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A Concise History of American LiteratureChapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.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 idealismII.Benjamin Franklin1.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac(2)Autobiography2.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the AmericanPhilosophical Society.(2)He was called "the new Prometheus who had stolen fire <electricityin this case> from heaven〞.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –"Jack of all trades〞.Herman Melville thus described him "master of each and masteredby none〞.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodI.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.works(1)A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the Endof the Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. <He won a measure ofinternational recognition with the publication of this.>(3)The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4)A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra3.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US4.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 languageII.James Fenimore Cooper1.works(1)Precaution <1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride andPrejudice>(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, ThePioneer, The Prairie2.point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs.change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights3.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 authentic4.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.Appearance1836, "Nature〞by EmersonII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition <irrationalism and subconsciousness>III.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought aboutthe idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expandedeconomy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to "get on〞obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance –one of the mostprolific period in American literature.IV.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.works(1)Nature(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet2.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in thetranscendence of the "oversoul〞.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moralinfluence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual andimmanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out thedivine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect.This is what Emerson means by "the infinitude of man〞.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making hisworld, and that he makes the world by making himself.3.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.4.his influenceV.Henry David Thoreau1.works(1)A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3)A Plea for John Brown <an essay>2.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing andwas vehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuinerestorative, healthy inf luence 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 dirtyinstitutions of men’s odd-fellow society〞.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a newgeneration of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from andOld Manse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun2.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.3.aesthetic ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnishthe soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form ofAmerican narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend:That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.4.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.works(1)Typee(2)Omio(3)Mardi(4)Redburn(5)White Jacket(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre(8)Billy Budd2.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is theattitude of "Everlasting Nay〞<negative attitude towards life>.(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation <far away from eachother>.Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism <individualismcausing disaster and death>, rejection and quest, confrontation ofinnocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress3.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 <MobyDick>Romantic PoetsI.Walt Whitman1.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 Rocking2.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 W ar 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 happiness3.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 foreignorigins, some even wrong(10)sentences –catalogue technique: long list of names, long poemlines4.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Westernculture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacherand recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bearswitness to his great influence.II.Emily Dickenson1.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 Nights2.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 responsibility3.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 ideasvividparison: 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 pentameterand exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they werepioneers in American poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinsonexplores the 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>which Whitman doesn’t have.Edgar Allen PoeI.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 TalesII.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 scienceIII.Aesthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compressionand finality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tonemelancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.IV.Style – traditional, but not easy to readV.Reputation: "the jingle man〞<Emerson>VI.His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –"Dean of American Realism〞(1)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb.A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(2)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethicscking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international theme●The American●Daisy Miller●The Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays●Daisy Miller <play>c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood andadolescence, then back to international theme●The Turn of the Screw●When Maisie Knew●The Ambassadors●The Wings of the Dove●The Golden Bowl(2)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent lifemon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(3)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(4)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.Mark Twain – Mississippi1.works(1)The Gilded Age(2)"the two advantages〞(3)Life on the Mississippi(4)A Conne cticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court(5)The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug2.style(1)colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2)local colour(3)syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimesungrammatical(4)humour(5)tall tales <highly exaggerated>(6)social criticism <satire on the different ugly things in society>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.Theodore Dreiser1.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius2.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 astruggle for 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.3.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis4.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in painting。
美国文学史及选读复习笔记（1-2册）History And Anthology of American Literature (V olumeⅠⅡ)美国文学史及选读1、2PartⅠThe Literature of Colonial America殖民主义时期的文学1. 17世纪早期English and European explorers开始登陆美洲。
在他们之前100多年Caribbean Islands, Mexico and other Parts of South America已被the Spanish占领。
2. 17th早期English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts(弗吉尼亚和马萨诸塞)开始了美国历史3. 美国最早殖民者(earliest settlers)included Dutch ,Swedes ,Germans ,French ,Spaniards ,Italians and Portuguese (荷兰人，瑞典人，德国人，法国人，西班牙人，意大利人及葡萄牙人等)。
4. 美国早期文学主要为the narratives and journals of these settlements采用in diaries and in journals(日记和日志)，他们写关于the land with dense forests and deep-blue lakes and rich soil.5. 第一批美国永久居民：the first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown,Virginia in 1607(北美弗吉尼亚詹姆斯顿)。
6. 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in the early 1600s,have been described as the first distinctly American literature written in English.他讲述了filled with themes, myths, images, scenes, character and events,吸引了朝圣者和清教徒前往lure the Pilgrims and the Puritans.7. 美国第一位作家：1608年Captain John Smith写了封信《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”.8. 他的第二本书1612年《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》“A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country”.9. 他一共出版了八本书，其中有关于新英格兰的历史及描述。
