting stories of western mining towns with colorful gambles, outlaws, and scandalous.5.Naturalism emphasized heredity and environment as important deterministicforces shaping individualized characters who were presented in specialand detailed circumstances. At bottom, life was shown to be ironic even tragic五Twentieth-Century Literature1.Scott Fitzgerald(1)了不起的盖尔茨比反应了那个年代-----Jazz Age2.Robert Frost(填空题)（1）Robert Frost had rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries, choosing instead" the old -fashioned way to be new". He employed the plain speech of rural New Englanders and preferred the short , traditional forms of lyric and narrative.（2）After Apple-PickingOf apple-Picking: I am overtiredOf the great harvest I myself desired.What is the two sentences imply?The speaker is indifferent to what he once desired.3The imagist Movement flourished from 1908 to 1917 and involved quite a number of British and American writers and poets4.PoundA Pact 契约(Ezar Pound)主要表达了意思5.With the slow disintegration of old prejudices came the “Harlem Renaissance” a burst of literaryachievement in the 1920s by Negro playwrights, poets, and novelists who presented new insights into the American experience and prepared the way for the emergence of numerous black writers after mid-century.阅读题一We passed the school, where children stroveAt recess----in the ring----We passed the fields of gazing grain----We passed the setting sun----1.作者Emily Dickinson作名：Because I could not stop for death2.Three images: school, field, setting sun, which stand for three stages of life: youth, mature period, end of life3.The school, the fields of Gazing Grain, the setting sun symbolize three stages of one's life:youth, manhood and old age.4."we" were riding in a hearse, heading toward Eternity.二Moby Dick1.作者：Herman Melville 作名：Moby Dick2.船长：Ahab3.发生的事：The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby-Dick, a white whale of tremendous size and ferocity, which destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg. Ahab intends to exact revenge. However, at last the Pequod is sunk and the whole crew perish in the sea except Ishmael三The woods are lovely, dark and deepBut i have promises to keep,And miles to go before i sleep,And miles to go before i sleep.1.作者：Robert Frost 作名:stopping by woods on a snowy evening2.第二个sleep的意思：die3.what's the meaning of the passage?On the surface, the passage is deceptively simple. However, with the commonest words, it is deeply meditative. The simple poem uses its superb craftsmanship to come to a climax of responsibility: the promises to be kept, the obligations to be filled. The poet seems to show that he would like to stay forever in the beautiful snowy woods, but as a poet, he still has many tasks to fulfill in his life and has to go ahead.四“God knows,”exclaimed he, at his wit’s end; “I’m not myself----I’m somebody else----that’s me yonder----no----that’s somebody else, got in my shoes,----I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they’ve changed my gun, and every thing’s changed, and I’m changed, and I can’t tell what’s my name, or who I am!”A: Identify the work and the authorB: The speaker says he is changed. Do you think he is changed?C: What idea does the quoted sentences express?Answers ---A: Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Wrinkle”B: It’s the social environment that is changedC: When Rip is back home after a period of 20 years, he find that everything has changed. All those old values are gone, and he can hardly feel at home in a changed society. One of the functions that Rip serves in the story is to provide a measuring stick for change. It is through him that Irving expresses the theme that a desire for change, improvement, and progress subvert a stable society.问答题1.The symbolic meaning of the Letter A in the Scarlet Letter worn by Hester.The Letter A worn by Hester h as undergone great changes in meaning as the novel progresses.At first,it stands for a token of shame ----Adultery. Then Hester suffered from loneliness and alienation. Later with Hester's self-sacrificing sympathy and help offered to her fellow villagers the meaning of theletter A begins to imply Able and Admirable ,even Angel at the end of the story.2Herman MelvilleOne of the major themes in Melville is alienation, which he sensed existing in the life of his time on different level, between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Captain Ahab seems to be the best illustration of it all.He is a typical Melvillean “isolato”, whose lips are set ever for an “I prefer not to”. He cuts himself off from his wife and kid, and stays away most of the time from his crew. He hates Moby Dick which is an embodiment of nature. He is angry because his pride is wounded. After the loss of his leg in his encounter whith the white whale, he seems to hold God responsible for the presence of evil in the universe. Thus his anger assumes the proportions of a cosmic nature. He is bent on avenging himself. He hears of no objection. In his egocentric obsession he loses his sanity and humanity and becomes a devilish creature rushing headlong toward his doom.Moby Dick thus reveals the basic pattern of 19th century American life: loneliness and suicidal individualism in a self-styled democracy3The major characteristics of imagist poetry are:1.Direct treatment of objects, concreteness of imagery . 2. No idea or insight but things or images . 