美国文学(1)

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美国文学题目(1)

1. ________is not a play written by Tennessee Williams.A. Cat on Hot Tin RoofB. The Glass MenagerieC. Death of a SalesmanD. A Streetcar Named Desire2. From ______ in the 1920s, Black(or African- American) literature started one upsurge after another.A. The Harlem RenaissanceB. The Beat MovementC. The Lost GenerationD. The worker’s movement3. Which of the following is not said about Ezra Pound?A. For he was politically, controversial and notorious for what he did in the wartime, his literary achievement and influence are somewhat reduced.B. His artistic talents are on full display in the history of the imagist movement.C. From his analysis of Chinese ideogram Pound learned to another his poetic language in concrete, perceptual reality and to organize images into large patterns through juxtaposition.D. His language is usually oblique yet marvelously compressed and his poetry is dense with personal literary and historical allusions.4. In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway_______.A. emphasizes his belief that man is trapped both physically and mentally and suggests that m an is doomed to be entrapped.B. Wrote the epitaph to a decade and to the whole generation in the 1930sC. Favored the idea of nature as an expression of either god’s design or his beneficence.D. Tells a story about the tragic love affair of a wounded American soldier with a French nurse5. Eugene O’neill is remembered for his tragic view of life, and most of his plays are about_____.A. The root, the truth of human desires and human frustrationsB. The moral nature of the modern mankindC. The relationship between man and nature as well as an and womanD. The inner contradiction of men before the red world6. Which of the following does not describe the strikingly successful artistic techniques in Catch-22？A. BurlesqueB. black humorC. anti-heroD.simple plot7. In his poems, Robert Frost combined traditional verse to forms with________.A. A simple spoken language the speech of New England farmersB. The pastoral language of the southern areaC. The difficult and highly ornamental languageD. Both A and B8. The literary characters of the America type in early 19th century are generally characterized by all the following Features except that they_______.A. Speak local dialectsB. are polite and elegant gentlemanC..are simple and crude farmersD. are noble savage (red and white) untainted by society9. The Raven was written in 1844 by_______.A. Philip FreneauB. Edgar Allan PoeC. Henry Wadsworth LongfellowD. Emily Dickinson10. The main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism and generally philosophically concerning______.A. The cold, rigid rationalism of UnitarianismB. The relationship between man and womenC. He development of Romanticism in AmericaD. Nature man and the universe11. ______ can be broadly defined as“the faithful representation of reality”or “verisimilitude”it includes the period of time from the civil war to the turn of the century.A. American Realism C.American SentimentalismB. American Transcendentalism D. American Romanticism12. Which of the following works is not be Ernest Hemingway?A. The Old Man and SeaB. A Farewell to ArmsC.Sound and FuryD. For whom to Bell Tolls13. Iceberg Theory is a writing principle proposed and closely followed by________.A. Jack LondonB. Sinclair LewisC. William FaulknerD. Ernest Hemingway14. Which of the following is said of the American Naturalism?A. They preferred to have their own region and people at the forefront of the storiesB. Their characteristic setting is an isolated townC. Their characters were conceived more or less complex combinations or inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forcesD. Humans should be united because they had to adapt themselves to changing environmental conditions15. As a great innovator in American literature, Walt Whitman wrote his poetry in an unconventional style which is now called_______, that is_________.A. Hymn, poetry with chanting refrains.B. Blank verse, poetry without rhymes at the end of the lines but with a fixed beat.C. Free verse, poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.D. Ode, poetry in an irregular metric form and expressing noble feeling.16. By the end of he 19th century, the realists had rejected the portrayal of idealized characters and event, instead, sought to______.A. Describe the wide range of American experienceB. Present the subtleties of human personalityC. Show animal nature of human beingsD. Both A and B17. In all his novels Theodore Dreiser set himself to project the _____American values. For example, in Sister Carrie, there is no one character whose status is not determined economically.A. PuritansB. MaterialisticC. PsychologicalD. Religions18. _______was poet in American modern period who was deeply influence by Eastern culture.A. T.S.EliotB. Robert FrostC. Ezra PoundD. Walt Whitman19. Which of the following is not a typical feature of Henry James’s writing style?A. Exquisite and elaborateB. minute and detailed descriptionsB. lengthy psychological analyses D. American colloquialism20. In American literature, the 18th century was the age of Enlightenment. ______was the dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. rationalismC. DevolutionD. Evolution21. About the novel The Scarlet Letter, which of the following statement is not right?A. It is a love story and a story of sinB. It is a highly symbolic story as the author is a master of symbolismC. It is mainly about the moral emotional and psychological effects of the sin upon the main characters and the people in generalD. In it the letter A takes the same symbolic meaning throughout the novel22. American Colonial literature is longer than any other literary and sermons, which started when the first settlers kept diaries and sermons and developed till________.A. The mid of 18th centuryB. early 17th centuryB. the end of 17th century D. the end of 18th century23. Which of the following works concerns most concentrated the Calvinistic view of original sin?A. The WastelandB. The Scarlet LetterC. Leaves of GrassD. As I Lay Dying24. Whitman’s poem are characterized by all the following features except______.A. Strict poetic formB. a simple and conversationallanguageB. a free and natural rhythmic pattern D. an easy flow of feelings25.Which of the following is not written by Faulkner? A. The Sound and Fury B.A Rose for EmilyD. Tender is the night26._______ is considered to be a spokesman for the alienated youth in the post-war era and his The Catcher in the Rye is regarded as a students’classic.A. Allen SalingerB.E.E. CummingsC.J.D. Salinger D. Henry James27.Which one of the following statement is NOT True of William Faulkner?A. He is master of stream of consciousness narrativeB. His writing is often complex and difficult to understandC. He represents a new group pf Southern writers28.As a spokesman of the“Roaring 20s’”. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed ______.A. the problems of the human heart in conflict with itselfB. the psychological journey of the modern man and his helplessness in the modern worldC. the primitive struggle of individuals in the context of irresistible natural forcesD. the hollowness of the American worship of riches and the unending American dream of fulfillment29.In the beginning paragraph of chapter 3. The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald describes a big party by saying that “men and girls came and went like moths”. The author most likely indicates that______.A. there was a crowd of party goersB. these people were light -heartedC. these were crazy and ignorant charactersD. such life does not have red meaning30.______ is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th century “stream -of consciousness ”novels and the founder of psychological realism.A. Theodore DreiserB. William Faulkner D. His often depicts slum life in New York and ChicagoC. Light in AugustC. Henry JamesD. Mark Twain31.As the leader of the Harlem writers who created the Black Renaissance ______ as known as the“Poet Laureate of Harlem”.A. Ralph EllisonB. Langston HughesC. Richard WrightD. Alice Walker32.Hemingway once described Mark Twain’s novel ________ the one book from which“all modern American literature comes”.A. The Adventure of Huckleberry FinnB. The Adventure of Tom SawyerC. The Gilded AgeD. The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg33.Romantics put emphasis on the following Expect _______.A. common senseB. imaginationC. intuitionD. individualism34.In the middle of 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering which is called ________.A. the English RenaissanceB. the American RenaissanceC. the Second RenaissanceD. the Salem Renaissance35.The main theme of The Art of Fiction written by ______ clearly indicates that the aim of the novel is to present life.A. Henry JamesB. Mark TwainC. Theodore DreiserD. Ernest Hemingway36.In the line“We slowly drove-He knew on haste/ And I had put away /My labor and my leisure too. /For his Civility -”, the word“civility”means______.A. abilityB. politenessC. kindnessD. pleasure37.Which one is not the characterized of modernism?A. Modernism in literature is characterized by experimentation, anti-realism, individualism and a stress on the cerebral rather than emotive aspects.B. Modernism is greatly influenced by the two world wars.C. The work of Mary and Freud had mounted an assault against orthodox religious faith that lasted into the twentieth century.D. Modernists believe that human nature is kind38.Which of the following plays by O’Neill can be read autobiographicall y?A. The Hairy ApeB. The Emperor TonesC. The Iceman ComethD. Long Day’s Tourney Into Night39.The Civil War had transformed America from _____ to _____.A.an agrarian community, a society of freedom and equalityB.an agrarian community, an industrialized and commercialized societyC.an industrialized and commercialized society, a highly -developed societyD. a poor and backward society, an industrialized and commercial society40.Robert Frost combined traditional verse from -sonnet, rhyming couplet, blank verse -with a clear American local speech rhythm, the speech of ______ farmers with its idiosyncratic diction and syntax.A. southernB. westernC. New EnglandD. New Hampshire41.The realistic period is referred to as“the Gilded Age”by______.42.Realism was a reaction against ______ or a move away from the bias towards romance and self-creating flections and paved the way to Modernism.A. RationalismB. RomanticismC. NeoclassicismD. Enlightenment43.With Howells, James and Mark Twain active on the literary scene _______ became the major trend in American literature in the seventies and eighties of the 19th century.A. sentimentalismB. romanticismC. realismD. naturalism44.Anna Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poem made such a stir in England that she become known as the“_______”who appeared in America.45.Apart from The Autobiography, Franklin is perhaps best remembered in print for his _______.A. The Way to WealthB. The Sketch BookC. The Biography Christopher ColumbusD. Poor Richard’s Almanac46.Moby Dick is usually considered ______.A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universeB. a spiritual exploration into man’s deep reality and psychologyC. a simple whaling tale or sea adventure47.The image of the famous“henpecked husband”is created by _______.D. both A and BTenth Muse Mark Twain A. B. Ninth Muse C. Best Muse D. First MuseA. B. Henry James C. Emily Dickinson D. Theodore DreiserA. Washington IrvingB. Fennimore CooperC. William Dean HowellsD.Mark Twain48.As a philosophical and literary moment, _______ flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.A. ModernismB. RationalismC. SentimentalismD. Transcendentalism。

美国文学史习题 (1)