美国文学史复习大纲一：作家作品1.Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio(小镇畸人，1919) The Triumph of the Egg(鸡蛋的胜利，1921)2.John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath(愤怒的葡萄，1939，strong sociological novel,1940年获普利策奖（Pulitzer Prize)),1962年获诺贝尔文学奖①the foremost novelist of the American Depression.美国大萧条时期最杰出的小说家。
②代表作：“Of Mice and Men”《人鼠之间》portrayed the tragic friendship between two migrant workers “The Grapes of Wrath”《愤怒的葡萄》regarded as masterpiece ,showed the migration of the Okies from the Dust Bowls to California ,a migration that ended in broken dreams and misery but at the same time affirmed the ability of the common people to endure and prevail. Theme : strength comes from unity i-we ;faith in life; struggle to live better2.John Dos Passos: 约翰多斯帕索斯His trilogy U.S.A(美利坚)---The 42nd Parallel(北纬42度，1930), 1919(1932), The Big Money(1936), Three Soldiers。
（完整word版）美国文学史复习要点整理【手动】美国文学史整理一、Colonial America 殖民时期1、New England：Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, andConnecticut.2、Doctrines of Puritanism清教American Puritanism stressed predestination（命运神定), original sin（原罪）, total depravity (彻底的堕落), and limited atonement (有限的赎罪)from God’s grace.3、Writing style：fresh, simple and direct and with a touch of nobility；the rhetoric is plain andhonest.4、Life style：hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.5、Main writer:①Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩work：Common Sense (1776) 《常识》American Crisis (1776-1783)《美国危机》The Rights of Man《人权》The Age of Reason《理性时代》②Benjamin Franklin（本杰明·富兰克林）Poor Richard’s Almanac《穷查理历书》Autobiography 《富兰克林自传》③Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰弗逊Declaration of Independence (1776)《独立宣言》二、American Romanticism (early period) 浪漫主义前期1、Characteristics：①A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.反对理性主义的客观性。
1. The Colonial PeriodThe settlement of America in the early 17th century--- the end of the 18th century.The major topicThe major figures2. The Romantic PeriodCovering the first half of the19th century.•The major points:3. The Age of RealismThe Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. Covering the end of the 19th century and the first decade of 20th century.•It expresses the concern for the commonplace and the low, and offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.•4. American Naturalism•From the first decade of twentieth century to the First World War.•The major figures: Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and O. Henry5 American ModernismThe literature between the two world wars. This is the most important period in6. American Postmodernism•From the World War II up to now.•Postmodernist writers: John Barth, Philip Roth, Thomas Pinchon, Ishmael Reed and Don Delillo.•The flourishing of minoritarian literature: Jewish-American, African-American and Asian-American literatureis an account of a person’s life written by that person or a book written by oneself about one’s own life. It is characterized by the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression, lucidity of the narrative. Benjamin Franklin…s Autobiography is a good example.Puritanism:Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans, who became American‟s founding fathers. They advocated highly religious and moral principles.The American Puritans were idealists. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God.Puritanism has a profound influence on the early American mind and literaturePoor Richard’s Almanac Autobiography Romanticism1800-1865Characteristics of Romanticism (derivative independent)o an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society—reliance on the subconscious, the inner life, the abnormal psychologyo an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination—rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed formality, order and authority o a profound love for nature—nature as a source of knowledge, nature asa refuge from the present, nature as a revelation of the holy spirito the quest for beauty—pure beautyo the use of antique and fanciful subject matters—sense of terror, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queerMoby-Dick is regarded as the first American prose epic. His ideas:The world is at once Godless and purposelessMan cannot influence and overcome nature at its sourceThemes 1 alienation 2 Rejection and Quest3criticism against Emersonian self-reliant individualSymbolThe Pequod -------- of human society. The voyage ----- search and discovery. The whale Moby Dick------nature Queequeg's coffin ---- symbolizes life and death. The whiteness of Moby Dick --- death and corruption and purity, innocence and youth; final mystery of the universe.The ship on the ocean----- symbol of the whole world with people in quest of its瓦尔登湖A psalm of lifeSonnet—To science abab cdcd efef ggTo Helen ABABB CDCDC AEEAE五行诗节1. Free from the traditional iambic pentameter and writes free verse2. Parallelism3. Phonetic recurrence systematic repetition of words and phrases or sounds4. Long catalogs, giving free rein to poetic imaginationHer poetry is a clear illustration of her religious-ethical and political-social ideas.largest portion of Dickinson‟s poetry concerns andoriginal in art and famous for the economy of expression in diction and the frequent use of dashes.Her poems are short and implicit in meaning. She is regarded as the forerunner of modernism in American poetryThemes: death love natureFrequent use of dashesTranscendentalism.浪漫主义运动的表现形式-超验主义it‟s Romanticism on the Puritan soil Transcendentalism has been defined as the recognition in man of the capacity of acquiring knowledge transcending the reach of the five senses, or of knowing truth intuitively, or of reaching the divine without the need of an intercessor.placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over soul as the most important thing in the universe stressed the importance of the individualoffered a fresh perception of nature a symbolic of the Spirit or Godstressed the power of intuition.He firmly believes in the transcendence of the “Oversoul”.2. Emerson’s Idealism. He sees the world as phenomenal, and emphasizes theneed for idealism, for idealism sees the world in God3. Emerson’s View on Spirit. He sees spirit pervading everywhere4.Emerson’sView on Man. man is made in the image of God and is just a little less then Him.man is divine.5. Emerson’s View on Individuality and Self-Reliance. The individual is the mostimportant of all. E For him, if man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect.So men should and could be self-reliant.6. Emerson’s Nature. A natural implication of Emerson‟s view on nature is that the world around is symbolicRealismHis later works become darker and more obscure, showing his discontent and disappointment toward the social reality. His last works shows his acute pessimism, despair, skepticism determinism.Humor local color satireThe Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Gilded Age Life on the Mississippi A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug The Mysterious StrangerThe Innocents Abroad Roughing It Pudd'nhead WilsonAmerican ClaimantNaturalismIs a critical term applied to the method of literary composition that aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man•It is thus more inclusive and less selective than realism, and holds to the philosophy of determinism.•It conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by its social and economic environment and circumstances.•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments.•In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author‟s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.CharacteristicsA literary trend that prevailed in 1890s in America.1) Emphasis on reality, objectivity, no exaggeration, give no comments andcriticizing;2) The naturalists would go to the slums and describe the poverty and crime;3) Be concerned about the influence of social environment. According to them,human beings are victims of the crushing forces of heredity and environment.Explain human activities and human society according to biological law, highlight the effect of animal instincts and heredity on human beings.5) Apply scientific experiment to writing, try to test human feelings in variouskinds of environment.6) The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile.7) Hold very pessimistic attitude towards human society, and this pessimism oftengoes to determinism.Representatives: CharacteristicFrank Norris（弗兰克·诺里斯）dehumanizedStephen Crane（斯蒂芬·克莱恩）- determinedTheodore Dreiser（西奥多·德莱塞）- moved by inner and outer forcesJack London（杰克·伦敦beyond conscious moral control McTeague Octopus the Pit Vandover and the BruteMaggie: A Girl of the Streets The red badge of courage Sister Carrie Modernism现代主义时期•During the first decades of the 20th century, modernism became an international tendency against positivism and representational art in art and literature. Modernism was the consequence of the transformation of society brought about by industrialism and technology. The essence of modernism wasa break with the past, and it also fostered a belief in art and literature as anavenue to self-fulfillment. The feature was its strong and conscious break with traditional forms, perceptions, and techniques of expressions, and its great concern with language and all aspects of its medium.