(完整版)美国文学史复习资料
美国文学简史复习资料精华版
A Concise History of American LiteratureChapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.Jonathan Edwards1.life2.works(1)The Freedom of the Will(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3)The Nature of True Virtue3.ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)God’s presence(4)Puritan idealismII.Benjamin Franklin1.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac(2)Autobiography2.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the AmericanPhilosophical Society.(2)He was called "the new Prometheus who had stolen fire <electricityin this case> from heaven〞.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –"Jack of all trades〞.Herman Melville thus described him "master of each and masteredby none〞.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodI.Washington Irving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father of American literature2.works(1)A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the Endof the Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. <He won a measure ofinternational recognition with the publication of this.>(3)The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4)A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra3.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US4.style – beautiful(1)gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4)vivid and true characters(5)humour – smiling while reading(6)musical languageII.James Fenimore Cooper1.works(1)Precaution <1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride andPrejudice>(2)The Spy <his second novel and great success>(3)Leatherstocking Tales <his masterpiece, a series of five novels>The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, ThePioneer, The Prairie2.point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs.change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights3.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape description(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic4.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – American TranscendentalismI.Appearance1836, "Nature〞by EmersonII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition <irrationalism and subconsciousness>III.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought aboutthe idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expandedeconomy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to "get on〞obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance –one of the mostprolific period in American literature.IV.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.works(1)Nature(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet2.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in thetranscendence of the "oversoul〞.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moralinfluence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual andimmanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out thedivine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect.This is what Emerson means by "the infinitude of man〞.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making hisworld, and that he makes the world by making himself.3.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2)True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3)The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrateAmerica which was to him a lone poem in itself.4.his influenceV.Henry David Thoreau1.works(1)A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3)A Plea for John Brown <an essay>2.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing andwas vehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuinerestorative, healthy inf luence on man’s spiritual well-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.(6)"Simplicity…simplify!〞(7)He was sorely disgusted with "the inundations of the dirtyinstitutions of men’s odd-fellow society〞.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a newgeneration of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from andOld Manse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun2.point of view(1)Evil is at the core of human life, "that blackness in Hawthorne〞(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passedfrom generation to generation <causality>.(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.3.aesthetic ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnishthe soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form ofAmerican narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend:That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.4.style – typical romantic writer(1)the use of symbols(2)revelation of characters’ psychology(3)the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)his stories are parable <parable inform> – to teach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty –multiple point of viewII.Herman Melville1.works(1)Typee(2)Omio(3)Mardi(4)Redburn(5)White Jacket(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre(8)Billy Budd2.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is theattitude of "Everlasting Nay〞<negative attitude towards life>.(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation <far away from eachother>.Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism <individualismcausing disaster and death>, rejection and quest, confrontation ofinnocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress3.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguitythrough employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profuselycommented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background ordescription of what goes on board the ship or on the route <MobyDick>Romantic PoetsI.Walt Whitman1.work: Leaves of Grass <9 editions>(1)Song of Myself(2)There Was a Child Went Forth(3)Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4)Democratic Vistas(5)Passage to India(6)Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking2.themes –"Catalogue of American and European thought〞He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson’s individualism, Civil W ar Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems <almost everything>:●equality of things and beings●divinity of everything●immanence of God●democracy●evolution of cosmos●multiplicity of nature●self-reliant spirit●death, beauty of death●expansion of America●brotherhood and social solidarity <unity of nations in the world>●pursuit of love and happiness3.style: "free verse〞(1)no fixed rhyme or scheme(2)parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3)phonetic recurrence(4)the habit of using snapshots(5)the use of a certain pronoun "I〞(6)a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary –powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreignorigins, some even wrong(10)sentences –catalogue technique: long list of names, long poemlines4.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Westernculture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacherand recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bearswitness to his great influence.II.Emily Dickenson1.works(1)My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2)Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4)Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5)Wild Nights – Wild Nights2.themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4)physical aspect of desire(5)nature – kind and cruel(6)free will and human responsibility3.style(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence <rhythm>(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification –make some of abstract ideasvividparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergentAmerica, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, theirpoetry being part of "American Renaissance〞.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the newnation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameterand exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they werepioneers in American poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinsonexplores the inner life of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitman is "national〞in his outlook, Dickinson is"regional〞.(3)Dickinson has the "catalogue technique〞<direct, simple style>which Whitman doesn’t have.Edgar Allen PoeI.Works1.short stories(1)ratiocinative storiesa.Ms Found in a Bottleb.The Murders in the Rue Morguec.The Purloined Letter(2)Revenge, death and rebirtha.The Fall of the House of Usherb.Ligeiac.The Masque of the Red Death(3)Literary theorya.The Philosophy of Compositionb.The Poetic Principlec.Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told TalesII.Themes1.death –predominant theme in Poe’s writing"Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.〞2.disintegration <separation> of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIII.Aesthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compressionand finality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tonemelancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.IV.Style – traditional, but not easy to readV.Reputation: "the jingle man〞<Emerson>VI.His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –"Dean of American Realism〞(1)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb.A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(2)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethicscking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international theme●The American●Daisy Miller●The Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays●Daisy Miller <play>c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood andadolescence, then back to international theme●The Turn of the Screw●When Maisie Knew●The Ambassadors●The Wings of the Dove●The Golden Bowl(2)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent lifemon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(3)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(4)Style –"stylist〞nguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb.V ocabulary: largec.Construction: complicated, intricate3.Mark Twain <see next section>Local Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sI.Appearance1.uneven development in economy in America2.culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3.magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII.Mark Twain – Mississippi1.works(1)The Gilded Age(2)"the two advantages〞(3)Life on the Mississippi(4)A Conne cticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court(5)The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug2.style(1)colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2)local colour(3)syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimesungrammatical(4)humour(5)tall tales <highly exaggerated>(6)social criticism <satire on the different ugly things in society>parison of the three "giants〞of American Realism1.ThemeHowells – middle classJames – upper classTwain – lower class2.TechniqueHowells – smiling/genteel realismJames – psychological realismTwain – local colourism and colloquialismChapter 4 American NaturalismI.Theodore Dreiser1.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius2.point of view(1)He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned toregard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in astruggle for existence in which only the "fittest〞, the most ruthless,survive.(2)Life is predatory, a "game〞of the lecherous and heartless, a junglestruggle in which man, being "a waif and an interloper in Nature〞, a"wisp in the wind of social forces〞, is a mere pawn in the generalscheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex ofinternal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.3.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis4.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in painting。
(完整版)美国文学史-知识点梳理
Part I The Literature of Colonial AmericaI．Historical IntroductionThe colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.)II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds: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 immigration2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. III．The First American WriterThe first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians.Captain John Smith is the first American writer.A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608)A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612)General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess PocahontasCaptain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers.One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV．Early New England LiteratureWilliam Bradford and John WinthropJohn Cotton and Roger WilliamsAnne Bradstreet and Edward TaylorV．Puritan Thoughts1. The origin of puritanIn the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce hiswife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church ofEngland. But there was no radical difference between the doctrines of the Church of England and the Catholic Church. A group of people thought the Church of England was too Catholic and wanted to purify the church. Then came the name Puritans.2. Puritanism -- based on Calvinism(1) predestination: God's electPuritans believed they are predestined before they were born.Nothing or no good work can change their fate.They believed the success of one's business is the sign to show he is the God's elect. So the Puritans works very hard, spend very little and invest more for the future business. They lived a very frugal life. This is their ethics.(2) Origianl sin and total depravityMan is born sinful. This determines some puritans pessimistic attitude towards life.(3) Limited atonement (the salvation of a selected few)(4) theocracyThey combined state with religion. Their government is at least not a liberal one.The Puritans established American tradition -- intolerant moralism. They strictly punished drunks, adultery & heretics.Puritans changed gradually due to the severity of frontier environment3. Influence on American Literature(1) Its optimismAmerican literature was from the outset conditioned by the Puritan heritage. It can be said American literature is based on the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. After that, man have an illusion to restore the paradise. The puritans, after arriving at America, believing that God must have sent them to this new land to restore the lost paradise, to build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden. Fired with such a strong sense of mission, they treated life with a tremendous amount of optimism. The optimistic Puritan has exerted a great influence on American literature.(2) Puritan's metaphorical mode of perception changed gradually into a literary symbolism.Part II The Literature of Reason And RevolutionI．Historical IntroductionWith the growth, especially of industry, there appeared the intense strain with England. The British government did not want colonial industries competing with those in England. The British wanted the colonies to remain politically and economically dependent on the mother country. They took a series of measures to insure this dependence. They prevented colonial economy by requiring Americans to ship raw materials abroad and to import finished goods at prices higher than the cost of making them in this country. Politically, the British government forced dependenceby ruling the colonies from overseas and by taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament.However, by the mid-eighteenth century, freedom was won as much by the fiery rhetoric of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the eloquence of the Declaration of Independence as by the weapons of Washington. In the seventies of the 18th century, the English colonies in North America rose in arms against their mother country. The War for Independence lasted for 8 years (1776-1783) and ended in the formation of a federative bourgeois democratic republic -- the United States of America. II．American EnlightenmentIt was supported by all progressive forces of the country which opposed themselves to the old colonial order and religious obscurantism.It dealt a decisive blow upon the puritan traditions and brought to life secular education and literature. The spiritual life during that period was to a great degree moulded by it.The representatives set themselves the task of disseminating knowledge among the people and advocating revolutionary ideas.The writers injected an invigorating vein into the English language in America as they aimed at clarity and precision of their writings.At the initial period the spread of the ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to journalism. Writings of Europe were widely read in America. The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of Benjamin Franklin.III．Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)The AutobiographyPoor Richard’s AlmanacLifeBenjamin Franklin came from a Calvinist background.He was born into a poor candle-maker’s family. He had very little education. He learned in school only for two years, but he was a voracious reader.At 12, he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother, a printer.At 16, he began to publish essays under the pseudonym “Silence Do good” .At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune.He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher. In 1727 he founded the Junto club.Multiple identities:a printera leading authora politiciana scientista inventora diplomata civic activistFranklin’s Contributions to SocietyHe helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital.He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania.And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.Franklin’s Contributions to ScienceHe was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices.And for his lightning-rod, he was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.”Franklin’s Contributions to the U.S.He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:The Declaration of Independence,The Treaty of Alliance with France,The Treaty of Peace with England,The ConstitutionThe AutobiographyThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was probably the first of its kind in literature. It is the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man.The Autobiography is, first of all, a Puritan document. It is Puritan because it is a record of self-examination and self-improvement. The meticulous chart of 13 virtues he set for himself to cultivate to combat the tempting vices, the stupendous effort he made to improve his own person, the belief that God helps those who helps themselves and that every calling is a service to God – all these indicate that Franklin was intensely Puritan. Then, the book is also a convincing illustration of the Puritan ethic that, in order to get on in the world, one has to be industrious, frugal, and prudent.The Autobiography is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenth-century enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free by nature, endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.A look at the style of The Autobiography will readily reveal that it is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness and concision. The plainness of its style, the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the salient features we cannot mistake. The lucidity of the narrative, the absence ofornaments in wording and of complex, involved structures in syntax, and the Puritan abhorrence of paradox are all graphically demonstrated in the whole of the book. Taken as a whole, it is safe to say that the book is an exemplary illustration of the American style of writing.IV．Thomas Paine (1737-1809)Common SenseAmerican CrisisV．Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)The Declaration of IndependenceVI．Philip Freneau (1752-1832)“Poet of the American Revolution”“Father of American Poetry”“Pioneer of the New Romanticism”“A gifted and versatile lyric poet”Works“The Wild Honey Suckle”“The Indian Burying Ground”“To a Caty-Did”Freneau as Father of American Poetry: His major themes are death, nature, transition, and the human in nature. All of these themes become important in 19th century writing.Life Experience►He was born in New York.►At 16, he entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He decided to do a postgraduate study in theology. But two years later he gave it up. While still an undergraduate, he wrote in collaboration with one of his friends (H. H. Brackenridge) a poem entitled “The Rising Glory of America”.►Later he attended the War of Independence, and he was captured by British army in 1780.►After being released, he published “The British Prison Ship” in 1781.►In the same year, he published “To the Memory of the Brave Americans”.►After war, he supported Jefferson, and contributed greatly to American government.►But after 50 years old, he lived in poverty. And at last he died in a blizzard.Main Works►“The Rising Glory of America” (1772) 《美洲光辉的兴起》►“The House of Night” (1779,1786) 《夜之屋》►“The British Prison Ship” (1781) 《英国囚船》►“To the Memory of the Brave Americans” (1781) 《纪念美国勇士》►“”The Wild Honey Suckle” (1786) 《野忍冬花》►“The Indian Burying Ground” (1788) 《印第安人墓地》野忍冬花（黄杲炘译）►美好的花呀，你长得：这么秀丽，却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方——甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；没游来荡去的脚来把你踩碎，没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。
美国文学史考试复习资料
1）puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology. 3look upon themselves as chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged the ir way of life is opposing God's will and is not to be accepted.
poet and political journalist 诗人和政治方面的新闻记者
1）perhaps the most outstanding writer of the post-revolutionary period. 2)has been called the "Father of American Poetry" 美国诗歌之父
"Great Common of Mankind" 最平凡的人 1）famous pamphlet "Common Sense" 著名的政治小册子《常识》 it boldly advocated a
"Declaration for Independence", and brought the separatist agitation to a crisis. 拥护独立宣
ar.
6）As an author he had power of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor, sarcastic.
