美国文学考试必备知识点
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美国文学复习整理一、殖民主义时期的文学(colonial settlements)&理性和革命时期文学(revolutionary period)(文艺复兴时期)1.清教主义的shaping influence2.代表人物“T he Tenth Muse”第一位移民诗人2. Philip Freneau 菲利普·佛瑞诺有宗教隐喻,关注本土地貌、人文.写印第安人故事。
美国诗歌之父 father of American poetry代表作《野金银花》The Wild Honey Suckle3。
Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰弗逊起草了独立宣言 The Declaration of Independence 17764.Thomas Paine 托马斯·佩因拥护独立宣言代表作:《常识》Common Sense《理性时代》The Age of Reason5.Jonathan Edwards乔纳森·埃德沃兹大觉醒运动的代表人物 the Great Awakening6.Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林代表作:《自传》The Autobiography《穷理查德历书》Poor Richard's Almanac美国梦的代表二.浪漫主义时期的文学(American Romanticism)早期浪漫主义(Early Romantic Period)1.背景:1> 时间:18世纪末到内战爆发前夕(1861)2> 条件:○1国家的快速发展,大量移民和工业化发展错误!小说的发展,期刊杂志(periodical)出现错误!受英国文学的影响2.浪漫主义的基本特征1>Stressing emotion rather than reason2>Stressing freedom and individuality3>Idealism rather than materialism4>Writing about nature, medieval legends(中世纪传说)and with supernaturalelements。
美国文学复习资料美国文学复习资料美国文学是世界文学宝库中的重要组成部分,它以其独特的风格和丰富的内容吸引着广大读者和研究者。
在这篇文章中,我们将为大家提供一些关于美国文学的复习资料,希望能够帮助大家更好地了解和掌握这一领域的知识。
一、美国文学的起源美国文学的起源可以追溯到17世纪早期的殖民地时期。
当时,由于殖民者来自不同的国家和文化背景,美国文学呈现出多元化的特点。
早期的美国文学作品主要以宗教和探险为主题,其中最著名的作品包括《普利茅斯故事》和《马萨诸塞湾殖民地的历史》等。
随着时间的推移,美国文学逐渐发展壮大。
18世纪的启蒙时代,美国文学开始借鉴欧洲文学的思想和风格,融合了理性主义和启蒙思想。
这一时期的代表作品有本杰明·富兰克林的《自传》和托马斯·潘恩的《常识》等。
二、美国文学的经典作品美国文学的经典作品数不胜数,下面我们列举一些代表作品,供大家参考。
1. 马克·吐温的《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》:这是一部以南北战争时期为背景的小说,通过主人公哈克贝利的冒险经历,揭示了奴隶制度的黑暗面和人性的复杂性。
2. 纳撒尼尔·霍桑的《红字》:这是一部关于道德与罪恶的小说,讲述了一个女性因婚外情而被判刑的故事。
小说通过对社会道德观念的探讨,揭示了人性的复杂性和社会的偏见。
3. 威廉·福克纳的《喧哗与骚动》:这是一部以南方小镇为背景的小说,通过对人物内心世界的描写,探讨了种族、阶级和家庭关系等社会问题。
4. 埃米莉·狄金森的诗歌:狄金森是美国文学史上最重要的女性诗人之一,她的诗作以独特的风格和深刻的思想而著称,对后世的诗人产生了深远的影响。
三、美国文学的主题与风格美国文学的主题多种多样,涵盖了社会、政治、种族、性别、宗教等各个方面。
在风格上,美国文学也呈现出多样性,既有浪漫主义的热情奔放,也有现实主义的冷静客观。
此外,美国文学还有一些独特的风格流派,如南方文学、黑人文学和美国现代主义文学等。
20151120美国文学必考点总结By Wang HX.说明:1,名词解释可参考我以前发的资料或者自己的资料,也可在网上搜美国文学名词解释。
2,作家作品一定要正确搭配,还要会写下面我列出的作家和作品。
作者是什么时代的代表,有什么称号要记住。
1,英国最早移民到美国的诗人:Anne Bradstreet,作品<The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America>first woman poet.2,Edward Taylor超验主义的先驱。
3,Hard work,thrift,piety and sobriety。
清教徒强调的四点,会写,可能填空。
4,Benjamin Franklin,作品"Poor Richard's Almanac"包括很多collection of proverbs流行谚语集。
The Autobiography自传。
5,Thomas Paine托马斯·佩因1737-1809"Great Common of Mankind"最平凡的人。
作品"American Crisis"《美国危机》,Common Sense常识。
6,Thomas Jefferson托马斯·杰弗逊,drafted the Declaration of Independence.起草了独立宣言。
All Men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,that among these are Life,Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.人人生而平等,他们都从“造物主”那边被赋予了某些不可转让的权利,其中包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。
1. Colonial American (1607-1765)Puritanism in America 清教主义1.Influence①American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature. It has become, to some extent, so much a state of mind(思维模式),rather than a set of tenets.( ['tɛnɪt] 教义)②To them, religion was a matter of primary importance.③They accepted the doctrine of predestination(命运),original sin(原罪),total depravity(堕落),and limited atonement(赎罪) through a special infusion([ɪn'fjuʒn] 神典) of grace from God.[John, Calvin]④In a word, American Puritans are ready for any misfortune and tragic failures that might lie in wait for them.2. Colonial America did not always write the way Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor wrote. Some people wrote for civil and religious freedom, and some others wrote for America shaking off(摆脱) the fetter(束缚) of the savage(残酷) and rapacious(贪婪) British colonial rule.3. Early writersJohn Smith A Description of New England《新英格兰叙事》Anne Bradstreet(first American poet) Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America ( 1650 )《第十位诗神》.On the Burning of Our House 《写在我家失火之际》Edward Taylor(finest 出色的) Huswifery 《家务》Upon a Spider Catching a Fly《蜘蛛扑捉苍蝇之遐想》Chapter 2. The period of Enlightenment and the Independence War (1765 -1800)1.Eighteenth-century American thinking was dominated by two basic patterns of thought .Toward the latter part of theseventeenth century, a completely new view of the universe came into being.(Deism 自然神论)2.Benjamin Franklin(Enlightenment thinkers and writers)1)Poor Richard’s Almanac《格言历书》(Maxims格言and axioms哲理)2)Autobiography《自传》a.It is perhaps the first real post-revolutionary (开山之作)American writing as well as the first real autobiography inEnglish.b.It gives us the simple yet immensely(全面) fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state ofpoverty and obscurity(卑微) into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man. (自我奋斗成功)c.Comments1) First of all, it is a puritan document(清教徒传记). The most famous section describes his scientific scheme ofself-examination(审视) and self-improvement(完善).2) It is also an eloquent elucidation(清楚表明) of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenthcentury enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free(善良自由), by nature endowed(赋予) by God with certain inalienable(不可剥夺的) rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.3) It is the pattern of Puritan(典型清教写作风格) simplicity, directness, and concision(明朗). The plainness(平实) of itsstyle, the homeliness(通俗) of imagery(比喻), the simplicity of diction(措词), syntax and expression are some of the salient(突出) features we cannot mistake.3.Hector St John de Crevecoeur Letters From an American Farmer «美国农人书简»或者《信札》\American Romanticism(1800-1865)Section 1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is Romanticism?A.Romanticism is a literary movement throughout the 19th C and it can be divided into the early period and the late period. Also it remains powerful in contemporary literature and art.B. It started with the publication of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass.C. Romanticism is associated with imagination and boundlessness, as contrasted with classicism,D. The most clearly defined romantic literary movement in the U. S. was Transcendentalism.E. The representatives of the early period includes Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper. Waldo EmersonHistorical Background: 1.American Puritanism 2.New England Transcendental Movement 3.American westward Expansion.American RomanticismFeatures:(1)American romanticism was in a way derivate: American romantic writing was some of them modelled onEnglish and European works.(2)American romanticism is a cultural heritage(文化遗产),American moral values were basically Puritan.(3)American romanticism was both imitative and independent.(4)Writers like Emerson and Whitman thought and wrote differently. They calling for the creation of a nativeAmerican culture and literature, represent“the deeper forces(坚实力量) ”of a Romanticisms at onceindigenous(本土化) and universal(广为人知).1. Washington Irving-- One of the first American writers to earn an international reputation, an early Romantic writer, and Father of the American short stories, The Father of American Literature ,“the American Goldsmith”Work:A History of New York《纽约外史》(DK)won him wide popularityThe Sketch Book《见闻札记》(GC)won international fame→contains German folk tales Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy HollowThe History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus 《哥伦布市传》A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada《攻克格拉纳达》The Alhambra《阿尔罕伯拉》Selections:Rip Van Winkle:I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient, henpecked husband.Rip’s sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much henpecked as his master; For a long while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village, which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of his majesty George the Third. “The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle.”Instead of the great tree which used to shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red nightcap, and from it was fluttering a flag. The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, a sword was stuck in the hand instead of a scepter, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large characters, GENERAL WASHINGTON.The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Tarry Town, New York, Ichabod Crane, Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, Katrina Van Tassel Literary career: two parts---1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique---1832~1859: back to USStyle –beautiful, Romanticism, Humor, Irony(1)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(2)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(3)vivid and true characters(4)humour – smiling while reading(5)musical language2.James Fenimore Cooper (the American Scott)a. He is the first border writer;(边疆作家)b. Created a myth about the formative period of American nation;(创造了美国格式化时代的神话)c. Helped introduce the “Western”tradition into American literatureWork:A:Leatherstocking Tales 《皮袜子故事集》(masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Pioneers《拓荒者》The Prairie (1827), 《大草原》(1823)---old The Last of Mohicans(1826), 《最后的莫西干人》The Pathfinder 《探路者》(1840)---middle-age, The Deerslayer (1841) 《杀鹿人》---youth (This process is the American quest for an ideal community.)Analysis of Natty Bumppo:Presented as an ideal American, living a virtuous and free life in God’s world. To him the wilderness is good, pure, perfect, where there is freedom not tainted (变质)by human institutions; He find “civilization” both corrupt and corrupting; The civilization is poisoned at the root from the very beginning.Analysis of Judge Temple: Judge Temple is a good indication of Cooper’s ambivalence(矛盾),as a Writer of frontier life; He is a man of honor and integrity. He is as much a frontiersman as Natty Bumppo; He represents “the practically inevitable” (实实在在的实用)aspect of frontier life, He symbolizes law and civilization.His themes:a.Native subject of frontier and wilderness(荒原)b.New sources of fiction.Section 2 American Transcendentalism (summit of the Romantic Movement)(1836-1860)Appearance:1836, “Nature” by EmersonBackground: The Mexican-America War(1846-1848)美西战争,The westward expansion 西部大开发开始What is Transcendentalism:(Puritan heritage+Foreign influence)●appeared in 1830s in US●emphasis on spirit or Oversoul and stressing importance of the individual●regarding nature as symbols of the spirit or God and emphasis on brotherhood of man●representatives: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David ThoreauResources:Transcendentalist Club in New England—the Dial《日晷》Features1.spirit/oversoul(超灵)2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/God; garment(外衣) of the oversoulSignificanceA. influenced a large group of writersB. summit of American RomanticismC. marked the independence of American literatureTranscendentalism: quotes----“Go back to nature, sink yourself back into its influence and you’ll become spiritually whole again.”1. Ralph Waldo Emerson (Father of Transcendentalism)Works:Nature 自然(1836) :“the manifesto(宣言) of American transcendentalism” and “the Bible of New Eng land Transcendentalism.”----“a transparent eyeball”The American Scholar美国学者(1837):"America's Declaration of Intellectual Independence"(知识分子独立宣言) Self-Reliance 论自助: the importance of cultivating oneself (自我培养)----individualism2. Henry David ThoreauCivil Disobedience 《论公民的不服从》Walden:a series of 18 essays;Comparing with Emerson who was a great thinker, Thoreau was a great experimentalist Selection:“I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of lif e and see if I could not learn what it has to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.“We live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men ... it is error upon error and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail. .”3. Nathaniel Hawthorne (Typical romantic writer ;born in Massachusetts)Works:Major romances or novels :•The Scarlet Letter 《红字》(1850) (Hester Prynne 女主;Arthur Dimmesdale 情人;Roger Chillingworth 丈夫) •The House of the Seven Gables《七个尖角阁的房子》(Matthew Maule被害死,坏人也受到诅咒而死---sin will get punished)•The Blithedale Romance 《福谷传奇》(1852)•The Marble Faun《玉石雕像》(1860)Short stories:a)Twice-Told Tales 1837 《故事重述》b)Mosses from an Old Manse1843 《古宅青苔》c)The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales 1852 《雪人和其他重讲一遍的故事》Puritan background•The Birth-Mark《胎记》(1843)•Rappaccini’s Daughter《拉帕奇尼的女儿》(1844)•The Minister’s Black Veil《教长的黑面纱》(1836)•Young Goodman Brown《好小伙子布朗》(1835)* The Scarlet Letter(清教思想融入了美国浪漫主义,象征手法):Adultery(通奸)—Able(能干)—Angle(天使)The scarlet letter A is ambiguous(不明确的). And the ambiguity is one of the salient(显著的) characteristics of Hawthorne’s art.*Young Goodman Brown :( Goodman Brown and Faith) Everyone possesses some evil secret.Hawthorne’s point of viewEvil is at the core of human life.(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation.(3) Evil educates.(4) He has disgust in science. One source of evil is overweening (too proud of oneself) intellect.4.Herman Melville (全拼—Going out to sea; marriage; friendship with Hawthorne)Works:•Typee«泰皮»•Omoo«欧穆»•Mardi«玛地»South Pacific islands•Redburn«雷得本»voyage to England•White Jacket«白外衣»United States•Pierre«皮埃尔»•Billy Budd《比利•巴德》(a sign that he had resolved his quarrel with God)•Clarel《克拉莱尔》( a poem)Moby-Dick «白鲸»(masterpieces)A.the first American prose epic散文史诗B.an encyclopedia百科全书of everythingC.a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fatesPrincipal CharactersIshmael (The narrator of the story) ;Captain AhabThe symbolism of Mobby-Dick1.The voyage to catch the white whale is the one of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of universe.2. To Ahab, the whale is an evil creature or the agent of an evil force that control the universe. As to readers, the whale is a symbol of physical limits, or a symbol of nature. It also can stand for the ultimate mystery of the universe and the wall behind which unknown malicious things are hiding.5.Walt Whitman(Free verse(自由体诗), Envelope structure(信件结构)I - me, my nation (society), Catalogue)Work:Leaves Of Grass 《草叶集》written in the founding documents of both the Revolutionary War in the United States and the Civil War.Including:1. There Was a Child Went Forth 2. Cavalry Crossing a Ford 3. Song of MyselfThere Was a Child Went Forth 《一个孩子的成长》how a child is greatly influenced by his growing environments, be identified with the childhood of a young, growing America.Selected readings:There was a child went forth every day, And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became, And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day, Or for many years or stretching cycles of years. The early lilacs became part of this child, And grass and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird, And the Third-month lambs and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the mare's foal and the cow's calf, And the noisy brood of the barnyard or by the mire of the pond-side,I Hear America Singing 《我听见美利坚在歌唱》Selected readings:I hear American singing, the varied carols I hear,Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strongThe carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck.The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, The hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,The day what belongs to the day-at night the party of young fellows, Robust, friendly,Singing with open moths their strong melodious songs.Song of Myself 《自我之歌》The longest and the best . Whitman is a man bubbling with energy and laden(装满) with ideas, spontaneous(自发的) expression of his original ideasSong of MyselfSelected readings:I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death.O Captain! My Captain! ( Captain" is Lincoln himself)When Lilac s Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,(小院丁香花开时)6. Emily Dickenson (Along with Whitman, Dickinson is one of the two giants of American poetry of the 19th century)Works(1)Because I Can’t Stop for Death (masterpiece about death )Selection:Because I could not stop for Death—He kindly stopped for me—The Carriage held but just Ourselves—And Immortality.We slowly drove—He knew no haste. And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility We passed the School, where Children strove .At Recess—in the Ring—We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—We passed the Setting Sun—Or rather—He passed Us—The Dews drew quivering and chill—For only Gossamer, my Gown—My Tippet—only Tulle—We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground—The Roof was scarcely visible—The Cornice—in the Ground—Since then—'tis Centuries—and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity—(Death is not to be feared since it is a natural part of the endless cycle of nature. )(2)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died (a description of the moment of death)Selection: I heard a Fly buzz --- when I died --- The stillness in the Room Was like the stillness in the Air -- Between the Heav es of Storm --The Eyes around -- had wrung when them dry -- And breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset -- when th e King Be witnessed ---- in the Room - I willed my keepsakes ---Signed away What portion of me be Assignable --- and then it was There interposed a Fly -With Blue - uncertain stumbling Buzz - Between the light ---- and me --And the windows failed ----and then I could not see to seethemes: 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 responsibilityStyle:(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification – make some of abstract ideas vividComparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled(赞美), in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, itsindividualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention ofthe iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in Americanpoetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitm an is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) which Whitman doesn’t have.7. Edgar Allen Poe (inventor of the detective-fiction )WorksNovels(1)The Tell-tale Heart《泄密的心》(2)The Gold-Bug(侦探小说)《金甲虫》(3)The Black Cat《黑猫》(4)The Fall of the House of Usher”《厄舍古屋的倒塌》(5)The Purloined Letter” –one of the world’s greatest detective stories. 《一封失窃的来信》Poems•To Helen 《致海伦》-----physical beauty-soulful beauty–(选读)•Annabel Lee 《安娜贝尔·李》--expresses great loss and sadnessSelection: That a maiden there lived whom you may know 住着一位少女你或许认得Second stanza---But we loved with a love that was more than love可我们相爱,爱超越了爱---Coveted her and me. 也把我和她妒嫉。
