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Part one: English LiteratureChapter1 The Renaissance period（14世纪至十七世纪中叶）文艺复兴1. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.人文主义是文艺复兴的核心。
2. the Greek and Roman civilization was based on such a conception that man is the measure of all things.人文主义作为文艺复兴的起源是因为古希腊罗马文明的基础是以“人”为中心，人是万物之灵。
3. Renaissance humanists found in then classics a justification to exalt human nature and came to see that human beings were glorious creatures capable of individual development in the direction of perfection, and that the world they inhabited was theirs not to despise but to question, explore, and enjoy.人文主义者们却从古代文化遗产中找到充足的论据，来赞美人性，并开始注意到人类是崇高的生命，人可以不断发展完善自己，而且世界是属于他们的，供他们怀疑，探索以及享受。
4. Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanists.托马斯.摩尔，克利斯朵夫.马洛和威廉.莎士比亚是英国人文主义的代表。
1105班 1130100080 刘雅琪The English RenaissanceBritain experienced Renaissance in between 16th and early 17th centry. Renaissance in England reached its peak during the reign of Queen Elisabeth.Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance which was based on such a conception that man is the measure of all things. Certainly, writers during this period are humanist. They found sufficient evidence from classics to exalt human nature and started to see that human beings could develop themselves in the direction of perfection and that “the world they inhabitated was theirs not to despise but to question, explore and enjoy.” “They hold their chief interest in bravely fought for the emancipation of man from the tyranny of the church and religious dogmas.”(from History and Anthology of English and American Literature)Humanists＇demonstrate their ideas in their works. Especially, they contributed a lot to the prose, poetry and drama. About prose, the pioneer of prose writers is Francis Bacon. Bacon as a humanist “shows the new empirical attitudes towards truth about nature and bravely challenges the medieval scholasticist.” His works are famous for their brevity, compactness and powerfulness. All in all, except drama and poetry, prose was fully developed during this period.Poetry became widespread in England in the second half of the 16th centry. Famous poets of that time were Philip Sidney, Thomas Campion and Edmund Spenser. It is necessary to referred Faerie Queene when mentioned Spenser. Faerie Queene was written for eloigning Queen Elisabeth. The theme of this poem is about romantic “Fierce wars and faithful loves”. It is Spenser＇s idealism, his love of beauty, and his exquisite melody that make him known as “the poet＇s poet”. Except Spenser, Wyatt devoted his enthusiasm in poetry as well. He introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into England. In a word, because of the Renaissance, poetry inEngland step into a new filed. The age of Renaissance witnessed a particular development of English drama. The most famous dramatists in this time are Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson. The reformation in England, the language perfection and the version of dramatic worhs ought to attribute to Christopher Marlowe. What is more, it is Marlowe who made1105班 1130100080 刘雅琪blank verse the principal vehicle of expression in drama. Among all the dramatists in England, Shakespeare is the greatest one. Generally, he is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. His four famous tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth were highly appreciated all over the world. He holds that literature should be a combination of beauty, kindness, nature and reality. In short, drama is a shining part of English Renaissance.Above all, the whole England was profoundly stirred by the Renaissance, especially by literature at that time. Humanism plays a leading role in Renaissance period and encourages progressive writers in England to pursue individual emotion and happiness. English Renaissance becomes a milestone of England history.。
