美国文选复习提要2

第2单元埃德加•爱伦•坡2.1复习笔记I.Introduction to author（作者简介）Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849)is a novelist,poet,and critic.埃德加·爱伦·坡（1809—1849），小说家，诗人，评论家。

1.Life（生平）Poe’s childhood was a miserable one.He lost both of his parents when still very small,and was taken care of by a wealthy merchant.Father and son enjoyed nothing but an unhappy relationship together.Poe entered the University of Virginia but did not finish.He went to West Point as a cadet but was dismissed because of misbehavior.Poe wrote and worked as editor most of his short life.He was poor all his life.At27he married his cousin,whose death in1847left him inconsolable and bitter with life than ever.He died,in October,1849.坡有着悲惨的童年。

他年幼时父母双亡，他被一位富商收养，父子之间关系紧张。

坡进入弗吉尼亚大学学习，但是没能完成学业。

后来去了西点军校，却又因为行为不端而被校方开除。

他短暂的一生中大部分时间都在从事写作和编辑工作。

他终身贫困潦倒。

27岁时，他和他的表妹结婚，1847年妻子的离世使他悲痛万分。

二现实Twain,James,Emily Dickinson,Dreiser（自然主义,三代表，历险记,贵妇人，黛瓯三部曲，嘉丽）一:现实主义时期界定:The period ranging from 1865 to 1914 has been referred to as the Age of Realism • 二:历史文化背景:The American society after the Civil War provided rich soil for the rise and development of Realism .American had transformed itself from a Jeffersonian agrarian community into an industrialized and commercialized society .The burgeoning economy and industry stepped up urbanization .Polarization of the well・being started to show up ,with the poor poorer and the rich richer •三:文学特点:The Realistic period is actually a movement or tendency that dominated the spirit of American literature ,especially American fiction from the 1850sonwards .Realism was a reaction against Romanticism or a move away from the bias towards romance and self-creating fictions .四:现实主义与自然主义的异同: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 • 五:自然主义:The impact of Darwin's evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism :American naturalism .Artistically naturalistic writings are usually unpolished in language Jacking in academic skills and unwieldy in structure .philosophically ,the naturalists believe that the real and true is always partially hidden from the eyes of the individual ,or beyong his control. 六:重要作家：①Mark Twain 马克吐温作品及内容：H.L.Mencken considered he"the true father foor our national literature^.His Roughing It describes a journey that works its way farther and farther west through Navada to San Francisco and then to Hawaii .Life on the Mississippi tells a story of his boyhood ambition to become a riverboat pilot ,this time up and down the Mississippi .The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is usually regarded as a classic book written for boys about their particular horrors and joys •里程ti卑Adventures of Huckleberry Finne is a boy's book written for the adults 5and Hemingway described it"all modem American literature comes：人物刻画及语言风格:Mark Twain is the most famous local colorist，jt concerned with the life of a small,well-defined region or province .his humor characterized by puns ,straight-faced exaggeration ,repetition ,and anti-climax Jet alone tricks of travesty and invective ,is remarkable .In Adventures of Huckleberry Finne 解析:Huck is polarized by the two opposing forces between his heart and his head .between his affection for Jim and the laws of the society against those who help slaves escape .Huck's final decision—to follow his own good-hearted moral impulse rather than conventional village morality •Setting :he used the Mississippi valley as his fictional kingdom .writing about the landscape and people ,the customs and the dialects of one particular region ,and is therefore known as a local colorist Characters :he creats life-like characters .especially the unconventional Huckleberry Finn，who runs away from civilization and stands opposite to conventional village morality ;Language ;it is the kind of colloquial language belong ing to the lower class ,the living local American English •②Henry James亨利詹姆斯:国际标准考虑职业，1876定居伦敦，1915加英国籍:His career is devided into three periods •代表作:The Portrait of A Lady ,which incarnates the clash between the Old World and the New in the life journey of an American girl in aEuropean culture environment •艺术特色:The typical pattern of the conflict between the two cultures would be that of a young American man or girl who goes to Europe and affronts his or her destiny .And his fictional world is concerned more with the inner life of human beings than with overt human actions ,so he is regarded as the forerunner of the 20th-century u steam-of-conscioueness55novels and the founder of psychologicalrealism .The literary techniques innovated by James to cater for this psychological emphasis is his narrative^point of view^.Outlook :it is both concerned with form and devoted to human values ,He also advocates the freedom of the artist to write about anything that concerns him ,even the disagreeable ,the ugly and the commonplace ,The artist should be able to^feel^the life ,tounderstand human nature ?and then to record them in his own art form .