•It was persistently experimental. Stream of consciousness, the use of myth as a structural principle, and the primary status given to the poetic image, all challenged traditional representation.•Generally speaking, this new desire in craftsmanship and skill was one of the hallmarks of the early decades of the 20th century.Imagism意象派（诞生于现代主义时期）It is a Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. It was initially led by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell.（no fuss, frill, or ornament）,（precision and economy of expression）,（free verse form and music）.Launch Imagism setting down the Imagist principlesThe Cantos 《诗章》威廉·卡洛·威廉斯avoided complexity andobscure华莱士·斯蒂文斯Simple lines: an emphasis on vocabulary and imagery rather than prosodyThe faith in poetry : when no one believes in God, it is necessary to believe in something else, such as poetry, a thing created by imaginationAnecdote of the Jar罗伯特The most popular 20th Century American Poet, A four-timeStyl e 1rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries, choosingthe old-fashioned way to be new.• 2 employ the plain speech of rural New Englanders.3 use the simple, short, traditional forms of lyrics and Narrative, can probemysteries of darkness and irrationality in the bleak and chaotic landscapes of an indifferent universe where man stand alone, unaided and perplexed.Fire and ice Fire - a symbol of desire, or love. Ice - a symbol of hatredtwo weaknesses of human beings that are as destructive as natural disasters The road not taken it does not moralize about choice, it simply says that choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived itStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening The poem is primarily oriented towards the pleasures of the scene and the responsibility of life. Metaphors:• Promises –Our own promises or duties that we must fulfill.Miles - experience we must travel through before deathThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black boughthe Great Gatsby 1926The Sun Also Rises 1926, A Farewell to Arms , 1929,the Wasteland.Main Street 1920an American TragedyAmerican Dream:The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of martial wealth, but a dream of social order. People try to get success no matter what kind of circumstances of birth or position they came from.The lost generationIt refers to the writers who were devoid of faith, values and ideals and who were alienated from the civilization the capitalist society advocated. It includes Ernst Hemingway, F. S.Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Louis Bromfield., and E.E.Cummings, Ezra Pound，who rebelled against former values and ideas, but replaced them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. They were frustrated by the WWI and returned from that “Great War”to their own country only to find the grim reality that the social values and civilization were hollow.Short storyIt is a fictional prose tale of no specified length, but too short to be published as a volume on its own. It concentrates on a single event with one or two characters. It flourished in the magazines of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the USA, which has a particularly strong tradition. Edgar Allen Poe was considered as the father of modern short story. His short stories like the cast of Amontillado and the Black cat are famous.Jazz Age⏹American industry developed fast. The nation is full of bouncingebullience, fearful of nothing, confident smug isolationism.⏹Socially, decline of idealism. Patriotism became cynical disillusionment.Unity of family weakened. There appeared the revolt of the Younger Generation. They escaped responsibility and assumed immorality.⏹After WWI, people found that the war which cost millions of lives failedto provide an abiding solutions to the world’s problems, that the war was just the traps of political leaders. Such a disillusionment about the value of war, accompanied by the booming of American economy drove people to cynical hedonism. People experiment with new amusements. They restlessly pursued stimulus and pleasures, wallow in heavy drinking, fast driving and casual sex. By these, they hoped to seek relief from serious problems.Hemingway heroThey live adventures-filled lives that were driven by courage and limited by fear. They hide a sensitive heart from tough exterior.” Grace under press” is their motto. Its heroes are hemmed in by forces beyond their control.AntiheroIt is a central character in a dramatic or narrative work who lacks the qualities ofnobility and magnanimity expected of traditional heroes in romances and epic.Like the character “Henry” in the work of a farewell to arms.SymbolTraditional FormsBallad(民谣)A ballad is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. “The Geste of Robin HoodHeroic CoupletIt refers to a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter and written in an elevated style. Sonnet 18Spenserian stanza•It is a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c. The Faerie QueeneBlank verse素体诗，无韵诗•Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.•It became widely used in dramatic poetry and narratives.Now that/ the gloo/my sha/dow of /the night,Longing/ to view/ Orion/’s drizz/ling look,Leaps from/ the an/tarc/tic world/ unto/ the skyAnd dims/ the wel/kin with/ her pi/tchy breath ----Doctor FaustusFree verseMeans the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without paying attention to conventional rules of meter. It can free the poets from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and recreate instead the free rhythms of natural speech.Beat GenerationTheatre of absurd. the 1950sBlack humor.the 1960s。
美国文学部分(American Literature)一．殖民时期文学（The Literature of the Colonial Period）1．本章考核知识点和考核要求：1) 早期殖民地时期的文学的特点2) 十八世纪美国文学的特点（重点是独立革命前后时期文学）3) 主要的作家、其概况及其代表作品4) 术语：the colonial period, American Puritanism, Puritans, Enlightenment in American, the Great Awakening2．主要作家作品John Smith第一个美国作家A True Relation of Virginia and General History of Virginia.Anne Bradstreet 殖民地时期女诗人The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650)Jonathan Edwards十八世纪上半叶大觉醒时代的代表人物“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林，散文家、科学家、社会活动家，曾参与起草《独立宣言》。
十八世纪美国启蒙思想代言人。
《穷查理历书》Poor Richard’s Almanac（收录格言警句）《致富之道》The Way to Wealth《自传》The Autobiography （富兰克林原意为写给儿子的家书）Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩，散文家、政治家、报刊撰稿人。
《常识》Common Sense ( Paine 最知名的政论文：It was inspired by the first battle of the Revolutionary War—the Battle of Lexington in Concord.)《美国危机》American Crisis《人的权利》Rights of Man《专制体制的崩溃》Downfall of Despotism《理性时代》The Age of ReasonPhilip Freneau 菲利普·弗伦诺，著名的“革命诗人”。
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 《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 Williams《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 Natives 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。
本杰明•富兰克林Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)※《自传》“The Autobiography ”《穷人理查德的年鉴》“Poor Richard’s Almanac”2。
第一部分殖民时期一、时期综述（关于清教的应该都是重点）1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：A、narratives 日记B、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：①their voyage to the new land ②adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops③about dealing with Indians ④guide to the new land, endless bounty，invitation to bold spirit★3、清教徒的想法：①Puritans want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices.净化信仰和行为方式②wish to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of the Bible to theology.重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位③look upon themselves as a chosen people，and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God’s will and is not to be accepted。
认为自己是上帝选民，对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝。
④Puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exaggerated.反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步。
⑤religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God。
强调上帝严厉的一面，忽视上帝仁慈的一面.4、典型的清教徒：John Cotton and Roger Williams他们的不同:John Cotton was much more concerned with authority than with democracy。
美国文学史复习要点手动1.早期美国文学（17世纪-18世纪）-早期美国文学的发展受到清教徒移民和殖民地环境的影响。
-早期作品主题包括宗教信仰、苦难和恐惧。
-著名作家有威廉·布拉德福和乔纳森·爱德华兹。
2.启蒙时期文学（18世纪）-美国启蒙时期的文学受到欧洲启蒙思想的影响。
-作品主题包括理性、自由和平等。
-著名作家有本杰明·富兰克林和汤玛斯·潘恩。
3.罗曼主义时期文学（19世纪早期）-罗曼主义时期美国文学反对启蒙时期的理性主义。
-作品主题包括个人感情、自然和超自然。
-著名作家有华盛顿·欧文和爱默生。
4.特拉华文学（19世纪中期）-特拉华文学是19世纪中期美国文学的重要流派。
-作品主题包括农民和工人的生活以及美国西部探险精神。
-著名作家有赫尔曼·梅尔维尔和华尔特·惠特曼。
5.现实主义和自然主义时期文学（19世纪末-20世纪初）-现实主义和自然主义时期的文学关注社会问题和个人命运。
-作品主题包括工业化、城市化和阶级冲突。
-著名作家有马克·吐温和斯蒂芬·克莱恩。
6.现代主义时期文学（20世纪初-中期）-现代主义时期的文学反对传统形式和价值观。
-作品表现迷失、不安和心理困惑。