I. Multiple choice. Please choose the best answer among the fouritems. (10 x 1’= 10’)1. In American literature, the 18th century was the age of Enlightenment. ____ was the dominant.2. The short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is taken from Irving’s work named ____.3.Which of the following is not the characteristic of American Romanticism?4. The short story “Rip Van Winkle” reveals the __ attitude of its author.5.Stylistically, Henry James’ fiction is characterized by ___.6.Transcendentalist doctrines found their greatest literaryadvocates in ___ and Thoreau.7.Which is regarded as the “Declaration of IntellectualIndependence”?8.____ is considered Mark Twain’s greatest achievement.9.___ isnot among those greatest figures in “Lost Generation”.writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironicand more ___.11.______ is the father of American Literature.12._____ is a fantasy tale about a man who somehow stepped outside themain stream of life.13._____ was the most leading spirit of the Transcendental Club.14.Which of following is NOT a typical feature of Mark Twain’slanguage?From Thoreau’s jail experience, came his famous essay, _____ which states his belief that no man should violate his conscience at the command of a government.A. WaldenB. NatureC. Civil DisobedienceD. Common Sense16.Which is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”?17.Most of the poems in Whitman’s Leaves of Grass sing of the “en-mass” and the ____ as well.18.What did Fitzgerald call the 1920s?19.Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more ____.20.For Melville, as well as for the reader and ____, the narrator, MobyDick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.II. Identify Works as Described Below (1’×15 =15’):1.The novel has a sole black protagonist who tells his own story butwhose name in unknown to us.Son Tom’s Cabin Man d. Go Tell It on the Mountains2.The main conflict of the play is the protagonist’s false value offine appearance and popularity with people and the cruel reality of the society in which money is everything.Street Car Named Desire b. The Hairy Ape Day’s Journey into Night d. Death of Salesman3.It is an autobiographical play and Edmund in the play is based onthe playwright himself.a. Long Day’s Journey into Nightb. Henderson the Rain Kingc. The Hairy Aped. The Glass Menageries4.The novel tells of how a black man kills a white woman by accidentand how the society is responsible for the murder.Son Tom’s Cabin Man d. Go Tell It on the Mountains5._________ is one of the best works in American literature about theSecond World War.Farewell to Arms Catcher in the Rye Red Badge of Couraged. The Naked and the Dead6. The novel by Hemingway is the best of its kind about World War I.Farewell to Arms Sun Also RisesOld Man and the Sea d. The Naked and the Dead7.The novel is about how a family of farmers cannot survive in Oklahomaand travel to California to seek a living and how they suffer hunger in California.a.The Grapes of Wrathb. . A.d. The Adventures of Augie March8.It is a trilogy including The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money,with such techniques as biographies, newsreels and camera eye.9.It is a novel which uses the stream of consciousness technique andwhose title is taken from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.a. Absolom, Absolom!b. The Sound and the FuryFarewell to Arms d. The Great Gatsby10. It is a naturalistic work about how a country girl is seduced andhow she becomes a famous actress and how her lover falls into a beggar and finally commits suicide.American Tragedy b. Sister Carrie c. McTeague , A Girl of the Streets11. The novel is set on the Mississippi with the protagonist tellingus the story in the local dialect. It is a representative work of local colorism.a.Sister Carrie Adventures of Tom Sawyerc. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Portrait of a Ladynovel is a psychological study of a soldier (Henry Fleming)’s reactions in the Civil War.American Tragedy b. Sister CarrieRed Badge of Courage d. McTeague13. The poem is written in free verse in 52 cantos with the theme ofthe universality and equality in value of all people and all things.b. The Ravenc. Song of Myself14. The novel is about how a group of people on a whaling ship killa great whale but themselves are killed by the whale, with theconflict between man and his fate.Octopus b. Moby-Dick c. The Rise of Silas Lapham d. Leaves of Grass15. It is a philosophical essay in 8 chapters plus an introductionmainly concerned with the four uses of nature.a. Waldenb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. The American ScholarI.Choose the Best Answer for Each of the Following (1’×15=15’):1.An English ship brought 102 people from Plymouth, England on September 16, 1620 and arrived in the present Provincetown harbor on November 21 in the same year. This ship was named ____________.a. The Pilgrimsb. Mayflowerc. Americad. Titanicis father of American drama and in his dramatic career he wrote 49 plays.a. Tennessee Williamsb. Eugene O’Neillc. Arthur Millerd. Elmer Ricewas the first American writer to write entirely American literature.a. Anne Bradstreetb. Washington Irvingc. Mark Twaind. Ernest Hemingway4. _______ was the leader of American transcendentalism.a. Benjamin Franklinb. Washington Irvingc. Ralph Waldo Emersond. Henry David Thoreauthe greatest woman poet in American literature and she wrote about 1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Pearl S. Buck Bicher Stowe c. Emily Dickenson d. Walter Whitmanis father of the detective story and of psychoanalytic criticism.a. Washington Irvingb. Ralph Waldo Emersonc. Walt Whitmand. Edgar Allan PoeDean Howells is concerned with the middle class life; ______ writes about the upper class society, and Mark Twain deals with the lower class reality.a. Stephen Craneb. Frank Norrisc. Theodore Dreiserd. Henry James8. Which of the following is a naturalistic writer?a. William Dean Howellsb. Mark Twainc. Ernest Hemingway Dreiser9. His writings are characterized by simple, colloquial language anddeep thoughts. He is______.a. Ernest Hemingwayb. William Faulknerc. F. Scott Fitzgeraldd. Mark Twain10. He wrote 18 novels all set in Jefferson Town, Yoknapatwapha Countyin the deep south. He is ______.a. William Faulknerb. John Steinbeckc. Ernest Hemingwayd. Mark Twain11. ________is Jewish in origin and in many of his novels the AmericanJews are major characters.a. Sinclair Lewisb. Saul Bellowc. Norman Mailerd. Jerome David Salingeris often regarded as the greatest American woman poet and she wrote over 1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Anne Bradstreetb. Robert Frostc. .d. Emily Dickinson is father of American drama and won the Nobel Prize for literaturein 1936.a. John Steinbeckb. William Faulknerc. Eugene O’Neilld. Arthur Miller14. He was the first black American to write a book about black lifewith great impact on the consciousness of the nation and his masterpiece is one of the three classics about black Americans.Who is he?a.Richard Wrightb. Harriet Beecher Stowec. Langston Hughesd.Ralph Ellison15. Hemingway wrote about American compatriots in Europe whereas________ wrote about the Jazz age, life in American society.Carlos Williams b. William Faulkner c. John Steinbeck d. F. Scott Fitzgeraldthe Best Answer for Each of the Following (1×15 %):2.The American Civil War broke out in 1861 between the Northern states and the South states, which are known respectively as the ______and the______.a. N, Sb. Revolutionaries, Reactionariesc. Union, Confederacyd. Slavery, Anti-Slaverypraised by the British as the “Tenth Muse in America”.a.Anne Bradstreetb. Edward Taylorc. Thomas Pained. Philip FreneauTwain was a representative of ________ in American literature.a. transcendentalismb. naturalismc. local colorismd. imagism4. _______ was the leader of American transcendentalism.a. Benjamin Franklinb. Washington Irvingc. Ralph Waldo Emersond. Henry David Thoreaugreatest American poet and the first writer of free verse is ____________.a. Washington Irving Pound c. Walt Whitman d. Emily Dickinsonis father of the detective story and of psychoanalytic criticism.a. Washington Irvingb. Ralph Waldo Emersonc. Walt Whitmand. Edgar Allan PoeJames is concerned with the upper class life; ______ writes about the middle class society, and Mark Twain deals with the lower class reality.a. Stephen Craneb. Frank Norrisc. Theodore Dreiserd. William Dean Howells8. Which of the following is a naturalistic writer?a. William Dean Howellsb. Mark Twainc. Ernest Hemingway Dreiser9. ________’s writings are characterized by simple, colloquial language and deep thoughts.a. Ernest Hemingwayb. William Faulknerc. F. Scott Fitzgeraldd. Mark Twain10. ______ wrote 18 novels all set in Jefferson Town, YoknapatwaphaCounty in the deep south. .a. William Faulknerb. John Steinbeckc. Ernest Hemingwayd. Mark Twain11. ________is Jewish in origin and in many of his novels the AmericanJews are major characters.a. Sinclair Lewisb. Saul Bellowc. Norman Mailerd. Jerome David Salingeris often regarded as the greatest American woman poet and she wrote over 1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Anne Bradstreetb. Robert Frostc. .d. Emily Dickinson is father of American drama and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936.a. John Steinbeckb. William Faulknerc. Eugene O’Neilld. Arthur Miller14. _______ was the first black American to write a book about blacklife with great impact on the consciousness of the nation and hismasterpiece is one of the three classics about black Americans.b.Richard Wright b. Harriet Beecher Stowec. Langston Hughesd. Ralph Ellison15. ________ first used the “Jazz age” as the title of a collectionof short storiesa. F. Scott Fitzgeraldb. William Faulknerc. John Steinbeckd.Ernest HemingwayII. Identify Works as Described Below (1×15 %):6.The play is about a stoker whose identity as a human being is notrecognized by his fellow human beings and who tries to find affinity with a monkey in the zoo and is finally killed by the animal.a. The Hairy Apeb. Henderson the Rain Kingc. Long Day’s Journey into Nightd. The Glass Menageries7.The protagonist in this play is a crippled girl named Amanda.Street Car Named Desire b. The Hairy Ape Day’s Journey intoNightGlass Menageries8.The hero of this novel tells about his own story to us but his nameis unknown.Son Tom’s Cabin Man d. Go Tell It on the Mountains 4. It is an autobiographical play and Edmund in the play is based on the playwright himself.a. Long Day’s Journey into Nightb. Henderson the Rain Kingc. The Hairy Aped. The Glass Menageries5.The novel tells of how a black man kills a white woman by accidentand how he is finally arrested and tried and sentenced to death.Son Tom’s Cabin Man d. Go Tell It on the Mountains6._________ is one of the best works in American literature about theSecond World War.Farewell to Arms Catcher in the Rye Red Badge of Couraged. The Naked and the Dead6. The novel by Hemingway is the best of its kind about World War I.Farewell to Arms Sun Also RisesOld Man and the Sea d. The Naked and the Dead10.The novel is about how a family of farmers cannot survive in Oklahomaand travel to California to seek a living and how they suffer hunger in California.b.The Grapes of Wrath b. . A.d. The Adventures of Augie March11.It is a trilogy including The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money,with such techniques as biographies, newsreels and camera eye.12.It is a novel which uses the stream of consciousness technique andwhose title is taken from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.a. Absolom, Absolom!b. The Sound and the FuryFarewell to Arms d. The Great Gatsby10. It is a naturalistic work about how a country girl is seduced andelopes with Hurstwood and how she becomes a famous actress and how her lover falls into beggary and finally commits suicide.American Tragedy b. Sister Carrie c. McTeague , A Girl of the Streets11. It is a novel with 135 chapters plus an epilog; in it a group ofpeople on a whaling ship kill a great whale but they themselves are killed by the whale in the end, except Ishmael the narrator who survives by adhering to a coffin.b.Sister Carrie Adventures of Tom Sawyerc. Moby Dickd. The Portrait of a Ladynovel is a psychological study of a soldier (Henry Fleming)’s reactions in the Civil War, in which wound is called the red badge which symbolizes courage.American Tragedy b. Sister CarrieRed Badge of Courage d. McTeague13. The poem is written in free verse in 52 cantos with the theme ofthe universality and equality in value of all people and all things.b. The Ravenc. Song of Myself14. The novel is about how a man falls economically and socially butwho rises morally because he gives up the opportunity to sell his factory to an English Syndicate, which would otherwise mean a ruin to that syndicate.Octopus b. The Rise of Silas Lapham c. Moby-Dick d. Leaves of Grass15. It is a speech delivered at Harvard University. It is often hailedas the “declaration of intellectual independence” in America.a. The American Scholarb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. WaldenII. Match the following (1×20%)A. Match Works with Their AuthorsSelwyn Mauberly3. Autobiography4. The Scarlet Letterof GrassRaven7. The Rise of Silas Lapham8. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer9. Long Day’s Journey into Night10. The Old Man and the SeaTwain b . Ernest Hemingwayc. Eugene O’Neilld. William Dean Howellse. Edgar Allan Poef. Walt Whitmang. Nathaniel Hawthorne h. Benjamin FranklinDavid Thoreau j. Ezra PoundJefferson l. . EliotB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear.1.Hester Prynne . TouchettHenry CompsonJoads Edward CummingsCaulfield ThomasPortrait of a Lady b. The Scarlet Letterc. The Hairy Aped. A Farewell to ArmsSound and the Fury f. The Grapes of Wrathg. The Naked and the Dead h. The Catcher in the Rye i. Native Son j. Death of a SalesmanManIII. Match the following (1’×20=20’)A. Match works with their authorsVan Winkle3. Nature4. The Scarlet Letterof GrassRaven7. The Rise of Silas Lapham8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn9. Cantos10. The Old Man and the SeaPound b. Ernest Hemingwayc. Mark Twaind. William Dean Howellse. Edgar Allan Poef. Walt Whitmang. Nathaniel Hawthorne h. Ralph Waldo Emerson Irving j. Waldo EmersonB. Match characters with the works in which they appear.2.Captain Ahab and Starbuck ArcherHenry and Catherine CompsonJoads Edward CummingsCaulfield ThomasTyrones LomanPortrait of a Lady b. Moby-Dickc. Death of a Salesmand. A Farewell to ArmsSound and the Fury f. The Grapes of Wrathg. The Naked and the Dead h. The Catcher in the Ryei. Native Son j. Long Day’s Journey into Night , Absalom l. The Old Man and the SeaV. Essay Questions (30%; c hoose only ONE of the following three topics and write a short essay of at least 300 words. Note: [1]Your essay should have at least 3 paragraphs; you are not simply to make a list of facts.[2] You may give a title to your essay, but you are required to indicate which of the 3 topics it belongs to. [3]You are not to write on a topic of your own.1.T o the best of your knowledge, analyze and make comments onEmerson’s Nature2.C omment on any American poet you like.3.A nalyze and/or comment on any one of the American novels or playsyou have read.V. Essay Questions (30%; c hoose only ONE of the following three topics and write a short essay of at least 300 words. Note: [1]Youressay should have at least 3 paragraphs; you are not simply to make a list of facts.[2] You may give a title to your essay, but you are required to indicate which of the 3 topics it belongs to. [3]You are not to write on a topic of your own.)4.M ake comments on an American novel we have discussed in thiscourse.5.C omment on an American poet.6.D escribe how your knowledge of American literature is improvedafter taking this course..IV. Please answer the following questions briefly. (2 x 10’ = 20’)1.Why do people think Franklin is the embodiment of American dream?2.What is “Lost Generation”?V. Discussion. (1 x 20’ = 20’)State your own interpretations of Hemingway’s iceberg theory of writing?IV. Please answer the following questions briefly. (2 x 10’ = 20’)3.What is Hawthorne’s style? Explain the style with examples.4.At the end of the 19th century, there were three fighters for Realism.Who are they? What are their differences?________True or False. (10 x 2’= 20’)1. American literature is the oldest of all national literature.2. Thomas Jefferson was the only American to sign the 4 documents that created the US.3. All his literary life, Hawthorne seemed to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil.4. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass are about human psychology.5. Hurstwood is a character in Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.6. Faulkner’s region was the Deep North, with its bitter history of slavery, civil war and destruction.7. Placed in historical perspective, Howells is found lacking inqualities and depth. But anyhow he is a literary figure worthy of notice.8. Faulkner’s works have been termed the Yoknapatawpha Saga, “one connected story”.9. As a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematical.10. Emily Dickinson expresses her deep love in the poem “Annabel Lee”. II. Decide whether the statements are True or False. (10 x 2’= 20’)1. Early in the 17th century, the English settlements in Virginia and began the main stream of what we recognize as the American national history.2. American Romantic writers avoided writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements.3. As a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematical.4. “Young Goodman Brown” wants to prove everyone possesses kindnessin heart.5. Henry James was a realist in the same way as one views the realism of Twain or Howells.6. The American realists sought to describe the wide range of American experience and to present the subtleties of human personality.7. Frost’s concern with nature reflected his deep moral uncertainties.8. Faulkner’s works have been termed the Yoknapatawpha Saga, “one connected story”.9. Roger Chillingworth is a character in Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.10. After the Civil War, the Frontier was closing. Disillusionment and frustration were widely felt. What had been expected to be a “Golden Age” turned to be a “Gilded” one.。

美国文学——独立革命时期

美国独立革命时期的文学（一）独立革命时期的历史背景18世纪的美国经历了两场革命：一场是独立战争，这场革命诞生了一个新的国家，它对美国社会的影响超过了在此之前的任何事件；另一场革命就是启蒙运动。

这是一场知识革命，其理智精神激励着美国的知识界，将他们带入了一个新的思想境界，超越在此之前的清教主义的局限。

这两场运动产生了一大批政治和文学人物，如：本杰明·富兰克林、托马斯·潘恩、托马斯·杰弗逊等，他们的文学天赋使他们成为了政治领袖，也让文学成为了革命的一部分。

随着殖民地的不断扩大，欧洲各国在北美殖民地的矛盾冲突进一步激化。

哥伦布发现“新大陆”后，西班牙人首先在北美站稳了脚跟，进而占领了西印度群岛，1565年在弗罗里达建立了第一个殖民地。

法国占领了奎北克地区。

到了17世纪，法国人逐步深入到了大湖区和密西西比地区。

欧洲各国在商贸、交通等活动中矛盾重重，战争不可避免。

欧洲殖民者在新大陆的战争于17世纪末开始，经历了英法1689年的奥哥斯伯格联盟战争；1702—1713年的英国和西法联军的战争；1745—1748年间的奥地利继承权战争等一系列的战争，英国殖民者最终大获全胜。

战争的胜利使得英属北美殖民地的经济和军事实力进一步加强。

到了18世纪殖民地的人们纷纷提出要进一步团结起来的主张。

到1760—1776年间革命的团结的思想逐渐形成。

美国革命的原因即有政治方面的，也有经济方面的。

为进一步掠夺殖民地的资源，英国政府先后颁发了一系列有损于殖民地人民利益的法案。

航海和商业法伤害了北方殖民者的感情；1763年的山禁政策使广大殖民地人民感到不可容忍；1765年的印花税法更加激怒了十三个殖民地的人民；1767年的宅地法引起了人民的公开抵制。