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”。
美国文学考试重点美国文学考试的重点可以分为以下几个方面:1. 早期美国文学:- 殖民时期文学:包括早期殖民地的日记、信件和宗教作品等,如《普利茅斯纪事》和《普罗维登斯计划》。
- 紧随其后的大量宗教文学作品,如《新英格兰的校训》。
- 托马斯·佩恩的《常识》:这本书在美国独立运动中起到了重要的作用。
2. 美国文学的形成与发展:- 19世纪初的浪漫主义文学:如华盛顿·欧文的《睡美人和其他故事》和詹姆斯·菲尼莫尔·库珀的《最后的莫西干人》。
- 华尔特·惠特曼的《草叶集》:这本诗集在美国文学史上具有重要地位。
- 女性作家:如哈丽特·比彻·斯托的《汤姆叔叔的小屋》和艾米莉·迪金森的诗歌作品。
3. 20世纪的美国文学:- 现代主义文学:如欧内斯特·海明威的《老人与海》和威廉·福克纳的《喧哗与骚动》。
- 战争文学:如约翰·史坦贝克的《愤怒的葡萄》和约瑟夫·海勒的《23个故事和一个司令》。
- 迈尔斯·杰克逊的《杀死一只知更鸟》:这是美国文学中一本重要的反种族主义作品。
4. 当代美国文学:- 现实主义:如托尼·莫里森的《亲爱的》和唐·德里罗的《百年孤独》。
- 同性恋与性别研究:如杰夫·艾斯特里奇的《中性国度》和艾美丽·P. 亨德森的《一个男小地方》。
此外,还需要了解美国文学的主要流派和文学理论,如现实主义、象征主义、后现代主义等,以及相关的文学批评方法。
最好的准备方式是广泛阅读美国经典文学作品并理解其背后的文化、历史和社会背景。
美国文学史整理一、Colonial America 殖民时期1、New England:Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, RhodeIsland, and Connecticut.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 and honest.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<clarity, good sense, and simplicity of the English essayists Joseph Addison and Richard Steele>③Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰弗逊Declaration of Independence 1776独立宣言<simple and clear, powerful and graceful>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.②Feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important for romantics than reason and common sense.感受、直觉和情感重于理性和常识.③An emphasis on individualism; placing the individual against the group, against authority.强调个人主义,将个人与团体,反对权威.④Stress on the close relationship between man and nature.强调人与自然之间的密切关系.⑤Fascination with the wild, the irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious, and the strange疯狂的迷恋,不规则,不定,远程,神秘,奇怪⑥Cherishing a strong interest in the past, especially the medieval.对过去有强烈的兴趣,特别是中世纪.2、Features:New experience in the American Romanticism.A deep influence from the American Puritanism.The “newness” of the Americans as a nation.3、writers and works:①Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 亨利·瓦兹沃思·朗费罗A Psalm of Life 1838 人生礼赞Voices of the Night 1839 夜吟The Song of Hiawatha 1855 海华沙之歌The Courtship of Miles Standish 1858 迈尔斯·斯坦迪什的求婚Tales of a Wayside Inn 1863 路边客栈的故事②Washington Irving 华盛顿·欧文<Father of American Imaginative literature; Father of the American short story>A History of New York 1809 纽约外史The Sketch Book 1819-1820 见闻札记“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”睡谷的传说“Rip Van Winkle”瑞普·凡·温克尔The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his p erson….. Bracebridge Hall 1822 布雷斯布里奇田庄Tales of a Traveller 1824 旅客谈③James Fennimore Cooper 詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库柏<writing on such subjects as the Revolution, the frontier, the sea, and the wilderness>Leather-stocking Tales 皮袜子故事集The Pioneer 拓荒者The Prairie 大草原The Spy 间谍三、New England Transcendentalism 新英格兰超验主义1、Over-soul超灵~was an all-pervading power goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent.简答Individualism individual was the most importanta fresh view of nature symbolic of the Spirit or God.2、writers and works:①Ralph Waldo Emerson 艾默生Nature 1836 论自然<节选:Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into space, —all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.>The American Scholar 1837 论美国学者Divinity School Address 1838 神学院演说Self-Reliance 1841 论自助Representative Men 1850 代表人物The Transcendentalist 超验主义者The Over-Soul 论超灵②Henry David Thoreau 梭罗<Lover of nature, environmentalist; Individualism , materialism andindustrial civilization>Walden; or Life in the Woods 1854 瓦尔登湖;或林中生活<节选 Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it. ……We can never have enough of Nature. >四、American Romanticism later period 浪漫主义后期我们可以把超验主义产生之前的那一段称为前期浪漫主义,而把19世纪30年代之后的文学称为后期浪漫主义.前期浪漫主义是以欧文等人将美国文学提高到欧洲水平为特征,后期浪漫主义则是以超验主义激励而起的“文艺复兴”文学兴起,并最终产生了独立的美国文学为标志.1、High Romantics in fiction2、①Nathaniel Hawthorne 霍桑Twice-Told Tales 1837 尽人皆知的故事Mosses from an Old Manse 1846 古屋青苔The Scarlet letter 1850 红字The House of Sever Gables 1851 有七个尖角阁的房子Blithedale Romance 1852 福谷传奇The Marble Faun 1860 玉石雕像Our Old House 1863 我们的故居< symbols and setting, ambiguity, supernatural elements. His style is soft, flowing, and almost feminine. His touch is light, but his observation is somber.>②Herman Melville 赫尔曼·麦尔维尔Moby-Dick 1851 白鲸 pp113-118Pierre 1852 皮埃尔Typee 1846泰比Omoo 1847奥穆Mardi 1849玛迪2、High Romantics in poetry①Edgar Allan Poe 艾伦·坡< the father of modern horror story and detective story. >Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque 1840 怪诞故事集“The Raven” 1845 乌鸦“Annabel Lee ” 1849 安娜贝尔·李②Walt Whitman 沃尔特·惠特曼Leaves of Grass 草叶集Features in Whitman’s poems:·Organic form :extremely long, not constrained by the number of beats in a line.·Thought rhythm: does not move in terms of beats, but in terms of thoughts.·Parallelism:The parallel lines say the same thing but use different words.·Cataloguing technique:long lists of images, sights, sounds, smells,taste, and touch.③Free verse 自由诗④Emily Dickinson 艾米丽·狄金森Theme:Religion & faith Beauty & truth Life & death Nature friendship love & marriageWork:I died for beautyFeatures:frequent use of dashes破折号, sporadic capitalization of nouns零星的名词, convoluted and ungrammatical phrasing措辞费解不合文法,off-rhymes压尾韵, broken meters, bold and unconventional and often startling metaphors大胆的隐喻, and aphoristic wit警句.五、The Age of Realism 美国现实主义文学·at the later part of the 19th century.·simply fidelity to actuality in its representation in literature.·based on the accurate of human experiences.·It insists on precise description, authentic action and dialogue, moral honesty, and a democratic openness in subject matter and style.·is inclusive of naturalism, regionalism and local color writing. feature:objective and realWriters and works:①Howells Their Wedding Journey 1872 结婚旅行②Henry James 亨利·詹姆斯The American 1877 一个美国人Daisy Miller 1878 黛西·密勒The Portrait of a Lady 1881 贵妇画像The Art of Fiction 1884 “小说的艺术”The Bostonians 1886 波士顿人The Tragic Muse 1890 悲惨的缪斯The Wings of Dove 1902 鸽翼The Ambassadors 1903 专使The Golden Bowl 1904 金碗六、Regionalism & Local Colorism乡土文学与地方色彩文学·presents a locale which is distinguished from the outside world. ·describes the exotic and the picturesque.·glorifies the past.·attempts to show things as they are.·stresses the influence of setting on character.·Dialect peculiarities are the defining characteristicWriters and works:①Mark Twain 马克·吐温“the Lincoln of literature”The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1876 汤姆·索亚历险记The Prince and the Pauper 1882 王子与贫儿Life on Mississippi 1883 密西西比河上The Gilded Age 1873, with Charles 镀金时代The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1885 哈克贝利·费恩历险记Feature:use Vernacular language. local colorStyle:unpretentious, colloquial, poetic.②Harriet Beecher Stowe 哈里特·比彻·斯托Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 汤姆叔叔的小屋③Francis Bret Harte 弗朗西斯·布雷特·哈特The Lost Galleon 1867 沉船The Luck of Roaring Camp 1870 咆哮营里的幸运儿Mrs. Skaggs’s Husbands 1873 斯凯葛夫人的丈夫们An Heiress of Red Dog 1879 红狗的女继承人七、American Naturalism 美国自然主义文学美国文学自然主义者认为,人同时受制于are controlled自然环境与社会环境,因而遗传因素laws of heredity与社会环境environment是人的命运不可抵抗的决定力量.他们认为,在受制于不以人的意志为转移的非道德力量的世界中,宣扬道德的地位是毫无意义的.·more inclusive and less selective than realism. 比现实主义更具包容性,选择却更少·Determinism governs everything 决定论支配一切·It daringly opened up the seamy underside of society and such topics as divorce, sex, adultery, poverty, and crime.·It conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by his social and economic environment and circumstances.1、writers and works:①Stephen Crane 斯蒂芬·克莱恩The Red Badge of Courage 1895 红色英勇勋章< the first modern war novel >② Frank Norris 弗兰克·诺里斯McTeague 1899 麦克提格<the first full-bodied naturalistic American novel; a consciously naturalistic manifesto>③ Theodore Dressier 西奥多·德莱塞An American Tragedy 1925 美国悲剧Sister Carrie 1900 嘉莉妹妹Jennie Gerhardt 1911 珍妮姑娘The Financier 1912 金融家The Titan 1914 巨人The Stoic 1947 斯多葛The Genius 1915 天才④ Jack London 杰克·伦敦Martin Eden 1909 马丁·伊登The Son of the Wolf 1900 狼之子The Call of the Wild 1903 野性的呼唤The Sea Wolf 1904 海狼White Fang 1906 白獠牙“Love of Life” 1907 热爱生命⑤ Upton Sinclair 厄普顿·辛克莱The Jungle 屠场八、Modern American Poetry 美国现代诗歌feature:fragmentation分散,碎片stream-of-consciousness意识流的a break with the pastwriters and works:①Ezra Pound 庞德Des Imagists 意象派诗选 Cantos 诗章Cathay 华夏“Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”休·赛尔温·毛伯利② T. S. Eliot 托马斯·斯特尔那斯·艾略特The Waste Land 1922 荒原Family Reunion 1950 大团圆③ Robert Frost 罗伯特·弗罗斯特A Boy’s Will 1913 少年的心愿North of Boston 1914 波士顿以北After Apple Picking 1914 摘苹果之后Mountain Interval 1916 山间洼地New Hampshire 1923 新罕布什尔West-Running Brook 1928 西流的溪涧A Further Range 1936 又一片牧场A Witness Tress 1942 一株见证的树“Mending Wall”“修墙”“The Road Not Taken”“没有走过的路”④ Carl Sandburg 卡尔·桑德伯格In Reckless Ecstasy 肆无忌惮的狂想Cornhuskers 辗米机 The American Songbag 美国歌袋Smoke and Steel 烟与钢 The Prairie Years 草原的年代Good Morning, America 早上好,美国 The People, Yes 人民,好九、Modern American Fiction 美国现代小说1、The Lost Generation 迷惘的一代Writers and works:①Ernest Hemingway 海明威·He was famous for his novels and short stories written in his spare, laconic, yet intense prose with short sentences and very specific details.·Almost all his stories deal with the theme of courage in face of tragedy.·They reveal man's impotence and despairing courage to assert himself against overwhelming odds.·The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. 一座冰山在海面上移动是很壮观的,因为只有八分之一露出水面.The Old Man and the Sea 1952 老人与海The Sun Also Rises 1926 太阳照常升起A Farewell to Arms 1929 永别了,武器For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940 丧钟为谁而鸣In Our Time 1925 在我们的年代里The Torrents of Spring 1926 春潮Men without Women 1927 没有女人的男人Winner Take Nothing 1933 胜者无所得To Have and to Have Not 1937 贫与富Style:Hemingway’s style is noted for its simplicity. In diction, he focus on nouns and verbs and reduces the use of adjectives, especially complicated adjectives. In sentence structure, he uses coordinated clauses to avoid subordinated clauses that would imply vague judgments.②F. Scott Fitzgerald 弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德The Great Gatsby 1925 了不起的盖茨比This Side of Paradise 1920 人间天堂Flappers and Philosophers 1920 新潮女郎与哲学家The Beautiful and the Damned 1922 美丽的和倒霉的Tales of the Jazz Age 1922 爵士乐时代的故事All the Sad Young Men 1926 所有悲伤的年轻人Tender is the Night 1934 夜色温柔The Last Tycoon 1941 最后一个巨头2、others① Sherwood Anderson 舍伍德·安德森Winesburg, Ohio 1919 小镇畸人Poor white 1920 穷白人Horses and Men 1923 马与人The Triumph of the Egg 1921 鸡蛋的胜利Death in the Woods 1933 林中之死Windy McPherson’s Son 1916 饶舌的麦克斐逊的儿子② Willa Cather 薇拉凯瑟The Song of the Lark 1915 云雀之歌My Antonia 1918 我的安东尼亚O Pioneers 1913 啊,拓荒者A Lost Lady 1923 失踪的女士The Professor’s House 1925 教授之家Death Comes for the Archbishop 1927 大主教之死Shadows on the Rock 1931 岩石上的阴影③ Sinclair Lewis 辛克来·刘易斯Babbitt 1922 巴比特④ John Steinbeck 约翰·斯坦贝克The Grapes of Wrath 1939 愤怒的葡萄The Moon is Down 1942 月亮下去了The Winter of Our Discontent 1961 我们不安的冬天The Pastures of Heaven 1932 天堂牧场In Dubious Battle 1936 胜负未决Of Mice and Man 1937 鼠与人⑤ John Dos Passos 约翰·多斯·帕索斯The Trilogy U. S. A 1937 美国三部曲The Adventures of a Young Man 1939 一个年轻人的冒险Three Soldiers 1921 三个士兵Manhattan Transfer 1925 曼哈顿中转站 1919 1932 一九一九The Big Money 1936 赚大钱Number One 1943 第一号The Grand Design 1949 伟大的计划District of Columbia 1952 哥伦比亚特区十、The Southern Renaissance 美国南方文学Southern Renaissance.1、Themes:Chevalier heritage.骑士遗产Agrarian virtue. 农业推崇Plantation aristocracy.种植园农场的贵族生活Lost cause. 失去的事业White supremacy. 白人至上的传统Purity of Southern womanhood. 南方女性的纯洁2、Writers and works①William Faulkner 威廉·福克纳The Yoknapatawpha Saga 约克纳帕塔法世系The Sound and the Fury 1929 喧嚣与骚动Absalom, Absalom 1936 押沙龙,押沙龙Intruder in the Dust 1948 尘土中的入侵者Sartoris 1929 沙托里斯 As I Lay Dying 1930 我弥留之际Sanctuary 1931 圣殿 Light in August 1932 八月之光The Hamlet 1940 村子 Go Down, Moses 1942 去吧,摩西The Town 1957 小镇“The Bear”“熊”Feature:·successfully advanced some modern literary techniques: Stream of consciousness. interior monologue 意识流·multiple point of view 多角度的·talk about the violence and evil in all human beings·His prose varies from colloquial, regional, to formal diction and cadences of American speech.② Thomas Wolfe 托马斯·沃尔夫Look Homeward, Angel 1929 novel 天使,望乡Of Time and the River 1935 novel 时间与河流From Death to Morning 1935 stories 从死亡至早晨The web and the Rock 1939 manuscript novel 蛛网与岩石You Can't Go Home Again 1940 manuscript novel 有家归不得The Hills Beyond 1941 远山③ Katherine Anne Porter 凯瑟琳·安·波特The Flowering Judas 开花的犹大树The Jilting of Granny Weatherall 被背弃的老祖母Pale Horse, Pale Rider 苍白的马,苍白的骑手Learning Tower and Other Stories 斜塔和其他故事Ship of Fools 傻瓜的船④ Eudora Welty 尤多拉·韦尔蒂Death of a Traveling Salesman 1936 旅行推销员之死Delta Wedding 1946 三角洲的婚礼⑤Carson McCullers 卡森·麦卡勒斯The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter 1940 心是孤独的猎手The Ballad of the Sad Café 1943/1951 伤心咖啡馆的民谣⑥ Mary Flannery O'Connor 弗兰纳里·奥康纳Wise Blood 1952A Good Man is Hard to Find 1955The Violent Bear Is Away 1960Everything That Rises Must Converge 1965⑦ William Styron 威廉·斯泰伦Sophie's Choice 苏菲的抉择Lie Down in Darkness 1951 躺在黑暗中The Confessions of Nat Turner 纳特·特纳的自白十一、Modern American Drama 现代美国戏剧1、Expressionism表现主义:An artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and eventsarouse in him. He accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements.2、writers and works:① Eugene O'Neill 尤金·奥尼尔Bound East for Cardiff 1914东航卡迪夫Desire under the Elms 1924榆树下的欲望Beyond the Horizon 1920天边外The Emperor Jones 1920琼斯皇The Hairy Ape 1922毛猿All God’s Chillum Got Wings 1924 上帝的儿女都有翅膀The Great God Brown 1926大神布郞Strange Interlude 1928奇异的插曲Mourning Becomes Electra 1931悲悼The Iceman Cometh 1946送冰的人来了Long Day’s Journey into Night 1956 日长路远夜深沉② Elmer Rice 埃尔·莫莱斯Left Bank 1931左岸 Adding Machine 1923加算器Judgment Day 1934审判日 On Trial 1914审讯The Mongrel 1924混血儿 Street Scene 1929街景Dream Girl 1945梦幻姑娘③Susan GlaspellTrifles 1916 琐事 The Outside 1917外界Bernice 1919贝尔尼斯 Inheritors 1921继承人The Verge 1921界限 Alison’s House 1930艾里森的房子④ Clifford OdetsWaiting for Lefty 1935等待老左 Golden Boy 1937金孩子The Country Girl 1950乡村姑娘 Night Music 1940夜曲Awake and Sing 1935醒来唱歌 Clash by Night 1941夜间冲突The Flowering Peach 1954开花的桃树 The Big Knife 1948大刀⑤ Tennessee Williams 田纳西·威廉姆斯The Streetcar Named Desire 1947 欲望号街车The Glass Menagerie 玻璃动物园 Night of the Iguana 鬣蜥之夜Summer and Smoke 夏日烟云 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 热铁皮屋顶上的猫The Rose Tattoo 玫瑰文身 Suddenly Last Summer 去年夏天突然Sweet Bird of Youth 甜蜜的青春之鸟 Period of Adjustment 微妙的调整阶段⑥ Arthur Miller 米勒All My Sons 都是我儿子Death of a Salesman 1949推销员之死The Crucible 坩锅/炼狱 A View from the Bridge 凭桥远眺After the Fall 堕落之后 Incident at Vichy 维希事件The Archbishop’s Ceiling 大主教的天花板 The Price 代价The Creation of the World and Other Business 创世记和其他⑦ Edward Albee 爱德华·阿尔比The Zoo Story 1958动物园故事 The Sandbox 1961沙袋Three Tall Women 1994 三个高个女人 Tiny Alice 1964 小小爱丽丝A Delicate Balance 1966微妙的平衡 All Over 1971万事皆休Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf 1962 谁害怕弗吉尼亚沃尔夫Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung 1968毛主席语录⑧David MametAmerican Buffalo 美国野牛⑨ David Henry Hwang 黄哲伦M. Butterfly 蝴蝶君Broken Promises: Four Plays 没有兑现的诺言:四个剧本十二、African American Literature 美国黑人文学1、Early African American literature①Frederick Douglass 道格拉斯The Life and Time of Frederick of Douglass 1881 弗莱德里克道格拉斯的生平和时代②Booker T. WashingtonUp from Slavery 1901③W. E. B. DuBoisThe Souls of Black Folks: Essays and Sketches 1903 黑人的灵魂④Jean ToomerCane 1923拐杖2、Harlem Renaissance 哈莱姆文艺复兴 or The New Negro Movement① Countee Cullen 卡伦,C.Color 1925 One Way to Heaven a novel 1932Copper Sun 1927 The Black Christ 1929The Lost Zoo 1940 My Lives and How I Lost Them 1942②Zora Neale Hurston 佐拉·尼尔·赫斯顿Spunk胆量 Jonah's Gourd Vine 1934 约拿的葫芦藤Mules and Men 1935 骡子与人 Tell My Horse 1937 告诉我的马Mountain 1939 山人摩西 Dust Tracks on a Road 1942 风尘仆仆③ Langston Hughes 蓝斯顿·休斯“The Negro Speaks of River” 1920 “黑人说河”Shakespeare in Harlem 1947 哈莱姆的莎士比亚I Wonder as I Wander 1956 我漂泊,我思考The Weary Blues 1926疲倦的歌声 Dear Lovely Death 1931亲爱的的死神Mulatto 1936混血儿play The Best of Simple 1961辛普尔精选集3、African American literature in the 1940s and 1950s① Richard Wright 理查德·赖特12 Million Black Voices 1941 一千二百万黑人的声音Uncle Tom’s Children 1938; enlarged, 1940 汤姆叔叔的孩子们Native Son 1940土生子 The Color Curtain 1956有色的窗帘Black Boy 1945黑孩子 The Outsider 1953局外人Eight Man 1961八人行 White Man, Listen 1957白人,听着The Long Dream 1958漫长的梦 Land Today 1963如今的土地② Ralph Ellison 拉尔夫·艾里森Invisible Man 1952看不见的人Shadow and Act 1964 essay collection影子与行动Going to the Territory 1986 essay collection走向领地③ James Baldwin 詹姆斯·鲍德温Notes of a Native Son 土生子的笔记 nother Country 另一国度Nobody Knows My Name 没有人知道我的名字 Giovanni’s Room 乔万尼的房间The Amen Corner 阿门角 AJust Above My Head 就在我头顶上Go Tell it on the Mountains 向苍天呼吁Blues for Mister Charley 黑人怨4、Contemporary African American literature①Toni Morrison 托妮·莫里森The Bluest Eye 1970最蓝的眼睛 Sula 1973苏拉Song of Solomon 1977所罗门之歌 Tar Boy 1981柏油娃娃Beloved 1987宠儿 Jazz 1992爵士乐② Alex Palmer Haley 亚里克斯·哈里he Autobiography of Malcolm X 1965 马尔科姆·艾克斯自传Roots 1976 根 Hanning汉宁镇③ Alice Walker 艾丽斯·沃克Meridian 1976梅丽迪安 The Color Purple 1982紫色poem collections:Once 有一次 Revolutionary Petunias 革命的牵牛花In Love and Trouble 1973相爱与烦恼short story collection十三、Chinese American Literature 美国华裔文学1、the first stage:开创 end of 19C~20C 60s①Edith Maude Eaton 艾迪丝·伊顿Mrs. Spring Fragrance 1912 春香夫人——beginning②Louis Chu 雷庭招Eat a Bowl of Tea 吃一碗茶2、the second stage:转折 20C 70~80s①Frank Chin 赵健秀Chickencoop Chinaman 1972鸡笼里的华人The Year of Dragon 1974龙年The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco R. Co.铁路上的华工Donald Duck: a Novel唐纳鸭Gunga Din Highway 贡嘎丁公路Aiiieeeee An Anthology of Prose and Poetry 1974 哎呀美国亚裔作家文集②Maxine Hong Kingston 汤婷婷The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts1976女勇士China Man 1980中国佬Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book 1989孙行者:他的伪歌本3、the third stage、:繁荣20C 90s~now① Amy Tan 谭恩美The Joy Luck Club 1989 喜福会The Kichen God’s Wife 1991 灶神之妻The Hundred Secret Senses1995 百种神秘感The Bonesetter’s Daughter 2001 正骨师的女儿② Gish Jen 任碧莲Typical American 1991 典型的美国人Mona in the Promised Land 1996 莫娜在希望之乡Who’s Irish 1999 谁是爱尔兰人③David Henry Hwang 黄哲伦M. Butterfly 1988 蝴蝶君The House of Sleeping Beauties 睡美人之屋The Voyage 1992 航行Broken Promises: Four Plays 没有兑现的诺言:四个剧本十四、Confessionals 自白派1、罗伯特·洛威尔不一样的国度Land of Unlikeness、威利爵爷的城堡Lord Weary’s Castle、卡瓦纳家族的磨坊Mills of the Kavanaughs、献给联邦死难者For the Union Dead、大洋附近Near the Ocean、笔记1967-68 Notebook 1967-68 、海豚The Dolphin、陈旧的辉煌The Old Glory/.....2、安妮·塞克斯顿我生命的房间The Room of My Life去精神病院半途而归、生或死、变形记、死亡笔记...3、西尔维亚·普拉斯高烧103度、分割、死亡与商号、燃烧的女巫、边缘....4、约翰·贝里曼 John Berryman向布雷兹特里特夫人致意、77首梦歌、短诗集、贝里曼十四行诗集、他的玩具,他的梦,他的休息.....。