-著名作家有欧内斯特·海明威和F·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德。
7.后现代主义时期文学（20世纪中期-现在）-后现代主义时期的文学拒绝一切形式的正统和稳定性。
-作品表现多样化的语言和视觉实验。
-著名作家有托尼·莫里森和大卫·福斯特·华莱士。
美国文学简史复习纲要Colonial Period殖民时期 (1600s-1790s)American Puritanism美国清教主义：self-examination/self-improvementI.JonathanEdwards (1703-1758)：Calvinist加尔文教徒II.BenjaminFranklin本杰明富兰克林 (1706-1790)(1)PoorRichard’s Almanac(2)The Autobiography自传Early AmericanRomanticism早期美国浪漫主义时期（1800s-1840s）1.features(1)As alogical result of the foreign and native factors at work, Americanromanticismwas both imitative and independent.II.WashingtonIrving华盛顿欧文 (1783-1859)1.several names attached to Irving(1)firstAmerican writer(2)themessenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father ofAmerican literature美国文学之父2.works(1)The Sketch Book见闻札记: Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of SleepyHollowIII.JamesFenimore Cooper库柏 (1789-1851)1.works(1)Leatherstocking Tales皮袜子故事集 : TheDeerslayer, The Last of theMohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie2.literary achievementsCooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the Americannational experience of adventure into theWest. He turned the west andfrontier as a useable past and he helped tointroduce western tradition toAmerican literature.Summitof Romanticism – NewEnglandTranscendentalism/AmericanRenaissance新英格兰超验主义---美国浪漫主义鼎盛时期(1840s-)I.Appearance提出1836,“Nature”by Emerson爱默生、《论自然》II.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature –symbol of spirit/God4.focus in intuition (irrationalism andsubconsciousness)III.Influence1.It helped to create the first American renaissance美国文学复兴–one ofthemost prolific period in American literature、independent Americanculture. IV.RalphWaldo Emerson（1802-1882）1.works(1)Nature—the manifesto ofAmerican Transcendentalism.《论自然》的发表是美国超验主义出现的标志。
美国文学期末考试复习大纲Ⅰ. 文学史1.American Puritanism (美国请教主义):Puritanism was a religious reform movement that arose within the Church of England in the late 16th century.I.Background: Puritanism1.features of Puritanism(1)Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.(2)Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.(3)Total depravity(4)Limited atonement: Only the ―elect‖ can be saved.2.Influence(1)A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.(2)It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.(3)Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calli ng into beinga literary symbolism which is distinctly American.(4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.II.Overview of the literature1.types of writing: diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons2.writers of colonial period(1)Anne Bradstreet(2)Edward Taylor(3)Roger Williams(4)John Woolman(5)Thomas Paine(6)Philip Freneau(7)Jonathan Edwards(8)Benjamin Franklin2.American Enlightenment (美国启蒙运动):Enlightenment is a philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to scrutinize previously accepted doctrines and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms.The American Enlightenment is a term sometimes employed to describe the intellectual culture of the British North American colonies and the early United States (as they became following the American Revolution).It is commonly dated from 1750—1820.Among the leading intellectual figures of this period are Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776—18201.Background: American Revolution——historicalEuropean Enlightenment2.Basic Assumptions:(1)Reg ard ―enlightenment‖ or ―education‖ as the principle means for development of society(2)Show concern for civil rights, democracy in government and tolerance rather than earlier religious mysticism(3)Reconsider the relationship between man & God. Brief-Deism (natural religion)3.Transcendentalism (超验主义):Transcendentalism is literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about1836 to 1860.It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church, developing instead their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world.The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in such essays as Nature (1836) and Self-reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden (1854).I.Background: four sources1.Unitarianism(1)Fatherhood of God(2)Brotherhood of men(3)Leadership of Jesus(4)Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character)(5)Continued progress of mankind(6)Divinity of mankind(7)Depravity of mankind2.Romantic Idealism: Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticism: Center of the world is ―oversoul‖4.Puritanism: Eloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, ―Nature‖ by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/God; garment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature.It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often becameopportunism, and the desire to ―get on‖ obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period in American literature.4.Dark Romanticism1.Dark Romanticism & Gothic FictionSimilarities: darkness, supernatural, featuring charactersDifferences: sheer horror——Gothic Fiction’s purposedark mystery & skepticism of man——Dark Romance’s purpose2.Dark Romanticism——reaction against transcendentalismDark Romanticism is a literary subgenre that emerged from the transcendental philosophical movement popular in 19th century America. Some writers, including Poe, Hawthorne and Melville, found transcendental belief far too optimistic and egotistical and reacted by modifying.3.Dark Romanticism & Transcendentalism:Dark Romantics are much less confident about the notion that perfection is an innate equality of mankind, as believed by transcendentalists. Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom.While both groups believe nature is a deep spiritual force, Dark Romanticism views it in a much more sinister light than does transcendentalism, which sees nature as a divine & universal organic mediator. For Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious, when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil.Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals, falling in their attempts to make changes for the better.4.Fiction:⑪ General term for invented storiesNovel, short story, novellas, romance, fable etc.《堂吉诃德》——the first novel of European⑫ Types of novel:①.Kunstlerroman 成长小说Bildungroman——《麦田守望者》②.Spy novel③.Historical novel④.Campus novel 校园小说⑤.Gothic novel⑥.Epistolary novel⑦.Picaresque novel⑧.Detective novel⑨.Sociological novel⑩.Psychological novel⑬ Elements of fiction:①.Setting (time, place, environment)②.Plot (selected events, cause & effect, structure)——conflict (exposition, rising action/complication, climax, falling action, resolution)③.Character (animal, inanimate things)④.Point of view (first person, third person, multiple)⑤.Theme (different from ―subject‖)⑥.Style (diction, syntax, figure of speech)⑦.Symbol & IronyⅡ. 文学概念1. Allegory (寓言)：Allegory is a story with a symbolic meaning used to teach a moral principle.Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy.Thus, an allegory is a story with two meanings: a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.Many of Hawthorne’s stories are allegories dealing with pride, isolation, love and betray. For example, Y oung Goodman Brown tells Brown’s journey in the forest. After the journey, Brown changed a lot. In fact the story shows Brown’s struggle between goodness and evil and re veals the processes of losing one’s innocence.2. Romance:―Romance‖ is now frequently used as s term to designate a kind of fiction that differs from the novel in being more freely. It is the product of the author’s imagination than the product of an effo rt to represent the actual world with verisimilitude.Romance is a heightened, emotional, and symbolic form of the novel. Romances are not love stories, but serious novels that use special techniques to communicate complex and subtle meanings.Nathaniel Hawthorne is a representative of dark romance, most of his works reveals the dark side of human beings.3. Lyric(抒情诗)：In the modern sense, it is any fairly short poem expressing the personal mood, feeling, or meditation of a single speaker. Lyric poetry is the most extensive category of verse. Lyrics may be composed in almost any meter and on almost every subject, although the most usual emotions presented are those of love and grief. Among the common lyric forms are the sonnet, ode, elegy, and the more personal kinds of hymn.Lyric poetry is genre that does not attempt to tell a story but instead of a more personal nature. It portrays the poet’s own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions.While the genre’s name derived from ―lyre‖, implies that it is intended to be sung, much lyric poetry is meant purely for reading.The most popular form for western lyric poetry to take may be the 14-line sonnet, as practiced by Petrarch and Shakespeare. Lyric poetry shows a bewildering variety of forms, including, increasingly in the 20th century, unrhymed