美国文学史复习大纲
美国文学史复习大纲一：作家作品1.Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio(小镇畸人，1919) The Triumph of the Egg(鸡蛋的胜利，1921)2.John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath(愤怒的葡萄，1939，strong sociological novel,1940年获普利策奖（Pulitzer Prize)),1962年获诺贝尔文学奖①the foremost novelist of the American Depression.美国大萧条时期最杰出的小说家。
②代表作：“Of Mice and Men”《人鼠之间》portrayed the tragic friendship between two migrant workers “The Grapes of Wrath”《愤怒的葡萄》regarded as masterpiece ,showed the migration of the Okies from the Dust Bowls to California ,a migration that ended in broken dreams and misery but at the same time affirmed the ability of the common people to endure and prevail. Theme : strength comes from unity i-we ;faith in life; struggle to live better2.John Dos Passos: 约翰多斯帕索斯His trilogy U.S.A(美利坚)---The 42nd Parallel(北纬42度，1930), 1919(1932), The Big Money(1936), Three Soldiers。
美国文学史复习资料大全--最全必考考点集结
美国文学史复习资料大全--最全必考考点集结本页仅作为文档页封面，使用时可以删除This document is for reference only-rar21year.MarchL e c t u r eⅠA B r i e f I n t r o d u c t i o n t o A m e r i c a nL i t e r a t u r efeatures of American writersIndependent, Individualistic, Critical, Innovative, HumorousI The Literature of Colonial and American PuritanismThe first American writer: Capitan John Smith.Philip Freneau:( Father of American Poetry)I I T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R e a s o n a n d R e v o l u t i o n,E n l i g h t e n m e n t Jonathan Edwards: First modern American and the country’s last medieval manBenjamin Franklin: The AutobiographyThomas Paine :The American CrisisThomas Jefferson (“The Declaration of Independence” first established the identity of American people)John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and JeffersonI I I T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R o m a n t i c i s mWashing Irving欧文: His first book was “A History of New York ”.“The Sketch Book 美国信札” made him international famousJames Fenimore Cooper: 库伯“Leatherstocking Tales”, 皮袜子故事集a series of five novels about the frontier life of American settlers.Deerslayer (1843), Pathfinder (1841), Last of the Mohicans (1825), The Pioneer (1823),The Prairie ( 1827),Edgar Allan Poe艾伦·坡: Poe was sensitive enough to feel the pressure of a world where science and reason reign supreme, and one where there is neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor peace, nor help from God.“The Raven”, “Israfel”, “Sonnet—to Science” and “To Hellen”.His short stories: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Purloined Letter”, “The Gold Bug” and “The Mystery of Marie Roget”o f T r a n s c e n d e n t a l i s m先验主义A. Emphasis on Spirit (Oversoul)B. Emphasis on individualsC. Taking nature as the symbol of the Spirit (Oversoul)D. Brotherhood of man (equal and liberty)Ralph Waldo Emerson爱默生: Emerson created the school of transcendentalism. His famous essay “American Scholar” established the independence of A merican intellectual.“Nature”Henry David Thoreau梭罗: Walden瓦尔登湖Nathaniel Hawthorne 藿桑Twice-Told Tales ; Moses from an Old Manse, Scarlet Letter红字; The House of Seven Gables; The Blithedale Romance; The Marble FaunHerman Melville麦尔维尔:Moby Dick大白鲸Walt Whitman惠特曼: leaves of grass草叶集, song of myselfEmily Dickinson狄金森I V T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R e a l i s mBeecher Stowe斯托夫人: “Uncle Tom’s Cabin汤姆叔叔的小屋”Henry James 詹姆斯and international theme: The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl,5: American NaturalismStephen Crane克兰: Maggie: A Girl of the StreetsTheodore Dreiser德莱塞: Sister CarrieJack London杰克·伦敦: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf Martin Eden O. Henry欧·亨利 The Gift of the Magi, The Cop and the Athem6T w e n t i e t h-C e n t u r y L i t e r a t u r eEzra Pound庞德: In a Station of the MetroRobert Frost弗罗斯特: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningScott Fitzgerald菲茨杰拉德 and The American Dream: The Great GatsbyErnest Hemingway海明威 and Iceberg Principle: The Sun Also Rises. A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the SeaSteinbeck斯坦贝克: The Grape of WrathWilliam Faulkner福克纳: The Sound and the Fury ,Light in AugustSherwood Anderson安德森: Winesburg, OhioSinclair Lewis路易斯: Main StreetP u r i t a n i s m（清教主义）Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. predestination（命运天定）, original sin（原罪）, 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）（启蒙运动）an intellectual movement in the seventeenth century and eighteenth. The common element was a trust in human reason as adequate to solve the crucial problems and to establish the essential norms in life, together with the belief that the application of reason was rapidly dissipating the remaining feudal traditions.（意象派）1912 and 1917. The typical Imagist poetry is written in free verse and undertakes to be as precisely and tersely as possible. Meanwhile, the Imagist poetry likes toexpress the writers’ momentary impression of a visual object or scene and often the impression is rendered by means of metaphor without indicating a relation.C o l o r i s m地方色彩文学a literary trend belonging to Realism. It refers to the detailed representation in prose fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of thinking and feeling which are distinctive of a particular region.the literature and art after WWII. Postmodernism involves not only a continuation, sometimes carried to an extreme, of the countertraditional experiments of modernism, but also diverse attempts to break away from modernist forms which had, inevitably, become in their turn conventional, as well as to overthrow the elitism of modernist “high art” by recourse to the models of “mass art”.（超验主义）in 1830s in US；emphasis on spirit or oversoul and stressing importance of the individual；regarding nature as symbols of the spirit or God and emphasis on brotherhood of man；representatives: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David ThoreauG e n e r a t i o n（迷惘的一代）American writers of the decade following the end of WWI, disillusioned by their war experience and alienated by what they perceived as the crassness of American culture are often tagged as Lost Generation. Their representatives are F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.（自然主义）Naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity. Inpresenting the extremes of life, the naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death.Lecture 2 Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)1.The theme in the scarlet letterThe sin of Puritanism on human nature(1)Sin: Hawthorne is haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life. Evil seems to be man’s birthmark. Sin will be punished. Hawthorne was predominantly concerned with the moral, emotional, and psychological effect of the sin on people in general. The story of Adam and Eve; Dimmesdale’s "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; Chillingworth's misshapen body reflects the anger in his soul Pearl embodies the poison of her parents' guilt(2)Puritan legalism: Another theme is the extreme legalism of the Puritans and how Hester chooses not to conform to their rules and beliefs Because they rejected Hester, she spent her life mostly in solitude, and wouldn't go to church. As a result, She still sees her sin, but begins to believe that a person's earthly sins don't necessarily condemn them. She even thinks that their sin has been paid for by their daily penance and that their sin won't keep them from getting to heaven, however, the Puritans believed that such a sin surely condemns.When Dimmesdale dies, she knows she has to move on because she can no longer conform to the Puritan's strictness.Her thinking is free from religious bounds and she has established her own, different moral standards and beliefs(3)Past and present: Sins of Hawthorne’s ancestors. The wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones.2.The symbolism in scarlet letter“A”-----adultery, able, angelPearl-----the unique pure person in the puritan communityChillingworth----a bad guyDimmesdale---someone who should be condemned for his evil and sinsLecture 3 Herman Melville 1819-18911. Themes in Moby-Dick:The world is Godless and purposelessThe loss of faith and the sense of futility and meaninglessnessAlienation between man and man, man and society, man and natureDeath-spiritual, emotional and physicalThis work also reveals the basic pattern of nineteenth century American life: loneliness and suicidal individualism in a self-styled democracy.2. Symbolism in Moby DickAhab（圣经中的异教徒国王，昏庸暴虐，在小说中过分自信，在船上如同一个独裁的暴君）and Ishmael （圣经中被抛弃的人，是一个流浪者，在小说里他也是一个被社会所抛弃的人）the voyage: the search for the ultimate truth of experienceMoby Dick: evil or goodness; corruption, purity, innocence, youth, the final mystery of the universePequod: the American soulLecture 4 Walt Whitman (The father of Free Verse) (1819-1892) 1. The definition of Free Verse:Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme,or any other musical pattern What is the difference between free verse and blank verse(blank verse has no rhyme, but it should be iambic pentameter)2. The theme of Leaves of GrassIn spite of the unconventionality of his poetic form and ideas, Whitman is related to the past in many ways. Whitman embraces idealism. Whitman extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man. Parallelism.3. The features of Leaves of GrassA. He extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man.B. employing “free verse” as the form of his poems with two characteristics: parallelism; phonetic recurrenceC. frankness of the commonplace and the ugly sides in human lifeD. direct, plain and even vulgar languageE. “untold latencies” (his poetry suggests rather than tell)F. great influence on the 20th century American poetsEmily Dickinson (1830-1886)4. The themes in Emily DickinsonFlowers and gardensThe Master , Jesus or Godillness, dying and death, immortalitythe mind and spiritA religious certainty, God’s help and good lifeNature, both kind and cruelIndividuality, free will, human responsibilitySympathy for the poor and the weakBeauty, truth and goodnessLecture5 Edgar Allan Poe (1819-1849)1. IntroductionThe father of detective fiction. He is the first professional writer.Poems:“The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, “To Helen”Lecture 6 American realism (the late 19th century, esp. 1870s, 1880s)1. Features of American RealismA. reaction aga inst “the lie” of Romanticism (considering Romanticism made people escape from the social realities)B. theme: the world of experience of the commonplace and the familiar and the lowC. style: genteel, graceful prose by Howells and Henry James; plain and rough by Mark TwainD. vivid description of details from observation of actual lifeE. a reliance on the representative characterF. trying to hold an objective view of human nature and society2. Father of American realism:William Dean Howells (1837 – 1920)3. Features of Henry James’s workThe international theme:“the international theme”: the meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence, and its moral and psychological complications.Special point of view: internal monologue (illumination of the situation and characters through one or several minds)Lecture 7 Local Colorism1. Mark Twain’s real nameSamuel Langhorne Clemens2. 4 classical novels:The Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Man that Corrupted HadleyburgRoughing It3. Trilogy of MississippiLife on the mississippiThe Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn4. The features of Mark Twain’s languageAnglo-Saxon in origin, short, concrete and direct in effect;sentence structure is mostly simple or compound;repetition of words;ungrammatical elementsMark Twain made the colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of America.Lecture 8 Ernest Hemingway1. 4 novels of Ernest Hemingway:The Sun Also RisesFor Whom the Bell TollsThe Old Man and the SeaA Farewell to Arms2. The symbolism of The old man and the sea:Santiago – mankind;sea – nature and environment;marlin – purpose of life;shark – the evil force which control human’s fate3. The features in Ernest Hemingway:Hemingway situation: characterized by chaos and brutality and violence, by crime and death, by sports and sexHemingway theme: “grace under pressure”Lecture 9 American Naturalism1. Major feature of Naturalism godlessDeterminismThe universe is cold, indifferent, godless and hostile to human desires; life becomes a struggle for survivalThemes: social systems that destroy and dehumanize; individual experience of loss and failure3.differences between Realism and Naturalism4. The trilogy of fate:The FinancierThe TitanThe Stoic5. Masterpiece of Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie6. The real name of Jack London:John Ariffith London7. The masterpiece ofThe Gift of the MagiLecture 10 The southern renaissance1. 4 novels of William Faulkner:The Sound and the FuryLight in AugustAbsalom! Absalom!Go Down, MosesAs I lay Dyingthe Marble Faun2. The features of his novels:Theme: in praise of eternal virtues in human history, love, pity, honor and self-sacrifice (despair and destruction)multiple points of viewdislocation of timethe modern stream of consciousnesswords are often run together, with no capitalization and no proper punctuation interior monologuescolloquial and regional dialectsone fragment runs into another without proper noticeLecture 11 American Drama1. 4 novels of E ugene O’Neill:Beyond the HorizonLong Day’s Journey into NightThe Emperor JonesThe Hairy Ape2. Themes of The Hairy Ape:The industrial environment is presented as toxic and dehumanizing; the world of the rich, superficial and dehumanized. Yank has also been interpreted as representative of the human condition, alienated from nature by his isolated consciousness, unable to find belonging in any social group or environment.3. Major themes in A Streetcar Named Desire:Fantasy/IllusionBlanche dwells in illusion; fantasy is her primary means of self-defense.Fantasy has a liberating magic that protects her from the tragedies she has had to endure.Blanche's dependence on illusion is contrasted with Stanley's steadfast realism, and in the end it is Stanley and his worldview that win.To survive, Stella must also resort to a kind of illusion, forcing herself to believe that Blanche's accusations against Stanley are false so that she can continue living with her husband.4. Themes in Death of a Salesman:The American DreamAbandonmentBetrayalLecture 12 Postwar American Literature1. The definition of black humor:Black humor is a way to criticize the army, the bureaucracy and government. Humor—deep, strong, melancholy, self-mocking; to express the most helpless feeling by using seemingly light-hearted treatment;2. Features of the beat generation:free from all formalitiesanti-reasonbreaking down the limitations between poetry and proseThey shock their listeners by reading their works aloud in coffee houses and bars. They lived in a wild way, anti-traditional and rebellious.They cherished a rebellious attitude toward sex, living in groups and engaging themselves in homosexual activities.3. Definition of postmodernism:In general, the postmodern view is cool, ironic, and accepting of the fragmentation of contemporary existence. It tends to concentrate on surfaces rather than depths, to blur the distinctions between high and low culture, and as a whole to challenge a wide variety of traditional cultural values.4. Features of the confessional school:They wrote about themselves, cultivating the inner world of each private individual and challenging the traditional values.They describe personal experience and family problems.A ruthless, excruciating self-analysis of one’s own background and heritage, one’s own most private desires and fantasies etc., and the urgent “I’ll-tell-it-all-to-you” impulse.5. Postwar novels;Saul Bellow : Henderson the Rain King, More Die of Heartbreak;. Salinger : The Catcher in the Rye;John Updike: Rabbit pentalogy,Flannery O'Connor.Joseph Heller: Catch-22Alice Walker 艾丽斯.沃克 :The Color Purple 《紫色》Martin Luther King :I Have a DreamAmy Tan :The Joy Luck Club (1989) 《欣幸俱乐部》。
（完整word版）美国文学史复习要点整理【手动】
（完整word版）美国文学史复习要点整理【手动】美国文学史整理一、Colonial America 殖民时期1、New England：Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, andConnecticut.2、Doctrines of Puritanism清教American Puritanism stressed predestination（命运神定), original sin（原罪）, total depravity (彻底的堕落), and limited atonement (有限的赎罪)from God’s grace.3、Writing style：fresh, simple and direct and with a touch of nobility；the rhetoric is plain andhonest.4、Life style：hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.5、Main writer:①Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩work：Common Sense (1776) 《常识》American Crisis (1776-1783)《美国危机》The Rights of Man《人权》The Age of Reason《理性时代》②Benjamin Franklin（本杰明·富兰克林）Poor Richard’s Almanac《穷查理历书》Autobiography 《富兰克林自传》③Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰弗逊Declaration of Independence (1776)《独立宣言》二、American Romanticism (early period) 浪漫主义前期1、Characteristics：①A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.反对理性主义的客观性。
美国文学史复习资料