《黛西米勒》解析:Published in 1878,Daisy Miller has ever since become the American Girl in Europe ,a celebrated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the New World .However ^innocence ,the keynote of her character ,turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality and her defiance of social taboos in the Old World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between two different c ultures •③Emily Dickinson 狄金森：文学生涯:She wanted to live simply as a complete independent being ,and so she did ,as a spinster •开始于in the early 1850s •共写了1775 首诗，但生前只有7首发表了o其余于1890年后相继出版.She called this stream of tiny ,aphoristic poems a continuous fragmented^letter to the world^^a way to bridgr her private world with the public 题结构及艺术特色:Her poems concerning death and immorality ganging over the rendering of the physical as well as the psychological and emotional aspects of death .Her poems have no titles ,hence are always quoted by their first lines ,there is a particular stress pattern jn which dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis .The poetic idiom is famous for its laconic brevity .directn ess and plainness •④Theodore Dreiser 德莱塞的生平及作品:As one of America's literary naturalists ."欲望三部曲"The Financier ,The Titan and The Stoic are called u trilogy of Desire59.1945 年逝世前不久加入the Communist Party •创作思想，艺术特色及写作风格:Dreisefs style has been a point of heated discussion .The consensus that has been reached sa far seems to be that .although Dreisefs novels are formless at times and awkwardly written .and his characterization is found deficient and his prose pedestrian and dull ,yet his very energy proves to be more than a compensation .He is good at employing the journalistic method of reiteration to burn a central impression into the reader's mind .《嘉丽妹妹》解析:In Sister Carrie Dreiser expressed his naturalistic pursuit by expounding the purposelessness of life and attacking the conventional moralstandards .unsuccessfully ,to find meaning and purpose for their existence .Carrie ,as one of such one ,senses that she is merely a cipher in an uncaring world yet seeks to grasp the mysteries of life and thereby satisfies her desires for social status and material comfort •（Hurstwood,s 自杀）:When they live together ,Carrie becomes mature in intellect and emotion ,while Hurst wood ,away from the atmosphere of success on which his life has been based .steadily declines .So their relations become strained .At last ,she thinks him too great a burden and leaves him .After Carrie deserts Hurstwood ,he is in great despair .Feeble and penniless ,Hurstwood wanders in a cold winter night with no body trying to help .Extremely hopeless and totally devastated ,he turns the gas on in a cheaplodging-house and ends his life .By making that comment .Hurstwood seems to have realized that it is useless to continue to fight against fate •His fate is not controlled by his own efforts but by some social forces too strong for him to resist ,so he decides to give up •七:三代表:William Dean Howells ,Mark Twain ,Henry James :Mark Twain and Howells seemed to have paid more attention to the^life^of the Americans ・Howells focused his discussion on the rising middle class and the way they lived .Mark Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories .Henry James had apparently laid a greater emphasis on the^inner world^of man.。

22.1复习笔记Robert Lowell(1917-1977)（罗伯特·洛威尔）1.Life（生平）Lowell came from a distinguished New England family.This background endowed him with culture and taste in the very texture of his being,and meanwhile offered a window of opportunity for him to scrutinize and dissect the decline of his New England tradition.He was well educated at Harvard and then at Kenyon College,Ohio under the well-known New Critical poet and critic John Crowe Ranson.Lowell’s poetic career reached a height when he received a Pulitzer for his second volume,Lord Weary’s Castle in1946.In1959his Life Studies came out,at that time he had switched from the New Critical style to open form,and had inadvertently initiated a new school of verse,the Confessional School poetry.He received the National Book Award for the new book.In the late1960s he once was arrested for his part in the march on the Pentagon against the Vietnam War.洛威尔来自显赫的新英格兰家庭。

