美国文学简史常耀信版讲义1

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 be passed downfrom generation to generation.(3)Total depravity(4)Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.2.Influence(1) A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful)influenced American literature.(2)It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.(3)Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was 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 is plain andhonest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable 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 American Philosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this cas e) fromheaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thusdescribed 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 goodness ofhuman 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 ne w experience andcontained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radicallynew and alien.(2)There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authorstended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more thanthey entertained.(3)The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism.(4)As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism wasboth 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 Dutch Dynasty(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 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 Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3.point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs.democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape description(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic5.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature. 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 that human canbe perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunityoften 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 prolific period in Americanliterature.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, andadvocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he canhope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude ofman”.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makesthe 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 which was tohim 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 was vehementlyoutspoken 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, healthyinfluence 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’s odd-fellowsociety”.(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 i s at the core of human life, “that blackness in Hawthorne”(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation togeneration (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 on which hismind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell thetruth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5.style – typical romantic writer(1)the use of symbols(2)revelation of characters’ psychology(3)the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of 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 attitude of “EverlastingNay” (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 disaster and death),rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19cidea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employingthe 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 commented upon andpraised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goeson 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 even wrong(10)sentences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines5.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in a moresophisticated 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 his greatinfluence.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 “AmericanRenaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breakingfree of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknownbefore: they were pioneers in American poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of theindividual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) which Whitman doesn’thave.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 shouldnot 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 of characters in anenvironment 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 a centralconcern with “motives” and psychological conflicts.e.He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, and avoids such themes asillicit 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” was best suitedas a technique to express the spirit of America.i.He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with current humanitarian 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 inaccurate 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 tointernational 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 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 man as merelyan animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the “fittest”, themost ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man,being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a merepawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internal chemisms andby 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 b efore 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 the sequence of ametronome.V. Significance1.It was a rebellion against the traditional poetics which failed to reflect the new life of the newcentury.2.It offered a new way of writing which was valid not only for the Imagist poets but for modernpoetry as a whole.3.The movement was a training school in which many great poets learned their first lessons in thepoetic art.4.It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern English and 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 culturally the arbiter and the“saviour” of the race, he took it upon himself to purify the arts and became the primemover of a few experimental movements, the aim of which was to dump the old into thedustbin and bring forth something new.(2)To him life was sordid personal crushing oppression, and culture produced nothing but“intangible bondage”.(3)Pound sees in Chinese history and the doctrine of Confucius a source of strength andwisdom with which to counterpoint Western gloom and confusion.(4)He saw a chaotic world that wanted setting to rights, and a humanity, suffering fromspiritual death and cosmic injustice, that needed saving. He was for the most part of his lifetrying to offer Confucian philosophy as 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 notoriously difficult in some sections, but delightfully beautiful in others. Few have made serious study of the long poem;fewer, if anyone at all, have had the courage to declare that they have conquered 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 p oetry. “a momentary stayagainst 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 could findharmony with nature. He believed that serenity came from working, usually amid naturalforces, 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 chosen from dailylife of ordinary people, such as “mending wall”, “picking apples”.(2)He writes most often about landscape and people – the loneliness and poverty of isolatedfarmers, beauty, terror and tragedy in nature. He also describes some abnormal people, e.g.“deceptively simple”, “philosophical poet”.(3)Although he was popular during 1920s, he didn’t experiment like other modern poets. Heused conventional forms, plain language, traditional metre, and wrote in a pasturedtradition.IX. e. e. cummings。