The RenaissanceThis is a greatest and most advanced revolution in the human history. This is the age the giants are needed and produced.------F. Engles<1> Brief introduction▪Renaissance in European history, refers to the period between 14th century to 17th century. It started in Italy and ended in England and Spain.▪“Renaissance” means “revival”, the revival of interest in Ancient Greek and Roman culture and getting rid of conservatism in feudalist Europe and introducing new ideas that express the interests of the rising bourgeoisie.▪Renaissance sprang first in Italy (Florence and Venice) with the flowering of paintings, sculpture and architecture, and gradually spread all over Europe;▪Renaissance originally indicated a revival of classical arts and science (ancient Greek and Roman culture) after the dark ages of medieval obscurantism.During the period of Renaissance:1. the Roman Catholic Church was shaken,2. old sciences revived and new sciences emerged,3. national languages and cultures took shape,4. art and literature flourishedBrief introduction▪There arose an interest in the manuscripts surviving from ancient Greece and Rome. Classical learning and philosophy were enthusiastically studied.▪The intellectual wisdom of ancient Greece and Rome encouraged a rebirth of human spirit，a realization of human potential for development and creation．▪Never before in human history were men and women so eager to create and discover something new．In Italy a group of artists，scientists，politicians，and writers created the most brilliant page of culture and science in Renaissance Europe．Examples:①Copernicus (哥白尼) asserted that the earth was not the center of the universe；②The passionate Petrarch produced sonnets that influenced Shakespeare and many others；③Boccaccio(卜伽邱) wrote tales of eternal charm: The Decameron；④Marco Polo (马可波罗) made journeys into the remote kingdom of China；⑤Michelangelo（米开朗琪罗），Leonardo da Vinci (达芬奇)，Raphael (拉斐尔)，and Titian (提香) createdpaintings and sculptures that are invaluable treasures of the world．<2>Essence and features▪Essence: It is the reflection of the rise of bourgeoisie in the sphere of cultural life.（另版本）：Renaissance, in essence, is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to:to get rid of conservatism in Feudalist Europe;to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie,to lift the restrictions in all areas placed by the Roman church authorities.Briefly it is the reflection of the rise of bourgeoisie inthe sphere of cultural life.▪Features: there are two striking features①A thirsting curiosity for the classical literature.②The keen interest in the activities of humanity.<3>Renaissance and HumanismRenaissance: the term originally indicated a revival of classical arts and science after the dark ages of medieval obscurantism. Indeed, a great number of the works of classical authors were translated into English during the 16th century.Humanism：The progressive thinkers of the humanists held their chief interest not in ecclesiastical knowledge, but in man, his environment and doings and bravely fought for the emancipation of man from the tyranny of the church and religious dogmas.Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance. It reflected the new outlook of the rising bourgeois class;<4>HumanismHumanism is the essence of the Renaissance. It sprang from the endeavor to restore a reverence for the Greek and Roman civilization based on the conception that man is the measure of all things.Contrary to the subordination of individuals to the feudal rules and the sacrifice of earthly life for a future life in the medieval society, Renaissance humanists found in the classics a justification to exalt human nature and came to see that human beings were glorious creatures capable of individual development for perfection.By emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life, they voiced their beliefs that man did not only have the right to enjoy life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.<5>Features of humanism in RenaissanceEmphasizing the power, value and dignity of the human being and holding that human beings are glorious creatures The core of Renaissance thought is the greatness of man/giants. This is best summarized in the lines of Shakespeare’s HamletWhat a piece of work is man; how noble in reason; how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like and angel; in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals.人是一件多么了不起的杰作！多么高贵的理性！多么伟大的力量！多么优美的仪表！多么文雅的举动！在行为上多么像一个天使！在智慧上多么想一个天神！宇宙的精华！万物的灵长！