1. The Colonial PeriodThe settlement of America in the early 17th century--- the end of the 18th century.The major topicThe major figures2. The Romantic PeriodCovering the first half of the19th century.•The major points:3. The Age of RealismThe Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. Covering the end of the 19th century and the first decade of 20th century.•It expresses the concern for the commonplace and the low, and offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.•4. American Naturalism•From the first decade of twentieth century to the First World War.•The major figures: Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and O. Henry5 American ModernismThe literature between the two world wars. This is the most important period in6. American Postmodernism•From the World War II up to now.•Postmodernist writers: John Barth, Philip Roth, Thomas Pinchon, Ishmael Reed and Don Delillo.•The flourishing of minoritarian literature: Jewish-American, African-American and Asian-American literatureis an account of a person’s life written by that person or a book written by oneself about one’s own life. It is characterized by the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression, lucidity of the narrative. Benjamin Franklin…s Autobiography is a good example.Puritanism:Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans, who became American‟s founding fathers. They advocated highly religious and moral principles.The American Puritans were idealists. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God.Puritanism has a profound influence on the early American mind and literaturePoor Richard’s Almanac Autobiography Romanticism1800-1865Characteristics of Romanticism (derivative independent)o an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society—reliance on the subconscious, the inner life, the abnormal psychologyo an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination—rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed formality, order and authority o a profound love for nature—nature as a source of knowledge, nature asa refuge from the present, nature as a revelation of the holy spirito the quest for beauty—pure beautyo the use of antique and fanciful subject matters—sense of terror, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queerMoby-Dick is regarded as the first American prose epic. His ideas:The world is at once Godless and purposelessMan cannot influence and overcome nature at its sourceThemes 1 alienation 2 Rejection and Quest3criticism against Emersonian self-reliant individualSymbolThe Pequod -------- of human society. The voyage ----- search and discovery. The whale Moby Dick------nature Queequeg's coffin ---- symbolizes life and death. The whiteness of Moby Dick --- death and corruption and purity, innocence and youth; final mystery of the universe.The ship on the ocean----- symbol of the whole world with people in quest of its瓦尔登湖A psalm of lifeSonnet—To science abab cdcd efef ggTo Helen ABABB CDCDC AEEAE五行诗节1. Free from the traditional iambic pentameter and writes free verse2. Parallelism3. Phonetic recurrence systematic repetition of words and phrases or sounds4. Long catalogs, giving free rein to poetic imaginationHer poetry is a clear illustration of her religious-ethical and political-social ideas.largest portion of Dickinson‟s poetry concerns andoriginal in art and famous for the economy of expression in diction and the frequent use of dashes.Her poems are short and implicit in meaning. She is regarded as the forerunner of modernism in American poetryThemes: death love natureFrequent use of dashesTranscendentalism.浪漫主义运动的表现形式-超验主义it‟s Romanticism on the Puritan soil Transcendentalism has been defined as the recognition in man of the capacity of acquiring knowledge transcending the reach of the five senses, or of knowing truth intuitively, or of reaching the divine without the need of an intercessor.placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over soul as the most important thing in the universe stressed the importance of the individualoffered a fresh perception of nature a symbolic of the Spirit or Godstressed the power of intuition.He firmly believes in the transcendence of the “Oversoul”.2. Emerson’s Idealism. He sees the world as phenomenal, and emphasizes theneed for idealism, for idealism sees the world in God3. Emerson’s View on Spirit. He sees spirit pervading everywhere4.Emerson’sView on Man. man is made in the image of God and is just a little less then Him.man is divine.5. Emerson’s View on Individuality and Self-Reliance. The individual is the mostimportant of all. E For him, if man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect.So men should and could be self-reliant.6. Emerson’s Nature. A natural implication of Emerson‟s view on nature is that the world around is symbolicRealismHis later works become darker and more obscure, showing his discontent and disappointment toward the social reality. His last works shows his acute pessimism, despair, skepticism determinism.Humor local color satireThe Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Gilded Age Life on the Mississippi A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug The Mysterious StrangerThe Innocents Abroad Roughing It Pudd'nhead WilsonAmerican ClaimantNaturalismIs a critical term applied to the method of literary composition that aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man•It is thus more inclusive and less selective than realism, and holds to the philosophy of determinism.•It conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by its social and economic environment and circumstances.•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments.•In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author‟s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.CharacteristicsA literary trend that prevailed in 1890s in America.1) Emphasis on reality, objectivity, no exaggeration, give no comments andcriticizing;2) The naturalists would go to the slums and describe the poverty and crime;3) Be concerned about the influence of social environment. According to them,human beings are victims of the crushing forces of heredity and environment.Explain human activities and human society according to biological law, highlight the effect of animal instincts and heredity on human beings.5) Apply scientific experiment to writing, try to test human feelings in variouskinds of environment.6) The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile.7) Hold very pessimistic attitude towards human society, and this pessimism oftengoes to determinism.Representatives: CharacteristicFrank Norris（弗兰克·诺里斯）dehumanizedStephen Crane（斯蒂芬·克莱恩）- determinedTheodore Dreiser（西奥多·德莱塞）- moved by inner and outer forcesJack London（杰克·伦敦beyond conscious moral control McTeague Octopus the Pit Vandover and the BruteMaggie: A Girl of the Streets The red badge of courage Sister Carrie Modernism现代主义时期•During the first decades of the 20th century, modernism became an international tendency against positivism and representational art in art and literature. Modernism was the consequence of the transformation of society brought about by industrialism and technology. The essence of modernism wasa break with the past, and it also fostered a belief in art and literature as anavenue to self-fulfillment. The feature was its strong and conscious break with traditional forms, perceptions, and techniques of expressions, and its great concern with language and all aspects of its medium.•It was persistently experimental. Stream of consciousness, the use of myth as a structural principle, and the primary status given to the poetic image, all challenged traditional representation.•Generally speaking, this new desire in craftsmanship and skill was one of the hallmarks of the early decades of the 20th century.Imagism意象派（诞生于现代主义时期）It is a Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. It was initially led by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell.（no fuss, frill, or ornament）,（precision and economy of expression）,（free verse form and music）.Launch Imagism setting down the Imagist principlesThe Cantos 《诗章》威廉·卡洛·威廉斯avoided complexity andobscure华莱士·斯蒂文斯Simple lines: an emphasis on vocabulary and imagery rather than prosodyThe faith in poetry : when no one believes in God, it is necessary to believe in something else, such as poetry, a thing created by imaginationAnecdote of the Jar罗伯特The most popular 20th Century American Poet, A four-timeStyl e 1rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries, choosingthe old-fashioned way to be new.• 2 employ the plain speech of rural New Englanders.3 use the simple, short, traditional forms of lyrics and Narrative, can probemysteries of darkness and irrationality in the bleak and chaotic landscapes of an indifferent universe where man stand alone, unaided and perplexed.Fire and ice Fire - a symbol of desire, or love. Ice - a symbol of hatredtwo weaknesses of human beings that are as destructive as natural disasters The road not taken it does not moralize about choice, it simply says that choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived itStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening The poem is primarily oriented towards the pleasures of the scene and the responsibility of life. Metaphors:• Promises –Our own promises or duties that we must fulfill.Miles - experience we must travel through before deathThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black boughthe Great Gatsby 1926The Sun Also Rises 1926, A Farewell to Arms , 1929,the Wasteland.Main Street 1920an American TragedyAmerican Dream:The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of martial wealth, but a dream of social order. People try to get success no matter what kind of circumstances of birth or position they came from.The lost generationIt refers to the writers who were devoid of faith, values and ideals and who were alienated from the civilization the capitalist society advocated. It includes Ernst Hemingway, F. S.Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Louis Bromfield., and E.E.Cummings, Ezra Pound，who rebelled against former values and ideas, but replaced them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. They were frustrated by the WWI and returned from that “Great War”to their own country only to find the grim reality that the social values and civilization were hollow.Short storyIt is a fictional prose tale of no specified length, but too short to be published as a volume on its own. It concentrates on a single event with one or two characters. It flourished in the magazines of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the USA, which has a particularly strong tradition. Edgar Allen Poe was considered as the father of modern short story. His short stories like the cast of Amontillado and the Black cat are famous.Jazz Age⏹American industry developed fast. The nation is full of bouncingebullience, fearful of nothing, confident smug isolationism.⏹Socially, decline of idealism. Patriotism became cynical disillusionment.Unity of family weakened. There appeared the revolt of the Younger Generation. They escaped responsibility and assumed immorality.⏹After WWI, people found that the war which cost millions of lives failedto provide an abiding solutions to the world’s problems, that the war was just the traps of political leaders. Such a disillusionment about the value of war, accompanied by the booming of American economy drove people to cynical hedonism. People experiment with new amusements. They restlessly pursued stimulus and pleasures, wallow in heavy drinking, fast driving and casual sex. By these, they hoped to seek relief from serious problems.Hemingway heroThey live adventures-filled lives that were driven by courage and limited by fear. They hide a sensitive heart from tough exterior.” Grace under press” is their motto. Its heroes are hemmed in by forces beyond their control.AntiheroIt is a central character in a dramatic or narrative work who lacks the qualities ofnobility and magnanimity expected of traditional heroes in romances and epic.Like the character “Henry” in the work of a farewell to arms.SymbolTraditional FormsBallad(民谣)A ballad is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. “The Geste of Robin HoodHeroic CoupletIt refers to a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter and written in an elevated style. Sonnet 18Spenserian stanza•It is a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c. The Faerie QueeneBlank verse素体诗，无韵诗•Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.•It became widely used in dramatic poetry and narratives.Now that/ the gloo/my sha/dow of /the night,Longing/ to view/ Orion/’s drizz/ling look,Leaps from/ the an/tarc/tic world/ unto/ the skyAnd dims/ the wel/kin with/ her pi/tchy breath ----Doctor FaustusFree verseMeans the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without paying attention to conventional rules of meter. It can free the poets from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and recreate instead the free rhythms of natural speech.Beat GenerationTheatre of absurd. the 1950sBlack humor.the 1960s。