3.Free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern. 4. Cpmmon speech ,economy of expression.4Emily Dickinson 的诗歌特点Artistic features of Emily Dickinson’s poemsUnique and unconventional1). Her poems have no titles, always quoted by their first lines2). A particular stress pattern: dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis3). The form of her poetry is like the hymns in the churches, familiar, communal, and irregular (sentences)4). Short: rarely more than twenty lines5). Centered on a single image or symbol and focused on one subject matter6). Personal and meditative due to her deliberate seclusionHer poetry is remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness;Her limited private world has never confined the limitless power of her creativity and imagination5naturalismNaturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Emile Zola, who claimed a "scientific" status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects. Natural fiction aspired to a offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored comes of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English is Dreiser's Sisiter Carrie.6transcendentalism1.Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as "the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively , or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the sense".Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the Over-soul ,the Individual and Nature.Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual divine and, therefore, self-reliant.The New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism.7Mark TwainAt first, through a local and particular book, it touches upon the human situation in a general, in deed “universal”way. Mark Twain once wrote about the book as “the struggle between a healthy heart and a deformed conscience.”between the false religious beliefs Huck has been taught and his good natural impulses. Humanitarianism ultimately triumphs. Mark Twain gives his young hero very adult problems.In the second, escaping “down”the river is a cruel irony in itself, provides the episodic structure which like in a picaresque novel, is the thread that holds together the developing relationship between the two runaways on the raft. The escape, the quest for freedom, is literal for both Huck and Jim as they flee from Pap and Miss Watson. It may also be seen as symbolic on several planes: historical, philosophical, and moral. The flight down the rivers is a flight from the complexities of the ever-expanding, westward-moving settlements of new civilization.Finally, having learned about the evil of the world during their trip in the various towns and villages along the way, Huck, meantime, is facing a big moral problem. The law of society says he must return Jim to his “owner”. But the moral climax of the novel comes in Chapter 31, when Huck decides that he “will go to hell”rather than turn in Jim. Huck thinks deeply about morality and then decides to break the law. The slave, to Huck, is now a man, not a “thing”. Many critics see Huck Finn as the great novel of American democracy. It shows the basic goodness and wisdom of ordinary people, of course it fully exhibits Twain’s particular humor. It is “a love song of the river.”。

美国文学课考试复习资料1.An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18thcentury 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 conventions2.Features of American RomanticismThere is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider.American Romantic authors tended more to moralize, to edify rather than entertain.American Romanticism produced an entirely new experience alien to European culture.American romanticism was both imitative and independent.3.The American Renaissance or New England Renaissance isa period of the greatflowering of American literature, from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War./doc/7ae6c0293169a4517723a3b9.ht ml ic fables of Washington Irving;Gothic tales of Edgar Allen Poe;The frontier adventures of James Fennimore Cooper;The Psychological romances of Nathanial Hawthorne and Herman Melville 5.William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow are Fireside Poets orSchoolroom Poets.Washington Irving is the Father of American literature.James Fennimore Cooper is the Father of the American novel.Edgar Allan Poe is the Father of modern short story.Ralph Waldo Emerson is the Father of American Transcendentalism.Henry David Thoreau is a famous practical transcendentalist.Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are bridge poets between American Romanticism and the 20th century.6.Washington Irving 华盛顿·欧文Father of American literaturethe first professional American writerthe first American Romantic writerthe first American short story writerthe first native American author to win worldwide fameThe Sketch Book (见闻札记）a collection of essays, sketches, and tales.The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book,“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 睡谷传奇“Rip Van Winkle” 瑞普·凡·温克尔7.(1789—1851) James Fennimore CooperFather of American Novel The first important American novelistThe Pioneer of Americanespionage story: The Spy间谍sea adventure tale: The Pilot 领航员Frontier adventures: The Leatherstocking Tales 皮裹腿故事集8.The Leatherstocking Tales皮裹腿故事集The Pioneers 拓荒者The Last of the Mohicans最后的莫希干人The Prairie 草原The Pathfinder 探路者The Deerslayer 杀鹿人9.Edgar Allan PoeGenius: a magazine editor, a poet, a short story writer, a critic,and a lecturer.Father of modern short story Father of detective storyFather of psychoanalytic criticismHe introduced the British Gothic story, science fiction, and literary criticism to American literature.He introduced a new kind of short story-- detective story.He was the first to develop the short story as a distinctive art form.He elaborated criteria by which it can be judged.10.His Short Stories“The Fall of the House of Usher”《厄舍古屋的倒塌》“The Cask of Amontillado”《一桶白葡萄酒》“Murders in the Rue Morgue”《莫格街谋杀案His Poems①“The Raven”乌鸦②“Annabel Lee” 安娜贝尔?