I. Multiple Choice (20 points in all, 1 for each)1) Check the dictionary: pompous, vernacular2) At the beginning of Faulkner’s福克纳（美国小说家，曾获1949年诺贝尔文学奖）A Rose For Emily, there is a detailed description of Emily’s old house. The purpose of such description is to imply that the person living in it __C____.A. is a wealth ladyB. has good tasteC. is a prisoner of the pastD. is aconservative aristocrat3) Stylistically, Henry James’s亨利·詹姆斯（美国著名小说家和批评家）fiction is characterized by ___D_____.A. short clear sentencesB. abundance of local imagesC. ordinary American speechD.highly refined language1. The convention of the desire for an escape from society and a reture to nature inAmerican Literature is particularly evident in __A______A. Cooper’s L eather-Stocking TakesB. Hawthorne’s . 霍桑The Scarlet Letter红色禁恋；红字C.Whitman’s惠特曼Leavesof Grass草叶集D.Irving’s 欧文Rip Van Winkle里普·万·温克尔（美国作家欧文的作品中人物名）2. In 1873,Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生（美国作家）made a speech entitled at Harvard,which was hailed by Ol iver Wendell Homes as “our Intellectual Dedaration of Independence” DA.NatureB.Self-RelianceC.Divinity Scholar AddressD.The AmericanScholar3. What’s the analogy that Emily Dickin son uses in her poem Because I could not stopfor death? AA.Horse and carriageB. stage and performanceC.Cloud and ShadeD.ship and harbor4. Most of the writers in the Modern Period were able to probe into the inner would of ofhuman reality on the base of _D___A.Carl Jung’s “collective unconscious”集体无意识and “archetypal symbol”B.Sigmound Frend’s “interpretation of dreams”C.William Jame’s “stream of consciousness”意识流（一种文学流派）D.all of the above.II. Blank Filling (10 points in all, 1 for each)1) __Henry James____ is considered the founder of Psychological realism. He believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator.2) Mark Twain’s first novel, __ The Gilded Age______ 镀金时代was an artistic failure, but it gave its name to the America of the postbellum美国南北战争后的period which it attempts to satirize.Blank Filling1. The best of puritan poets was Edward Taylor 爱德华.泰勒, whose complete edition of poems appeared in 1960, more than two hundred years after his death.7. The Financier, The Titan 巨人；提坦；太阳神and The Stoic 斯多葛学派哲学家form D reiser’s Martin Eden.8. Edwin Arlington Robinson produced a large body of works and was honored with the Pulitzer 普利策奖Prize in 1522, 1925 and 1928.10. Fitzgerald’s菲茨杰拉德（美国作家，弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德）first novel This Side of Paradise, with its portrayal of casual dissipations of “flaming youth”, was an immediate commercial success.3. In “Song of Myself”, Whitman’s惠特曼own early experience may well be identified with the children of a young growing American.4. The range of Dickinson’s poetry suggests not her limited experience but the power of her creativity and imagination.5. Mark Twain, breaking out of the narrow limits of local color fiction, described thebreadth of American experience as no one had ever done before, or since.6. Mark Twain’s first novel, The Gilded Age was an artistic failure ,but it gave its name to the America of the postbellum period which it attemps.7. Many of O.Henry’s stones talk about the life of poor people in New York.8. Henry James realism is characterized by his psychological approach to his subject matter.9. The Financier, T he Tifan and The Stoic form Dreiser’s “Trilogy of Desire”欲望三部曲12. American writers of first postwar era self ——consciously acknowledged that they were a “Lost Generation ” devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization.13. At one time, Sandburg’s reputation mainly rested on a multi ——volume biography of Abraham Lincoln 亚伯拉罕including “The Prairie Years”and “The War Years”14. For publication of his collected Poems, Wallace Stevens华莱士.史蒂文斯received the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize.15. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded a Nobel Prize for his “mastery of the art of modern narration”.16. In 1935, Steinbeck斯坦贝克published Tortilla Flat. A collection of short story which vividly described the “life of poor Mexican——Americans with affection and humor.17. The Yoknapatawpha Country is a legendary kingdom created by Faulkner.18. The most significant American poem of the 20th century was The Waste Land.19. Edwin Arlington Robinson produced a large body of works and was honored with the Pulitzer Prize in 1922, 1925 and 1928.21. As Thomas Sterns Eliot’s declared, he followed strictly the advice of his doze friendEzra Pound in cutting and concentrating The Waste Land12.“Martin Eden”is the novel into which Jack London put most of himself。
(完整word版)美国文学史-知识点梳理(word文档良心出品)
Part I The Literature of Colonial AmericaI．Historical IntroductionThe colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.)II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds: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 immigration2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. III．The First American WriterThe first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians.Captain John Smith is the first American writer.A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608)A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612)General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess PocahontasCaptain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers.One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV．Early New England LiteratureWilliam Bradford and John WinthropJohn Cotton and Roger WilliamsAnne Bradstreet and Edward TaylorV．Puritan Thoughts1. The origin of puritanIn the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce hiswife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church ofEngland. But there was no radical difference between the doctrines of the Church of England and the Catholic Church. A group of people thought the Church of England was too Catholic and wanted to purify the church. Then came the name Puritans.2. Puritanism -- based on Calvinism(1) predestination: God's electPuritans believed they are predestined before they were born.Nothing or no good work can change their fate.They believed the success of one's business is the sign to show he is the God's elect. So the Puritans works very hard, spend very little and invest more for the future business. They lived a very frugal life. This is their ethics.(2) Origianl sin and total depravityMan is born sinful. This determines some puritans pessimistic attitude towards life.(3) Limited atonement (the salvation of a selected few)(4) theocracyThey combined state with religion. Their government is at least not a liberal one.The Puritans established American tradition -- intolerant moralism. They strictly punished drunks, adultery & heretics.Puritans changed gradually due to the severity of frontier environment3. Influence on American Literature(1) Its optimismAmerican literature was from the outset conditioned by the Puritan heritage. It can be said American literature is based on the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. After that, man have an illusion to restore the paradise. The puritans, after arriving at America, believing that God must have sent them to this new land to restore the lost paradise, to build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden. Fired with such a strong sense of mission, they treated life with a tremendous amount of optimism. The optimistic Puritan has exerted a great influence on American literature.(2) Puritan's metaphorical mode of perception changed gradually into a literary symbolism.Part II The Literature of Reason And RevolutionI．Historical IntroductionWith the growth, especially of industry, there appeared the intense strain with England. The British government did not want colonial industries competing with those in England. The British wanted the colonies to remain politically and economically dependent on the mother country. They took a series of measures to insure this dependence. They prevented colonial economy by requiring Americans to ship raw materials abroad and to import finished goods at prices higher than the cost of making them in this country. Politically, the British government forced dependenceby ruling the colonies from overseas and by taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament.However, by the mid-eighteenth century, freedom was won as much by the fiery rhetoric of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the eloquence of the Declaration of Independence as by the weapons of Washington. In the seventies of the 18th century, the English colonies in North America rose in arms against their mother country. The War for Independence lasted for 8 years (1776-1783) and ended in the formation of a federative bourgeois democratic republic -- the United States of America. II．American EnlightenmentIt was supported by all progressive forces of the country which opposed themselves to the old colonial order and religious obscurantism.It dealt a decisive blow upon the puritan traditions and brought to life secular education and literature. The spiritual life during that period was to a great degree moulded by it.The representatives set themselves the task of disseminating knowledge among the people and advocating revolutionary ideas.The writers injected an invigorating vein into the English language in America as they aimed at clarity and precision of their writings.At the initial period the spread of the ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to journalism. Writings of Europe were widely read in America. The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of Benjamin Franklin.III．Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)The AutobiographyPoor Richard’s AlmanacLifeBenjamin Franklin came from a Calvinist background.He was born into a poor candle-maker’s family. He had very little education. He learned in school only for two years, but he was a voracious reader.At 12, he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother, a printer.At 16, he began to publish essays under the pseudonym “Silence Do good” .At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune.He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher. In 1727 he founded the Junto club.Multiple identities:a printera leading authora politiciana scientista inventora diplomata civic activistFranklin’s Contributions to SocietyHe helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital.He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania.And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.Franklin’s Contributions to ScienceHe was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices.And for his lightning-rod, he was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.”Franklin’s Contributions to the U.S.He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:The Declaration of Independence,The Treaty of Alliance with France,The Treaty of Peace with England,The ConstitutionThe AutobiographyThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was probably the first of its kind in literature. It is the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man.The Autobiography is, first of all, a Puritan document. It is Puritan because it is a record of self-examination and self-improvement. The meticulous chart of 13 virtues he set for himself to cultivate to combat the tempting vices, the stupendous effort he made to improve his own person, the belief that God helps those who helps themselves and that every calling is a service to God – all these indicate that Franklin was intensely Puritan. Then, the book is also a convincing illustration of the Puritan ethic that, in order to get on in the world, one has to be industrious, frugal, and prudent.The Autobiography is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenth-century enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free by nature, endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.A look at the style of The Autobiography will readily reveal that it is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness and concision. The plainness of its style, the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the salient features we cannot mistake. The lucidity of the narrative, the absence ofornaments in wording and of complex, involved structures in syntax, and the Puritan abhorrence of paradox are all graphically demonstrated in the whole of the book. Taken as a whole, it is safe to say that the book is an exemplary illustration of the American style of writing.IV．Thomas Paine (1737-1809)Common SenseAmerican CrisisV．Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)The Declaration of IndependenceVI．Philip Freneau (1752-1832)“Poet of the American Revolution”“Father of American Poetry”“Pioneer of the New Romanticism”“A gifted and versatile lyric poet”Works“The Wild Honey Suckle”“The Indian Burying Ground”“To a Caty-Did”Freneau as Father of American Poetry: His major themes are death, nature, transition, and the human in nature. All of these themes become important in 19th century writing.Life Experience►He was born in New York.►At 16, he entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He decided to do a postgraduate study in theology. But two years later he gave it up. While still an undergraduate, he wrote in collaboration with one of his friends (H. H. Brackenridge) a poem entitled “The Rising Glory of America”.►Later he attended the War of Independence, and he was captured by British army in 1780.►After being released, he published “The British Prison Ship” in 1781.►In the same year, he published “To the Memory of the Brave Americans”.►After war, he supported Jefferson, and contributed greatly to American government.►But after 50 years old, he lived in poverty. And at last he died in a blizzard.Main Works►“The Rising Glory of America” (1772) 《美洲光辉的兴起》►“The House of Night” (1779,1786) 《夜之屋》►“The British Prison Ship” (1781) 《英国囚船》►“To the Memory of the Brave Americans” (1781) 《纪念美国勇士》►“”The Wild Honey Suckle” (1786) 《野忍冬花》►“The Indian Burying Ground” (1788) 《印第安人墓地》野忍冬花（黄杲炘译）►美好的花呀，你长得：这么秀丽，却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方——甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；没游来荡去的脚来把你踩碎，没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。
美国文学史期末考试复习资料全
I.Multiple choice. Please choose the best answer among the four items.(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 worknamed ______.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 literary advocates in_____ and Thoreau.7.Which is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”?8.____ is considered Mark Twain’s greatest achievement.9._____ is not among those greatest figures in “Lost Generation”.10.Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing b ecomesless serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more ____.1-5，BBACD 6-10 BADCDII.Multiple choice. Please choose the best answer among the four items.(10 x 1’= 10’)11.______ is the father of American Literature.12._____ is a fantasy tale about a man who somehow stepped outside the mainstream of life.13._____ was the most leading spirit of the Transcendental Club.14.Which of following is NOT a typical feature of Mark Twain’s language?15.From Thoreau’s jail experience, came his famous essay, _____ which stateshis belief that no man should violate his conscience at the command of agovernment.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” andthe ____ as well.18.What did Fitzgerald call the 1920s?19.Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomesless serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more ____.20.For Melville, as well as for the reader and ____, the narrator, Moby Dickis still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.1-5 D A B C C 6-10 A C C D C II. Identify Works as Described Below (1’×15 =15’):1.The novel has a sole black protagonist who tells his own story but whose namein unknown to us.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on theMountains2.The main conflict of the play is the protagonist’s false value of fineappearance and popularity with people and the cruel reality of the societyin which money is everything.a.A Street Car Named Desireb. The Hairy Apec.Long Day’s Journey intoNightd. Death of Salesman3.It is an autobiographical play and Edmund in the play is based on theplaywright 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 accident and howthe society is responsible for the murder.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on theMountains5._________ is one of the best works in American literature about the SecondWorld War.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Catcher in the Ryec.The Red Badge of Couraged. The Naked and the Dead6. The novel by Hemingway is the best of its kind about World War I.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Sun Also Risesc.The Old Man and the Sead. The Naked and the Dead7.The novel is about how a family of farmers cannot survive in Oklahoma andtravel to California to seek a living and how they suffer hunger in California.a.The Grapes of Wrathb. U.S. A.c.Babbittd. The Adventures of Augie March8.It is a trilogy including The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money, withsuch techniques as biographies, newsreels and camera eye.a.Babbittb. Light in Augustc. U.S.A.d. The Grapes of Wrath9.It is a novel which uses the stream of consciousness technique and whosetitle is taken from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.a. Absolom, Absolom!b. The Sound and the Furyc.A Farewell to Armsd. The Great Gatsby10. It is a naturalistic work about how a country girl is seduced and how shebecomes a famous actress and how her lover falls into a beggar and finally commits suicide.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec. McTeagued.Maggie, A Girl of the Streets11. The novel is set on the Mississippi with the protagonist telling us the storyin the local dialect. It is a representative work of local colorism.a.Sister Carrieb.The Adventures of Tom Sawyerc. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnd.The Portrait of a Lady12.The novel is a psychological study of a soldier (Henry Fleming)’s reactionsin the Civil War.