1773年爆发了波士顿革命事件；1775年列克星敦的枪声标志着美国革命的开始。

美国人民向英国统治者打响了第一枪。

战争持续了6年，在华盛顿将军的带领下，在经历了一系列的挫折和失败之后，殖民地人民最终迎来了美国的独立。

美国文学选读课后习题答案

美国⽂学选读课后习题答案Unit 1 Benjamin Franklin1.Why did Franklin write his Autobiography?Franklin says that because his son may wish to know about his life, he is taking his one week vacation in the English countryside to record his past. He also says that he has enjoyed his life and would like to repeat it2.What made Franklin decide to leave the brother to whom he had been apprenticed?His brother was passionate, and had often beaten him. The aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to him through his whole life .After a brush with the law, Franklin left his brother.3.How did he arrive in Philadephia?First he set out in a boat for Amboy, the boat dropped him off about 50 miles from Burlington, the next day he reached Burlington on foot, in Burlington he found a boat which w as going towards Philadelphia, he arrived there about eight or nine o’clock, on the Sunday morning and landed at the Market Street wharf.4.What features do you find in the style of the above selection?It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision(⾔简意赅). The narrative is lucid(易懂的), the structure is simple, the imagery is homely(朴素的).Unit 2 Edgar Allen Poe1.Who is the narrator? What wrong does he want to redress?Montresor.Fortunato,one of wine experts insulted him, so he wanted to murder him.2.What is the pretext he uses to lure Fortunato to his wine cellar?He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained what he believes to be a cask of Amontillado a rare and valuable sherry wine. Fortunato is anxious to determine whether or not it is truly Amontillado, so he goes to the vault with Montresor.3.What happens to Fortunato in the end?He was walled up alive behind bricks in a wine cellar.Unit 4 Nathaniel Hawthorne:1.Why is the prison the setting of Chapter 1 ?No matter how optimistic the founders of new colonies may be, they are quick to establish a prison and a cemetery in their “Utopia,” for they know that misbehavior, evil, and death are unavoidable.This belief fits into the larger Puritan doctrine, which puts heavy emphasis on the idea of original sin—the notion that all people are born sinners because of the initial transgressions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. he is therefore using the prison building to represent the crime and the punishment which are aspect of civilized life. What is the implication of the description of the roses?The rosebush symbolizes the ability of nature to endure and outlast man's activities. The narrator suggests that roses offer a reminder of Nature's kindness to the condemned; for his tale, he sa ys, it will provide either a “sweet moral blossom” or else some relief in the face of unrelenting sorrow and gloom.2.Describe the appearance of Hester Prynne and the attitude of the people towards her.The second paragraph on page 30.The crowd in front of the jail is a mixture of men and women, all maintaining severe looks of disapproval. Several of the women begin to discuss Hester Prynne, and they soon vow that Hester would not have received such a light sentence for her crime if they had been the judges. One woman, the ugliest of the group, goes so far as to advocate deathfor Hester.3.What has happened to Hester? As a young woman, Hester married an elderly scholar, Chillingworth, who sent her ahead to America to live. While waiting for him, she had an affair with a Puritan minister named Dimmesdale, after which she gave birth to Pearl. The scarlet letter is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. Why does she make the embroidery of the letter A so elaborate?It seems to declare that she is proud, rather than ashamed, of her sin. In reality, however, Hester simply accepts the “sin” and its symbol as part of herself, just as she accepts her child. And although she can hardly believe her present “realities,” she takes them as they are rather than resisting them or trying to atone for them. How does this tell us about her character? Throughout The Scarlet Letter Hester is portrayed as an intelligent, capable. It is the extraordinary circumstances shaping her that make her such an important figure.Unit 6 Henry David Thoreau1. Where indeed did Thoreau live, both at a physical level and at a spiritual level? He lived in a cabin on Walden Pond,which belonged t o Emerson’s property.2.Had Thoreau ever bought a farm? Why did he enjoy the act of buying? No, he h adn’t. He avoided purchasing a farm because it would inevitably tie him down financially and complicate his life. Thoreau didn’t see the acquisition of wealth as the goal for human existence, he saw the goal of life to be an exploration of the mind and of the magnificent world around us. He regarded the places as an existence free of obligations and full of leisure.3. Is it significant that Thoreau mentioned the Fourth of July as the day on which he began to stay in the woods? Why? Yes, it is. Because The Fourth of July is known as Independence Day, the birthday of the United States. Here Thoreau uses the day to express his beginning of regeneration at Walden. It also means a symbol of his conquest of being.Unit 7 19th Century American Poets1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1) I Shot an Arrow…1. Why did the speaker lose sight of his arrow and song?The arrow flies too swiftly and too far away to be seen by the speaker; whereas the song is naturally invisible.2. In what circumstances did he find them again?He finds them unexpectedly years later from the trunk of a tree and the heart of a friend.3. What do arrow and song stand for in this poem?The images of arrow and song here may stand for friendship.(2) A Psalm of Life1. What kind of person is the speaker of this poem?The speaker is a man of action, always optimistic and cheerful, trying to achieve as much as possible in the short span of life.2. According to the poem, how should our lives be led to overcome the fact that each day brings us nearer to death?We should work harder and live happier.3. Interpret the metaphor of "Footprints on the sand of time" (line 28).The metaphor refers to human deeds in real life.2. Walt Whitman(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.3. Emily Dickinson(1) To Make a Prairie …1. What things are needed to "make" a prairie? In what sense can one really do it?Some grass and insects and small animals. People can make a prairie with their imagination. 2. How can "revery alone" create a prairie?The prairie stays in one's mind.(2) Success Is Counted Sweetest1. Why is success "counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed"?Those who have tasted the bitterness of failure would have a keener desire for success.2. Who are "the purple host"?The so-called successful people in the world.3. Who is "he" in the last stanza? Anyone who is pursuing his success.(3)I'm nobody!1. Who are the "pair of us" and "they?"in this poem? The "pair of us" refers to the speaker in the poem and the reader, and "they" refers to the public, especially those in power.2. What does "an admiring bog" really mean?" (line 28). It implies the vain and empty common people, who are always admiring and pursuing the celebrities.3. What is the theme of this poem?The real admirable life is a secluded and common one.4. Do you want to be "nobody" or "somebody"? Explain your reasons. Different persons would have different answers to his question. Personally, I prefer to be nobody.Unit8 mark twainQuestions1: Why do you think Mr. Wheeler is so eager to tell these stories?From Mr. Wheeler’s behaviors and contents of his narration. First, when "I" asked him to tell "me" something about W. Smiley, he “backed me into a corner and blockaded me with his chair, and then sat down and reeled off the narrative”. And during the process of telling his stories, he never paid any attention to others' response to his story and just went on telling what amused him. At last when the listener felt boring and wanted to leave, Mr. Wheeler even didn't notice it and still asked him to sit there listening to him.Question2: Does his audience share his enthusiasm in telling the stories?No. the audience does not show any interest in Mr. Wheeler’ stories. In fact, the narrator was very feverish about his stories, but, in the eyes of the listener, the stories were very boring and had nothing to do with his preoccupation. As an educated man, the listener couldn't understand the way of laborers for joy, and he would never bother himself to understand it. So after the longtime of Mr. Wheeler’ solo narration and when the audience got a chance, he fled away. Question3: Do you think the narrator and his listener ever suspect the presence of humor? Why? How do you interpret their interactions?The narrator and his listener never noticed or suspected the presence of humor. During the intercourse, the narrator went vigorously on his monotonous narrative "without a little smiling" talking about the animals and the things like, while the listener felt rather puzzled or bothered by his stories. It seemed to be kind of coarse things. So the two different scenes go on separately without an intersection. And their interaction was a complete failure according tour common sense about communication. But it in this sense produced the effect of humor which can be tasted by our readers due to the skills adopted by Mark Twain .Unit14 The Great GatsbyDo you think G atsby deserv es to be called “the great”? Why?(1)I think it is too complicated to simply say Gatsby deserves to be ―great‖or not.For one thing, Gatsby was ambitious, hardworking, generous and passionate. He was so extremely loyal to his love and Daisy that he could do anything to get Daisy back. In this respect, he ismuch ―greater‖ than his contemporaries. For another thing, Gatsby never realized that Daisy wasn’t the girl he loved anymore. Gatsby was so innocent that he staked everything on his dreams, not realizing that his dreams are unworthy of him. He wasn’t sober enough to be great. 2.Does “the green light” Gatsby believed in exist in reality? Why orwhy not ?(1)I think ―the green light‖does not exist in reality. Because the green light which situated at th e end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from West Egg lawn represents Gatsby’s unattainable dream. Although the color itself can be seen as hope and bright future, Gatsby’s quest for Daisy back is doomed to be impossible. Daisy livedin ―a materi al world without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dream like air‖. The distinction between ideal and reality was huge. As if American dream between golden past and golden future always suffered from the realistic betrayal and crush.3.What does Gats by’s Schedule reveal about him and how does it relate to the American Dream?(1)The schedule is a reflection of Gatsby’s determination and ambition. It reveals that he is hard on himself in pursuitof his goal—to be an upper-class man.(2)On one hand, we can know that he is persistent in pursuing his American Dream-- to attain wealth and happiness through his struggle. On the other hand, he is too idealistic and naive. The girl he loves is as vulgar andsuperficial as others in her circle, she is unable to meetsGatsby’s romantic fantasy. So his dream is destined to shatter,which indicates the disillusion of American Dream. 4.Whenyou read the line “He (the man with owl-eyed glasses)took off his glasses and wiped them again, outside andin ,” what images does it create in your mind, given thenovel’s numerous references to the strikingly strangescene of the spectacled eyes?(1)From this line , superficially, owl-eyes is a person with thick and blurry glasses who can not see clearly all the things in the world. However, we know he is actually an owl-wise observer and sees more clearly than anyone else in the novel. Owl-Eyes, except Nick, is the only friend to appear at the rain-soaked burial of Gatsby, when others are unwilling to come. He feels sympathy for Gat sby’s tragedy.Unit 16 Ernest Hemingway1.How do you interpret the irony of the title after readingthe story?(1)The title ―A Clean Well-Lighted Place‖ refers to thecaféin the text. The caféwas very clean and well- lighted.From the literary meaning, we may feel this place was verywarm and comfortable, was a place where people needwarmth wanted to go. So the old man, who was rich butdeaf and lonely came here to find warmth and avoided nada.It was the only place he could go and could find somecomfort.(2)However, the younger waiter was very selfish.Therefore, he refused to offer the old man another cup ofwine by the excuse that the business was finished. This caféshould be warm but the younger waiter forced the lonely anddeaf to leave without any sympathy. This is the irony of thetitle.2.Do you think youth and confidence can help onewithstand the metaphorical dark?Why or why not?(1)I don’t think so.In our opinion, the m etaphorical darkmeans nada,nothing in one’s inner heart. In the article, the younger waiter had both youth and confidence; however, he never made full use of them. As we can see, he didn’t understand the old man’s suicide and excessive drinking, and failed to see his tomorrow through the old man’s present situation.3.The older wait er said to the younger waiter:“We are of two different kinds.” In what way do you think they are different? (1)I think they are different from each other in the following four aspects:In the beginning, they are in different ages.The older waiter was in his middle age; while the other was much younger.(2)Then, they have different attitudes towards the old man. From the article, the older waiter could understand the old manand show sympathy to him. However, the young man was very selfish. He showed hatred rather than sympathy to the old man.(3)Next, they have different attitudes towards life. The older waiter had a deep sense of life. He was brave and wanted to fight again nada. Besides, he cared about others. he has a shadow understanding of life. He satisfied with his present love and work, he only care about himself. He even never thought of his future.(4)Finally, they have different attitudes towards nada. The older waiter had realized that it is impossible to avoid nada in one’s whole life. The only thing h e can do is to keep a kind of clearness in his own mind. But out of youth and confidence, he failed to overcome nada. On the contrary, the younger waiter had the two most important factors for withstanding nada; however, he didn’t realize the nada in his heart at all. Then his youth a nd confidence became useless.Unit 17 20th -Century American Poets1.Ezra Pound In A Station of the Metro1.Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians "apparition"?These pedestrians are all walking in a hurry amidst the drizzling rain. What do "petals" and "bough" stand for? Petals refer to the faces while the bough stands for the floating crowd.2.Wallace Stevens Anecdote of the Jar1.What does the jar in poem symbolize? Why does the speaker place it on top of a hill?The jar here symbolizes a certain perspective on looking at this world. If the perspective of the viewing iscreative and unique, it will change the conventional order of the old world. When a new perspective comes out, it will certainly hold attention from the rest.2. The jar is "round" and "of a port in air," meaning that it has a stately importance. What effect does it have on surroundings when placed on the ground? Maybe the round jar assumes the air of a domineering figure, which helps to form a certain order out of the disordered surrounding.3. How did the wilderness of Tennessee characterized? What words or phrases does the poet use to describe it?Tennessee seems to a place full of life and energy. “Slovenly,” “sprawl” and “wild” are some of the words used to describe the place. (See Anecdote of the Jar ) 3.Robert Frost(1)Fire and Ice 1. What are the symbolic meanings of fire in this poem? Fire symbolizes natural disaster, human passion, as well as war. 2. Why does the speaker say that ice is also great for destruction? Explain what ice stands for here. Ice, oppose to fire, is also a dreadful natural disaster in this world, and ice is always related to indifference, coldness, hatred, and the other negative sentiments of human beings. 3. What is your opinion about fire and ice? Which one is more destructive? Both fire and ice can destroy this beautiful world if they are beyond control of human beings. Therefore we should be open-minded and reduce our prejudice and pride so as to keep this world in peace.(2)Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening 1. In your opinion, what was the reason that made the speaker stop by the woods on a snowy evening? The poet was deeply attracted by the natural beauty of the scene at that very moment. 2. Why did the horse give the harness bell a shake? The horse grew impatient by stopping in the middle of the dark, cold woods at midnight. It was eager to go home.3. Why couldn't the speaker stay longer by the woods to appreciate its mysterious beauty? He realized that it was late at night and he would have to hurry home to get some food and sleep, because the next morning he would have a lot of work to do.4. What is the effect of repetition in the last two lines? The refrain-like repetition in the last two lines reminds the reader a simple fact of life: whatever happens, one must go forward in the journey of his or her life.(3) The Road Not Taken 1. What is the speaker's initial response to the divergence of the two roads? The speaker is at a loss which road he should choose, and he feels sorry that he cannot explore both roads at the same time. 2. Describe the similarities and differences of these two roads. Which one does the speaker take?Two roads are similar except one of them is more “grassy,” which impl ies that it is less traveled by people. The speaker prefers the less traveled one, because he likes adventure. 3. What might the two roads stand for in the speaker's mind? One road stands for the traditional one and the other is unconventional one and full of challenges and difficulties. To follow other people's footsteps or to open a new road for himself is really not an easy decision for us to make in our lives.。

美国文学 1. Romantic

第一章美国浪漫主义时期一、美国浪漫主义时期概述Ⅰ.本章学习目的和要求通过本章学习，了解１９世纪初期至中叶美国文学产生的历史、文化背景；认识该时期文学创作的基本待征、基本主张，及其对同时代和后期美国文学的影响；了解该时期主要作家的文学创作生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题思想、人物刻画、语言风格等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品并了解其思想内容和艺术特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。

Ⅱ.本章重点及难点：1．浪漫主义时期美国文学的特点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、语言风格、思想意义。

