(完整版)美国文学选读--Lecture8

第8单元马克•吐温8.1复习笔记I.Introduction to author（作者简介）1.Life（生平）Mark Twain(1835-1910)is the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens.He was an American novelist and humorist.Twain grew up in Missouri,which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.He apprenticed with a printer.He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion’s newspaper.After toiling as a printer in various cities,he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion.He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism.While a reporter,he wrote a humorous story,"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,"which became very popular and brought nationwide attention.His travelogues were also well received.He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker.His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers,and he was a friend to presidents,artists, industrialists,and European royalty.马克·吐温(1835—1910)是萨缪尔·朗赫恩·克莱门斯的笔名。

8.2课后习题详解1.Why do you think Mr.Wheeler is so eager to tell these stories?Key:Because Mr.Wheeler regards these stories as really important matters,and he admires the two heroes of these stories very much.He is really eager to share his stories with others.2.Does his audience share his enthusiasm in telling the stories?Key:No,his audience does not share his enthusiasm nor has any interest in his stories.Although the narrator tells his stories in a very earnest and sincere way,his audience shows no interest,because that it has nothing to do with his preoccupation.As an educated man,the audience cannot understand the way of laborers for joy,and he will not bother himself to understand it.So,in the end, when the audience gets a chance,he flees away.3.Do you think the narrator and his listener ever suspect the presence of humor? Why?How do you interpret their interactions?Key:No,I don’t think that the narrator and his listener ever suspect the presence of humor.Because both the narrator and the listener show no special response andemotion to these stories,that is,the narrator tells his stories for the story-telling sake,and the listener listening to it for the listening sake.There is no communication between them,which causes the failure of interaction.。

第8单元马克•吐温1. Why do you think Mr. Wheeler is so eager to tell these stories?Key: Because Mr. Wheeler regards these stories as really important matters, and he admires the two heroes of these stories very much. He is really eager to share his stories with others.2. Does his audience share his enthusiasm in telling the stories?Key: No, his audience does not share his enthusiasm nor has any interest in his stories. Although the narrator tells his stories in a very earnest and sincere way, his audience shows no interest, because that it has nothing to do with his preoccupation. As an educated man, the audience cannot understand the way of laborers for joy, and he will not bother himself to understand it. So, in the end, when the audience gets a chance, he flees away.3. Do you think the narrator and his listener ever suspect the presence of humor? Why? How do you interpret their interactions?Key: No, I don’t think that the narrator and his listener ever suspect the presence of humor. Because both the narrator and the listener show no special response and emotion to these stories, that is, the narrator tells his stories for the story-telling sake, and the listener listening to it for the listening sake. There is nocommunication between them, which causes the failure of interaction.。