美国文学史复习1(The Literature of Colonial)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。
美国文学部分(American Literature)一.独立革命前后的文学(The Literature Around the Revolution of Independence)1.本章考核知识点和考核要求:1).殖民地时期的文学的特点2).主要的作家、其概况及其代表作品2.独立革命前后时期的主要作家本杰明·富兰克林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”。
《穷查理历书》Poor Richard’s Almanack《致富之道》The Way to Wealth《自传》The Autobiography托马斯·潘恩Thomas Paine托马斯·潘恩,散文家、政治家、报刊撰稿人。
《税务员问题》The Case of the Officers of Excise《常识》Common Sense《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 Reason菲利普·弗伦诺Philip Freneau菲利普·弗伦诺,著名的“革命诗人”。
《蒸蒸日上的美洲》“The Rising Glory of America”《英国囚船》“The British Prison Ship”《纪念美国勇士》同类诗中最佳“To the Memory of the Brave Americans”《野生的金银花》“The Wild Honeysuckle”《印第安人殡葬地》“The Indian Burying Ground”二.美国浪漫主义文学(American Romanticism)1.本章考核知识点和考核要求:1).美国浪漫主义文学产生的社会历史及文化背景2).主要作家的创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画和语言风格3).清教主义、超验主义、象征主义、自由诗等名词的解释2.美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家华盛顿·欧文Washington Irving华盛顿·欧文,美国著名小说家,被称为“美国文学之父”.《瑞普·凡·温可尔》Rip Van Winkle《纽约外史》A History of New York《见闻札记》The Sketch Book《睡谷的传说》The Legend of Sleepy Hollow詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀James Fenimore Cooper詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀开创了以《皮裹腿故事集》为代表的边疆传奇小说,其中最为重要的一部是《最后的莫西干人》。
绪论1.一般认为,美国文学史大致可分为七个时期,分别是殖民地时期、独立战争前后时期、南北战争时期、南北战争后至第一次大战前时期、两次大战之间时期、第二次大战后至越南战争前时期、越南战争后至新世纪初时期。
2.殖民地时期的美国文学主要有三类,它们是原住民印第安人口头文学和民间故事、欧洲探险者到北美的探险日记和航海记录、早期到北美殖民地的英国官员和牧师的散文和游记。
3.在殖民地英国官员和牧师作家们中大致可分为两类,即清教主义作家和反清教主义作家。
4.独立战争前后的美国文学中,发展成果最为突出的文学类型是散文。
5.第一位获得国际声誉的美国小说家是华盛顿·欧文,他的短篇小说代表作是《瑞普·凡·温克尔》、《睡谷传奇》。
6.詹姆斯·范·库柏创作了“皮袜子五部曲”:《开拓者》、《最后一个莫希干人》、《草原》、《探路人》、《逐鹿者》;他是第一位描写美洲殖民地历史的历史小说家、第一位刻画印第安人形象的小说家。
7.爱默生的散文《论自然》是美国超验主义运动的宣言,在该文中,爱默生提出新大陆需要精神独立。
超验主义是民主思想在哲学上的表现。
8.美国诗人瓦尔特·惠特曼的诗集《草叶集》的问世标志着美国浪漫主义运动达到高潮,爱默生欢呼的伟大的美国诗人诞生了。
9.惠特曼去世标志着浪漫主义文学时代的结束,美国文学迅速走进一个现实主义和自然主义文学发展新时代。
10.马克·吐温的小说《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》开创了美国文学的一代新风;威廉·豪威尔斯被认为是美国现实主义文学的奠基人,他最先指出“金钱成了时代的史诗”,“当个百万富翁成了美国人的理想”;而亨利·詹姆斯则开创了20世纪美国心理小说的新方向。
11.欧·亨利被誉为“美国短篇小说之父”,与法国作家莫泊桑和俄国作家契诃夫并列为世界三大短篇小说家。
12.弗兰克·诺里斯是第一个名副其实的美国自然主义作家,西奥多·德莱赛被称为第一次世界大战前最优秀的自然主义作家,其代表作品有《嘉莉妹妹》、《美国的悲剧》。
1.The literature of colonial AmericaWilliam Bradford威廉·布拉德福德(1590年-1657年),五月花号公约签署人之一,于1620年参与创立了普利茅斯殖民地,并在长达30余年的时间里担任普利茅斯总督。
他所撰写的《普利茅斯垦殖记》是关于欧洲新世界殖民史的早期著作之一。
Anne Bradstreet美国女诗人布莱德斯特律1612英格兰比安普敦~1672.9.16,马萨诸塞湾殖民地安多弗美国最早写出真正有价值的英文诗歌的一位女诗人。
她的宗教组诗《沉思集》(Contemplations)受到20世纪文学批评界的重视,被认为是一部不朽之作。
《凡人的虚荣》(Of the vanity of all worldly creatures)、《灵与肉》(The Flesh and the Spirit)、《献给我亲爱的丈夫》(To My Dear and Loving Husband)、《人世正凋萎,万物有终极》(All things within this fading world hath end)、《心痛手颤写诗句》(With troubled heart and trembling hand I write)、《大卫对扫罗和约拿单的哀悼》(David's Lamentation for Sauland Jonathan)Puritan Thoughts美国清教主义从一开始就是一种精神运动,它不仅仅是一种宗教信仰,而且还是一种极端民主与共和的理论。
清教徒在自己的祖国遭受迫害,对英国严酷的社会现实不满而移民到美国。
他们希冀按自己的意欲信仰上帝。
于是,他们致力于建立一个乌托邦式的重视伦理和精神生活的社会模式。
他们崇尚真正的自由——这种真正的自由涵盖了广泛的道德的含义。
他们把一切破坏和蔑视这种自由信念的行为一概斥责为对权威的亵渎。
因此,他们认为自己是一群称之为美国人的新人,命定要建立一个新的世界,为人类建造一座“山上的光辉的城市”。
美国文学一.术语解释1,Transcendentalism(超验主义):简略版:It started in 1830s in US; which emphasis on spirit or oversoul and stressing importance of the individual; regarding nature as symbols of the spirit or God. It took idea from the romantic literatures of Europe, from Neo-Platonism and so on. Emerson was its representative.深层次版:American Transcendentalism: the emergence of the Transcendentalists as an identifiable movement took place during the late 1820s and 1830s, but the roots of their religious philosophy extended much farther back into American religious history. Transcendentalism and evangelical Protestantism followed separate evolutionary branches from American Puritanism, taking as their common ancestor the Calvinism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the Universe. They stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society. They offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Transcendentalism is based on the belief that the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of the senses. Emerson’s Nature has been called the “Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” and his The American Scholar has been rightly regarded as America’s “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”.美国超验主义:美国超验主义出现的19世纪20年代末期到三十年代,但是它的根源在宗教史上要远得多。
美国文学选读复习资料美国文学选读复习资料美国文学是世界文学宝库中的一颗璀璨明珠,承载着美国历史、文化和社会的精华。
作为文学爱好者和学生,对于美国文学的了解和掌握是必不可少的。
本文将为大家提供一份美国文学选读的复习资料,帮助大家更好地理解和欣赏美国文学的经典之作。
一、美国文学的起源与发展美国文学的起源可以追溯到十七世纪的殖民地时期。
最早的美国文学作品是早期殖民者的日记、教会纪实和历史记录,如《普利茅斯纪事》和《马萨诸塞纪事》。
随着殖民地的发展和美国独立战争的爆发,美国文学逐渐形成了自己的独特风格和主题,如《飘》、《红字》和《汤姆·索亚历险记》等。
二、美国文学的主题与特点美国文学的主题广泛而多样,涵盖了对自由、平等、个人主义和社会正义的探索。
美国文学作品常常关注社会问题和人类命运,如种族歧视、性别平等、战争和社会阶级等。
同时,美国文学也以其写实主义和现实主义的风格著称,力求真实地描绘社会生活和人物形象。
三、美国文学的代表作品1.《钢铁是怎样炼成的》这是美国作家海明威的代表作之一,通过描写一战期间的士兵们的生活和战争的残酷性,展现了人性的脆弱和战争的荒谬。
2.《了不起的盖茨比》这是美国作家菲茨杰拉德的代表作之一,以20世纪20年代的纽约社交圈为背景,描绘了财富、爱情和欲望的交织,对美国梦的追求和破灭进行了深刻的探讨。
3.《杀死一只知更鸟》这是美国作家哈珀·李的代表作之一,通过一个小女孩的视角,揭示了种族歧视和社会不公的问题,以及人性的复杂性和善恶的边界。
4.《老人与海》这是美国作家海明威的另一部代表作品,通过一个老渔夫与大海的搏斗,探讨了生命的意义和人与自然的关系。
5.《傲慢与偏见》这是英国作家简·奥斯汀的作品,虽然不是美国文学,但对美国文学的影响深远。
通过描写女主角伊丽莎白·班纳特的成长和婚姻观念的转变,探讨了社会等级、婚姻和爱情的主题。
四、美国文学的影响与意义美国文学不仅仅是一种艺术形式,更是美国文化和民族精神的重要组成部分。
殖民时期的美国: Colonial America 17c早——18c末1. 从英国探险者和殖民者在新大陆的作品开始,描述他们在新大陆真实而精力充沛的冒险。
2. 另一类为清教作品Philip Freneau 菲利普·费瑞诺:第一位美国抒情诗人兼记者“Father of American Poetry”(美国诗歌之父)Puritanism: 清教主义American Puritanism influences on American literature:1. Idealism and optimism 理想主义和乐观主义2. Symbolism 象征主义3. Simplicity. 简洁1.Edwards爱德华兹:the first modern American can the country’s last medieval man.“the current of Transcendentalism, originating in the piety of the Puritans, vecoming a philosophy in Jonathan Ed wards, passing through Emerson.”超验论由清教徒的虔诚演变而来在乔纳森·爱德华兹的哲理得到发展继而传给爱默生4、典型的清教徒: John Cotton & Roger William他们的不同:John Cotton was much more concerned with authority than with democracy; William begins the history of religious toleration in America.5、William的宗教观点:Toleration did not stem from a lack of religious convictions. Instead, it sprang from the idea that simply to be virtuous in conduct and devout in belief did not give anyone the right to force belief on others. He also felt that no political order or church system could identify itself directly with God. 行为上的德,信仰上的诚,并没有给任何人强迫别人该如何行事的权利。
1.Matches作家作品:(或参考课本目录,黑色斜体为课本目录)The literature of Realism:Walt Whitman 沃尔特.惠特曼Drum Taps (《桴鼓集》)Good-Bye, My Fancy ( 《再见,我的幻想》,)Leaves of Grass (《草叶集》)Passage to India ( 《通向印度之路》)Sequel to Drum Taps (《桴鼓集续集》)Song of Myself 《自己之歌》I Sit and Look Out 《我坐在这儿眺望着》Beat! Beat! Drum! 《敲呀!敲呀!鼓啊!》Emily Dickinson 艾米莉.狄金森I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed 《我品味未经酿造的饮料》I felt a Funeral, in my Brain 《我感受了一场葬礼,在脑中》A Bird came down the Walk 《鸟儿沿着小径过来》I died for Beauty--- but was scarce《我为美而死》I heard a Fly buzz- when I died 《我听到苍蝇的嗡嗡声---在临死之前》Because I could not stop for Death 《因为我不能停下来等候死神》I’m Nobody! Who are You?Success is Counted SweetestHarriet Beecher Stowe 哈丽雅特.比彻.斯托Uncle Tom's Cabin 《汤姆叔叔的小屋》Mark Twain 马克. 吐温The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 《汤姆.索亚历险记》.The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ([kælə‘verəs] 《卡拉韦拉斯县驰名的跳蛙》2.Innocents Abroad (《傻子国外旅行记》)3.Roughing It (《艰苦岁月》)4.The Gilded Age (with Charles Dudley Waenner, 《镀金时代》与查尔斯·达德利·沃纳合写)5.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (《汤姆·索耶历险记》)A Tramp Abroad (《国外流浪汉》)7. The Prince and the Pauper (《王子与贫儿》)8. Life on the Mississippi (《密西西比河上》)9.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (《哈克贝里·费恩历险记》)10.The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson ( 《傻瓜威尔逊》)11. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court ( 《亚瑟王朝廷上的康涅狄格州美国人》)12. The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg (《败坏赫德莱堡的人》)13. What Is Man? (《人是什么》)O.Henry 欧. 亨利The Cop and the Anthen 《警察与赞美诗》Henry James 亨利. 詹姆斯A Tragedy of ErrorsTransatlantic SketchesThe American 《美国人》Daisy Miller 《戴茜·米勒》The Europeans 《欧洲人》The Portrait of a Lady 《贵妇的肖像》Washington Square 《华盛顿广场》The Bostonians 《波士顿人》The Princess Casamassima 《卡萨玛西玛公主》The Tragic MuseGuy Domville (play, )What Maisie KnewThe Turn of the Screw 《碧庐冤孽》The Awkward AgeThe Wings of the Dove ) 《鸽之翼》The Ambassadors 《大使》(或译:奉使记) The Beast in the JungleThe Golden Bowl 《金碗》English HoursThe American SceneJack London 杰克. 伦敦The Sea Wolf《海狼》Martin Eden 《马丁.伊登》Theodore Dreiser 西奥多. 德莱赛Sister Carrie 《嘉莉妹妹》Jennie GerhardtThe FinancierThe TitanThe GeniusAn American TragedyTwentieth-Century Literature:Ezra Pound 埃兹拉. 庞德A Virginal 《处女无暇》Salutation《再次致敬》A Pact 《合同》In a Station of the Metro 《在地铁车站》The River-Merchant'sWife: A Letter 《长干行》Personae 《人物》Exultations 《狂喜》Cathay 译著《华夏》Homage to Sextus Propertius 《向赛克斯特斯.普罗波蒂斯致敬》Hugh Selwyn Mauberley 《休.赛尔温.毛伯利》The Cantos 《诗章》The ABC Reading (Literary Essay)Edwin Arlington Robinson 埃德温. 阿林顿. 罗宾逊The House on the Hill 《山上的古屋》Richard Cory 《理查.珂利》Miniver Cheevy 《米尼弗.契维》The Torrent and the Night Before 《急流与昨夜》The Town Down the River 《河下游的城镇》The Children of the Night 《夜之子》Mr. Flood’s Party 《弗罗德先生的酒会》The Man Against the Sky 《天边人影》Robert Frost 罗伯特. 弗洛斯特After Apple-Picking 《摘苹果之后》The Road Not Taken 《没有走的路》Stopping by Wood on a Snowy Evening 《雪夜林边小立》Departmental 《职责分明,各管各的》Design 《天意》The Most of It《他至多是》My butterfly 《我的蝴蝶》A Boy’s Will 《少年的意志》North of Boston 《波士顿以北》Mountain Interval 《山间》New Hampshire 《新罕布什尔》West-Running Brook 《向西流去的小溪》A Further Range 《又一片牧场》Mending Wall 《修墙》The Birches 《白桦树》A Witness Tree 《见证树》Steeple Bush 《尖塔丛》A Masque of Mercy 《假慈悲》Collected Poems 《诗选》Complete Poems 《诗歌全集》In the Clearing 《林间空地》Carl Sandburg 卡尔. 桑德堡In Reckless Ecstasy <心醉神迷>Chicago Poems <芝加哥诗集>Famous Imagist poems:Fog <雾>The Harbor <港口>←→Chicago <芝加哥>Cool Tombs <清冷的墓>The People, Yes <人民,是的>Flash Crimson 《闪烁的深红》Lost <失落>I Am the People, the Mob <我是人民群众>The American Songbag <美国歌集> or <美国歌袋>--folk songs of cowboys, vagabond and black peopleBiography of Lincoln (6 volumes) <林肯传>1 autobiography1 historical novelCornhuskers <碾米机>Smoke and Steel <烟与钢>Good Morning, America <早安,美国>Collected Poems <诗集>Wallace Stevens 华莱士. 斯蒂文斯Peter Quince at the Clavier 《彼得.昆士弹琴》Anecdote of the Jar 《坛子的轶事》The Emperor of Ice-Cream 《冰淇淋皇帝》Harmonium <风琴> (first collection of his poems at the age of 44)Notes toward a Supreme Fiction <关于高度虚构的笔记>The Idea of Orders <关于秩序的思想>The Man with the Blue Guitar <带蓝吉它的人>Parts of a World <一个世界的某些部分>Transport to Summer <转入夏季>The Auroras of Autumn <秋天的晨曦>Collected Poems <诗集>Opus Posthumous <遗作集>The Necessary Angel <必不可少的安琪儿>Thomas Stearns Eliot 托马斯. 斯特恩斯. 艾略特The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock(杰阿尔弗雷德普鲁夫洛克的情歌)The Waste Land (荒原)The Hollow Men (空心人)Preludes 《序曲》Journey of the Magi 《三贤者的旅程》Ash Wednesday (圣灰星期三:复活节前的第七个星期三)Four Quartets(四个四重奏/托马斯·斯特恩斯·艾略特)F. Scott Fitzgerald 司各特. 菲茨杰拉德(1) This Side of Paradise 《人间天堂》(2) Flappers and Philosophers 《轻佻女郎与哲学家》(3) The Beautiful and the Damned 《漂亮冤家》(4) The Great Gatsby 《了不起的盖茨比》(5) Tender is the Night 《夜色温柔》(6) All the Sad Young Man(7) The Last Tycoon 《最后的巨石》8)Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) 《爵士乐时代的故事》Ernest Hemingway 厄内斯特. 海明威1) In Our Time(2) Men Without Women(3) Winner Take Nothing(4) The Torrents of Spring(5) The Sun Also Rises 《太阳依照升起》(6) A Farewell to Arms 《永别了武器》(7) Death in the Afternoon 《午后之死》(8) To Have and Have Not(9) Green Hills of Africa 《非洲的青山》(10) The Fifth Column(11) For Whom the Bell Tolls 《丧钟为谁而鸣》(12) Across the River and into the Trees《过河入林》(13) The Old Man and the Sea 《老人与海》14)The Spanish War 《西班牙战争》John Steinbeck 约翰.斯坦(1) Cup of Gold(2) Tortilla Flat(3) In Dubious Battle(4) Of Mice and Men(5) The Grapes of Wrath 《愤怒的葡萄》(6) Travels with Charley(7) Short stories: The Red Pony, The PearlWilliam Faulkner 威廉. 福克纳A Rose for Emily 《给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰》The Sound and the Fury 《喧哗与骚动》As I lay Dying 《在我弥留之际》Light in August 《八月之光》Absalom, Absalom!《押沙龙,押沙龙!》Go down, Moses 《去吧,摩西》2.terms:(课件版在课件相关知识拼凑版,需自己整理一下)1)Free verse(参考书版)It is a form of poetry. It means that the poetry is without a fixed beat or regular rhyme, a looser and more open-ended syntactical structure is frequently favored. Lines and sentences of different lengths are left lying side by side just as things are, undisturbed and separate. There are few compound sentences to draw objects and experiences intoa system of hierarchy2) American realism(参考书版)Realism refers to the literary tendency appeared after the American Civil War. The harsh realities of life as well as the disillusion of heroism resulting from the dark memories of the Civil War had set the nation against the romance. The Americans began to be tired of the sentimental feeling of Romanticism. A new generation of writers, dissatisfied with the Romantic ideas in the older generation ,came up with a new inspiration. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life. It aimed at the interpretation of the actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. Instead of thinking about the mysteries of life and death and heroic individualism, people's attention was now directed to the interesting features of everyday existence, to what was brutal or sordid, and to the open portray of class struggle. This literary interest in the so-called"reality" of life started a new period in the American literary writings knows as the Age of Realism.3)Local colorism(参考书版)Local color is a term applied to fiction or verse which emphasizes its setting, being concerned with the character of a district or of an era, as marked by its customs, dialect, costumes, landscape, or other peculiarities the have escaped standardizing cultural influences. As a variation of American realism, local colorism came into particular prominence in the U.S. after the Civil War, perhaps as an attempt to recapture the glamour of a past ear, or to portray the sections of the reunited county one to the other. The representive writer of this movement is generally accepted as Mark Twain who depicts the beautiful scenes along the Mississippi Rover that he knows very well from his childhood. Other local colorists include Bret Harte, Hamlin Garland and Kate Chopin.4)Naturalism(参考书版)Naturalism is 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 moreinclusive 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 his social and economic environment and circumstances. Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgements, outgrowth of 19th-century scientific thought, following in the general the biographical feterminism of Darwin's theory, or the economic determinism of Mars. 