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec.The Red Badge of Couraged. McTeague13. The poem is written in free verse in 52 cantos with the theme of theuniversality and equality in value of all people and all things.a.Cantosb. The Ravenc. Song of Myselfd.Chicago14. The novel is about how a group of people on a whaling ship kill a great whalebut themselves are killed by the whale, with the conflict between man and his fate.a.The Octopusb. Moby-Dickc. The Rise of Silas Laphamd. Leaves of Grass15. It is a philosophical essay in 8 chapters plus an introduction mainlyconcerned with the four uses of nature.a. Waldenb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. The American Scholar1-5.cdaad 6-10.aacbb cbbI.C hoose 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. Titanic2._________ is father of American drama and in his dramatic career he wrote 49 plays.a. Tennessee Williamsb. Eugene O’Neillc. Arthur Millerd. Elmer Rice3._________ was 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 Thoreau5._______was the greatest woman poet in American literature and she wrote about1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Pearl S. Buckb.Harriet Bicher Stowec. Emily Dickensond. Walter Whitman6._________ is father of the detective story and of psychoanalytic criticism.a. Washington Irvingb. Ralph Waldo Emersonc. Walt Whitmand. Edgar Allan Poe7.William Dean 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 Hemingwayd.Theodore Dreiser9. His writings are characterized by simple, colloquial language and deep thoughts. He is______.a. Ernest Hemingwayb. William Faulknerc. F. Scott Fitzgeraldd. Mark Twain10. He wrote 18 novels all set in Jefferson Town, Yoknapatwapha County in thedeep south. He is ______.a. William Faulknerb. John Steinbeckc. Ernest Hemingwayd. Mark Twain11. ________is Jewish in origin and in many of his novels the American Jews aremajor characters.a. Sinclair Lewisb. Saul Bellowc. Norman Mailerd. Jerome David Salinger12._________ is 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. H.D.d. Emily Dickinson13.________ is father of American drama and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936.a. John Steinbeckb. William Faulknerc. Euge ne O’Neilld. Arthur Miller14. He was the first black American to write a book about black life with greatimpact 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. RalphEllison15. Hemingway wrote about American compatriots in Europe whereas ________ wroteabout the Jazz age, life in American society.a.William Carlos Williamsb. William Faulknerc. John Steinbeckd. F. ScottFitzgerald1-5 bbccc 6-10.dddaa 11-15.bdcadI.Choose the Best Answer for Each of the Following (1×15 %):2.The American Civil War broke out in 1861 between the Northern states and theSouth states, which are known respectively as the ______and the______. a. N, S b. Revolutionaries, Reactionaries c. Union, Confederacy d. Slavery, Anti-Slavery2._____________was praised by the British as the “Tenth Muse in America”.a.Anne Bradstreetb. Edward Taylorc. Thomas Pained. Philip Freneau3.Mark Twain 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 Thoreau5.The greatest American poet and the first writer of free verse is ____________.a. Washington Irvingb.Ezra Poundc. Walt Whitmand. Emily Dickinson6._________ is father of the detective story and of psychoanalytic criticism.a. Washington Irvingb. Ralph Waldo Emersonc. Walt Whitmand. Edgar Allan Poe7.Henry James 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 Hemingwayd.Theodore 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, Yoknapatwapha County inthe deep south. .a. William Faulknerb. John Steinbeckc. Ernest Hemingwayd. MarkTwain11. ________is Jewish in origin and in many of his novels the American Jews aremajor characters.a. Sinclair Lewisb. Saul Bellowc. Norman Mailerd. Jerome David Salinger12._________ is 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. H.D.d. Emily Dickinson13.________ is father of American drama and won the Nobel Prize for literaturein 1936.a. John Steinbeckb. William Faulknerc. Eugene O’Neilld. Arthur Miller14. _______ was the first black American to write a book about black life withgreat impact on the consciousness of the nation and his masterpiece 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 collection of shortstoriesa. F. Scott Fitzgeraldb. William Faulknerc. John Steinbeckd. ErnestHemingway1-5.caccc 6-10.dddaa 11-15.bdcbaII. Identify Works as Described Below (1×15 %):6.The play is about a stoker whose identity as a human being is not recognizedby 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.a.A Street Car Named Desireb. The Hairy Apec.Long Day’s Journey intoNightd.The Glass Menageries8.The hero of this novel tells about his own story to us but his name is unknown.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on the Mountains4. It is an autobiographical play and Edmund in the play is based on theplaywright 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 accident and howhe is finally arrested and tried and sentenced to death.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on theMountains6._________ is one of the best works in American literature about the SecondWorld War.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Catcher in the Ryec.The Red Badge of Couraged. The Naked and the Dead6. The novel by Hemingway is the best of its kind about World War I.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Sun Also Risesc.The Old Man and the Sead. The Naked and the Dead10.The novel is about how a family of farmers cannot survive in Oklahoma andtravel to California to seek a living and how they suffer hunger in California.b.The Grapes of Wrath b. U.S. A.c.Babbittd. The Adventures of Augie March11.It is a trilogy including The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money, withsuch techniques as biographies, newsreels and camera eye.b.Babbitt b. Light in Augustc. U.S.A.d. The Grapes of Wrath12.It is a novel which uses the stream of consciousness technique and whosetitle is taken from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.a. Absolom, Absolom!b. The Sound and the Furyc.A Farewell to Armsd. The Great Gatsby10. It is a naturalistic work about how a country girl is seduced and elopeswith Hurstwood and how she becomes a famous actress and how her lover falls into beggary and finally commits suicide.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec. McTeagued.Maggie, A Girl of the Streets11. It is a novel with 135 chapters plus an epilog; in it a group of people ona whaling ship kill a great whale but they themselves are killed by the whalein the end, except Ishmael the narrator who survives by adhering to a coffin.b.Sister Carrie b.The Adventures of Tom Sawyerc. Moby Dickd. The Portrait of a Lady12.The novel is a psychological study of a soldier (Henry Fleming)’s reactionsin the Civil War, in which wound is called the red badge which symbolizes courage.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec.The Red Badge of Couraged. McTeague13. The poem is written in free verse in 52 cantos with the theme of theuniversality and equality in value of all people and all things.a.Cantosb. The Ravenc. Song of Myselfd.Chicago14. The novel is about how a man falls economically and socially but who risesmorally because he gives up the opportunity to sell his factory to an English Syndicate, which would otherwise mean a ruin to that syndicate.a.The Octopusb. The Rise of Silas Laphamc. Moby-Dickd. Leaves of Grass15. It is a speech delivered at Harvard University. It is often hailed as the“declaration of intellectual independence” in America.a. The American Scholarb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. Walden 1-5.adcad 6-10.aacbb cbaII. Match the following (1×20%)A. Match Works with Their Authors1.Hugh Selwyn Mauberly2.Walden3. Autobiography4. The Scarlet Letter5.Leaves of Grass6.The Raven7. The Rise of Silas Lapham8. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer9. Long Day’s Journey into Night10. The Old Man and the Seaa.Mark Twain b . Ernest Hemingwayc. Eugene O’Neilld. William Dean Howellse. Edgar Allan Poef. Walt Whitmang. Nathaniel Hawthorne h. Benjamin Franklini.Henry David Thoreau j. Ezra Poundk.Thomas Jefferson l. T.S. EliotB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear.1.Hester Prynne2.Mrs. Touchett3.Frederick Henry4.Benjy Compson5.the Joads6.General Edward Cummings7.Holden Caulfield 7.Bigger Thomas8.Yank 9.Happya.The Portrait of a Ladyb. The Scarlet Letterc. The Hairy Aped. A Farewell to Armse.The Sound and the Furyf. The Grapes of Wrathg. The Naked and the Deadh. The Catcher in the Ryei. Native Sonj. Death of a Salesmank.Invisible Man l.Catch-22A. Match Works with Their Authors1-5.jihgf 6-10.edccbB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear. 1-5.badef 6-10.ghicjIII. Match the following (1’×20=20’)A. Match works with their authors1.Nature2.Rip Van Winkle3. Nature4. The Scarlet Letter5.Leaves of Grass6.The Raven7. The Rise of Silas Lapham8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn9. Cantos10. The Old Man and the Seaa.Ezra Poundb. Ernest Hemingwayc. Mark Twaind. William Dean Howellse. Edgar Allan Poef. Walt Whitmang. Nathaniel Hawthorne h. Ralph Waldo Emersoni.Washington Irving j. Waldo Emersonk.T.S. Eliot l. Robert FrostB. Match characters with the works in which they appear.2.Captain Ahab and Starbuck 2.Isabel Archer3.Frederic Henry and Catherine4.Benjy Compson5.the Joads6.General Edward Cummings7.Holden Caulfield 8.Bigger Thomas9.The Tyrones 10.Willy Lomana.The Portrait of a Ladyb. Moby-Dickc. Death of a Salesmand. A Farewell to Armse.The Sound and the Furyf. The Grapes of Wrathg. The Naked and the Dead h. The Catcher in the Ryei. Native Son j. Long Day’s Journey into Nightk.Absalom, Absalom l. The Old Man and the SeaA. Match Works with Their Authors1-5.jihgf 6-10.edcabB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear.1-5.badef 6-10.edcabV. Essay Questions (30%; c hoose only ONE of the following three topics and write a short essay of at least 200 words. Note: [1]Your essay should have at least 2 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.To the best of your knowledge, analyze and make comments on Emerson’sNaturement on any American poet you like.3.Analyze and/or comment on any one of the American novels or plays you haveread.V. Essay Questions (30%; c hoose only ONE of the following three topics andwrite a short essay of at least 200 words. Note: [1]Your essay should haveat least 2 paragraphs; you are not simply to make a list of facts.[2] You maygive a title to your essay, but you are required to indicate which of the 3topics it belongs to. [3]You are not to write on a topic of your own.)4.Make comments on an American novel we have discussed in this course.ment on an American poet.6.Describe how your knowledge of American literature is improved after takingthis 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.Wha t is Hawthorne’s style? Explain the style with examples.4.At the end of the 19th century, there were three fighters for Realism. Whoare 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 in qualities 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 expr esses her deep love in the poem “Annabel Lee”.1-5 F F T F F 6-10 F F T F FII. 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 kindness in 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.1-5 T F T F T 6-10 F T T F TIII. Please explain the follo wing terms. (5 x 6’ = 30’)1. Puritanism2. Free verse3. International novel:4．Romanticism 5. Naturalism 6. American Realism7.American Naturalism Modernism Imagism1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.2.Free verse: It is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length andthat attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it usesthe cadences of natural speech.3.International novel: IN brings together persons of various nationalities whorepresent certain characteristics of their own countries.4. Naturalism: It views human beings as animals in the natural world respondingto environmental forces and internal stresses and drives, over none of whichthey have control and none of which they fully understand. The literarynaturalists have a major difference from the realists. They look at adifferent spot to find real life.III. Please explain the following terms. (5 x 6’ = 30’)1. Puritanism2. international novel3. the lostgenerationHemingway heroes4. free verse5.Americantranscendentalism1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.2.international novel: IN brings together persons of various nationalities whorepresent certain characteristics of their own countries.3.the lost generation: reveals the huge destruction of the wars to the younggeneration. It describes the Americans who remained in Paris as a colony of“expatriates”. They were lost in disillusionment.4.free verse: It is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length andthat attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it usesthe cadences of natural speech.5.transcendentalism: It stressed the power of intuition, believing that peoplecould learn things both from the outside world by means of the five sensesand from the inner world by intuition. It took nature as symbolic of spirit or God. All things in nature were symbols of the spiritual, of God’s presence. It emphasized the significance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish. Transcendentalists envisioned religion as an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal “Oversoul”.。
美国文学史复习资料
一、殖民主义时期 The Literature of Colonial America1．船长约翰•史密斯 Captain John Smith《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚垦荒以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》“A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony”《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》“A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country”《弗吉尼亚通史》“General History of Virginia”2．威廉•布拉德福德 William Bradford 《普利茅斯开发历史》“The History of Plymouth Plantation”3．约翰•温思罗普 John Winthrop《新英格兰历史》“The History of New England”4．罗杰•威廉姆斯 Roger Williams《开启美国语言的钥匙》”A Key into the Language of America”或叫《美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南》Or “ A Help to the Language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England ”5．安妮•布莱德斯特 Anne Bradstreet 《在美洲诞生的第十个谬斯》”The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in Americ a”二、理性和革命时期文学 The Literature of Reason and Revolution1。
本杰明•富兰克林 Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)※《自传》“ The Autobiography ”《穷人理查德的年鉴》“Poor Richard’s Almanac”2。
美国文学史期末考试复习资料
一、作者-作品1.Eugene O’Neill 尤金·奥尼尔Desire under the Elms榆树下的欲望2.Washington Irving华盛顿.欧文The Sketch Book见闻札记The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说3.Nathaniel Hawthorne霍桑The Scarlet Letter红字4.Herman Melville麦尔维尔Moby Dick白鲸5.Edgar Allan Poe艾伦.坡The Raven乌鸦6.Walt Whitman惠特曼Leaves of Grass草叶集7. Harriet Beecher Stowe 哈丽雅特.比彻.斯托Uncle Tom’s Cabin汤姆叔叔的小屋8. Henry James 亨利.詹姆斯in the Portrait of a Lady一位女士的肖像9.Mark Twain 马克.吐温TheAdventures ofHuckleberry Finn哈克贝里.费恩历险The Gilded Age镀金时代10. O. Henry 欧.亨利The Gift of the Magi麦琪的礼物11. Stephen Crane：史蒂芬.克莱恩The Red Badge of Courage红色英勇勋章12.Theodore Dreiser 西奥多.德莱塞Sister Carrie嘉莉妹妹13.Jack London 杰克.伦敦The Call of the Wild野性的呼唤14. John Steinbeck 约翰.斯坦贝克The Grapes of Wrath愤怒的葡萄15.F. Scott Fitzgerald弗斯.菲茨杰拉德The Great Gatsby了不起的盖茨比16.Ernest Hemingway 海明威The Sun Also Rises太阳照样升起17.Katherine Anne Porter 凯瑟琳.安.波特Flowing Judas and other Stories犹大之花18. Ezra Pound 埃兹拉.庞德 Imagism 意象派The Cantos 诗章19.William Carlos Williams: 威廉.威廉姆斯The Red Wheelbarrow红色手推车20. Joseph Heller约瑟夫海勒：Catch-22 第22条军规21.Thomas Stearns Eliot爱略特The Waste Land荒原22.Zora Neal Hurston 佐拉.赫斯顿Their eyes were watching God 他们眼望上苍二、名词解释1.Transcendentalism超验主义:(1)As a philosophical and literary movement, American Transcendentalis m (also known as “ American Renaissance”) flourshed in New England fr om the 1830s to the Civil War. It is the high tide of American romanticism and its doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in Emerson and Thoreau. Transcendentalists spoke for the cultural rejuvenation and agai nst the materialism of American society.(2)The major features of Transcendentalism:① The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. 思想超灵宇宙② The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To t hem, the individual is the most important element of Society. 个体+社会③ The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbol ic of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled w ith God’s overwhelming presence. 自然+上帝代表人物：Emerson, Thoreau2.The Gilded Age镀金时代：an age of excess and extremes, of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope. Although Americans continued to read the works of Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne, and Poe, the great age of American romanticism had ended. By the 1870s the New England Renaissance had waned. 无节制、走极端，倒退和进步、贫困和富有并存，既令人沮丧又让人有希望的时代。
美国文学知识
美国文学知识一．殖民地时期（The Literature of Colonial American）北美的第一本书：《海湾圣诗》（The Bay Psalmbook）约翰·史密斯（John Smith）：被誉为美国文学的第一位作家。
代表作《关于弗吉尼亚的真实叙述》（A True Relation of Virginia）是美国文学第一书。
纳撒尼尔·沃德（Nathaniel Ward）：被誉为“北美讽刺文学第一笔”。
代表作《北美的阿格瓦姆鞋匠》（The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam in America）。
威廉·布拉福德（William Bradford）：被誉为“美国历史之父”。
代表作《普利茅斯种植园史》（History of Plymouth Plantation）。
安妮·布拉德斯特里特（Anne Bradstreet）：殖民地时期的第一位诗人。
代表作《最近在北美出现的第十位缪斯》（The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America）。
迈克尔·威格尔斯沃斯（Michael Wigglesworth）：诗人。
代表作《判决日》（The Day Of Doom）。
爱德华·泰勒（Edward Taylor）：诗人。
代表作《上帝对其选民有影响的决定》（Gods Determinations Touching His Elect）。
乔纳森·爱德华兹（Jonathan Edwards）：“大觉醒”（The Great Awakening）运动中的主要思想家。
代表作《愤怒是上帝手中之罪人》。
二．独立战争到南北战争（American Literature between the War of Independence and the Civil War）本杰明·富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）：美国启蒙运动的开创者、科学家、实业家、政治家和革命家，参与撰写了《独立宣言》（Declaration of Independence）。
美国文学史复习资料