美国文学史及选读考试试题（卷）A卷院系：考试形式：闭卷专业试时间：100 分钟姓名：学号考试科目：美国文学史及选读考I. Blanks: ( 10points, 1 point for each blank)Directions: In this part of the test, there are 9 items and 10 blanks. Fill in the best answer on the Answer Sheet according to the knowledge you have learned.1. The first American literature was neither ___ nor really ___ .2. Of the immigrants who came to America in the first three quarters ofthe seventeenth century, the overwhelming majority was _______ .3. The English immigrants who settled on America 'n s orthern seacoast werecalled _______ , so named after those who wished to “purify ” theChurch of England.4. Washington Irving, the Father of American literature, developed the as agenre in American literature.5. Franklin 's best writing is found in his masterpiece ____ .6. The most outstanding poet in America of the 18 th century was ____ .th7. In the early 19 century, “Rip Van Winkle ”had established _______ 'sreputation at home and abroad, and designated the beginning ofAmerican Romanticism.8. __ has sometimes been considered the father of the modern shortstory.9. In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne brought out his masterpiece ___ , thestory of a triangular love affair in colonial America.II. Multiple choice:(20 points, 1 point for each)Directions: In this part of the test, there are twenty items. Choose the best answer and write the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.1. The Colonial Period of American literature stretched roughly from the settlementof America in the early 17th century through the end of century.A. the 18thB. the 19ththC. the 20thD. 21th2. New-England 's Plantation was published in 1630 by ______A. Francis HigginsonB. William BradfordC. John SmithD. Michael Wigglesworth3. Of all the books written by Michael Wigglesworth the beat known isA. The Flesh and the SpiritB. The True TravelsC. The Day of DoomD. Christopher Columbus4. Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the ___ .A. American EnlightenmentB. Sugar ActC. Chartist movementD. Romanticist5. In the first section of Autobiography the writer addressed to ________A. his sonB. his friendsC. his wifeD. himself6. During 1807-1808, Washington Irving wrote for his brother 's newspaper calledA. New York TimesB. Washington PostC. SalmagundiD. Daily News7. History of New York was published in 1807 under the name of _______A. Washington IrvingB. Diedrich KnickerbokerC. James Fenimore CooperD. John Whittier8. Rip Van Winkle was written by ______A. James Fenimore CooperB. Benjamin FranklinC. Washington IrvingD. Walt Whitman9. The Spy was written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1821. It is a novel aboutA. American Civil WarB. American RevolutionC. American West ExpansionD. The First World War10. Natty Bumppo is the hero in Cooper 's ______A. The PrecautionB. The SpyC. The Gleanings in EuropeD. Leatherstocking Tales11. ______ was regarded as a poet of the American RevolutionA. Philip FreneauB. Walt WhitmanC. Robert FrostD. Cal Sandburg12. The Raven was written in 1844 by _____A. Philip FreneauB. Edgar Allan PoeC. Henry Wadsworth LongfellowD. Emily Dickinson13. The Minister 's Black Veil was written by ______A. Edgar Allan PoeB. Nathaniel HawthorneC. Henry David ThoreauD. Ralph Waldo Emerson14. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such a stir in England that she became known as the _____ who appeared in America.A. Ninth MuseB. Tenth MuseC. Best MuseD. First Muse15. The ship ____ carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days tobeat its way across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.A. SunflowerB. ArmadaC. MayflowerD. Titanic16. A new ___ had appeared in England in the last years of the 18 th century.It spread to continental Europe and then came to America early in the 19th century.A. RealismB. Critical realismC. RomanticismD. Naturalism17. Washington Irving got his idea for his most famous story, Rip Van Winkle ,from a _______A. Greek legendB. German legendC. French legendD. English legend18. Rip Van Winkle is found in Irving 's longer work, _______A. The Sketch BookB. History of New YorkC. Tales of a TravelerD. The Precaution19. _____ was often regarded as America 's first man of letters, devotingmuch of his career to literature.A. Benjamin FranklinB. Philip FreneauC. Washington IrvingD. James Fenimore Cooper20. All the following novels are in Cooper 's Leatherstocking Tales exceptA. The PioneersB. The PrairieC. The DeerslayerD. The SpyIII. Identification (20 points, 1 point for each)Directions: In this part of the test, there are twenty titles. Judge the authors of these works and fill them on the Answer Sheet.1. Gleanings in Europe2. Oliver Goldsmith3. The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America4. “The Day of Doom ”5. A History of New York6. The Last of the Mohicans7. The House of the Night8. A Forest Hymn9. “The Raven”10. “The Cask of Amontillado ”11. Mosses from an Old Manse12. “Israfel ”13. “The Flesh and the Spirit ”14. Life of George Washington15. The Pathfinder16. “the Wild Honey Suckle ”17. The Flood of Years18. “The Poetic Principle ”19. The Blithedale Romance20. “The Indian Burying Ground ”IV. Terms (20 points, 4 points for each)Directions: In this part of the test, there are f0ur terms. Please give the definition