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. It is no more than a different philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence.5)the Imagism(参考书版)Imagism is a poetic movement of England and the United States, flourished from 1909 to 1917. Its credo, expressed in Some Imagist Poets(1915), included the use of the language of common speech, preoject matter, the evocation of images in hard, clear poetry, and concentration. Origination in the aesthetic philosophy of T.E. Hulme, the movement soon attracted Ezra Pound, who became the leader of a small group opposed to the romantic conception of poetry and inspired by Greek and Roman classic and by Chinese, Japanese, and modern French poets.6)Object Correlative(课件版)Eliot’s famous principle of “objective correlative”(客观对应物)refers to using related objects, situations, events, all external facts, to express emotions. He said that the only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding the ‘objective correlative’, in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula(配方)of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.7)Lost Generation(课件版)It refers to, in general, the post-World War First’generation, but specifically a group of expatriate disillusioned intellectuals and artists, who experimented on new modes of thought and expression by rebelling against former ideals and values and replacing them only by despair or a cynical hedonism(快乐论, 快乐主义).Lost generation brilliantly describes those expatriates who had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing.The generation was "lost" in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U. S. that seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotional barren.The term embraces Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, E. E. Cummings, and many other writers who made Paris the center of their literary activities in the 1920s.8)Psychological realism(参考书版)It is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities of character's thoughts and motivations. Henry James 's novel The Ambassador is considered to be a masterpiece of psychological realism. And Henry James is considered the founder of psychological realism made by life on the spectator, and not in any facts of which the spectator is unaware. Such realism is therefor merely the obligation that the artist assumes to represent life as he sees it, which may not be the same life as it "really"is.3.Short Question and Answers:1)The social significance of Uncle Tom's CabinIt is the story of an old black slave, Uncle Tom, who has the hope of freedom held before him but who never escapes from his slavery. In the end, he welcomed the death caused by his cruel master, Simon Legree. As a masterpiece of Abolitionist propaganda, the book had its effect. It helped expand campaign in the North against Southern slavery that led to the Civil War.The novel exposed and denounced the slavery in the south in the 19th century. It arose at the historic moment of the high tide of the anti-slavery movement and exerted a great influence upon and greatly pushed forward the movement after its publication. Influence: enormous after the forty versions of different languages appeareda. It stirred the Civil War.b. It caused a lot of mothers sacrificing their sons.c. It also brought about the emancipation of black slaves.2)The International theme of Portrait of a Lady“The international theme”refers to the moral and psychological complications when the American innocence encountered the European sophisticationThe typical Americans in James: fresh, enthusiastic, eager to learn, and basically “good”, disregard of the conventions, stand for moralityThe Europeans in James : highly cultivated, elegant in manners, but sophisticated , stand for manners(礼貌)The meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contract and contrast European decadence, and its moral and psychological complicationsIsabel Archer VS Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond3)The analysis of Sister Carrie's themeWhen a girl leaves her home at 18, she does either of the 2 things:A.falling into saving hands and becoming better,B. or rapidly assuming the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and turning worse. Underthe circumstances, there is no possibility.The theme in Sister Carrie, a novel written by Theodore Dreiser, is materialism. The theme is primarily personified through Carrie with her desire for a fine home, clothes and everything else money can buy.Materialism, including the desire for money, is an important theme in Sister Carrie. The materialism is shown mostly through Carrie's character but also through Hurstwood, a man with a respectable life and money, who still wants more and for that reason commits a crime. The city in itself is also a place of materialism, it is a place that offers all kinds of amusements, pleasures and things to buy, but to participate in what the city has to offer one has to have money.4)The possible reason of Richard Cory's commit suiside(好像是上课提到过的)Abnormal state of mindMeaningless social valuesPerfect personSharp contrast sketches5)Analyse the character of The Love Song of J.Alfred PrufrockPrufrock is a bald middle-aged man fails the courage himself to confess his love to the woman which seems to be neither realistic romance nor nasty sexual desire, but somehow a sheer abstract symbol of adventure and departure. He leaves his love song in the hell of inner heart, locked up.Prufrock is the typical kind of modern educated man who hold the self-consciousness as a decent person, the moody, urban, isolated-yet-sensitive thinker. They want to pursue desire but worried about the effects it will brings to them. He undergoes the contradiction between reason and lust, and suffers in hesitation.With interior monologue as skill, Eliot presents a portraiture of modern man in awkwardness, impotence, and inner hollowness.Prufrock is typically a representative of modern man on this “Waste land”.6)Analyse the influence of American Dream on GatsbyA great number of his stories started with the basic situation in which a rising young man of the middle class is in love with the daughter of a very rich family. While The Great Gatsby explores a number of themes, none is more prevalent than that of the corruption of the American dream.Gatsby appears to be the embodiment of this dream –he has risen from being a poor farm boy with no prospects, to being rich, having a big house, servants, and a large social circle attending his numerous functions. He has achieved all this in only a few short years, having returned from the war penniless.However, Fitzgerald explores much more than the failure of the American dream –he is more deeply concerned with its total corruption.Gatsby has not achieved his wealth through honest hard work, but through bootlegging and crime. His money is not simply ‘new’money –it is dirty money, earned through dishonesty and crime.7)Hemingway's Iceberg TheoryAfter the publication of his last major work, The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway explained his "iceberg" theory of fiction writing in a Paris Review interview: “If it is any use to know it, I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg.”Hemingway's "iceberg theory" of prose style suggests that the writer should leave unsaid the vast majority of what might be written on a subject. The writer gains power by knowing what to leave out.4.Analysis1)I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed by Emily DickinsonThis peom is a ballad and the rhyme scheme of it:abcb1 stanzaI taste a liquor never brewed-----I taste a strong/sweet alcoholic spirit that has never been made to beer. Note the metaphor here.“A liquor never brewed”refers metaphorically to nature. The poet is lost in the beauty of nature.2 stanzaMolten blue---metaphorical use, referring to “heaven”or “nature”(天堂) The poet told readers humorously that she was drinking air and dew, and described herself as a drunken man to express she was intoxicating in nature very much. Image---inns of molten blue---the poet was deeply absorbed in the good days of summer full of blue sky and green grass.3 stanzaThe poet would intoxicate in nature for ever, comparing the bee, the butterfly. When the yellow flowers stopped blooming, the butterflies quitted gathering honey, the poet was still intoxicating in nature. (用类比的手法,把自己在自然中的沉醉之深比作喝了醇香美酒的感觉)From simple objects such as bees, butterflies, the poet shows her love towards nature and life.4 stanzaAlliteration: saints, swing, snowy, seraphsIn order to express her intoxication in nature, the poet described through the angels, the saints, and the snowy clouds. Even the saints and god also praised her“intoxication”.Emily Dickinson was greatly influenced by Emerson’s transcendentalism. She had a profound love for nature and was often intoxicated with the beauty of nature.The poet compares nature to liquor that has never been brewed and herself to a debauchee who loves wine more than her life. The image the poet uses to suggest drunkenness(醉态;酒醉)epitomizes her deep love for nature.The use of dash can delay the time to reflect the poet's slow advanced thinking and he lost in the beautiful nature.2)A Pact by Ezra Pound只找到前五节分析First,the words "pact" means "agreement"In these lines Pound comes to agree the importance of Walt Whitman although he has in the previous time rejected and attacked the achievements made by Whitman. Pound calls himself a grown child ,which means he has matured so that he would like to take up what Whitman has left. The poem shows the undeniable position of Walt Whitman in American literature.(As time went by, Pound had realized that some agreement existed between"Whitmanesque" free verse, which he used to attack for its carelessness in composition. He'd like to learn from the free verse and show respect to Whitman. )后面的老师上课提过的分析This reflect that the poet want to reform the old poetry style and follow Whitman to create new poetry style.(或者自己翻译“改革旧的诗风,追随惠特曼创造新的诗风”)3)The Road Not Taken by Robert FrostThis poem is written in classic five-line stanzas, with the rhyme scheme a-b-a-a-b and conversational rhythm.The poem seems to be about the poet, walking in the woods in autumn, choosing which road he should follow on his walk. The poet uses "the road " to symbolize life's journey.In reality, it concerns the important decisions which one must make in life, when one must give up one desirable thing in order to possess another.Then, whatever the outcome, one must accept the consequences of one' s choice for it is not possible to go back and have another chance to choose differently.In the poem, the poet hesitates for a long time, wondering which road to take, because they are both pretty.In the end, he follows the one which seems to have fewer travelers on it. Symbolically, he chose to follow an unusual solitary life, perhaps he was speaking of his choice to become a poet rather than some commoner profession.But he always remembers the road which he might have taken, and which would have given him a different kind of life.The literal meaning of this poem by Robert Frost is pretty obvious. A traveler comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go to continue his journey. After much mental debate, the traveler picks the road "less traveled by."The figurative meaning is not too hidden either. The poem describes the tough choices people stand for when traveling the road of life. The words "sorry" and "sigh" make the tone of poem somewhat gloomy. The traveler regrets leaves the possibilities of the road not chosen behind. He realizes he probably won't pass this way again.。
1. features of Puritanism 请教主义(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 atoneme nt: Only the “elect” can be saved.2, American Puritanism 美国请教主义的Basic Puritan Beliefs(1)Total Depravity - through Adam and Eve's fall, every person is born sinful - concept of Original Sin.(2)Unconditional Election - God "saves" those he wishes - only a few are selected for salvation - concept of predestination. (3)Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone. (4)Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied. Grace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God.(5)Perseverance of the "saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God - something impossible in Puritanism.(6)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..3.Influence on American Literature对美国文学影响定义:America literature is in good measure a literary expression of the pious idealism of the American Puritanism bequest. All literature is based on a myth of garden of Eden.Symbolism象征the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chie fly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American. Symbolism as a technique has become a common practice in American literature.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.4. The literary Scene in colonial America 殖民地的美国Humble origins: diaries, histories, journals, letters,travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons各种作家Writers: (1)John Smith: the first American writer(2)Anne Bradstreet: a Puritan poet ,The Complete Work: Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America(3)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 Preparatory Meditations.5;Features of Colonial Poets殖民地诗人的特征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.They faithfully imitated and transplanted English literary traditions.---In English styleThey were servants of God.---Puritan poetsThey served either God or colonial expansion or both.6,Anne Bradstreet’s Works1,“Some vers es on the Burning of Our House”2,“The Spirit and the Flesh”3,The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America(the first collection published by English colonists living in America)7.several points in this period:(1)William Hill Brown published the first American novel The Power of Sympathy in 1789.(2)Charles Brockden Brown) was the first American author to attempt to live from his writing. He developed the genre of American Gothic. He employed new narrative techniques. Another significance was his description of his characters’ in ner world, so his works can be read as psychological novel.(3)Roger Williams (1603-1683)Preach for civil and religious liberty and against the puritan oligarchy of Boston.Call for democratic government and oppose to the eviction of the Indians.Works: The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience(4)CJohn Woolman1:From a pious Quaker family 2:Transcendentalism humanitarianism3:Plea for the rights of all men and the abolition of the slavery system.Works: Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes; A Plea for the Poor.(5)Thomas Paine :A great influence in the American RevolutionWorks: The Rights of Man; The Age of Reason(6)Philip Freneau:“Poet of the American Revolution”“Father of American Poetry”,the most significant poet of 18th century in America. Some off his themes and images anticipated theworks of such 19th century American Romantic writers as Cooper, Emerson, Poe and Melville.His works:(1) The Rising Glory of America1772 《美洲光辉的兴起》(2) The Wild Honey Suckle 1786 《野地里德忍冬》(3) The Indian Burying Ground1788 《印第安人墓地》(4The Dying Indian: Tomo Chequi《奄奄一息的印第安人:托姆·柴吉》关于他的评价:He was the most significant poet of 18th century America.Some of his themes and images anticipated the works of such 19th century American Romantic writers as Cooper, Emerson, Poe and Melville.Poet of American Independence: Freneau provides incentive and inspiration to the revolution by writing such poems as "The Rising Glory of America" and "Pictures of Columbus."Journalist: Freneau was editor and contributor of The Freeman's Journal (Philadelphia) from 1781-1784. In his writings, he advocated the essence of what is known as Jeffersonian democracy - decentralization of government, equality for the masses, etc.Freneau's Religion: Freneau is described as a deist - a believer in nature and humanity but not a pantheist. In deism, religion becomes an attitude of intellectual belief, not a matter of emotional of spiritual ecstasy. Freneau shows interest and sympathy for the humble and the oppressedFreneau as Father of American Poetry: His major themes are death, nature, transition, and the human in nature. All of these themes become important in 19th century writing.All the while.in romanticizing the wonders of nature in his writings...he searched for an American idiom in verse.8:The American Enlightenment 美国启蒙运动(1)It was a part of a larger intellectual movement known as the Age of Enlightenment. Influenced by the scientific revolution of the 17th century, the Enlightenment took scientific reasoning and applied it to human nature and society.(2)Reason was advocated as the primary source and basis of authority.There was a shift from God-centered thinking to human being centered. Instead of going through life unhappy and thinking they had to suffer so they could enjoy the afterlife - people began to think about what they could accomplish on earth.(3)Equality The American Enlightenment inflenced Benjamin Franklin dramatically.Great Awening影响(1)It is a serires of religious revivals that swept over the American colonies about the middle of the 18th century.(2)It results in doctrinal changes and influnce social and political thought.In New England it was started by the rousing preaching of Jonathan Edwards9:Jonathan Edwards Works: (1)The Freedom of the Will《论意志自由》(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended《论原罪》(3)The Nature of True Virtue《论真实德行的本原》AssessmentJonathan Edwards was a good deal of a transcendentalistbecause of his ideas:a, The spirit of revivalism b. Regeneration of man c. God’s presence d. Puritan idealism10:Benjamin Franklin Works:1:The Autobiography《自传》(1)The Autobiography is, first of all, a Puritan document. It is a record of self-examination and self-improvement.(2)The Autobiography is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Benjamin Franklin was spokesman for the new order of 18th century enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free, by nature endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.(3)Through telling a success story of self-reliance, the book celebrates, in fact, the fulfillment of the American dream.Now a look at the style of The Autobiography will readily reveal that it is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concisionThe Autobiography《自传》:It is perhaps the first real post-revolutionary American writing as well as the first real autobiography in English.It gives us the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man:2:Poo r Richard’s Almanac《穷理查德格言历书》Poor Richard’s Almanac is full of adages and common-sense witticism which became ,very quickly, household words.Benjamin Franklin Borrowed from such writers as Defoe, Swift, and Pope , and used his own wit to simplify and enrich their axioms11:General Introduction to Romanticism 浪漫主义介绍a. Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution.b. It was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature.The movement stressed运动强调a. strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories.b. It elevated folk art and custom to something noble.c. It argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the formof language, custom and usage.12:Characteristics of Romanticism:浪漫主义特征(1)an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society—reliance on the subconscious, the inner life, the abnormal psychology(2)an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination—rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed formality, order and authority(3)a profound love for nature—nature as a source of knowledge, nature as a refuge from the present, nature as a revelation of the holy spirit the quest for beauty—pure beautythe use of antique and fanciful subject matters—sense of terror, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queer13,Romanticism Historical Background历史背景1,Political: After American Revolution, American developed into a political, economic and cultural independence. Democracy and equality became the ideals of the new nation. Complete changes came about in the political life of the country.2. Economic: Industrialism spread widely and fast. A large number of immigrants arrived. All these produced an economic boom.3. Both the change in political and the economic development brought about a sense of optimism and hope.4. Culturally: Magazines appeared in ever-increasing numbers and they played an important role in facilitating literary expansion.5. Foreign influence added incentive to the growth of romanticism in America.14Features of American Romanticism美国浪漫主义特征a. Imitative: Some of the American Romantic writings were modeled on English and European works. The Romantic Movement proved to be a decisive influence. Without it, the rise of Romanticism would have been impossible. Romanticism writers such as Scott, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron all made a stimulating impact on American literature.b. Independent: From the very beginning, American Romanticism exhibited distinct features of its own. It originated from a mixture of factors which were altogether American rather than anything else.c. Puritan influence over American Romanticism was clearly noticeable. E.g., the author tended more to moralize than writers in England.15:Uniqueness of Am. Romanticism:美国浪漫主义独特性Unique subject matter:The western movement :the American national experience of pioneering into the west proved to be a rich source of material for American writers to draw upon. They celebrated American’s landsc ape with its virgin forests, meadows, groves, endless prairies, stream, and vast oceans. The wildness came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral law.Uniqueness of Am. Romanticism::the newness as a nation美国浪漫主义独特性的具体体现(1)The ideals of individualism and political equality, and their dream that America was to be a new Garden of Eden for man were distinctly American. This feeling of newness was strong enough to inspire the romantic imagination and channel it into different vein of writing.Puritan moral values(2)Puritan influence over American Romanticism was clearly noticeable. E.g., the author tended more to moralize than writers in England.(3)Mixture of different races:The immigrants coming from different cultural and social background bring with them different cultures16. Two phases:两个时期a. 1770s to 1830s Early period Representatives: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooperb.1830s to 1860s Late period summit of American literature Representatives: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, Poe etc.;Washington Irving “Father of the American short storyHis Worksa. A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty1809 《纽约外史》b. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent1819-1820 《见闻札记》c. Bracebridge Hall 1822 《布雷斯布里奇庄园》d. Oliver Goldsmith 1840 《哥尔德斯密斯》e. Life of George Washington1855-1859 《华盛顿传》The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent1819-1820 《见闻札记》评价:(1)The Sketch Book is a collection of essays, sketches, and tales.(2)In The Sketch Book, the most famous and frequently anthologized(选编)are “Rip Van Winkle” 《瑞普·凡·温克》“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《睡谷的传说》(3)The short story as a genre in American literature began with The Sketch Book.(4)The book touched the American imagination and foreshadowed the coming of Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe. (5)It also marked the beginning of American Romanticisms.The evaluation of Irving:a:Father of American literatureb:The beginning of short story as a genre-“Father of the American short story”c The first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international famed The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American RomanticismThe theme of the storyThe story of man who has difficulties facing his advancing ageThe contradictory impulses in America toward work- the puritan attitude as opposed to the American desire for leisureThe theme of escape from one’s responsibilities and even one’s historyThe loss of identity19:James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851)Major Works:Precaution戒备(1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) The Spy间谍(his second novel and great success)皮袜子故事集:“Leatherstocking Tales” (his masterpiece, a series of five novels): The Pioneers开拓者, The Last of the Mohicans最后的莫西干人, The Prairie草原, The Pathfinder探路者, The Deerslayer 杀鹿者point of view:the theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rightsTheme:a. America was made conscious of his past, particularly the contribution from the Mohicans.b. The antithesis between nature and civilization, at the cost of the life and labor, will be dissolved to push the development of frontiers.c. The battle between the colonists caused the trage dy of Indians in American continentThe features of Cooper :He is a mythic writer Good at inventing plots (Cooper had never been to the frontier area personally.)Style: powerful, yet clumsy and dreadfulWooden Characters :Use of dialect, but not authentic (criticized by Mark Twain)19:超验主义:Transcendentalism (1)定义Emerson’s Definition:In his essay "The Transcendentalist," Emerson explained transcendentalism is “idealism; i dealism as it appears in 1842".The factors that influenced New England Transcendentalism:New England Transcendentalism was the Product of a combination of foreign influences and the American Puritan traditiona. Foreign influences: the introduction of idealism (唯心主义)from Germany and France and Oriental mysticismb. American PuritanismMajor Features超验主义特征:emphasis on spirit or the Oversoul as the most important thing in the universe. 1 The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. It exists in nature and man alike and constituted the chief elements of the universe2 It emphasized the significance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish.It took nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God3 All things in nature were symbols of the spiritual, of God’s presence. Nature was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Everything in the universe was viewed as an expression of the divine spirit.4 It stressed the power of intuition. It stressed the power of intuition, believing that people could learn things both from the outside world by means of the five senses and from the inner world by intuition. But the things they learned from within were truer than the things they learned from without, and transcended them. It held that everyone had access to a source of knowledge that transcended the everyday experiences of sensation and reflection. Intuition was inner light within.Influence超验主义的影响:1 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 became opportunism, 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 literatureSignificance: New England Transcendentalism is the summit of American Romanticism. Representatives: Emerson, Thoreau20:Ralph Waldo Emerson拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生His Works:a. Essays《散文集》b. Nature《论自然》(a book which declared the birth of Transcendentalism)c. The American Scholar《论美国学者》(American’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence)d. Divinity, The Oversoul《论超灵》e. Self-reliance《论自立》f. The Transcendentalist《超验主义者》His point of view a. One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the “oversoul”.b. He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying(圣洁的神圣化的) moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent(内在的固有的) God in nature.c. If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”.d. Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by making himself.His aesthetics a. poets should function as preachers who gave directions to the mass.b. True poetry and true art should ennoble and serve as a moral purification and a passage toward organic unity(有机统一) and higher reality.c. Emerson places emphasis on ideas, symbols and imaginative words.d. As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America and the life today.e. Emerson’s aesthetics brought about a revolution in American li terature in general and in American poetry in particular. It marked the birth of true American poetry and true America poets such as Whitman and DickinsonNature (论自然):Emerson’s first published work was Nature(1836). This work has the clearest statement of Transcendentalist ideas. Nature is considered the “gospel” (真理信条)of American Transcendentalism. It has an Introduction and eight chapters:1.Nature2. Commodity3. Beauty4. Language5. Discipline6. Idealism7. Spirit8. Prospects.The major thesis of the essay, in Emerson‘s words, is that we should now “enjoy an original relation to the universe,” and not become dependent on past experiences of others or on holy books, creeds ,dogma(教条教理).主要内容:In it Emerson stated that man should not see nature merely as something to be used; that man’s relationship with nature transcends the idea of usefulness. Nature is a kind of discipline to man. Once you are in nature, totally in solitude, you feel you’re nothing, but you see all. Nature makes people feel transparent(透明的) and humble. Meanwhile, He saw an important difference between understanding (judging things only according to the senses) and reasonThe American Scholar论美国学者These two works made him famous.As “Man Thinking”, the Scholar should know how to think when confronted with Nature, the Past (in the form of books) and Action (life).Emerson particularly warns that the past should be used to inspire and not to enslave the scholar. Emerson argued in the speech that the age called to the Scholar for active participation and leadership.It is American’s Declaration of Intellectual IndependenceSelf-Reliance(论自助)Self-Reliance is one of the most famous of these lecture essays, and is widely read in American high schools today. Emerson believed above all in individualism, independence of mind, and self-reliance; He admired courage and was not afraid of changing or clashing ideas.Equally important is Emerson’s essay The Over-Soul (1841).The Major Themes in Emerson’s Works:the emphasis on the independence and separateness of the individual, and the right (and duty) of man rise to his full potential, asserting the inalienable worth of every man.“Another sign of our times…is the new importance given to the single personEmerson’s Influences on A.La He called on American Writers to write about America in a peculiarly American way.b His perception of humanity and nature as symbols of universal truth encouraged the development of the symbolist movement in A. art and literature.c He embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert(维护主张)its own identity in its formative period.Henry David Thoreau a. A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers(1849)《康科德和梅里马克河上的一周》b. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Walden / Walden《瓦尔登湖》c. Civil Disobedience《论公民之不服从》It influenced people such as Mahatma Gandhi.point of viewHe did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently(激烈的) outspoken on the point.He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.Like Emerson, but more tha n him, Thoreau saw nature as a healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being.He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.He was very critical of modern civilization.“Simplicity…simplify!”He has trust in the future and has belief in a new generation of men.Civil DisobedienceThe essay makes it clear that this stance(立场姿态) is not a matter of whim(一时的兴趣奇想)but a demanding moral principle.The appeal of civil disobedience in the North grew in the wake of the Compromise of 1850, whichincluded the hated Fugitive Slave Law, requiring all citizens to aid in the return of escaped slaves to their owners. Though civil disobedience is usually associated with passive resistance, Thoreau brought out the more direct action of John Brown.Thoreau's essay had a profound influence on reformers worldwide, from Gandhi in South Africa and India; to Martin Luther King, and the opposition to the Vietnam War in the United States.Walden (1854In 1854, Thoreau published the book by which he will always be best known, Walden, or Life in the Woods. It is by far the deepest, richest, and most closely jointed of his books. It shows Thoreau at his best, and contains all that he had to say to the world. In fact, he is a man of one book, and that book is Walden. Thoreau's Walden is mythic, poetic, fictitious, fabulous, and metaphoric in the best senses of these terms. In it the artistically recreated real-life experience (itself an experiment in "artistic" living) becomes a symbolic model or paradigm for an embodied spiritual quest for the disembodied, for a journey from the "gross" to the divine "necessaries of life." The thesis of Walden is clearly indicated in the first chapter of the book. True economy has nothing to do with the ways and means of increasing wealth, with methods for multiplying the superfluities, the "gross necessaries of life." True economy is that which simply provides the flesh with what belongs to the flesh so that the spirit may go about its own business.The book described the author’s extremely simple life and regeneration he experienced when he lived near the Walden pond.This is a book on self-culture and human perfectibilityThoreau has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man. He holds that the most important thing for men to do with their lives is to be self-sufficient and strive to achieve personal spiritual perfection.In the book Thoreau criticized the modern civilization and told people to leave the life of hurry and bustle and to sink themselves in nature.It is a book full of ideas expressed to jostle his neighbors out of their smug(自鸣得意的) complacency(自满满足For the fatal modern craze for monetary success he prescribes a panacea(灵丹妙药) “Simplicity…simplify!” Spiritual richness is real wealth.One’s soul might not help one up in the world, but it will help make real progress in self-improvementRegeneration is a major thematic concern of wardenRegeneration is a major thematic concern of warden and thus decide the structural framework of the book. The whole book is within the frame of a single year, and progresses through spring, summer and autumn to winter.EvaluationComparing with Emerson who was a great thinker, Thoreau was a great experimentalist who put Emerson's Transcendental doctrines into practice in the actual life.Herman Melville (1819 ---- 1891):Master of philosophical allegory寓言1:His point of view : a. negative attitude towards life. b. One of the major themes of his is alienation孤立(far away from each other). c. Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism(individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19th-century idea of progress2:His Writing Stylea. Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.b. He tends to write periodic chapters.c. His rich rhythmical富有节奏感的prose and his poetic power have been profusely丰富地commentedupon and praised. d. His works are symbolic and metaphorical.e. He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)His Worksa.Typee1846《泰比》b. Omoo1874《奥穆》c. Moby Dick 1851《莫比·迪克》d. Mardi1849《玛地》 f. White Jacket1850《白外衣》g. Pierre1852《皮尔埃》h. Billy Budd (posthumously) 《比利·巴德》Moby Dick(1)Ishmael, feeling depressed, seeks escape by going out to sea on the whaling ship, Pequod. The captain is Ahab, the man with one leg. Moby Dick, the white whale, had sheared off his leg on a previous voyage, and Ahab resolves to hunt him to kill him. He hangs a doubloon on the mast as a reward for anyone who sight the whale first. The Pequod makes a good catch of whales but Ahab refuses to turn back until he has killed his enemy. Eventually the white whale appears, and the Pequod begins its doomed fight with it. On the first day the whale overturns a boat; on the second it swamps another. When the third day comes, Ahab and his crew manage to plunge a harpoon into it, but the whale carries the Pequod along with it to its doom. All on board the whaler get drowned, except one, Ishmael, who survive to tell the tale.Moby Dick represents the sum total of Melville’s bleak view of the world in which he lived. It is at once Godless and purposeless. Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life, meaningless because futile.One of the major themes in Melville is alienation, which he sensed existing in the life of his time on different levels, between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Nature has overwhelming power. Man can’t conquer nature. Man, living in this world, is a tragedyIt is a negative reflection of self-reliance, and individualism. Ahab may have been Melville’s portrait of an Emersonian self-reliant individual. Melville lost no opportunity in his criticism of New England Transcendentalism. Constantly under his attack is its emphasis on individualism and Oversoul. The idea that man make the world for himself is nothing but a Transcendentalist folly.Symbolismthe voyage: the search for the ultimate truth of experienceMoby Dick: the final mystery of the universe which man will do well to desist from pursuing Ambiguity (You can understand his Moby Dick differently.)First, it can be understand as a tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming odds in an indifferent and even hostile universe. Thus, Captain Ahab is a hero who dares to fight though he failed at last.Then, it can be understood as a bitter satire on Transcendentalism’s emphasis on self-reliance. Captain Ahab believed in his own power (a human being’s power) too much and thus he doomed to fail, because human’s power is limited and there is a mysterious thing existed in the universe which controlled man’s life and cannot be understood by human being.Nowadays some new research indicated that the story means man should protect the nature otherwise man will be punished as those whalers in the story were punished by the whale.Melville spoke ahead of his time. He knew that he was doomed to write a book like Moby Dick in his day, but he just could not help himself because he was a dedicated literary artist. There was, to be sure, a good deal of Ahab in him. “I have written a wicked book,” he said after finishing Moby Dick, and the public felt outraged. Thus born in the 19th century, Melville did not receive recognition until the twentieth century. Scarlet Letter1:The beauty shows:Free in the jail in her mind.。