The Colonial Period1. John Smith: A Description of New England2. William Bradford: Of Plymouth Plantation3. John Winthrop: A Model of Christian Charity4. Anne BradstreetTenth Muse ContemplationsTo My Dear and Loving Husband The Flesh and the Spirit5. Edward TaylorHuswifery Upon a Spider Catching a Fly6. Roger WilliamsThe Bloody Tenet of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience7. John Woolman: Journal8. Thomas PaineCommon Sense The American Crisis The Rights of Man The Age of Reason9. Philip FreneauThe Rising Glory of America The Wild Honey Suckle The Indian Burying Ground 10. Charles Brockden Brown: An American TaleAmerican Puritanism: Religious idealism & levelheaded common sense1. Jonathan EdwardsThe Freedom of the Will The Great Doctrine of Original Sin DefendedThe Nature of True Virtue Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God2.Benjamin FranklinThe Autobiography Poor Richard’s AlmanacAmerican Romanticism1. Washington IrvingA History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, The Sketch Book: Rip Van Winkle The Legend of Sleepy HollowThe History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher ColumbusA Chronicle of the Conquest of GranadaThe Alhambra Life of Goldsmith Life of WashingtonJames Fenimore CooperThe SpyLeatherstocking Tales: The Pioneers The Last of Mohicans The PrairieThe Pathfinder The DeerslayerNew England Transcendentalism1.Ralph Waldo EmersonNature The American Scholar The Representative Men2.Henry David ThoreauCivil Disobedience Walden A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River 3.Nathaniel HawthorneThe Scarlet Letter The House of the Seven GablesMosses from an old Manse The Blithedale Romance The Marble Faun4.Herman MelvilleMoby Dick Clarel Typee Omoo Mardi RedburnWhite Jacket The Confidence Man Billy Budd5.Walt WhitmanLeaves of Grass Song of Myself There was a Child Went ForthCross Brooklyn Ferry6.Emily DickinsonMy Life Closed Twice before its Close Wild Nights—Wild NightsMine—by the Right of the White Election Death is a Dialogue betweenTo Fight Aloud A Triumph Maybe The Brain is Wilder than the SkyI know that He exists The Beggar Lad Dies EarlyIf I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking When I was Small a Woman DiedI Reckon When I Count at All This is My Letter to the WorldI Heard a Fly Buzz When I DiedAge of Realism1. William Dean Howells 威廉·迪恩·豪威尔斯(1837-1920)The Rise of Silas Lapham A Modern InstanceA Hazard of New Fortunes2. Henry James 亨利·詹姆斯（1843-1916）Daisy Miller The Golden BowlThe Portrait of a Lady The Turn of the ScrewThe Ivory Tower The Sense of the PastThe Ambassadors What Maisie KnewLocal colorism1.Mark Twain美国文学之父The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (national famous)The Gilded Age (his first novel) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (美国文学里程碑) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (colloquial style)Life on the Mississippi A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s CourtThe Man That Corrupted HadleyburgThe Mysterious Stranger AutobiographyInnocent Abroad Roughing It Pudd’nhead WilsonThe Prince and the Pauper American Claimant2.Bret HarteThe Luck of Roaring Camp3.Hamlin GarlandMain-Traveled Roads Crumbling Idols4.Harriet Beecher Stowe: Oldtown Folks5.Edward Eggleston: The Hoosier Schoolmaster6.Constance Fenimore Woolson: Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches7.Sarah Orne Jewett: Deephaven8.Kate Chopin(女性主义作家)Bayou Folk A Night in Acadie The AwakeningAmerican Naturalism1.Stephen CraneMaggie: A Girl of the Street The Red Badge of CourageThe Open Boat (短篇小说) The Blue Hotel An Experiment in MiseryThe Black Riders (his first book of poems)2.Frank NorrisMcTeague (第一部作品)Trilogy: The Octopus The PitThe Responsibilities of the Novelist3.Theodore DreiserSister Carrie Jennie GerhardtTrilogy of Desire The Financier The Titan The StoicThe Genius An American Tragedy The Bulwark4.Edwin Arlington Robinson (自然主义诗人)Man Against the Sky Richard Corry Miniver Cheevy Flammonde5.Jack LondonThe Call of the Wild White Fang The Sea WolfMartin Eden Love of Life (短篇小说)6.O. HenryThe Gift of the Magi The Necklace7.Sinclair: The JungleNaturalismAmerican naturalism came into being in the nineties of the 19th century. It is evolved from realism when the author's tone in writing become less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a gloomy philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence. Naturalism writers are Crane, Norris and Dreiser.TranscendentalismTranscendentalism, which appeared after 1830, marked the maturity of American Romanticism and the first Renaissance in the American literary history. It refers to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Emerson, Thoreau and others, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the over-soul and Nature. Other concepts that accompaniedtranscendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant. Actually transcendentalism is a philosophical school which absorbed some ideological concerns of American Puritanism and European Romanticism.RealismRealism came in the latter half of the 19th century as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. It turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for common place and the low, and it offers an objective rather an idealistic view of human nature and human experience. A realistic writer is more objective than subjective, more descriptive than symbolic. Realists looked for truth in everyday truths. Some of the representatives are William Dean Howells and Henry JamesDeismDeism became popular during the 17th and 18th centuries - during the Age of Enlightenment - especially in The United Kingdom, France, and The United States of America. It is a religious philosophy which believes that religious truth is shown by reason applied to empirical events. Some of the typical writers include James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Ethan Allen and Thomas Paine. Influenced by deism were Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. American PuritanismPuritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. American Puritanism stresses predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement from God's grace. But due to the grim struggle for living in the new continent, puritans become more and more practical. American Puritanism is so much a part of the national atmosphere rather than a set of tenets. Writers of Puritanism are Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards.Local colorismLocal colorism came into being in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Mark Twain, Bret Harte and Hamlin Garland are local colorism writers. The ultimate aim of the local colorists is to write or present local characters of their regions in truthful depiction distinguished from others, usually a very small part of the world.。
(完整word版)美国文学史-知识点梳理
Part I The Literature of Colonial AmericaI．Historical IntroductionThe colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. （A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town。
)II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds: 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 immigration2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical，discussions of religious questions.III．The First American WriterThe first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements。
美国文学史复习整理
A m e r i c a n l i t e r a t u r e H i s t o r y 1607---1775 Colonial Period1775---1865 the Early National Period1828---1865 Romantic Period in American1865---1914 Realistic Period1914---1939 Modern Literature1939--- Contemporary PeriodChapter 1 Colonial America(1607---1775)The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. It endured starvation, brutality, and misrule. However, the literature of the period paints America in glowing colors as the land of riches and opportunity. Among the members of the small band of Jamestown settlers was Captain John Smith, an English soldier of fortune. His reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been described as the first distinct American literature written in English.Mayflower, 1620 ,brought the Pilgrims from England to New England. Christopher Jones PlymouthBefore landing, an agreement for the temporary government of the colony by the will of the majority was drawn up in the famous Mayflower Compact.Harvard, the first college in the colonies, was founded near Boston in 1636 in order to train new Puritan ministers. The first printing press in America was started there in 1638, and America’s first newspaper , The Boston Newsletter, appeared in 1704.They did not draw lines of distinction between the secular and religious spheres: All of life was an expression of the divine will----a belief that later resurfaces in Transcendentalism.Captain John SmithWilliam BradfordJohn WinthropCotton MatherAnne BradstreetEdward TaylorAmerican Puritanism•T hey stressed predestination, original sin, total depravity, and l imited atonement from God’s grace.•T hey went to America to prove that they were God’s chosen peoplewho would enjoy God’s blessings on earth and in Heaven.•F inally, they built a way of life that stressed hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.•B oth doctrinaire and an opportunist.Literary Influence:•A merican Literature is based on a myth ------ the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden.•T he American Puritan’s metaphorical made of perception ---- symbolism.Chapter 2 Edwards·Franklin·Crevecoeur•J onathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin shared the 18th century between them.•T hey embodied Puritan naïve idealism and crude materialism.•D eism•T hey were not interested in theology but in mans own nature.Jonathan Edward(1703-1758)Edwards embodied the spirit of revivalism (Great Awakening)He has 2 goals:a.to evoke the original sense of religious commitment.b. b. speak about the difference between head thinking and heart feelingMajor works:The Freedom of the Will (1754)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended (1758)The Nature of True Virtue (1765)Edwards was, probably, at once the first modern American and the country’s last medieval man. Edwards was obviously grappling in all his intellectual life with the knotty problem of reconciling Puritan ideas with the new rationalism of Locke and Newton. Edwards represents the element of piety, the religious passion, the aspect of emotion and ecstasy, of the New England tradition, a tradition that he did his best but failed to revitalize复活. 和discovered, beneath the dogmas of the old theology, a dynamic world filled with the presence of God.Edwards extends typology beyond the strict limits of the Bible, anticipated the nature symbolism of the nineteenth-century Transcendentalism.Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)Life story:•B orn in 1706 into a poor candle-maker’s family in Boston.•A t 17 he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune. His entrance onto the city marked the beginning of a long success story of an archetypal kind.•H e helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital, an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania, and the American Philosophical Society.•D uring the War of Independence, he was made a delegate to the Continental Congress anda member of the committee to write the Declaration of Independence.•H e was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States including the Declaration of Independence.•H e was regarded as the father of the country.Literary Achievement•A lmanac autobiography (‘Poor Richard’s Almanac’, ‘Autobiography’ )His Style•C lear, plain, formal (the organization of his material is informal)Major Works:1)Poor Richard’s Almanac2)The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin•O n the art of self-improvement•T he first of its kind in literature------- An a ccount of a poor boy’s rise to wealth and fame and the fulfillment of the American dream•A Puritan document------a self-examination and self-improvement. The book is a convincing illustration of the Puritan ethic that, in order to get on in the word, one has to be industrious, frugal, and prudent.•A n eloquent elucidation说明of the fact that Franklin was the spokesman of Americanenlightenment, and he represented in America all its ideas.•T he book celebrates the fulfillment of the American dream.Hector St. John de CrevecoeurWork: Letters from an American Farmer (1775)The first eight of the twelve letters reveal the pride of a man being an American. It is evident that, to Crevecoeur, the American is a new man acting on principles: He is self-sufficient, self-reliant, and essentially self-made. Crevecoeur saw and spoke of the hope of a new Garden of Eden materializing in America.Crevecoeur also saw and spoke of the illusory nature of that dream. Starting from the ninth letter, he began to speak with a voice of a definitely disillusioned man. There in the same New World, he became aware of the existence of slavery, avarice, violence, famine and disease, and all other forms of the Atlantic.Chapter 3 American Romanticism·Irving·CooperAmerican Romanticism1.Characteristics of Romanticism:Romanticism was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. (subjectivity)For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense.They emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group, against authority.The affirmed the inner life of the self, and wanted to be free to develop and express his own inner thoughts.Typical literary forms of romanticism include ballad, lyric, sentimental comedy, problem novel, historical novel , gothic romance, metrical romance, sonnet.2. Distinctive features of American Romanticism•the end of the 18th \century through the out break of the Civil War.•strongly influenced by European culture•American romantics tended to moralize3. Main contents: the exotic landscape , the frontier life, the westward expansion, the myth of a New Garden Eden in America (the native materials) New England Poems•It produced a feeling of “Newness” which inspired the romantic imagination..4. Representatives:•New England Poets: William Cullen Bryant; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow;•Writers: James Fenimaore Cooper, Washington IrvingElements of Romanticism•Frontier: vast expanse, freedom, no geographic limitations.•Optimism: greater than in Europe because of the presence of frontier.•Experimentation: in science, in institutions.•Mingling of races: immigrants in large numbers arrive to the US.•Growth of industrialization: polarization of north and south; north becomes industrialized, south remains agriculturalRomantic Subject Matter• 1. The quest for beauty: non-didactic, “pure beauty”• 2. The use of the far-away and non-normal----antique and fanciful:• a. In historical perspective: antiquarianism; antiquing or artificially aging; interest in the past.• b. Characterization and mood: grotesque, Gothicism, sense of terror, fear; use of the odd and queer.• 3. Escapism----from American problems• 4. Interest in external nature: for itself, for beauty• a. Nature as source for the knowledge of primitive.• b. Nature as refuge.• c. Nature as revelation of God to the individual.Romantic Attitude•Appeals to imagination; use of the “willing suspension of disbelief.”•Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, geniality.•Subjectivity: in form and meaning.Romantic Techniques• 1. Remoteness of settings in time and space.• 2. Improbable plots.• 3. Inadequate or unlikely characterization.• 4. Authorial subjectivity.• 5. Socially “harmful morality”, a world of “lies”• 6. Organic principle in writing: form rises out of content, non-formal.•7. Experimentation in new forms: picking up and using obsolete patterns.•8. Cultivation of the individualized, subjective form of writing.Washington Irving (1783-1859)1.Masterpieces:“The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Grayon” (1819-1820)“Bracebridge Hall”“Tales of a Traveller”“The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus ”The Sketch Book (1819), contains two most enduring stori es “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. In both these stories, Irving aims at creating a past in which history and myth blend into each other, providing for a rapidly changing American society kind of historical tradition so apparent in England and so apparently absent in the new nation.The plots of both stories are based on old German folk tales. However, Irving fills them with the “local color” of New York’s Hudson River Valley. In “The Legend”, Irving tells of a Connecticut schoolmaster plying his trade near Tarrytown, New York, among the Dutch families there. A fervent believer in witchcraft and the spirit world, Ichabod Crane is also one of the few educated men in the community, and as such is a notable figure in the area.In all, The Sketch Book contains thirty-two stories. The majority are on European subjects, mostly English. Like many important American writers after him, Irving found that the rich, older culture of the Old World gave him a lot of material for his stories. Few of his stories are really original. “We are a young people,” he explains in the preface, “and must take our examples and models from the existing nations of Europe”.A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (1809)---------his first book2. Comment•His stories, essays, histories, and biographies win him the acclaim as the 1st prose stylist of American romanticism.•He was the first American author to win international recognition, and was extremely popular in Europe.•I n his ‘Sketch Book’ appeared the First American modern American short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.•He perfected the best classic style that American literature ever produced.•Humor, ironic3．