for these terms. Scores will be given for the related contents. Four individual contents will be enough for four points.1. Poor Richard 's Almanac2. Leatherstocking Tales3. Puritanism4. Benjamin FranklinV. Appreciation (10 points, 5 points for each)Directions: In this part of the test, there are two excerpts. Each of the excerpts is followed by three questions. Read the excerpts and answer the questions on the Answer Sheet.Part AFrom morning suns and evening dewsAt first thy little being came:If nothing once, you nothing lose,For when you die you are the same;The space between, is but an hour,The frail duration of a flower.1. Who is the poet of the poem and what is the title of the poem? (2 points)2. Tell the metrical structure and rhyme scheme of the poem. (1 point)3. What does the “little being ”refer to? What meaning is suggested by the phrase “but an hour”? (2 points)Part BThe opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took his seat from morning till night, just moving sufficiently to avoid the sun and keep in the shade of a large tree; so that the neighbors could tell the hour by his movements as accurately as by a sundial. It is true he was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly. His adherents, however (for every great man has his adherents), perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his opinions. When anything that was read or related displeased him, he was observed tosmoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth short, frequent and angry puffs; but when pleased, he would inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid clouds; and sometimes, taking the pipe from his mouth, and letting the fragrant vapor curl about his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of perfect approbation.From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length routed by his termagant wife, who would suddenly break in upon the tranquility of the assemblage and call the members all to naught; nor was that august personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness.1. Who was the writer of this story? What is the title of this story? (2 points)2. Who was Nicholas Vedder? (1 point)3. How did he express his opinions on public matters? (2 points)VI. Comment. (20 points, 10 points for each)Directions: In this part of the test, you are given five topics. Choose TWO of them and give a comment on the Answer Sheet. Scores will be given according to the content, grammar and the completeness of the related knowledge.1. What are the features of literature in Colonial America?2. Comment on Benjamin Franklin 's Autobiography .3. Comment on Nathaniel Hawthorne 's writing techniques.4. What philosophical meaning is implied in Philip Freneau's “The Wild HoneySuckle ”?5. What are the artistic achievements of Edgar Allan Poe?美国文学史及选读考试试题（卷）评分标准及标准答案A卷院系：专业：考试科目：美国文学史及选读考试形式：闭卷考试时间：100 分钟I. Blanks: （10%）（每题1分，共10分，答错不给分）1. American literature2. English3. Puritans4. short story5. Autobiography6. Philip Freneau7. Washington Irving8. Edgar Allan Poe9. The Scarlet LetterII. Multiple Choice: （ 20%）（每题1分，共20分，答错不给分）1. A2. B3. C4. A5. A6. C7. B8. C9. B 10. D11. A 12. B 13. B 14. B 15. C16.C 17. B 18. A 19. C 20. DIII. Identification (20%) (每题1 分，共20分，答错不给分)1. James Fenimore Cooper2. Washington Irving3. Anne Bradstreet4. Michael Wigglesworth5. Washington Irving6. James Fenimore Cooper7. Philip Freneau8. William Cullen Bryant9. Edgar Allan Poe10. Edgar Allan Poe11. Nathaniel Hawthorne12. Edgar Allan Poe13. Anne Bradstreet14. Washington Irving15. James Fenimore Cooper16. Philip Freneau17. William Cullen Bryant18. Edgar Allan Poe19. Nathaniel Hawthorne20. Philip FreneauIV. Terms （20%）（每题4分，共20 分）1. Poor Richard 's Almanackey words: Benjamin Franklin, sayings, hard work, thrift, Puritan, quotes, printed himself, etc.2. Leatherstocking TalesKey words: Cooper, five novels, Natty Bumppo, frontier, frontiersman, life from youth to old age, The Pioneer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinder, The Deerslayer, etc.3. Puritanismkey words: Calvin, purify, hard work, thrift, predestination, salvation, sin, God, from England to America, immigration, etc.4. Benjamin Franklinkey words: statesman, scientist and writer, Autobiography, Poor Richard 's Almanac, puritan, hard work and thrift, successful, contributions, printer, etc.V. Appreciation （10%）（每题5 分，共10 分）Part Aa） Philip Freneau 's（1 分）The Wild Honey Suckle （1分）b） It is written in iambic tetrameter, the rhyme scheme is ababcc. （1 分）c）“Little being ” refers to the wild honey suckle. （1 分）“Butanhour ” means the lifespan of a flower is very short. （ 1 分）Part B1. Washington Irving 's（1 分）Rip Van Wingkle （1分）2. Nicholas Vedder is the owner of the inn/ a patriarch of the village/ and landlord of the inn, （ 1 分）3. He expressed his opinion by the way of smoking. / When anything that was read or related displeased him, he was observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth short, frequent and angry puffs; but when pleased, he would inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid clouds; and sometimes, taking the pipe from his mouth, and letting the fragrant vapor curl about his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of perfect approbation. （ 2 分）VI. Comment. （20%）（每题10 分，此题共20 分）答案：（略）。