▪1. Emphasizing secular happiness and individualism against the medieval ideas of asceticism;▪2.shifting man’s interest from Christianity to humanity, from religion to philoso phy, from beauty and greatness of God to the beauty of human body in all its joys and pains.▪3. Applying Aristotle’s theory, Humanist literature mainly use realistic style and take literature as the mirror or miniature of the society.<6>Influence and English RenaissanceInfluences:1.These Italians, and many others, helped to make Italy the center of the Renaissance movement in Europe.2.The movement changed the medieval Western Europe into a modern one．3.The intellectual wisdom of ancient Greece and Rome encouraged a rebirth of human spirit，a realization of human potential for development and creationEnglish Renaissance:Oxford Reformers: the Oxford reformers, scholars and humanists introduced classical literature to England. Education was revitalized and literature became more popular.This was England’s Golden Age in literature. There appeared many English literary giants such as Shakespeare, Spenser, Johnson, Sidney, Marlowe, Bacon and Donne.English RenaissanceContents●I.TheSixteenthCentury England ●II. Renaissance in England ●III. The main artistic styles●IV. William Shakespeare●V. Francis BaconI. The Sixteenth Century England1. Enclosure Movement2. The establishment of absolute monarchy3. Religious reformation4. International situation5. Cultural preparati●The background of the humanism in Europe●The introduction of printing led to an enlarged reading public and a commercial market for literature;●The great economic and political changes led to the rise of democracy;●The spirit of nationalism;●The growing of "new science” etc.Characteristics of the Elizabethan Age1. An age of comparative religious tolerance;2. An age of comparative social contentment;3. An age of dreams, of adventures, of unbounded enthusiasm;4. An age of intellectual liberty, of growing intelligence and comfort among all classes and of unbounded patriotism.II. Renaissance in England▪The time: mainly from the reign of Henry VIII, Edward, Mary and then to Queen Elizabeth and Jacobean Eraa. Beginning: the last years of the 15-th century---first half of the 16-th centuryb. Flourishing: the Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)c. Declining: the period of James I (1603-1625) early 17-th centuryThe flowering of English literatureThe second half of the 16th century, “a nest of singing birds”The early period:imitation and assimilation, translated works, poetry and poetic drama were the most outstanding literary forms. ▪Sonnet: an exact form of poetry in 14 lines of iambic pentameter intricately rhymed.▪Blank verse: iambic pentameter unrhymedThe latter period:Drama— the real mainstream of the English Renaissanceyears 1587-93. they were all of humble birth and struggled for a livelihood by writing. Through hard work, they revised old plays and wrote new ones. They made rapid progress in dramatic techniques because they has close contact with the actors and audiences. They were looked down upon by the gentlemen and suspected by the government. It was their industrious works that furnished the Elizabethan stage.Christopher MarloweWilliam ShakespeareIII. The main artistic stylesThe artistic styles as lyric poetry, narrative poetry, drama are maturized; new styles which characterized the modern literature such as sonnets, short stories and novels were produced.translation:Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Homer’s Iliad, Montaigne’s Essays▪travel books:More’s Utopia▪poetry: Edmund Spenser▪drama: “University Wits”, Marlowe, Shakespeare▪essay: Francis BaconForerunner of utopian socialism▪An imaginative travel narrative written in the form of conversation between More and Hythloday, a returned voyager describing an ideal state governed by reason.▪The subject is the search for the best possible form of government: Utopia---a community of property---a pure, pre-Marx form of communism.The Sheph erd’s Calendar 《牧人日历》: 12 pastoral poems and eclogues, one for each month, put into the mouths of speakers distinguishing themselves as shepherds, really representing Spenser and his friends.▪Amoretti《爱情小诗》:a series of 88 sonnets in honor of his lover Elizabeth. All except one was written in the Spenserian sonnet.