ones.Lyric poetry is the most common type of poetry.5.Allusion:It is one of the figures of speech.An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication.For example, in literature, the snake often represents the evil. It’s an allusion of Bible. In Bible, the snake allured Eve to eat the apple. Thus, they were punished by God.5. T rickster:Trickster always appears in mythology, it’s a kind of literary character.In mythology, and in the study of folklore and relig ion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior.Trickster is the ―rebellion‖ that challenges authority.The trickster is a very important archetype in the history of human kind.H e is the ―wise fool‖.It is he, through his creations that destroy the authority.He exists to question and to cause us to question.He is the Destroyer of the world and at the same time the Savior of us all.For example, Robin Hood, he is a thief, who steals the rich to help the poor. On one hand, a thief is supposed to be punished, but on another hand, he steals the money not for himself but to help others. Thus, we call him a trickster.6.Gothic Fiction:Gothic fiction rises in the late of 18th century.The Gothic relates the individual to the infinite universe.Gothic literature pictures the human condition as an ambiguous mixture of good and evil power that cannot be understood completely by human reason.The Gothic novel or short story is any story which can be describe as dark, mysterious, and grotesque. A Gothic story often has supernatural elements that give it a hint of horror/ terror.Gothic fiction is often psychological (from the villain’s perspective)It has romantic elements: the damsel in distress, the ghost of a loverCreates suspense: never sure what is going to happenIt adopts the use of doppelganger theme.The most familiar Gothic fiction to me is The V ampire Diaries. Similar to the Twilight, it tells a love story between the V ampire and a human being. There are many terror scenes with suspense and a doppelganger in the story. Now The V ampire Diaries is made into TV series. In the TV series, a vampire called Damon is my favorite one.7. Kunstlerroman8. Quest:―quest‖ means search, pursue, go on adventure. The Quest myth/ Quest story, similar to Romance is a genre of literature.The background, such as an imbalanced society, is often challenging.The hero leaves the society. His goals are always noble. He is always on the side of goodness, and his enemies are always evil.The hero must undergoes trials: physical tests—slaying a dragon, battling powerful opponents, rescuing maidens in distress etc.Having completed his quest, the hero returns to society to bring about spiritual transformation and restore the perfect human community.The Captain Ahab in Moby Dick is a hero of quest but not a traditional one, he is a villain hero who tries to conquer the nature.9. Iambic Pentameter:10. Point of View(视角)：It is the relationship of the storyteller or narrator, to the story.A story has a first-person point of view if one of the characters, referred to as ―I‖, tells the story.A story has a limited third-person point of view if the narrator reveals the thoughts of only one character but refers to that character as ―he‖ or ―she‖.A narrator who tells the thoughts of all the characters and who tells things that no one character could know uses the omniscient (all-knowing), or third-person, point of view.For example, in Moby Dick, Melville adopted the first-person narrator, Ishmael was the observer who saw the events of the story and played s minor role in the action.Ⅲ. 重要作家及作品Nathanial Hawthorne (纳撒尼尔·霍桑)1.life2.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun3.point of view(1)Evil is at the core of human life, ―that blackness in Hawthorne‖(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.4.aesthetic美学的ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yetnot to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5.style – typical romantic writer(1)the use of symbols(2)revelation of characters’ psychology(3)the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of viewThe Scarlet Letter, （adultery）1.About the story:(1)The story of Hester Prynne Set: the 17th century(2)What is situated immediately outside the door of the prison in which Hester is kept: A rosebush(3)How does Hester support herself financially: as a seamstress(4)She always wears: black(5)―A‖ represents: adultery2.Major characters in the story:(1)Hester Prynne: wears ―A‖; ―A‖ defines her identity(2)Arthur Dimmesdale: wears ―A‖ in his heart; his soul never in peace (invisible wearer)(3)Roger Chillingworth: the maker of scarlet letter(4)Pearl: the p roduct/result of ―A‖3.Symbolism: (special movement in literature; the use of symbols)In ―The Scarlet Letter‖:(1)The rosebush: passion(2)The forest: an ungovernable place(3)The scarlet letter: adultery; sin(4)Pearl: wildness; passion(5)The meteor: community4.Refuse to take off ―A‖:(1)For Hester, to remove scarlet letter would be to acknowledge the power it has in determining who she is(2)She is determined to transform its meaning and her identity(3)She wants to be the one who controls its meaning(4)She stands as a self-appointed reminder of the evils society can commitYoung Goodman Brown1. Psychological interpretation——Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychology):(1)superego——consciousness——the principle of morality 超我(2)ego——subconsciousness——the principle of reality 自我(3)id——unconsciousness——the principle of pleasure 本我Brown’s journey is psychological as well as physical:Village, a place of light and order——Forest, a place of darkness and wildnessconsciousness——unconsciousnessvillage——superego——FaithBrown——egoforest——id——SatanHawthorne saw the dangers of an overactive suppression of libido and the consequent development of tyrannous superego.2. Men, Women, and the loss of Faith:Despite the literary sexism of his day, Hawthorne portrays women as powerful moral agents.Although Faith is not a three-dimensional character, the story centers on her husband’s rejection of her. Women are victimized.Women——angle in the house——do not have desires, rights and needsFallen women——prostitutes, witches, and mad womenFaith to Brown is female sexuality; Satan to Brown is patriarchal authority3. Female images:Innocents vs. Temptresses:(1)Governor’s wife, Goody Cloyse, prostitutes, maidens, witches, Quaker women, Faith(2)Sex is seen as alluring and dangerous(3)Brown is an empty and failed husband and fatherHerman Melville (赫尔曼·麦尔维尔)1.life(1)Typee 《泰皮》(2)Omio 《殴穆》(3)Mardi 《玛地》(4)Redburn 《雷德本》(5)White Jacket 《白外衣》(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre 《皮埃尔》(8)Billy Budd 《比利·巴德》3.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of ―Everlasting Nay‖ (negative attitudetowards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multipleview of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or onthe route (Moby Dick)Moby Dick《白鲸》：Moby-Dick, often considered the greatest American novel, is a masterpiece with many layers. It is a sea adventure, an exciting chase after a destructive and mysterious creature. The enormous white whale Moby-Dick torments Captain Ahab, who is obsessed with finding and killing Moby-Dick, having lost a leg in a previous encounter with the whale, and Ahab’s burning desire for revenge really is the center of the story. At the novel’s end, Ahab finds and attacks Moby-Dick, but the terrible whale takes Ahab, his ship Pequod, and nearly all its crew down to a watery grave with him.1. An encyclopedia of everythingA Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fates (extreme individualism)2. Image of ship: ship on the sea is the human soul search the meaning in the universe.3. Purpose——noble: he think Moby Dick as an evilHero: he is a hero but not a traditional hero (he does not stand for goodness); a villain hero4. Byronic hero (create by Byron): mad, bad, dangerous to know, obsessive——rebellions: challenge the authority; unconventional; right the wrongSatanic: revengeful; rebellious; the fight between God & Satan5. The Pequod——a symbol of doom(named after a native American tribe in Massachusetts; did not long survived of white men(extincted); is painted gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones)The sailors are of different ethics——all people in American (individual)Queequeg’s Coffin——life boat; life6. Theme of Moby Dick:(1)Melville’s bleak view (negative attitude) the sense of futility and meaninglessness of the w orld. His attitude to life is―Everlasting Nay‖. Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futility.The adventure of killing Moby Dick is meaningless. Ahab tries to control it, which leads to his doom.Modern life——the loss of faith, the sense of futility——well expressed in Moby Dick(2)Alienation (far away from each other): exists between man & man, man & society, and man & nature.(3)Loneliness and suicidal individualism——the basic pattern of 19th century American life(individualism causing disaster and death)——Moby Dick is a negative reflection upon Transcendentalism.