Lesson 8 Our Love Affair with CarsThe automobile, marking 100 years as a major focal part of American life,takes its share of criticism. But it also has played a leading rolein shaping modern life with its many amenities.[1]By George F. Will1. It has changed how the landscape is experienced and how cities are shaped, hi it uncounted millions of marriages have been proposed and relationships consummated.[2] From courtship to crime to consumption, from the American economy to the American spirit, almost nothing would be as it is were it not for the handiest thing that ever happened for the hot pursuit of happiness.[3]So let us praise the automobile, born, sort of[4], 100 years ago.2. The auto industry’s centennial is being celebrated because in 1896 th e Duryea brothers of Springfield, Mass.[5], sold 13 cars. Critics, called “carrnudgeons,” who are legion and mostly liberals, ask, “What’s to celebrate?”[6]3. Yes, cars emit exhaust, and 1899 produced America’ s first recorded traffic fatality, the first of—so far—2.8 million deaths from traffic-related injuries. But horses were lethal, and stifle your nostalgia for those suffocating summers when windows were sealed, but noses were not, against billowing dust of finely ground manure produced by horses[7 ]such as those that deposited 60,000 gallons of urine on New York’ s streets every day.4. The mass production of automobiles on moving assembly lines, emulating the disassembly of cattle by meatpacking companies[8], increased productivity and wages, enabling workers to buy what they made. To facilitate purchases, automobile companies developed “installment buying,” and credit unions flourished facilitating it.[9] This destigmatized indebtedness, which government embraced with gusto, and increased Americans’ reluctance to defer gratifications.[10]5. Automobile and oil companies pioneered franchising for dealers of their products[11]. Credit cards were developed by oil companies to make credit portable. The democratized possession of machines capable of inflicting personal injuries and property damage enormously stimulated the insurance industry.[12] Supermarkets prospered because car owners could shop once a week. The automobile created vast wealth by increasing the value of land now accessible to people who worked in, but preferred not to live in cities.[13]6. Today, when most commutes are not from suburb to city but from one suburb to another, cars are blamed for suburbs, which are blamed for urban decline and desecration of the countryside.[14] Granted[15], suburbs sometimes are named for what their developers destroyed (“Forest View,” “Rolling Acres”[16]).7. The “getaway car” made criminals mobile and gave us movie car chases.[17] But liberals blame the automobile for myriad crimes, including Wai-Marts, “the mallification of America” and the breakdown of “community.”[18] Actually, automobiles were conquerors of rural loneliness, especially that of women, when farm families lived an average of five miles from market, six miles from school, 14 miles from a hospital.8. Automobiles were indispensable for the establishment in the 1950s of the teen-age nation-within-the-nation.[19] Before James Dean totaled his Porsche and himself at age 24, he was the archetypical teen-ager, a rebel without a cause but not without a car.[20 ]Automobiles solved what Frederick Lewis Allen called “the difficulty of finding a suitable locale formisconduct[21].” Hitherto, young swains had been confined to porch swings, with the girls’ parents and siblings underfoot.[22] Now they could drive away and, more to the point, park.9. GM’s “ladder of consumption”—Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac—gave America an ersatz class structure, but one easy to climb.[23] Sure, ‘ 50s cars—from their protuberant, not to say nubile, front bumpers to their tail fins[24]—looked, as a wit said, “like chorus girls coming and fighter planes going.” And perhaps the “planned obsolescence”[25] of annual model changes was not entirely, as Detroit insisted, “healthy dissatisfaction.” Perhaps the tele vision program “My mother the Car” indicated that the tendency to anthropomorphize cars had gone a tad far.[26]10. Who cares. Forget the vulgarities, celebrate the virtues of automobility. An open road produces an open society. The automobile has been an emancipating device, celebrated in our literature, from “The Great Gatsby” to “On the Road.” Were Huck to light out for the territories today, he would go in a Ford Explorer.[27]11. “Mason City. To get there you follow Highway 58, going northeast out of t he city, and it is a good highway and new.” So begins “All the King’s Men.” In the land of the automobile, every man’s a king.From Pacific Stars and Stripes, July 2, 1996。

