美国文学史第十讲_200910

美国文学史美国文学史一.知识点1.清教主义代表人物：Edwards Franklin2.富兰克林的作品：《Poor Richard’s Almanac》《Autobiography》3.富兰克林自传中的十三个美德：Temperance（节制）silence （少言）order（秩序）frugality （节俭）Industry（勤勉）sincerity （真诚）resolution（决心）justice （公正）moderation （中庸）cleanliness（整洁）chastity(镇定) tranquility（节欲）humility（谦逊）This work is a puritan document. It is puritan because it is a record of self-examination and self-improvement.4.富兰克林作品中的谚语:lost time is never found again. A penny saved is a penny earned. God help them that help themselves. Fish and visitors stink in three days. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.5.美国浪漫主义代表人物：Irving Cooper6.Irving was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.His works are《The Sketch Book》《Rip Van Winkle》《The Legend of Sleepy Hollow》7. Cooper’s claim to greatness in American literature lies in the fact that he created a myth about the formative period of the American na tion. “Leatherstocking tales” is a series of five novels described the frontier life of American settlers, that is, 《The Pioneers》《The Last of the Mohicans》《The Prairie》《The pathfinder》《The Deerslayer》8. Emerson 的代表作《Nature》. “The American Scholar” has be en regarded as the American’s declaration of intellectual independence.9.Thoreau的代表作《Walden》10.美国黑色浪漫主义代表人物：Hawthorne Melville Allan Poe11.Whitman的作品《Leaves of Grass》《Song of Myself》. 用来赞扬林肯的诗歌“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”“Captain, My Captain”12.Dickinson的诗歌“My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close”“Wild Nights”. Dickinson was original. She sees nature as both gaily benevolent and cruel. On the ethical level she emphasizes free will and human responsibility. Like Emerson, she holds that beauty, goodness, truth are the ultimately one. She is good at catching the charm of something but dropping the thing itself. 13. Allan Poe: Father of modern short story;Father of detective story;Father of psychoanalytic criticism;Father of mental analytic theory.14. Local Colorism的代表人物:Mark Twain15.Naturalism 时期：Crane的作品：《Maggie：A Girl of the Street》《The Red Badge of Courage》Dreiser的作品：《Sister Carrie》Jack London；O’Henry16. Imagism 的代表人物：Pound他的作品“In a Station of the Metro”(has been regarded asa classic specimen of imagist poetry) “Cantos”(has been called his intellectual diary since1915).17. Eliot 的作品《The Waste Land》18. Robert Frost的作品“Mending Wall”这里的名言是good fences make good neighbors. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”“The Road not Taken”19. Fitzgerald的作品《This Side of Paradise》《Tender is the Night》《The Last Tycoon》《The GreatGatsby》（代表作）二．名词解释1. American puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of puritans. The puritans areoriginally members of a division of the protestant church who wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin, total depravity and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from god. It had become, to some extent, so much a sense of mind, so much a part of national cultural background, rather than a set of tenets.2. Transcendentalism: it was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophythat emerged in newEngland in the early middle 19th century. Transcendentalists spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism in American society. It place emphasis on spirit, or the over soul as the most important thing in the world. It stressed the importance of the individual and offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit or god.Prominent transcendentalists included Edwards and Thoreau.3. Local Colorism: Mark Twain was the representative of local colorism. It as a trend becamedominant in American literature in the late 1860s and early 1870s, it is defined by Hamlin Garland as having such quality of texture and background that it could not have been written in any other place or by anyone else than a native, as local colorists tried to immortalize the distinctive natural, social and linguistic features. It is characteristic of vernacular language and satiricalhumor. Generally speaking, the writings of local colorists are concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town.4. Imagism: the 1920s saw a vigorous literary activity in America. In poetry there appeared astrong reaction against Victorian poetry. Imagists placed primary reliance on the use of precise, sharp images as a means of poetic expression and stressed precision in the choice of words, freedom in the choice of subject matter and form, and the use of oral language. Most of the imagist poets wrote in free verse, using such devices as assonance and alliteration rather than formal metrical schemes to give structure to their poetry. Its representative was Pound.5. Modernsim: American modernism was the phenomenon of international modernismtransplanted in the American context. The modernists have a more complex view of reality.They believe that reality is experienced from different perspectives and at different levels.Modernism is pluralistic in styles and inclusive of diverse responses to the human condition in the modern world.6. The Lost Generation: it is a term used to characterize a general feeling of disillusionment ofAmerican literary notables who lived in Europe, most notably Paris, after the First World War.Figures identified with the lost generation included authors and artists such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound and SherwoodAnderson.三．解答题1.超验主义三大特点。