(4)Rejection and quest:V oyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and valuesHenry David Thoreau1.life(1)A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3)A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw natur e as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritualwell-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.(6)―Simplicity…simplify!‖(7)He was sorely disgusted with ―the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society‖.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.WaldenEdgar Allen PoeI.LifeII.Works1.short stories(1)ratiocinative storiesa.Ms Found in a Bottleb.The Murders in the Rue Morguec.The Purloined Letter(2)Revenge, death and rebirtha.The Fall of the House of Usherb.Ligeiac.The Masque of the Red Death(3)Literary theorya.The Philosophy of Compositionb.The Poetic Principlec.Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told TalesIII.Themes1.death – predominant t heme in Poe’s writing―Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.‖2.disintegration (separation) of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIV.A esthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. Hecalls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V.Style – traditional, but not easy to readVI.R eputation: ―the jingle man‖ (Emerson)VII.His influencesWalt Whitman1.life2.work: Leaves of Grass (9 editions)(1)Song of Myself(2)There Was a Child Went Forth(3)Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4)Democratic V istas(5)Passage to India(6)Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking3.themes –―Catalogue of American and European thought‖He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson’s individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything):●equality of things and beings●divinity of everything●immanence of God●democracy●evolution of cosmos●multiplicity of nature●self-reliant spirit●death, beauty of death●expansion of America●brotherhood and social solidarity (unity of nations in the world)●pursuit of love and happiness4.style: ―free verse‖(1)no fixed rhyme or scheme(2)parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3)phonetic recurrence(4)the habit of using snapshots(5)the use of a certain pronoun ―I‖(6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(10)sentences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines5.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated andEuropeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.Ralph Waldo Emerson (拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生)1.life (American philosopher, poet and essayist; the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism)2.works(1)Nature——his first book expressing the main principle of Transcendentalism. It is regarded as ―American’sDeclaration of Intellec tual Independence‖(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet3.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the ―oversoul‖.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of aspiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become betterand even perfect. This is what Emerson means by ―the infinitude of man‖.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by makinghimself.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2)True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3)The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceWashington Irving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father of American literature2.life3.works(1)A History of New Y ork from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication ofthis.)(3)The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4)A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra4.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US5.style – beautiful(1)gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4)vivid and true characters(5)humour – smiling while reading(6)musical languageJames Fenimore Cooper1.life (―father of American novelists‖; the creation of the west frontier and its heroes)2.works(1)Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3.point of viewThe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape description(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic5.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Benjamin Franklin1.life (printer, enlightener, inventor, scientist, statesman, diplomat)2.works(9)Poor Richard’s Almanac(10)Autobiography——form: the first autobiography of Americanmeaning: American dream & individualismself-improvement; business (contents); prototype of American success (significance); Puritanism and enlightenment spirits 3.contribution(11)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.(12)He was called ―the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven‖.(13)Everything seems to meet in this one man –―Jack of all trades‖. Herman Melville thus described him ―master of each and mas tered by none‖.(14)Aid Jefferson in writing The Declaration of IndependenceThomas Paine1.father of the American Revolution2.propagandist, pamphleteer, a master of persuasion who understands the power of language to move a man to action3.main works:(1)The American Crisis(2)Common Sense(3)The Right of Man(4)The Age of Reason。
一、殖民主义时期 The Literature of Colonial America1．船长约翰•史密斯 Captain John Smith《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 Williams《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 Natives 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 Americ a”二、理性和革命时期文学 The Literature of Reason and Revolution1。
本杰明•富兰克林 Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)※《自传》“ The Autobiography ”《穷人理查德的年鉴》“Poor Richard’s Almanac”2。
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 《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 Williams《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 Natives 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。
美国文学史及作品选读提纲第一部分：The Literature of Colonial American考核知识点：a. The first distinctly America literatureb. The first American writer and his first workc. Kinds of literary writings in this periodd. The dominant influence of the Puritan values on the early American writingse. The most important poets in this period: Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor考核要求：1．一般识记：The beginnings of American national history and literary history2．识记：Kinds of literary writings in this period；the important writers, literary works and their main ideas3 领会：The dominant influence of the Puritan values on the early American writings第二部分:The Literature of Reason and Revolution考核知识点：a. The historical background about American Revolutionb. The general feature of the 18th-century American literaturec. The most important poet in this period: Philip Freneau考核要求：1．一般识记：The historical background about American Revolution；the life and literary creation of Philip Freneau2识记：The general feature of the 18th-century American literature; the most important poet in this period: Philip Freneau3. 领会：The influence of English literature on American writers4. 应用：The subject matter, themes and poetic style of Philip Freneau’s poetry;第三部分：The literature of Romanticism考核知识点：a. The importance of Washington Irving’s literary creation;b. The general characteristics shared by the Romantic writers;c. The influence of the Transcendentalist Movement on American literature;d. The principal literary forms of this periode. The permanent convention of American literature考核要求：1. 一般识记：historical background of this period; life and literary creation of important writers in this period2. 识记：The importance of Washington Irving’s literary creation; the general characteristics shared by the Romantic writers; the principal literary forms of this period;3. 领会：The influence of the Transcendentalist Movement on American literature; the permanent convention of American literature4. 应用：The subject matter and themes of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; the characterization and narrative skill displayed in the The Last of the Mohicans; the subject matter, charaterization and symbolic method of The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick第四部分：The Literature of Realism考核知识点：a. The influence of the westward expansion of American territory on American literature;b. The important women writers and their works in this period;c. The philosophy and method adopted by American realistic writers;d. Mark Twain’s contribution to American literature;e. The characteristic features of the American naturalists;f. The representative writers of American realism:g. The representative writers of American naturalism;h. The most important writers in this period:a) Walt Whitman and his free verse;b) Emily Dickinson and the characteristic features of her poetry;c) Mark Twain and the subject matter and humorous style of his works;考核要求：1.一般识记：The life and literary career of the important writers2.