美国文学简史常耀信版讲义5

A Concise History of American LiteratureWhat is literatureLiterature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages.Chapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.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 bepassed 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 andthoughtful) 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 o f perception was chieflyinstrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.(4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric isplain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the directinfluence of the Bible.II.Overview of the literature1.types of writingdiaries, 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 FreneauIII.Jonathan Edwards1.life2.works(1)The Freedom of the Will(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3)The Nature of True Virtue3.ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)God’s presence(4)Puritan idealismIV.Benjamin Franklin1.life2.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac(2)Autobiography3.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American PhilosophicalSociety.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case)from heaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melvillethus described him “master of each and mastered by none”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is RomanticismAn approach from ancient Greek: PlatoA literary trend: 18c in Britain (1798~1832)Schlegel Bros.I.Preview: Characteristics of romanticism1.subjectivity(1)feeling and emotions, finding truth(2)emphasis on imagination(3)emphasis on individualism – personal freedom, no hero worship, natural goodnessof human beings2.back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature(1)unrestrained by classical rules(2)full of imagination(3)colloquial language(4)freedom of imagination(5)genuine in feelings: answer their call for classics3.back to naturenature is “breathing living thing” (Rousseau)II.American Romanticism1.Background(1)Political background and economic development(2)Romantic movement in European countriesDerivative – foreign influence2.features(1)American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new e xperienceand contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of theplace” was radically new and alien.(2)There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. Americanromantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writingsintended to edify more than they entertained.(3)The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with AmericanRomanticism.(4)As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticismwas both imitative and independent.III.Washington 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 York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the DutchDynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of internationalrecognition with the publication of this.)(3)The History of the Life and Voyages 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 languageIV.James Fenimore Cooper1.life2.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 ofthe United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring andpushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Taleseffectively 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 westerntradition to American literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – American TranscendentalismI.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 IdealismCenter of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticismCenter of the world is “oversoul”4.PuritanismEloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, “Nature” by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment 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 thathuman can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw offshackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new anddistinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy whereopportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the mo ralnecessity for rising to spiritual height.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period inAmerican literature.V.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.life2.works(1)Nature(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 a spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine inhimself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emersonmeans by “the infinitude of man”.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and thathe makes the world by making himself.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 whichwas to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceVI.Henry David Thoreau1.life2.works(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 wasvehemently 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 nature as a genuine restorative,healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-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’sodd-fellow society”.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men. Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.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 a t the core of human life, “that blackness in Hawthorne”(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed fromgeneration to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil onwhich 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 yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne hadin 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 ofviewII.Herman Melville1.life2.works(1)Typee(2)Omio(3)Mardi(4)Redburn(5)White Jacket(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre(8)Billy Budd3.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of“Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disasterand death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts overthe comforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity throughemploying the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commentedupon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description ofwhat goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)Romantic PoetsI.Walt 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 Vistas(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 beingsdivinity of everythingimmanence of Goddemocracyevolution of cosmosmultiplicity of natureself-reliant spiritdeath, beauty of deathexpansion of Americabrotherhood 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 evenwrong(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 itin a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to hisgreat influence.II.Emily Dickenson1.life2.works(1)My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2)Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4)Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5)Wild Nights – Wild Nights3.themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4)physical aspect of desire(5)nature – kind and cruel(6)free will and human responsibility4.style(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification – make some of abstract ideas vividparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, itsexpansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of“American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation bybreaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting afreedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the innerlife of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) which Whitmandoesn’t have.Edgar 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 theme 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.Aesthetic 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. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V.Style – traditional, but not easy to readVI.Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)VII.His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Background: From Romanticism to Realism1.the three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period(1)industrialism vs. agrarian(2)culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west(3)plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility2.1880’s urbanization: from free competition to monopoly capitalism3.the closing of American frontierII.Characteristics1.truthful description of life2.typical character under typical circumstance3.objective rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life“Realistic writers are like scientists.”4.open-ending:Life is complex and cannot be fully understood. It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves.5.concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustrations ofcharacters in an environment of sordidness and depravityIII.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”(1)Realistic principlesa.Realism is “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”.b.The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of American life”.c.Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells’s fictionalrepresentation.d.Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals but includes acentral concern with “motives” and psychological conflicts.e.He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, and avoids suchthemes as illicit love.f.Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense of something“desultory, unfinished, imperfect”.g.Characters should have solidity of specification and be real.h.Interpreting sympathetically the “common feelings of commonplace people” wasbest suited as a technique to express the spirit of America.i.He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with currenthumanitarian ideals.j.Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates all things.k.With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjective evaluations on books but should follow thedetached scientist in accurate description, interpretation, and classification.(2)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(3)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethicscking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Life(2)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international themeThe AmericanDaisy MillerThe Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some playsDaisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence, then backto international themeThe Turn of the ScrewWhen Maisie KnewThe AmbassadorsThe Wings of the DoveThe Golden Bowl(3)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent lifemon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(4)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(5)Style –“stylist”nguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb.Vocabulary: largec.Construction: complicated, intricate3.Mark Twain (see next section)Local Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sI.Appearance1.uneven development in economy in America2.culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3.magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII.What is “Local Colour”Tasks of local colourists: to write or present local characters of their regions in truthful depiction distinguished from others, usually a very small part of the world.Regional literature (similar, but larger in world)Garland, Harte – the westEggleston – IndianaMrs StoweJewett – MaineChopin – LouisianaIII.Mark Twain – Mississippi1.life2.works(1)The Gilded Age(2)“the two advantages”(3)Life on the Mississippi(4) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court(5)The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug3.style(1)colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2)local colour(3)syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimes ungrammatical(4)humour(5)tall tales (highly exaggerated)(6)social criticism (satire on the different ugly things in society)parison of the three “giants” of American Realism1.ThemeHowells – middle classJames – upper classTwain – lower class2.TechniqueHowells – smiling/genteel realismJames – psychological realismTwain – local colourism and colloquialismChapter 4 American NaturalismI.Background1.Darwin’s theory: “natural selection”2.Spenser’s idea: “social Darwinism”3.French Naturalism: ZoraII.Features1.environment and heredity2.scientific accuracy and a lot of details3.general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the societyIII.significanceIt prepares the way for the writing of 1920s’ “lost generation” and T. S. Eliot.IV.Theodore Dreiser1.life2.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius3.point of view(1)He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned to regard manas merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in whichonly the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle inwhich man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind ofsocial forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no powerwhatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internalchemisms and by the forces of social pressure.4.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis5.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in paintingChapter 5 The Modern PeriodSection 1 The 1920sI.IntroductionThe 1920s is a flowering period of American literature. It is considered “the second renaissance” of American literature.The nicknames for this period:(1)Roaring 20s – comfort(2)Dollar Decade – rich(3)Jazz Age – Jazz musicII.Backgrounda)First World War –“a war to end all wars”(1)Economically: became rich from WWI. Economic boom: new inventions.Highly-consuming society.(2)Spiritually: dislocation, fragmentation.b)wide-spread contempt for law (looking down upon law)1.Freud’s theoryIII.Features of the literatureWriters: three groups(1)Participants(2)Expatriates(3)Bohemian (unconventional way of life) – on-lookersTwo areas:(1)Failure of communication of Americans(2)Failure of the American societyImagismI. BackgroundImagism was influenced by French symbolism, ancient Chinese poetry and Japanese literature “haiku”II. Development: three stages1.1908~1909: London, Hulme2.1912~1914: England -> America, Pound3.1914~1917: Amy LowellIII. What is an “image”An image is defined by Pound as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time, “a vortex or cluster of fused ideas” “endowed with energy”. The exact word must bring the effect of the object before the reader as it had presented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of writing.IV. Principles1.Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective;2.To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation;3.As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in thesequence of a metronome.V. Significance1.It was a rebellion against the traditional poetics which failed to reflect the new life ofthe new century.2.It offered a new way of writing which was valid not only for the Imagist poets but formodern poetry as a whole.3.The movement was a training school in which many great poets learned their firstlessons in the poetic art.4.It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern English andAmerican poetry.VI. Ezra Pound1.life2.literary career3.works(1)Cathay(2)Cantos(3)Hugh Selwyn Mauberley4.point of view(1)Confident in Pound’s belief that the artist was morally and culturally the arbiterand the “saviour” of the race, he took it upon himself to purify the arts andbecame the prime mover of a few experimental movements, the aim of which wasto dump the old into the dustbin and bring forth something new.(2)To him life was sordid personal crushing oppression, and culture produced nothingbut “intangible bondage”.(3)Pound sees in Chinese history and the doctrine of Confucius a source of strengthand wisdom with which to counterpoint Western gloom and confusion.(4)He saw a chaotic world that wanted setting to rights, and a humanity, sufferingfrom spiritual death and cosmic injustice, that needed saving. He was for the mostpart of his life trying to offer Confucian philosophy as the one faith which couldhelp to save the West.5.style: very difficult to readPound’s early poems are fresh and lyrical. The Cantos can be notoriously difficult insome sections, but delightfully beautiful in others. Few have made serious study of thelong poem; fewer, if anyone at all, have had the courage to declare that they haveconquered Pound; and many seem to agree that the Cantos is a monumental failure.6.ContributionHe has helped, through theory and practice, to chart out the course of modern poetry.7.The Cantos –“the intellectual diary since 1915”Features:(1)Language: intricate and obscure(2)Theme: complex subject matters(3)Form: no fixed framework, no central theme, no attention to poetic rulesVII. T. S. Eliot1.life2.works(1)poemsThe Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockThe Waste Land (epic)Hollow ManAsh WednesdayFour Quarters(2)PlaysMurder in the CathedralSweeney AgonistesThe Cocktail PartyThe Confidential Clerk(3)Critical essaysThe Sacred WoodEssays on Style and OrderElizabethan EssaysThe Use of Poetry and The Use of CriticismsAfter Strange Gods3.point of view(1)The modern society is futile and chaotic.(2)Only poets can create some order out of chaos.(3)The method to use is to compare the past and the present.4.Style(1)Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone and highly expressive rhythm(2)Difficult and disconnected images and symbols, quotations and allusions(3)Elliptical structures, strange juxtapositions, an absence of bridges5.The Waste Land: five parts(1)The Burial of the Dead(2) A Game of Chess(3)The Fire Sermon(4)Death by Water(5)What the Thunder SaidVIII. Robert Frost1.life2.point of view(1)All his life, Frost was concerned with constructions through poetry. “a momentarystay against confusion”.(2)He understands the terror and tragedy in nature, but also its beauty.(3)Unlike the English romantic poets of 19th century, he didn’t believe that man couldfind harmony with nature. He believed that serenity came from working, usuallyamid natural forces, which couldn’t be understood. He regarded work as“significant toil”.3.works – poemsthe first: A Boy’s Willcollections: North of Boston, Mountain Interval (mature), New Hampshire4.style/features of his poems(1)Most of his poems took New England as setting, and the subjects were chosenfrom daily life of ordinary people, such as “mending wall”, “picking apples”.(2)He writes most often about landscape and people – the loneliness and poverty ofisolated farmers, beauty, terror and tragedy in nature. He also describes someabnormal people, . “deceptively simple”, “philosophical poet”.(3)Although he was popular during 1920s, he didn’t experiment like other modernpoets. He used conventional forms, plain language, traditional metre, and wrote ina pastured tradition.IX. e. e. cummings“a juggler with syntax, grammar and diction” –individualism, “painter poet”Novels in the 1920sI. F. Scott Fitzgerald1.life – participant in 1920s2.works(1)This Side of Paradise(2)Flappers and Philosophers(3)The Beautiful and the Damned(4)The Great Gatsby(5)Tender is the Night(6)All the Sad Young Man(7)The Last Tycoon3.point of view(1)He expressed what the young people believed in the 1920s, the so-called。

第22章纽约派诗人•沉思型诗歌•黑山派诗人22.1 复习笔记I. The New York School（纽约派诗人）1. Features of the New York School（纽约派诗歌的特点）The so-called New York School became well known with the publication of Donald Allen’s 1960 anthology. The poets of the New York School were different in their separate pursuits, but their poetry reveals something they shared in common.(1) For one thing, they were all vehemently up against the dominant New Critical values such as the impersonal presentation of images, and tried to assert their individual poetic voice.(2) They also introduced the popular and the low features of life into their writings like popular songs, comic strip figures, and Hollywood movies.(3) Thirdly, they exhibited a huge sense of humor, offering room as their poems did for elements like the vulgar and the sentimental.(4) Finally, they experimented with Surrealism, for a while.所谓的纽约派是随着唐纳德·艾伦1960年发表的文集而出名的。