丽11.Characters: Montresor & FortunatoMontresor: (outwit) a deranged man who seeks revengeFortunato: (a lucky or fortunate person) a haughty wine connoisseur against whom Montresor seeks revenge Setting involves place, time, and circumstances.The story is narrated by Montresor, who carries a grudge against Fortunato for an offense that is never explained.12.Writing devices Foreshadowing ( cask/ casket names trowel arms and motto)Irony (Verbal irony Dramatic irony Situational ironySymbolism(The foot: Montresor The serpent: Fortunato.13.theme “The Cask of Amontillado" is a powerful tale of revenge.14.transcendentalism Movement:●the summit of the Romantic Movement in the history of Americanliterature in the 19th century.●Leaders:Ralph Waldo Emerson: father of American Transcendentalism Henry David Thoreau: famous practical transcendentalist●Manifesto:Nature (by Ralph Waldo Emerson)the Bible of New England Transcendentalism●Club: Transcendentalist Club●Journal: The Dial15.Basic ideas●Spirit/Over-soul is the most important thing in the universe.Transcendentalism was based on a fundamental belief in the unityof the world and God.●The Transcendentalists stressed the importance o f individualism●Nature is the symbol of spirit/the garment of the Oversoul16.Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生Poet Essayist Popular lecturer Father of American Transcendentalism major works:●Nature 自然(1836) ：“the manifesto of Americantranscendentalism” and “the Bible of New EnglandTranscendentalism.”●The American Scholar美国学者(1837)："America's Declaration ofIntellectual Independence"●Self-Reliance 论自助: the importance of cultivating oneself17.Henry David Thoreau 亨利·大卫·梭罗●Schoolteacher, essayist, poet● a leader of Transcendentalism●Most famous for his Walden and Civil Disobedience●Influenced environmental movement●Supporter of abolitionism18.Influences of Transcendentalism①It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought aboutthe idea that human can be perfected by nature.②It advocated idealism that was greatly needed in a rapidlyexpanded economy.③It helped to create the first American renaissance –one of themost prolific period in American literature.19.The Fireside Poets 炉边诗人●Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 亨利·沃茲沃思·朗费罗The most popular American poet of the 19th centurytranslate Dante’s Divine Comedythe first American poet to gain a favorable international reputationthe only American to be honored with a bust in the Poet’s C orner of Westminster AbbeyVoices of the Night(1839) 《夜吟集》-- catch the attention Evangeline(1847) 《伊凡吉林》-- narrative poem on the AcadiansReasons for his popularityA.He had the gift of easy rhyme. He wrote poetry as a bird sings, with naturalgrace and melody.B.He wrote on obvious themes and in plain language whichappeal to allkinds of people.C.There is a joyousness in them, a spirit of optimism and faith in thegoodness of life which evokes immediate response in the emotions of his readers.A Psalm of Lifefirst published in Voices of the Night.the first English poem translated into Chinese.●William Cullen Bryant 威廉·卡伦·布赖恩特●James Russell Lowell 詹姆斯·拉塞尔·洛威尔●Oliver Wendell Holmes 奥利弗·温德尔·霍姆斯●John Greenleaf Whittier 约翰·格林列夫·惠蒂埃20.What are the Fireside Poets?●Schoolroom Poets/Household Poets●First group of American poets to rival British poets in popularity ineither country●Preferred conventional forms over experimentation●Often used American legends and scenes of American life as theirsubject matter21.The Age of American Realism●Historical BackgroundThe Civil War(The most important single influence is the Civil War.The IndustrializationThe Closing Frontier22. Mark Twain called the late 19th century the “Gilded Age.” glittering on the surface corrupt underneath23.Literary Characteristics●Feminist movementEmily Dickinson 艾米丽·迪金森Harriet Beecher Stowe 斯托夫人Kate Chopin 凯特·肖邦Edith Wharton 伊迪丝·华顿Willa Cather 维拉·凯瑟●Decline of American Romanticism●Appearance of America n realism●Appearance of American naturalism24.Realism●Realism begins in France. (Balzac)●It is a literary doctrine calling for “reality and truth in the depiction ofordinary life.”25. Local ColorRealism began in America as Local Color.Local Color: A synthesis of romantic plots and realistic descriptions ofthings.Local ColoristsBret Harte 布雷特·哈特The first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularity The Luck of Roaring Camp 《咆哮营的幸运儿》Harriet Beecher Stowe / Mrs. Stowe 哈里特·比彻·斯托/斯托夫人Uncle T om’s Cabin《汤姆叔叔的小屋》The greatest of all anti-slavery literature ?Kate Chopin 凯特·肖邦a woman writer The Awakening 《觉醒Mark Twain 马克·吐温The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County 卡城名蛙26.American RealismThe Great MastersMark Twain 马克·吐温the experiences of the low classThe Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County卡城名蛙The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 《汤姆·索亚历险记》Life on the Mississippi 《密西西比河上的生活》The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》Mark Twain’s Position①Mark Twain was called “Lincoln of American literature”, because itwas he made the colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium.②He was declared “the first truly American writer” by WilliamFaulkner.③He fathered modern American literature, as Ernest Hemingwaynoted “all moder n American literature comes from his masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”●William Dean Howells 威廉·迪恩·豪威尔斯the arbiter of AmericanRealismThe Rise of Silas Lapham《塞拉斯·拉帕姆的发迹》●Henry James 亨利·詹姆斯: the experiences of the upper classFather of psychological realism 心理现实主义27. Features of American RealismRealists tried to vividly describe details from observation of actual life.Realists tried to offer an objective rather than an idealized view of human nature and society.It expressed the concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, and for the familiar and the low.Its style was genteel and graceful by Howells and Henry James, plain and rough by Mark Twain and some other Local Color writers.28.Naturalism●In literature, it refers to the theory that literary compositionshould aim at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man.