美国文学全英课件专八必备Part one Early American and Colonial PeriodI. Historical Background:1.The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards,Italians, and Portuguese.2.The first permanent English settlement in North America was established atJamestown, Virginia in 1617.3.The war for Independence(1776-1783)4.The colonies, most of which in old English tradition, made the original UnitedStates2. Introduction1) Instead of beginning with folk tales and songs the American literature began withabstractions and proceeded from philosophy to fiction because there were no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and tribal cultures that existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived there and set up the first colony Jamestown in about 1607.2) American writing began with the work of English adventurers and colonists in theNew World chiefly for the benefit of readers in the mother country. Some of these early works reached the level of literature, as in the robust(rather rude) and perhaps truthful account of his adventures by Captain John Smith and the sober, tendentious journalistic histories of John Winthrop and William Bradford in New England. From the beginning, however, the literature of NewEngland was also directed to the edification and instruction of the colonists themselves, intended to direct them in the ways of the godly.3) Therefore the writing in this period was essentially two kinds: (1) practicalmatter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people ―at home‖ what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration; (2) highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions.4) Furthermore, the influential Protestant work ethic, reinforced by the practicalnecessities of a hard pioneer life, inhibited the development of any reading matter designed simply for leisure-time entertainment.Protestant work ethic---- It is the belief that work itself is good in addition to what it achieves; that time saved by efficiency or good fortune should not be spent in leisure but in doing further work; that idleness is always immoral and likely to lead to even worse s in since ―the devil finds work for idle hands to do‖. This belief later developed into the American philosophic idea Puritanism.1).Main idea of this period---- American Puritanism:A. Origin of "Puritanism":The term "Puritan" first began as a taunt or insult applied by traditional Anglicans to those who criticized or wished to "purify" the Church of England.Although the word is often applied loosely, "Puritan" refers to two distinct groups: "separating" Puritans, such as the Plymouth colonists, who believed that the Church of England wascorrupt and that true Christians must separate themselves from it; andnon-separating Puritans, such as the colonists who settled the Massachusetts BayColony, who believed in reform but not separation. Most Massachusetts colonists were nonseparating Puritans who wished to reform the established church, largely Congregationalists who believed in forming churches through voluntarycompacts. The idea of compacts or covenants was central to the Puritans' conception of social, political, and religious organizations. (from/doc/e718095478.html,/faculty/campbell/e nl310/purdef.htm）B. A definition of American PuritanismPuritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.1) Simply speaking, American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans who settled in the North American continent in the early part of theseventeenth century because of religious persecutions. In content it means scrupulous moral rigor, especially hostility to social pleasures and indulgences, that isstrictness,sternness and austerity in conduct and religion.2) With time passing it became a dominant factor in American life, one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American Literature. To some extent it is a state of mind, a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes, rather than a set of tenets.3) Actually it is a code of values, a philosophy of life and a point of view in American minds, also a two-faceted tradition ofreligious idealism and level-headed common(Puritan values (creeds): Hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety, simple tastes.Puritans are more practical, tougher, to be ever ready for any misfortune and tragic failure and optimistic)The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church, who came into existence in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James !. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons, but it should beremembered that they were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles.As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They felt that the Church of England was too close to the Church of Rome in the doctrine form of worship, and organization of authority.The American Puritans, like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to complete ?p urity‘.They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God.Predestination is a religious concept, which involves the relationship between God and his creation. The religious character of predestination distinguishes it from other ideas about determinism and free will. Those who believe in predestination, such as John Calvin, believe that before the creation God determined the fate of the universe throughout all of time and space.In Chinese Buddhism, predestination is a translation of yuanfenOriginal sin is said to result from the Fall of Man, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of a particular tree in the Garden of Eden. This first sin ("the originalsin"), an action of the first human beings, is traditionally understood to be the cause of "original sin", the fallen state from which human beings can be saved only by God's grace.Total depravity is the fallen state of man as a result of original sin. The doctrine of total depravity asserts that people are by nature not inclined to love God wholly with heart, mind, and strength, but rather all are inclined to serve their own interests over those of their neighbor and to reject the rule of God. Even religion and philanthropy are destructive to the extent that these originate from a humanimagination, passions, and will. Therefore, in Reformed theology, God mustpredestine individuals into salvation since man is incapable of choosing God.[5]Total depravity does not mean, however, that people are as evil as possible.Rather, it means that even the good which a person may intend is faulty in its premise, false in its motive, and weak in its implementation; and there is no mere refinement of natural capacities that can correct this condition. Thus, even acts of generosity and altruism are in fact egoist acts in disguise.