美国文学简史考研重点笔记整理常耀信A Concise History of American LiteratureWhat is literature?Literature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages.Chapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.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 sincan 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 (seriousand 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 perceptionwas chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism whichis distinctly American.(4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; therhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility oftentraceable to the direct influence of the Bible.II.Overview of the literature1.types of writingdiaries, 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 FreneauIII.Jonathan Edwards1.life2.works(1)The Freedom of the Will(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3)The Nature of True Virtue3.ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)God’s presence(4)Puritan idealismIV.Benjamin Franklin1.life2.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac(2)Autobiography3.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the AmericanPhilosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity inthis case) from heaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”.Herman Melville thus described him “master of ea ch and mastered bynone”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is Romanticism?●An approach from ancient Greek: Plato● A literary trend: 18c in Britain (1798~1832)●Schlegel Bros.I.Preview: Characteristics of romanticism1.subjectivity(1)feeling and emotions, finding truth(2)emphasis on imagination(3)emphasis on individualism –personal freedom, no hero worship,natural goodness of human beings2.back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature(1)unrestrained by classical rules(2)full of imagination(3)colloquial language(4)freedom of imagination(5)genuine in feelings: answer their call for classics3.back to naturenature is “breathing living thing” (Rousseau)II.American Romanticism1.Background(1)Political background and economic development(2)Romantic movement in European countriesDerivative – foreign influence2.features(1)American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real newexperience and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that“the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien.(2)There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider.American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many Americanromantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained.(3)The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection withAmerican Romanticism.(4)As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, Americanromanticism was both imitative and independent.III.WashingtonIrving1.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 York from the Beginning of the World to the End ofthe Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure ofinternational recognition with the publication of this.)(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 languageIV.James Fenimore Cooper1.life2.works(1)Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Auste n’s PrideandPrejudice)(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 thehistory of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlersexploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, thenCooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the Americannational experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west andfrontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition toAmerican literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism –American TranscendentalismI.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 IdealismCenter of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticismCenter of the world is “oversoul”4.PuritanismEloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, “Nature” by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation andthe 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 thedevelopment of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expandedeconomy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to“get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance –one of the mostprolific period in American literature.V.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.life2.works(1)Nature(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet3.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in thetranscendence of the “oversoul”.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moralinfluence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual andimmanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself anddivine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This iswhat Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making hisworld, and that he makes the world by making himself.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 celebrateAmerica which was to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceVI.Henry David Thoreau1.life2.works(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 andwas 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 nature asa genuinerestorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-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 institutionsof men’s od d-fellow society”.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a newgeneration of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.life2.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from andOld 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 passedfrom generation to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To himthese furnishthe soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of Americannarrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That waswhat 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 viewII.Herman Melville1.life2.works(1)Typee(2)Omio(3)Mardi(4)Redburn(5)White Jacket(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre(8)Billy Budd3.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitudeof “Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from eachother).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causingdisaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence andevil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguitythrough employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profuselycommented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background ordescription of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick) Romantic PoetsI.Walt 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 Vistas(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, westernfrontier spirits, Jefferson’s individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything):●equality of things a nd 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 lo ve 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 prono un “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 Westernculture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacherand recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bearswitness to his great influence.II.Emily Dickenson1.life2.works(1)My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2)Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4)Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5)Wild Nights – Wild Nights3.themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4)physical aspect of desire(5)nature – kind and cruel(6)free will and human responsibility4.style(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification –make some of abstract ideasvivid/doc/8e7409605.htmlparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergentAmerica, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, theirpoetry being part of “American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the newnation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter andexhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers inAmerican poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson exploresthe inner life of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlo ok, Dickinson is“regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) whichWhitman doesn’t have.Edgar 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 –p redominant theme in Poe’s writing“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writin gs isdead.”2.disintegration (separation) of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIV.Aesthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compressionand finality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tonemelancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry andstresses rhythm.V.Style – traditional, but not easy to readV I.Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)VII.His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Background: From Romanticism to Realism1.the three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period(1)industrialism vs. agrarian(2)culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west(3)plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility2.1880’s urbanization: from free competition to monopoly capitalism3.the closing of American frontierII.Characteristics1.truthful description of life2.typical character under typical circumstance3.objective rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life“Realistic writers are like scientists.”4.open-ending:Life is complex and cannot be fully understood. It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves.5.concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing thefrustrations of characters in an environment of sordidness and depravityIII.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”(1)Realistic principlesa.Reali sm is “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”.b.The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of American life”.c.Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells’sfictional representation.d.Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals butincludes a central concern with “motives” and psychological confli cts.e.He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, andavoids such themes as illicit love.f.Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense ofsomething “desultory, unfinished, imperfect”.g.Characters should have solidity of specification and be real.h.Interpreting sympathetically the “common feelings of commonplacepeople” was best suited as a technique to e xpress the spirit of America.i.He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with currenthumanitarian ideals.j.Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates all things.k.With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjective evaluations on books butshould follow the detached scientist in accurate description, interpretation,and classification.(2)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(3)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethics/doc/8e7409605.htmlcking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Life(2)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international theme●The American●Daisy Miller●The Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays●Daisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood andadolescence,then back to international theme●The Turn of the Screw●When Maisie Knew●The Ambassadors●The Wings of the Dove●The Golden Bowl(3)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent life/doc/8e7409605.htmlmon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(4)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(5)Style –“stylist”/doc/8e7409605.htmlnguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb.V ocabulary: largec.Construction: complicated, intricate3.Mark Twain (see next section)Local Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sI.Appearance1.uneven development in economy in America2.culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3.magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII.What is “Local Colour”?Tasks of local colourists: to write or present local characters of their regions in truthful depiction distinguished from others, usually a very small part of the world.Regional literature (similar, but larger in world)●Garland, Harte – the west●Eggleston – Indiana●Mrs Stowe●Jewett – Maine●Chopin – LouisianaIII.Mark Twain – Mississippi1.life2.works(1)The Gilded Age(2)“the two advantages”(3)Life on the Mississippi(4) A Connect icut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court(5)The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug3.style(1)colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2)local colour(3)syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimesungrammatical(4)humour(5)tall tales (highly exaggerated)(6)social criticism (satire on the different ugly things in society)/doc/8e7409605.htmlparison of the three “giants” of American Realism1.ThemeHowells – middle classJames – upper classTwain – lower class2.TechniqueHowells – smiling/genteel realismJames – psychological realismTwain – local colourism and colloquialismChapter 4 American NaturalismI.Background1.Darwin’s theory: “natural selection”2.Spenser’s idea: “social Darwinism”3.French Naturalism: ZoraII.Features1.environment and heredity2.scientific accuracy and a lot of details3.general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the societyIII.significanceI t prepares the way for the writing of 1920s’ “lost generation” and T. S. Eliot. IV.Theod ore Dreiser1.life2.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius3.point of view(1)He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned toregard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle forexistence in which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a junglestruggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a“wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the general schemeof things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex ofinternal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.4.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis5.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in paintingChapter 5 The Modern PeriodSection 1 The 1920sI.IntroductionThe 1920s is a flowering period of Amer ican literature. It is considered “the second renaissance” of American literature.The nicknames for this period:(1)Roaring 20s – comfort(2)Dollar Decade – rich(3)Jazz Age – Jazz musicII.Backgrounda)First World War –“a war to end all wars”(1)Economically: became rich from WWI. Economic boom: newinventions. Highly-consuming society.(2)Spiritually: dislocation, fragmentation.b)wide-spread contempt for law (looking down upon law)1.Freud’s theoryIII.Features of the literatureWriters: three groups(1)Participants(2)Expatriates(3)Bohemian (unconventional way of life) – on-lookersTwo areas:(1)Failure of communication of Americans(2)Failure of the American societyImagismI. BackgroundImagism was influenced by French symbolism, ancient Chinese poetry and Japanese literature “haiku”II. Development: three stages1.1908~1909: London, Hulme2.1912~1914: England -> America, Pound3.1914~1917: Amy LowellIII. What is an “image”?An image is defined by Pound as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time, “a vortex or cluster of fused ideas” “endowed with energy”. Th eexact word must bring the effect of the object before the reader as it had pre sented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of writing.IV. Principles1.Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective;2.To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation;3.As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase,not in the sequence of a metronome.V. Significance1.It was a rebellion against the traditional poetics which failed to reflect thenew life of the new century.2.It offered a new way of writing which was valid not only for the Imagistpoets but for modern poetry as a whole.3.The movement was a training school in which many great poets learnedtheir first lessons in the poetic art.4.It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern Englishand American poetry.VI. Ezra Pound1.life2.literary career3.works(1)Cathay(2)Cantos(3)Hugh Selwyn Mauberley4.point of view(1)Confident in Pound’s belief that the artist was morally and culturallythe arbiter and the “saviour” of the race, he took it upon himself to purifythe arts and became the prime mover of a few experimental movements,the aim of which was to dump the old into the dustbin and bring forthsomething new.(2)To him life was sordid personal crushing oppression, and cultureproduced nothing but “intangible bondage”.(3)Pound sees in Chinese history and the doctrine of Confucius a sourceof strength and wisdom with which to counterpoint Western gloom andconfusion.(4)He saw a chaotic world that wanted setting to rights, anda humanity,suffering from spiritual death and cosmic injustice, that needed saving.He was for the most part of his life trying to offer Confucian philosophyas the one faith which could help to save the West.5.style: very difficult to readPound’s early poems are fresh and l yrical. The Cantos can be notoriouslydifficult in some sections, but delightfully beautiful in others.Few have madeserious study of the long poem; fewer, if anyone at all, have had the courageto declare that they have conquered Pound; and many seem to agree that theCantos is a monumental failure.6.ContributionHe has helped, through theory and practice, to chart out the course of modernpoetry.7.The Cantos –“the intellectual diary since 1915”Features:(1)Language: intricate and obscure(2)Theme: complex subject matters(3)Form: no fixed framework, no central theme, no attention to poeticrulesVII. T. S. Eliot1.life2.works(1)poems●The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock●The Waste Land (epic)●Hollow Man●Ash Wednesday●Four Quarters(2)Plays●Murder in the Cathedral●Sweeney Agonistes●The Cocktail Party●The Confidential Clerk(3)Critical essays●The Sacred Wood●Essays on Style and Order●Elizabethan Essays●The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticisms●After Strange Gods3.point of view(1)The modern society is futile and chaotic.(2)Only poets can create some order out of chaos.(3)The method to use is to compare the past and the present.4.Style(1)Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone and highly expressive rhythm(2)Difficult and disconnected images and symbols, quotations andallusions(3)Elliptical structures, strange juxtapositions, an absence of bridges5.The Waste Land: five parts(1)The Burial of the Dead(2) A Game of Chess(3)The Fire Sermon(4)Death by Water(5)What the Thunder SaidVIII. Robert Frost1.life2.point of view(1)All his life, Frost was concerned with constructions through poetry. “amomentary stay against confusion”.(2)He understands the terror and tragedy in nature, but also its beauty.(3)Unlike the English romantic poets of 19th century, he didn’t believethat man could find harmony with nature. He believed that serenity camefrom working, usually amid natural forces, which couldn’t be understood.He regarded work as “significant toil”.3.works – poemsthe first: A Boy’s W illcollections: North of Boston, Mountain Interval (mature), New Hampshire4.style/features of his poems(1)Most of his poems took New England as setting, and the subjects werechosen from daily life of ordinary people, such as “mending wall”,“picking apples”.(2)He writes most often about landscape and people – the loneliness andpoverty of isolated farmers, beauty, terror and tragedy in nature. He alsodescribes some abnormal people, e.g. “deceptively simple”,“philosophical poet”.(3)Although he was popular during 1920s, he didn’t experiment like othermodern poets. He used conventional forms, plain language, traditional。