●It developed on the basis of realism but went a step further than itin portraying social reality.●Naturalism was a new and harsher rea lism.28. Naturalism: Basic Ideas①Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment andthey lack freedom of their own will. Brutish impulses dictate humanbehavior. All of their actions are controlled.②The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to humandesires. Life becomes a struggle for survival.③The struggle of the individual to adapt to environment, the fightfor the spouse and the Darwinian idea of the survival of the fittest becomenatural concerns of naturalist fiction and drama.29. Major Naturalists●Jack London 杰克·伦敦●Stephen Crane 斯蒂芬·克瑞恩Maggie: A Girl of the Streets《街头女郎玛吉》the first naturalistic novel in AmericaThe Red Badge of Courage《红色英勇勋章》●Frank Norris 弗兰克·诺瑞斯McTeague 《麦克提格》a textbook and manifesto of American naturalism●O. Henry 欧·亨利●Theodore Dreiser 西奥多·德莱塞the greatest literarynaturalistSister Carrier《嘉莉妹妹》the greatest naturalistic work30. American Naturalism●It first came into existence in Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by StephenCrane.●It had its manifesto in McT eague by Frank Norris.●It came to its maturity in Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.31. The work of Modernist writers is characterized by showing the disenchantment, dislocation, and alienation of men in the world, and by the emphasis on experimentation and formalism and objectivism which are, in most cases, a reaction to the cataclysm (大变动) known as the Modern Age32. Famous Modern AuthorsSherwood Anderson 舍伍德·安德森Winesburg, Ohio《小镇畸人》Poor White《穷白人》Dark Laughter《阴沉的笑声》“The Triumph of the Egg” 鸡蛋的胜利“Death in the Woods” 林中之死F. Scott Fitzgerald F. 司各特·菲茨杰拉德The Great Gatsby《了不起的盖茨比》“The Great American Novel”Nick Carraway The narratorTender is the Night《夜色温柔》The Last Tycoon 《最后的大亨》Tales of Jazz Age 《爵士年代传奇》Eugene O’Neill 尤金·奥尼尔Nobel Prize for literature in 1936 Beyond theHorizon《天边外》Emperor Jones《琼斯皇》Hairy Ape《毛猿》William Faulkner 威廉·福克纳Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 As I Lay Dying《在我弥留之际》The Sound and the Fury《喧嚣与骚动》William Faulkner who, in 1956, acknowledged Anderson as “the fathe r of my generation of American writers and the tradition of American writing which our successors will carry on.”Ernest Hemingway 厄内斯特·海明威Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 The Old Man and the Sea 《老人与海》 A Farwell to Arms 《永别了，武器》?John Steinbeck 约翰·斯坦贝克Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 The Grapes of Wrath《愤怒的葡萄》Of Mice and Men《人鼠之间》Ezra Pound 埃兹拉·庞德Leader of Imagist Movement The Cantos 《诗章》?Robert Frost 罗伯特·弗罗斯特America’s best known and most loved poet Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” 雪夜林边小伫“The Road Not Taken”未选择的路“Birches” 白桦林Langston Hughes 兰斯顿·休斯Leader of Harlem Renaissance The Weary Blues《疲惫的布鲁斯》T. S. Eliot T. S. 艾略特American-born English poet, playwright, and literary criticthe most important English-language poet of the 20th centuryNobel Prize in Literature in 1948 The Waste Land 《荒原》The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 《J.阿尔弗雷德.普鲁弗洛克的情歌》34.American Nobel Prize WinnersSinclair Lewis 辛克莱·路易斯(1930) Eugene O’Neil l 尤金·奥尼尔(1936)Pearl S. Buck 赛珍珠(1938) William Faulkner 威廉·福克纳(1949)Ernest Hemingway 欧内斯特·海明威(1954) John Steinbeck 约翰·斯坦贝克(1962)Saul Bellow 索尔·贝娄（1976）Joseph Brodsky 约瑟夫·布罗茨基（1987）Isaac Bashevis Singer 艾萨克·巴什维斯·辛格（1978）Toni Morrison 托妮·莫里森（1993）35.American poet Gertrude Stein （格特鲁德·斯泰因）coined the expression "lostgen eration.“The three best known writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald John Dos PassosErnest Hemingway The Sun Also Rises A Farewell to Arms For Whom the Bell T olls The Old Man and the Sea36. ImagismImagist movement is a movement of English and American poets in revolt from romanticism, seeking clarity of expression through the use of precise images.The principles of the imagist manifesto were laid down by Ezra Pound in 1913 Cathay 《华夏集》Hugh Selwyn Mauberley 《休赛尔温?毛伯利》The Cantos 《诗章》“A Pact” “合同”/“协约”“In a Station of the Metro” “在地铁站里?Wallace Stevens 华莱士·史蒂文森Harmonium《簧风琴》“Anecdote of the Jar ” 坛子轶事“The Snow Man” 雪人William Carlos Williams “The Red Wheelbarrow”红色手推车37.Robert Frost 罗伯特·弗罗斯特The most popular 20th century American poet.A four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize .He was regarded as unofficial Poet Laureate (桂冠诗人).Main Poetry Collections: A Boy’s Will North of Boston Hampshire NewMountain Interval A Further Range A Witness Tre e38. Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance, known also as the New Negro Movement and the Negro Renaissance, was an important cultural manifestation of the mid-twenties and thirties.A flowering of African American art, literature, music and culture in the United States led primarily by the African American community based in Harlem, New York City.Beginning: 1924: the piblication of the magazine “Opportunity”. ?Ending: 1929: the year of the stock market crash and the resulting economic Great Depression.Zora Neale Hurston 佐拉·尼尔·赫斯顿Queen of the Harlem Renaissance Their Eyes Were Watching God 《他们的眼睛望着上帝》Langston Hughes 兰斯顿·休斯the poet laureate of Harlem 黑人民族的桂冠诗人Most popular and versatile writer of the Harlem Renaissance 作品：The Weary Blues Fine Clothes to the Jew Shakespeare in Harlem “Dreams”“A Dream Deferred” “I, Too” “Negro Speaks of Rivers”。

英美文学复习资料一．课程介绍：本课程由英国文学和美国文学两个部分组成。

主要内容包括英美文学发展史及代表作家的简要介绍和作品选读。

文学史部分从英美两国历史、语言、文化发展的角度，简要介绍英美两国文学各个历史时代的主要历史背景、文学文化思潮、文学流派、社会政治、经济、文化等对文学发展的影响，主要作家的文学生涯，创作思想，艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、思想意义等。

选读部分主要接选了英美文学史上各个时期重要作家的代表作品，包括诗歌、戏剧、小说、散文等。

二．《英美文学选读》的考核目标，按照识记，领会，应用规定应当达到的能力层次要求。

三个层次呈递进关系，其含义是：识记：有关的概念、定义、知识点等能够记住领会：在识记的基础上，能够把握基本概念、基本方法和彼此之间的关系和区别应用了在领会的基础上，能运用本课程的基本理论，基本知识和方法来分析英美文学作品，并能用英语正确表达。