3．分析讨论选读作品Ⅲ.本章考核知识点和考核要求：1.美国浪漫主义时期概述(1)．"识记"内容：美国浪漫主义文学产生的社会历史及文化背景(2)．"领会"内容：美国浪漫主义在文学上的表现a.欧洲浪漫主义文学的影响b.美国本土文学的崛起及其待证(3)．"应用"内容：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Ａ．华盛顿·欧文1．一般识记：欧文的生平及创作主涯2．识记：《纽约外史》《见闻札记》3．领会：欧文的创作领域、创作思想，及其作品的艺术风格4.应用：选读《瑞普·凡·温可尔》的主题及其艺术特色Ｂ．拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生1．一般识记：．爱默生的生平及创作生涯2．识记：爱默生的超验主义思想3．领会：（1）爱默生的散文：《论自然》《论自助》《论美国学者》等（2）．爱默生与梭罗：梭罗的超验主义思想和他的《沃尔登》4．应用：《论自然》节选：爱默生的基本哲学思想及自然观Ｃ．纳撒尼尔·霍桑1．一般识记：霍桑的生平及创作主涯2．识记：霍桑的长短篇小说3．领会：（1）《红字》的主题、心理描写、象征手法和、小说结构（2）霍桑的清教主义思想及加尔文教条中的"原罪"对霍桑的影响（人性本恶的观点）（3）霍桑对浪漫主义小说的贡献4．应用：选读《小伙子布朗》的主题结构、象征手法及语言特色Ｄ．华尔特·惠特曼1．一般识记：惠特曼的生平及其创作生涯2．识记：惠特曼的民主思想3．领会：（1）惠特曼的《草叶集》的主创意图、思想感情及诗体形式、语言风格（2）．惠特曼的个人主义4．应用：选读《草叶集》诗选："一个孩子的成长"、"涉水的骑兵'"、"自己之歌"的主题结构、诗歌的艺术特色、语言风格Ｅ．赫尔曼·麦尔维尔1．一般识记：麦尔维尔的生平及创作生涯2．识记：麦尔维尔的早期作品：《玛地》《雷得本》《白外衣》，后期作品《皮埃尔》《骗子的化装表演》《比利伯德》等3．领会：《白鲸》的（1）主题：表层及深层意义（2）小说结构：浪漫主义和现实主义的统一（3）象征手法和寓言的运用（4）语言特色4．应用：选读《白鲸》最后一章的节选：主题思想、人物刻画、象征手法、语言特色Chapter l The Romantic Period(一)"识记"内容：1.The origin of Romantic American literatureThe Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It started with the publication of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass.2.The American Renaissance or New England Renaissance is a period of the great flowering of American literature, from the i830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War. It came of age as an expression of a national spirit. One of the most important influences in the period was that of the Transcendentalists, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau. The Transcendentalists contributed to the founding of a new national culture based on native elements. Apart from the Transcendentalists, there emerged during this period great imaginativewriters ---Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman---whose novels and poetry left a permanent imprint on American literature.3.Its social historical and cultural backgroundThe development of the American society nurtured "the literature of a great nation." America was flourishing into a politically, economically and culturally independent country. Historically, it was the time of westward expansion in America economically, the whole nation was experiencing an industrial transformation. Politically, democracy and equa1ity became the ideal of the new nation, and the two-party system came into being. Worthy of mention is the literary and cultural life of the country. With the founding of the American Independent Government, the nation felt an urge to have its own literary expression, to make known its new experience that other nations did not have: the early Puritan settlement, the confrontation with the Indians, the frontiersmen's life, and the wild west. Besides, the nation's literary milieu was ready for the Romantic movement as we11. Thus, with a strong sense of optimism, a spectacular outburst of romantic feeling was brought about in the first ha1f of the 19th century.4.Major writers of this periodThere emerged a great host of men of letters during this period, among whom the better-known are poets such as Philip Freneau, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wordsworth Long Fellow, James Russel Lowell, John Greenleaf Whitter, Edgar Ellen Poe, and, especially, Walt Whitman, whose Leaves Of Grass established him as the most popular American poet of the 19th century. The fiction of the American Romantic period is an original and diverse body of work. It ranges from the comic fables of Washington Irving to the The Gothic tales of Edgar Allen Poe, from the frontier adventures of James Fenimore Cooper to the narrative quests of Herman Melville, from the psycho1ogical romances of Nathaniel Hawthorne to the social realism of Rebecca Harding Davis.(二)．领会内容1.The impact of European Romanticism on American Romanticism Foreign literary masters, especially the English counterparts exerted a stimulating impact on the writers of the new world. Born of one common cultural heritage, the American writers shared some common features with the English Romanticists. They revolted against the literary forms and ideas of the period of classicism by developing some relatively new forms of fiction or poetry.(1) They put emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature, which included a liking for the picturesque, the exotic,the sensuous, the sensational, and the supernatural.(2) The Americans also placed an increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions and disp1ayed an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters.Heroes and heroines exhibited extremes of sensitivity and excitement.(3) The strong tendency to exalt the individual and the common man was almost a national religion in America. Writers like Freneau, Bryant, and Cooper showed a great interest in external nature in their respective works.(4) The literary use of the more colorfu1 aspects of the past was also to be found in Irving's effort to exploit the legends of the Hudson River region, and in Cooper's long series of historical tales.(5)In short, American Romanticism is, in a certain way, derivative.2.The unique characteristics of American RomanticismAlthough greatly influenced by their English counterparts, the American romantic writers revealed unique characteristics of their own in their works and they grew on the native lands. For examp1e,(1) 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 America's landscape with its virgin forests, meadows, groves, endless prairies, streams, and vast oceans. The wilderness came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral 1aw. (2)The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature.Such a desire is particularly evident in Cooper's Leather Stocking Tales, in Thoreau's Walden and, later, in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (3) With the growth of American national consciousness,American character types speaking local dialects appeared in poetry and fiction with increasing frequency. (4) Then the American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values and American Romanticism. One of the manifestations is the fact that American romantic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts. (5) Besides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of origina1 sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesser writers.(三)．应用内容1. The American Puritanism and its great influence over American moral values, as is shown in American romantic writings.(1) American PuritanismPuritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. (The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church, who came into existence in the reigns Queen Elizabeth and King James Ⅰ.The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quitea few of them Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons, but it should be remembered that they were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They felt that the Church of England was too close to the Church of Rome in doctrine form of worship, and organization of authority.) The American Puritans, like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to complete "purity".They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. But in the grim struggle for survival that followed immediately after their arrival in America, they became more and more practical, as indeed they had to be. Puritans were noted for a spirit of moral and religious earnestness that determinated their whole way of life. Puritans' lives were extremely disciplined and hard. They drove out of their settlements all those opinions that seemed dangerous to them, and history has criticized their actions. Yet in the persecution of what they considered error, the Puritans were no worse than many other movements in history. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind and American values. American Puritanism also had a conspicuously noticeable and an enduring influence on American literature. It had become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so much a part of the national cultural atmosphere, rather than a set of tenets.(2) One of the manifestations is the fact that American romantic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts. Besides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of origina1 sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesser writers.2. New England TranscendentalismNew England Transcendentalism is the mot clearly defined Romantic literary movement in this period. It was started in the area around Concord, Mass. by a group of intellectual and the literary men of the United States such as Emerson, Henry David Thoreau who were members of an informal club, i. e. the Transcendental Club in New England in the l830s. The transcendentalists reacted against the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism in Boston. They adhered to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation , the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths. The writings of the transcendentalists prepared the ground of their contemporaries such as Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.The main issues involved in the debate were generally philosophical, concerning nature, man and the universe. Basically, Transcendentalismhas been defined philosophical1y as "the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses." Emerson once proclaimed in a speech, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism inc1ude the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-re1iant.3. American Romanticists differed in their understanding of human nature.To the transcendentalists such as Emerson and Thoreau, man is divine in nature and therefore forever perfectible; but to Hawthorne and Melville, everybody is potentially a sinner, and great moral courage is therefore indispensab1e for the improvement of human nature, as is shown in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.二.美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家Ⅰ. Washington Irving(1783-l859)Irving's position in American literature Washington Irving was one of the first American writers to earn an international reputation, and regarded as an early Romantic writer in the merican literary history and Father of the American short stories.一．一般识记His life and major worksWashington Irving was born in New York City in a wealthy family. From a very early age he began to read widely and write juvenile poems, essays, and plays. In l798, he conc1uded his education at private schools and entered a law office, but he loved writing more.His first successful work is A History Of New York from the Beginning Of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, which, written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker, won him wide popularity after it came out in 1809. With the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in serials between 1819 and 1820, Irving won a measure of international fame on both sides of the Atlantic. The book contains familiar essays on the Eng1ish life and Americanized versions of European folk tales like "Rip Van Winkle ＂, and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Geoffrey Crayon is a carefully contrived persona and behind Crayon stands Irving, juxtaposing the Old World and the New, and manipulating his own antiquarian interest with artistic perspectives.The major work of his later years was The Life of George Washington.二．识记1.Irving's great indebtedness to European literatureMost of Irving's subject matter are borrowed heavily from European sources, which are chiefly Germanic. Irving's relationship with the Old World in terms of his literary imagination can hardly be ignored considering his success both abroad and at home.A History of New York is a patchwork of references, echoes, and burlesques. He parodies or imitates Homer, Cervantes, Fielding, Swift and many other favorites of his. He was also absorbed in German Literature and got ideas from German legends for two of his famous stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Alhambra is usually regarded as Irving's "Spanish Sketch Book" simply because it has a strong flavor of Spanish culture. Most of the thirty-three essays in The Sketch Book were written in England, filled with English scenes and quotations from English authors and faithful to British orthography. Washington Irving brought to the new nation what its peop1e desired most in a man of 1etters the respect of the Old World.2.Irving's unique contribution to American literatureIrving's contribution to American literature is unique in more than one way. He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. Although greatly influenced by European literature, Irving gave his works distinctive American flavor. "Rip Van Winkle" or "The Legend of Sleepy Hol1ow", however exotic these stories are, are among the treasures of the American language and culture. These two stories easily trigger off American imagination with their focus on American subjects, American landscape, and, in Irving's case, the legends of the Hudson River region of the fresh young 1and. It is not the sketches about the Old World but the tales about America that made Washington Irving a household word and his fame enduring.He was father of American short stories. And later in the hands of Hawthorne and Melville the short story attained a degree of perfection.三．领会1.Irving's theme of conservatism as is revealed in "Rip Van Winkle"Irving's taste was essentia1ly conservative and always exa1ted a disappearing past.This socia1 conservatism and literary preference for the past is revea1ed, to some extent, in his famous story "Rip Van Winkle." The story is a tale remembered mostly for Rip's 20-year s1eep, set against the background of the inevitably changing America. Rip went to sleep before the War of Independence and woke up after it. The change that had occurred in the 20 years he slept was to him not always for the better. The revolution upset the natural order of things. In the story Irving ski1lfu1ly presents to us paralleled juxtapositions of two totally different worlds before and after Rip's 20 years' s1eep. By moving Rip back and forth from a noisy world with his wife on the farm to a wild but peaceful natural world in the mountains, and from a pre-Revolution villageto a George Washington era, lrving describes Rip's response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both the narrator and Irving agree on the preferabi1ity of the past to the present, and the preferability of a dream-like world to the real one. Irving never seemed to accept a modern democratic America.2.Irving's literary craftsmanshipWashington Irving has always been regarded as a writer who "perfected the best classic style that American Literature ever produced."(1) We get a strong sense impression as we read him along, since the language he used best reveals what a Romantic writer can do with words. We hear rather than read, for there is musicality in almost every line of his prose.(2) We seldom learn a mora1 lesson because he wants us amused and relaxed. So we often find ourselves lost in a world that is permeated witha dreaming quality.(3) The Gothic elements and the supernatural atmosphere are manipulated in such a way that we could become so engaged and involved in what is happening in a seemingly exotic place.(4) Yet Irving never forgets to associate a certain place with the inward movement of a person and to charge his sentences with emotion so as to create a true and vivid character. He is worth the honor of being "the American Goldsmith" for his literary craftsmanship.四．应用Selected Reading:An Excerpt from "Rip Van Winkle"The story of Rip Van WinkleRip, an indolent good-natured Dutch-American, lives with his shrewish wife in a village on the Hudson during the years before the Revolution. One day while hunting in the Catskills with his dog Wolf, he meets a dwarflike stranger dressed in the ancient Dutch fashion. He helps him to carry a keg, and with him joins a party silently playing a game of ninepins. After drinking of the liquor they provide, Rip falls into a sleep which lasts 20 years, during which the Revolutionary War takes place. He awakes as an old man and returns to his home village that has greatly altered. Upon entering the village, he is greeted by his old dog, which dies of the excitement and then learns that his wife has long been dead. Rip is almost forgotten but he goes to live with his daughter, now the mother of a family, and is soon befriended with his generosity and cheerfulness.This excerpt below is taken from the story, describing for us Rip's difficulties at home, which he often escapes by going to the local inn to spend his time with his friends and sometimes by going hunting in thewoods with his dog, and then focusing on Rip 's return from his 20 years' sleep to his greatly altered home village. Here, Irving's pervasive theme of nostalgia for the unrecoverable past is at once made unforgettable.What are the theme and the artistic features of "Rip Van Winkle"?(1) The theme:Irving's taste was essentia1ly conservative and always exa1ted a disappearing past.This socia1 conservatism and literary preference for the past is revea1ed, to some extent, in his famous story "Rip Van Winkle." The story is a tale remembered mostly for Rip's 20-year s1eep, set against the background of the inevitably changing America. Rip went to sleep before the War of Independence and woke up after it. The change that had occurred in the 20 years he slept was to him not always for the better. The revolution upset the natural order of things. In the story Irving ski1lfu1ly presents to us paralleled juxtapositions of two totally different worlds before and after Rip's 20 years' s1eep. By moving Rip back and forth from a noisy world with his wife on the farm to a wild but peaceful natural world in the mountains, and from a pre-Revolution village to a George Washington era, lrving describes Rip's response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both the narrator and Irving agree on the preferabi1ity of the past to the present, and the preferability of a dream-like world to the real one. Irving never seemed to accept a modern democratic America.(2) The artistic features:"Rip Van Winkle" is not only well-known for Rip's 20-year sleep but also considered a model of perfect English in American Literature and in the English language as well. Washington Irving has always been regarded as a writer who "perfected the best classic style that American Literature ever produced." He has a clear, easy style.(a) We get a strong sense impression as we read him along, since the language he used best reveals what a Romantic writer can do with words. We hear rather than read, for there is musicality in almost every line of his prose.(b) We seldom learn a mora1 lesson because he wants us amused and relaxed.So we often find ourselves lost in a world that is permeated with a dreaming quality. He uses genial humor to exaggerate the seriousness of situation. He uses dignified words to produce a half-mocking effect.(c)The Gothic elements and the supernatural atmosphere are manipulated in such a way that we could become so engaged and involved in what is happening in a seemingly exotic place.( Rip Van Winkle was overwhelmed by the magic power of the drink and fell into sleep for 20 years.)(d)Yet Irving never forgets to associate a certain place with theinward movement of a person and to charge his sentences with emotion so as to create a true and vivid character. He is worth the honor of being "the American Goldsmith" for his literary craftsmanship.II. Ralph Waldo Emerson一.一般识记His life: Ralph Waldo Emerson is the chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism, which is unanimously agreed to be the summit of the Romantic period in the history of American literature.Emerson was son of a Unitarian minister. Though born of an impoverished family, Emerson never failed to receive some formal education. Whi1e a student at Harvard he began keeping journals, a practice he continued throughout his 1if e. He later drew on the journal for materials for his essays and poetry. After Harvard, he taught as a schoolmaster, which he soon gave up for the study of theology. He began preaching in 1826 and three years later he became a pastor in a church in Boston. Emerson was ardent at first in his service in religion, but gradually grew skeptical of the beliefs of the church; feeling Unitarianism intolerable, he finally left the ministry in l832.Emerson was greatly influenced by European Romanticism. He Carlyle, and listened to some famous Romantic poets like Coleridge and Wordsworth. Through his acquaintance with these men he became closely involved with German idea1ism and Transcendentalism. After he was back from Europe, Emerson retreated to a quiet study at Concord, Massachusetts, where he began to pursue his new path of "self-reliance." Emerson formed a club there at Concord with peop1e like Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, which was later known as the Transcendenta1 Club. And the unofficial manifesto for the Club was Nature(l836), Emerson's first little book, which established him ever since as the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism. Nature was the fundamental document of his philosophy and expressed also his constant, deeply-felt love for nature. It was called "the Manifesto of American Transcendentalism". He also helped to found and edit for a time the Transcendental journal, The Dial. Emerson lived an intel1ectually active and significant life between the mid-1830s and the mid-1840s, 1ecturing all over the country, and occasionally, abroad. He preached his Transcendental pursuit and his reputation expanded dramatically with his lectures and his essays. Though the rest of Emerson's life was a slow anticlimax to his midd1e years, people continued to honor the most influentia1 prophet and the intellectua1 liberator of their age, and his reputation as a family man of conventional life and a decent, solid citizen has remained always.二．识记内容：His major works:Emerson is generally known as an essayist. During all his life he worked steadily at a succession of essays, usually derived from his journals or lectures he had already given. Nature did not establish him as an important American writer. His lasting reputation began only with the publication of Essays(1841 ). Many of his famous essays are included in Essay, which convey the best of his philosophical discussions and transcendental pursuits, such as The American Scholar, Self Reliance, The Over Soul.The second collection of Emerson's essays, Essays: Second Series (1844) demonstrated even more thorough1y than the first that Emerson's intellect had sharpened in the years since Nature. The Poet and Exprience are examples, the former a reflection upon the aesthetic problems in terms of the present state of literature in America and the latter a discussion about the conflict between idealism and ordinary 1ife.三．领会1. Emersonian TranscendentalismEmersonian Transcendentalism is actual1y a philosophical school which absorbed some ideological concerns of American Puritanism and European Romanticism, with its focus on the intuitive knowledge of human beings to grasp the absolute in the universe and the divinity of man. In his essays, Emerson put forward his philosophy of the over-sou1, the importance of the Individual, and Nature.(1) Emerson's philosophy of the over-sou1Emerson rejected both the formal religion of the churches and the Deistic philosophy; instead he based his religion on an intuitive belief in an ultimate unity, which he called the "over-soul."Emerson and other Transcendentalists believed in the transcendence of "over-soul". It is an impersonal force that is eternal, moral, harmonious, and beneficient in tendency. They believed that there should be an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal "oversoul", since the over-sou1 is an all-pervading power from which all things come from and of which a1l are a part. One of the tendencies of the "over-soul " is to express itself in form, hence the world of nature as an emanation of the world of spirit. Emerson's remarkable image of "a transparent eyebal1" marks a paradoxical state of being, in which one is merged into nature, the over-soul, whi1e at the same time retaining a unique perception of the experience.(2) Emerson's philosophy of the importance of the IndividualEmerson is affirmative about man's intuitive knowledge, with which a man can trust himself to decide what is right and to act accordingly. The ideal individual should be a self-reliant man. "Trust thyself," hewrote in Self Reliance, by which he means to convince people that the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite.(3) Emerson's view on natureEmerson's nature is emblematic of the spiritual world, alive with God's overwhelming presence. It mediates between man and God, and its voice leads to higher truth; hence, it exercises a healthy and restorative inf1uence on human mind. "Go back to nature, sink yourse1f back into its inf1uence and you'1l become spiritually who1e again." By employing nature as a big symbol of the Spirit, or God, or the over-soul, Emerson has brought the Puritan 1egacy of symbolism to its perfection.Emersonian Transcendentalism inspired a whole generation of famous American authors like Thoreau, Whitman, and Dickinson.2.Thoreau's TranscendentalismHenry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is most often mentioned as inspired by Emerson, the most representative of the phi1osophical and literary school which is American Transcendenta1ism. Thoreau embraced his master's ideas as a disciple. In 1845 he built a cabin on some land belonging to Emerson by Walden Pond and moved in to live there in a very simple manner for a litt1e over two years, which gave birth to a great transcendentalist work Walden (1854). The book not only fully demonstrates Emersonian ideas of self-reliance but also develops and tests Thoreau's own transcendental philosophy.(1)For Thoreau, nature is not merely symbolic, but divine in itself and human beings can receive precise communication from the natural world by way of pure senses. So he was often alone in the woods or by the pond, lost in spiritual communion with nature.(2)Thoreau strongly believed in se1f-culture and was eager to identify himself with the Transcendental image of the self-reliant man. To achieve personal spiritual perfection, he thinks, the most important thing for men to do with their lives is to be self- sufficient, so he sought to reduce his physical needs and material comforts to a minimum to get spiritual richness.(3)His positiveness about the importance of individual conscience was such that he even considered the society fetters of the freedom of individuals.Though Thoreau became more than Emerson's disciple eventually, his indebtedness to Nature and its author has never been over1ooked.3. The style of Emerson's essaysEmerson's essays often have a casual style, for most of them were derived from his journals or lectures. They are usually characterized by a series of short, declarative sentences, which are not quite logically。

美国文学期末复习(1)