【关键字】笔记A Concise History of American LiteratureWhat is literature?Literature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages.Chapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.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 bepassed 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 andthoughtful) 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 chieflyinstrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctlyAmerican.(4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric isplain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the directinfluence of the Bible.II.Overview of the literature1.types of writingdiaries, 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 FreneauIII.Jonathan Edwards1.life2.works(1)The Freedom of the Will(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3)The Nature of True Virtue3.ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)God’s presence(4)Puritan idealismIV.Benjamin Franklin1.life2.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac(2)Autobiography3.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American PhilosophicalSociety.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case)from heaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melvillethus described him “master of each and mastered by none”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is Romanticism?●An approach from ancient Greek: Plato● A literary trend: 18c in Britain (1798~1832)●Schlegel Bros.I.Preview: Characteristics of romanticism1.subjectivity(1)feeling and emotions, finding truth(2)emphasis on imagination(3)emphasis on individualism – personal freedom, no hero worship, natural goodnessof human beings2.back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature(1)unrestrained by classical rules(2)full of imagination(3)colloquial language(4)freedom of imagination(5)genuine in feelings: answer their call for classics3.back to naturenature is “breathing living thing” (Rousseau)II.American Romanticism1.Background(1)Political background and economic development(2)Romantic movement in European countriesDerivative – foreign influence2.features(1)American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experienceand contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place”was radically new and alien.(2)There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romanticauthors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended toedify more than they entertained.(3)The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with AmericanRomanticism.(4)As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticismwas both imitative and independent.III.Washington 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 York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the DutchDynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of internationalrecognition with the publication of this.)(3)The History of the Life and Voyages 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 languageIV.James Fenimore Cooper1.life2.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, ThePrairie3.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 ofthe United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring andpushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Taleseffectively 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 westerntradition to American literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – American TranscendentalismI.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 IdealismCenter of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticismCenter of the world is “oversoul”4.PuritanismEloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, “Nature” by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment 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 thathuman can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw offshackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new anddistinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy whereopportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moralnecessity for rising to spiritual height.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period inAmerican literature.V.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.life2.works(1)Nature(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 a spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine inhimself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emersonmeans by “the infinitude of man”.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and thathe makes the world by making himself.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 whichwas to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceVI.Henry David Thoreau1.life2.works(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 wasvehemently 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 nature as a genuine restorative,healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-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’sodd-fellow society”.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men. Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.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 fromgeneration to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil onwhich 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 yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had inmind 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 ofviewII.Herman Melville1.life2.works(1)Typee(2)Omio(3)Mardi(4)Redburn(5)White Jacket(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre(8)Billy Budd3.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of“Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disasterand death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts overthe comforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity throughemploying the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commentedupon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description ofwhat goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)Romantic PoetsI.Walt 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 Vistas(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 evenwrong(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 itin a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to hisgreat influence.II.Emily Dickenson1.life2.works(1)My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2)Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4)Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5)Wild Nights – Wild Nights3.themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4)physical aspect of desire(5)nature – kind and cruel(6)free will and human responsibility4.style(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification – make some of abstract ideas vividparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, itsexpansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of“American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation bybreaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedomin form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the innerlife of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) which Whitmandoesn’t have.Edgar 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 theme 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.Aesthetic 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. Poemsshould not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V.Style – traditional, but not easy to readVI.Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)VII.His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Background: From Romanticism to Realism1.the three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period(1)industrialism vs. agrarian(2)culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west(3)plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility2.1880’s urbanization: from free competition to monopoly capitalism3.the closing of American frontierII.Characteristics1.truthful description of life2.typical character under typical circumstance3.objective rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life“Realistic writers are like scientists.”4.open-ending:Life is complex and cannot be fully understood. It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves.5.concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustrations ofcharacters in an environment of sordidness and depravityIII.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”(1)Realistic principlesa.Realism is “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”.b.The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of American life”.c.Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells’s fictionalrepresentation.d.Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals but includes acentral concern with “motives” and psychological conflicts.e.He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, and avoids suchthemes as illicit love.f.Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense of something“desultory, unfinished, imperfect”.g.Characters should have solidity of specification and be real.h.Interpreting sympathetically the “common feelings of commonplace people” wasbest suited as a technique to express the spirit of America.i.He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with currenthumanitarian ideals.j.Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates all things.k.With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjective evaluations on books but should follow the detachedscientist in accurate description, interpretation, and classification.(2)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(3)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethicscking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Life(2)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international theme●The American●Daisy Miller●The Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays●Daisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence, then backto international theme●The Turn of the Screw●When Maisie Knew●The Ambassadors●The Wings of the Dove●The Golden Bowl(3)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent lifemon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(4)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(5)Style –“stylist”nguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb.V ocabulary: largec.Construction: complicated, intricate3.Mark Twain (see next section)Local Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sI.Appearance1.uneven development in economy in America2.culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3.magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII.What is “Local Colour”?Tasks of local colourists: to write or present local characters of their regions in truthful depiction distinguished from others, usually a very small part of the world.Regional literature (similar, but larger in world)●Garland, Harte – the west●Eggleston – Indiana●Mrs Stowe●Jewett – Maine●Chopin – LouisianaIII.Mark Twain – Mississippi1.life2.works(1)The Gilded Age(2)“the two advantages”(3)Life on the Mississippi(4) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court(5)The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug3.style(1)colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2)local colour(3)syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimes ungrammatical(4)humour(5)tall tales (highly exaggerated)(6)social criticism (satire on the different ugly things in society)parison of the three “giants” of American Realism1.ThemeHowells – middle classJames – upper classTwain – lower class2.TechniqueHowells – smiling/genteel realismJames – psychological realismTwain – local colourism and colloquialismChapter 4 American NaturalismI.Background1.Darwin’s theory: “natural selection”2.Spenser’s idea: “social Darwinism”3.French Naturalism: ZoraII.Features1.environment and heredity2.scientific accuracy and a lot of details3.general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the societyIII.significanceIt prepares the way for the writing of 1920s’ “lost generation” and T. S. Eliot.IV.Theodore Dreiser1.life2.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius3.point of view(1)He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned to regard manas merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in whichonly the “fittest”, the m ost ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle inwhich man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind ofsocial forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no po werwhatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internalchemisms and by the forces of social pressure.4.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis5.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in paintingChapter 5 The Modern PeriodSection 1 The 1920sI.IntroductionThe 1920s is a flowering period of American literature. It is considered “the second renaissance” of American literature.The nicknames for this period:(1)Roaring 20s – comfort(2)Dollar Decade – rich(3)Jazz Age – Jazz musicII.Backgrounda)First World War –“a war to end all wars”(1)Economically: became rich from WWI. Economic boom: new inventions.Highly-consuming society.(2)Spiritually: dislocation, fragmentation.b)wide-spread contempt for law (looking down upon law)1.Freud’s theoryIII.Features of the literatureWriters: three groups(1)Participants(2)Expatriates(3)Bohemian (unconventional way of life) – on-lookersTwo areas:(1)Failure of communication of Americans(2)Failure of the American societyImagismI. BackgroundImagism was influenced by French symbolism, ancient Chinese poetry and Japanese literature “haiku”II. Development: three stages1.1908~1909: London, Hulme2.1912~1914: England -> America, Pound3.1914~1917: Amy LowellIII. W hat is an “image”?An image is defined by Pound as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time, “a vortex or cluster of fused ideas” “endowed with energy”. The exact word must bring the effect of the object be fore the reader as it had presented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of writing.IV. Principles1.Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective;2.To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation;3.As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in thesequence of a metronome.V. Significance1.It was a rebellion against the traditional poetics which failed to reflect the new life ofthe new century.2.It offered a new way of writing which was valid not only for the Imagist poets but formodern poetry as a whole.3.The movement was a training school in which many great poets learned their firstlessons in the poetic art.4.It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern English and Americanpoetry.VI. Ezra Pound1.life2.literary career3.works(1)Cathay(2)Cantos(3)Hugh Selwyn Mauberley4.point of view(1)Confident in Pound’s belief that the artist was morally and culturally the arbiterand the “saviour” of the race, he took it upon himself to purify the arts and becamethe prime mover of a few experimental movements, the aim of which was to dumpthe old into the dustbin and bring forth something new.(2)To him life was sordid personal crushing oppression, and culture produced nothingbut “intangible bondage”.(3)Pound sees in Chinese history and the doctrine of Confucius a source of strengthand wisdom with which to counterpoint Western gloom and confusion.(4)He saw a chaotic world that wanted setting to rights, and a humanity, sufferingfrom spiritual death and cosmic injustice, that needed saving. He was for the mostpart of his life trying to offer Confucian philosophy as the one faith which couldhelp to save the West.5.style: very difficult to readPound’s early poems are fresh and lyrical. The Cantos can be notoriously difficult insome sections, but delightfully beautiful in others. Few have made serious study of thelong poem; fewer, if anyone at all, have had the courage to declare that they haveconquered Pound; and many seem to agree that the Cantos is a monumental failure.6.ContributionHe has helped, through theory and practice, to chart out the course of modern poetry.7.The Cantos –“the intellectual diary since 1915”Features:(1)Language: intricate and obscure(2)Theme: complex subject matters(3)Form: no fixed framework, no central theme, no attention to poetic rulesVII. T. S. Eliot1.life2.works(1)poems●The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock●The Waste Land (epic)●Hollow Man●Ash Wednesday●Four Quarters(2)Plays●Murder in the Cathedral●Sweeney Agonistes●The Cocktail Party●The Confidential Clerk(3)Critical essays●The Sacred Wood●Essays on Style and Order●Elizabethan Essays●The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticisms●After Strange Gods3.point of view(1)The modern society is futile and chaotic.(2)Only poets can create some order out of chaos.(3)The method to use is to compare the past and the present.4.Style(1)Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone and highly expressive rhythm(2)Difficult and disconnected images and symbols, quotations and allusions(3)Elliptical structures, strange juxtapositions, an absence of bridges5.The Waste Land: five parts(1)The Burial of the Dead(2) A Game of Chess(3)The Fire Sermon(4)Death by Water(5)What the Thunder SaidVIII. Robert Frost1.life2.point of view(1)All his life, Frost was concerned with constructions through po etry. “a momentarystay against confusion”.(2)He understands the terror and tragedy in nature, but also its beauty.(3)Unlike the English romantic poets of 19th century, he didn’t believe that man couldfind harmony with nature. He believed that serenity came from working, usuallyamid natural forces, which couldn’t be understood. He regarded work as“significant toil”.3.works – poemsthe first: A Boy’s Willcollections: North of Boston, Mountain Interval (mature), New Hampshire4.style/features of his poems(1)Most of his poems took New England as setting, and the subjects were chosenfrom daily life of ordinary people, such as “mending wall”, “picking apples”.(2)He writes most often about landscape and people – the loneliness and poverty ofisolated farmers, beauty, terror and tragedy in nature. He also describes someabnormal people, e.g. “deceptively simple”, “philosophical poet”.(3)Although he was popular during 1920s, he didn’t experiment like other modernpoets. He used conventional forms, plain language, traditional metre, and wrote ina pastured tradition.IX. e. e. cummings“a juggler with syntax, grammar and diction” –individualism, “painter poet”Novels in the 1920sI. F. Scott Fitzgerald1.life – participant in 1920s2.works(1)This Side of Paradise(2)Flappers and Philosophers(3)The Beautiful and the Damned(4)The Great Gatsby(5)Tender is the Night(6)All the Sad Young Man(7)The Last Tycoon3.point of view(1)He expressed what the young people believed in the 1920s, the so-called“American Dream” is false in nature.(2)He had always been critical of the rich and tried to show the integrating effects ofmoney on the emotional make-up of his character. He found that wealth alteredpeople’s characters, making them mean and distrusted. He thinks money broughtonly tragedy and remorse.(3)His novels follow a pattern: dream – lack of attraction – failure and despair.4.His ideas of “American Dream”It is false to most young people. Only those who were dishonest could become rich.。

《美国文学简史》考研常耀信版考研复习笔记和考研真题第1章殖民地时期的美国1.1 复习笔记I. American Puritanism（美国清教主义）The settlement of North American continent by the English began in the early part of the seventeenth century. The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. In 1620, the ship Mayflower carried about one hundred Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The first settlers in America were quite a few of them Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons. They carried with them American Puritanism which took root in the New World and became the most enduring shaping influence in American thought and American literature.英国向北美的移民活动开始于17世纪上半叶。