Part1EnglihLiteratureAnIntroductiontoOldandMedievalEnglihLiterature一．重点：有关这部分的文学史内容1．古代英国文学和中世纪英国文学的起始阶段2．英国文学史上的第一部民族史诗----Beowulf3．中世纪文学的主要文学形式-----Romance4．GeoffreyChaucer的文学贡献二．练习：1.Chooethebetanwerforeachblank.1).Theperiodof______Englihliteraturebeginfromabout450to1066, theyearof______.A.Old----RenaianceB.Middle----theNormanConquetofEnglandC.Middle----RenaianceD.Old----theNormanConquetofEngland2)..TheMedievalperiodinEnglihliteraturee某tendfrom1066uptothe______century.A.mid-13thB.mid-14thC.mid-15thD.mid-16th3).Beowulf,atypicale某ampleofOldEnglihpoetry,iregardedtodayathenational______oftheAngl o-Sa某on.A.onnetB.eayC.epicD.novel6).Aftertheconquetof1066,threelanguageco-e某itedinEngland.Theyare______,______and______.A.OldEnglih,Greek,LatinB.OldEnglih,French,LatinC.OldEnglih,G reek,FrenchD.Englih,Greek,FrenchA.coupletB.blankvereC.heroiccoupletD.epic8).Thematicallythepoem“Beowulf”preentavividpictureofhowthe primitivepeoplewageheroictruggleagaintthehotileforceofthe______w orldunderawieandmighty______.A.manB.theoryC.doctrineD.era10).GeoffreyChaucerintroducedfromFrancetherhymedtanzaofvario utypetoEnglihpoetrytoreplacetheOldEnglih______vere.A.rhymedB.alliterativeC.ocialD.viionary2.E某plainthefollowingliteralterm.1).Romance2).HeroicCouplet3).Epic3.Anwerthefollowingquetion.1).HowmanygroupdotheOldEnglihpoetrydividedintoWhataretheyWhi chgroupdoeBeowulfbelongtoWhy2).WhatithecontributionofGeoffreyChaucertoEnglihliteratureChapter1.TheRenaiancePeriod一．重点前言部分1．文艺复兴的起源，起始时间，内容及特征2．人文主义的有关主张及对文学的影响3．文艺复兴时期的主要文学形式及其特征练习：RenaiancePeriod1.Chooethebetanwerforeachblank.1).TheRenaiance,ineence,iahitoricalperiodinwhichtheEuropean_ _____thinkerandcholarmadeattempttogetridofthoeoldfeudalitideainmedievalEuro pe,tointroducenewideathate某preedtheinteretoftheriingbourgeoiie,andtorecoverthepurityoftheea rlychurchformthecorruptionoftheRomanCatholicChurch.A.GreekandRomanB.humanitC.religiouD.loyal2).Generally,the______refertotheperiodbetweenthe14thandmid-17thcenturie.ItfirttartedinItaly,withthefloweringofpainting,culp tureandliterature.FromItalythemovementwenttoembracetheretofEurop e.A.MedievalPeriodB.RenaianceC.OldEnglihPeriodD.RomanticPeriod3).______itheeenceoftheRenaiance.ThomaMore,ChritopherMarloweand_ ______arethebetrepreentativeoftheEnglihhumanit.A.Humanity----WilliamShakepeareB.Humanim-----FranciBaconC.Humanity----GeoffreyChaucerD.Humanim----WilliamShakepeare4).TheElizabethan______itherealmaintreamoftheEnglihRenaiance .ThemotfamoudramatitintheRenaianceEnglandareChritopherMarlowe,Wi lliamShakepeare,and______.A.novel---GeoffreyChaucerB.poetry----FranciBaconC.drama----BenJononD.drama----GeoffreyChaucer5).Humanimprangfromtheendeavortoretoreamedievalreverencefort heantiqueauthorandifrequentlytakenathebeginningoftheRenaianceoni tconciou,intellectualide,fortheGreekand______civilizationwabaedo nuchaconceptionthat______ithemeaureofallthing.A.Roman----moralB.French----reaonC.Roman----manD.French----God6).OneofthemajorreultoftheReformationinEnglandwathefactthatt heBibleinEnglihwaplacedineverychurchandervicewereheldinEnglihint eadof______othatpeoplecouldundertand.tinB.FrenchC.GreekD.Anglo-Sa某on7).Wyatt,intheRenaianceperiod,introducedthePetrarchan______i ntoEngland,whileSurreybroughtin______vere.A.drama----freeB.onnet----blankC.terzarima----blankD.couplet----free8).IntheearlytageoftheEnglihRenaiance,poetryand______werethe motouttandingformandtheywerecarriedonepeciallybyWilliamShakepeareandBenJo non.A.fictionB.dramaticfictionC.poeticdramaD.novel9).Byemphaizin gthedignityofhumanbeingandtheimportanceofthepreentlife,______voi cedtheirbeliefthatmandidnotonlyhavetherighttoenjoythebeautyofthi life,buthadtheabilitytoperfecthimelfandtoperformwonder.A.humanitB.ProtetantC.CatholicD.playwright10).______wathefirtimportantEngliheayit.Hewaalothefounderofm oderncienceinEngland.A.EdmundSpenerB.ChritopherMarloweC.FranciBaconD.BenJonon2.E某plainthefollowingliteralterm.1).theRenaiancePeriod2).blankvere3) .Humanim3.Anwerthefollowingquetion.3).WhatarethetypicalcharacteriticofliteraryworkproducedinRen aianceEngland文艺复兴时期的主要作家。

美国文学复习资料1.The significance of Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography.The Autobiography is Benjamin Franklin’s masterpiece, which has great impact on American literature.Firstly, from his content, it is probably the first kind of autobiography in the history of American literature. It describes a poor man striving to be well-cultivated and respectful in his life. From then on people can think that they may write a book about his own life and make it useful to others.The Autobiography is filled with the style of Puritanism. In this book, readers could obviously feel the writer’s sense of self-retrospection and self-analysis. And all these are the characteristics of Puritans. It teaches people how to be self-cultivated, how to be self-reliant and how to serve the God well.Due to the influence of the time, The Autobiography was shadowed by the movement of Enlightenment. Among the virtues listed in his book, the order is one of them. And order is the most important notion in the period of Enlightenment.2.Irving's theme of conservatism as is revealed in "Rip Van Winkle"Irving's socia1 conservatism and literary preference for the past is revea1ed，to some extent，in his famous story "Rip Van Winkle." Rip went to sleep before the War of Independence and woke up after it. The change that had occurred in the 20 years he slept was to him not always for the better.①. Before the war, there were peace and harmony, there come now the scramble of power between parties.