美国文学期末复习选择题Unit 21) To Montresor, the fatal weakness of Fortunato is his _______ for his connoisseurship in wine.A) knowledgeB) arroganceC) faithD) seeming ignorance2) Montresor wants to take revenge on Fortunato during the carnival because _______ .A) almost all the people would habitually celebrate the festival, excessively drinking and dancing in delight and giving less attention to other activities beyond celebration.B) Fortunato would be too busy as a wine connoisseur during the festival so that he might not see through the tricky plan of Montresor to put an end to his life.C) he would work together with Fortunato during the festival so as to have chance to kill him.D) he chooses the time at random instead of a deliberate scheme.3) In the story Amontillado is known as the good wine whose _______ , as Montresor deceptively claims, has strong appeal to Fortunato.A) taste and smellB) reputation and tasteC) reputation and quantityD) recommendations by Italian virtuosos4) Who is Luchresi ?A) a boy in the barB) a arrogant neighborC) a wine connoisseurD) a Sherry producer5) As Montresor and Fortunato walk further into the catacomb, the latter keeps coughing becauseA) the nitre hanging like moss upon the vaults increases to strongly provoke him.B) he pretends so in order to encourage himself.C) he takes "Nemo me impune lacessit".D) the nitre distills the rheum of intoxication.6) Before taking his last breath, Fortunato still seems unable to perceive the intention of Montresor, mistaking what Montresor does to him as " a very good joke, indeed —an excellent jest". Why does he react so slowly?A) Fortunato has drunk too much to see his coming death.B) Poe intends to use Fortunato's slow comprehension as a foil to the blackness of Montresor 's well-planned revenge.C) Fortunato wants to get Montresor's mercy by fooling him this way so that he may free himself from the threshold of death.D) It is only Montresor's illusion because Fortunato has been dead when the former builds up the eleven tiers of the stone wall.7) Where does the story take place?A) It is only a psychological experience without the setting in reality.B) Poe never intends to give any information about the setting.C) It couldn't be identified.D) Italy as the setting of the story is only hinted in such as the names of characters and those of wines.8) Montresor and Fortunato mean "wealth " and "treasure" in the Italian language, symbolically mirroring _______ .A) their identical parentageB) something hidden as their mutual weaknessC) their mutual love of goldD) their mutual mania for material possession9) As it is suggestive of the Italian culture where the story is set, the word Palazzo means _______ .A) a fancy restaurant serving good winesB) a large, splendid residence or building such as a palace or museum for public activitiesC) a dreamy place as paradiseD) a place as storage of wine10) The story end with a Latin quotation "In pace requiescat", by which Poe hints that _______ .A) Montresor thinks he will die soonB) Montresor seems to be sorry for the death of FortunatoC) Montresor's hatred for Fortunato is still so strong that he couldn't get it over even when he murdered the latter half a century agoD) Montresor eventually regrets for what has done to Fortunato and implores God to give peace to the latter参考答案BACCA BDBBCUnit 41) The story is set in Boston because this town as one of the largest communities of European immigrants of the time could stand in many ways for ________.A) the Puritan culture;B) the Continental culture;C) the typical culture of the native Indians;D) the trend of immigration.2) Generally speaking, the Puritan culture is characterized by ________.A) its moral rigor and its hostility to social pleasures and indulgences.B) a stress on education and simplicity of life.C) a stress on human creation and free will.D) its concern for the afterlife of man.3) Antinomian refers to a person who believes ________.A) that all the laws are harmful to human freedom.B) that Puritanism is the key to all social problems.C) that the Gospel frees Christians from required obedience to any law, whether scriptural, civil, or moral, and that salvation is attained solely through faith and the gift of divine grace.D) that moral power is the strongest and most useful for man’s self-perfection and social development.4) Why do people call Hester Prynne “Madam Hester”or “Mistress Prynne”, respectively?A) It reflects their habitual use of the English language.B) It makes no difference.C) It hints their social status.D) It shows their different attitudes toward her.5) Why doesn’t Hawthorne explicitly tell his audience the weaver of the scarlet letter upon the bosom of Hester Prynne, though its image he presents is “so fantastically embroidered and illuminated”?A) It means that no one knows the identity of the weaver.B) It means that he wants to increase the suspension of the story.C) He is reluctant to tell it because the weaver is the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, who is seemingly free from the scandal at the moment.D) He just hints that Hester Prynne is the weaver of the meaningful letter by way of the positive comment of a spectator on her skills at needlework, because he seems to think that such an indirect narrative helps mirror how much she has tried to reclaim herself without the public knowledge.6) The grim beadle loudly orders Hester Prynne to show her scarlet letter to all the spectators in the market place, as he desires to ________.A) make all the spectators know the power he has in the community.B) fulfill his duty there.C) humiliate her as an adulterous woman.D) gratify the demand of the spectators.7) As it is compared to “the guillotine among the terrorists of France”, the scaffold, in the front of which Hester Prynne and her daughter are humiliated, symbolizes ________.A) the severity of the social punishment on her.B) the long history of humiliating the convict in the market place.C) her courage in face of dilemma.D) the on-going influence of the European law in America.8) Whom does “the image of Divine Maternity”refer to?A) Hester Prynne.B) Blessed Virgin Mary as the mother of Jesus Christ.C) Hester Prynne’s mother living in England.D) The mother of a papist.9) It is by associating the figure of Hester Prynne to “the image of Divine Maternity”that Hawthorne intends to show that ________.A) He is sympathetic with Hester Prynne.B) he looks down on the cowardice of Dimmesdale.C) Hester Prynne’s visage resembles that of the Virgin Mary.D) as Virgin Mary is sinless, so is Hester Prynne.10) Standing on the scaffold and looking downwards at the assembly, Hester Prynne suddenly clutches her daughter so fiercely to her breast that it sends forth a cry, because she wants to ________.A) distract herself from the dreadful gaze of the assembly.B) assure herself that her daughter is still with her.C) wake herself up from somewhat incontroable illusion about her early life.D) wake up her daughter.参考答案AACDD CABDCUnit 51) There are many biblical allusions in Moby Dick such as characters’ names, which often have symbolic meaning. The narrator Ishmael as an example in point was the son of Abraham and cast out after the birth of Isaac, and as the Old Testament tells, he is traditionally considered to be the forebear of the Arabs. Ishmael may be symbolically seen as ________.A) an outsider when an event takes place.B) a marginalized participant when an event takes place.C) a witness with holy mission.D) a marginalized participant/survivor in a disastrous event.2) Why does Melville name the White Whale Moby Dick and call him so in the story instead of the whale or the white whale?A) He seems to personify the evil and mysterious whale representing all that is mysteriously powerful and antagonistic to mankind.B) It is common in the West to give a creature a human name.C) He names it so for the convenience of his narration.D) He happens to do it without any connotation.3) Moby Dick gives a comprehensive and detailed account of whale fishing such as location, ship, skills, and various kinds of facilities because ________.A) whale fishing was already a developed industry in the nineteenth century, with which Melville was familiar.B) Melville was fond of whale fishing and he had such experiences.C) Melville thinks it necessary to give a realistic picture of whale fishing when narrating the story of Moby Dick.D) Melville wants to appeal to his urban readers by presenting something beyond their everyday experiences.4) Why does Captain Ahab make his mind to hunt for Moby Dick despite of the opposition ofmany whale men as well as the risk of the fatal destruction on his crew?A) He never takes the advice of others.B) His crew want him to make that decision.C) He doesn’t think his pursuit is risky.D) It shows their different attitudes toward her.5) What does the Leviathan imply in the story?A) It implies all perils in nature.B) It is a monstrous sea creature mentioned in the Old Testament and thus its name is mentioned in the story to imply the fatally destructive nature of the White Whale.C) It implies that the Leviathan is less aggressive than the whale.D) It stands for the inexplicable power of all creatures such as the White Whale.6) As the name of the Captain in the Pequod, Ahab is said to come from the Bible. If so, who is Ahab in the Bible?A) He was a heroic captain who was good at sea adventures.B) He was a prophet of the Egyptian.C) He was a Pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel, who was killed by Jehu, an Israeli king proverbially known for his swift chariot driving.D) He was a blind poet known for his songs of celebrating agricultural harvests.7) What does Ahab imply as the name of the Captain in the Pequod?A) It seems to imply that the captain is destined to die for his sailors.B) It seems to imply that the captain is a kingly conqueror of all his enemies.C) It seems to imply that the fate of the captain is predetermined as there is something fatally defective in his nature.D) It seems to imply that this tragic captain embodies Melville’s view on the fate of mankind.8) To make Moby Dick an interestingly convincing story, Melville is good at ________.A) picturing the whale fishery with deliberate exaggeration.B) telling all the episodes in the omniscient third person.C) characterizing his characters with exoticism.D) narrating with factual details that are combined with exoticism and biblical allusions.9) In addition to his sympathy for the catastrophic death of Ahab, Ishmael gives a vivid account of the whole story of the Captain mainly because ________.A) he was fond of the whale fishery.B) he wanted to give more people access to sharing such interesting experiences.C) he shared the feud of the decedent as stated in the first paragraph of the selected reading.D) he was keen to explore how the tragedy of Ahab took place.10) In comparison with other equally successful novels by Melville’s contemporaries, Moby Dick is unique in that its author wrote it ________.A) by resorting to the encyclopedia about the whale fishing in America.B) chiefly out of his own encyclopedic experiences in sea instead of sheer imagination.C) out of sheer imagination as his contemporary readers were morbidly interested in sea adventures.D) to turn the attention of the reading public from focusing on the social vanity to the unfathomable recesses of human mind.参考答案DAADB CCDCBUnit 131. Katherine Anne Porter wrote many short stories but only _______ novel.A) oneB) twoC) threeD) four2. Why is the story titled "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"?A) Granny Weatherall rejects George, her husband-to-be.B) John rejects Granny Weatherall by not appearing at the wedding.C) George rejects Granny Weatherall by not appearing at the wedding.D) Granny is first rejected by her lover and then later by God.3. The jilting took place ______years ago.A) 20B) 40C) 60D) 354. Granny Weatherall rebukes Cornelia and Doctor Harry because ______.A) she wants to sleep.B) she hates them.C) she doesn't think there is any wrong with her.D) She thinks they should mind their own business.5. What is it that Granny Weatherall doesn't like to be reminded of?A) It is that she should go through the letters in the attic.B) It is that she is old and weak.C) It is that she should look for HapsyD) It is that she has to take care of the children, the land and the house.6. What is it that Granny Weatherall can never forget?A) It is that she was jilted by her lover George 60 years ago.B) It is that her husband John died when he was still quite young.C) It is that Cornelia always keeps things secret in a public way.D) It is that her children no longer ask her for advice.7. The "fog" rising over the valley is a symbol to indicate______.A) Granny Weatherall is in her right mindB) Granny Weatherall can still see a lot through the fogC) Granny Weatherall's mind is so confused that she can no longer tell the present from the pastD) The beauty of the scenary8. Who does Granny Weatherall want to see most as she is dying?A) CorneliaB) GeorgeC) JohnD) Hapsy9. Who "cursed like a sailor's parrot and said 'I'll kill him for you.'"?A) GeorgeB) JohnC) Doctor HarryD) Father Connolly10. On what occasion does Granny Weatherall have to face a priest all by herself?A) It is at the wedding from which George runs away.B) It is when she is dyingC) It is when she has to put up post holes.D) It is when Hapsy comes to see her.参考答案ADCCB ACDBAUnit 141. Fitzgerald's first novel ___________ was an immediate success.A) The Great GatsbyB) This Side of ParadiseC) Tales of the Jazz Age2. Fitzgerald fell in love with Zelda Sayre while serving in the military _________.A) and married her immediately afterwardsB) but they never got marriedC) but they broke their engagement only to be joined in matrimony later after his first novel had been published.3. The Fitzgeralds lived _______.A) extravagantlyB) a moderate lifeC) in frugality4. The Great Gatsby was published when Fitzgerald was living in _______.A) New YorkB) EuropeC) Africa5. On the day of Gatsby's funeral, ___________ came to pay last respects to him.A) many of his friendsB) quite a few of his friendsC) few of his friends6. When Wolfsheim exclaimed, "I made him," referring to Gatsby, he meant that ________.A) without him, Gatsby could not have gotten where he was before his ill-fated deathB) he made Gatsby a good manC) he made business deals with Gatsby7. Gatsby's father _______.A) was tremendously proud of his son in spite of his grief over his son's deathB) really understood his sonC) knew what his son's business was8. The man with owl-eyed glasses at the funeral called Gatsby "the poor son-of-a-bitch," because______.A) he detested GatsbyB) he thought Gatsby was a son-of-a-bitchC) he felt sorry for Gatsby9. Nick described Gatsby's house as "huge incoherent failure of a house, meaning ________.A) the house would fall soonB) what the house symbolized failedC) the parties held in the house failed10. When Nick said, "the dazzling parties of Gatsby's were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter," he meant _______.A) he missed the partiesB) he was haunted by the memories of the partiesC) he had been to too many such parties11. Gatsby believed in the green light, thinking _________.A) it was beautifulB) he was very close to itC) he could reach it参考答案BCABC AACBBC简答题Unit21) Who is the narrator? What wrong does he want to redress?2) What is the pretext Montresor uses to lure Fortunado to his wine cellar?3) What happens to Fortunado in the end?4) Describe briefly how Poe characterizes Mortresor and Fortunado as contrasts.参考答案1)It is Montresor. Fortunato has given Montresor thousands of injuries that he has to bear before he has this opportunity of taking revenge.2)He claims that he has just got a cask of Amontilado and stores it in the wine cellar before he may find a connoisseur to testify to its authenticity.3)The deceived Fortunado is killed because of his inability of getting out of the catacomb.4)Poe characterizes Mortresor and Fortunado as seemingly contrasting characters chiefly by presenting their identical habit in wine and their different manners towards each other, but actually he intends to show some similarly defective aspects in their nature. The similarity in their nature is also suggested by their names as synonyms in Italian: Mortresor means “fortune” while Fortunado “treasure”. Their defective nature is highlighted when the revenger Mortresor, who is fully prepared on psychological and operating levels, throws the hardly prepared but totally deceived wrong-doer Fortunado into the deep and damp catacomb and blocks up its entrance with huge rocks.Unit41) Why is the prison the setting of Chapter II?2) Describe the appearance of Hester Prynne and the attitude of the people toward her.3) What has happened to Hester? Why does she make the embroidery of the letter A so elaborate? How does this tell us about her character?参考答案1)The prison is used as the setting of the story because the execution of Hester Prynne as an infamous culprit is expected to take place here and the sentence of a legal tribunal on her has but confirmed the verdict of public sentiment. In addition, the setting also suggests the tragic fate of the protagonist.2)Hester Prynne is a young and tall woman with dark and abundant hair that is so glossy that it may throws off the sunshine with a gleam. She has a beautiful face with the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes. With a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale, she is ladylike with such character as characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent, and indescribable grace. Besides, the attitudes of the people toward her are diverse, but mostly negative and unsympathetic largely from the conventional moral stand of the times.3)As a married woman, Hester falls in love with Dimmesdale, a reverend minister of the local community, and their love affair is discovered after she gives birth to a baby daughter. She makes the embroidery of the letter A so elaborate in the hope that the letter may embody her affirmative attitude toward the dilemma in her life, and that it may have the effect of a powerful spell to take her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclose her in a sphere by herself. This detail also mirrors her idea of love and moral value, which is explicitly different from the cowardice and hypocrisy of Dimmesdale.Unit5What are the stories Ishmael tells about Moby Dick?As one of the crew in the Pequod, Ishmael is the only sailor having survived the fatal shipwreck. Thus according to what he witnesses when following Ahab and the crew in search of Moby Dick, he relates how the white whale Moby Dick bites off one of Ahab’s legs and how the latter seeks his own revenge on the former.Why does Ahab react so violently against the while whale? Ishmael sUggests that Ahab is “crazy” and calls him “ a raving lunatic”. Do you agree with him? Why or why not?In their earlier contact Moby Dick bit off one of Ahab’s legs and thus the latter determined to kill the former with the help of his crew. Despite of the advice from his counterparts in other ships, Ahab couldn’t free himself from the idea of revenge. That is why Ishmael describes Ahab as madly obsessed with a search of Moby Dick. Ishmael’s attitude seems convincing because Melville intends to show in the romance that extreme elements in the human soul could be fatally destructive.What narrative features can you find in the selected chapter?Like the other parts of Moby Dick, this chapter is written in the first-person perspective and because the narrator Ishmael is said to have survived the Pequod shipwreck, so what the narrative "he" gives is a recollection of the process of Ahab and his crew’s hunting of Moby DickUnit13Does Granny Weatherall like Doctor Harry? Why or why not?Granny does not like Doctor Harry. First, she does not think she is ill and has to see the doctor. Second, she thinks the doctor treats her as if she were a child. He is not respectful to her.Granny intends to do a lot "tomorrow." What is the most important thing? Can she do it?The most important thing is to go through George's letters and John's letters and her letters to them both. She cannot do this because she is now sick and has to stay in bed.What advice does Granny give her family?She gives advice to Lydia about how to bring up children, to Jimmy about how to do business, even how to move the furniture to Cornelia.What happened 60 years ago? Who is George? How does Granny feel about him?She was jilted by George, the man she was to marry. He did not come to the wedding. Granny is psychologically much wounded by George's jilting. She tries very hard to forget the event and suppresses her grief. However, just before her death, the agony surfaces and she cannot forget him.Who is John? How does Granny feel about him?John is the man Granny marries eventually. They have several children during their marriage. Granny is thankful that John is sympathetic to her being jilted. She feels that, with John, there is nothing to worry about any more. But John dies when he is still rather young. She misses himfrom time to time, hoping to see him again in order to show him that she does not do badly without a husband.What is it that she would like to tell George?She, like any other woman, had a husband, fine children and a house. She is given back everything he takes away. However, the agony he causes her is 'unbelievable,' so great that she tries to think of it as that of having a baby.What is it that she would like to tell John?She has brought up their children, kept a good house and taken good care of the farm. She has changed, becoming tough by overcoming all the difficulties.Who does Granny want to see most before her death? Who is this person? Is Granny's wish realized?It is Hapsy. She is Granny's daughter and she dies in childbirth. In her semi-consciousness, Granny feels as if she had to go through many rooms to find Hapsy with her baby. She even hears Hapsy say “I thought you'd never come,” and “You haven't changed a bit!” Even at the time of death, she is concerned w ith the question “ What if I don't find her?”What is Granny's attitude towards death?She thinks that she is well prepared for death. Twenty years ago, she felt very old and finished. So she went around making farewell trips to her children. Later she made her will and came down with a long fever. Then she got over the idea of dying for a long time. However, she becomes surprised when the real time comes and thinks it is not time yet and that she cannot go. Eventually, she accepts death by blowing out the light herself.When does Granny realize that she is going to die?It is when she realizes that her children have come a long way and are there by her bed to say good-bye to her.What is the sign she looks forward to at the end of her life? Does it appear?It is the sign of Jesus in the form of a bridegroom coming to take her to Heaven. But it does not appear. So she is jilted again.Unit 141. Who was described as "madman" after Gatsby's death?2. How did Gatsby's father learn of his son's death?3. Did Nick reach Daisy by phone after Gatsby's death?4. Did Gatsby's friend Wolfsheim plan to attend his funeral?5. What did Gatsby's father proudly show to Nick?6. Where did Nick meet the man with owl-eyed glasses for the first time?7. Where did Gatsby, Nick, Daisy and Jordan come from?8. Was Jordan once attracted to Nick?9. How did Nick feel toward Jordan when he parted with her?10. Why did Nick think Tom was in a sense justified for doing what he had done?参考答案1)Wilson. 2)He saw the news in a newspaper.3)No, he didn't. 4)No, he didn't.5)Gatsby's Schedule he wrote down as a young boy. 6)In Gatsby's library.7)Middle West. 8)Yes, she was. 9)He had mixed feelings toward her. 10)He was one of those careless people who smashed up things and creatures and then retreat back into their money or their vast carelessness and let other people clean up the mess they had made.Unit151. Where is the Harris-versus-Snopes case tried?2. Why does Mr. Harris stop asking Sarty to be his witness?3. What causes Abner to walk with a limp?4. Why does Abner have the habit of making small fires?5. What does Abner teach Sarty that night?6. What does Sarty feel when he first saw De Spain's house?7. Why does De Spain's black servant refuse Abner's entrance into the house?8. Is Sarty willing to pay the amount of corn for De Spain's damaged rug?9. Does Sarty get the can of oil as his father has told him?10. Where does Sarty go and what for after he gets free of his mother's hold?参考答案1)In the store. 2)The boy will not tell the truth. 3)He was wounded in the heel on a stolen horse. 4)A habit he formed when hiding from people with his stolen horses. 5)He should stick to his own blood. 6)It stands for peace and dignity. 7)He has not wiped his feet. 8)No. He will hide it. 9)No. 10)To De Spain's house to warn De Spain.英译汉Unit2At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion if the great catacombs of Pads. Three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. From the fourth side the bones had been thrown down, and lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound of some size. Within the wall thus exposed by the displacing of the bones, we perceived a still interior crypt or recess, in depth about four feet, in width three, in height six or seven. It seemed to have been constructed for no especial use within itself, but formed merely the interval between two of the colossal supports of the roof of the catacombs, and was backed by one of their circumscribing walls of solid granite.It was in vain that Fortunato, uplifting his dull torch, endeavored to pry into the depth of the recess. Its termination the feeble light did not enable us to see."Proceed," I said; "herein is the Amontillado. As for Luchresi — ""He is an ignoramus ", " interrupted my friend, as he stepped unsteadily forward, while Ifollowed immediately at his heels. In an instant he had reached the extremity of the niche, and finding his progress arrested by the rock, stood stupidly bewildered. A moment more and I had fettered him to the granite. In its surface were two iron staples, distant from each other about two feet, horizontally. From one of these depended a short chain, from the other a padlock . Throwing the links about his waist, it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it. He was too much astounded to resist. Withdrawing the key I stepped back from the recess. "Pass your hand, " I said, "over the wall; you cannot help feeling the nitre. Indeed, it is very damp. Once more let me implore you to return. No? Then I must positively leave you. But I will first render you all thelittle attentions in my power.""The Amontillado!" ejaculated my friend, not yet recovered from his astonishment. "True," I replied; " the Amontillado."As I said these words I busied myself among the pile of bones of which I have before spoken. Throwing them aside, I soon uncovered a quantity of building stone and mortar. With these materials and with the aid of my trowel, I began vigorously to wall up the entrance of the niche.在墓穴的尽头，又出现了更狭窄的墓穴。