American LiteratureComment on American RomanticismThe Romantic Period is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, which stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. I t started with the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.It is a great flowering of American literature; It is also called “the American Renaissance”.American Romanticism is associated with imagination, intuitive perception, personal expression. The most profound and comprehensive idea of romanticism is the vision of a greater personal freedom for the individual. There are four characteristics of Romanticism, the first one is the moral enthusiasm such as passion, emotion, fancy and imagination: secondly, American Romanticism faiths in the value of individualism and intuitive perception. What`s more, this period advocates that human nature is good. That is to say, man can know the world through his own ability , intuition and conscience. The last characteristic is that nature is a source of goodness and man’s societies are the source of corruption.About the background of American Renaissance is during the time when America is flourishing into a politically,economically and culturally independent country. For example, in politics, democracy and political equality became the ideals of the new nation. And, radical changes came about in the political life of the country. Parties began to squabble and scramble for power, and new system was in the making. In economics, the spread of industrialism, the sudden influx of immigration, and the pioneers pushing the frontier further west, all these produced something of an economic boon and with it, a tremendous sense of optimism and hope among the people. What`s more, in culture, the publication of Webster’s Dictionary marked the beginning of the American English and the appearance of many magazines and newspapers contribute to the literature.The Sketch Book written by Washington Irving marked the beginning ofAmerican Romanticism. Following the rise of romanticism, Transcendentalism, which appeared after 1830, marked the maturity of American Romanticism and the first renaissance in the American literary history. During the Transcendentalism period, Walden written by Thoreau became the foundation of American Romanticism. In the first half of 19th Century, Western Europe Romanticism has already deeply influenced on American Romanticism. Besides, American capitalism had a rapid development as well as the national consciousness and patriotic enthusiam of Americans. What’s more, American writers gradually got rid of the shackles of British Romanticism and became aware of the need of paying attention to the creation of human spirit and Transcendentalism which aimed at pursuing freedom. From then on, American Romanticism went into the flourishing period.In the earlier stage of American Romanticism, the representatives included Washington Ivring who wrote A History of New York and The Sketch Book, James Fenimore Cooper who wrote The Last of the Mohicans and The Pilot and Edgar Allan Poe who wrote Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque and Tales. In the later stage of American Romanticism, the representatives included Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote The Scarlet Letter and The Marble Faun, Walt Whitman who wrote Leaves of Grass and Herman Melville who wrote Moby Dick” And the representatives of American Transcendentalism which appeared in American Romanticism included Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote Nature and Henry David Thoreau who wrote Walden. Among all those great American Romanticism writers and their great literary works, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter leaves the most profound impression on me. It was published in 1850. The novel is set in the American colonial era two hundred years ago and it exposes the social cruelty, religious deception and moral hypocrisy in 19th century under capitalist development in America. Hawthorne uses symbolism throughout the novel. The characters, plots and language are all quite subjective which full of imagination and the writer often put the description of characters’ mental activities and intuition in the first place. Thus, The Scarlet Letter is not only the representative of American Romantic novels but also the beginning of the American psychological novels.In general, American Romanticism was a kind of imitation as well as innovation because it appeared under the Western Europe Romanticism and finally it created a unique style of fiction and poetry. American Romanticism embraced the individual and rebelled against the confinement of neoclassicism and religious tradition. American Romanticism created a new literary genre that continued to influence American writers.Comments on Benjamin Franklin(1706--1790)1.Brief introductionBenjamin Franklin was one of the founding father of the United States of America. He was one of the most important America thinkers during the revolutionary period. He stood as the epitome of the Enlightenment and as the versatile embodiment of rational man of the period. Meanwhile, Benjamin Franklin was a rare genius in human history. Nature seemed particularly lavish and happy when he was shaped. Everything seems to meet in this one man, mind and will, talent and art, strength and ease, wit and grace, and he became almost everything: a printer, postmaster, almanac maker, essayist, scientist, orator, statesman, philosopher, political, economist, ambassador, parlor man--“Jack of all trades,”Herman Melville thus described him, “master of each and mastered by none--the type and genius of his land.”2.Main WorksPoor Richard’s Almanac--It was published from 1732 to 158 under the name of Richard Saunders. In the almanac, Franklin gives advice in maxims, that is, proverbs with practical wisdom.A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge (1743)Plain Truth (1747)A Narrative of the Late Massacres (1764)“Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One” (1773) Autobiography--This is Franklin`s most important work. It has lasting charm to those who are pursuing their American dream in America.