②. What had been a disinterested talk about events and occurrences of the time was now replaced by apassionate factional squabble. ③. The tempo of life quickened. Pre-war leisurely existence acquired a busy, bustling and disputatious tone. Instead of feeling happy for the country finally independent from the yoke of British Colonial rule, Rip was pleased with his new life chiefly because he had got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony. The story might be taken as an illustration of Irving’s argument that change and revolution upset the natural order of things 3.Definition of Transcendentalism:–New England Transcendentalism is the summit of American RomanticistMovement, flourishing in New England from the 1830s to the American Civil War. The most important representatives are Emerson and Thoreau.Basically Transce ndentalism is defined philosophically as “the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of senses.”–Transcendentalists placed emphasis on the importance of the Oversoul,nature and individual. The concepts accompanying Transcendentalism are the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that individual is divine, therefore, self-reliant. The New England Transcendentalism is the productof a combination of Native American Puritanism and European Romanticism.4. Symbolic Meanings of Letter AHester Prynne’s morality develops with the gradual, imperceptible change of the symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter:At f irst, it is a token of shame, “adultery”.But when Hester’s genuine sympathy and help offered to her fellow villagers reestablishes her fellowship with her neighbours and finally wins their love and admiration, the meaning of the scarlet letter changes to “Able”.Later in the story, the letter A appears in the sky, it evolves to represent the high virtue of Hester Prynne, signifying “Angelic”.There is also some truth in the critical observation that “A”may represent “Adamic,” an archetypal vice, suggestive of “Original Sin”.5.Characterization in The Scarlet Letter●Characterization refers to the personality a character displays; also, it is themeans by which an author reveals that personality. Generally, a writer develops a character in one or more of the following ways:●(1) by showing the character acting and speaking;●(2) by revealing the character’s thought;●(3) by revealing a physical description of the character ;●(4) by revealing what other characters think about the character;●(5) by commenting directly on the character.●In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reveals the personality of Hester Prynnefrom the following aspects:●by showing her actions: Hester shows her dignity even in despair(p.422);she offers her genuine help and sympathy to her neighbours and finally wins their love and admiration; she perseveres in her pursuit of love and happiness which can be seen in her deepconcern for Arthor Dimmesdale, the clergyman, and in her proposal to escape to Europe together.●by revea ling a physical description of Hester: She is a beautiful andgraceful woman with a profusion of dark hair.●by revealing Hester’s interior monologue: When Hester discerns achange in Chillingworth from a scholar to a fiend, she blames herself for such a change, which reveals her repentance and mercy.(P.427,430)●by revealing what other characters think about her:Her genuine help and sympathy offered to her fellow villagers not only reestablishes her fellowship with them but wins their love and admiration. Even Roger Chillingworth is “unable to restrain a thrill of admiration”for “the majestic quality”Hester show even in despair. (P.431)●by contrasting her with other characters: All her life,Hester has been true, honest and courageous enough to show her worst to the world, while the much-admired clergyman couldn’t find the courage to do sountil the end of his life.(P.429)●from multiple points of view: Different people respond to the scarletletter in different ways. Some say that they see “A”on Dimmesdal e’s breast, while others say that they see “A”appearing in the sky.●To sum up, under Hawthorne’s pen, Hester Prynne is a round characterwho undergoes a major change from being rebellious at the beginning of the novel to being submissive and repentant at theend.(P.571)6. Why is Leaves of Grass an epoch-making work both in content and in form in American literature?●Its democratic content marked the shift from Romanticism to Realism . Ingeneral, poetry written before Whitman’s days dealt with idealized characters or extraordinary heroes. In this famous book, Whitman brought the hard-working farmers and labourers into American literature, attacked the slavery system and racial discrimination, praised the victory over slavery and extolled nature, labor, de mocracy and creation, sing of man’s dignity and equality, and of the brightest future of mankind.●Its free verse form broke from the old poetic convention to open a newroad for American poetry. Whitman was one of the great innovators in American poetry. He intentionally discarded traditional metrical patterns and constructed his verse in a loose, free meter of his own, for he thought that the voices of democracy shouldn’t be haltered by conventional forms of poetry.●Whitman is the first American poet to use free verse extensively, becauseit’s an appropriate form for his liberal view of life and for his poetry that would allow every aspect of life to speak without restraint. In this sense, Leaves of Grass either in content or form, is an epoch-making work in American literature. Today, it is considered one of the greatest achievements in American literature, and Whitman one of the most original and distinctly American poet.7.Whitman’s contribution in literature ?●Walt Whitman is claimed as America’s first “poet of democracy”, a titlemeant to reflect his ability to write in a singularly American character.Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.●His works are the first poetic writing which combines lyr ic verse and prosefiction—modern poetry thrives on this combination.