美国文学英文版本1

Examples of almost every oral genre can be found in American Indian literature: lyrics, chants, myths, fairy tales, humorous anecdotes, incantations, riddles, proverbs, epics, and legendary histories. Accounts of migrations and ancestors abound, as do vision or healing songs and tricksters' tales. Certain creation stories are particularly popular. In one well-known creation story, told with variations among many tribes, a turtle holds up the world. In a Cheyenne version, the creator, Maheo, has four chances to fashion the world from a watery universe. He sends four water birds diving to try to bring up earth from the bottom. The snow goose, loon, and mallard soar high into the sky and sweep down in a dive, but cannot reach bottom; but the little coot, who cannot fly, succeeds in bringing up some mud in his bill. Only one creature, humble Grandmother Turtle, is the right shape to support the mud world Maheo shapes on her shell -- hence the Indian name for America, "Turtle Island."

美国文学第1章(殖民及革命时期文学)

⑴
In 1942, Christopher Columbus found the new continent called America. ⑵ Immigrants: Spanish (they built the first town on the new continent); Dutch (they built New York city at the beginning stage); French (today still lots of people’s mother tongue is French in North America)
American Puritanism（清教主义）
To
be a Puritan: taking religion as the most important thing; living for glorifying God; believing predestination（命运天定）, original sin（原罪，人生下来就是有罪的，因为人类的祖先亚当和夏娃是有罪的）, total depravity（人类是完全堕落的，所以人要处处小心自己的行为，要尽可能做到最好以取悦上帝）, limited atonement（有限救赎，只有被上帝选中的人才能得到上帝的拯救）
Idiosyncratic Features of American Literature
Colonial

American Literature
Colonial Literature ⑴ General features ◆ Humble origins: diaries, histories, letters etc. ◆ In content: serving either God or colonial expansion or both ◆ In form: imitating English literary traditions

美国文学概括Chapter 1

Lecture 2: The Literature of Colonial America
• Historical Introduction • Cultural Background • Colonial Literature • Early American Writers and Poets
I. Historical Background
III. Colonial Literature
1. Two main subjects of the literary works (1) practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people “at home” what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration; (2) highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. 2. Forms: travel, journal, diary, sermon, poetry, prose
IV. Early American writers and poets
1. South, Jamestown, Virginia: Captain John Smith --- the first American writer 8 works (1) contributions: his description of America were filled with themes, myths, images, scenes, characters and events that were a foundation for the nation’s literature. He lured the Pilgrims into fleeing here and creating a New land. (2) major works

美国文学简史复习资料[1]

美国文学美国文学Part 1. Colonial AmericaPhilip Freneau Philip Freneau菲菲利普·弗伦诺1752-1832The Wild Honeysuckle野生的金银花；The Indian Burying Ground 印第安人殡葬地印第安人殡葬地 Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards The Freedom of the Will The Great Doctrine of Original Sin The Freedom of the Will The Great Doctrine of Original Sindefended T he The Nature of True VirtueBenjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林本杰明·富兰克林Poor Richard’s Almanack 穷查理历书；The Autobiography 自传Part 2. A merican American Romanticism It is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature ,t Romantic Period ,which stretches from the end of the 18th century through the out breakof Civil War.It started with the publication of Washington Irving's The Sketch bookand ended with Whitman's Leave of Grass .American Romanticism was in essence the expression of "a real new experience "and contained "an alien quality "for the simplereason that "the spirit of the place" was radically new and alien.And it was bo imitative and independent.Washington Irving 华盛顿·欧文1783-1859 A History of New York 纽约的历史纽约的历史---------------美国人写的第一部诙谐文学美国人写的第一部诙谐文学杰作；杰作；The The Sketch Book 见闻札记The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 睡谷的传说的传说---------------使之成为美国第一个获得国际声誉的作家；使之成为美国第一个获得国际声誉的作家；Rip Van Winkle -------short storyJames Fenimore Cooper 詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀1789-1851The Spy 间谍;The Pioneer 拓荒者；;The Prairie 大草原;ThePathfinder 探路者;The Deerslayer 杀鹿者Part 3.New England TranscendentalismRalf Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生1803-1882Essays 散文集散文集::Nature 论自然-----新英格兰超验主义者的宣言书;TheAmerican Scholar 论美国学者;Henry David Threau 亨利·大卫·梭罗1817-1862W adden,or Life in the Woods 华腾湖或林中生活Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ·朗费罗 An April Day 四月的一天/A Psalm of Life 人生礼物(poem )/PNathaniel Hawthorne 纳撒尼尔·霍桑1804-1864 Twice-told Tales 尽人皆知的故事尽人皆知的故事;Mosses from an Old Manse ;Mosses from an Old Manse 古屋青苔:Young Goodman Brown 年轻的古德曼·布朗年轻的古德曼·布朗年轻的古德曼·布朗;The Scarlet Letter ;The Scarlet Letter红字红字;The House of the Seven Gables ;The House of the Seven Gables 有七个尖角阁的房子有七个尖角阁的房子----------------心理若们罗曼史心理若们罗曼史;The Blithedale Romance ;The Blithedale Romance 福谷传奇福谷传奇;The Marble Faun ;The Marble Faun玉石雕像玉石雕像Herman Melville Moby Dick/The White Whale 莫比·迪克/白鲸；Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass 草叶集:Song of Myself 自我之歌Emily Dickinson ； “Because I could not stop for death ” “I ＇ｍ no body... ”poemEdgar Allan Poe 埃德加·爱伦·坡1809-18491809-1849（以诗为（以诗为诗；永为世人共赏的伟大抒情诗人伟大抒情诗人----------叶芝）叶芝）The Fall of the House of Usher 厄舍古屋的倒塌;Annabel Lee 安娜贝尔·李Poem-----歌特风格；首开近代侦探小说先河，又是法国象征主义运动的源头T 诗:The Raven 乌鸦;To Hellen 致海伦 Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin 汤姆叔叔的小屋;Part 4. The age of RealismWilliam Dean Howells 威廉·狄恩·豪威尔斯恩·豪威尔斯The Rise of Silas Lapham 赛拉斯·拉帕姆的发迹;A Hazard of Now Fortunes 时来运转;2323、、Henry James 小说：Daisy Miller苔瑟·米乐；The Portrait of a Lady 贵妇人画像；Part 5. Local ColorismMark Twain 马克·吐温（Samuel Longhorne Clemens Clemens））------美国文美国文学的一大里程碑学的一大里程碑The Gilded Age 镀金时代 -----------novel;The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 哈克贝利·费恩历险记How to Tell a Story 怎样讲故事怎样讲故事---------对美国早期幽默文学的总结对美国早期幽默文学的总结对美国早期幽默文学的总结 O. Henry short story 短篇小说 The Four Million ”《四百万》”《四百万》小说集小说集、“The Gift of the Magi ”《麦琪的礼物》《麦琪的礼物》Part 6. American NaturalismFrank Norris The Octopus 章鱼,The Pit 小麦交易所);4040、、JackLondon 杰克·伦敦1876-1916T he Call of the Wild 野性的呼唤----novel ;The Sea-wolf 海狼;White Fang 白獠牙;T ;Martin Eden 马丁·伊登;Part 7. The 1920s ImagismEzra Pound 艾兹拉·庞德1885-1972美国现代诗歌之父美国现代诗歌之父Cathay 华夏（英译中国诗The Cantos of Ezra Pound 庞德诗章（109首及8首未完成稿）《In a station of the Metro 》----在地铁站里 Thomas Stearns Eliot The Waste Land 荒原;名诗：名诗：Ash Ash Wednesday 圣灰星期三圣灰星期三;;FourQuarters 四个四重奏Robert Frost 罗伯特·弗罗斯特1874-1963 After Apple-picking 摘苹果之后)(The Road Not taken 没有选择的道路)----poem---------Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening <雪夜林畔>F Scott Fitzgerald 弗朗西斯·菲茨杰拉德1896-1940(迷惘的一代一代) )The Side of Paradise 人间天堂;The Beautiful and the Damned 美丽的和倒霉;The Great Gatsby 了不起的盖茨比;Tender in the Night 夜色温柔Ernest Ernest Hemingway Hemingway 欧内斯特·海明威1899-19611899-1961（“迷惘（“迷惘的一代”的代表人物）物）The Sun Also Rises 太阳照样升起太阳照样升起;;Farewellto Arms 永别了，武器;For Whom the Bell Tolls 丧钟为谁而鸣William William Faulkner Faulkner威廉·福克纳1897-1962短篇小说：;The Sound and the Fury 愤怒与喧嚣;；Short story ------A Rose For Emily 《给艾米丽小姐的玫瑰》 Theodore Dreiser西奥多·德莱塞1871-1945Sister Carrie 嘉莉姐妹----Novel ;Trilogy of Desire 欲望三部曲(Financer 金融家,The Titan 巨人,The Stoic);An American Tragedy 美国的悲剧（被称为美国最伟大的小说） Arthur Miller ;The Death of a Salesman 推销员--------Play ;１．《了不起的盖茨比》表现了“美国梦”的幻灭，这部小说谴责以托姆为代表的美国特权阶级自私专横，为所欲为，以同情的态度描写了盖茨比的悲剧，并指出他的悲剧来自他对生活和爱情的幻想，对上层社会缺乏认识。

美国文学1

一、时期综述（关于清教的应该都是重点）4、典型的清教徒：John Cotton and Roger Williams 他们的不同：John Cotton was much more concerned with authority than with democracy.Williams begins the history of religious toleration in America.5、6、英国最早移民到美国的诗人：Anne Bradstreet7、在殖民时期最好的清教徒诗人：the best of Puritan poets is Edward Taylor.学习指南：.2、Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety were the Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing.3、The work of two writers, Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, rose to the level of real poetry.4、The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards Italian, and Portuguese.第二部分理性和革命时期文学EconomicallyBackground Colony → state 1770s uprising(争端) in North→ American against→ Britain→ politics 1776-1783 war of Independence → USA politicallyRepresentatives：Benjamin Franklin: AutobiographyProse \ essay Thomas Paine: Common SenseThomas Jefferson: Declaration of IndependencePhilip Freneau: poet \ journalist启蒙运动对美国的影响oppose coliral order and religious obscurantism. Secular education and literature → Franklin一、时期综述1、美国的性质：The war for Independence ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republic – theUnited States of America.联邦的资产阶级民主共和国——美利坚合众国。

美国文学the-American-Romanticism-1

A.Washington Irving (1783-1859 )
His fame
• “Father of American Imaginative literature”
• “Father of the American short story”
His Works
a) A History of New York from
❖ The unifying thread of the five novels collectively known as the Leather-Stocking Tales皮裹腿故事集 is the life of Natty Bumppo, Cooper’s finest achievement.They constitute a vast prose epic with the North American continent as setting, Indian tribes as Characters, and great wars and westward migration as social background.The novels bring to life frontier America from 1740 to 1804.
the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty by Diedrich Knickerbocker
《纽约外史》
b) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent
• “Rip Van Winkle” • “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
B.James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

美国文学1

3)
Analytical Approach the elements of a literary work, eg: plot, character, setting, point of view, etc; Thematic Approach ―What is the story, the poem, the play or the essay about?‖ Historical Approach
AMERICAN PURITANISM
idealist dream
a code of values
a philosophy of life a point of view
Features of American Puritan
more practical, tougher they would build the new land to an Eden on earth.
All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.
American Puritanism
Enduring shaping influence on literature
2. Contributing to the development of Symbolism: a technique, widely used
American PuFra bibliotekitanism
Enduring shaping influence on literature
1. Basis of American literature
dreamed of living under a perfect order worked with courage hoped to build an Eden of Garden on earth faced the worst of life with optimism