▪Epithlamion 《婚后曲》: marriage hymns to celebrate his marriage with Elizabeth.The Faerie Queene《仙后》:▪The blending of religious and historical allegory with chivalric romance: a long poem planned 12 books. 12 knights for the qualities of the chivalric virtues--- the six completed books are holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice and courtesy.Fairy Queen—Queen Elizabeth, the knights as a whole --- England, the evil figures—enemies.Themes of the poem :●nationalism( celebration of Queen Elizabeth)●humanism (strong opposition to Roman Catholicism),●Puritanism (moral teaching)Spenserian stanza:it is a nine-line stanza with the first 8 lines iambic pentameter and the ninth, iambic hexameter 六步格的诗rhyming abab,bcbc,c which is the typical verse in The Faerie Queene.For its rare beauty, this verse form was much used by many later poets, esp. imitated by the romantic poets of the 19th century.Spenser’s position in English Literature:the publica tion of “The Shepherd’s Calendar” marks the budding of Renaissance flower in the northern island of England.The language he used was modern English which has distinguished itself from the Middle English of Chaucer's day. Spenserian stanza: a model of poetic art among the Renaissance English poets.“the poet’s poet”, the first master to make the Modern English the natural music of his poetic effusion and held his position as a model of poetic art. His influence can be traced in the works of Milton, Shelley and Keats.Life: short but riotous⏹Major works:➢Tamburlaine the Great:《帖木耳》•A drama in a blank verse•About the rise and fall of Tamburlaine the Mongol conqueror on the 14th century central Asia.•A tragedy about a man who thinks he can but actually can not control his own fate.•By depicting a great hero with high ambition and sheer brutal force, the author voiced the supreme desire of the man of the Renaissance for infinite power and authority.•➢The Jew of Malta:《马耳他的犹太人》•A study of the lust for wealth, which centers around Barabas the Jew, an old money lender, whose only philosophy is the art of gaining advantage.•Suggestive of Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.•A tragic result: typically greedy of riches and gold, which is another feature shared by those in Renaissance England. •➢The History of Doctor Faustus 《浮士德博士》•Refer to compare with Goethe’s Faust•The Faust myth in 16th century Germany: the myth of men seeking great earthly power from demons at the cost of their immortal soul.•The conventional view: Dr. Faustus is a morality play that vindicates humility, faith and obedience to the law of God. •The new view: Dr. Faustus celebrates the human passion for knowledge, power and happiness, and also reveals man’s frustration in realizing the high aspiration in a hostile moral order.⏹Social significance and literary achievement1.showing the spirit of the rising bourgeoisie. Its eager curiosity for knowledge, power and gold.The praise of individuality freed from the restraints of medieval dogmas and the conviction of the boundless possibility of human efforts in conquering the universe.The heroes are mainly individualists. Their individualistic ambition often brings ruin to the world and to themselves.…soul of the Age!The applause! Delight! The wonder of our stage! Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. He was not of an age, but for all time!William Shakespeare1. Brief Introduction2. Shakespeare’s dramaFour periods of his literary career Categories of his drama 3. the artistic features of his plays4. Shakespeare’s place and contribution5. Shakespeare’s sonnetsWhat to be at least known about ShakespeareLife: birthplace, birth date, death date, important time in his life and career●His major works: 37 plays(10histories, 10 comedies, 10 tragedies), 2 long narrative poems, 154 sonnets.Plays to be read: great comedies & 4 great tragedies●Writing features in each of four periodsI. Brief IntroductionA dramatist “not of an age, but of all time” by Ben Jonhson, not of Engla nd, but of the world.●Not only a master of English language but also a genius of character portrayal and plot construction●A “poet of reality” for his idea that literature should reflect nature and reality.