美国文学研究一、作者及其主要作品梭罗《瓦尔登,或林中生活》霍桑《红字》短篇小说如《教长的黑面纱》《小伙子布朗》等麦尔维尔《白鲸》爱伦·坡《怪诞故事集》惠特曼《草叶集》亨利·詹姆斯《一位女士的画像》马克·吐温《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》《神秘的陌生人》德莱塞《美国的悲剧》杰克·伦敦《马丁·伊登》、《野性的呼唤》、《海狼》、《白牙》T·S·艾略特《荒原》(诗歌)菲茨杰拉德《了不起的盖茨比》海明威《太阳照常升起》福克纳《喧哗与骚动》尤今·奥尼尔《毛猿》《琼斯皇》《进入黑夜的漫长旅程》(戏剧)斯坦贝克《愤怒的葡萄》索尔·贝娄《洪堡的礼物》、《挂起来的人》诺曼·梅勒《裸者与死者》塞林格《麦田里的守望者》厄普代克《兔子,跑吧》(“兔子四部曲”)海勒《第二十二条军规》纳博科夫《洛丽塔》凯鲁亚克《在路上》威廉斯《玻璃动物园》(戏剧)米勒《推销员之死》(戏剧)拉尔夫·埃里森《看不见的人》托尼·莫里森《所罗门之歌》爱丽丝·沃克《紫色》谭恩美《喜福会》独立战争前后的文学富兰克林《自传》《穷查理历书》《致富之路》托马斯·潘恩《常识》《人的权利》《理性的时代》托马斯·杰弗逊《独立宣言》克里夫古尔《一个美国农夫的信》弗瑞诺《野忍冬花》《印第安人墓地》《纪念英勇的美国人》查尔斯·布罗克丹·布朗《韦兰德》二、简答题+论述题1.美国文学的诞生及一般特色1)历史背景:1775-81年的北美独立战争;1783年美利坚合众国的成立;1861-65年的南北战争。
独立战争以后,特别是进入19世纪之后,独立的美国文学开始诞生。
2)美国文学的一般特色:A.早期人少地多,为个人理想的实现提供了很大的空间和可能性,因此美国文学富于民主自由精神,个人主义、个性解放的观念较为强烈;B.这是一个由各国移民组成的国家,所以文学的内容、思想倾向和艺术风格都呈现出多样性、庞杂性;C.许多作家直接来自社会下层,使得文学的生活气息浓郁,平民色彩鲜明,具有开朗、豪放的特点;D.由于美国作家的敏感、好奇,使得美国文学浪潮迭起,日新月异,瞬息万变。
美国文学期末复习资料美国文学作为一个重要的学科,涉及的内容很广,题材也很多。
为了帮助大家更好地进行期末复习,本文将为大家提供一些有用的资料和复习方法。
一、美国文学的历史概述美国文学的历史可以分为几个时期:殖民时期、启蒙时期、浪漫主义时期、现实主义时期、自然主义时期、现代主义时期等。
每个时期都有不同的题材和文学流派,需要我们进行详细的了解和掌握。
二、重要的美国文学作品在美国文学中,有很多重要的作品,如《飘》、《百年孤独》、《了不起的盖茨比》、《老人与海》、《麦田里的守望者》等。
这些作品的作者都是文学史上的巨匠,他们的作品对之后的文学创作产生了很大的影响,也是重要的考题。
三、主要的美国文学流派美国文学中有很多流派,如现代主义、后现代主义、现实主义、自然主义、浪漫主义等。
每个流派都有不同的特点和代表作品,需要我们对其进行深入的了解,从而更好地掌握美国文学的发展历程。
四、美国文学中的重要人物美国文学历史上有很多重要的人物,如沃尔特·惠特曼、马克·吐温、欧内斯特·海明威、海伦·凯勒等。
这些人物都是文学史上的重要人物,他们的作品对于美国文学的发展产生了深远的影响。
五、复习方法在复习美国文学的时候,我们可以采取以下几种方法:1. 将美国文学的历史概述、重要作品、主要流派、重要人物等内容进行系统的总结,形成属于自己的笔记。
2. 阅读相关作品,在了解作品的同时,结合自己的理解,形成自己的见解和思考。
3. 参加相关讲座和研讨会,向专业人士请教,深入了解美国文学的相关知识和技能。
4. 做好考试的准备,根据历年考题,进行模拟练习,找到自己的薄弱环节,进行针对性的复习。
总之,在进行美国文学的复习时,我们需要深入了解相关内容,同时养成良好的阅读习惯和思考习惯,不断加强对美国文学的理解和掌握,从而有效提高自己的成绩。
1. Romantic period2.Washington Irving3. Edgar Allan Poe4. Nathanial Hawthorne5. Walt Whitman6. Emily Dickinson7.II. Realist period8.Mark Twain9.Sherwood Anderson10. Stephen Crane11. Theodore Dreiser12.III. Modern period13. F. S. Fitzgerald14. Ernest Hemingway15. William Faulkner1.TranscendentalismTranscendentalism refers to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800’s, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and Nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant. New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism.2.NaturalismNaturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at “scientific” status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects. Natural fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreiser’s Sister Carrie.3.American DreamThe American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations.4.The Lost GenerationThe term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein (“You are all a lost generation”) as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during World War I. They were “lost” because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to more into asettled life5. ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious.6. Romanticism.7. PuritanismThe principles and practices of puritans were popularly known as Puritanism. Puritanism accepted the doctrines of Calvinism: the sovereignty of God; the supreme authority of the Bible; the irresistibility of God’s will for man in every act of life from cradle to grave. These doctrines led the Puritans to examine their souls to find whether they were of the elect and to search the Bible to determine God’s will.8.Hemingway Heroes / Code Hero“Hemingway Heroes” refer to some protagonists in Hemingway’s works. Such a hero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. And usually he is a man of action and of a few words. He is such an individualist, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happiness. The Hemingway heroes stand for a whole generation. In a world which is essentially chaotic and meaningless, a Hemingway hero fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The awareness that it must end in defeat, no matter how hard he strives, engenders a sense of despair. But Hemingway heroes possess a kind of “despairing courage”as Bertrand Russell terms. It is this courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. Surely Hemingway heroes differ, one from another, in their view of the world. The difference which comes gradually in view is an index to the subtle change which Hemingway’s outlook had undergone.ExpressionismExpressionism refers to a movement in Germany early in the 20th century, in which a number of painters sought to avoid the representation of external reality and, instead, to project a highly personal or subjective vision of the world. The main principle involved is that expression determines form, and therefore imagery, punctuation, syntax, and so forth. In brief, any of the formal rules and elements of writing can be bent or disjointed to suit the purpose. Theatrically, expressionism was a reaction against realism in that it tends to show inner psychological realities. O’Neill’s plays are some of the best examples.The Imagist Movement (Imagism)Led by Ezra Pound and flourished from 1909 to 1917, the movement advanced modernism in arts which concentrated on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed to Romanticism, especially Tennyson' s wordiness and high-flown language in poetry. The three principles followed by the Imagists were:(1)"Direct treatment" (2) "Economy of Expression" (3) " Rhythm" symbolismSymbolism originates in France in the middle 19th century. The poetry collection The Flowers of Evil by the French poet Charles Baudelaire is a representative work of this genre. Symbolism tries to express the dreamy mysterious inner world of the writer.Stream-of-consciousnessStream-of-consciousness begins in the 1920’s in Britain. It is a psychological term indicating “the flux of conscious and subconscious thoughts and impressions moving in the mind at any given time independently of the person’s will”. In late 19th century, the literary device of “interior monologue” was originated in France as an application of modern psychological knowledge to literary creation. In the 20th century, under the influence of Freud’s theory of psychological analysis, a number of writers adopted the “stream of consciousness” method of novel writing. The striking feature of these novelists is their giving precedence to the depiction of the characters’ mental and emotional reactions to external events, rather than the events themselves. (to be continued)Free verse:a form of poetry without rhyme, meter, regular line length, and regular stanzaic structure. It depends on natural speech for rhythm. Robert Frost compared it to “playing tennis with the net down.” Though much simpler and less restrictive than conventional poetry and blank verse, free verse does no mean “formlessness.” T. S. Eliot once said that “no verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.” Though its origin is unknown,it was attempted by such early poets as Surrey, Milton, Blake, and Macpherson. It was Whitman who did the greatest contribution to the development and popularity of free verse. Whitman favored the simplicity and freedom of expression. According to him, “The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of light of letters is simplicity. Noting is better than simplicity.”Jazz age:Jazz is a form of dance music that is derived from early Afro-American folk music, ragtime, and Negro blues. It is marked with exciting rhythm, pronounced syncopation, and constant improvisation. The musical instruments used are mainly drums, trumpets, and saxophones. Major composers of Jazz music include Irvin Berlin and W. C. Handy. The term Jazz Age was specifically employed by Fitzgerald to denote the 1920s, which was characterized by the loss of traditional moral standards, indulgence in romantic yearnings, and great social excitement. According to Malcolm Cowley, the Jazz Age was “a legend of glitter, of recklessness, and of talent in such profusion that it was sown broadcast like wild oats.”F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age, like Mark Twain’s The Gilded Age, was an epoch-making work.Black humor:a term frequently used in modern literary criticism. It is sometimes called ‘black comedy’ or ‘tragic farce.’ It is humor or laughter resulting from great pain, despair, horror and the absurdity of human existence. Black humor is a common quality of modern anti-novels and anti-dramas. Examples are Franz Kafka’s stories like “Metamorphosis”, “The Castle” and “The Trial”, Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 and Albee’s The Zoo Story. Other writers who did much contribution to the popularity of black humor were Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, Vonnegut, Pynchon and so on.Autobiography:a story a writer writes about his or her own life experiences. It is narrated from the first-person point of view. The term was probably first used by Southey. But the first important autobiography was Confessions written by Augustine of Hippo. Other examples include Franklin’s Autobiography, Adams’s The Education of Henry Adams, John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography, Carlyle’s Reminiscences, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, and so on.Surprise Ending:Also called “O. Henry ending,” it is a completely unexpected turn or revelation of events at the conclusion of a story or play. An example is “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. Another instance is O. Henry’s story “The Gift of the Magi.”Blank verse:poetry that does not rhyme but has iambic pentameter lines. Though notoriginated in England or America, it has been the most important and most widely used English verse form. Blank verse is popular because it is closest to the rhythm of daily English speech. Thus most English poems which are dramatic, reflective or narrative are in the form of blank verse. This verse was probably first used in England by Surrey who translated Aeneid, by Sackville and Norton who composed Gorboduc. It was developed and perfected by Marlowe, Shakespeare and Milton. In the 18th century, most poets favored heroic couplets. But Young and Thomson were able to write in the tradition of blank verse. The 19th century saw a renewed interest in this poetic form. Masters of blank verse included Wordsworth, Coleridge and Bryant. The fact that blank verse is still practiced by writers like T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Frost and Stevens shows how influential and favorable it really is.Characteristics of Realism2.1 Realism aims at the description of the actualities of the life and free from subjective prejudice, idealism or romantic color.2.2 Realism focuses on commonness of the common people. The emphasis is on ordinary people, settings and events.2.3 Life is presented as it is.2.4 Use real characters, real incidents, real language and local dialects.2.5 In matters of style, diction and sentence structure tend toward a plain style.3.Representative writersWilliam Howells .Mark Twain .Henry JamesMajor features of Naturalism1. At the core of naturalism is determinism2.An individual’s course in life is wholly determined by some combination of animal instinct, heredity, and environment. Humans lack freedom of their own will. All of their actions are controlled, determined.3.The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. Life becomes a struggle for survival.Two of the naturalist’s recurrent concerns are: social systems that destroy and dehumanize, and individual experience of loss and failure.4.Naturalism is a harsher and extreme form of realism. The naturalists have a major difference from the realists.Themes of Hawthorne’s writing1. Explore the relationship between the past and the present2. Explore the hidden motivations of his characters.3. Examine the effect of hidden sin and secret guilt4. Moral or immoral, right or wrong is the question Hawthorne always talks about in his works.1.5. Style1. His style was soft, flowing and almost feminine.nguage: smooth, clear, beautiful in sound and meaning3. He also frequently uses symbols and settings to reveal the psychology of the characters.Appreciation of The Scarlet Letter1. Main Character:Hester Prynne.,Roger Chillingworth.,Arthur Dimmesdale3. Character AnalysisHester: brave, strong-minded, warm-hearted, intelligent, sacrificing, decisive Dimmesdale: timid, selfish, irresponsible, cowardly, weak-mindedChillingworth: cold-blooded, dehumanizedTheme of The Scarlet LetterTo escape the bondage of religion either on people’s spirit or on people’s natural desire4. Abundant use of symbolsA ---adultery angel ablePrison—the place that deprived people of spiritual freedomForest---the natureRose near the prison—Hester and her loveCap—sth controlling one’s beautyWalt Whitman(1819-1892)Leaves Of Grass“Song of myself”Analysis of the artistic features2.4.1. form: free verseOral and powerful lg: Although free verse, he wrote with repeated and parallel sentences to strengthen the feelings. He express what he wanted to express freely, smoothly, and heatedly. His poems are like waves of the sea that rushed to the beach violently, one after another.2.4.2 the first person narrator: direct and sympathetic to the reader2.4.3. topic: sex.To use his own expression, “he saw the world as a vision of love.”He believes that life is the source of poems, love and enthusiasm are the motives of creation.III. Comments on the writer3.1. Subject: son of time, feels the pulse of the time. As a romanticist and transcendentalist, he broke the conventional poetic materials, no myth,no romance, no story of king and lords. He sings for self, common people, America, city life, nature, etc.3.2. Form: (Free verse) poetry without fixed beat or regular rhyme. Whitman is the first great American poet to use this form of poetry, he also used it more skillfully than any other poet.(1)One's Self I Sing1. What is the significance of singing about one's self?It is an exaltation of the individual spirit, which is typical of American people.2. What is the difference between physiology and physiognomy? Physiology is a science that deals with the functions and life process of human beings, whereas physiognomy refers to an art of judging character from contours of face itself or the appearance of a person.3. What does Whitman mean by the term of "the Modern Man"?He means that a man should be free from any prejudice and pride, totally different from the traditional one, that is full of bias.(3) O Captain! My Captain!1. Why is the word "Captain" capitalized throughout the poem?In this poem the word “Captain” specially refers to Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States.2. What overall metaphor does the poet employ in this poem?Life is a journey.3. Why do people on the shores exult and bells ring, while the speaker remains so sad?They welcome the ship returning from its hard trip, whereas the speaker is sad because the captain fails to receive his own honor.Mark Twain 马克·吐温The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Count卡拉维拉斯县有名的跳蛙(1865):a short storyThe Innocents Abroad国外的无辜者(1869)Roughing It苦行记(1872): on his experience in the western America The Gilded Age (1873): his first novel, collaborated with Charles Dudley WarnerThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利·费恩历险记(1884): masterpieceLife on the Mississippi (1883)A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court误闯亚瑟王宫(1889)The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg败坏了哈德莱堡的人(1900)The Mysterious Stranger (1916)e. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer1. It is "a boy's book" which sets 20 years before Civil War.2. themes:1)picaresque以流浪汉和无赖为题材的(adventure story)2) moral growth of Tom3. techniques: verisimilitude, humor, colloquial styleMark Twain’s Style in Generalthe true father of American literatureFrequent use of sarcasm, slang and regional dialects.4.5.1. Subject Matter: came directly from American people’s life along the Mississippi River, less influenced by foreign cultures4.5.2. Genuine American style:a) Language: easy, informal, humorous and unaffected [free from affectation; sincere], wildb) He intentionally deviates from classical genteel and tends to use local dialects, colloquial language, even Black English, slang, clipped structures and ungrammatical sentencesMajor work : Huckleberry Finn《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》 show escape to freedomTheodore Dreiser (1871-1945) 德莱赛Naturalism is a theory in literature emphasizing the role of heredity and environment upon human life and character development roughly between 1890’s and early 1900’s. There is no clear-cut chronological division between the American naturalists and the American realists.Realism Naturalismemphasis on the ordinary emphasis also on the extraordinarya mirror a lensthe observer the scientistmoral or rational the accidental and physiologicalMajor Writing Features6.3.1 As a naturalistic writer, Dreiser stressed determinism in his novels.His characters can’t assert their will against natural and economic forces.Dreiser held that people are not entirely to blame for what they are and what they do.6.3.2. He developed the capacity for photographic and relentless observation, thereby truthfully reflecting the society and people of his time and making his novels very believable and convincing.Almost all of his main characters are based on the real people.Vivid description of environmental settings and social background 6.3.3. His novels are full of tragedies, serious subjects and miserable side of the society.·Dreiser broke through the genteel tradition , revealed the life of the lower class people and dared to expose the vulgar and ugly side of the society.Style6.4.1. Language: very awkward, crude/on the bordering of line of grammar.6.4.2. Serious in tone: never satirical or comic6.4.3. Natural narrative method, free from artifice.His narrative is based on quantities of materials and detailed descriptions.作品Si ster Carrie 嘉莉妹妹(1900): the first novel, masterworkJannie Gerhardt (1911)The Fanancier (1912)The Titan (1914)The Stoic (1947)The Genius (1915)An American Tragedy美国悲剧 (1925)Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928)c. Sister Carrietheme:the emptiness of Ameircan Dreami. jungle lawFamous actress bank manager(the unfit is bound to die) <——Country girl (able to follow her instinct) commit suicideii. chance and luckiii. criticism of American values: money and sex —the standards to see if a person is successfuliv. concern for the poorF.Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)an Irish-American Jazz Age novelist and short story writer.Theme of the American DreamFitzgerald’s favorite theme is the American Dream. In The Great Gatsby and other works, a general pattern can be found to fully demonstrate Fitzgerald’s enthusiasm and his disillusionment with the American Dream: formally, a poor young man from the West trying to make his fortune in the East, but thematically, the young man goes on a journey of discovery from dream, through disenchantment, and finally to a sense of failure and despair. In this general pattern of the protagonist’s personal experience is incarnated the whole of American experience.. Languagesmooth, sensitive, original, simple and gracefulJay Gatsby Nick Carraway Tom Buchanan Daisy BuchananThe Great GatsbyTheme:1. about reality and atmosphere of 1920s2. failure of American Dreamc. attitude towards the rich: paradoxicalHe is charmed by the rich.He is critical of the rich who are corrupted themselves and meanwhile corrupting others.d. attitude towards the Jazz Age: insider and outsider人物 Jay Gatsby Nick Carraway Tom Buchanan Daisy Buchanan Gatsby, with all his freshness, his optimism, and his vitality Gatsby in the novel represents the newly rich upstart, vulgar in his ostentatious [showy] wealth. However, he becomes a kind of new American Adam. He is “great”, because he is dignified and ennobled by his dream and his mythic vision of life.Tom Buchanan :He is vulgar, hypocritical racist and bigot [person who holds sth strongly]. He is practical and non-idealistic, shallow and mistrustful of emotion. He never cares or takes responsibility.Daisy Buchanan:she also has an inner emptiness, marked by her boredom and cynicism and moral irresponsibility. She is afraid of being alone, as though she has no inner self. But she has the power to charm. Daisy represents material wealth to Gatsby, but it also connects with physical attraction. However, Daisy is unworthy of Gatsby’s love. She is incapable of living the fully imagined life that Gatsby has visualized. She is cowardly and selfish.Nick is both a narrator and a character in this novel. He leads us tothe dignity and depth of Gatsby’s character, and suggests the relation of his tragedy to the American situation.Ernest Hemingway 海明威style1.iceberg principle. The meaning here is that the writer should say only one eighth, in such a way that the remaining seven eighths be discerned and provided by the reader.nguage: short, common, fundamental words, simple sentence, structure.The effect of the language: clearness, cleanness and great care.3.dialogue: plays a very important part in his writings. Hemingway’s dialogue can show setting, development of plot, characters, even theme.4.cinematic way: he uses showing instead of telling. He likes to describes actions (kiss, withdraw hand) vividly instead of mentaldescription.5.symbolisme of stream of consciousnesstraits for the Code Hero:(1) Measuring himself against the difficulties life throws in his way, realizing that we will all lose ultimately because we are mortals, but playing the game honestly and passionately in spite of that knowledge.(2) Facing death with dignity, enduring physical and emotional pain in silence(3) Never showing emotions(4) Maintaining free-will and individualism, never weakly allowing commitment to a single woman or social convention to prevent adventure, travel, and acts of bravery(5) Being completely honest, keeping one's word or promise(6) Being courageous and brave, daring to travel and have "beautiful adventures," as Hemingway would phrase it(7) Admitting the truth of Nada (Spanish, "nothing"), i.e., that noexternal source outside of oneself can provide meaning or purpose. This existential awareness also involves facing death without hope of an afterlife, which the Hemingway Code Hero considers more brave than "cowering" behind false religious hopesThemes nada,grace under pressure, code heroMagic realism 加西亚·马尔克斯《百年孤独》Garcia Marques Century Loneliness)Henry JamesThe American (1877): begins with international themeDaisy Miller (1878): brings the author first international fame The Wings of the Dove (1902)The Ambassadors (1903)The Golden Bowl (1904)The Portrait of A Lady贵妇画像:masterpieceJack LondonThe People of the Abyss深渊居民(1903): about London's slumThe Iron Heel 铁蹄(1908): the first proletarian criterion novel which envisages the development of fascismThe Call of the Wild 野性的呼唤(1903): the most widely read book The Sea Wolf 海狼(1904)These two novels reflect the ideas of the law of survival and the will to powerMartin Eden马丁伊登Ezra Pound埃兹拉·庞德Imagism意象派Pound became the most important figure. Imagist poetry reached the peak of literature for three things appeared:i. a manifesto ii. three principles iii. a lot of writingsIn a Station of the Metro在地铁车站1. This is the much-quoted masterpiece of Pound and a representative of the Imagist poetry.2. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians "apparition"?These pedestrians are all walking in a hurry amidst the drizzling rain.3. What do "petals" and "bough" stand for? Petals refer to the faces while the bough stands for the floating crowd.Robert Frostb. Characteristics⏹ 1. not in the main stream of modern poetry, but with conventional form andplain language. That’s why he’s the most popular poet in the 20th century.⏹ 2. a kind of a regionalist----New England, but not local colorism. He usedNew England as a metaphor for the whole world and universe.⏹ 3. a plain poet using symbols from everyday country life. Simple symbols butexpress deep meanings.The Road Not Taken⏹ 1. The poem was written in very regular lines with iambic pentametre and rhymescheme of abaab.⏹ 2. The symbolic meaning of the two divergent roads is rather clear. Theyrepresent any important decisions in one's life.⏹ 3. details:Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening⏹ 1. It is a lyric poem with iambic tetrametre and interlocking enclosed rhyme.⏹ 2. It represents a moment of relaxation from the onerous journey of life,an almost aesthetic enjoyment and appreciation of natural beauty which is wholesome and retorative against the chaotic existence of modern man.William Faulkner (1897-1962)Sound and Fury: divided into 4 parts1. t hemes:a) downfall of the South. The south was in deterioration. It’s going from bad to worse. The present and the past form a contrast from Benjy’s eyes. He’s an idiot so his reactions were distinctive feeling. He felt strongly the loss of love. The downfall of Mr. Campson was not only a personal one but also a universal one---the society was in disorder.b) conflict between the old/young generationsFather of Southern American literatureNobel Prize for literature in 1950Special features2.1. Setting :Oxford is the model for his fictional Jefferson, the central place of his fictional Yoknapatawpha County2.2. Subjects :southern tradition, family, community, the land, history and the past, race, and the passions of ambition and love2.3. Characters:Typical of the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South 写作技巧Multiple Points of View:He always structure his stories in his own original fashion and is proficient in employing a distinctive narrative method of gradually fitting in and of withholding or even giving confusing information.Stream of consciousness,complex structures, epic style, symbolismWilliam Faulkner威廉•福克纳1897-1962 1950年获诺贝尔文学奖, 普利策奖小说奖 1. 1929年《喧嚣与骚动》”The Sound and the Fury”1930年《在我弥留之际》”As I Lay Dying”1932年《八月之光》”Light in August”1936年《押沙龙,押沙龙》”Absalom, Absalom”教材作品:《给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰》:“A Rose for Emily”南方文学特点:主题:作者获奖The Nobel Prize &The Pulitzer Prize: John Steinbeck约翰•斯坦贝克William Faulkner威廉•福克纳Ernest Hemingway厄恩斯特•海明威The Nobel Prize: Thomas Stearns Eliot托马斯•斯特恩斯•爱略特The Pulitzer Prize: Wallace Stevens华莱士•斯蒂文斯Robert Frost罗伯特•弗洛斯特Edwin Arlington Robison埃德温•阿林顿•罗宾逊尤金.奥尼尔(Eugene O’Neill,1888----1952),美国著名剧作家。
1.Romantic period2.Washington Irving3.Edgar Allan Poe4.Nathanial Hawthorne5.Walt Whitman6.Emily Dickinson7.II. Realist period8.Mark Twain 9.Sherwood Anderson10.Stephen Crane11.Theodore Dreiser12.III. Modern period13. F. S. Fitzgerald14.Ernest Hemingway15.William Faulkner1.TranscendentalismTranscendentalism refers to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800’s, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and Nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant. New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism.2.NaturalismNaturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at “scientific”status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects. Natural fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreiser’s Sister Carrie.3.American DreamThe American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations.4.The Lost GenerationThe term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein (“You are all a lost generation”) as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during World War I. They were “lost”because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to more into a settled life5. ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss,and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious.6. Romanticism.7. PuritanismThe principles and practices of puritans were popularly known as Puritanism. Puritanism accepted the doctrines of Calvinism: the sovereignty of God; the supreme authority of the Bible; the irresistibility of God’s will for man in every act of life from cradle to grave. These doctrines led the Puritans to examine their souls to find whether they were of the elect and to search the Bible to determine God’s will.8.Hemingway Heroes / Code Hero“Hemingway Heroes” refer to some protagonists in Hemingway’s works. Such a hero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. And usually he is a man of action and of a few words. He is such an individualist, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happiness. The Hemingway heroes stand for a whole generation. In a world which is essentially chaotic and meaningless, a Hemingway hero fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The awareness that it must end in defeat, no matter how hard he strives, engenders a sense of despair. But Hemingway heroes possess a kind of “despairing courage”as Bertrand Russell terms. It is this courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. Surely Hemingway heroes differ, one from another, in their view of the world. The difference which comes gradually in view is an index to the subtle change which Hemingway’s outlook had undergone.ExpressionismExpressionism refers to a movement in Germany early in the 20th century, in which a number of painters sought to avoid the representation of external reality and, instead, to project a highly personal or subjective vision of the world. The main principle involved is that expression determines form, and therefore imagery, punctuation, syntax, and so forth. In brief, any of the formal rules and elements of writing can be bent or disjointed to suit the purpose. Theatrically, expressionism was a reaction against realism in that it tends to show inner psychological realities. O’Neill’s plays are some of the best examples.The Imagist Movement (Imagism)Led by Ezra Pound and flourished from 1909 to 1917, the movement advanced modernism in arts which concentrated on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed to Romanticism, especially Tennyson' s wordiness and high-flown language in poetry. The three principles followed by the Imagists were:(1)"Direct treatment" (2) "Economy of Expression" (3) " Rhythm"symbolismSymbolism originates in France in the middle 19th century. The poetry collection The Flowers of Evil by the French poet Charles Baudelaire is a representative work of this genre. Symbolism tries to express the dreamy mysterious inner world of the writer. Stream-of-consciousnessStream-of-consciousness begins in the 1920’s in Britain. It is a psychological term indicating “the flux of conscious and subconscious thoughts and impressions moving in the mind at any given time independently of the person’s will”. In late 19th century, the literary device of “interior monologue”was originated in France as an application of modern psychological knowledge to literary creation. In the 20th century, under the influence of Freud’s theory of psychological analysis, a number of writers adopted the “stream of consciousness”method of novel writing. The striking feature of these novelists is their giving precedence to the depiction of the characters’mental and emotional reactions to external events, rather than the events themselves. (to be continued)Free verse:a form of poetry without rhyme, meter, regular line length, and regular stanzaic structure. It depends on natural speech for rhythm. Robert Frost compared it to “playing tennis with the net down.”Though much simpler and less restrictive than conventional poetry and blank verse, free verse does no mean “formlessness.”T. S. Eliot once said that “no verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.”Though its origin is unknown, it was attempted by such early poets as Surrey, Milton, Blake, and Macpherson. It was Whitman who did the greatest contribution to the development and popularity of free verse. Whitman favored the simplicity and freedom of expression. According to him, “The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of light of letters is simplicity. Noting is better than simplicity.”Jazz age:Jazz is a form of dance music that is derived from early Afro-American folk music, ragtime, and Negro blues. It is marked with exciting rhythm, pronounced syncopation, and constant improvisation. The musical instruments used are mainly drums, trumpets, and saxophones. Major composers of Jazz music include Irvin Berlin and W. C. Handy. The term Jazz Age was specifically employed by Fitzgerald to denote the 1920s, which was characterized by the loss of traditional moral standards, indulgence in romantic yearnings, and great social excitement. According to Malcolm Cowley, the Jazz Age was “a legend of glitter, of recklessness, and of talent in such profusion that it was sown broadcast like wild oats.”F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age, like Mark Twain’s The Gilded Age, was an epoch-making work.Black humor:a term frequently used in modern literary criticism. It is sometimes called ‘black comedy’or ‘tragic farce.’It is humor or laughter resulting from great pain, despair, horror and the absurdity of human existence. Black humor is a common quality of modern anti-novels and anti-dramas. Examples are Franz Kafka’s stories like “Metamorphosis”, “The Castle”and “The Trial”, Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 and Albee’s The Zoo Story. Other writers who did much contribution to the popularity of black humor were Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, V onnegut, Pynchon and so on. Autobiography:a story a writer writes about his or her own life experiences. It is narrated from the first-person