--The Autobiography is a Puritan document, which is a book of self-examination and self-improvement. In this book, Franklin looks intensely into his past life and describes the image of a boy`s rise from rags to riches through hard work and wise management. And therein he sets 13 virtues for himself to cultivate and combat with tempting vices. His story convinces that man is good and capable of becoming better. In fact, this book celebrates the fulfillment of the American dream through telling a story of self-reliance.3.The styles and techniques of Benjamin Franklin`s worksFranklin`s style of writing was clear and even plain in his time, but for modern readers, it is a bit hard to read.Besides, his style is rather formal, but the organization of his material is informal.In addition, his writing is full of his humor and satire.4.SignificanceThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was probably the first of its kind in literature. And, Franklin was the first self-made man in America. He was considered as the symbol of American dream by the young generation. As the symbol of America in the age of Enlightenment, he brought the colonial era to a close.Franklin was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven.”What`s more, he helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society. As a result, everyone seems to meet this one man--“a Jack of all trades”.Comments on Leaves of grass。

AmericanPuritanism美国文学史第一篇：American Puritanism 美国文学史American Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church.The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them.They were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles.As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices.They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace form God.As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind.American Puritanism also had a enduring influence on American literature.6.American Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end.The Age of Realism came into existence.It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism.Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived.It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.8American Transcendentalism: Transcendentalists terroras from the romantic literature of Europe.They spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of Americagogopirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the Universe.They stressed the importance of the individual.To them, the individual was the most important element of society.They offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic ofthe Spirit or God.Nature was, to them, alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence.Transcendentalism is based on the belief that the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of the senses.Emerson’s Nature has been called the “Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” and his The American Scholar has been rightly regarded as America’s “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”.Black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world.Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony.Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce.For example, Stanley Kubrick's film Dr.Strangelove;or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb(1963)is a terrifying comic treatment of the circumstances surrounding the dropping of an atom bomb, while Jules Feiffer's comedy Little Murders(1965)is a delineation of the horrors of modern urban life, focusing particularly on random assassinations.The novels of such writers as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth contain elements of black humor.6.The Lost Gene ration: It’s used to describe the people of the postwar years.Itdescribes the Americans who remained in Paris as a colony of “expatriates” or exiles.It describes the writers like Hemingway who lived in semipoverty.It describes the Americans who returned to their native land with an intense awareness of living in an unfamiliar changing world.After World War I, the young disappointed American writers, such as Hemingway, Pound, Cummings Fitzgerald, chose Paris as their place ofexile.They came from the East or the Middle West of the U.S.A, and most of them had been shocked or wounded in the war.An American woman writer named Gertrude Stein, who had lived in Paris since 1903, welcomed these young writers to her apartment which was already famous as a literary salon.She called them “the lost generation”, because they had cut themselves off from their past in American in order to create new types of writing which had never been tried before.