History And Anthology of American Literature (Volume Ⅱ) 美国文学史及选读2 Part Ⅳ The Literature Of Realism 现实主义文学1. 美国国内战争Civil War 1861-1865.美国现实主义文学：他们寻找描写美国人真实生活的方法，他们声称平凡的、就近的事件同重大的、遥运的事件一样都是艺术创作的源泉they sought to portray American life as it really was,, insisting that the ordinary and local were as suitable for artistic portrayal as the magnificent and the remote. 2. 现实主义一词来源于法语realisme, 她是一种文学原则，她强调描写平凡的生活，强调其“真实性和现实性”。

Realism had originated in France as realisme, a literary doctrine that called for “reality and truth ” in the depiction of ordinary ordinary life. life. life. ““现实主义要求创作素材绝对真实，即不能夸张，也不能缩小”,William ,William Dean Dean Dean Howells(Howells(豪厄斯) defined realism as “nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material ”.他反对那些表现失意和绝望类苍白无力的小说，他强调现实主义作品要发掘出生活中微笑的一方面，因为美国人都坚信自己的国家是一个充满希望，一个充满希望，什么奇迹都有可能发生的一个国家，什么奇迹都有可能发生的一个国家，什么奇迹都有可能发生的一个国家，作为文学也应该把这些特征表现出来作为文学也应该把这些特征表现出来he spoke out against the writing of a bleak fiction of failure and despair. He called for the treatment of the “Smiling aspects of life ” as being being the the the more more more ““American American””, , insisting insisting insisting that that that American American American was was was truly truly truly a a a land land land of of of hope hope hope and and and of of of possibility possibility possibility that that that should should should be be reflected in its literature. 3. 美国现实主义文学总体说来对生活的表面现象进行了乐观的处理，这是其局限，然而最伟大的现实伟大的现实主义大师亨利·詹姆斯、马克·吐温则摆脱了对十九世纪美国进行肤浅描写的局限，吐温则摆脱了对十九世纪美国进行肤浅描写的局限，詹姆斯对他作品中的人物詹姆斯对他作品中的人物个性心理进行了深度探讨，他运用深厚的和复杂的写作方式对复杂的个人经历进行了揣摩。