常耀信美国文学史教案Chapter 1 Colonial America(US is a quite special country in the world. Although it only has a very short history, it is the most powerful country today. )1.Historical Background⑴ In 1942, Christopher Columbus found the new continent called America.⑵ Immigrants: Spanish (they built the first town on the new continent); Dutch (they built New York city at the beginning stage); French (today still lots of people’s mother tongue is French in North America)⑶ English immigrants, Jamestown, Virginia, 16071620 “May Flower”, Plymouth(Imagine: transportation not convenient, why some many immigrants left their hometown and came to such a remote place as America? Economic reasons; Religious reasons) (Reformation and religious conflicts in Europe; persecution of Protestants)2.American Puritanism（清教主义）⑴ Puritans=Calvinistsa:John Calvin, a theologian, Puritans believed most doctrines preached by him, so they were also called Calvinistsbut puritans wanted to “purify the church” to its original state, because they thought the church was corrupted and had too many ritualsc:To be a Puritan: taking religion as the most important thing; living for glorifying God; believing predestination（命运天定）, original sin（原罪，人生下来就是有罪的，因为人类的祖先亚当和夏娃是有罪的）, total depravity（人类是完全堕落的，所以人要处处小心自己的行为，要尽可能做到最好以取悦上帝）, limited atonement（有限救赎，只有被上帝选中的人才能得到上帝的拯救）d life style of Puritans: pious, austerity of taste, diligence and thrift, rigid sense of morality, self-reliance (John Milton is a typical Puritan.)⑵ American Puritana:On the one hand, American Puritans were all idealist as their European brothers. They came to the new continent with the dream that they would built the new land to an Eden on earth.b:On the other hand, American Puritans were more practical maybe because the severe conditions they faced.⑶ Influence on literaturea:Basis of American literature: the dream of building an Eden of Garden on earth (Early American literature were mainly optimistic because they believed that God sent them to the new continent to fulfill the sacred task so they would overcome all the difficulties they met at last. Gradually Americans found that their dreams would not be successful, so lots of pessimistic literary works were produced.)b:Symbolism（象征主义）: lots of American writers liked to employ symbolism in their works. (typical way of Puritans who thought that all the simple objects existing in the world connoted deep meaning.) Symbolism means using symbols in literary works. The symbol means something represents or stands for abstract deep meaning.c:Style: simple, fresh and direct (just as the style of the Authorized Version ofHoly Bible)3.Colonial Literature⑴ General featuresa:Humble origins: diaries, histories, letters etc.b:In content: serving either God or colonial expansion or bothc:In form: imitating English literary traditions⑵ Captain John Smith: the first American Writer (P16)⑶ Anne Bradstreet: first American woman poet; a Puritan poet; once called “Tenth Muse”; her poems mainly about religious experience, family life and early settlers’lives; her most famous poems?“Contemplations” (P17)⑷ Philip Freneau (1752-1832)a:He is the most important poet in the 18th century.b:He was entitled “Father of American Poetry”.c:He was born in New York and graduated from Princeton University.d:He wrote lots of poems supporting American Revolution and human liberty.e:He was the most notable representative of dawning American nationalism in literature.f:His poems presented Romantic spirits but his form and taste were mainly influenced by Classicism.g:Most famous poems: “The Wild Honey Suckle” and “The Indian Burying Ground”h:Analyze and discuss the theme, rhyme scheme and some difficult dictions in “The Wild Honey Suckle”.Lecture 2 Edwards and Franklin(In most course books, this part is called the 18th century literature. And Jonathan Edwards is not included and is put to the colonial period. However, Philip Freneau should be included in this chapter.)(Putting these two characters together, the author may means to compare these two. The comparison is mentioned several times in the text on P27 and P32.)1.Historical Background⑴ American Revolution(Strict rules made by English government prevented the economic development of the colonies. It was unfair. So American Independence War broke.)a:1775, Lexington, beginning of the Independence Warb:June 4th, 1776, Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independencec:1778, alliance with France, turning point for American armyd:1778, English army surrenderede:1783, formal recognition from Britain government⑵ Enlightenment (启蒙运动)(Review English Literature, 18th century, Addison, Steele and Pope, Classicism) a:Originated in Europe in the 17th centuryb:Resources: Newton’s theory; deism（自然神教派，课本P28，宗教与启蒙精神相结合的产物）; French philosophy (Rousseau, Voltaire)c:Basic principles: stressing education; stressing Reason (Order) (The age has been called Age of Reason.); employing Reason to reconsider the traditions and socialrealities; concerns for civil rights, such as equality and social justiced:Representatives: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson etc.e:Influence on literatureIn form: imitating English classical（古典主义）writersIn content: utilitarian tendency (for political or educational purpose)2.Jonathan Edwards (1703?1758) (last important figure in Puritan tradition)⑴ Lifea:Born in a very religious New England familyb:Graduated from Yalec:Worked as a minister and was an important figure in “Great Awakening” (a serious of religious revivals which occurred in the 1730s and 1740s on North America continent)dismissed from his position because of fierce religious controversy at that time eived and meditated in solitude; wrote some books (P29)⑵ Analysisa:Influenced by the new ideas of Enlightenment, such as empiricismb:Still a pious Puritanc:His sense of God’s overwhelming presence in nature and in soul anticipated the Transcendentalism. (P32)d:First modern American and the country’s last medieval man3.Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)⑴ Life?Jack of all tradesa:Born in a poor candle maker’s family in Bostonb:No regular educationc:Became a apprentice of a printer when he was 12d:A editor of a newspaper and published lots of essays when he was 16e:Went to Philadelphia when he was 17f:A successful printer and publisherg:Retired when he was 42h: A scientist with lots of inventions and a famous experiment (kite, electricity, thunderstorm)i:A famous statesman (the only America who once signed all the four documents that created the new country) (P33)An example who made American Dream come true⑵ Literary worksaoor Richard’s Almanac《穷查理的年历》b:Modeled on farmers’ annual calendar; kept publishing for many years; includes many classical sayings, such as “A penny saved is a penny earned.” (P34)c:The Autobiography?first of its kind in literatureWriting when he was 65An introduction of his life to his own sonIncluding four parts written in different timePuritanism’s influence, such as self-examination and self-improvement (timetable, thirteen virtues, life style)Enlightenment spirits (man’s nature good, rights of liberty, virtues includes “order”)Style: simple, clear in order, direct and concise (“Nothing should be expressed in two words that can as well be expressed in one.”) (Puritanism’s influence) Popular, still well-read today, his values and style influenced lots of Americans Lecture 3 American Romanticism1.General Introduction(1)Time: from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War(2)Reasons (Why Romanticism emerged?)A. Fast development of the new nation (flood of immigrants; pioneers pushing the frontier further west; industrialization; economic boom; a promising new land with prevailed optimistic moods)B. Development of jounalism (Some influential periodicals appeared, such as The Atlantic Monthly. They need more literary productions.)C. Foreign influence (Review history of English literature.)(from the 18th century classicism to sentimentalism to Pre-Romanticism to Romanticism which can be divided into passive group and active group)(most influential British writers to American Romanticists-Walter Scott)(3)General features of RomanticismA. Stressing emotion rather than reasonB. Stressing freedom and individualityC. Idealism rather than materialismD. Writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements?(4) Features of American RomanticismA. ImitativeB. Independenta. peculiar American experience (landscape, pioneering to the West, Indian civilization, new nation's democracy and dreams)b. Puritan heritage (more moralizing, edifying more than mere entertainment) (careful about love and sex. example: Scarlet Letter)(5) Two periods and representativesA. 1770s to 1830s Early periodRepresentatives: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and New England poets Two famous poets: William Cullen Bryant (first distinctive American lyric poet; writing about nature, religion and life; famous poems - "Thanatopsis" and "To a Waterfowl") and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (balancing Romantic spirits with classical and Christian taste; famous poem - "A Psalm of Life")B. 1830s to 1860s? Late periodFlowering of American literatureRepresentatives: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, Poe etc.(6) SignificanceCreative period of a native American culture and literature2. Washington Irving (1783 - 1859)(1) LifeA. Born in a rich merchant familyB. Learned law but more interested in writingC. Went to England for family businessD. Wrote to support himself after business failureE. Diplomatic work for a period(2) Major worksThe Sketch Book (a collection of essays and short stories)Two famous short stories in the collection: "Rip Van Winkle" (Read the plot on P48-P49)and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (Read the plot on P49)(3) FeaturesA. Conservative (e.g. Rip felt into sleep before American Independence and woke after it.)(love of old world's tradition)("an old gentleman speaking English not American)B. Style: gentle, refined, lucid, beautiful (classical in form though romantic in subjects)C. Aim of writing: entertainment, not moralizingD. Good at creating atmosphereE. Thin plotF. HumorG. Finished and musical languageH. vivid characters(4) ContributionsA. He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.B. The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving's? The Sketch Book.3. James Fenimore Cooper (1789 - 1851)(1) Life storyA. born in a rich familyB. attended Yale but expelledC. five years at seaD. inherited fortune then a comfortable lifeE. wrote lots of novels because he oneday was disgusted by one novel(2) Major works"Leatherstocking Tales" (a series of five novels about the frontier life): The Pioneers, The Prairie, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Deerslayer Central character: Natty Bumppo (several names for same character: Hawk-eye, the Pathfinder, the Deerslayer, Leatherstocking) (a typical frontier man: honest, simple, innocent, generous) (represents brotherhood of man, nature and freedom)Theme: modern civilization advancing on the wilderness and the contradiction between them(3) FeaturesA. Good at inventing plots (Cooper had never been to the frontier area personally.)B. Style: powerful, yet clumsy and dreadfulC. Wooden CharactersD. Use of dialect, but not authentic (criticized by Mark Twain)(4) ContributionsFinding "the West" and "the frontier life" as materials for literary works Introducing Western tradition into American literatureLecture 4 Transcendentalism（超验主义）1. General Introduction(a special kind of philosophy appeared in the 1830s in US) (quite influential)(1) ResourcesA. Puritan heritageAt the end of the 18th century people gradually felt boring about the strict Calvinism. At the same time with the development of science and technology, Americans suspected the old religion. Thus, Unitarianism（唯一理教） appeared. It was a developed school from the Transcendentalism. It stressed "continual progress of mankind" rather than old religion's "man's total depravity”. It influenced Emerson. Emerson once was a preacher of Unitarianism, but he thought there were too many rituals in this religious school. Then he resigned from the position and sought a way for people to worship more freely.Emerson also believed in individuality and the dream of making a Garden of Eden on earth held by old generation Puritans.From Jonathan Edwards Emerson inherited the ideas of inward communication with God and the divine symbolism of nature.B. Foreign influenceGerman Philosophy, especially Kant（康德）Ancient Indian and Chinese works, such as Confucius and Mencius(2) Features (P57)A. Emphasis on Spirit (Oversoul) (超灵)（爱默生在超验主义里强调的超灵相当于过去宗教里上帝的这个角色，在超验主义里超灵是无形的，人生活的世界里所有的一切都来自超灵，超灵在人生活的世界里也无所不在。