●37 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long poems.II. Shak espeare’s dramaFour Periods of Shakespeare’s Literary careerFour major phrases represent respectively his early, mature, flourishing and late periods.1. Period of early experiment and apprenticeship (1590-1594)Background:A. it was in the middle of the highly thriving Elizabethan Age.B. The thoughts of humanism and the ideas of man’s emancipation, freedom of love was rapidly spread.C. Shakespeare was a young man full of astonishing versatility and wonderful talent and the great interest in the political questions of his time.Features:A. the writer made experiments in a number of dramatic forms: the historical plays, comedy, the revenge tragedy and the romantic tragedy.B. this period is distinctively marked by youthfulness and exuberance of imagination, by extravagance of witty language or speech, and by the final and frequent use of blank verse. In his hand, blank verse developed into a happy vehicle to express all kinds of thoughts and emotions (thus shaking off the rigidity of rimed and mechanic lines) .2. Period of maturity (1595-1600)Features:A. a period of “great comedies” and mature historical plays and sonnets.B. a sweet and joyful time when the writer portrays successfully a magnificent panorama of the manifold pursuit of people in real life.C. a great shift in characterization. A notable gallery of heroines in the comedies and vivid characters in historical plays is presented: Portia, Posalynd, Voila, Beatrice, Sir John Falstaff.3. Period of gloom and depression (1601-1607)Background:A. the aggravation of the social situation: the rising of peasants, the corruption, the tension between bourgeoisie and the feudal lands.B. the change of mood in the playwright: gloomy and indignantFeatures:A. a period of “great tragedies” and “dark comedies”B. the writer gave a scathing exposition of the somber pictures and scenes of murder, lust, treachery, ingratitude and crime.C. a higher level of crafts is reached: more intricate plotting, intense inner conflict, meticulous depiction of human mind.4. Period of calm and reconciliation (1608-1612)Background:A. the fall and collapse of absolute monarchB. the retirement of the playwright back into the tranquil countrysideFeatures:A. some serenity and optimism, instead of the beginning lightness and the middle somber violence reigned.B. romantic dramas and comedies were the main form.C. moral teaching and supernatural forces were relied on to restore the rightful honor and position. These plays all show a falling off from his previous works.Categories of his dramacomedies histories tragedies romances？？Comedy is a light form of drama aiming primarily to amuse and ending happily. It often deals with people in their human state, restrained and ridiculous by their limitations, faults, bodily functions.Four Great ComdiesThe Merchant of VeniceA Midsummer Night’s DreamAs you Like itTwelfth NightComedies of the First PeriodThe keynote of his comedies:●to portray people just freed from the feudal fetters, sing of youth, love and ideas of happiness.●The heroes and heroines fight against destiny and mould their fate according to their own free will. Thus becomethe sons and daughters of Renaissance.●The victory of humanist ideal is inevitable. The general spirit of these plays is optimistic.The Merchant of Venice•The double plot: one is about the Bassanio’s winning of a bride by undergoing a test; the other is about the demanding of a pound of human flesh by Shylock.•The traditional theme is to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty and to expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew.•The new one is to regard the play as a satire of the Christian hypocrisy and their false standards of friendship and love, their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and unreasoning prejudice against Jews.Portia: a rich heiress of Belmont in Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice.●1. Portia is a woman of Renaissance—beautiful, prudent, cultured, courteous and capable of rising to an emergency. She is one of Shakespear’s ideal women.●2. the young heroes in Shakespeare's comedies are always independent in character and take their own path of life.History plays aim to present some historical age or character, and may be either a comedy or a tragedy.