英国于1607年在北美建立了第一个永久性海外殖民区：弗吉尼亚州的詹姆斯敦。

1620年“五月花”号载运100余名移民抵达马萨诸塞州的普利茅斯。

很多美国早期的移民是清教徒，他们出于多种原因来到美国。

他们信奉的清教主义后来在新大陆生根发芽，并对美国思想和美国文学产生了根深蒂固的影响。

American Literature: PoetryINTRODUCTIONAmerican Literature: Poetry, verse in English that originates from the territory now known as the United States. American poetry differs from British or English poetry chiefly because America’s culturally diver se traditions exerted pressure on the English language, altering its tones, diction, forms, and rhythms until something identifiable as American English emerged. American poetry is verse written in this form of English.The term American poetry is in some ways a contradiction. America represents a break with tradition and the invention of a new culture separate from the European past. Poetry, on the other hand, represents tradition itself, a long history of expression carried to America from a European past. American poetry thus embodies a clearly identifiable tension between tradition and innovation, past and future, and old forms and new forms. American poetry remains a hybrid, a literature that tries to separate itself from the tradition of English literature even as it adds to and alters that tradition.American poetry could be defined differently, however, especially if it is not limited to poetry in English. Without that qualifying term, American poetry has its origins in the rich oral traditions of Native American cultures. Each of these cultures developed complex symbolic tales of the origins and history of its people, akin to epic poems in the European tradition. These tales were performed as part of rituals and passed on through memorization from one generation to the next. Some of them have been translated into English. Yet these works tend to vanish from most histories of American poetry because they were part of ongoing performances based in spoken rather than written language. Moreover, their rhythms and sounds are bound to the native languages in which they evolved.Other cultures have contributed to the rich heritage of American poetry. Spanish-language poetry has been produced in America from the time of the earliest Spanish explorers to current Hispanic and Chicano and Chicana poetry. American poetry traditions also have thrived in many other languages, from Chinese to Yiddish, as the result of centuries of immigration to the United States.But most people mean by American poetry those rhythmic, memorable, and significant verse forms composed in English in the United States or in lands that became the United States. This overview of more than 300 years of American poetry tracks the creation of a national literature identifiably different from that of any other nation. In the 1600s colonial poets responded to the challenges of their new world and expressed the hopes and fears of Europeans who settled there. In the years following the Declaration of Independence (1776) American poets created a patriotic poetry as a defining literature for the new nation. A powerful new kind of poetry flowered in the mid- and late 19th century among the first poets to be born and raised as actual citizens of the United States. American modernist poetry emerged in the first half of the 20th century, as many writers sought to subdue nationalist impulses in their poetry and define themselves as part of an international advance in the arts. Finally, in the second half of the 20th century a multiplicity of diverse voices redefined American poetry. For information on American prose or drama, see American Literature: Prose; American Literature: Drama.I I BEGINNINGS: 1600S THROUGH THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION(1775-1783)From the beginning until well into the 19th century, widespread agreement existed that American poetry would be judged by British standards, and that poetry written in America was simply British poetry composed on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet in responding to British styles, American poetry took inspiration from the new physical environment and the evolving culture of the colonies. In the process it recorded a subtle shift from poets who were dependent imitators to poets who spoke for and in the language of the new nation.A New England PuritanPoetryPuritans who had settled in New England were the first poets of the American colonies. Most Puritan poets saw the purpose of poetry as careful Christian examination of their lives; and private poems, like Puritan diaries, served as a forum where the self could be measured daily against devout expectations. Puritan leaders deemed poetry a safe and inspiriting genre, since they considered the Bible itself to be God’s poetry. Thus poetry became the literary form that allowed devout believers to express, with God’s help, divine lessons. Other genres, such as drama and fiction, were considered dangerous, capable of generating lies and leading to idle entertainment instead of moral uplift.Puritan poets had grown up in England during a period when Christian epic poetry—culminating in Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton—was considered the highest literary accomplishment. When they came to America they maintained their cultural allegiances to Britain. Anne Bradstreet looked to British poets Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser; Edward Taylor looked to poets George Herbert and John Donne.Bradstreet was the first poet in America to publish a volume of poetry. The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America was published in England in 1650. Bradstreet had lived in England until 1630, when at the age of 18 she arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where she spent the rest of her life. Although Bradstreet wrote many poems on familiar British themes and produced skilled imitations of British forms, her most remarkable works responded directly to her experiences in colonial New England. They reveal her attraction to her new world, even as the discomforts of life in the wilderness sickened her. Her poetry contains a muted declaration of independence from the past and a challenge to authority.Although Bradstreet’s verses on the burning of her house in 1666 and poems on the death of three grandchildren end by reaffirming the God-fearing Puritan belief system, along the way they also question the harsh Puritan God. Further, Brads treet’s work records early stirrings of female resistance to a social and religious system in which women are subservient to men. In “The Prologue” (1650), Bradstreet writes, “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue / Who says my hand a needle better fits, / [than] A poet’s pen.…” Bradstreet’s instincts were to love this world more than the promised next world of Puritan theology, and her struggle to overcome her love for the world of nature energizes her poetry.Taylor, a poet of great technical skill, wrote powerful meditative poems in which he tested himself morally and sought to identify and root out sinful tendencies. In “God's Determinations Touching His Elect” (written 1680?), one of Taylor’s most important works, he celebrates God's power in the triump h of good over evil in the human soul. All of Taylor’s poetry and much of Bradstreet’s served generally personal ends, and their audience often consisted of themselves andtheir family and closest friends. This tradition of private poetry, kept in manuscript and circulated among a small and intimate circle, continued throughout the colonial period, and numerous poets of the 17th and 18th centuries remained unknown to the general public until long after their deaths. For them, poetry was a kind of heightened letter writing that reaffirmed the ties of family and friends. Taylor’s poems remained unpublished until 1939, when The Poetical Works of Edward Taylor appeared. Many of Bradstreet’s most personal poems also remained unpublished during her lifetime.Public poetry for the Puritans was more didactic or instructive in nature and often involved the transformation into verse of important biblical lessons that guided Puritan belief. Poet and minister Michael Wigglesworth wrote theological verse in ballad meter, such as The Day of Doom (1662), which turned the Book of Revelation into an easily memorized sing-song epic. Puritan poetry also included elaborate elegies,or poems honoring a person who had recently died. Puritans used these poems to explore the nature of the self, reading the character of the dead person as a text and seeing the life as a collection of hidden meanings.B SouthernSatireColonial poets of the 18th century still looked to British poets of their time, such as Alexander Pope and Ambrose Philips. Both were masters of pastoral verse—poetry that celebrated an idealized English countryside and rural life—and of satirical verse. Initially, this satiric tone was more prevalent in the southern colonies than in New England.Two poets from the Maryland Colony, Ebenezer Cook and Richard Lewis, wrote accomplished satirical poems based on British pastoral models. But their poems cleverly undermine those models by poking fun at the British. Cook’s The Sot-Weed Factor (1708) is a long narrative poem written in rhyming couplets that mocks Americans as a backward people but aims its satire most effectively at the poem’s narrator, who is a British snob. Americans may be laughable, Cook suggests, but they are not as ridiculous as the British with their ignorance and prejudice about Americans.C Revolutionary Era PatrioticPoetryA penchant for satire continued in the American Revolutionary era, when American poetry was centered on Connecticut and a group of poets known as the Connecticut Wits (or Hartford Wits). This group, most of whose members were associated with Yale University, included David Humphreys, John Trumbull, and Joel Barlow. Along with other writers they produced The Anarchiad (1786-1787), a mock epic poem warning against the chaos that would ensue if a strong central government, as advocated by the Federalists, was not implemented in the United States. American poets used the British literary model of the mock epic as a tool to satirize and criticize British culture. Trumbull’s mock epic M’Finga l (1775-1782) lampooned the British Loyalists during the Revolution.Revolutionary-era poets composed more than satire, however. They felt an urgency to produce a serious—even monumental—national poetry that would celebrate the country’s new democratic ideals. Epic poems, they believed, would confer importance and significance on the new nation’s culture. Educated in the classics, these poets were also lawyers, ministers, and busy citizens of the new republic. They did not bother with the question whether a new nation required new forms of poetry, but were content to use traditional forms to write about new subjects in orderto create the first truly American poetry. Whereas traditional epics celebrated past accomplishments of a civilization, American epics by necessity celebrated the future. Examples of such epics include Barlow’s The Vision of Columbus(1787), later revised as The Columbiad (1807); Greenfield Hill (1794) by clergyman Timothy Dwight; and The Rising Glory of America (1772) by Philip Freneau. All offered the prospect of America as the future culmination of civilization.Freneau, the most accomplished patriot poet, was not associated with Connecticut. He was born in New York City and later lived in a variety of places. His range of experience and clarity of expression made him a very popular poet, widely regarded as the first poet who spoke for the entire country. Much of his poetry focused on America’s future greatness, but he also wrote on other subjects, including the beauties of the natural w orld. Such lyric poems as “The Wild Honey Suckle” (1786) and “On a Honey Bee” (1809), can be seen as the first expressions in American poetry of a deep spiritual engagement with nature.D Early BlackVoicesSlavery was the great contradiction in the new nation that had affirmed in its Declaration of Independence a basic belief that “all men are created equal” and have “inalienable” rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Many of the country’s early leaders believed that African slaves were intellectually inferior to whites. Phillis Wheatley, a Boston slave, challenged those racist assumptions early on. Brought to America as a young girl, Wheatley was educated by her masters in English and Latin. She became an accomplished poet, and her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral(1773) was published in England. Like the white patriot poets, Wheatley wrote in 18th-century literary forms. But her highly structured and elegant poetry nonetheless expressed her frustration at enslavement and desire to reach a heaven where her color and social position would no longer keep her from singing in her full glory.Wheatley’s poetry, along with that of other slaves, begins a powerful African American tradition in American poetry. In 1746 Lucy Terry, a slave in Massachusetts who was also educated by her owner, wrote the first poem to be published by a black American: 'Bar's Fight.' The poem, which was not published until 1855, describes the victims and survivors of a Native American raid against settler s. It was followed by Jupiter Hammon’s biblically inspired, hymnlike verse, “An Evening Thought; Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries” (1761).Born at the time of the founding of the nation, African American poetry retained its concern with the burning issues of the American Revolution, including liberty, independence, equality, and identity. It also expressed African American experiences of divided loyalties. Just as white Americans experienced divided loyalties in the republic’s early years—unsure whether their identity derived from the new country or from their European past—so too did African Americans, who looked always to their African past and to their problematic American present.I IITHE 19TH CENTURYThe 19th century began with high hopes for poetic accomplishment. The first comprehensive anthologies of American poetry appeared in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s. In the first half of the century poets sought to entertain, to inform, and to put into memorable language America’s history, myths, manners, and topography, but they did not seek to forge a radical new poetic tradition. Their poetry built upon tradition, and they met the first great goal of American poetry:that it be able to compete in quality, intelligence, and breadth with British poetry. But just as they achieved this goal, poetic aspirations began to change. By the mid-19th century the new goal for American poetry was to create something very different from British poetry. Innovative poets, particularly Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, led the way.A The FiresidePoetsWilliam Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Greenleaf Whittier constituted a group sometimes called the Fireside Poets. They earned this nickname because they frequently used the hearth as an image of comfort and unity, a place where families gathered to learn and tell stories. These tremendously popular poets also were widely read around the hearthsides of 19th-century American families. The consensus of American critics was that the Fireside Poets first put American poetry on an equal footing with British poetry.Bryant gained public recognition first and is best remembered for “Thanatopsis,” published in 1821 but written when he was a teenager. Still widely anthologized, this poem offers a democratic reconciliation with death as the great equalizer and a recognition that the “still voice” of God is embodied in all processes of nature. During a busy life as a lawyer and editor of the New York Evening Post, Bryant wrote accomplished, elegant, and romantic descriptions of a nature suffused with spirit.Longfellow was the best known of the Fireside Poets, and it was with him that American poetry began its emergence from the shadow of its British parentage. His poetic narratives helped create a national historical myth, transforming colorful aspects of the American past into memorable romance. They include Evangeline (1847), which concerns lovers who are separated during the French and Indian War (1754-1763), and The Song of Hiawatha (1855), which derives its themes from Native American folklore. No American poet before or since was as widely celebrated during his or her lifetime as Longfellow. He became the first and only American poet to be honored with a bust in the revered Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey in London, England.The accomplishments of the other Fireside Poets were various. Lowell’s Biglow Papers (1848) added to the American tradition of long satirical poems. Holmes wrote several memorable short po ems such as “The Chambered Nautilus” (1858). Whittier became best known for Snow-Bound (1866), a long nostalgic look at his Massachusetts Quaker boyhood, when the family gathered around the fireside during a snowstorm.B AbolitionistPoetryDuring the 19th century, black and white poets wrote about the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of slaves. George Moses Horton, a North Carolina slave, was the first Southern black poet. Joshua McCarter Simpson was a black poet from Ohio whose memorable songs of emancipation were set to popular tunes and sung by fugitive slaves. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper wrote passionate abolitionist and early feminist poems that called both blacks and whites to action against oppression. James M. Whitfield wrote powerful poems criticizing America for its failure to live up to its ideals. In his long poem “America” (1853), he writes: “America, it is to thee, / Thou boasted land of liberty,— / It is to thee I raise my song, / Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong.”Black poets at this time appropriated the language and style of the predominantly white, mainstream patriotic America. In using mainstream language, these black poets showed their white audiences how differently songs of liberty and freedom sounded from the perspective of those who had been left out of the “all men are created equal” equation. Black poets also often expressed themselves with irony and ambiguity so that different audiences heard different intonations and meanings, a double voicing that would become central to later African American writing.White abolitionist poets, from their more privileged social position, could afford to be more confrontational about the issue of slavery. Whittier was a fiery abolitionist whose numerous antislavery poems were collected in Voices of Freedom(1846). Longfellow’s Poems on Slavery (1842) forms a long-forgotten but illuminating contribution to the tradition of American political poems. Lowell also was an ardent abolitionist.C WaltWhitmanA newspaper reporter and editor, Whitman first published poems that were traditional in form and conventional in sentiment. In the early 1850s, however, he began experimenting with a mixture of the colloquial diction and prose rhythms of journalism; the direct address and soaring voice of oratory; the repetitions and catalogues of the Bible; and the lyricism, music, and drama of popular opera. He sought to write a democratic poetry—a poetry vast enough to contain all the variety of burgeoning 19th-century American culture.In 1855 Whitman published the first edition of Leaves of Grass, the book he would revise and expand for the rest of his life. The first edition contained only 12 untitled poems. The longest poem, which he eventually named “Song of Myself,” has become one of the mos t discussed poems in all of American poetry. In it Whitman constructs a democratic “I,” a voice that sets out to celebrate itself and the rapture of its senses experiencing the world, and in so doing to celebrate the unfettered potential of every individual in a democratic society. Emerging from a working class family, Whitman grew up in New York City and on nearby Long Island. He was one of the first working-class American poets and one of the first writers to compose poetry that is set in and draws its energy from the bustling, crowded, diverse streets of the city.Whitman later added a variety of poems to Leaves of Grass. They include “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856), in which Whitman addresses both contemporary and future riders of the ferry, and “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” (1860), a reverie about his boyhood on the shores of Long Island. Other poems were about affection between men and about the experiences and sufferings of soldiers in the Civil War (1861-1865).Whitman’s work was initially embraced more fully in Britain than in the United States. An influential 1872 anthology, American Poems, published in England and edited by English literary critic William Michael Rossetti, was dedicated to Whitman and gave him more space than any other poet. From then on American poetry was judged not by how closely it approximated the best British verse, but by how radically it divorced itself from British tradition. Rough innovation came to be admired over polished tradition.D EmilyDickinsonEmily Dickinson, along with Whitman, is one of the most original and demanding poets in American literature. Living her whole life in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson composed nearly2,000 short, untitled poems. Despite her productivity, only a handful of Dickinson’s poems were published before her death in 1886. 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.Dickinson’s intensely private poems cover a wide range of subjects and emotions. She was fascinated with death, and many of her poems struggle with the contradictions and seeming impossibility of an afterlife. She carries on an argument with God, sometimes expressing faith in him and sometimes denying his existence. Many of her poems record moments of freezing paralysis that could be death, pain, doubt, fear, or love. She remains one of the most private and cryptic voices in American literature.Because of Dickinson’s prominence, it sometimes seems that she was the only female poet in America in the 19th century. Yet nearly a hundred women published poetry in the first six decades of the 1800s, and most early anthologies of American poetry contained far more women writers than appeared in anthologies in the first half of the 20th century. Dickinson’s work can be better understood if read in the context of these poets.Lydia Huntley Sigourney was a popular early-19th-century poet whose work set the themes for other female poets: motherhood, sentiment, and the ever-present threat of death, particularly to children. She developed, among other forms, the same hymn stanza that Dickinson used, although she experimented with fewer variations on it than Dickinson, and her poetry was simple and accessible. The work of Sigourney, along with that of Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Frances Sargent Locke Osgood, Alice and Phoebe Cary, and Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, was dismissed by most 20th-century critics until feminist critics began to rediscover the ironic edge to what had before seemed to be conventional sentimentality. The work of these and other women poets offers a window into the way 19th-century culture constructed and understood such concepts as gender, love, marriage, and motherhood.Poe, Melville, andOthersOther poets who tried out distinctive new forms included Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville. Poe devoted great effort to writing poetry that was unlike anything before it. A careful craftsman, he examined in detail the effects that his every poetic choice had. Poe’s poetry earned little respect from his contemporaries, who dismissed him as “the jingle man.” He had, said Whitman, “the rhyming art to excess.” Yet Poe’s nightmarish scenes, unnerving plots, and probings of abnormal psychology gave his poetry, as well as his tales, a haunting, memorable quality that makes him one of the most admired innovators in American literature. The opening lines of his best-kno wn poem, “The Raven” (1845), demonstrate Poe’s love of rhyming and his use of varying rhythm: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.”Melville, though much better known as a novelist, nonetheless wrote powerful poetry about the Civil War, collected in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866). He later wrote a long and mysterious poem, Clarel (1876), about his search for faith, his struggle with doubt, and his anxiety about the decline of civilization.Lesser-known innovators of the 19th century include Jones Very, Sidney Lanier and Henry Timrod. Very was a Massachusetts poet who produced strikingly original religious sonnets. Lanier was a Georgia poet who sought to reproduce in language the effects of music. Timrod, a Southern poet who was known as “the laureate of the Confederacy,” wrote some notably original and dark poetry in the 1860s.Toward the 20thCenturyWhitman had hoped that his work would generate new energy in American poetry. But when he died in 1892, the American poetic scene was relatively barren. Most of the major poets had died and no successor to Whitman was emerging. William Vaughn Moody, a poet born in Indiana, wrote The Masque of Judgement(1900), which was the first in a series of verse dramas about humanity’s spiritual tortures and eventual spiritual victory. Stephen Crane, best known for his novels, published two volumes of poetry, The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895) and War Is Kind and Other Poems (1899). In their tone and fragmented form, his grim poems anticipate the concerns of many modern writers. But neither poet lived far into the 20th century.I VTHE 20TH CENTURYBy 1900 the United States was far different from the new nation it had been a hundred years earlier. Westward expansion, waves of immigration, and increasing urbanization all combined to create a physically larger, more populous, and far more diverse country than its founders could have imagined. These changes are tracked mor e visibly in America’s fiction than in its poetry, but the nation’s growing diversity is evident in the diverse voices of 20th-century American poets. American poetry in the opening decades of the century displayed far less unity than most anthologies and critical histories indicate. Shifting allegiances, evolving styles, and the sheer number of poets make it difficult to categorize 20th-century poetry.A RegionalismIn the last decades of the 19th century, American literature had entered a period of regionalism, exploring the stories, dialects, and idiosyncrasies of the many regions of the United States. Dialect poetry—written in exaggerated accents and colorful idioms—became a sensation for a time though it produced little of lasting value. However, one major poet who rose to fame on the basis of his dialect poems was Paul Laurence Dunbar, a black writer from Ohio. Dunbar’s dialect poems, which romanticized the life of slaves in the pre-Civil War South, were extremely popular. His volumes Oak and Ivy (1893) and Majors and Minors(1895) brought attention to African American literature, although the dialect poems later embarrassed many black poets. Dunbar also wrote many nondialect poems, and through his work initiated an important debate in African American literature about what voices and materials black writers should employ.Other regions and groups developed their own distinctive voices. Kansas-born Edgar Lee Masters achieved success with Spoon River Anthology(1915). His poetic epitaphs (commemorations) capture the hidden passions, deceits, and hopes of Midwesterners buried in the fictional Spoon River cemetery. Edwin Arlington Robinson explored the lives of New Englanders in his fictional Tilbury Town through dramatic monologues—poems written entirely in the voice。