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。

【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.。

常耀信《美国⽂学简史》（第3版）【章节题库（含名校考研真题）】（第1章殖民地时期的美国）【圣才出品第1章殖民地时期的美国I.Fill in the blanks.1.Hard work,thrift,piety and sobriety,these were the_____values that dominated much of the early American writing.【答案】Puritan【解析】清教主义，起源于英国，在北美殖民地得以实践与发展。

清教徒强调艰苦奋⽃、勤俭节约、虔诚和淡泊。

这些价值观也影响了早期的美国⽂学。

2.The most enduring shaping influence in American thought and American literature was_____.【答案】American Puritanism【解析】美国⽂化源于清教⽂化，由清教徒移民时传⼊北美。

美国主流价值观都可以追溯到殖民地时期⼀统天下的清教主义，并且清教思想对美国⽂学有着根深蒂固的影响。

3.The term“Puritan”was applied to those settlers who originally were devout members of the Church of_____.【答案】England【解析】清教徒（Puritan），是指要求清除英国国教Church of England中天主教残余的改⾰派。

其字词于16世纪60年代开始使⽤，源于拉丁⽂的Purus，意为“清洁”。

4.Many Puritans wrote verse,but the works of two writers,Anne Bradstreet and_____,rose to the level of real poetry.【答案】Edward Taylor【解析】美国殖民时期最著名的诗⼈是安·布莱德斯特律和爱德华·泰勒。