Features which characterize Irving’s writing:1) Irving avoids moralizing as much as possible2) he is good at enveloping his stories in an atmosphere, the richness of which is often more than compensation for the slimness of plot.James Fenimore Cooper (1789----1851)Cooper's first novel Precaution (1820)was an imitation of Jane Austin’s novels and did not meet with great success.His second, The Spy (1821), was based on Sir Walter Scott’s W averly series, and told an adventure tale about the American Revolution, set in Westchester Country. The protagonist was Harvey Birch, a supposed loyalist who actually was a spy for George Washington, disguised as “Mr. Harper”. The book brought Cooper fame and wealth and he gave up farming.In 1823 appeared The Pioneers. It started his preoccupation with a series of frontier adventures and pioneer life, in which he spent about twenty years. The novels depicted the adventures of Natty Bumppo, also called Leatherstocking or Hawkeye, and his Indian companion Chingachgook. They included such classics as The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, and The Prairie (1827).Cooper had the idea of transporting Leatherstocking to the Far West while he was writing The Last of the Mohicans.The Spy (1821)The Leatherstocking Tales (1823—1841)The Pilot (1824) The Red Rover (1827)Literary Achievements:The lst successful American novelistIn his fiction he dealt with the themes of wilderness versus civilization, freedom versus law, order versus change, aristocrat versus democrat, and natural rights versus legal rights.Cooper developed 3 kinds of novels:--the 1st kind is the novels about the revolutionary past (“The Spy”);--the 2nd is the sea novels (he also was the 1st writer to write a novel on the sea, “The Pilot”);--the 3rd i s novels about the American frontier (“The Pioneers ”, “The Pathfinder” and “The Deerslayer” )“The Leather Stocking Tales”---------Natty BumppoComment:•the characters in his fiction help create that part of American mythology: the story of the cow boy, the winning of the American West (daring frontiersman and friendly Indian) •Among his comtemporaries, Cooper was no doubt the best in exploring the possibilities of the American frontier in fiction.Chapter 4 New England Transcendentalism·Emerson·ThoreauNew England TranscendentalismBackgrounds:1.Ralph Waldo Emerson published ‘Nature’ in 1836 which represented a new way ofintellectual thinking in America.2.‘The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul, Spirit is present everywhere. ’3.romantic idealism on Puritan soil4.1836, the Transcendental ClubTranscendentalismIn the realm of art and literature it meant the shattering of pseudo-classic rules and forms in favor of a spirit of freedom, the creation of works filled with the new passion for nature and common humanity and incarnating a fresh sense of the wonder, promise, and romance of life.Major Concepts (main ideas)‘transcendere’: to rise above, to pass beyond the limitsBelieve people could learn things both from the outside world by means of the 5 senses and from the inner world by intuition.It placed spirit first and matter secondIt took nature as symbolic of spirit or God. (All things in nature were symbols of the spiritual, of God’s presence. Nature could exercise a healthy and restorative influe nce on human mind.)It emphasized the significance of the individual (the individual was the most important element in society, the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish.) Religion was an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal ‘oversoul’.Comments:A manifestation of romantic movement in literature and philosophyAn ethical guide to life of America （the positive life ）Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson, etc created one of the most prolific periods in the history of American literatureNever a systematic philosophy. It borrowed from many sources, but lacked of logical connection, finally, it turned to mysticism.Major writers and Literary WorksRalph Waldo Emerson (1803----1882) Henry David Thoreau (1817----1862)Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803----1882)•Ralph Waldo Emerson, the towering figure of his era, had a religious sense of mission.•The address he delivered in 1838 at his alma mater, the Harvard Divinity School, made him unwelcome at Harvard for 30 years.•In it, Emerson accused the church of acting "as if God were dead" and of emphasizing dogma while stifling the spirit.•Emerson's philosophy has been called contradictory, and it is true that he consciously avoided building a logical intellectual system because such a rational system would have negated his Romantic belief in intuition and flexibility.•Achievement:•‘Nature’ has been called “the manifesto of American transcendentalism”•‘The American Scholar’ has been called “America’s Declaration of IntellectualI ndependence”•American way instead of imitating things foreign.•The contribution both for philosophy and literature•His perception of humanity and nature as symbols of universal truth encouraged the development of the American symbolist movement.•Emphasize the common life worth of highest art•Believed the work’s form was determined by the writer’s perception of the higher truth he found symbolized in nature.Most of his major ideas –the need for a new national vision, the use of personal experience, the notion of the cosmic Over-Soul, and the doctrine of compensation -- are suggested in his first publication, Nature (1836).Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)•If Ralph Waldo Emerson was the philosopher of Transcendentalism, Thoreau was its most devoted practitioner.•While Emerson wrote and lectured about Transcendentalism, Thoreau tried to live as a transcendentalist.Life Story:•Classically educated at Harvard•Father, John, was a pencil maker•Siblings Helen, John, and Sophia•Lived in and around Concord, Mass., all his life•Two books published in his lifetime--neither sold wellThe Walden Experiment•From 1841 –1843 Thoreau decided to conduct an experiment of self-sufficiency by building his own house on the shores of Walden Pond and living off the food he grew on his farm.Major Work: Walden•Thoreau later documented his experiment in his famous memoir Walden.Civil Disobedience•Another work that was a result of Thoreau’s Walden Experiment was his essay Civil Disobedience.•Civil Disobedience has been a highly influential work that has inspired peaceful activists such as Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr.•Famous Quote: “If... the machine of government... is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.”Henry David Thoreau (1817---1860)and Walden•--- a spiritual book•--- a diary of a nature lover, a classic of American prose (this is a book of essays put together, exploring subjects concerned with Nature, with the meaning of life, and with morality)3 aims in writing the book:•to make people evaluate the way he lived and thought;•to reveal the hidden spiritual possibilities in everyone’s life;•to condemn the weakness and errors of societysubjects:•The essentials of life: living rather than getting a living•It is a condemnation of making social improvement and comfort all important.•It stresses the importance of thought over material circumstance.•It has confidence in the individual, and holds that individual freedom breaks down the rules and barriers of society so that the individual can express himself and act on his own principles.• There is the possibility for and importance of change in one’s spiritual life which is inharmony with nature.Style:•Prophetic voice •Direct forceful sentence •Conversational in tone •Humor •Proverbial expressions •Brief tales, fables and allegories •MetaphorsChapter 5 Hawthorne ·MelvilleNathaniel Hawthorne (1804----1864)Themes in Hawthorne’s Writings• Moral allegories ——a story where everything is symbol, used commonly to instructespecially in religious matters• The sinful man• Hypocrisy (伪善)• The Dark side of human nature• Religious in natureHawthorne’s Major Works• Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales + Mosses from an Old Manse(古屋青苔)• The Scarlet Letter -------His masterpiece, which established him as the LeadingAmericannative novelist of the 19th century•The House of the Seven Gables(带有七个尖角阁的房子)•The Blithedale Romance(福谷传奇)•The Marble Faun(玉石雕像)Hawthorne’s Point of View-------Hawthorne is influenced by Puritanism deeply. He was not a Puritan himself, but he had Puritan ancestors who played an important role in his life and works.•Evil is at the core of human life.•Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation.•Evil educates•He has disgust in science. One source of evil is overweening intellect. His intellectual characters are villains, dreadful and cold-bloodedHawthorne’s aesthetic ideas1) he took a great interest in history and antiquity.•To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.•Trying to connect a bygone time with the very present, he makes the dream strange things look like truth.2) he was convinced that romance was the best form to describe America•The poverty of materials+the avoidance of offending the puritan taste—— romances rather than novels to tell the truth and satirize and yet not the offendWriting Style• A man of literary craftsmanship, extraordinary in•The use of symbol: symbols serve as a weapon to attack reality. It can be found everywhere in his writing.•Revelation of characters’ psychology: he is good at exploring the complexity of human psychology. There isn’t much physical movement going on in his works •The use of supernatural mixed with the actual•His stories are parable(allegory)——to teach a lesson•Use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty——multiple point of viewComments:•Hawthorne is significant as a romantic writer because he used the New England regional past as subject and setting for his stories and he showed great concern about the American past.•He is significant for his themes: the consequences of pride, selfishness, and secret guilty; the conflict between lighthearted and somber toward life; the impingement of •He is significant for his styleHe used symbols and setting to reveal the psychology of the characters.---His style is soft, flowing, and almost feminine.---He used ambiguity to keep the reader in a world of uncertainty.Herman Melville (1819----1891)“Moby Dick”•Some critics hold it the greatest American novel.•The book suggests the beauty, terror, and mystery of creation.•Moby Dick is a symbol of nature.•Nature is capable of destroying the human world. Nature threatens humanity and thus calls out the heroic powers of the human beings. So the power of the universe is both of blessing and curse.style:•Allusions to classical myths• A threefold quality in his writing: the style of fact, the style of oratory celebrating the fact, and the style of meditaion.“Moby Dick”•The original design of Moby Dick made sense within the romantic tradition. Melville wanted to write a romantic text on the whale fishery, giving much exotic information, derived from encyclopedias and world literature. The characters were to be colorful and picturesque, including the Byronic captain of the whaling ship.•The result was a novel with MIXED STYLES:•FICTIONAL ADVENTURE•STORY•HISTORICAL DETAIL•SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION•The novel’s plot is built on one basic conflict –AHAB vs. THE WHALE. It is essentially the story of Ahab and his quest to defeat the legendary Sperm Whale Moby Dick, for this whale took Ahab’s leg, causing him to use an ivory leg.•Whaling described as a ROYAL ACTIVITY(whales were considered prizes significant enough to be a dowry. Oil used in the coronation of kings is sperm oil)Chapter 6 Whitman·DicksonWalt Whitman (1819---1892)Major Work:Leaves of Grass: 9 editions ,more than 400 poems all written in free verse form, that is , poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. The title implies rebirth, renewal, or green life.Features of Whitman’s poems:•The sprawling lines of the poems are often extremely long.•Parallelism: the parallel lines say the same thing but use different words.•Envelope structure: the first line begins with the subject, and then more and more lines list modifiers till the verb appears in the last line of the stanza. This is like enclosing a whole list of ideas in an envelope.•Catalogue technique: means listing. Typical poems by Whitman make long, long lists of images, of sights, sounds, smells ,taste, and touch.•No regular pattern.•The verse unit is usually an independent clause.Emily Elizabeth Dickinson(1830--1886)Dickinson is known for using poetry as private observation.Her poems are carefully crafted in rhyme and meter.subjects: love, death, religion, immortality, pain, beautyTheory:•She regarded the poet as a seer. She thought the poet could grasp truth through her imagination and then the poem would reveal this truth to the reader.•She believed that poetry contributed to growth and poetry had an impact on one’s life.•She stressed indirection.•Her poems demonstrate inconsistence.(The reader can find one of her poems that says one thing about a problem and another poem that says the exact opposite)Style:•Lyric•Influence of Christian tradition•New England perspective•Puritan introspectionChapter 7 Edgar Allen PoeEdgar Allen Poe(1809—1849)•Poe established a new symbolic poetry, formulated the new short story in detective and science fiction line, developed an important artistic theory, and laid foundation for analytical criticism. •Poe is generally regarded as a pioneering aesthetician, psychological investigator, literary technician and his influence on American literary circles can never be overrated.Major Literary Works•“The Raven” 《乌鸦》•“Annable Lee” 《安娜贝尔·李》•“The Sleeper” 《睡梦人》•“A Dream Within a Dream” 《梦中梦》•“Sonnet—To Science” 《十四行诗—致科学》•“To Helen” 《致海伦》•“The City in the Sea” 《海中的城市》earlier entitled The Doomed City 《衰败的城市》1.Horror•Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque«述异集»-------a collection of short stories•“The Black Cat” 《黑猫》•“The Cask of Amontillado” （红色死亡假面舞会）•“The Fall of the House of Usher”2.Ratiocination（推理）•“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” 《莫格街谋杀案》•“The Gold Bug”《金甲虫》•“The Purloined Letter”《被窃的信件》•“The Mystery of Marie Roget” 《玛丽罗杰谜案》Literary theory:•The Philosophy of Composition 《创作原理》•The Poetic Principle 《诗歌原则》Themes•death – predominant theme (“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.” )•horror•negative thoughts of sciencePoe’s theory for poetry•short but achieve maximum effect•produce a feeling of beauty in the reader•"pure“, not to moralize•He stresses rhythm•insists on an even(规则的) metrical flow真实能够满足人的理智,感情能够满足人的心灵, 而美则能激动人的灵魂Poe’s theory for short story•Short story should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression(压缩) and finality. Poe’s achievement1.His aesthetics, his call for "the rhythmical creation of beauty" have influenced Frenchsymbolists and the devotees of "art for art's sake."2.He is the father of psychoanalytic(心理分析的) criticism.3.He is the father of the detective story.Conclusion about his theories:•Only short poems could sustain the level of emotion in the reader that was generated by all good poetry.•The most important purpose of poetry is the creation of beauty•The tone of its highest manifestation is one of sadness. (The death of a beautiful woman is the most potential topic.)•The immediate object of poetry is pleasure, not truth.•Music is essential because it is•associated with indefinite sensations. (alliteration, assonance, repetition)•Poe preferred the tale to other fictional such as the novel because it is brief.•He stressed the principle of concentration and thematic totality.•The writer must decide the effect first and then determine the incidents.•Truth rather than beauty is often the aim of the tale.•The merit of a work of art should be judged by its psychological effect upon the reader. Chapter 8 The Age of Realism·Howells·JamesRealism:。
美国文学史复习
美国文学史复习（一）Colonialism（殖民主义）一、Puritan thoughts:1. to make their religious beliefs and practices pure,2. to restore simplicity,3. to live a hard and disciplined life4. to oppose pleasure and arts.二、Puritan values:hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (they dominated much of the earliest American writing.)（二）Romanticism一、文学特征：1. Environment:①shaped by their New World environment 美洲大陆新环境②array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe 欧洲早期浪漫主义思潮2.美国文学的特点：①pluralistic多元化②manifestations varied 表现形式多样③individualistic个人主义④conflicting 矛盾3. Romanticism的特点：①moral enthusiasm注重道德②faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception强调个人主义价值观和直觉感受③the presumption that the natural world was a source of corruption.认为自然是美的源头，人类社会是腐败之源。
4. Transcendentalism：（超验主义）①As a moral philosophy, it was neither logical nor systematized.It exalted feeling over reason, individual expression over the restraints of law and custom.不讲逻辑，不讲系统只强调超越理性的感受，超越法律和世俗束缚的个人表达。
美国文学史复习资料
10.Herman MelvilleBut it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great.(1819-1891)Teaching ObjectivesMelville‘s Life and Main WorksMelville‘s masterpiece Moby DickThe Main Plot, Major characters, theme, SymbolsSocial significance of Moby DickLife Experienceborn on August 1, 1819 in New York City into an established merchant family, the third of 8 children. His father became bankrupt and insane, dying when Melville was 12. His sea experiences and adventures furnished him with abundant materials, and resulted in five novels that brought him wide fame as a writer of sea stories.In 1850, he met Hawthorne and they became good friends. He read Hawthorne‘s books and was deeply impressed by Hawthorne‘s black vision.His fame was recognized after his death.Melville‘s Major Works1) Typee «泰皮»2) Omoo «欧穆»3) Mardi «玛地»4) Bedburn «雷得本»5) White Jacket «白外衣»from his adventures among the people of the South Pacific islandsan account of his voyage to Englandhis life on a United States man-of-war6) Pierre «皮埃尔»7) Billy Budd 《比利•巴德》(a sign that he had resolved his quarrel with God) Clarel 《克拉莱尔》( a poem)Moby-Dick «白鲸»，«莫比•狄克»an encyclopedia of everythinghistory, philosophy, religion, the whaling industrya Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fatesHis Tragic Influence from Literary TraditionAt the time of writing, Melville was reading Greek tragedy, especially the Orestia (奥瑞斯提亚）of AeschylusImmersed in the tragedies of Shakespeare – King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth Epic poetry, HomerMoby Dick (1)This book is dedicated to Hawthorne, for Hawthorne encourged Melville to change this novel from a story full of details about whaling, into an allegorical novel.Moby Dick (2)Epic in scope.It consists of 135 chapters.- the long and arduous journey- the great battleDefined as an epic, which contains a tragic drama, a tragedy of pride, and pursuit and revenge, which is also a tragedy of thought与白鲸有关的背景对爱斯基摩人来说，白鲸也是非常重要的，不仅因为其肉好吃，而且它们的油用来点灯不仅明亮，还能释放出大量热量，使简陋的冰屋保持温暖。
美国文学简史复习资料精华版