[6] This idea can be illustrated by a glass of wine with a few drops of deadly poison in it: Although not all the liquid is poison, all the liquid is poisoned. In the same way, while not all of human nature is depraved, all human nature is totallyaffected by depravity.But in the grim struggle for survival that followedimmediately after their arrival in America, they became more and more practical, as indeed they had to be.Puritans‘ lives were extremely disciplined and hard. They drove out of theirsettlements all those opinions that seemed dangerous to them, and history hascriticized their actions. Yet in the persecution of what they considered error, thePuritans were no worse than many other movements in history. As a culture heritage, ?Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind.American Puritanism also had an enduring influence on American literature. It had become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so much a part of the nationalcultural atmosphere, rather than a set of tenets.C. 21st Century PuritanismA "21st Century Puritanism", then, is the always-reforming spirit of 17th-centuryPuritanism applied to the challenges of the 21st century church. In place of anArminian "free-will" gospel that exalts human worth and ability, the 21st Century Puritan calls us back to the Biblical gospel that exalts the power and sovereignty of Almighty God. In place of the "seeker-sensitive", man-pleasing paradigm for worship, the 21st Century Puritan points us back to the Biblical, God-ordained pattern of worship revealed in Scripture—emphasizing a Godward focus—preaching His glories, rejoicing in His mercy to hell-deserving sinners, falling at His feet in humble supplication, singing from joyful, forgiven, God-saturated hearts psalms and hymns that exalt His majesty andhonor.2) Major Puritan worksThe first work published in the Puritan colonies was the Bay Psalm Book马萨诸塞海湾地区赞美诗篇(1640), and the whole effort of the divines who wrote furiously to set forth their views was to defend and promote visions of the religious state. They set forth their visions—in effect the first formulation of the concept of national destiny—in a series of impassioned histories and jeremiads from Edward Johnson‘s Wonder-Working Providence创造神迹的天福(1654) to Cotton Mather‘s epic Magnalia Christi Americana基督在北美的辉煌(1702).Even Puritan poetry was offered uniformly to the service of God. Michael Wigglesworth‘s Da y of Doom (1662) was uncompromisingly theological, and Anne Bradstreet‘s poems, issued as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650), were reflective of her own piety. The best of the Puritan poets, Edward Taylor, whose work was not published until two centuries after his death, wrote metaphysical verse, Sermons and tracts poured forth until austere Calvinism found its last utterance in the words of Jonathan Edwards. In the other colonies writing was usually more mundane and on the whole less notable, though the journal of the Quaker JohnWoolman is highly esteemed, and some critics maintain that the best writing of the colonial period is found in the witty and urbane observations of William Byrd, agentleman planter of Westover, Virginia.C Influence on American Literature1)America literature is in good measure a literary expression of the pious idealism ofthe American Puritanism bequest. All literature is based on amyth of garden of Eden.2)Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chieflyinstrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.Symbolism as a technique has become a common practice in American literature.3)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plainand honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.Puritan Poets1.Anne Bradstreet (the ninth muse):(For further information, please go to:/doc/e718095478.html,/~mseifert/bradstre et.html)2.Edward Taylor: "Huswifery" (Chang, p19)Representatives of Dawning NationalismPhilip Freneau: "The Wild Honey Suckle" (Chang, p23),"The Indian BuryingGround"Benjamin Franklin3. The literary Scene in colonial America1)Humble origins: diaries, histories, journals, letters, travelbooks,autobiographies/biographies, sermons2)Writers:John Smith: the first American writerAnne Bradstreet: a Puritan poet"CONTEMPLATIONS" comprises thirty-three stanzas rhyming ababccc, in which six iambic pentameter lines culminatewith an alexandrine. Adopting themodels of Fletcher and Quarles (Stanford 101), Bradstreet, with her three "c" rhymes and closing alexandrine, modifies the nine-line stanza of The Faerie Queene; thisformal kinship with Spenser is compounded by the pace of her narrative. The workwas probably completed in the 1660s.First appearing in the posthumous Several Poems, "Contemplations" belongs to a later group of writings, often domestic in their subject matter, in whichBradstreet's personal voice achieves its graceful maturityThe Complete Work: Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America (1650)?Edward Taylor: a variety of verse: funeral elegies, lyrics, a medieval "debate,"and a 500-page Metrical History of Christianity (mainly a history of martyrs). His best works, according to modern critics, are the series of short PreparatoryMeditations.Philip Freneau: ―Poet of the American Revolution‖―Father of American Poetry‖He is the most significant poet of 18th century in America.Some off his themes and images anticipated the works of such 19th century American Romantic writers as Cooper, Emerson, Poe and Melville.His works: The Rising Glory of America 1772 《美洲光辉的兴起》?The Wild Honey Suckle 1786 《野地里德忍冬》The Indian Burying Ground 1788 《印第安人墓地》?The Dying Indian: T omo Chequi 《奄奄一息的印第安人：托姆·柴吉》4. Main Features of this period1) American literature grew out of humble origins. Diaries, histories, journals, letters,commonplace books, travel books, sermons, in short, personal literature in its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period.2) In content these early writings served either God or colonial expansion or both. Inform, if there was any form at all, English literary traditions were faithfully imitated and transplanted.3) The Puritanism formed in this period was one of the most enduring shapinginfluences in American thought and American literature.Early Romantic PeriodWashing Irving (1783-1859)Irving‘s careerIrving‘s Major Works―Rip V an Winkle‖so famous, a part of the American cultural traditionmarks a distinct step in the development of the short-story from a German source---changed the setting and added conflicts of his own to make it American―Rip V an Winkle‖The storyQ:If you fell asleep today and awakened 20 years from now, what questions would you ask the first person you saw?Do you think the change is necessary or not? Why or why not?What is Rip‘s attitude to the change and the modern democratic America?What is Irving‘s a ttitude?Rip Van Winkle 瑞普. 凡. 温克尔李白大梦有一天Rip van Winkle在山中遇到背着酒桶的形状古怪的老头子。