美国文学简史笔记常耀信The document was finally revised on 2021A Concise History of American LiteratureWhat is literature?Literature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages.Chapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.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 sincan 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 andthoughtful) influenced American literature.(2)It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – gardenof Eden.(3)Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perceptionwas chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolismwhich is distinctly American.(4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; therhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility oftentraceable to the direct influence of the Bible.II.Overview of the literature1.types of writingdiaries, 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 FreneauIII.Jonathan Edwards1.life2.works(1)The Freedom of the Will(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3)The Nature of True Virtue3.ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)God’s presence(4)Puritan idealismIV.Benjamin Franklin1.life2.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac(2)Autobiography3.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the AmericanPhilosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity inthis case) from heaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. HermanMelville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”. Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is Romanticism?●An approach from ancient Greek: Plato● A literary trend: 18c in Britain (1798~1832)●Schlegel Bros.I.Preview: Characteristics of romanticism1.subjectivity(1)feeling and emotions, finding truth(2)emphasis on imagination(3)emphasis on individualism – personal freedom, no hero worship, naturalgoodness of human beings2.back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature(1)unrestrained by classical rules(2)full of imagination(3)colloquial language(4)freedom of imagination(5)genuine in feelings: answer their call for classics3.back to naturenature is “breathing living thing” (Rousseau)II.American Romanticism1.Background(1)Political background and economic development(2)Romantic movement in European countriesDerivative – foreign influence2.features(1)American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real newexperience and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that“the spirit of the place” was radically new and a lien.(2)There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider.American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many Americanromantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained.(3)The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with AmericanRomanticism.(4)As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, Americanromanticism was both imitative and independent.III.Washington 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 York from the Beginning of the World to the End ofthe Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure ofinternational recognition with the publication of this.)(3)The History of the Life and Voyages 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 languageIV.James Fenimore Cooper1.life2.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 thehistory of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the Americansettlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, thenCooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the Americannational experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west andfrontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition toAmerican literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – American TranscendentalismI.Background: four sources1.Unitarianism(1)Fatherhood of God(2)Brotherhood of men(3)Leadership of Jesus(4)Salvation by character (perfection o f one’s character)(5)Continued progress of mankind(6)Divinity of mankind(7)Depravity of mankind2.Romantic IdealismCenter of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticismCenter of the world is “oversoul”4.PuritanismEloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, “Nature” by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment 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 theidea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance,called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to thedevelopment of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economywhere opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on”obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolificperiod in American literature.V.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.life2.works(1)Nature(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet3.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in thetranscendence of the “oversoul”.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influenceon man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanentGod in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out thedivine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This iswhat 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 making himself.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 celebrateAmerica which was to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceVI.Henry David Thoreau1.life2.works(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 wasvehemently 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 nature as a genuinerestorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-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 ofmen’s odd-fellow society”.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generationof men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.life2.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and OldManse(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 passedfrom generation to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish thesoil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of Americannarrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That waswhat 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 viewII.Herman Melville1.life2.works(1)Typee(2)Omio(3)Mardi(4)Redburn(5)White Jacket(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre(8)Billy Budd3.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitudeof “Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causingdisaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence andevil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguitythrough employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profuselycommented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background ordescription of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick) Romantic PoetsI.Walt 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 Vistas(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, westernfrontier 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)s entences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines5.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Westernculture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher andrecast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witnessto his great influence.II.Emily Dickenson1.life2.works(1)My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2)Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4)Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5)Wild Nights – Wild Nights3.themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4)physical aspect of desire(5)nature – kind and cruel(6)free will and human responsibility4.style(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification – make some of abstract ideas vivid parison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergentAmerica, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, theirpoetry being part of “American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the newnation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter andexhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers inAmerican poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson exploresthe inner life of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) whichWhitman doesn’t have.Edgar 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 theme in Poe’s writing“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings isdead.”2.disintegration (separation) of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIV.Aesthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression andfinality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tonemelancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry andstresses rhythm.V.Style – traditional, but not easy to readVI.Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)VII.His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Background: From Romanticism to Realism1.the three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period(1)industrialism vs. agrarian(2)culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west(3)plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility2.1880’s urbanization: from free competition to monopoly capitalism3.the closing of American frontierII.Characteristics1.truthful description of life2.typical character under typical circumstance3.objective rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life“Realistic writers are like scientists.”4.open-ending:Life is complex and cannot be fully understood. It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves.5.concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustrationsof characters in an environment of sordidness and depravityIII.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”(1)Realistic principlesa.Realism is “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”.b.The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of American life”.c.Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells’sfictional representation.d.Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals butincludes a central concern with “motives” and psychological conflicts.e.He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, andavoids such themes as illicit love.f.Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense ofsomething “desultory, unfinished, imperfect”.g.Characters should have solidity of specification and be real.h.Interpreting sympathetically the “common feelings of commonplacepeople” was best suited as a technique to express the spirit of America.i.He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with currenthumanitarian ideals.j.Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates all things.k.With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjective evaluations on books but should follow the detached scientist in accurate description,interpretation, and classification.(2)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(3)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethicscking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Life(2)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international theme●The American●Daisy Miller●The Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays●Daisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence,then back to international theme●The Turn of the Screw●When Maisie Knew●The Ambassadors●The Wings of the Dove●The Golden Bowl(3)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent lifemon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(4)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(5)Style –“stylist”nguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb.Vocabulary: largec.Construction: complicated, intricate3.Mark Twain (see next section)Local Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sI.Appearance1.uneven development in economy in America2.culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3.magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII.What is “Local Colour”Tasks of local colourists: to write or present local characters of their regions in truthful depiction distinguished from others, usually a very small part of theworld.Regional literature (similar, but larger in world)●Garland, Harte – the west●Eggleston – Indiana●Mrs Stowe●Jewett – Maine●Chopin – LouisianaIII.Mark Twain – Mississippi1.life2.works(1)The Gilded Age(2)“the two advantages”(3)Life on the Mississippi(4) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court(5)The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug3.style(1)colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2)local colour(3)syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimes ungrammatical(4)humour(5)tall tales (highly exaggerated)(6)social criticism (satire on the different ugly things in society)parison of the three “giants” of American Realism1.ThemeHowells – middle classJames – upper classTwain – lower class2.TechniqueHowells – smiling/genteel realismJames – psychological realismTwain – local colourism and colloquialismChapter 4 American NaturalismI.Background1.Darwin’s theory: “natural selection”2.Spenser’s idea: “social Darwinism”3.French Naturalism: ZoraII.Features1.environment and heredity2.scientific accuracy and a lot of details3.general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the societyIII.significanceIt prepares the way for the writing of 1920s’ “lost generation” and T. S. Eliot. IV.Theodore Dreiser1.life2.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius3.point of view(1)He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned toregard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a strugglefor existence in which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a junglestruggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a“wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the generalscheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex ofinternal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.4.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis5.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in paintingChapter 5 The Modern PeriodSection 1 The 1920sI.IntroductionThe 1920s is a flowering period of American literature. It is considered “the second renaissance” of American literature.The nicknames for this period:(1)Roaring 20s – comfort(2)Dollar Decade – rich(3)Jazz Age – Jazz musicII.Backgrounda)First World War –“a war to end all wars”(1)Economically: became rich from WWI. Economic boom: newinventions. Highly-consuming society.(2)Spiritually: dislocation, fragmentation.b)wide-spread contempt for law (looking down upon law)1.Freud’s theoryIII.Features of the literatureWriters: three groups(1)Participants(2)Expatriates(3)Bohemian (unconventional way of life) – on-lookersTwo areas:(1)Failure of communication of Americans(2)Failure of the American societyImagismI. BackgroundImagism was influenced by French symbolism, ancient Chinese poetry and Japanese literature “haiku”II. Development: three stages1.1908~1909: London, Hulme2.1912~1914: England -> America, Pound3.1914~1917: Amy LowellIII. What is an “image”An image is defined by Pound as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time, “a vortex or cluster of fused ideas” “endowed with energy”. The exact word must bring the effect of the object before the reader as it had presented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of writing.IV. Principles1.Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective;2.To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation;3.As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, notin the sequence of a metronome.V. Significance1.It was a rebellion against the traditional poetics which failed to reflect thenew life of the new century.2.It offered a new way of writing which was valid not only for the Imagistpoets but for modern poetry as a whole.3.The movement was a training school in which many great poets learned theirfirst lessons in the poetic art.4.It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern English andAmerican poetry.VI. Ezra Pound1.life2.literary career3.works(1)Cathay(2)Cantos(3)Hugh Selwyn Mauberley4.point of view(1)Confident in Pound’s belief that the artist was morally and culturally thearbiter and t he “saviour” of the race, he took it upon himself to purifythe arts and became the prime mover of a few experimental movements,the aim of which was to dump the old into the dustbin and bring forthsomething new.(2)To him life was sordid personal crushing oppression, and cultureproduced nothing but “intangible bondage”.(3)Pound sees in Chinese history and the doctrine of Confucius a source ofstrength and wisdom with which to counterpoint Western gloom andconfusion.(4)He saw a chaotic world that wanted setting to rights, and a humanity,suffering from spiritual death and cosmic injustice, that needed saving.He was for the most part of his life trying to offer Confucian philosophyas the one faith which could help to save the West.5.style: very difficult to readPound’s early poems are fresh and lyrical. The Cantos can be notoriouslydifficult in some sections, but delightfully beautiful in others. Few havemade serious study of the long poem; fewer, if anyone at all, have had thecourage to declare that they have conquered Pound; and many seem to agreethat the Cantos is a monumental failure.6.ContributionHe has helped, through theory and practice, to chart out the course of modernpoetry.7.The Cantos –“the intellectual diary since 1915”Features:(1)Language: intricate and obscure(2)Theme: complex subject matters(3)Form: no fixed framework, no central theme, no attention to poetic rules VII. T. S. Eliot1.life2.works(1)poems●The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock●The Waste Land (epic)●Hollow Man●Ash Wednesday●Four Quarters(2)Plays●Murder in the Cathedral●Sweeney Agonistes●The Cocktail Party●The Confidential Clerk(3)Critical essays●The Sacred Wood●Essays on Style and Order●Elizabethan Essays●The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticisms●After Strange Gods3.point of view(1)The modern society is futile and chaotic.(2)Only poets can create some order out of chaos.(3)The method to use is to compare the past and the present.4.Style(1)Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone and highly expressive rhythm(2)Difficult and disconnected images and symbols, quotations and allusions(3)Elliptical structures, strange juxtapositions, an absence of bridges5.The Waste Land: five parts(1)The Burial of the Dead(2) A Game of Chess(3)The Fire Sermon(4)Death by Water(5)What the Thunder SaidVIII. Robert Frost1.life2.point of view(1)All his life, Frost was concerned with constructions through poetry. “amomentary stay against confusion”.(2)He understands the terror and tragedy in nature, but also its beauty.(3)Unlike the English romantic poets of 19th century, he didn’t believe thatman could find harmony with nature. He believed that serenity camefrom working, usually amid natural forces, which couldn’t beunderstood. He regarded work as “significant toil”.3.works – poemsthe first: A Boy’s Willcollections: North of Boston, Mountain Interval (mature), New Hampshire4.style/features of his poems(1)Most of his poems took New England as setting, and the subjects werechosen from daily life of ordinary people, such as “mending wall”,“picking apples”.(2)He writes most often about landscape and people – the loneliness andpoverty of isolated farmers, beauty, terror and tragedy in nature. He alsodescribes some abnormal people, . “deceptively simple”, “philosophicalpoet”.(3)Although he was popular during 1920s, he didn’t experiment like othermodern poets. He used conventional forms, plain language, traditionalmetre, and wrote in a pastured tradition.IX. e. e. cummings“a juggler with syntax, grammar and diction” –individualism, “painter poet”Novels in the 1920sI. F. Scott Fitzgerald1.life – participant in 1920s2.works(1)This Side of Paradise(2)Flappers and Philosophers(3)The Beautiful and the Damned(4)The Great Gatsby(5)Tender is the Night(6)All the Sad Young Man(7)The Last Tycoon3.point of view(1)He expressed what the young people believed in the 1920s, the so-called“American Dream” is false in nature.(2)He had always been critical of the rich and tried to show the integratingeffects of money on the emotional make-up of his character. He foundthat wealth altered people’s characters, making them mean anddistrusted. He thinks money brought only tragedy and remorse.(3)His novels follow a pattern: dream – lack of attraction – failure anddespair.4.His ideas of “American Dream”It is false to most young people. Only those who were dishonest couldbecome rich.5.StyleFitzgerald was one of the great stylists in American literature. His prose issmooth, sensitive, and completely original in its diction and metaphors. Itssimplicity and gracefulness, its skill in manipulating the relation between thegeneral and the specific reveal his consummate artistry.6.The Great GatsbyNarrative point of view – NickHe is related to everyone in the novel and is calm and detected observer whois never quick to make judgements.Selected omniscient point of viewII.Ernest Hemingway1.life2.point of view (influenced by experience in war)(1)He felt that WWI had broken America’s culture and traditions, andseparated from its roots. He wrote about men and women who were。