美国文学简史复习资料精华版A Concise History of American LiteratureChapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.Jonathan Edwards1.life2.works(1)The Freedom of the Will(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3)The Nature of True Virtue3.ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)God’s presence(4)Puritan idealismII.Benjamin Franklin1.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac(2)Autobiography2.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the AmericanPhilosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity inthis case) from heaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”.Herman Melville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodI.Washington Irving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father of American literature2.works(1) A History of New Y ork from the Beginning of the World to the End ofthe Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure ofinternational recognition with the publication of this.)(3)The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus(4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra3.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US4.style – beautiful(1)gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4)vivid and true characters(5)humour – smiling while reading(6)musical languageII.James Fenimore Cooper1.works(1)Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride andPrejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie2.point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights3.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape description(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic4.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of theAmerican settlers exploring and pushing the American frontierforever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectivelyapproximates the American national experience of adventure intothe West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and hehelped to introduce western tradition to American literature. Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – American TranscendentalismI.Appearance1836, “Nature” by Emers onII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)III.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and broughtabout the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressedreligious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs andtraditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctlyAmerican culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expandedeconomy where opportunity often became opportunism, and thedesire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritualheight.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the mostprolific period in American literature.IV.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.works(1)Nature(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet2.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in thetranscendence of the “oversoul”.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moralinfluence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out thedivine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson me ans by “the infinitude of man”.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making hisworld, and that he makes the world by making himself.3.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2)True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3)The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrateAmerica which was to him a lone poem in itself.4.his influenceV.Henry David Thoreau1.works(1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)2.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing andwas vehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuinerestorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.(6)“Simplicity…simplify!”(7)He was sorely disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutionsof men’s odd-fellow society”.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a newgeneration of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from andOld Manse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun2.point of view(1)Evil is at the core of human life, “that blackness in Hawthorne”(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passedfrom generation to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.3.aesthetic ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnishthe soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form ofAmerican narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.4.style – typical romantic writer(1)the use of symbols(2)revelation of characters’ psychology(3)the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty –multiple point of viewII.Herman Melville1.works(1)Typee(2)Omio(3)Mardi(4)Redburn(5)White Jacket(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre(8)Billy Budd2.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is theattitude of “Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from eachother).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation ofinnocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea ofprogress3.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguitythrough employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profuselycommented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background ordescription of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)Romantic PoetsI.Walt Whitman1.work: Leaves of Grass (9 editions)(1)Song of Myself(2)There Was a Child Went Forth(3)Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4)Democratic Vistas(5)Passage to India(6)Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking2.themes –“Catalogue of American and European thought”He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson’s individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything):●equality of things and beings●divinity of everything●immanence of God●democracy●evolution of cosmos●multiplicity of nature●self-reliant spirit●death, beauty of death●expansion of America●brotherhood and social solidarity (unity of nations in the world)●pursuit of love and happiness3.style: “free verse”(1)no fixed rhyme or scheme(2)parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3)phonetic recurrence(4)the habit of using snapshots(5)the use of a certain pronoun “I”(6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins,some even wrong(10)sentences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines 4.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Westernculture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacherand recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bearswitness to his great influence.II.Emily Dickenson1.works(1)My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2)Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4)Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5)Wild Nights – Wild Nights2.themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4)physical aspect of desire(5)nature – kind and cruel(6)free will and human responsibility3.style(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification –make some of abstract ideasvividparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergentAmerica, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the newnation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinsonexplores the inner life of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is“regional”.(3)Dickinson has t he “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) whichWhitman doesn’t have.Edgar Allen PoeI.Works1.short stories(1)ratiocinative storiesa.Ms Found in a Bottleb.The Murders in the Rue Morguec.The Purloined Letter(2)Revenge, death and rebirtha.The Fall of the House of Usherb.Ligeiac.The Masque of the Red Death(3)Literary theorya.The Philosophy of Compositionb.The Poetic Principlec.Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told TalesII.Themes1.death –predominant theme in Poe’s writing“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.”2.disintegration (separation) of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIII.Aesthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect,compression and finality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tonemelancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.IV.Style – traditional, but not easy to readV.Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)VI.His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”(1)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(2)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethicscking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international theme●The American●Daisy Miller●The Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays●Daisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence,then back to international theme●The Turn of the Screw●When Maisie Knew●The Ambassadors●The Wings of the Dove●The Golden Bowl(2)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent lifemon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(3)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(4)Style –“stylist”nguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb.Vocabulary: largec.Construction: complicated, intricate3.Mark Twain (see next section)Local Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sI.Appearance1.uneven development in economy in America2.culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3.magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII.Mark Twain – Mississippi1.works(1)The Gilded Age(2)“the two advantages”(3)Life on the Mississippi(4) A Connecticut Y ankee in King Arthur’s Court(5)The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug2.style(1)colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2)local colour(3)syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimesungrammatical(4)humour(5)tall tales (highly exaggerated)(6)social criticism (satire on the different ugly things in society)parison of the three “giants” of American Realism1.ThemeHowells – middle classJames – upper classTwain – lower class2.TechniqueHowells – smiling/genteel realismJames – psychological realismTwain – local colourism and colloquialismChapter 4 American NaturalismI.Theodore Dreiser1.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius2.point of view(1)He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned toregard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” o f the lecherous and heartless, a junglestruggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex ofinternal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.3.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis4.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in painting。
美国文学史复习资料
American Nobel Prize for Literature Winners:1. Sinclair Lewis 1930 Main Street Babbit2.Eugene O‘neil 1936 Beyond the Horizon3. Pearl S.Buck 1938 The Good Earth4. W. Faulkner 1949 The Sound and the Fury5. E. Hemingway 1954 The Old Man and the Sea6. John Steinbeck 1962 The Wrath of Grape7. Saul Bellow 1976 Herzog8. Isaac Bashevis Singer 1980 The King of the Fields9. Czeslaw Milosz (Poland/USA) 1980 Poetry10. Toni Morrison 1993 The Song of SolomanOutline of American Literature:I Colonial Period (1607—1765)II Revolutionary Period (1765--1800)III The Age of Romanticism (1800—1865)IV The Age of Realism (1865—1918)V American Modernism (1918—1945)VI Contemporary Literature (1945-- )Part I Colonial Period (1607—1765)•⑴Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent in 1451.•⑵The earliest settlers included 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) ; Swedes, Germans, Italians, and Portuguese.•⑶The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.•(Imagine: transportation not convenient, why many immigrants left their hometown and came to such a remote place as America? Economic reasons; Religious reasons) •(Reformation and religious conflicts in Europe; persecution of ProtestantsFeatures of Literature of this Period:1.Religious matters: Praise God for a New Israel (a promised land)2.Puritan thoughts*3.Narrative and journals of these settlementEarly American Writers and Poets•South, Jamestown, Virginia:•Captain John Smith ---first American writer (p.3 )•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(p.2).•North, New England, Puritan Writers•William Bradford: first governor of Plymouth, The History of Plymouth Plantation, simplicity, earnestness, direct reporting, readable, moving.•John Winthrop: first governor of Boston, The History of New England, candid simplicity, honesty•Two Poets: Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylorbackground:•By the time of Elizabeth‘s reign, the Church of England was clearly Protestant in respect to its separation from Rome.•However, the puritans want to ―purify the church‖, because they thought the church was corrupted and had too many rituals.•Eventually, these ―reformers‖ were so repressed that they sought escape. Therefore, the theocracy created in the New World was such that their point of view would be held supreme.Their Religious Doctrines:•They regarded themselves as chosen people of God….p.8•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 [making anything bad;corruption]- through Adam's fall, every human is born sinful - concept of Original Sin.（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 - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone. （有限救赎，只有被上帝选中的人才能得到上帝的拯救）•predestination, original sin, total depravity and limited atonement.Life Style of Puritans:•Pious（虔诚）, diligence（勤奋）and thrift（节俭）, rigid sense of morality, self-reliance.•They favored a disciplined, hard, somber, and harsh life.•They opposed arts and pleasure. They suspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin. American Puritan•On the one hand, American Puritans were all idealist as their European brothers. They came to the new continent with the dream that they would built the new land to an Eden on earth.•On the other hand, American Puritans were more practical maybe because of the severe conditions they faced.Puritanism’s influence on American literature1. Purpose: pragmatic• 2. Contents: serving either God or colonial expansion or both.•practical matter-of-fact accounts of life in the new world; highly theoretical discussions of religious questions.• 3. Form: imitating English literary traditions (diary, autobiography, sermon, letter)• 4. Style: simple, fresh and direct (just as the style of the Authorized Version of Holy Bible);••tight and logic structure, precise and compact expression, avoidance of rhetorical decoration, adoption of homely imagery, simplicity of diction.••Symbolism（象征主义）: lots of American writers liked to employ symbolism in their works. (typical way of Puritans who thought that all the simple objects existing in the world connoted deep meaning.)•Symbolism means using symbols in literary works. The symbol means something represents or stands for abstract deep meaning.•• 6. Optimism: Garden of Eden and American Dream (Basis of American literature). The puritans dreamed of building a new Garden of Eden in the New World, and regarded America as their Promised Land. This kind of optimism developed into Emerson‘s Transcendentalism and later on into American Dream, a promise that any man can fully actualize oneself through hard work.writers of colonial period(1) Anne Bradstreet(2) Edward Taylor(3) Roger Williams(4) John Woolman(5) Thomas Paine(6) Thomas Jefferson(7) Philip FreneauThomas Painea pamphleteer, a fighter for independence and human rightsThe CrisisCommon SenseThe Rights of ManAge of ReasonThomas Jefferson"Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia."Philip Freneau the earliest of American poets, who inspired American imaginationmajor works:The Wild Honey Suckle《野金银花》The Rising Glory of America《美洲光辉的兴起》The British Prisonship《英国囚船》The Indian Burying Ground《印第安人墓地》Part II Revolutionary Period (1765--1800)Edwards and FranklinRevolutionary Period (1775-1783)―The Age of Reason‖―American Enlightenment‖. Historical Background :⑴American Revolution⑵EnlightenmentEnlightenmentOriginated in Europe in the 17th centuryResources: Newton‘s theory; deism（自然神教派，宗教与启蒙精神相结合的产物）;French philosophy (Rousseau, V oltaireDEISM is a religious philosophy. It believes that religious truth is shown by reason applied to empirical events.Deists believe that God's greatest gift to humanity is not religion, but the ability to reason.Rejection of reports of miracles, prophecies, and religious "mysteriesBasic principles of ―American Enlightenmentstressing educationstressing Reason (Order) (The age has been called Age of Reason)employing Reason to reconsider the traditions and social realitiesconcerns for civil rights, such as equality and social justiceThe 18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarchy.Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man.The colonists who would form a new nation were firm believers in the power of reason;they were ambitious, inquisitive, optimistic, practical, politically astute, and self-reliant Significancefreeing people from the limitations set by prevailing Puritanismmaking spiritual preparation for American Revolutionaccelerating social progress2. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)---- last important figure in Puritan traditionGreat Awakening is a series of religious revivals that swept over the American colonies about the middle of the 18th century. It resulted in doctrinal changes and influenced social political thought. In New England it was started (1734)by the rousing 使觉醒的preaching of Jonathon Edwards.3. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)----Jack of all tradesHe helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital.Franklin’s Contributions:1.He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania.And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.2.He was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, theFranklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices..And for his lightning-rod, he was called ―the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.