美国文学期末复习笔记 (1)

美国文学笔记III. The Romantic period （浪漫主义时期）: （1800-1865）American Transcendentalism(美国超验主义）（1830s- Civil War）Summit of Romanticism/ American Renaissance1. Appearance1836, ―Nature‖ by Emerson2. Features of Transcendentalism(1). Spirit(思想）/Oversoul（超灵）(2). importance of individualism(3). nature – symbol of spirit/God；garment of the oversoul(4). focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV. The American Realism 现实主义时期(1865-1918)1. Three Giants in Realistic PeriodWilliam Dean Howells –―Dean of American Realism‖Henry JamesMark Twain2. Comparison:Theme:Howells –middle classJames –upper classTwain –lower classTechnique:Howells –smiling/genteel realismJames –psychological realismTwain –local colourism and colloquialismMark Twain (1835-1910):1. Summary:American writer, short story writer/Humorist2. Major works:The Celebrated jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865)《卡拉维拉县弛名的跳蛙》Innocents Abroad (1869) 《傻子国外旅行记》The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) 《汤姆.索亚历险记》Life on the Mississippi (1883) 《密西西比河上》The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1886)《哈克贝里.费恩历险记》: All modern American literature comes from his masterpiece ―The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.‖——Ernest Hemingway3. Style:(1). colloquial language（口语）, vernacular (本土的）language, dialects(2). local colour(3). syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, and sometimes ungrammatical(4). humour(5). tall tales (highly exaggerated) （荒诞不经的故事）(6). social criticism (satire on the different ugly things in society)4. ContributionOne of Mark Twain’s significant contributions to American literature lies in the fact that he made colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of the country.Henry James (1843-1916)1. Summary:An American and British novelist, literary criticFounder of psychological realismFirst of the modern psychological novelistInitiator of the international theme: American innocence in face of European sophistication2. Major works:Daisy Miller （1878）《戴茜·米勒》The Portrait of a Lady (1881) 《贵妇的肖像》The Wings of the Dove (1902)《鸽翼》The Ambassadors (1903)《专使》The Golden Bowl (1904)《金碗》The Art of Fiction(1884)《小说的艺术》3. His Point of view(1). Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousness(2).Psychological realism(3). Highly-refined language4. Style –“stylist”(1). Language: highly-refined, polished, insightful, and accurate(2).V ocabulary: large(3). Construction: complicated, intricateNaturalism（自然主义）1. Background:(1). Dar win’s theory: ―natural selection‖(2).Spenser’s idea: ―social Darwinism‖(3). French Naturalism: Zora2. Features(1). environment and heredity(2). scientific accuracy and a lot of details(3). general tone: ironic and pessimistic, hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the societySt ephen Crane (1881-1900)1. Summary:Novelist, poetPioneer in the naturalistic traditionPrecursors（先驱）of Imagist poetry2. Major Works:Maggie: A Girl of the Streets 《街头女郎麦姬》: the first naturalistic novel in AmericaThe Red Badge of Courage 《红色英勇勋章》The Open Boat《海上扁舟》V. AMERICAN MODERNISM (1918-1945)（美国现代主义）F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)1. Summary:Famous American novelist, short story writer, and essayistthe representative of the 1920sthe spokesman for the Jazz Ageone of the“lost generation”writers2. Major WorksThis Side of Paradise (1920) 《人间天堂》Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) 《爵士乐时代的故事》Tender Is the Night (1934) 《夜色温柔》The Great Gatsby (1925) 《了不起的盖茨比》:Narrative point of view – Nick CarrawayTheme: The decline of the American Dream3. His Point of view(1). He expressed what the young people believed in the 1920s, the so-called ―American Dream‖ is false innature.(2). He had always been critical of the rich and tried to show the integrating effects of money on theemotional make-up of his character. He found that wealth altered people’s characters, making them mean and distrusted. He thinks money brought only tragedy and remorse.(3). His novels follow a pattern: dream – lack of attraction – failure and despair.4. His ideas of “American Dream”It is false to most young people. Only those who were dishonest could become rich.William Faulkner (1897-1962)1. Sumary:An American novelist and poetInitiator of American Southern RenaissanceOne of the most influential modern novelists of 20th centuryNobel Prize winner for literature in 19492. Major Works: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》Barn Burning 《烧牲口棚》Yoknapatawpha County（约克纳帕塔法县）:--- A fictional county in northern Mississippi, the setting for most of William Faulkner’s novels and short stories, and patterned upon Faulkner’s actual home in Lafayette County, Mississippi.3. Major Themes of his Works(1). history and race(2). Deterioration(3). Conflicts between generations, classes, races, man and environment(4). Horror, violence and the abnormal4. Faulkner's narrative technique(1).Withdrawal of the author as a controlling narrator(2). Dislocation of the narrative time: The most characteristic way of structuring his stories is to fragment thechronological time.(3). the modern stream-of-consciousness（意识流）technique and the interior monologue（内心独白）：(4). Multiple points of view（多重视角）(5). symbolism and mythological and biblical（圣经的）allusionsErnest Hemingway (1899—1961)1. Summary:Novelist and short-story writerOne of the great American writers of the 20th centuryThe Spokesman of the ―Lost Generation‖Nobel Prize winner for literature in 19542. Major worksThe Sun Also Rises 《太阳照常升起》A Farewell to Arms《永别了，武器》For Whom the Bell Tolls 《丧钟为谁而鸣》/ 《战地钟声》The Old Man and the Sea 《老人与海》A Clean, Well-lighted Place 《一个干净，明亮的地方》3. Major Themes(1).The ―Nada‖(虚无) Concept(2).Grace under pressure(压力下的优雅）―Man is not made for defeats. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.‖------The Old Man and the Sea(3). Code Hero（准则英雄/ 硬汉）a. The Hemingway hero is not a thinker; he is a man of action.b.―Grace under pressure is their motto.c.The Hemingway code heroes are best remembered for their indestructible(不可毁灭的）spirit.4. Artistic features(1) .The iceberg（冰山）techniqueThe dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.(2). Language stylea. simple and naturalb.direct, clear and freshc. lean and economicald.simple, conversational, common found, fundamental wordse. simple sentencesf. Iceberg principle: understatement, implied thingsg.SymbolismEzra Pound (1885—1972)1. Summary:A leading spokesman of the ―Imagist Movement‖(意象主义运动）One of the most influential American poets and critic2. Major works:Cathay:《华夏集》《神州集》《中国诗章》Hugh Selwyn Mauberley《休·赛尔温·毛伯利》Cantos /《诗章》3. Imagism (1909-1917)(1) .Background:Imagism was influenced by French symbolism, ancient Chinese poetry and Japaneseliterature ―haiku‖(2). Defintion : The imagists, with Ezra Pound leading the way, hold that the most effective means to expressthe these momentary impressions is through the use of one dominant image.(3): Manifesto of Imagism:•Direct treatment•Economy of expression•New rhythmIn a station of the Metro《在一个地铁站》: a quintessential（典型的）imagist textRobert Frost（1847-1963）1. Summary:the most popular American poetWon Pulitzer Prize four timesReceived honorary degrees from forty-four colleges and universitiesRead ― The Gift Outright‖ at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 19612. Famous Poems:F ire and Ice《火与冰》The Road Not Taken 《未选择的路》Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 《雪夜伫立林边有感》Mending Wall《补墙》After Apple-Picking《摘罢苹果》3. Frost’s writing featureHis combination of the traditional verse pattern and a colloquial distinctive language (New England Speech)Eugene O’Neil (1888-1953)1. Summary:America's greatest playwrightWon the Pulitzer Prize four timesWon Nobel Prize in 1936Founder of the American drama2. Major WorksBeyond the Horizon (1920) 《天边外》The Emperor Jones(1920) 《琼斯皇帝》The Hairy Ape (1922)《毛猿》Desire under the Elms (1924) 《榆树下的欲望》美国文学笔记整理完整版18世纪末-19世纪中后浪漫主义时期Romanticism1. 早期浪漫主义华盛顿·欧文美国文学之父father of American Literature(为美国文学第一次赢得世界声誉)Washington Irving 以笔记小说和历史传厅闻名，humor1783-1859 The Sketch Book见闻札记（标志浪漫主义开始）A History of New York纽约史---美国人写的第一部诙谐文学杰作；----The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说---成为美国第1个获国际声誉作家-----Rip Van Winkle里普·万·温克尔(李伯大梦)The Alhambra阿尔罕伯拉2.超验主义New England Transcendentalism埃德加·爱伦·坡侦探小说之父Father of western detective stories and psychoanalytic criticism精神批Edgar Allan Poe 评，首开近代侦探小说先河，又是法国象征主义运动的源头1809-1849 Novelist小说家, poet, critic批评家good at writing Gothic(哥特式）and detective fictionPoetryThe Raven《乌鸦》To Helen《献给海伦》Short storiesHorror ( suspense, terror, Insanity, death，Revenge and rebirth）The Fall of the House of Usher《厄舍古屋的倒塌》The Masque of the Red Death 《红色死亡的化妆舞会》The Black Cat《黑猫》The Cask of Amontillado《一桶白葡萄酒》Ligeia《丽姬娅》Detective /ratiocinative(推理的）(originator)The Purloined Letter 《窃信案》The Muder in the Rue Morgue 《莫格街谋杀案》The Mystery of Marie Rog《玛丽.罗热疑案》The Gold Bug 《金甲虫》拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生Nature论自然-----新英格兰超验主义者的宣言书manifestoRalf Waldo Emerson The American Scholar论美国学者;American essayist,lecturer, poetThe Founder of Transcendentalism1803-1882 Self-reliance论自立The Transcendentalist超验主义者Representative Men代表人物School Address神学院演说Days日子-首开自由诗之先河free verseRalph Waldo Emerson was an American philosopher, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism个人主义.纳撒尼尔·霍桑subject: human soul first great American writer of fiction 虚构Nathaniel Hawthorne 象征主义大师American novelist and short story writer1804-1864 The Scarlet Letter红字Twice-told Tales尽人皆知的故事Mosses from an Old Manse古屋青苔The House of the Seven Gables有七个尖角阁的房子The Marble Faun玉石雕像The Blithedale Romance福谷传奇Young Goodman Brown年轻的布朗The Birthmark胎记His point of view : Hawthorne is influenced by Puritanism（清教主义）deeply.(1). Evil is at the core of human life 邪恶是人类生活的中心(2).whenever there is sin 罪恶, there is punishment 惩罚. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation 代代相传(3). Evil educates. 邪恶的教育(4). He has disgust in science科学. One source of evil is overweening (自负的) (too proud of oneself) intellect . His intellectual characters聪明的特征are villains反派角色, dreadful可怕的and cold-blooded冷血的赫尔曼·迈尔维尔擅长航海奇遇和异域风情Herman Melville Moby Dick/The White Whale白鲸（first American prose epic史诗）1819-1891 Main characters: Ishmael(以实玛利）: the narrator 叙述者Ahab（埃哈伯）: the protagonist 主要人物Moby DickTypee泰比Omoo奥穆Mardi玛地White Jacket白外衣Pierre皮尔埃; Billy Budd比利·巴德沃尔特·惠特曼Father of free verse自由诗之父Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass草叶集（the birth of truly American poetry and the1819-1892 end of romanticism）共和圣经Democratic Bible 美国史诗American EpicAmerican poet, essayist散文家, journalist新闻工作者, and humanist人道主义学家The father of free verse（自由诗）Song of Myself自我之歌Democratic Vistas 民主的前景One’s Self I Sing 《我歌唱一个人的自己》O Captain! My Captain! 《噢，我的船长！我的船长！》3.Writing themes (almost everything):equality of things and beings 平等的事情和人divinity 神学of everythingImmanence（无所不在）of GodDemocracy 民主evolution of cosmos（宇宙的演化）multiplicity 多样性of natureself-reliant spirit 自力更生的精神death, beauty of deathexpansion of America 美国的扩张brotherhood 手足情谊and social solidarity（社会团结）(unity of nations in the world世界统一的国家) pursuit 追求of love and happiness4.S tyle: “free verse（自由诗）: the verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern固定的韵律模式, the verse without a fixed beat 固定的节拍or regular rhyme scheme规律的格律.(1).Parallelism（排比）(2).phonetic recurrence（同字起句法）（the repetition重复of words or phrases at the beginning of the line, inthe middle or at the end)(3).the use of a certain pronoun ―I‖ (the first person narrator)(4).strong tendency to use oral English使用英语口语的强烈倾向(5).the habit of using snapshots 生活小照(6).a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure语法结构(7).use of conventional image 传统的想象(8).vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(9). sentences – catalogue目录technique: long list of names, long poem lines5. Significance of Leaves of GrassLeaves of Gras s, either in content or in form, is an epoch-making work in American literature:无论是在内容还是在形式上,是一个划时代的作品在美国文学→Its democratic content marked the shift from Romanticism to Realism. 其民主内容标志着从浪漫主义到现实主义的转变→Its free-verse form broke from old poetic conventions to open a new way for American poetry.其生发的形式从旧的诗意的约定了打开新的思路对美国诗歌。

美国文学第一册练习(有答案)

1. “God helps them that help themselves.” is found in ____________work.A. Paine’sB. Franklin’sC. Freneau’sD. Jefferson’s2. Which of the following stirred the world and helped form the American republic?A. The American Crisis.B. The Federalist.C. Declaration of Independence.D. The Age of Reason.3. “These are the times that try men’s souls”, these words were once read to Washington’s troops and did much to spur excitement to further action with hope and confidence. Who is the author of these words?A. Benjamin FranklinB. Thomas PaineC. Thomas JeffersonD. George Washington4. Which work is written by Freneau?A. The Right of ManB. The Wild honey SuckleC. Poor Richard’s AlmanacD. The Day of Doom5. Who was considered as the “Poet of American Revolution”?A. Anne BradstreetB. Edward TaylorC. Michael WiggleworthD. Philip Freneau6. In Moby Dick, the voyage symbolizes ___________.A. the microcosm of human societyB. the search for truthC. the unknown worldD. nature7.Thoreau was often alone in the woods or by the pond, lost in spiritual communication with _________________.A. natureB. transcendentalist ideasC. human beingsD. celestial beings8. The Transcendentalist group includes two of the most significant writers America has produced so far, Emerson and ____________-.A. Henry David ThoreauB. Washington IrvingC. Nathanel HawthorneD. Walt Whitman9. ___________is regarded as the first American prose epic.A. NatureB. The Scarlet letterC. WaldenD. Moby Dick10. The Romantic Period of American literature started with the publication of Washington Irving’s ___________ and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.A. The Sketch BookB. Tales of a TravelerC. The AlhambraD. A History of New York11. The convention of the desire for an escape from society and a return to nature in American literature is particularly evident in ___________________.A. Cooper’s Leatherstocking TalesB. Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.C. Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.D. Irving’s Rip Van Winkle.12. As a philosophical and literary movement, _________ flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.A. modernismB. rationalismC. sentimentalismD. transcendentalism13. For Melville, as well as for the reader and ____________, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.A. StarbuckB. StubbC. IshmaelD. Arab14. All of the following are works by Nathaniel Hawthorne except_____________.A. The House of Seven GablesB. White JacketC. The Marble FaunD. The Blithdale Romance15. In the following works, which signs the beginning of the American literature?A. The Sketch BookB. Leaves of GrassC. Leatherstocking Tales..D. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn16. The main theme of Emily Dickinson is the following except_______________.A. religionB. love and marriageC. life and deathD. war and peace17. Emily Dickinson’s poetic idiom is noted for the following except_____________.A. brevityB. directnessC. plainestD. obscure18. “There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, trough the whole life, but circumstances may rouse it to activity.” Which of the following writings is the thought reflected in?A. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Yo ung Goodman Brown.B. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.C. Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.D. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.19. The publication of ____________established Emerson as the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism.A. NatureB. Self-RelianceC. The American ScholarD. The Over Soul20. Most of the poems in Whitman’s leaves of Grass sing of the “en-mass” and the ___________as well.A. natureB. lifeC. selfD. self-relianceII. Fill into the blanks with suitable phrase or term. (2x10=20%)1.The American of Scholar is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”.2.In 1620, a number of Puritans who tried to purify or reform the church of Englandstepped on the New England shore at Plymouth in the ship named Mayflower3.Among all the settlers in the New Continent, English settlers were the mostinfluential.4.In American Literature, the eighteenth century was an Age of Reason andRevolution.5.In Franklin’s Autobiography he talks first of all about how he studied language.6.Irving was best known for his famous short stories such as Rip Van Winklewhich is about a good-natured lazy husband who falls into a 20-year sleep. 7．Published in 1823, The Pioneers was the first of the Leatherstocking Tales, in their order.8．Philip Freneau was considered as the “poet of the American Revolution” and the “Father of American Poetry.”9．A superb book Walden came out of Thoreau’s two-year experiment at Walden pond.10．As one of America’s first and foremost realists and humorists, Mark Twain , the pen name of Samuel Langhorne. Clemens, usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experiences.III. Match the writer in Column A with the works in Column B (1X10=10%)Column A Column Ba.Franklinb.John Smithc.William Cullen Bryantd.James Fennimore Coopere.Philip Freneauf.Washington Irvingg.Nathaniel Hawthorneh.Edgar Allan Poei.Ralph Waldo Emersonj.Walt Whitman1.( b) A Description of New England2.( h) The Raven3.( g) The Scarlet Letter4.( a) Autobiography5.( e) The Wild Honey Suckle6.( c) To a Waterfowl7.( d) The Deerslayer8 ( j)Leaves of Grass9.( f) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow10.( i ) Nature。