●His histories include two tetralogies (四部曲)and two other plays. Characterizes two centuries of English history from Richard III to Henry VIII (1377-1547)●There is only one ideal king---Henry V who represents the aspiration for national unity under a powerful and efficient monarchy.The image of Henry V:Henry V is the symbol of Shakespear’s ideal kingship. He represents the upsurging patriotism of the time. In depicting Henry V as a prince and as a man, Shakespeare looks deep into the personality of his hero and shows a profound understanding of the politics and social life of the time.Theme: Shakespeare’s historical plays describe the decaying of the old feudal society an d the rising of the new forces. His historical plays sum up the necessity for national unity under a mighty and just sovereign. The idea is anti-feudal inIt is concerned with the harshness and injustice of life. They are often serious plays with sad endings.●Often the hero’s tragedy is due to a weakness in his or her character which brings self-destruction. A weakness such as the excessive pride of Faustus, the overweening ambition of Macbeth, or the uncontrolled jealousy of Othello.●In S hakespeare’s plays, he saw sharp contradictions between his lofty humanistic ideals and the evil social forces. Background for Shakespeare’s tragediesHe began to observe life with penetration, to expose mercilessly the contradiction of the Elizabethan society. The economical and social crisis which began at the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth continued right up to the English Revolution.The bourgeoisie intended to break up the yoke of absolute monarchy and struggled for free development.It was in this atmosphere of general unrest that he created his great tragedies.Four Great Tragedies All analyzing the human wickedness.●Hamlet: the hero’s weakness makes him vulnerable in fighting against the outward evil.●Othello shows how an outward evil make s use of the hero’s weakness and causes his fall.●King Lear demonstrates how man’s mistake sets free the evils of treachery, hypocrisy, flattery, selfishness and distrust.●Macbeth reveals how the outward evil stirs up the wickedness in man and destroys him.Hamlet“Hamlet” is considered the summit of Shakespeare's art.Hamlet is a man of genius, highly accomplished and educated, a man of profound perception and sparkling wit. He is a scholar, soldier and statesman all combined. His image reflects the versatility of the man of Renaissance.Hamlet’s melancholy is not the negative, over-subtle and fruitless kind, it is the result of his penetrating mind. It expresses, in away, the crisis of humanism at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century.III. the artistic features of his plays1. Characterization: By using comparison and contrasts, he depicts a group of individuals with strong and distinct personalities.The melancholy of Hamlet, the wickedness of Claudius and Iago, the honesty of Othello, ambition of Macbeth and the beauty and wit of Portia.2. Psycho-analytical study: He reveals the intricate inner workings of the character’s minds through the full use of soliloquies(独白).3. Structure:⏹His plays usu. have more than one plot. Through contrast and parallel, the major and minor plots are woven intoan organic whole.⏹the device of a play within the play also plays an important part.4. Language: Shakespeare is a master of the English language, with a large vocabulary of 16000 English words. More important are the figurative speeches such as analogy and metaphor.5. style: realistic style. The reader may be impressed by the typical speech modes —the question in Hamlet, the ambiguities in Macbeth, the exclamations and very simple but also very basic questions in King Lear.IV. Shakespeare’s place and contributionOne of the founder of realism in world literature. Living in the historical period of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, he paints a panorama of the decline of the old feudal nobility and the rise of new bourgeoisie.Amazing prolificacy. In 22years, nearly 40 plays, no two of which evoke the same feeling or image among the audience, a master of every forms of drama.Skilled in many poetic forms. The songs, sonnets, couplets, esp. at home with blank verse, which became a vehicle of utterance to all the possible sentiments of his characters.A great master of English language. He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and