point of view. The term was probably first used by Southey. But the first important autobiography was Confessions written by Augustine of Hippo. Other examples include Franklin’s Autobiography, Adams’s The Education of Henry Adams, John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography, Carlyle’s Reminiscences, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, and so on.Surprise Ending:Also called “O. Henry ending,”it is a completely unexpected turn or revelation of events at the conclusion of a story or play. An example is “The Necklace”by Guy de Maupassant. Another instance is O. Henry’s story “The Gift of the Magi.”Blank verse:poetry that does not rhyme but has iambic pentameter lines. Though not originated in England or America, it has been the most important and most widely used English verse form. Blank verse is popular because it is closest to the rhythm of daily English speech. Thus most English poems which are dramatic, reflective or narrative are in the form of blank verse. This verse was probably first used in England by Surrey who translated Aeneid, by Sackville and Norton who composed Gorboduc. It was developed and perfected by Marlowe, Shakespeare and Milton. In the 18th century, most poets favored heroic couplets. But Young and Thomson were able to write in the tradition of blank verse. The 19th century saw a renewed interest in this poetic form. Masters of blank verse included Wordsworth, Coleridge and Bryant. The fact that blank verse is still practiced by writers like T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Frost and Stevens shows how influential and favorable it really is.Characteristics of Realism2.1 Realism aims at the description of the actualities of the life and free from subjective prejudice, idealism or romantic color.2.2 Realism focuses on commonness of the common people. The emphasis is on ordinary people, settings and events.2.3 Life is presented as it is.2.4 Use real characters, real incidents, real language and local dialects.2.5 In matters of style, diction and sentence structure tend toward a plain style.3.Representative writersWilliam Howells .Mark Twain .Henry JamesMajor features of Naturalism1. At the core of naturalism is determinism2.An individual’s course in life is wholly determined by some combination of animal instinct, heredity, and environment. Humans lack freedom of their own will. All of their actions are controlled, determined.3.The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. Life becomesa struggle for survival.Two of the naturalist’s recurrent concerns are: social systems that destroy and dehumanize, and individual experience of loss and failure.4.Naturalism is a harsher and extreme form of realism. The naturalists have a major difference from the realists.Themes of Hawthorne’s writing1. Explore the relationship between the past and the present2. Explore the hidden motivations of his characters.3. Examine the effect of hidden sin and secret guilt4. Moral or immoral, right or wrong is the question Hawthorne always talks about in his works.1.5. Style1. His style was soft, flowing and almost feminine.nguage: smooth, clear, beautiful in sound and meaning3. He also frequently uses symbols and settings to reveal the psychology of the characters.Appreciation of The Scarlet Letter1. Main Character:Hester Prynne.,Roger Chillingworth.,Arthur Dimmesdale 3. Character AnalysisHester: brave, strong-minded, warm-hearted, intelligent, sacrificing, decisive Dimmesdale: timid, selfish, irresponsible, cowardly, weak-minded Chillingworth: cold-blooded, dehumanizedTheme of The Scarlet LetterTo escape the bondage of religion either on people’s spirit or on people’s natural desire4. Abundant use of symbolsA ---adultery angel ablePrison—the place that deprived people of spiritual freedomForest---the natureRose near the prison—Hester and her loveCap—sth controlling one’s beautyWalt Whitman(1819-1892)Leaves Of Grass“Song of myself”Analysis of the artistic features2.4.1. form: free verseOral and powerful lg: Although free verse, he wrote with repeated and parallel sentences to strengthen the feelings. He express what he wanted to express freely, smoothly, and heatedly. His poems are like waves of the sea that rushed to the beach violently, one after another.2.4.2 the first person narrator: direct and sympathetic to the reader2.4.3. topic: sex.To use his own expression, “he saw the world as a vision of love.”He believes that life is the source of poems, love and enthusiasm are the motives of creation.III. Comments on the writer3.1. Subject: son of time, feels the pulse of the time. As a romanticist and transcendentalist, he broke the conventional poetic materials, no myth,no romance, no story of king and lords. He sings for self, common people, America, city life, nature, etc.3.2. Form: (Free verse) poetry without fixed beat or regular rhyme. Whitman is the first great American poet to use this form of poetry, he also used it more skillfully than any other poet.(1)One's Self I Sing1. What is the significance of singing about one's self?It is an exaltation of the individual spirit, which is typical of American people.2. What is the difference between physiology and physiognomy?Physiology is a science that deals with the functions and life process of human beings, whereas physiognomy refers to an art of judging character from contours of face itself or the appearance of a person.3. What does Whitman mean by the term of "the Modern Man"?He means that a man should be free from any prejudice and pride, totally different from the traditional one, that is full of bias.(3) O Captain! My Captain!1. Why is the word "Captain" capitalized throughout the poem?In this poem the word “Captain”specially refers to Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States.2. What overall metaphor does the poet employ in this poem?Life is a journey.3. Why do people on the shores exult and bells ring, while the speaker remains so sad?They welcome the ship returning from its hard trip, whereas the speaker is sad because the captain fails to receive his own honor.Mark Twain 马克·吐温The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Count卡拉维拉斯县有名的跳蛙(1865):a short storyThe Innocents Abroad国外的无辜者(1869)Roughing It苦行记(1872): on his experience in the western America The Gilded Age (1873): his first novel, collaborated with Charles Dudley WarnerThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利·费恩历险记(1884): masterpiece Life on the Mississippi (1883)A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court误闯亚瑟王宫(1889)The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg败坏了哈德莱堡的人(1900)The Mysterious Stranger (1916)e. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer1. It is "a boy's book" which sets 20 years before Civil War.2. themes:1)picaresque以流浪汉和无赖为题材的(adventure story)2) moral growth of Tom3. techniques: verisimilitude, humor, colloquial styleMark Twain’s Style in Generalthe true father of American literatureFrequent use of sarcasm, slang and regional dialects.4.5.1. Subject Matter: came directly from American people’s life along the Mississippi River, less influenced by foreign cultures4.5.2. Genuine American style:a) Language: easy, informal, humorous and unaffected [free from affectation; sincere], wildb) He intentionally deviates from classical genteel and tends to use local dialects, colloquial language, even Black English, slang, clipped structures and ungrammatical sentencesMajor work : Huckleberry Finn《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》show escape to freedomTheodore Dreiser (1871-1945) 德莱赛Naturalism is a theory in literature emphasizing the role of heredity and environment upon human life and character development roughly between 1890’s and early 1900’s. There is no clear-cut chronological division between the American naturalists and the American realists.对比Realism Naturalismemphasis on the ordinary emphasis also on the extraordinarya mirror a lensthe observer the scientistmoral or rational the accidental and physiologicalMajor Writing Features6.3.1 As a naturalistic writer, Dreiser stressed determinism in his novels.·His characters can’t assert their will against natural and economic forces. ·Dreiser held that people are not entirely to blame for what they are and what they do.6.3.2. He developed the capacity for photographic and relentless observation, thereby truthfully reflecting the society and people of his time and making his novels very believable and convincing.·Almost all of his main characters are based on the real people.·Vivid description of environmental settings and social background6.3.3. His novels are full of tragedies, serious subjects and miserable side of the society.·Dreiser broke through the genteel tradition , revealed the life of the lower class people and dared to expose the vulgar and ugly side of the society.Style6.4.1. Language: very awkward, crude/on the bordering of line of grammar.6.4.2. Serious in tone: never satirical or comic6.4.3. Natural narrative method, free from artifice.His narrative is based on quantities of materials and detailed descriptions.作品Si ster Carrie 嘉莉妹妹(1900): the first novel, masterworkJannie Gerhardt (1911)The Fanancier (1912)The Titan (1914)The Stoic (1947)The Genius (1915)An American Tragedy美国悲剧(1925)Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928)c. Sister Carrietheme:the emptiness of Ameircan Dreami. jungle lawFamous actress bank manager(the unfit is bound to die) <——Country girl (able to follow her instinct) commit suicideii. chance and luckiii. criticism of American values: money and sex —the standards to see if a person is successfuliv. concern for the poorF.Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)an Irish-American Jazz Age novelist and short story writer.Theme of the American DreamFitzgerald’s favorite theme is the American Dream. In The Great Gatsby and other works, a general pattern can be found to fully demonstrate Fitzgerald’s enthusiasm and his disillusionment with the American Dream: formally, a poor young man from the West trying to make his fortune in the East, but thematically, the young man goes on a journey of discovery from dream, through disenchantment, and finally to a sense of failure and despair. In this general pattern of the protagonist’s personal experience is incarnated the whole of American experience.. Languagesmooth, sensitive, original, simple and gracefulJay Gatsby Nick Carraway Tom Buchanan Daisy BuchananThe Great GatsbyTheme:1. about reality and atmosphere of 1920s2. failure of American Dreamc. attitude towards the rich: paradoxicalHe is charmed by the rich.He is critical of the rich who are corrupted themselves and meanwhile corrupting others.d. attitude towards the Jazz Age: insider and outsider人物Jay Gatsby Nick Carraway Tom Buchanan Daisy Buchanan Gatsby, with all his freshness, his optimism, and his vitalityGatsby in the novel represents the newly rich upstart, vulgar in hisostentatious [showy] wealth. However, he becomes a kind of newAmerican Adam. He is “great”, because he is dignified and ennobledby his dream and his mythic vision of life.Tom Buchanan :He is vulgar, hypocritical racist and bigot [person who holds sth strongly]. He is practical and non-idealistic, shallow and mistrustful of emotion. He never cares or takes responsibility.Daisy Buchanan:she also has an inner emptiness, marked by her boredom and cynicism and moral irresponsibility. She is afraid of being alone, as though she has no inner self. But she has the power to charm. Daisy represents material wealth to Gatsby, but it also connects with physical attraction. However, Daisy is unworthy of Gatsby’s love. She is incapable of living the fully imagined life that Gatsby has visualized. She is cowardly and selfish.Nick is both a narrator and a character in this novel. He leads us tothe dignity and depth of Gatsby’s character, and suggests the relationof his tragedy to the American situation.Ernest Hemingway 海明威style1.iceberg principle. The meaning here is that the writer should say only one eighth, in such a way that the remaining seven eighths be discerned and provided by the reader.nguage: short, common, fundamental words, simple sentence, structure.The effect of the language: clearness, cleanness and great care.3.dialogue: plays a very important part in his writings. Hemingway’s dialogue can show setting, development of plot, characters, even theme.4.cinematic way: he uses showing instead of telling. He likes to describes actions (kiss, withdraw hand) vividly instead of mental description.5.symbolisme of stream of consciousnesstraits for the Code Hero:(1) Measuring himself against the difficulties life throws in his way, realizing that we will all lose ultimately because we are mortals, but playing the game honestly and passionately in spite of that knowledge.(2) Facing death with dignity, enduring physical and emotional pain in silence(3) Never showing emotions(4) Maintaining free-will and individualism, never weakly allowing commitment toa single woman or social convention to prevent adventure, travel, and acts of bravery(5) Being completely honest, keeping one's word or promise(6) Being courageous and brave, daring to travel and have "beautiful adventures," as Hemingway would phrase it(7) Admitting the truth of Nada (Spanish, "nothing"), i.e., that no external source outside of oneself can provide meaning or purpose. This existential awareness also involves facing death without hope of an afterlife, which the Hemingway Code Hero considers more brave than "cowering" behind false religious hopesThemes nada,grace under pressure,code heroMagic realism 加西亚·马尔克斯《百年孤独》Garcia Marques Century Loneliness)Henry JamesThe American (1877): begins with international themeDaisy Miller (1878): brings the author first international fameThe Wings of the Dove (1902)The Ambassadors (1903)The Golden Bowl (1904)The Portrait of A Lady贵妇画像:masterpieceJack LondonThe People of the Abyss深渊居民(1903): about London's slumThe Iron Heel 铁蹄(1908): the first proletarian criterion novel which envisages the development of fascismThe Call of the Wild 野性的呼唤(1903): the most widely read bookThe Sea Wolf 海狼(1904)These two novels reflect the ideas of the law of survival and the will to power Martin Eden马丁伊登Ezra Pound埃兹拉·庞德Imagism意象派Pound became the most important figure. Imagist poetry reached the peak ofliterature for three things appeared:i. a manifesto ii. three principles iii. a lot of writingsIn a Station of the Metro在地铁车站1. This is the much-quoted masterpiece of Pound and a representative of the Imagist poetry.2. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians "apparition"?These pedestrians are all walking in a hurry amidst the drizzling rain.3. What do "petals" and "bough" stand for? Petals refer to the faces while the bough stands for the floating crowd.Robert Frostb. Characteristics⏹ 1. not in the main stream of modern poetry, but with conventional form and plainlanguage. That’s why he’s the most popular poet in the 20th century.⏹ 2. a kind of a regionalist----New England, but not local colorism. He used New Englandas a metaphor for the whole world and universe.⏹ 3. a plain poet using symbols from everyday country life. Simple symbols but expressdeep meanings.The Road Not Taken⏹ 1. The poem was written in very regular lines with iambic pentametre and rhyme schemeof abaab.⏹ 2. The symbolic meaning of the two divergent roads is rather clear. They represent anyimportant decisions in one's life.⏹ 3. details:Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening⏹ 1. It is a lyric poem with iambic tetrametre and interlocking enclosed rhyme.⏹ 2. It represents a moment of relaxation from the onerous journey of life, an almostaesthetic enjoyment and appreciation of natural beauty which is wholesome and retorative against the chaotic existence of modern man.William Faulkner (1897-1962)Sound and Fury: divided into 4 parts1. t hemes:a) downfall of the South. The south was in deterioration. It’s going from bad to worse. The present and the past form a contrast from Benjy’s eyes. He’s an idiot so his reactions were distinctive feeling. He felt strongly the loss of love. The downfall of Mr. Campson was not only a personal one but also a universal one---the society was in disorder.b) conflict between the old/young generationsFather of Southern American literatureNobel Prize for literature in 1950Special features2.1. Setting :Oxford is the model for his fictional Jefferson, the central place of his fictional Yoknapatawpha County2.2. Subjects :southern tradition, family, community, the land, history and the past, race, and the passions of ambition and love2.3. Characters:Typical of the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South 写作技巧Multiple Points of View:He always structure his stories in his own original fashion and is proficient in employing a distinctive narrative method of gradually fitting in and of withholding or even giving confusing information.Stream of consciousness,complex structures, epic style, symbolismWilliam Faulkner威廉•福克纳1897-1962 1950年获诺贝尔文学奖, 普利策奖小说奖 1. 1929年《喧嚣与骚动》”The Sound and the Fury” 1930年《在我弥留之际》”As I Lay Dying” 1932年《八月之光》”Light in August”1936年《押沙龙,押沙龙》”Absalom, Absalom”教材作品:《给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰》:“A Rose for Emily”南方文学特点:主题:作者获奖The Nobel Prize &The Pulitzer Prize: John Steinbeck约翰•斯坦贝克William Faulkner威廉•福克纳 Ernest Hemingway厄恩斯特•海明威The Nobel Prize: Thomas Stearns Eliot托马斯•斯特恩斯•爱略特The Pulitzer Prize: Wallace Stevens华莱士•斯蒂文斯 Robert Frost罗伯特•弗洛斯特 Edwin Arlington Robison埃德温•阿林顿•罗宾逊尤金.奥尼尔(Eugene O’Neill,1888----1952),美国著名剧作家。