美国文学_1_

天津城建大学结课作业美国文学Never Give Up学生姓名闫金龙学号1309010203 班级13英语2班成绩Never Give UpThe old man and the sea was created by Ernest Miller Hemingway. He (July 21, 1899 – July2,1961) was an American writer and journalist. His fiction usually focuses on people’s living essential, dangerous lives, soldiers, fishermen, athletes, bullfighters.The old man and the sea tells the story of the frail elderly fisherman Santiago within 84 days did not catch a fish, but he never gave up. To his overjoy, he finally caught a big marlin. Unexpectedly, the little boat was dragged to the deep sea by the big fish, the old man spent two days and two nights to get it. However , he finally found marlin only remaining a huge empty skeleton.Theme was expressed through the image of the lion naturally. The author quotes the image of the lion five times throughout the narrative process. The image of the lion is inseparable with the old man’ image fighting against fish. In the novel of The old man and the sea ,the lion can be understood as a symbol of the old man, the old man is a sea lion. The old man did not catch fish for eighty-four days, but he did not yield to the heart and complain about the cruelty of life and the unfairness of fate, nor did he beg for mercy or compassion. He possessed the lion's ambition, strength and courage. As confessed in the opening “his eyes just like sea water’s color, revealing a very cheerful and invincible rays of light.”I have learned that the essence of a tough guy is that he dares to face up to failure and challenge life, rather than succumbing to fate or shirking the duty and responsibility. Facing of the enemies, the old man dared to strive for success with enough perseverance and patience. His fascinating charm showed vividly with the competition of marlin and sharks. Although Santiago is an ordinary fishing man, his spirit is the most valuable, his typical “tough guy” image will be reserved forever by the world people. The spirit also show vividly in the novel of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a literary masterpieces, written in 1876 by the famous author Mark Twain. Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens,1835-1910), was an American writer, journalist and humorist, who won a worldwide audience for his stories of the youthful adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.This book describes the nineteenth century, the Mississippi river in a small town people's lives, it can be said at the time the united states is a microcosm of social life. small characters tom sawyer and his junior partner and seriously childish words and deeds can give me a deep insight. they hate priests pack of lies and do not like boring school of education and decently adults. They are smart, lively, kind and courageous, especially in some major events happened when, in a battle between justice and evil.When crisis comes, they will not hesitate to come forward.I think Tom Sawyer is a brave boy. he always gives his friends courage in danger and he tries his best to help other people. Although Tom is a very naughty boy, he often irritates aunt Polly. He also is a good boy. He always can make other people happy.People always grow, besides height, body has grown stronger, and people’s thoughts are long. Your view on the world is different, sensible, and no longer childish. But people are getting better. Don't like the adventures of the ruthless villains , and his quest do bad, people see people hate. But at last he still Las Toman, got a starved to death in the cave.Tom sawyer and the old man have one thing very much in common. No matter what they meet, they never forget pursuit of the dream. Ever if they are in worst circumstances, they also never easily yield to the difficulties and shrink. On the contrary, they are insisting on their dreams as usual. Finally, they are both achieving their dream.They have set up a good example to me and I learn a lot from them. I understand that no matter when and where, no matter how much difficulties, not being intimidated by the difficulties and bravely facing the difficulties and overcoming difficulties. At the same time, always maintaining a positive, calm and optimistic attitude to face challenges and bad luck. As long as we make them, we are bound to benefit a lot.Life is only once, people existing the tragic and absurd world. At the same time,it is they that make the world be full of rich colors. If we experienced a wide range of difficulties, we would be able to understand the meaning and value of life, we should be very happy.。

美国文学简述

序言（一）美国文学的历史不长，但发展较快，20世纪以来，在世界上的影响越来越大。

我国早在19世纪70年代就翻译了朗费罗的《人生颂》（A Psalm of Life）.1901年，林抒翻译出版了第一部美国小说--斯托夫人的《黑奴吁天录》（Uncle Tom's Cabin，今译《汤姆叔叔的小屋》），在读者中引起极大的震动，使他们从黑奴身上看到自己亡国灭种的危险。

根据小说改编的话剧对我们的话剧运动的发展起很大的作用。

五四运动前后，惠特曼对郭沫若等诗人、奥尼尔对曹禺、洪深等戏剧家都产生过影响。

马克·吐温、辛克莱、德莱塞等人都曾受到鲁迅等左翼作家的好评。

改革开放以来，美国文学对我国新时期的作家们有着巨大的吸引力。

盛行一时的朦胧诗恐怕就是在美国及西方现代派诗歌的影响下产生的。

海明威、福克纳及塞林格等人几乎成为我们年轻一代作家文学创作的楷模。

至于在世界上，埃德加·爱伦·坡曾被法国象征派诗人称为他们的诗歌之父，福克纳对法国的萨特和加级以及拉丁美洲的加西亚·马尔克斯的影响也是有目共睹的事实。

美国作家喜爱的描写少年初涉人世，寻求生活道路和人生真谛的"成长小说"形式受到加拿大女作家的欣赏，也正在被我国的儿童文学作家所采用。

美国作家的探索、试验、创新的精神也激励着世界各国的作家不断革新，超越前人。

今天，在改革开放的时代，在我们加强跟美国的交往的时候，我们有必要学一点美国文学，了解他们的文化以促进与美国人民的交流、沟通和理解，同时也借以丰富我们的知识，充实我们的文化修养，提高我们的精神素质。

（二）严格地说，美国文学的形成应从美国立国开始。

但实际上，在此以前一二百年的殖民时期的文学虽然并不发达，主要以模仿为主，没有自己鲜明的特色，但那时的政治、经济和社会的发展对美国文学的形成还是有很大的影响。

例如，由于殖民者大量屠杀原来居住在北美大陆的印第安人，使他们的文化和民间口头文学的传统受到致命的摧残，因此美国文学没有英国《贝奥武甫》那样的口头文学遗产。

美国文学(American literature

美国文学（American literature美国文学的雏形早期的美国文学是从欧洲文学的样式和风格中衍生出来的。

例如，维兰德和查尔斯·布罗克登·布朗的小说创作就是对英格兰哥特小说的模仿。

就连华盛顿·欧文Washington Irving的杰作《李伯大梦》和《睡谷传奇》The Legend of Sleeping Hollow也是十足的欧洲风格，只是故事发生的场景改为美国而已。

美国文学的诞生美国第一位在小说和诗歌创作领域取得显著成就的作家是艾德加·爱伦·坡Edgar Allen Poe （1809－1849），他于1835年开始短篇小说的创作，其作品包括《红死病》The Red Death、《陷坑与钟摆》、《颓败之屋》和《莫尔格街凶杀案》The Murder of the Rue Morgue。

他的创作触及了前人很少涉及的心理学领域，并且将神秘、幻想等元素融入小说创作之中。

1837年，年轻的作家纳撒尼尔·霍桑Nathanial Howthorne（1804－1864）将他的一些短篇小说集结成册出版，名为《重讲一遍的故事》Twice Told Tales。

这是一部包含了丰富的象征主义及神秘主义元素的作品。

后来，霍桑又开始写作长篇的传奇小说、类寓言小说，他的本土小说《新英格兰》New England以人类的内疚、荣耀和情感上的压抑为主题。

霍桑的代表作是《红字》The Scarlet Letter，讲述一个因通奸adultary行为而被驱逐出社区的女人的故事。

[hide] 霍桑的小说创作对他的朋友，作家赫尔曼·麦尔维尔（1819－1891）产生了深远的影响。

麦尔维尔以自己早期的水手经历为蓝本创作了许多富有异国情调的小说。

在霍桑的影响下，麦尔维尔的小说中也融入了很多哲学上的思索。

在其代表作《白鲸》中，作家通过对一场惊心动魄的捕鲸历程的描述，表达了对人类痴迷状态、人性中罪恶成分以及人类如何战胜这些天性的思索。

美国文学——独立革命时期

美国文学——独立革命时期美国独立革命时期的文学（一）独立革命时期的历史背景18世纪的美国经历了两场革命：一场是独立战争，这场革命诞生了一个新的国家，它对美国社会的影响超过了在此之前的任何事件；另一场革命就是启蒙运动。

这是一场知识革命，其理智精神激励着美国的知识界，将他们带入了一个新的思想境界，超越在此之前的清教主义的局限。

随着殖民地的不断扩大，欧洲各国在北美殖民地的矛盾冲突进一步激化。

哥伦布发现“新大陆”后，西班牙人首先在北美站稳了脚跟，进而占领了西印度群岛，1565年在弗罗里达建立了第一个殖民地。

法国占领了奎北克地区。

到了17世纪，法国人逐步深入到了大湖区和密西西比地区。

欧洲各国在商贸、交通等活动中矛盾重重，战争不可避免。

战争的胜利使得英属北美殖民地的经济和军事实力进一步加强。

到了18世纪殖民地的人们纷纷提出要进一步团结起来的面。

首先，它引导美国人从清教思想的束缚中解放出来，激励着他们为建立独立和民治的国家而奋斗。

其次，美国和欧洲的启蒙主义家们坚信社会的进步是靠人的努力而取得的。

要靠教育、靠科学技术的发展。

大批的科学家、发明家积极从事科学发展。

出现了大量的新机器、新发明，推动了工业革命的发展。

同时，启蒙运动也推动了文学的发展。

（二）独立革命时期文学的发展18世纪美国文学的潮流呈现出现明显的从清教向启蒙的转化。

尽管清教在新英格兰的意识形态中仍然非常强大，但18世纪以后欧洲启蒙文学占据了主导地位。

以开创了美国文学而自居的清教徒们纷纷退出了文学阵地，取而代之的是富兰克林和潘恩这样新的文学家。

美国文学Chapter 1 概述

In New England, Harvard College was founded as early as 1636.
3.2. Religious writing
• Religious writing: heavily weighted, in subject and style,因为宗教因素主题风格沉重 by religious considerations.
“Here nature and liberty afford us that freely which in England we want, or it costs us dearly. What pleasure can be more than…to recreate themselves before their own doors, in their own boats upon the sea…(to) take divers sorts of excellent fish at their pleasures? …If a man work but three days in seven he may get more than he can spend…here by their labor [they] may live exceeding well…. The masters by this may quickly grow rich; these [apprentices] may learn [by] their trades themselves to do the like, to a general and an incredible benefit for king and country, master and servant.”

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三、American Romanticism 美国浪漫主义文学（十八世纪末——十九世纪中后期）
美国浪漫主义的三个阶段
1. Early Romanticism 早期浪漫主义
2. Transcendentalism 超验主义 3. High Romanticism 浪漫主义高峰期
三、American Romanticism 美国浪漫主义文学（十八世纪末——十九世纪中后期）
The Rise of a National Literature: the “Knickerbocker era”; In the early the 19th century, New York City was the center of American writing. Its writers were called “Knickerbocker”,and the period from 1810 to 1840 is called the the “Knickerbocker era”of American literature. Washington Irving; James Fenimore Cooper; William Cullen Bryant
11. The Thirties: the Depression era; the Marxist “Proletarian Literature” movement; John Steinbeck; Henry Miller; the “Fugitives” 12. The Forties and Fifties: World War II; the anti-Communist “witch-hunts”; the Beats 13. The Sixties and Seventies: the “Hippies”; Vietnam War; literary experiments—the “factualized novel” and the “post-realism”; Catch-22 and “black Humor” 14. Drama: the “Little Theatre” movement; Eugene O’Neill; Tennessee Williams; Arthur Miller
5. The Civil War and the “Gilded Age”: Walt Whitman; Harriet Beecher Stowe; Emily Dickinson; the “local color” school of realism; the “Gold Rush”; Mark Twain 6. The Era of Realism and Naturalism: the failure of the “American Dream”; William Dean Howells; Stephen Crane; Henry James 7. At the Turn of the Century: some new philosophies; Jack London; the “Progressive era” and the “Muckraker era”; Upton Sinclair; O. Henry
三、American Romanticism 美国浪漫主义文学（十八世纪末——十九世纪中后期）
关于浪漫主义 Romanticism as a literary movement occurred in Europe and America at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. American romanticism stretched from the end of the 18th century to the Civil War (1861-1865). Romanticism marked a revolt against Neoclassicism(新古典主义). Neoclassicism esteemed rationality, objectivity and harmony, while Romanticism stressed imagination, intuitions, emotions, individualism and inner thoughts. American Romanticism was also called American Renaissance.
一、The Literature before the Revolution of Independence 独立革命之前的文学（十七世纪中期之前）
这一时期的文学主要分为两个部分： Native American Literature (The Traditional Literature of the American Indians) 美国本土文学（美国印第安传统文学）美洲印第安众多部落有着丰富的口头文学传统，主要形式为各种仪式上的祝词、劳动中吟唱的歌曲、世代相传的神话故事和英雄故事等等。 Literature of Colonial Settlements 北美殖民时期文学（16世纪末—17世纪中） ﹡1607年英国在今弗吉尼亚的Jamestown建立第一个永久性殖民点。 ﹡主要表达清教(Puritanism)思想。清教意在净化(purify)教堂中的宗教行为。 ﹡主要作家及作品： John Smith （1580-1631） A True Relation of Virginia （1608）约翰· 史密斯被称为第一位美国作家，《关于弗吉尼亚州的真实叙述》被认为是美国文学史上第一部作品。
二、The Literature around the Revolution of Independence 独立革命时期的文学 (十八世纪中期——十八世纪末）
这一时期的作家主要体现的是加尔文教思想 (Calvinist beliefs)和自然神论(deism)。加尔文教徒强调原罪和命运预定论；自然神论者提倡以理性为宗教基础，认为上帝创造世界后不再干涉世界，任世界按自然规律运动，两种思想代表分别为Jonathan Edwards和Benjamin Franklin. 独立战争（1776—1783）为美国文学的发展奠定了社会基础，提供了丰富的题材。这一时期文学作品主题多为爱国主义及对独立、自由、民主的呼唤。
美国文学
美国文学史上的5个阶段
一、The Literature before the Revolution of Independence 独立革命之前的文学二、The Literature around the Revolution of Independence 独立革命时期的文学三、American Romanticism 美国浪漫主义文学四、American Realism 美国现实主义文学五、American Literature of the 20th Century 二十世纪美国文学
3. 4. An American Renaissance: the movement westwards;
the “new spiritual era”; the Transcendentalists; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Henry David Thoreau; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Herman Melville; Edgar Allan Poe; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1. Colonial Beginnings: Puritan thoughts
2. The Birth of a Nation: political journalism; Benjamin Franklin; Thomas Paine; Thomas Jefferson; Declaration of Independence
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) 本杰明· 富兰克林
an initiator of the American enlightenment （启蒙运动） the only writer in the colonial period whose works are still read today. 代表作品：The Autobiography (1771-1790) – individualism; American Dream Poor Richard’s Almanac (1732-1758) Famous sayings : “God helps those who help themselves‖; ―No pains, no gains‖ Lost time is never found again. His uncompleted autobiography is perhaps the first real American writing as well as the first h.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)托马斯· 潘恩
a political pamphleteer （政治小册子作家）代表作品：Common Sense (1776) – the greatest of the revolutionary pamphlets (政治小册子)； The American Crisis (1776-1783) – 16 pamphlets Philip Freneau (1752-1832)菲利普· 弗伦诺 “Poet of the American Revolution‖ 作品：The Rising Glory of America (1772) ；The British Prison Ship (1781) ；The Wild Honey Suckle (1786) – one of his best lyrics （抒情诗）