1.................Father of American Literature: IrvingFather of the American novel: CooperInventor of the American Short Story: Poe▲▲▲▲▲▲Washington Irving 华盛顿?欧文1.地位：Father of American literature▲▲▲1. the first American (true) literary writer2. the first American man of letters3. America’s first genuine internationally best-selling author4. the first belletrist in American literature, writing for pleasure at a time when writing was practical and for useful purposes注意Mark Twain also is called the Father of American Literature ，the true Father of American Literature。

2In 1820, Irving published The Sketch Book under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon. 代表作▲▲▲The hit book made Irving the first American author to gain real fame in Europe.The stories (including “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”) appeared serially in 1819–20.3作品(1) A History of New York(2) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (This gives him international recognition.)(3) The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5) The Alhambra4文学成就1. short story2. “Rip Van Winkle”3. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”Poe first theorized on the structure and purpose of the short story.5“Rip Van Winkle”similar to a 3rd-century Chinese tale of Ranka (烂柯)retold in Lionel Giles in A Gallery of Chinese Immortalspart of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey CrayonRip Van Winkle: the protagonist主要人物a villager of Dutch descentlives in a nice village at the foot of New York's Catskill Mountainsan amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglecthe is loved by all but his wife6The Legend of Sleepy Hollowthe longest tale in the collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.written while he was living in Birmingham, England.人物：Ichabod Crane: a lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmasterAbraham “Brom Bones”Van Brunt: the town rowdy (无赖, 流氓)Katrina Van Tassel: the sole child of a wealthy farmer题目：14. _____ which contains stories like “Rip Van Winkle”and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”was a great success and won ________ a measure of international fame on both sides of the Atlantic.( ) 9. "Diedrich Knickerbocker" is the pseudonym of for his works which combines European legends with New England reality.A. CooperB. Washington IrvingC. Nathaniel HawthorneD. Philip Frenau2.▲▲▲▲▲。