美国文学史常耀信版很有用的哦！ 2008-08-10 22:02 阅读206 评论0字号：大中小美国文学史常耀信版美国文学Part 1. Colonial America浪漫主义American Romanticism(1815-1865)早期浪漫主义early romanticism——Irving欧文, Cooper库柏, Bryant布莱恩特 先验主义transcendentalism and symbolic representation——Emerson 爱默森，Margaret Fuller玛格丽特福勒，Thoreau 梭罗三位重要的小说家——Hawthorne 霍桑，Melville 梅尔维尔，Poe 坡二位重要的诗人——Whitman 惠特曼，Dickinson 狄更生现实主义American Realism（1865-1914）带有地方色彩的写作local color writing——Mark Twain马克吐温现实主义literary realism——James 詹姆士，Howells 豪斯尔斯自然主义literary naturalism——Garland 加兰特，Grane 格雷恩，Frank Norris 弗兰克诺里斯，Jack London 杰克伦敦，Theodore Dreiser 西奥多德莱塞现代主义American Modernism(1914-1945)现代主义在欧洲American modernism in Europe——Gerturde Stein 格特鲁德斯坦因，Ezra Pound 艾兹拉庞德，Amy Lowell 艾米洛威尔，H.D.(Hilda Doolittle) 杜丽埃尔战时的现代派小说modern fiction between the wars——William Faulkner 威廉福克纳，Hemingway 海明威，Fitzgerald 费兹杰罗，Passos 帕索斯，Steinbeck 斯坦贝克现代派诗歌modern American poetry——T.S. Eliot 艾略特，Wallace Stevens 史蒂文斯，William Carols Williams 威廉姆斯， E.E.Cummings 卡明斯Thomas Paine托马斯?潘恩1737-1809 The Case of the Officers of Excise税务员问题；Common Sense常识；American Crisis美国危机；Rights of Man人的权利：Downfall of Despotism专制体制的崩溃；The Age of Reason理性时代Philip Freneau菲利普?弗伦诺1752-1832 The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲；The British Prison Ship英国囚船；To the Memory of the Brave Americans 纪念美国勇士-----同类诗中最佳；The Wild Honeysuckle野生的金银花；The Indian Burying Ground印第安人殡葬地Jonathan Edwards The Freedom of the Will The Great Doctrine of Original Sin defended The Nature of True VirtueBenjamin Franklin本杰明?富兰克林1706-1790 A Modest Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Moneyoor Richard’s Almanack穷查理历书；The Way to Wealth致富之道；The Autobiography自传Part 2. American RomanticismWashington Irving华盛顿?欧文1783-1859 A History of New York纽约的历史-----美国人写的第一部诙谐文学杰作；The Sketch Book见闻札记The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说-----使之成为美国第一个获得国际声誉的作家；Bracebridge Hall布雷斯布里奇田庄；Talks of Travellers旅客谈；The Alhambra阿尔罕伯拉James Fenimore Cooper詹姆斯?费尼莫尔?库珀1789-1851 The Spy间谍;The Pilot领航者;The Littlepage Manuscripts利特佩奇的手稿;Leatherstocking Tales皮裹腿故事集:The Pioneer拓荒者；The Last of Mohicans最后的莫希干人;The Prairie 大草原;The Pathfinder探路者;The Deerslayer杀鹿者Part 3.New England TranscendentalismRalf Waldo Emerson拉尔夫?沃尔多?爱默生1803-1882 Essays散文集:Nature 论自然-----新英格兰超验主义者的宣言书;The American Scholar论美国学者;Divinity;The Oversoul论超灵;Self-reliance论自立;The Transcendentalist超验主义者;Representative Men代表人物;English Traits英国人的特征;School Address神学院演说Concord Hymn康考德颂;The Rhodo杜鹃花;The Humble Bee野蜂;Days日子-首开自由诗之先河Henry David Threau亨利?大卫?梭罗1817-1862 Wadden,or Life in the Woods 华腾湖或林中生活;Resistance to Civil Government/Civil Disobedience抵制公民政府;A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversHenry Wadsworth Longfellow亨利?沃兹沃思?朗费罗1807-1882 The Song of Hiawatha海华沙之歌----美国人写的第一部印第安人史诗;V oices of the Night夜吟;Ballads and Other Poens民谣及其他诗;Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems布鲁茨的钟楼及其他诗;Tales of a Wayside Inn路边客栈的故事---诗集：An April Day四月的一天/A Psalm of Life人生礼物/Paul Revere’s Ride保罗?里维尔的夜奔;Evangeline伊凡吉琳;The Courtship of Miles Standish迈尔斯?斯坦迪什的求婚----叙事长诗；Poems on Slavery奴役篇---反蓄奴组诗Nathaniel Hawthorne纳撒尼尔?霍桑1804-1864Twice-told Tales尽人皆知的故事;Mosses from an Old Manse古屋青苔:Young Goodman Brown年轻的古德曼?布朗;The Scarlet Letter红字;The House of the Seven Gables有七个尖角阁的房子--------心理若们罗曼史;The Blithedale Romance福谷传奇;The Marble Faun玉石雕像Herman Melville赫尔曼?梅尔维尔1819-1891 Moby Dick/The White Whale莫比?迪克/白鲸；Typee泰比;Omoo奥穆;Mardi玛地;Redburn雷得本;White Jacket 白外衣ierre皮尔埃iazza广场故事;Billy Budd比利?巴德Walt Whitman沃尔特?惠特曼1819-1892 Leaves of Grass草叶集:Song of the Broad-Axe阔斧之歌;I hear America Singing我听见美洲在歌唱;When Lilacs Lost in the Dooryard Bloom’d小院丁香花开时;Democratic Vistas民主的前景;The Tramp and Strike Question流浪汉和罢工问题;Song of Myself自我之歌Emily Dickinson埃米莉?迪金森1830-1886 The Poems of Emily Dichenson埃米莉?迪金森诗集-----“Tell all the truth and tell it slant”迂回曲折的，玄学的Edgar Allan Poe埃德加?爱伦?坡1809-1849（以诗为诗；永为世人共赏的伟大抒情诗人-----叶芝） Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque怪诞奇异故事集;Tales 故事集;The Fall of the House of Usher厄舍古屋的倒塌;Ligeia莱琪儿;Annabel Lee 安娜贝尔?李-----歌特风格；首开近代侦探小说先河，又是法国象征主义运动的源头Tamerlane and Other Poems帖木儿和其他诗;Al Araaf,Tamerlane and Minor Poems艾尔?阿拉夫，帖木儿和其他诗;The Raven and Other Poems乌鸦及其他诗:The Raven乌鸦;The City in the Sea海城;Israfel 伊斯拉菲尔;To Hellen致海伦Harriet Beecher Stowe哈丽特?比彻?斯托1811-1896 Uncle Tom’s Cabin汤姆叔叔的小屋;A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp德雷德阴暗大沼地的故事片;The Minister’s Wooing牧师的求婚;The Pearl of Orr’s Island奥尔岛的珍珠;Oldtown Folks老城的人们Part 4. The age of RealismWilliam Dean Howells 威廉?狄恩?豪威尔斯1837-1920 The Rise of Silas Lapham赛拉斯?拉帕姆的发迹;A Modern Instance现代婚姻; A Hazard of Now Fortunes时来运转;A Traveller from Altruia从利他国来的旅客;Through the Eye of the Needle透过针眼----乌托邦小说;Criticism and Fiction;Novel-Writing and Novel-Reading小说创作与小说阅读23、Henry James享利?詹姆斯1843-1916 小说：Daisy Miller苔瑟?米乐；The Portrait of a Lady贵妇人画像；The Bostonians波士顿人；The Real Thing and Other Tales真货色及其他故事；The Wings of the Dove鸽翼；The Ambassadors大使；The Golden Bowl金碗评论集：French Poets and Novelists法国诗人和小说家;Hawthorne霍桑;Partial Portraits不完全的画像;Notes and Reviews札记与评论;Art of Fiction and Other Essays小说艺术Part 5. Local ColorismMark Twain马克?吐温（Samuel Longhorne Clemens）---美国文学的一大里程碑 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County加拉维拉县有名的跳蛙;The Innocent’s Abroad傻瓜出国记;The Gilded Age镀金时代;The Adventures of Tom Sawyer汤姆?索耶历险记;The Prince and the Pauper王子与贫儿;The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利?费恩历险记;A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court亚瑟王宫中的美国佬;The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson傻瓜威尔逊;Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc冉?达克;The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg败坏哈德莱堡的人How to Tell a Story怎样讲故事---对美国早期幽默文学的总结Part 6. American NaturalismStephen Crane斯蒂芬?克莱恩1871-1900 Magic:A Girl of the Streets街头女郎梅姬（美国文学史上首次站在同情立场上描写受辱妇女的悲惨命运）；The Red Badge of Courage红色英勇勋章；The Open Boat小划子;The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky新娘来到黄天镇Frank Norris弗兰克?诺里斯1870-1902 Moran of the Lady Letty茱蒂夫人号上的莫兰（romantic）;Mc-Teague麦克提格（naturalistic）;The Epic of the Wheat(realistic)小麦诗史(The Octopus章鱼,The Pit小麦交易所);A Deal in Wheat and Other Stories of the Old and New West小麦交易所及其他新老西部故事Theodore Dreiser西奥多?德莱塞1871-1945 Sister Carrie嘉莉姐妹;Jennie Gerhardt珍妮姑娘;Trilogy of Desire欲望三部曲(Financer金融家,The Titan巨人,The Stoic);An American Tragedy美国的悲剧（被称为美国最伟大的小说）;Nigger Jeff黑人杰弗Edwin Arlington Robinson鲁宾逊1869-1935 Captain Craig克雷格上尉---诗体小说；The Town Down the River河上的城镇;The Man Against the Sky衬托着天空的人;Avon’s Harvest沃冯的收成;Collected Poems诗集40、Jack London杰克?伦敦1876-1916 The Son of the Wolf狼之子,The Call of the Wild野性的呼唤;The Sea-wolf海狼;White Fang白獠牙;The People of the Abyss 深渊中的人们;The Iron Heel铁蹄;Marti Eden马丁?伊登;How I become a Socialist 我怎样成为社会党人;The War of the Classes阶级之间的战争;What Life Means to Me生命对我意味着什么;Revolution革命;Love of Life热爱生命;The Mexican墨西哥人;Under the Deck Awings在甲板的天蓬下Upton Sinclair厄普顿?辛克莱尔1878-1968 Spring and Harvest春天与收获;The Jungle屠场（揭发黑幕运动的代表作家）;King Coal煤炭大王;Oil石油;Boston波士顿;Dragon’s Teeth龙齿Part 7. The 1920sImagism Ezra Pound艾兹拉?庞德1885-1972 The Spirit of Romance罗曼司精神;The Anthology Des Imagistes意像派诗选;Cathay华夏（英译中国诗）;Literary Essays文学论;Hugh Swlwyn Mauberley;A Few Don’ts by Imagiste意像派戒条;Personage面具;Polite Essays文雅集;The Cantos of Ezra Pound庞德诗章（109首及8首未完成稿）Thomas Stearns Eliot托马斯?艾略特1888-1965 Prufrock and Other Observations普罗夫洛克（荒原意识）;The Waste Land荒原(The Burial of the Dead 死者的葬礼;A Game of Chess弈棋;The Fire Sermon火诫;Death by Water水边之死;What the Thunder Said雷电之言);名诗：Ash Wednesday圣灰星期三;Four Quarters四个四重奏诗剧：Murder in the Cathedral大教堂谋杀案;Family Reunion大团圆;Cocktail Party 鸡尾酒会Wallace Stevens华莱士?史蒂文斯1879-1955 Harmonium风琴;The Man With the Blue Guitar弹蓝吉他的人;Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction关于最高虚构的札记(Peter Quince at the Clavier彼得?昆斯弹风琴;Sunday Morning礼拜天早晨);The Auroras of Autumn秋天的晨曦;Collected Poems诗集。