1 Basic Literary KnowledgeⅠ. Fill in the blanks1。

The _____is the most commonly used foot in English poetry， in which an unstressed syllable comes first, followed by a ______syllable.2. Rhyme is the _____of sounds in two or more words or phrases that usually appear closeto each other in a poem。

For example: we/thee, man/can， and gold/hold。

3。

A _____is a sign that suggests more than its literal meaning.4。

The two-line stanza form is called the _____, the best-known being the _____which is written in iambic pentameter with an end rhyme.5。

The _____foot, which is the reverse of the iambic foot, also consists of one stressed and one unstressed syllables， but with the stressed one coming first.6。

An anapestic foot is made up of two _____and one stressed syllables， with the two unstressed in front.7. American achievements in the short story have demanded international respect and admiration for more from ______in the early 19th century.8。

《美国文学选读》课程标准一、课程性质与任务美国文学选读是英语专业高年级的选修课.它与英美文学史密切结合，使学生在接触到浩繁的文学作品的同时，可以对繁杂的文学现象加以整理和梳理,并形成自己阅读文学作品的习惯，开阔视野，在学习过程中把握正确的理解文学作品的方法。

美国文学选读通过向学生介绍文学作品及其作品创作的历史文化背景，培养学生阅读文学作品的兴趣，增强语感，增进学生对美国社会、历史、文化以及生活习俗的了解,提高他们对西方文学的欣赏能力及批评能力。

二、课程教学目标1．知识目标1)文学知识：通过本课程的学习,学生应深入、直观地理解各个时期的美国文学作品,把握其思想、语言及创作技巧上的特点；另外,还应对美国的文学评论流变具备相对清晰的认识。

2）语言知识:本课程是通过介绍不同文体的文学作品，深化学生对英语语言的认知、理解和应用的能力。

并通过对不同时期英语原文资料的阅读和解析,以一种更加直观的方式了解这门语言的发展.2．能力目标1）文学作品鉴赏能力：通过作者作品的讲解，学生可以对作品的社会历史价值和艺术价值进行评价，培养并提高自我的鉴赏能力；2)语言表达能力：通过课堂和课下阅读及评价任务的完成，学生的口头和书面表达能力能够得到全面的提高;3)思辩能力:课上小组讨论环节和presentation环节能够激发学生的思辩能力，助其开拓思路，同时也为以后对英语的有效使用打下基础。

3．素质目标1）文学文化修养：本课程作为英语专业高年级学生的素养课，旨在培养学生对美国文学及文化的理解，可以使学生以直观的方式全面接触这种语言和文化，并形成独立的开放的文化观，进一步强化其跨文化意识；2)基本的研究素质：本课程通过对文学评论的介绍和讲解向学生传授文学鉴赏的不同视角，可使其具备基本的文学研究素质;3）文学翻译的基础：本课程通过对文学作品的细读向学生介绍文字背后的人文、历史、政治、哲学及美学等因素,可为文学翻译课程提供较好的材料,并做好前期准备。