美国文学史及作品选读提纲第一部分：The Literature of Colonial American考核知识点：a. The first distinctly America literatureb. The first American writer and his first workc. Kinds of literary writings in this periodd. The dominant influence of the Puritan values on the early American writingse. The most important poets in this period: Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor考核要求：1．一般识记：The beginnings of American national history and literary history2．识记：Kinds of literary writings in this period；the important writers, literary works and their main ideas3 领会：The dominant influence of the Puritan values on the early American writings第二部分:The Literature of Reason and Revolution考核知识点：a. The historical background about American Revolutionb. The general feature of the 18th-century American literaturec. The most important poet in this period: Philip Freneau考核要求：1．一般识记：The historical background about American Revolution；the life and literary creation of Philip Freneau2识记：The general feature of the 18th-century American literature; the most important poet in this period: Philip Freneau3. 领会：The influence of English literature on American writers4. 应用：The subject matter, themes and poetic style of Philip Freneau’s poetry;第三部分：The literature of Romanticism考核知识点：a. The importance of Washington Irving’s literary creation;b. The general characteristics shared by the Romantic writers;c. The influence of the Transcendentalist Movement on American literature;d. The principal literary forms of this periode. The permanent convention of American literature考核要求：1. 一般识记：historical background of this period; life and literary creation of important writers in this period2. 识记：The importance of Washington Irving’s literary creation; the general characteristics shared by the Romantic writers; the principal literary forms of this period;3. 领会：The influence of the Transcendentalist Movement on American literature; the permanent convention of American literature4. 应用：The subject matter and themes of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; the characterization and narrative skill displayed in the The Last of the Mohicans; the subject matter, charaterization and symbolic method of The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick第四部分：The Literature of Realism考核知识点：a. The influence of the westward expansion of American territory on American literature;b. The important women writers and their works in this period;c. The philosophy and method adopted by American realistic writers;d. Mark Twain’s contribution to American literature;e. The characteristic features of the American naturalists;f. The representative writers of American realism:g. The representative writers of American naturalism;h. The most important writers in this period:a) Walt Whitman and his free verse;b) Emily Dickinson and the characteristic features of her poetry;c) Mark Twain and the subject matter and humorous style of his works;考核要求：1.一般识记：The life and literary career of the important writers2.识记：The definition of realism and naturalism; the historical background; important works of the time and their main ideas3.领会：The significance and influence of American realism and American naturalism; the characteristic features of important writers and their works; the characteristics of free verse;4.应用：The subject matter, themes and style of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”; the theme and poetic imagery of Emily Dickinson’s poetry; the themes and humorous style of The Adventure of Tom Sawyer; the subject matter, themes and characterization of Sister Carrie第五部分：The Twentieth-Century Literature考核知识点：a. The historical background of the early 20th centuryb. The variety of avant-garde doctrines and literary schools emerging in early 20th centuryc. The leading writers of the modernist literature: Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot;d. Henry James and his masterpieces;e. Robert Frost and the characteristics of his poetry;f. The writers of “the lost generation” in the 1920s and their great achievements;g. Ernest Hemingway;h. The thriving of American drama in the 1920s and the representative dramatist of the time;i. The Harlem Renaissance in 1920s;j. The characteristic feature of the artists and writers in the Great Depression of the 1930s;k. John Steinbeck and his important works考核要求：1.一般识记：The historical background of the early 20th century ; the life and literary career of the important writers and their literary contributions2.识记: The variety of avant-garde doctrines and literary schools emerging in early 20th century; the great achievements of the writers of “the lost generation”; the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s; the thriving of American drama in the 1920s and the representative dramatist of the time; the important works and their main ideas; the characteristic feature of the artists and writers in the Great Depression of the 1930s;3.领会：The charateristic features of the modernist literature; the characteristic features of the writers of “the lost generation” in the 1920s; the most important writers of the time and their characteristic features; the themes, styles, techniques and significance or influence of the representative works in this period4.应用：The subject matter, themes and style of Robert Frost’s poetry;the themes and technique of T. S. Eliot’s poetry; the themes, characterization and style of Hemingway’s masterpiece For Whom the Bell Tolls。

【美国】Chapter 2 The Realistic Period现实主义时期1. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life.由于对现实生活产生了浓厚的兴趣，产生了新的创作灵感。

2. The three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James.这一时期的三个代表作家是豪威尔斯，亨利.詹姆斯和马克.吐温。

3. In short, they set the example and charted the future course for the subjects, themes, techniques and styles of fiction we still call modern.总之，他们为后来的现实文学在题材，技巧和风格上都树立了典范。

4. Howells focused his discussion on the rising middle class and the way they lived, while Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories.豪威尔斯讨论上升的中产阶级及其生活方式，而马克.吐温则喜欢把他自己家乡的人放在故事的最前沿。

5. 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.总之，自然主义产生现实主义，只是在创作上更富讽刺，更加悲观。

Proses:Natha n Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter-Chapter 2Hawthorne:心理分析小说，以宗教罪恶观sin评价社会。