欧阳计创编 2021..02.11A 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 everythingbefore things occurred.(2)Original sin: Human beings were born tobe evil, and this original sin can be passeddown from generation to generation.(3)Total depravity(4)Limited atonement: Only the “elect” canbe saved.2.Influence(1) A group of good qualities –hard work,thrift, piety, sobriety (serious andthoughtful) influenced Americanliterature.(2)It led to the everlasting myth. Allliterature is based on a myth – garden ofEden.(3)Symbolism: the American puri tan’smetaphorical mode of perception waschiefly instrumental in calling into being aliterary symbolism which is distinctlyAmerican.(4)With regard to their writing, the style isfresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric isplain and honest, not without a touch ofnobility often traceable to the directinfluence of the Bible.II.Overview of the literature1.types of writingdiaries, histories, journals, letters, travelbooks, 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 SinDefended(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 thePennsylvaniaHospital and the AmericanPhilosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus whohad 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 andmastered 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 –personalfreedom, 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 forclassics3.back to naturenature is “breathing living thing” (Rousseau) II.American Romanticism1.Background(1)Political background and economicdevelopment(2)Romantic movement in EuropeancountriesDerivative – foreign influence2.features(1)American romanticism was in essence theex pression of “a real new experience andcontained “an alien quality” for thesimple reason that “the spirit of theplace” was radically new and alien.(2)There is American Puritanism as a culturalheritage to consider. American romanticauthors tended more to moralize. ManyAmerican romantic writings intended toedify more than they entertained.(3)The “newness” of Americans as a nationis in connection with AmericanRomanticism.(4)As a logical result of the foreign andnative factors at work, Americanromanticism was both imitative andindependent.III.WashingtonIrving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new worldto the old world(3)father of American literature2.life3.works(1) A History of New York from the Beginningof 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 ofChristopher 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 andentertaining(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, imitatingAusten’s Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and greatsuccess)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, aseries 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, aristocratvs. 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 inprobability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic5.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formativeperiod of the American nation. If the historyof the United States is, in a sense, theprocess of the American settlers exploringand pushing the American frontier foreverwestward, then Cooper’s LeatherstockingTales effectively approximates the Americannational experience of adventure into theWest. He turned the west and frontier as auseable past and he helped to introducewestern tradition 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’scharacter)(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 andsubconsciousness)IV.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for ayoung nation and brought about the ideathat human can be perfected by nature. Itstressed religious tolerance, called to throwoff shackles of customs and traditions and goforward to the development of a new anddistinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great neededin a rapidly expanded economy whereopportunity often became opportunism, andthe desire to “get on” obscured the moralnecessity for rising to spiritual height.3.It helped to create the first Americanrenaissance – one of the most prolific periodin American literature.V.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.life2.works(1)Nature(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, ThePoet3.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy ishis firm belief in the transcendence of the“oversoul”.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and themost sanctifying moral influence on man,and advocated a direct intuition of aspiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivateshimself and brings out the divine inhimself, he can hope to become betterand even perfect. This is what Emersonmeans by “the infinitude of man”.(4)Everyone should understand that hemakes himself by making his world, andthat he makes the world by makinghimself.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2)True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3)The poet should express his thought insymbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called uponAmerican authors to celebrate Americawhich was to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceVI.Henry David Thoreau1.life2.works(1) A Week on the Concord and MerrimackRiver(2)Walden(3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialisticAmerica was developing and wasvehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice asrepresented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him,Thoreau saw nature as a genuinerestorative, healthy influence on man’sspiritual well-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue andinward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.(6)“Simplicity…simplify!”(7)He was sorely disgusted with “theinundations of the dirty institutions ofmen’s odd-fellow society”.(8)He has calm trust in the future and hisardent 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, “thatblackness in Hawthorne”(2)Whenever there is sin, there ispunishment. 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 andantiquity. To him these furnish the soil onwhich his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was thepredestined form of American narrative.To tell the truth and satirize and yet notto 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 theactual(4)his stories are parable (parable inform) –to teach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in theworld 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 affirmativeyes to life: His is the attitude of“Everlasting Nay” (negative attitudetowards life).(2)One of the major themes of his isalienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidalindividualism (individualism causingdisaster and death), rejection and quest,confrontation of innocence and evil,doubts over the comforting 19c idea ofprogress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages toachieve the effect of ambiguity throughemploying the technique of multiple viewof his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poeticpower have been profusely commentedupon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chaptersof factual background or description ofwhat goes on board the ship or on theroute (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 andEuropean thought”He had been influenced by many Americanand European thoughts: enlightenment,idealism, transcendentalism, science,evolution ideas, western frontier spirits,Jefferson’s individualism, Civil War Unionism,Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almosteverything):●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 ofnations 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 syntacticstructure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary –powerful, colourful, rarelyused words of foreign origins, some evenwrong(10)sentences – catalogue technique: long listof names, long poem lines5.influence(1)His best work has become part of thecommon property of Western culture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of thepoet-prophet and poet-teacher and recastit in a more sophisticated andEuropeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain inAmerican literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry,whatever school or form, bears witness tohis 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 ownexperiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religioussubjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused bylove(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 theirdifferent ways, an emergent America, itsexpansion, its individualism and itsAmericanness, their poetry being part of“American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to theliterary independence of the new nationby breaking free of the convention of theiambic pentameter and exhibiting afreedom in form unknown before: theywere pioneers in American poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye onsociety at large; Dickinson explores theinner life of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in hisoutlook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique”(direct, simple style) which Whitmandoesn’t ha ve.