识记：The definition of realism and naturalism; the historical background; important works of the time and their main ideas3.领会：The significance and influence of American realism and American naturalism; the characteristic features of important writers and their works; the characteristics of free verse;4.应用：The subject matter, themes and style of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”; the theme and poetic imagery of Emily Dickinson’s poetry; the themes and humorous style of The Adventure of Tom Sawyer; the subject matter, themes and characterization of Sister Carrie第五部分：The Twentieth-Century Literature考核知识点：a. The historical background of the early 20th centuryb. The variety of avant-garde doctrines and literary schools emerging in early 20th centuryc. The leading writers of the modernist literature: Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot;d. Henry James and his masterpieces;e. Robert Frost and the characteristics of his poetry;f. The writers of “the lost generation” in the 1920s and their great achievements;g. Ernest Hemingway;h. The thriving of American drama in the 1920s and the representative dramatist of the time;i. The Harlem Renaissance in 1920s;j. The characteristic feature of the artists and writers in the Great Depression of the 1930s;k. John Steinbeck and his important works考核要求：1.一般识记：The historical background of the early 20th century ; the life and literary career of the important writers and their literary contributions2.识记: The variety of avant-garde doctrines and literary schools emerging in early 20th century; the great achievements of the writers of “the lost generation”; the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s; the thriving of American drama in the 1920s and the representative dramatist of the time; the important works and their main ideas; the characteristic feature of the artists and writers in the Great Depression of the 1930s;3.领会：The charateristic features of the modernist literature; the characteristic features of the writers of “the lost generation” in the 1920s; the most important writers of the time and their characteristic features; the themes, styles, techniques and significance or influence of the representative works in this period4.应用：The subject matter, themes and style of Robert Frost’s poetry;the themes and technique of T. S. Eliot’s poetry; the themes, characterization and style of Hemingway’s masterpiece For Whom the Bell Tolls。
美国文学史复习1（colonialism)第一部分殖民主义时期的文学一、时期综述1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：a、narratives 日记b、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：1）their voyage to the new land2) Adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops3) About dealing with Indians4) Guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit3、清教徒的思想：1）puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 净化信仰和行为方式2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology. 重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位3）look upon themselves as chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God's will and is not to be accepted. 认为自己是上帝选民，对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝4）puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exaggerated. 反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步5）religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.强调上帝严厉的一面，忽视上帝仁慈的一面。
美国文学简史复习纲要美国文学简史复习纲要Colonial Period殖民时期 (1600s-1790s) American Puritanism美国清教主义：self-examination/self-improvementI.JonathanEdwards (1703-1758)：Calvinist加尔文教徒II.BenjaminFranklin本杰明富兰克林 (1706-1790)(1)PoorRichard’s Almanac(2)The Autobiography自传Early AmericanRomanticism早期美国浪漫主义时期（1800s-1840s）1.features(1)As alogical result of the foreignand native factors at work,III.JamesFenimore Cooper库柏 (1789-1851)1.works(1)Leatherstocking Tales皮袜子故事集 : TheDeerslayer, The Last of theMohicans, The Pathfinder, ThePioneer, The Prairie2.literary achievementsCooper’s LeatherstockingTales effectively approximates theAmerican national experience ofadventure into theWest. He turnedthe west and frontier as a useablepast and he helped tointroducewestern tradition to Americanliterature.Summitof Romanticism – New EnglandTranscendentalism/AmericanRen aissance新英格兰超验主义---美国浪漫主义鼎盛时期(1840s-)I.Appearance提出 1836,“Nature”byEmerson爱默生、《论自然》II.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature –symbol of spirit/God4.focus in intuition (irrationalismandsubconsciousness)III.Influence1.It helped to create the firstAmerican renaissance美国文学复兴–one ofthe most prolific period inAmerican literature、independentAmericanculture.IV.RalphWaldo Emerson（1802-1882）1.works(1)Nature—the manifestoofAmerican Transcendentalism.《论自然》的发表是美国超验主义出现的标志。
1. The Colonial PeriodThe settlement of America in the early 17th century--- the end of the 18th century.The major topicThe major figures2. The Romantic PeriodCovering the first half of the19th century.•The major points:3. The Age of RealismThe Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. Covering the end of the 19th century and the first decade of 20th century.•It expresses the concern for the commonplace and the low, and offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.•4. American Naturalism•From the first decade of twentieth century to the First World War.•The major figures: Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and O. Henry5 American ModernismThe literature between the two world wars. This is the most important period in6. American Postmodernism•From the World War II up to now.•Postmodernist writers: John Barth, Philip Roth, Thomas Pinchon, Ishmael Reed and Don Delillo.•The flourishing of minoritarian literature: Jewish-American, African-American and Asian-American literatureis an account of a person’s life written by that person or a book written by oneself about one’s own life. It is characterized by the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression, lucidity of the narrative. Benjamin Franklin…s Autobiography is a good example.Puritanism:Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans, who became American‟s founding fathers. They advocated highly religious and moral principles.The American Puritans were idealists. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God.Puritanism has a profound influence on the early American mind and literaturePoor Richard’s Almanac Autobiography Romanticism1800-1865Characteristics of Romanticism (derivative independent)o an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society—reliance on the subconscious, the inner life, the abnormal psychologyo an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination—rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed formality, order and authority o a profound love for nature—nature as a source of knowledge, nature asa refuge from the present, nature as a revelation of the holy spirito the quest for beauty—pure beautyo the use of antique and fanciful subject matters—sense of terror, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queerMoby-Dick is regarded as the first American prose epic. His ideas:The world is at once Godless and purposelessMan cannot influence and overcome nature at its sourceThemes 1 alienation 2 Rejection and Quest3criticism against Emersonian self-reliant individualSymbolThe Pequod -------- of human society. The voyage ----- search and discovery. The whale Moby Dick------nature Queequeg's coffin ---- symbolizes life and death. The whiteness of Moby Dick --- death and corruption and purity, innocence and youth; final mystery of the universe.The ship on the ocean----- symbol of the whole world with people in quest of its瓦尔登湖A psalm of lifeSonnet—To science abab cdcd efef ggTo Helen ABABB CDCDC AEEAE五行诗节1. Free from the traditional iambic pentameter and writes free verse2. Parallelism3. Phonetic recurrence systematic repetition of words and phrases or sounds4. Long catalogs, giving free rein to poetic imaginationHer poetry is a clear illustration of her religious-ethical and political-social ideas.largest portion of Dickinson‟s poetry concerns andoriginal in art and famous for the economy of expression in diction and the frequent use of dashes.Her poems are short and implicit in meaning. She is regarded as the forerunner of modernism in American poetryThemes: death love natureFrequent use of dashesTranscendentalism.