idiom. He is known to have used 16,000 different words. His coinage of new words and distortion of the meaning of the old ones also create striking effects on the reader.He was universally regarded are the summit of English Renaissance. His influence on later writers is immeasurable. Almost all English writers after him have been influenced by him either in artistic point view, in literary form or in language.SonnetDefinition:▪A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with a carefully patterned rhyme scheme.Origin:▪A form of lyrical poetry was originated in Italy. “sonnet” was derived from Provencal (普罗旺斯语) “Sonet”. It was once a short popular poetry used for singing in the medieval age.▪Italian poet Petrarch was the major representatives of the poets who used this poetic form. He wrote altogether 375 sonnets, dedicated to his lover. That is the Petrarchan sonnet.▪Sonnet was introduced into England by Thomas Wyatt . It flourished in the 1590s and reach its peak of popularity with the surge of Renaissance in England.Two types of sonnetThe Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet :Petrarchan Sonnet▪The Italian form, in some ways the simpler of the two, Its fourteen lines break into an octave （八行诗）(or octet), which usually rhymes abba,abba, and a sestet （六行诗节）, which may rhyme cdecde or cdcdcd, or any of the multiple variations possible using only two or three rhyme-sounds.▪It usually projects and develops a subject in the octave, then executes a turn at the beginning of the sestet, which means that the sestet must in some way release the tension built up in the octave.▪Example: see Wyatt's "Farewell Love and all thy laws for ever."Farewell, LoveSir Thomas Wyatt (1503~1542)Farwell, Love, and all thy laws forever,Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more;Senec and Plato call me from thy lore,To perfect wealth my wit for to endeavor,In blind error then I did persever,Thy sharp repulse, that prickth aye so sore,Hath taought me to set in trifles no storeAnd’ scape forth since liberty is leverTherefore farewell, go trouble younger hearts, And in me claim no more authorityWith idle youth go use thy property,And therein spend thy many brittle darts,For hitherto though I have lost all my time,Me lusteth no longer rotten boughs to climb.别了，爱，以及你所有的法则，你上饵的钩子不再能把我缠绞，塞内克与柏拉图叫我离开你那套，并尽我才智把完美的财富获得。
美国前130大学的校训及优势专业1. Harvard University (MA) 哈佛大学校训：Let Plato be your friend, and Aristotle, but more let your friend be truth.（与亚里士多德为友，与柏拉图为友,更与真理为友）优势专业：历史学、工商管理、数学、经济学、英语学、物理学、心理学、社会学、生理学、政治学、生物化学、化学、地球科学等2. Princeton University (NJ) 普林斯顿大学校训：In the Nation's Service and in the Service of All Nations (为国家服务，为世界服务)优势专业：政治与政府学、公共政策、计算机科学、航天工程、机械工程、电子工程、化学工程等。
3. Yale University (CT) 耶鲁大学校训：Lux et veritas（光明与真知）优势专业：社会科学、人文科学、生命科学4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA) 麻省理工学院校训：Mens et Manus (既学会动脑，也学会动手)优势专业：电子工程、机械工程、物理学、化学、经济学、哲学、政治学4. Stanford University (CA) 斯坦福大学校训：the wind of freedom blows (愿学术自由之风劲吹)优势专业：企业管理、法律、英语、心理学、政治、历史6. California Institute of Technology (CA) 加州理工学院校训：The truth shall make you free (真理使人自由)优势专业：物理、工程、化学、生物、天文学、地质学、经济与政治学6. University of Pennsylvania (PA) 宾夕法尼亚大学校训：Leges sine moribus vanae (法无德不立)优势专业：人类学、经济学、艺术史、语言学、心理学、音乐和拉丁语8. Columbia University (NY) 哥伦比亚大学校训：In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen (在你的光明中看到光明)优势专业：建筑学、MBA、金融、艺术史、天文、生物科学、化学、计算机科学、数学、物理、地质、心理学、社会学、哲学、政治学、宗教、电影、历史、经济学、英语、法语、西班牙语及东亚和中亚语言文学系等。
美国黑人的三次文艺复兴美国黑人是一个受压迫、受歧视的民族。
万恶的奴隶制是美国历史上的一个污点，它也是挑起美国南北不和并导致大规模内战的主要原因之一。
战后，美国的奴隶制在名义上算是被废除了，但广大的黑人，尤其是南方的黑人，处境并无多大改变。
列宁曾把南北战争后的南方比作“一座对付‘解放了的’黑人的监狱”〔1〕。
为了改善自己的生活处境，美国黑人一直在进行斗争，从１５２６年第一次奴隶暴动〔2〕起，到本世纪６０年代中期如火如荼的抗暴斗争止，经过４００多年的艰苦历程，黑人民族才在美国获得一些基本权利与一定的政治社会地位，他们对美国文化所作的杰出贡献才得到初步承认。
举例来说，美国的白人文学史家们一直不肯正视美国黑人在文学上的成就，始终不愿给予它以应有的地位，这种情况直到今天才开始有所改变。
美国的黑人奴隶全都来自非洲。
非洲曾被达尔文称为“人类的摇篮”，原有古老的历史和悠久的文化。
美国的著名黑人历史学家杜波依斯曾说：“不用怀疑，１５世纪非洲黑人群众的文化水平，比同时期的北欧人的文化水平要高。
”〔3〕但是，非洲的黑人被贩卖到北美洲大陆后，却成了“会说话的工具”，被剥夺了人的一切权利，当然更谈不上学习文化受教育〔4〕。
他们在非洲生活时原有一边劳动一边歌唱的习惯，后来被殖民者掳去当奴隶时，也就在美国南部的种植园里，在戴着镣铐干活的田野上，在奴隶们居住的简陋小屋里，在人迹罕到的沼泽和丛林中……创造了很有价值的口头文学——包括圣歌、悲歌、民歌在内的黑人奴隶歌曲——从而对美国文化作出了杰出的贡献。
然而，像弗莱德里克·道格拉斯、威廉·威尔斯·布朗这类奴隶通过自身的奋斗，不仅学习了文化，而且在逃亡之后还用手中的笔作武器，口诛笔伐，积极投身到当时的废奴运动中，为废除奴隶制度积极制造舆论。
奴隶主一向不把奴隶当作人看待，视黑人为劣等民族，因此黑人奴隶能进行文学创作本身就是对奴隶主谎言的有力驳斥，何况他们的文学创作中有不少既有丰富的思想内容，又有一定的艺术造诣，证明美国黑人不愧是有悠久文化传统的优秀民族。