《美国文学史》各章节知识点指南时间：2011年2月使用教材：《美国文学史》（第二版）常耀信著Chapter 1 Colonial America★1607 Jamestown, Virginia：the first permanent English settlement in America★1620 Plymouth, Massachusetts: the second permanent English settlement in America★Captain John Smith: the first American writer writing in English★Anne Bradstreet: the first American woman poetMajor work: The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650)Contemplations (9) on P. 17 （熟悉这首诗歌）To My Dear and Loving Husband《致我亲爱的丈夫》★Philis Wheatley: the first black woman poet in American literature★Edward Taylor: the most famous poet in the colonial periodHuswifery on P. 19 （熟悉这首诗歌）★Roger Williams: The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience (1644)Translated the Bible into the Indian tongue★John Winthrop: ―Model of Christian Charity‖（〈基督慈善之典范〉）The History of New England (two volumes, 1825, 1826)(〈新英格兰史〉) 1630 --- 1649 in diary★Thomas Paine: Common Sense, The American Crisis, The Rights of Man, The Age of Reason ★Philip Freneau: Poet of the American RevolutionThe Wild Honeysuckle, The Indian Burying Ground, The Dying Indian: TomoChequi★Charles Brockden Brown: the first important American novelistWieland, Edgar Huntly, Ormond, Aurthur MervynChapter 2 Edwards, Franklin, Crevecoeur★the 18th century: Age of Reason and Enlightenment★Jonathan Edwards: America’s first systematic philosopherThe Freedom of the Will, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God★Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac熟悉37页的引文★Hector St. John de Crevecoeur: Letters from an American FarmerChapter 3 American Romanticism, Irving, Cooper★Washington Irving: the first American writer to win international acclaimThe Sketch Book: Rip V an Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow★James Fenimore Cooper: Leatherstocking Tales (五个故事的题目)Natty Bumpo (人物形象)Chapter 4 New England Transcendentalism, Emerson, Thoreau★Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature (the Bible and manifesto of New England Transcendentalism)The American Scholar (America’s Declaration of IntellectualIndependence)★Henry David Thoreau: Walden, or Life in the WoodsChapter 5 Hawthorne, Melville★Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter, Twice-Told Tales, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, The Marble Faun, Young Goodman Brown★Herman Melville: Moby Dick, Omoo, Mardi, Redburn, White Jacket, PierreChapter 6 Whitman, Dickinson★Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass; free verse; Song of Myself★Emily Dickinson: Of the 1775 poems, only 7 poems were published in her lifetime.熟悉教材中98至102页所选的诗歌Chapter 7 Edgar Allan Poe★Edgar Allan Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher, The Philosophy of Composition, The Poetic Principle, The Raven，To Helen熟悉教材中107页所选的The Raven中的部分诗行Chapter 8 The Age of Realism, Howells, James★William Dean Howells: The Rise of Silas Lapham, Criticism and Fiction★Henry James: important writings listed on P. 125the international themeChapter 9 Local Colorism, Mark Twain★Hamlin Garland: Crumbling Idols, Veritism (真实主义)★Bret Harte: The Luck of Roaring Camp★Mark Twain: 主要作品, vernacular literature, colloquial style★Harriet Beecher Stowe 斯托夫人& her Uncle Tom’s Cabin《汤姆叔叔的小屋》★Louisa May Alcott 路易莎·梅·奥尔科特& her Little Women 《小妇人》★Kate Chopin 凯特·肖班& her The Awakening 《觉醒》Chapter 10 American Naturalism, Crane, Norris, Dreiser, Robinson★Stephen Crane: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (the first naturalistic novel in American literature), The Red Badge of Courage (the first anti-war novel in American literature),Famous short stories: The Open Boat, The Bride Comes to the Yellow Sky★Frank Norris: The Octopus, McTeague★Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, the Desire Trilogy, The Genius★Edwin Arlington Robinson: Richard Cory★Jack London: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf, Martin Eden★O. Henry (William Sidney Porter): famous for his short stories such as The Gift of the Magi★Upton Sinclair: The Jungle, the Muckraking MovementChapter 11 The 1920s, Imagism, Pound★The first American Renaissance: the first half of the 19th century★The second Renaissance: the 1920s★The three principles of the Imagist Poetry★熟悉四首意象派诗歌：In a Station of the Metro, Oread, The Red Wheelbarrow, Fog, 并会分析其中的第一和第四首★Ezra Pound: The Cantos, Hugh Selwyn MauberleyChapter 12 T. S. Eliot, Stevens, Williams★T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land （五个部分的题目）, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 其他主要作品founder of New Criticism: depersonalization, objective correlative★William Carlos Williams: PatersonChapter 13 Frost, Sandburg, Cummings, Hart Crane, Moore★Robert Frost: New England poet, lyrical poet, the unofficial poet laureate, won the Pulitzer Prize four timesThe Road Not Taken (熟悉此诗), Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,Mending Wall, Apple-picking <<摘苹果>>★Carl Sandburg: Fog, The Harbor (two famous Imagist poems)★ E. E. Cummings: the most interesting experimentalist in modern American poetry★Hart Crane: The BridgeChapter 14 Fitzgerald, Hemingway★F. Scott Fitzgerald: the spokesman of the Jazz AgeThe Great Gatsby★Ernest Hemingway: Hemingway hero with ―grace under pressure‖, the iceberg principle“I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eights of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. ”冰山运动之雄伟壮观，是因为它只有八分之一在水面上。

A C o n c i s e H i s t o r y o f A m e r i c a n L i t e r a t u r e What is literature? Literature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages. Chapter 1 Colonial Period I. Background: Puritanism 1. features of Puritanism (1) Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred. (2) Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation. (3) Total depravity (4) Limited atonement: Only the “ elect ” can be saved. 2. Influence (1) A group of good qualities -hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) in flue need American literature. (2) It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth -garden of Eden. (3) Symbolism: the Ameriean puritan 's metaphoodreieoafl pmereeption was ehiefly instrumental in ealling into being a literary symbolism whieh is distinetly Ameriean. (4) With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direet; the rhetorie is plain and honest, not without a toueh of nobility often traeeable to the direet influenee of the Bible. II. Overview of the literature 1. types of writing diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons 2. writers of eolonial period (1) Anne Bradstreet (2) Edward Taylor (3) Roger Williams (4) John Woolman (5) Thomas Paine (6) Philip Freneau III. Jonathan Edwards 1. life 2. works (1) The Freedom of the Will (2) The Great Doetrine of Original Sin Defended (3) The Nature of True Virtue 3. ideas -pioneer of transeendentalism (1) The spirit of revivalism (2) Regeneration of man (3) God' spresenee (4) Puritan idealism IV. Benjamin Franklin 1. life 2. works (1) Poor Riehard A'lmsanae (2) Autobiography 3. eontribution (1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the Ameriean Philosophieal Soeiety. (2) He was ealled “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (eleetrieitytihnis ease) from heaven ”.