-Why are women especially the elder ones so harsh and intolerant to Hester?1. Startled or astonished by the beauty, elegant and dignity of Hester.2. The patriarchal society let women have eternalized patriarchal ideas, unfavorable for women adulterers.-How does the author portray Hester Prynne?1. Core impressive image: the artistically and fantastically made letter A .2. Appeara nee-What does the scarlet letter with gold thread and elaborate embroidery( 朿9绣)suggests?1. Clue of Hester ' s attitsh e makes a mockery of her punishment by making this plain symbol of adultery into a gorgeousdecorati on.2. To n egate the awful meaning of the letter.3. as punishment, 血红色的A 字象征这人们反对human nature ,lush, 有devilish 意味，而Hester wants to changeher huma n reality, to make it prettier tha n it really is.-What does “ A” sta nd for?Adultery/A ngel (appeari ng in the sky whe n gover nor dies)/Able (Hester gains in flue nee)-What kind of pers on is Chilli ngworth?1. Devil or devil ' s emissary or SataicDld intellect and old age , without hominine feelings from heart and soul.2. In Hester ' s recalling, he is "…pale. ”Herman Melville: Moby Dick-Ch apter 41 Character Capta in AhabImage of America n: an idealist and an egoni st.Willa Cather: Miss JewettSarah Orne Jewett' s poetic principlesJewett both as a writer and a pers onCather ' s poetic principlesAs a writer, Jewett has her own writing style.She focuses on the places where she lives and loves, and makes them subject-matters of her stories. (Wherever she might be, She carried the Maine shore-country with her. She loved it by instinet, and in the light of wide experienee, from near and from afar. Every day, in every seas on of the year, she enjoyed the beautiful country in which she had the good fortune to be born. Her love of the Maine country was the supreme happ in ess of her life. Her stories were but reflect ions, quite incidental, of that peculiar and intensely personal pleasure. Take ,for instanee, that dear, daybreak paragraph which begins By the Morning Boat ”：On the coast of Maine …'P127 paragraph 3)She writes with delightful humor that comes from her delicate and tactful han dli ng of her n ative Ian guage.(Her pers onal opinions she voiced lightly, half-humorously; any expression was spontaneous, the outgrowth of the immediate con versati on.) And, the dist inctive thi ng about Miss Jewett is that she has her own in dividual voice.(her comme nt on the story of a mule) Sherwood An ders on: The Triumph of the EggF. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great GatsbyEast and West Egg represent, respectively, the split among upper class society of old-monied, aristocratic families and the 'nouveau riche" families whose fortunes were recently made. In the time setting for this novel, this division was distinct and very relevant "Old money" was considered morE respe匚lablE than Tl new money" and this is evident in the social depiction of life in East Egg and life in West Egg. Consider, for example, how Daisy (who lives in East Egg) considers Gatsby's (a West Egg resident) parties to be decadent and jnliike the(:ivilized gathering£ she is a匚customed to atteriding.Nick ultimately returns west because he has become disillusioned with east coast society. He left the west r like many people of his era, in search of a richer, broader, cultural experience. After his experiences with Gatsby r Nick finds the east 白ndit£ attendant lifestyle to be contemptible and lacking in authenticity.East Egg and West Egg together represent the ongoing divisions in society. East Egg is where the M real" aristocrats live: those with older money and established credentials. West Egg is where the new money lives, and is not considered as classy.Nick retums to West Egg because, while he has some social credenti^h that might allow him to live in East Egg； he is trying to make something of himself, ina way like Gatsby, his neighbor, and the western community is for those stillconstructing their identities*Ernest Hemi ngway: A Clea n, Well-Lighted PlaceExistential ism and the “ LostGeneration "Although Hemingway was writing years before existentialism became a prominent culture idea, his questioning of life and his experiences as a searching member of the lost generation gave his work existe ntialist overt on es.Noth ingn ess: (nada) an existe ntial an gst about his place in the uni verse and an un certa inty about the meaning of life . The struggle to deal with despair : the older waiter cannot actually stave off despair: in effective methods in cludi ng: money(bar)/mocki ng prayers (religio n)The Older Waiter: Lonely, recognizes himself in the old man and sees his own future.The Youn ger Waiter: n a^Ve and insen sitive, immature, dem on strates a dismissive attitude toward huma n life in gen eral. Symbols: The caf - t h e opposite of nothingnessDeceptive pacing: 写作风格从简，导致故事节奏忽快忽慢。