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 Tales III.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 aimshould be beauty, the tone melancholy.Poems should not be of moralizing. He callsfor 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 breakingpoint in this period(1)industrialism vs. agrarian(2)culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west(3)plantation gentility vs. commercialgentility2.1880’s urbanization: from free competitionto monopoly capitalism3.the closing of American frontierII.Characteristics1.truthful description of life2.typical character under typical circumstance3.objective rather than idealized, closeobservation 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 psychologicalproblems, revealing the frustrations ofcharacters in an environment of sordidnessand depravityIII.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of AmericanRealism”(1)Realistic principlesa.Realism is “fidelity to experience andprobability of motive”.b.The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits ofAmerican life”.c.Man in his natural and unaffected dullnesswas the object of Howells’s fictionalrepresentation.d.Realism is by no means merephotographic pictures of externals butincludes a central concern with “motives”and psychological conflicts.e.He condemns novels of sentimentality andmorbid self-sacrifice, and avoids suchthemes as illicit love.f.Authors should minimize plot and theartificial ordering of the sense ofsomething “desultory, unfinished,imperfect”.g.Characters should have solidity ofspecification and be real.h.Interpreting sympathetically the “commonfeelings of commonplace people” wasbest suited as a technique to express thespirit of America.i.He urged writers to winnow tradition andwrite in keeping with currenthumanitarian ideals.j.Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates allthings.k.With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try toimpose arbitrary or subjective evaluationson 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 relationshipsand some plays●Daisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealingwith childhood and adolescence, thenback 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 ofstream 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 publishtheir 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’sCourt(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 differentugly 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 colloquialism Chapter 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 – survivalof the fittest. He learned to regard man asmerely an animal driven by greed and lustin a struggle for existence in which onlythe “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” of thelecherous and heartless, a jungle strugglein which man, being “a waif and aninterloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the windof social forces”, is a mere pawn in thegeneral scheme of things, with no powerwhatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything isdetermined by a complex of internalchemisms and by the forces of socialpressure.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 (lookingdown 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”, whethersubjective or objective;2.To use absolutely no word that does notcontribute to the presentation;3.As regarding rhythm, to compose in thesequence of the musical phrase, not in thesequence of a metronome.V. Significance1.It was a rebellion against the traditionalpoetics which failed to reflect the new life ofthe new century.2.It offered a new way of writing which wasvalid not only for the Imagist poets but formodern poetry as a whole.3.The movement was a training school inwhich many great poets learned their firstlessons in the poetic art.4.It is this movement that helped to open thefirst 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 artistwas morally and culturally the arbiter andthe “saviour” of the race, he too k it uponhimself to purify the arts and became theprime mover of a few experimentalmovements, the aim of which was todump the old into the dustbin and bringforth something new.(2)To him life was sordid personal crushingoppression, and culture produced nothingbut “intangible bondage”.(3)Pound sees in Chinese history and thedoctrine of Confucius a source of strengthand wisdom with which to counterpointWestern gloom and confusion.(4)He saw a chaotic world that wantedsetting to rights, and a humanity,suffering from spiritual death and cosmicinjustice, that needed saving. He was forthe most part of his life trying to offerConfucian philosophy as the one faithwhich could help to save the West.5.style: very difficult to readPound’s early poems are fresh a nd lyrical.The Cantos can be notoriously difficult insome sections, but delightfully beautiful inothers. Few have made serious study of thelong poem; fewer, if anyone at all, have hadthe courage to declare that they haveconquered 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 modern poetry.7.The Cantos –“the intellectual diary since1915”Features:(1)Language: intricate and obscure(2)Theme: complex subject matters(3)Form: no fixed framework, no centraltheme, no attention to poetic rulesVII. T. S. Eliot1.life2.works(1)poems●The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock●The WasteLand (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 ofCriticisms●After Strange Gods3.point of view(1)The modern society is futile and chaotic.(2)Only poets can create some order out ofchaos.(3)The method to use is to compare the pastand the present.4.Style(1)Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone andhighly expressive rhythm(2)Difficult and disconnected images andsymbols, quotations and allusions(3)Elliptical structures, strangejuxtapositions, an absence of bridges5.The WasteLand: 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 withconst ructions through poetry. “amomentary stay against confusion”.(2)He understands the terror and tragedy innature, but also its beauty.(3)Unlike the English romantic poets of 19thcentury, he didn’t believe that man couldfind harmony with nature. He believedthat serenity came from working, usuallyamid natural forces, which couldn’t beunderstood. He regarded work as“significant toil”.3.works – poemsthe first: A Boy’s Willcollections: North of Boston, MountainInterval (mature), New Hampshire4.style/features of his poems(1)Most of his poems took New England assetting, and the subjects were chosenfrom daily life of ordinary people, such as“mending wall”, “picking apples”.(2)He writes most often about landscapeand people –the loneliness and povertyof isolated farmers, beauty, terror andtragedy in nature. He also describes someabnormal people, e.g. “deceptivelysimple”, “philosophical poet”.(3)Although he was popular during 1920s,he didn’t experiment like other modernpoets. He used conventional forms, plainlanguage, 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。