●Whitman made the city and urban living conditions suitable settings forpoetry.●In his remarkable use of sex and sexual imagery, Whitman broke newground in American writing.●The cent ral metaphor, the unity of self with all other selves, is unique inAmerican literature.8. Figures of speech used in O Captain! My Captain! and their respectivefunctionsThe first figure of speech is metaphor. Because Walt Whitman wrote the poem for Abraham Lincoln after the assassination, repeated metaphorical reference is made to this issue t hroughout the verse. The “ship” is intended to represent the United States of America, while its “fearful trip” recalls the troubles of the American Civil War. The “captain” is Lincoln.The second figure of speech is the use of a conventional meter and rhyme scheme that is unusual for Whitman. In the poem, these words “Fallen cold and dead” are shownrepeatedly, which make the poetry maintain the consistency of a sad and heavy expression of the feelings.9. Features of Poe’s poetry:Poe’s poetry has been highly praised by many for its exquisite musical quality. In fact, no other American poet ever surpassed Poe’s ability in the use of English as a medium of pure, mus ical beauty. His poems are “word music” in which he often uses words more for their sounds than for their meanings. This may account for some unfavorable comment on his poetry.The musicality in his poetry is achieved through alliteration, internal rhyme, end rhyme, repetition, and parallel structure.His recurrent themes are love, death, and beauty. His tone is sad and melancholy.10. What are the thematic concerns and artistic characteristics of Emily Dickinson's poetry?Emily Dickinson’s poetry covers the issues vital to humanity, which include religion, death, immortality, love and nature. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines. In her poetry, there is a particular stress pattern, in which dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence and capital letters are a means of emphasis. Most of her poems borrow the repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns, with two lines of four-beat meter alternating with two lines of three-beat meter.A master of imagery that makes the spiritual materialize in surprising ways, Dickinson managed manifold variations within her simple form: she used imperfect rhymes, subtle breaks of rhythm, and idiosyncratic syntax and punctuation to create fascinating word puzzles, which have produced greatly divergent interpretations over the years. Her poems tend to be verypersonal and meditative. She frequently personifies to vivify some abstract ideas. Dickinson’s poetry, despite of its ostensible formal simplicity, is remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness; and her limited private world has never confined the limitless power of her creativity and imagination.12. Emily Dickinson’s literary creationA. Four Groups of PoemsHer poems fall generally into four groups, those describing life and death, those illuminating immortality physical and psychological alike (religion), those expounding on sentiment (love and marriage), and those about nature.B. Artistic FeaturesHer poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way.a. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines.b. In her poetry there is a particular stress pattern, in which dashes are used asa musica1 device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis.c. Most of her poems borrow the repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas oftraditional Christian hymns, with two lines of four-beat meter alternating with two lines of three-beat meter.d. Dickinson’s irregular or sometimes inverted sentence structure alsoconfuses readers.e. Her poetic idiom is noted for its laconic brevity, directness and plainness.Her poems are usually short, rarely more than twenty lines, and many of them are centered on a single image or symbo1 andfocused on one subject matter.f. She frequently uses personae(小说、戏剧中的)人物，角色to render thetone more familiar to the reader, and personification to vivify some abstract ideas.13.Local ColorismRealism first appeared in the U.S.A. in the literature of Local Color. Local Colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local characters of their regions: the physical setting , scene, landscape peculiar to a particular locality, the characteristic elements of a local culture, such as speech, customs, dress or behavior. For over three decades (the late 1860s till the turn of the century), the vogue of local color swept so swiftly and widely that virtually no corner of the country was left undealt with. Mark Twain, Faulkner, Garland and Jewett are among the famous local colorists.14. Mark Twain’s literary creation and contribution:Mark Twain is a great literary giant of America. With works like The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi Twain shaped the world’s view of America and made a more extensive combination of American folk humor and serious literature than previous writers had ever done. All his masterpieces are based on the scenes and emotions of his boyhood and youth. The Adventure of T om Sawyer is usually regarded as a classic book written for boys about their particular horrors and joys.The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, a boys’ book spec ially written for adults, is Twain’s most representative work. These two books, especially the latter, proved to be the milestone in American literatur e, and thus firmly established Twain’s positionin the literary world. The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn marks the climax of Twain’sliterary creativity. Hemingway once described the novel the one book from which “all modern American literature comes.”The language of the book is simple, direct, lucid, and faithful to the colloquial speech. The profound characterization