第9章地方色彩小说•马克•吐温9.1 复习笔记I. Local Colorism（地方色彩主义）The vogue of local color fiction was the outgrowth of historical and aesthetic forces that had been gathering energy since early 19th century. Local colorism as a literary trend first made its presence felt in the late 1860s and early seventies. It is a variation of American literary realism.Local colorists were consciously nostalgic historians of a vanishing way of life, recorders of a present that faded before their eyes. They concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They tended to idealize and glorify, but they never forgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life. Major local colorists are Bret Harte, Hanlin Garland, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Kate Chopin and Mark Twain.地方色彩小说的流行是自19世纪早期以来历史和艺术力量凝聚的产物。

美国文学史常耀信版美国文学Part 1. Colonial America浪漫主义American Romanticism(1815-1865)早期浪漫主义early romanticism——Irving欧文, Cooper库柏, Bryant布莱恩特先验主义transcendentalism and symbolic representation——Emerson 爱默森，Margaret Fuller玛格丽特福勒，Thoreau 梭罗三位重要的小说家——Hawthorne 霍桑，Melville 梅尔维尔，Poe 坡二位重要的诗人——Whitman 惠特曼，Dickinson 狄更生现实主义American Realism（1865-1914）带有地方色彩的写作local color writing——Mark Twain马克吐温现实主义literary realism——James 詹姆士，Howells 豪斯尔斯自然主义literary naturalism——Garland 加兰特，Grane 格雷恩，Frank Norris 弗兰克诺里斯，Jack London 杰克伦敦，Theodore Dreiser 西奥多德莱塞现代主义American Modernism(1914-1945)现代主义在欧洲American modernism in Europe——Gerturde Stein 格特鲁德斯坦因，Ezra Pound 艾兹拉庞德，Amy Lowell 艾米洛威尔，H.D.(Hilda Doolittle) 杜丽埃尔战时的现代派小说modern fiction between the wars——William Faulkner 威廉福克纳，Hemingway 海明威，Fitzgerald 费兹杰罗，Passos 帕索斯，Steinbeck 斯坦贝克现代派诗歌modern American poetry——T.S. Eliot 艾略特，Wallace Stevens 史蒂文斯，William Carols Williams 威廉姆斯，E.E.Cummings 卡明斯Thomas Paine托马斯•潘恩1737-1809 The Case of the Officers of Excise税务员问题；Common Sense常识；American Crisis美国危机；Rights of Man人的权利：Downfall of Despotism专制体制的崩溃；The Age of Reason理性时代Philip Freneau菲利普•弗伦诺1752-1832 The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲；The British Prison Ship英国囚船；To the Memory of the Brave Americans纪念美国勇士-----同类诗中最佳；The Wild Honeysuckle野生的金银花；The Indian Burying Ground印第安人殡葬地Jonathan Edwards The Freedom of the Will The Great Doctrine of Original Sin defended The Nature of True VirtueBenjamin Franklin本杰明•富兰克林1706-1790 A Modest Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Moneyoor Richard’s Almanack穷查理历书；The Way to Wealth致富之道；The Autobiography自传Part 2. American RomanticismWashington Irving华盛顿•欧文1783-1859 A History of New York纽约的历史-----美国人写的第一部诙谐文学杰作；The Sketch Book见闻札记The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说-----使之成为美国第一个获得国际声誉的作家；Bracebridge Hall布雷斯布里奇田庄；Talks of Travellers旅客谈；The Alhambra阿尔罕伯拉James Fenimore Cooper詹姆斯•费尼莫尔•库珀1789-1851 The Spy间谍;The Pilot领航者;The Littlepage Manuscripts利特佩奇的手稿;Leatherstocking Tales皮裹腿故事集:The Pioneer拓荒者；The Last of Mohicans最后的莫希干人;The Prairie大草原;The Pathfinder探路者;The Deerslayer杀鹿者Part 3.New England TranscendentalismRalf Waldo Emerson拉尔夫•沃尔多•爱默生1803-1882 Essays散文集:Nature论自然-----新英格兰超验主义者的宣言书;The American Scholar论美国学者;Divinity;The Oversoul论超灵;Self-reliance论自立;The Transcendentalist超验主义者;Representative Men代表人物;English Traits英国人的特征;School Address神学院演说Concord Hymn康考德颂;The Rhodo杜鹃花;The Humble Bee野蜂;Days日子-首开自由诗之先河Henry David Threau亨利•大卫•梭罗1817-1862 Wadden,or Life in the Woods华腾湖或林中生活;Resistance to Civil Government/Civil Disobedience抵制公民政府;A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers Henry Wadsworth Longfellow亨利•沃兹沃思•朗费罗1807-1882 The Song of Hiawatha海华沙之歌----美国人写的第一部印第安人史诗;Voices of the Night夜吟;Ballads and Other Poens民谣及其他诗;Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems布鲁茨的钟楼及其他诗;Tales of a Wayside Inn路边客栈的故事---诗集：An April Day四月的一天/A Psalm of Life人生礼物/Paul Revere’s Ride保罗•里维尔的夜奔;Evangeline伊凡吉琳;The Courtship of Miles Standish迈尔斯•斯坦迪什的求婚----叙事长诗；Poems on Slavery奴役篇---反蓄奴组诗Nathaniel Hawthorne纳撒尼尔•霍桑1804-1864Twice-told Tales尽人皆知的故事;Mosses from an Old Manse古屋青苔:Young Goodman Brown年轻的古德曼•布朗;The Scarlet Letter红字;The House of the Seven Gables有七个尖角阁的房子--------心理若们罗曼史;The Blithedale Romance福谷传奇;The Marble Faun玉石雕像Herman Melville赫尔曼•梅尔维尔1819-1891 Moby Dick/The White Whale莫比•迪克/白鲸；Typee泰比;Omoo奥穆;Mardi玛地;Redburn雷得本;White Jacket白外衣ierre皮尔埃iazza广场故事;Billy Budd比利•巴德Walt Whitman沃尔特•惠特曼1819-1892 Leaves of Grass草叶集:Song of the Broad-Axe阔斧之歌;I hear America Singing我听见美洲在歌唱;When Lilacs Lost in the Dooryard Bloom’d小院丁香花开时;Democratic Vistas民主的前景;The Tramp and Strike Question流浪汉和罢工问题;Song of Myself自我之歌Emily Dickinson埃米莉•迪金森1830-1886 The Poems of Emily Dichenson埃米莉•迪金森诗集-----“Tell all the truth and tell it slant”迂回曲折的，玄学的Edgar Allan Poe埃德加•爱伦•坡1809-1849（以诗为诗；永为世人共赏的伟大抒情诗人-----叶芝）Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque怪诞奇异故事集;Tales故事集;The Fall of the House of Usher厄舍古屋的倒塌;Ligeia莱琪儿;Annabel Lee安娜贝尔•李-----歌特风格；首开近代侦探小说先河，又是法国象征主义运动的源头Tamerlane and Other Poems帖木儿和其他诗;Al Araaf,Tamerlane and Minor Poems艾尔•阿拉夫，帖木儿和其他诗;The Raven and Other Poems乌鸦及其他诗:The Raven乌鸦;The City in the Sea海城;Israfel 伊斯拉菲尔;To Hellen致海伦Harriet Beecher Stowe哈丽特•比彻•斯托1811-1896 Uncle Tom’s Cabin汤姆叔叔的小屋;A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp德雷德阴暗大沼地的故事片;The Minister’s Wooing牧师的求婚;The Pearl of Orr’s Island 奥尔岛的珍珠;Oldtown Folks老城的人们Part 4. The age of RealismWilliam Dean Howells 威廉•狄恩•豪威尔斯1837-1920 The Rise of Silas Lapham赛拉斯•拉帕姆的发迹;A Modern Instance现代婚姻; A Hazard of Now Fortunes时来运转;A Traveller from Altruia从利他国来的旅客;Through the Eye of the Needle透过针眼----乌托邦小说;Criticism and Fiction;Novel-Writing and Novel-Reading 小说创作与小说阅读23、Henry James享利•詹姆斯1843-1916 小说：Daisy Miller苔瑟•米乐；The Portrait of a Lady贵妇人画像；The Bostonians波士顿人；The Real Thing and Other Tales真货色及其他故事；The Wings of the Dove鸽翼；The Ambassadors大使；The Golden Bowl金碗评论集：French Poets and Novelists法国诗人和小说家;Hawthorne霍桑;Partial Portraits不完全的画像;Notes and Reviews札记与评论;Art of Fiction and Other Essays小说艺术Part 5. Local ColorismMark Twain马克•吐温（Samuel Longhorne Clemens）---美国文学的一大里程碑The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County加拉维拉县有名的跳蛙;The Innocent’s Abroad傻瓜出国记;The Gilded Age镀金时代;The Adventures of Tom Sawyer汤姆•索耶历险记;The Prince and the Pauper王子与贫儿;The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利•费恩历险记;A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court亚瑟王宫中的美国佬;The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson傻瓜威尔逊;Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc冉•达克;The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg败坏哈德莱堡的人How to Tell a Story怎样讲故事---对美国早期幽默文学的总结Part 6. American NaturalismStephen Crane斯蒂芬•克莱恩1871-1900 Magic:A Girl of the Streets街头女郎梅姬（美国文学史上首次站在同情立场上描写受辱妇女的悲惨命运）；The Red Badge of Courage红色英勇勋章；The Open Boat小划子;The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky新娘来到黄天镇Frank Norris弗兰克•诺里斯1870-1902 Moran of the Lady Letty茱蒂夫人号上的莫兰（romantic）;Mc-Teague麦克提格（naturalistic）;The Epic of the Wheat(realistic)小麦诗史(The Octopus章鱼,The Pit小麦交易所);A Deal in Wheat and Other Stories of the Old and New West小麦交易所及其他新老西部故事Theodore Dreiser西奥多•德莱塞1871-1945 Sister Carrie嘉莉姐妹;Jennie Gerhardt珍妮姑娘;Trilogy of Desire欲望三部曲(Financer金融家,The Titan巨人,The Stoic);An American Tragedy美国的悲剧（被称为美国最伟大的小说）;Nigger Jeff黑人杰弗Edwin Arlington Robinson鲁宾逊1869-1935 Captain Craig克雷格上尉---诗体小说；The Town Down the River河上的城镇;The Man Against the Sky衬托着天空的人;Avon’s Harvest沃冯的收成;Collected Poems诗集40、Jack London杰克•伦敦1876-1916 The Son of the Wolf狼之子,The Call of the Wild野性的呼唤;The Sea-wolf海狼;White Fang白獠牙;The People of the Abyss深渊中的人们;The Iron Heel铁蹄;Marti Eden马丁•伊登;How I become a Socialist我怎样成为社会党人;The War of the Classes阶级之间的战争;What Life Means to Me 生命对我意味着什么;Revolution革命;Love of Life热爱生命;The Mexican墨西哥人;Under the Deck Awings在甲板的天蓬下Upton Sinclair厄普顿•辛克莱尔1878-1968 Spring and Harvest春天与收获;The Jungle屠场（揭发黑幕运动的代表作家）;King Coal煤炭大王;Oil石油;Boston波士顿;Dragon’s Teeth龙齿Part 7. The 1920sImagism Ezra Pound艾兹拉•庞德1885-1972 The Spirit of Romance罗曼司精神;The Anthology Des Imagistes意像派诗选;Cathay华夏（英译中国诗）;Literary Essays文学论;Hugh Swlwyn Mauberley;A Few Don’ts by Imagiste意像派戒条;Personage面具;Polite Essays文雅集;The Cantos of Ezra Pound庞德诗章（109首及8首未完成稿）Thomas Stearns Eliot托马斯•艾略特1888-1965 Prufrock and Other Observations普罗夫洛克（荒原意识）;The Waste Land荒原(The Burial of the Dead死者的葬礼;A Game of Chess弈棋;The Fire Sermon火诫;Death by Water水边之死;What the Thunder Said雷电之言);名诗：Ash Wednesday圣灰星期三;Four Quarters四个四重奏诗剧：Murder in the Cathedral大教堂谋杀案;Family Reunion大团圆;Cocktail Party鸡尾酒会Wallace Stevens华莱士•史蒂文斯1879-1955 Harmonium风琴;The Man With the Blue Guitar弹蓝吉他的人;Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction关于最高虚构的札记(Peter Quince at the Clavier彼得•昆斯弹风琴;Sunday Morning礼拜天早晨);The Auroras of Autumn秋天的晨曦;Collected Poems诗集。