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。

常耀信《美国⽂学简史》笔记和考研真题详解（弗罗斯特桑德堡卡明斯哈特克兰穆尔）【圣才出品】第13章弗罗斯特?桑德堡?卡明斯?哈特?克兰?穆尔13.1 复习笔记I. Robert Frost (1874-1963)（罗伯特·弗罗斯特）1. Life（⽣平）Robert Frost was born in San Francisco and spent his early childhood in the Far West. At the death of his father, when Frost was eleven, the family moved to New Hampshire. After graduating from high school, he entered Dartmouth College. In 1913 his first book A boy’s Will came out in London. His second volume North of Boston came out in 1914. The next year, Frost came back to the United States which recognized him as its bard. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times and received commendations by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Poetry Society of America respectively in 1938 and 1941. He received honors from forty-four institutions, and became the nation’s unofficial Poet Laureate when invited to read his poe m at President Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.罗伯特·弗罗斯特出⽣于旧⾦⼭，在美国西部度过了童年。

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 ”.

欧阳歌谷创编 2021年2月1A Concise History of American Literature欧阳歌谷（2021.02.01）What 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 beforethings occurred.(2)Original sin: Human beings were born to beevil, and this original sin can be passed downfrom generation to generation.(3)Total depravity(4)Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can besaved.2.Influence(1) A group of good qualities – hard work, thrift,piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful)influenced American literature.(2)It led to the everlasting myth. All literature isbased on a myth – garden of Eden.(3)Symbolism: the American puritan’smetaphorical mode of perception was chieflyinstrumental in calling into being a literarysymbolism which is distinctly American.(4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh,simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain andhonest, 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 PennsylvaniaHospitaland the American Philosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who hadstolen fire (electricity in this case) fromheaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thusdescribed him “master of each and masteredby 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 goodness of humanbeings2.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 forclassics3.back to naturenature is “breathing living thing” (Rousseau)II.American Romanticism1.Background(1)Political background and economicdevelopment(2)Romantic movement in European countriesDerivative – foreign influence2.features(1)American romanticism was in essence theexpressi on of “a real new experience andcontained “an alien quality” for the simplereason that “the spirit of the place” wasradically new and alien.(2)There is American Puritanism as a culturalheritage to consider. American romanticauthors tended more to moralize. ManyAmerican romantic writings intended to edifymore than they entertained.(3)The “newness” of Americans as a nation is inconnection with American Romanticism.(4)As a logical result of the foreign and nativefactors at work, American romanticism wasboth imitative and independent.III.WashingtonIrving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new world to theold world(3)father of American literature2.life3.works(1) A History of New York from the Beginning ofthe World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(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 V oyages ofChristopher 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 andentertaining(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, imitatingAusten’s Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, aseries of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans,The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3.point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedomvs. 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 inprobability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic5.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period ofthe American nation. If the history of the UnitedStates is, in a sense, the process of the Americansettlers exploring and pushing the Americanfrontier forever westward, then Cooper’sLeatherstocking Tales effectively approximatesthe American national experience of adventureinto the West. He turned the west and frontier as auseable 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’scharacter)(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 andsubconsciousness)IV.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a youngnation and brought about the idea that human canbe perfected by nature. It stressed religioustolerance, called to throw off shackles of customsand traditions and go forward to the developmentof a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in arapidly expanded economy where opportunityoften became opportunism, and the desire to “geto n” obscured the moral necessity for rising tospiritual height.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance–one of the most prolific period in Americanliterature.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 hisfirm belief in the transcendence of the“oversoul”.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the mostsanctifying moral influence on man, andadvocated a direct intuition of a spiritual andimmanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivateshimself and brings out the divine in himself,he can hope to become better and even perfect.This is what Emerson means by “theinfinitude of man”.(4)Everyone should understand that he makeshimself by making his world, and that hemakes 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 insymbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called upon Americanauthors to celebrate America which was tohim 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 materialisticAmerica was developing and was vehementlyoutspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as representedby the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreausaw nature as a genuine restorative, healthyinfluence 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 inundationsof the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellowsociety”.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardentbelief in a new generation of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.life2.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-toldTales, 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, “thatblackness in Hawthorne”(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment.Sin or evil can be passed from generation togeneration (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 andantiquity. To him these furnish the soil onwhich his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was thepredestined form of American narrative. Totell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend:That was what Hawthorne had in mind toachieve.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) –toteach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in theworld of uncertainty – multiple point of view II.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 yesto life: His is th e 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, suicidalindividualism (individualism causing disasterand death), rejection and quest, confrontationof innocence and evil, doubts over thecomforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achievethe effect of ambiguity through employing thetechnique of multiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poeticpower have been profusely commented uponand praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters offactual background or description of whatgoes on board the ship or on the route (MobyDick)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 Ameri can and Europeanthought”He had been influenced by many American andEuropean 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 ofnations 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 syntacticstructure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely usedwords of foreign origins, some even wrong(10)sentences –catalogue technique: long list ofnames, long poem lines5.influence(1)His best work has become part of the commonproperty of Western culture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in amore sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain inAmerican literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whateverschool or form, bears witness to his greatinfluence.