浪漫主义运动的表现形式-超验主义it‟s Romanticism on the Puritan soil Transcendentalism has been defined as the recognition in man of the capacity of acquiring knowledge transcending the reach of the five senses, or of knowing truth intuitively, or of reaching the divine without the need of an intercessor.placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over soul as the most important thing in the universe stressed the importance of the individualoffered a fresh perception of nature a symbolic of the Spirit or Godstressed the power of intuition.He firmly believes in the transcendence of the “Oversoul”.2. Emerson’s Idealism. He sees the world as phenomenal, and emphasizes theneed for idealism, for idealism sees the world in God3. Emerson’s View on Spirit. He sees spirit pervading everywhere4.Emerson’sView on Man. man is made in the image of God and is just a little less then Him.man is divine.5. Emerson’s View on Individuality and Self-Reliance. The individual is the mostimportant of all. E For him, if man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect.So men should and could be self-reliant.6. Emerson’s Nature. A natural implication of Emerson‟s view on nature is that the world around is symbolicRealismHis later works become darker and more obscure, showing his discontent and disappointment toward the social reality. His last works shows his acute pessimism, despair, skepticism determinism.Humor local color satireThe Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Gilded Age Life on the Mississippi A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug The Mysterious StrangerThe Innocents Abroad Roughing It Pudd'nhead WilsonAmerican ClaimantNaturalismIs a critical term applied to the method of literary composition that aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man•It is thus more inclusive and less selective than realism, and holds to the philosophy of determinism.•It conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by its social and economic environment and circumstances.•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments.•In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author‟s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.CharacteristicsA literary trend that prevailed in 1890s in America.1) Emphasis on reality, objectivity, no exaggeration, give no comments andcriticizing;2) The naturalists would go to the slums and describe the poverty and crime;3) Be concerned about the influence of social environment. According to them,human beings are victims of the crushing forces of heredity and environment.Explain human activities and human society according to biological law, highlight the effect of animal instincts and heredity on human beings.5) Apply scientific experiment to writing, try to test human feelings in variouskinds of environment.6) The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile.7) Hold very pessimistic attitude towards human society, and this pessimism oftengoes to determinism.Representatives: CharacteristicFrank Norris（弗兰克·诺里斯）dehumanizedStephen Crane（斯蒂芬·克莱恩）- determinedTheodore Dreiser（西奥多·德莱塞）- moved by inner and outer forcesJack London（杰克·伦敦beyond conscious moral control McTeague Octopus the Pit Vandover and the BruteMaggie: A Girl of the Streets The red badge of courage Sister Carrie Modernism现代主义时期•During the first decades of the 20th century, modernism became an international tendency against positivism and representational art in art and literature. Modernism was the consequence of the transformation of society brought about by industrialism and technology. The essence of modernism wasa break with the past, and it also fostered a belief in art and literature as anavenue to self-fulfillment. The feature was its strong and conscious break with traditional forms, perceptions, and techniques of expressions, and its great concern with language and all aspects of its medium.•It was persistently experimental. Stream of consciousness, the use of myth as a structural principle, and the primary status given to the poetic image, all challenged traditional representation.•Generally speaking, this new desire in craftsmanship and skill was one of the hallmarks of the early decades of the 20th century.Imagism意象派（诞生于现代主义时期）It is a Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. It was initially led by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell.（no fuss, frill, or ornament）,（precision and economy of expression）,（free verse form and music）.Launch Imagism setting down the Imagist principlesThe Cantos 《诗章》威廉·卡洛·威廉斯avoided complexity andobscure华莱士·斯蒂文斯Simple lines: an emphasis on vocabulary and imagery rather than prosodyThe faith in poetry : when no one believes in God, it is necessary to believe in something else, such as poetry, a thing created by imaginationAnecdote of the Jar罗伯特The most popular 20th Century American Poet, A four-timeStyl e 1rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries, choosingthe old-fashioned way to be new.• 2 employ the plain speech of rural New Englanders.3 use the simple, short, traditional forms of lyrics and Narrative, can probemysteries of darkness and irrationality in the bleak and chaotic landscapes of an indifferent universe where man stand alone, unaided and perplexed.Fire and ice Fire - a symbol of desire, or love. Ice - a symbol of hatredtwo weaknesses of human beings that are as destructive as natural disasters The road not taken it does not moralize about choice, it simply says that choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived itStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening The poem is primarily oriented towards the pleasures of the scene and the responsibility of life. Metaphors:• Promises –Our own promises or duties that we must fulfill.Miles - experience we must travel through before deathThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black boughthe Great Gatsby 1926The Sun Also Rises 1926, A Farewell to Arms , 1929,the Wasteland.Main Street 1920an American TragedyAmerican Dream:The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of martial wealth, but a dream of social order. People try to get success no matter what kind of circumstances of birth or position they came from.The lost generationIt refers to the writers who were devoid of faith, values and ideals and who were alienated from the civilization the capitalist society advocated. It includes Ernst Hemingway, F. S.Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Louis Bromfield., and E.E.Cummings, Ezra Pound，who rebelled against former values and ideas, but replaced them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. They were frustrated by the WWI and returned from that “Great War”to their own country only to find the grim reality that the social values and civilization were hollow.Short storyIt is a fictional prose tale of no specified length, but too short to be published as a volume on its own. It concentrates on a single event with one or two characters. It flourished in the magazines of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the USA, which has a particularly strong tradition. Edgar Allen Poe was considered as the father of modern short story. His short stories like the cast of Amontillado and the Black cat are famous.Jazz Age⏹American industry developed fast. The nation is full of bouncingebullience, fearful of nothing, confident smug isolationism.⏹Socially, decline of idealism. Patriotism became cynical disillusionment.Unity of family weakened. There appeared the revolt of the Younger Generation. They escaped responsibility and assumed immorality.⏹After WWI, people found that the war which cost millions of lives failedto provide an abiding solutions to the world’s problems, that the war was just the traps of political leaders. Such a disillusionment about the value of war, accompanied by the booming of American economy drove people to cynical hedonism. People experiment with new amusements. They restlessly pursued stimulus and pleasures, wallow in heavy drinking, fast driving and casual sex. By these, they hoped to seek relief from serious problems.Hemingway heroThey live adventures-filled lives that were driven by courage and limited by fear. They hide a sensitive heart from tough exterior.” Grace under press” is their motto. Its heroes are hemmed in by forces beyond their control.AntiheroIt is a central character in a dramatic or narrative work who lacks the qualities ofnobility and magnanimity expected of traditional heroes in romances and epic.Like the character “Henry” in the work of a farewell to arms.SymbolTraditional FormsBallad(民谣)A ballad is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. “The Geste of Robin HoodHeroic CoupletIt refers to a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter and written in an elevated style. Sonnet 18Spenserian stanza•It is a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c. The Faerie QueeneBlank verse素体诗，无韵诗•Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.•It became widely used in dramatic poetry and narratives.Now that/ the gloo/my sha/dow of /the night,Longing/ to view/ Orion/’s drizz/ling look,Leaps from/ the an/tarc/tic world/ unto/ the skyAnd dims/ the wel/kin with/ her pi/tchy breath ----Doctor FaustusFree verseMeans the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without paying attention to conventional rules of meter. It can free the poets from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and recreate instead the free rhythms of natural speech.Beat GenerationTheatre of absurd. the 1950sBlack humor.the 1960s。