“The Lost Generation” is also painted in the writers’ writings.The young English and American expatriates, men and women, were caught in the war and cut off from the old values and yet unable to come to terms with the new era when civilization had gone mad.They wandered pointlessly and restlessly, enjoying things like fishing, swimming, bullfight and beauties of nature, but they were aware all the while that the world is crazy and meaningless and futile.Their whole life is undercut and defeated.Characteristics of Romanticism:a.Romanticism was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.(subjectivity)b.For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reasonand common sense.c.They emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group, againstauthority.d.The affirmed the inner life of the self, and wanted to be free to develop and express hisown inner thoughts.e.Typical literary forms of romanticism include ballad, lyric, sentimental comedy, problemnovel, historical novel , gothic romance, metrical romance, sonnet.Representatives:• New England Poets: William Cullen Bryant;HenryWadsworth Longfellow;• Writers: James Fenimaore Cooper, Washington Irving“The Sketch Book of GeoffreyGrayon”9.Naturalism 自然主义1.Naturalism is a literary trend prevailing in Europe, especially in France and Germany, in thesecond half of the 19th century.2.Naturalism theory: literature must be “true to life” and exactly reproduce real life, includingall its details without any selection.3.Naturist writers usu.write about the lives of the poor and oppressed, or the “slum life贫民窟生活”, but by giving all the details without discrimination, they can only represent the external appearance instead of the inner essence of real life.4.Naturalism, in reality, was a development of realism.5.Emile Zola(1840-1902), the French novelist and the master of modern naturalism.George Gissing(1857-1903)-the most significant figure in the period of transition from the Victorian to the modern novel.Representative: George Gissing(1857-1903)1.His novels were mainly a description of the appalling可怜的 conditions of the poor and areflection of his own painful experiences and impressions.2.His most outstanding novel is New Grub Street(1891)– a minor classic which depicts theliterary life of his time.3.Other works:a)Charles Dickens: A critical Study(1898)–which shows his sound appreciation of Dickens’sachievements in character portrayal and language art.b)ThePrivate Papers of Henry Ryecroft(1903)– the most popular of his work written in theform of part diary, part essays and part confessions.4.Gossing is a chronicler年代史编者 of the seamy堕落的 side of later Victorian England.17.American naturalism American naturalism was a new and harsher realism, and like realism, it had come from Europe.Naturalism was an outgrowth of realism that responded to theories in science, psychology, human behavior and social thought current in the late nineteenth century.Background:In the last decade of the nineteenth century, with the development of industry and modern science, intelligent minds began to see that man was no longer a free ethical being in a cold, indifferent and essentially Godless universe.In this chance world he was both helpless and hopeless.Major Features: Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires.Representatives:The pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervaded the works of such AmericanCrane’s is the first American naturalism work.Norris’s McTeague is the manifesto of American natura lism.Dreiser’sis the work in which naturalism attained maturity.These writers’ detailed description of the lives of the downtrodden and the abnormal, their frank threatment of human passion and sexuality, and their portrayal of men and women overwhelmed by blind forces of nature still exert a powerful influence on modern writers.Influence:Although naturalist literature described the world with sometimes brutal realism, it sometimes also aimed at betteringthe world through social reform.This combination of grim reality and desire for improvements is typical of America as it moved into the twentieth century.第二篇：美国文学史梗概美国文学史梗概一、殖民地时代和美国建国初期最早来自这片新大陆的欧洲移民主要是定居在新英格兰的清教徒和马萨诸塞的罗马天主教徒，二者虽然在教义上有很多不同之处，但他们都信奉加尔文主义：人生在世只是为了受苦受难，而他们唯一的希望是争做上帝的“选民”，死后进天国，相信“原罪”。

附：作者及作品（第一、二册）一、殖民主义时期The Literature of Colonial America1．船长约翰•史密斯Captain John Smith他的作品(reports of exploration)17th早期出版，被认为是美国第一部真正意义上的文学作品, 美国第一位作家《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚垦荒以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》―A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony‖《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》―A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country‖《弗吉尼亚通史》―General History of Virginia‖2．威廉•布拉德福德William Bradford 《普利茅斯开发历史》―The History of Plymouth Plantation‖3．约翰•温思罗普John Winthrop《新英格兰历史》―The History of New England‖4．罗杰•威廉姆斯Roger Williams1．John Cotton第一批知识分子代言人，称为“新英格兰教父”the Patriarch of New England.《开启美国语言的钥匙》‖A Key into the Language of America‖或叫《美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南》Or ― A Help to the Language of the Nativ es in That Part of America Called New England ‖5．安妮•布莱德斯特Anne Bradstreet 《在美洲诞生的第十个谬斯》‖The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America‖二、理性和革命时期文学The Literature of Reason and Revolution1。