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 ownexperiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion –doubt and belief about religioussubjects(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 –makesome of abstract ideas vividparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled, in theirdifferent ways, an emergent America, itsexpansion, its individualism and itsAmericanness, their poetry being part of“American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literaryindependence of the new nation by breakingfree of the convention of the iambicpentameter and exhibiting a freedom in formunknown before: they were pioneers inAmerican poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society atlarge; Dickinson explores the inner life of theindividual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook,Dickinson is “regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique”(direct, simple style) which Whitman doesn’thave.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 bebeauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not beof 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 inthis period(1)industrialism vs. agrarian(2)culturely-measured east vs. newly-developedwest(3)plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility2.1880’s urbanization: from free competition tomonopoly capitalism3.the closing of American frontierII.Characteristics1.truthful description of life2.typical character under typical circumstance3.objective rather than idealized, close observationand 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 psychologicalproblems, revealing the frustrations of charactersin an environment of sordidness and depravity III.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of AmericanRealis m”(1)Realistic principlesa.Realism is “fidelity to experience andprobability of motive”.b.The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits ofAmerican life”.c.Man in his natural and unaffected dullness wasthe object of Howells’s fictional representation.d.Realism is by no means mere photographicpictures of externals but includes a centralconcern with “motives” and psychologicalconflicts.e.He condemns novels of sentimentality andmorbid self-sacrifice, and avoids such themesas illicit love.f.Authors should minimize plot and the artificialordering of the sense of something “desultory,unfinished, imperfect”.g.Characters should have solidity ofspecification and be real.h.Interpreting sympathetically the “commonfeelings of commonplace people” was bestsuited as a technique to express the spirit ofAmerica.i.He urged writers to winnow tradition and writein keeping with current humanitarian 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 imposearbitrary or subjective evaluations on booksbut should follow the detached scientist inaccurate description, interpretation, andclassification.(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 andsome plays●Daisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing withchildhood and adolescence, then back tointernational 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 ofconsciousnessb.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 theirworksII.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 uglythings 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 colloquialism Chapter 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, uglyside 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 ofthe fittest. He learned to regard man as merelyan animal driven by greed and lust in astruggle for existence in which only the“fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherousand heartless, a jungle struggle in which man,being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a“wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a merepawn in the general scheme of things, with nopower whatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything isdetermined 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 downupon 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”, whethersubjective or objective;2.To use absolutely no word that does notcontribute to the presentation;3.As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequenceof the musical phrase, not in the sequence of ametronome.V. Significance1.It was a rebellion against the traditional poeticswhich failed to reflect the new life of the newcentury.2.It offered a new way of writing which was validnot only for the Imagist poets but for modernpoetry as a whole.3.The movement was a training school in whichmany great poets learned their first lessons in thepoetic art.4.It is this movement that helped to open the firstpages of modern English and 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 wasmorally and culturally the arbiter and the“saviour” of the race, he took it u pon himselfto purify the arts and became the prime moverof a few experimental movements, the aim ofwhich was to dump the old into the dustbinand bring forth something new.(2)To him life was sordid personal crushingoppression, and culture produced nothing but“intangible bondage”.(3)Pound sees in Chinese history and the doctrineof Confucius a source of strength and wisdomwith which to counterpoint Western gloomand confusion.(4)He saw a chaotic world that wanted setting torights, and a humanity, suffering from spiritualdeath and cosmic injustice, that needed saving.He was for the most part of his life trying tooffer Confucian philosophy as the one faithwhich could help to save the West.5.style: very difficult to readPound’s early poems are fresh and lyr ical. TheCantos can be notoriously difficult in somesections, but delightfully beautiful in others. Fewhave made serious study of the long poem; fewer,if anyone at all, have had the courage to declarethat they have conquered Pound; and many seemto agree that the Cantos is a monumental failure.6.ContributionHe has helped, through theory and practice, tochart 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 WasteLand (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 ofCriticismsAfter 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 andthe present.4.Style(1)Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone and highlyexpressive rhythm(2)Difficult and disconnected images andsymbols, quotations and allusions(3)Elliptical structures, strange juxtapositions, anabsence of bridges5.The WasteLand: 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 withconstructio ns through poetry. “a momentarystay against confusion”.(2)He understands the terror and tragedy innature, but also its beauty.(3)Unlike the English romantic poets of 19thcentury, he didn’t believe that man could findharmony with nature. He believed thatserenity came from working, usually amidnatural 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 assetting, and the subjects were chosen fromdaily life of ordinary people, such as“mending wall”, “picking apples”.(2)He writes most often about landscape andpeople – the loneliness and poverty of isolatedfarmers, beauty, terror and tragedy in nature.He also describes some abnormal people, e.g.“deceptively simple”, “philosophical poet”.(3)Although he was popular during 1920s, hedidn’t experiment like other modern poets. He。

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。