of Huckleberry Finn is another great contribution to the legacy of American literature.Twain is also known as a local colorist who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions. He wrote about lower-class people.He successfully used local color and historical settings to illustrate and shed light on the contemporary society.With his great mastery and effective use of vernacular, Twain has made colloquial speech an accepted respectable literary medium in the literary history of the country. His style of language influenced many later writers like Hemingway and so on. Twain’s humor is remarkable, to o. However, his humor is not only of witty marks mocking at small things or of farcical elements making people laugh, but a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism.15. Imagism: DefinitionLed by Ezra Pound, Imagist movement is a poetic movement that flourished in the U.S. and England between 1909-1917. Pound laid down three principles as guidelines for imagism including: direct treatment of poetic subjects, elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words and rhythmical composition should be composed with the phrasing of music not a metronome.The primary imagist objective is to avoid rhetoric and moralizing, to stick closely to the object or experience being described, to move from explicit generalization.16. F. S. Fitzgerald is a great stylist in American literature. What is his art of novels?(1)His style, closely related to his themes, is explicit and chilly.(2)His accurate dialogues, his careful observation of mannerism, styles, models andattitudes provide the reader with a vivid sense of reality.(3)He also skillfully employs the device of having events observed by a “centralconsciousness” to his great advantage.(4) In his works, there are plenty of accurate details, the completely original diction and metaphors, the bold impressionistic and colorful quality.17. What is the relationship between William Faulkner and American South Literature?(1)Most of Faulkner’s works are set in the American South.(2)He emphasizes the Southern subjects and consciousness in his works.(3)His works have managed successfully to show a panorama of the experience andconsciousness of the whole southern society.18.How does Ezra Poun d’s poem “In a Station of the Metro” show his successful usage of image?(1)Ezra Pound employs a single image in this poem. He compares the faces in thelong subway to the petals on a bough. These faces are like an apparition, which shows a misty, unclear but beautiful feeling. The petals are on a wet, black bough and the feeling expressedhere is fresh.(2)On the whole, the poem gives the reader a beautiful scene through this singleimage.19. The symbolic meanings of Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”with your understanding of the theme implied in it.In this poem, the author uses two roads in the woods to symbolize the choices in the real life. The author suggests us not being afraid to take a chance, not following the crowd and trying new things. Individualism is highlighted in the poem because the speaker chooses to go his own way, taking the “road less traveled.” Caution is also taken before deciding to take the “road less traveled,”for the speaker takes time to consider the other road: “long I stood/ And looked down one as far as I could.” Commitment is symbolized in the poem because the speaker does not have second thoughts after making his decision. The last symbolized theme is accepting a challenge. It may be that the road the speaker chooses is less traveled because it presents trials or perils. Such challenges seem to appeal to the speaker.20.The artistic features of Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”with the examples in the poem.The first feature is the use of simple daily language to illustrate philosophical thoughts. Robert Frost is good at using plain words to create shocking and concrete images as shown in the poem. The second artistic feature is the use of symbols everywhere in the poem. For example, two diverged roads symbolize the different choices in life.21.Feature of the main character in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”.“A Rose for Emily” is Faulkner’s first story published in1930. Set in the town of Jefferson, in Yoknapatawpha, the story focuses on Emily, an eccentric spinster who refused to accept the passage of time or the inevitable change and loss that accompanies it. As a descendent of the South aristocracy, Emily is typical of those in Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha stories that a re symbols of the old South but the prisoners of the past. The deformed personality and abnormality of Emily demonstrates Faulkner’s point of view that by alienating oneself from reality, a person is bound to be a tragedy. Emily is regarded as the symbol of the tradition and the old way of life. Thus, his death parallels with the decline of old South.22.Discuss the contrast between the younger waiter and the older waiter in “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”The younger waiter is hostile and impatient towards the old man. He is rude to him, “You should have killed yourself last week,” and resents the fact that the old man will not go home. The older waiter on the other hand is sympathetic to the old man, regards him with respect and understands him. The younger waiter is “young and confident” who has “everything” while the older waiter admits to having neither. Their attitudes towards time are very dif ferent. The younger waiter “hurries” and “marches” while the older waiter is in no rush to close the shop. Their crucial difference is that the older waiter lives in consciousness of his own loneliness and nothingness of man while the younger waiter is obl ivious to this. “Some lived in it and never felt it.”。