‖3.He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:The Declaration of Independence,The Treaty of Alliance with France,The Treaty of Peace with England,The ConstitutionLiterary works(1) Poor Richard’s Almanac(2) AutobiographyPoor Richard‘s Almanac《穷查理年历》Modeled on farmers’annual calendarkept publishing for many yearsincludes many classical sayings, such as “A penny saved is a penny earned.”Features:•practical and useful•interesting by creating the character ―Poor Richard‖•continuation of simple but realistic story about Richard, his wife and family•including many ―sayings‖ about saving money and working hardAutobiographySimple, plainness, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expressionclear in orderdirect and conciseIII The Age of Romanticism (1800—1865)As a literary trend or movement, Romanticism , occurred and developed in Europe & America at the turn of the 18th & 19th centuries under the historical background of the Industrial Revolution around 1760 & the French Revolution(1772-1829).•Characteristics of Romanticism• 1. subjectivity•(1) feeling and emotions, finding truth•(2) emphasis on imagination•(3) emphasis on individualism –personal freedom, no hero worship, natural goodness of human beings• 2. back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature•(1) unrestrained by classical rules•(2) freedom of imagination•(3) colloquial language•(4) genuine in feelings• 3. back to nature•nature is “breathing living thing”(Rousseau: French Philosopher•Background•(1) Political background• a. economic boom• b. calling for culture independence• c. eagerness in literary expression•(2) Romantic movement in European countries•(1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience‖ and contained ―an alien quality‖ for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place‖ was radically new and alien.•(2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained.•(3) The “newness‖ of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism.•(4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent.Washington IrvingIrving’s contributionfather of American literature1the first American to win international fame2the messenger sent from the new world to the old world3the 1st one to write the short story--The Sketch Book , which marked the beginning of American RomanticismIrving’s Styleproviding a model for the narrative of the future•avoided moralizing; wrote to amuse and entertain,•was good at enveloping his stories in an atmosphere,•his characters are vivid and true•filled with humor•musical languageThe theme of ―Rip Van Winkle‖①it reveals conservative attitude of Irving.②it might be an illustration of Irving’s argument that revolution upset the natural order of things. paralleled juxtapositions(不同文化的对比) of two worldspeaceful natural world in the mountainsa; noisy world with his wife on the farma pre-Revolution village ;Washington eraIrving was unwilling to accept a modern democratic America.both Winkle and Irving prefer the past and a dream-like worldJ.F. Cooperfather of American noveliststhe creation of the west frontier and its heroesCooper‘s Major Literary Works:The Leatherstocking Tales, 《皮袜子故事集》1) The Deerslayer《杀鹿者》( 1841(2) The Last of the Mohicans ( 1826 )《最后的莫西干人》(3) The Pathfinder《探路人》( 1840(4) The Pioneers《拓荒者》( 1823(5) The Prairie《大草原》( 1827The Theme of The Pioneerswilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rightsWriting Style▪(1) highly imaginative, a mythic writer▪(2) good at inventing tales and landscape description▪he had never been to the frontier and among the Indians and yet could write five huge epic books about them▪(3) powerful but clumsy writer: characterization wooden and lacking in probability;language and use of dialect not authenticLiterary Achievements1)He created a myth about the formative period of the American nation.▪history of the USA -- the process of the settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier westward, Leatherstocking Tales is the same of the American national experience.2)He turned the west and frontier as a useable past3) He helped to introduce western tradition to American literatureTranscendentalism●Transcendentalism is the summit of the Romantic Movement in the history of Americanliterature in the 19th century.●Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as ―the recognition in man of thecapacity of knowing truth intuitively‖.●Transcendentalists place emphasis on the importance of the Over-soul, the individual andNature.●The most important representatives are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau Features:1.Spirit / Oversoul is the most important thing in the universe.①It is omnipresent (present everywhere) and omnipotent (able to do anything)②It exists in nature and man alike and constituted the universe.a new way of looking at the world2.The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of individualism•The individual soul communed with the Oversoul and was therefore divine.•The regeneration of society could only come about through the regeneration of the individual.•His perfection should be the first concern of his life.•The ideal type of man was the self-reliant individuala new way of looking at man3.nature is the symbol of spirit/the garment of the Oversoul•Nature was alive, filled with God‘s overwhelming presence. The physical world was a symbol of the spiritual.•Nature could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind.a new way of looking at natureRalph Waldo Emerson: major works①Nature 自然(1836) ：―the manifesto of American transcendentalism‖ and ―the Bible ofNew England Transcendentalism.‖①The American Scholar美国学者(1837)："America's Declaration of IntellectualIndependence"①Self-Reliance 论自助: the importance of cultivating oneself②"Self-Reliance" is widely considered to be the definitive statement of Ralph WaldoEmerson's philosophy of individualism and the finest example of his prose.③Emerson was known for his repeated use of the phrase ‗‗trust thyself." "Self-Reliance" ishis explanation—both systematic and passionate—of what he meant by this and of why he was moved to make it his catch-phrase.Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)⏹Schoolteacher, essayist, poet⏹One leader of Transcendentalism⏹Most famous for Walden and Civil Disobedience1. Walden, or Life in the Woods 18542. Civil Disobedience 18493. Life Without Principle 18634. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 18495. The Maine Woods 18646. Cape Cod 18657. Slavery in Massachusetts 1854Comment on Walden:Between the end of March 1845 and July4, Thoreau constructed a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond, near Concord. There he lived alone until September 1847, supplying his needs by his own labor and developing and testing his transcendental philosophy of individualism, self-reliance and material economy for the sake of spiritual wealth.He sought to reduce his physical needs to a minimum, in order to free himself for study, thought, and observation of nature, himself. Therefore his cabin was a simple room and he wore the cheapest essential clothing and restricted his diet to what he found.Walden can be many things and can be read on more than one level. But it is, first and foremost, a book about man, what he is, and what he should be and must be.Thoreau has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man. He holds that the most important thing for men to do with their lives is to be self-sufficient and strive to achieve person spiritual perfection. Thoreau was very critical of modern civilization. ―Civilized man is the sl ave of matter,‖ he said on one occasion.Considered one of the all-time great books, Walden is a record of Thoreau's two year experiment of living at Walden Pond. The writer's chief emphasis is on the simplifications and enjoyment of life now. It is regarded as1. a nature book.2. a do-it-yourself guide to simple life.3. a satirical criticism of modern life and living.4. a belletristic achievement.5. a spiritual book.Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804~1864)Major Literary Works:Hawthorn‘s literary theoryTheory of Romance Herman Melville•Hawthorne favors romance as a suitable form of writing:•He thinks that a romance should be able to present the truth with the writer's own creative imagination. He should be able to combine reality with his own imagination, to make real look unreal, or the unreal real. That‘s why Hawthorne took great interest in history, which he believed enabled him to dream strange things and make them look like truth.••Symbolism – Hawtho rn’s artistic feature•Hawthorn is a master of symbolism. His symbols are mostly loaded with moral implicationsThe theme of the novel is about the effect of a sin on the people involved and the society as a whole. The theme is that it is useless to hide guilt in order to avoid punishment. The novel asks thequestion of whether the act of Hester and her lover was really sinful. The author gives no clear answer.style – typical romantic writer•(1) the use of symbols•(2) revelation of characters‘ psycholog y•(3) the use of supernatural mixed with the actual•(4) his stories are parable (parable in form) – to teach a lesson•(5) use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty –multiple point of view•The scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame, but instead it becomes a powerful symbol of identity to Hester. The letter’s meaning shifts as time passes.•Pearl’s primary function within the novel is as a symbol. Pearl is a sort of living version of her mother’s scarlet letter.The meaning development of ASymbolic of Hester’s moral development is the gradual, imperceptible change which the scarle tletter A undergoes in meaning: at first it is a token of shame, punishment and guilt “Adultery”; but then the genuine sympathy and help Hester offered to her fellow villagers changes it to “Able”, which represents intelligence and hard working; at the end of the story, the letter A appears in the sky, signifying “Angel”, which represents the high virtues of Hester PrynnePearl—more of a symbol than a character. She was the innocent daughter of Hester and the minister. To hester, she was the fruit of human love and physical passion; to Dimmesdale, she was a reminder of his sin and to Chillingworth an unforgettable shame and the motivation to take his revenge.Character AnalysisHester Prynne—the heroine of the novel. She was found guilty of adultery at the beginning of the story and was completely cut off from the community.However, Hester’s response to the scarlet letter A is a positive one.Though living on the fringe of the community, she does her best to reestablish her fellowship with her neighbors on a new, honest basis. She helps her fellow creatures as a sister of mercy of sorts or as a skilled embroideress in an inobtrusive and undemanding manner, and finally wins their love and admiration.To the self-rightious community which outlaws her, she manages to move ever closer. She does her best to keep herhold on the magic chain of humanity. Her life eventually acquires a real significance when she reestablishes a meaningful relationship with her fellowmen.She didn’t accept her fate and gradually won back acceptance and respect from the villagers of various background through honest and hard working. An industrious, brave, and unbending woman, she was once a sinner and later turned to a figure of high virtue.Dimmesdale—the unrevealed and hidden adulterer.In a sharp contrast, Dimmesdale banishes himself from society. Deeply preoccupied with himself, he lives a stranger among his admirers. The result is that, whereas Hester is able to reconstruct her life and win a moral victory, Dimmesdale undergoes the tragic experience of physical and spiritual disintegration becaust he have not the enough courage to confess his sin as an all-admired minister. He dies an honest man, it is true, but in part of his own hand. Only at the end of his life was he delivered from his sin and sense of guilt.From the final different fates of Hester and Dimmesdale, we can see that the best policy for man is to be true, honest, and ever ready to show one’s worst to the outside world.Hester does it all her life; Dimmesdale does it finally.Roger Chilingworth—husband of Hester Prynne, and the real villain of the story. He is a doctor and scholar, the embodiment of pure intellect, who commits “the unpardonable sin”—the violation of the human heart.A cuckolded husband, he was the victim of the adultery at the beginning of the story andliable to pity and sympathy. As a cold-natured physician, however, he designed an inhuman scheme of cold revenge by constantly tormenting the sinning soul of the minister until his death. So at last, he became the most hardened sinner, an embodiment of merciless revenge, vicious schemes and cold-blooded hatred.The end of Chilingworth is also tragic.Herman Melville (1819-1891)1. Redburn 18492. Typee 18463. Omoo 18744. Moby Dick 18515. Mardi 18496. White Jacket 18507. Pierre 18528. Billy Budd 1924Moby DickThemes of Moby Dick⏹ 1. Search for truthThe story deals with the human pursuit of truth and the meaning of existence.2. Conflict between Good and Evil.3. Conflict between Man and Nature.4. Isolation between man and man; man and nature; man and society.5. Solipsism.Symbols⏹ 1. The PequodThe Pequod is a symbol of doom. It is painted a gloomy black and covered in whale teethand bones, literally bristling with the mementos of violent death. It is, in fact, marked for death. Adorned like a primitive coffin, the Pequod becomes one.4) AhabSymbol of solipsism, revenge and then evil.5) StarbuckSymbol of good and noble.6) the DoubloonSymbol of the lure of evil and enticements to greed.7) SeaSymbol of vastness, loneliness, and isolation.Evaluation⏹Moby Dick is, critics have agreed, one of the world‘s greatest masterpieces. To get toknow the 19th century American mind and America itself, one has to read this book.⏹One of the classics of American Literature and even world literature.⏹Moby Dick is an encyclopedia of everything, history, philosophy, religion, etc. in additionto a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry.Romantic Poets1.2.Types of poetry▪ 1.2.1. Narrative poetry▪ a. Epic: long narrative poems that record the adventures of a hero whose exploits [brave or adventurous deeds or action] are important to the history of a nation. As Homeric epics (a blind bard): The Iliad and The Odyssey▪ b. Ballad: a simple poem(less ambitious than epics) that tells a story.▪ c. Romance: another type of narrative poem, in which adventure is a central feature.1.2.2. Lyric poetry▪ a. Epigram[诙谐诗]: short poem expressing an idea in clear and amusing way▪ b. Elegy: a lament for the dead.▪ c. Ode: a long stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter, and form.▪ d. Sonnet: 14 lines, the Italian (or Petrarchan: 8-line octave + 6-line sestet; typical rhyming: abbaabba+cdcdcd/cdecde) and the English (or Shakespearean: three 4-line quatrains + a concluding 2-line couplet aabb+ccdd+eeff+gg)1.3. Elements of poetry▪ 1.3.1. Voice: speaker and tone▪ 1.3.2. Diction: the best words in the best order (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)▪ 1.3.3. Imagery: a concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea.▪Images: visual, aural, tactile, ol f actory (something smelled), g ustatory (sth tasted)▪ 1.3.4. Figures of speech: simile and metaphor▪ 1.3.5. Symbolism: a symbol is any object or action that means more than itself, any object or action that represents sth beyond itself.▪ 1.3.6. Syntax: the grammatical structure of words in sentences and the development of sentences in longer units throughout the poem.1.3.7. SoundRhyme:two or more words or phrases contain an identical or similar vowel-sound, usually stressed, and the consonant sounds that follow the vowel-sound are identical and preceded by different consonants.eg. bright and night heaven and seven see and theeExact rhyme: repeat end sounds preciselyeg. day — waySlant rhyme斜韵: provide an approximate sound eg.sun — boneIdentical rhyme全同韵: repeating the entire sound, including the initial consonant, sometimes by repeating the same word in a rhyme position and sometimes by repeating the sound with two senseseg. two — tooMasculine rhyme阳韵: the recurrence of sound is restricted to the final stressed syllable eg. cold — boldFeminine rhyme: the stressed rhyming syllables are followed by identical unstressed syllables eg. spiteful— delightfulTriple rhyme三压韵: the rhyming stressed syllable is followed by two identical unstressed syllableseg. tenderly —slenderlyInternal rhyme中间韵: occurs at the beginning, sometimes combined with end rhymeeg. the grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother.End rhyme: occurs at the end of a lineeg. Three poets, in three distant ages born,Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.Alliteration is the repetition of consonants, especially at the beginning of words or stressed syllables.Eg. The willows waved violently in the wind.Assonance叠韵is the repetition of similar vowel sounds within a noticeable range.Eg. All day the wind breathes low with mellower toneThro‘ every holl ow cave and alley lone.Consonance is the repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels.Eg. tit and tatcreak and crack▪ 1.3.8. Rhythm and meter▪ a. rhythm: beat we feel in a phrase of music or a line of poetry, the regular recurrence of the accent or stress in poem.▪ b. foot[音步]: unit of rhythm in a line of poetry containing one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllables, as in the four division of “four m an/may c ome/and m en /may g o‖▪ c. meter[格律]: poetic metre with a given number of feet, or fixed arrangement of accented and unaccented syllables.▪Rising feet/meter: iamb (iambic), anapest (anapestic)抑抑扬格▪Falling feet/meter: trochee (trochaic), dactyl (dactylic) [dæktil ]扬抑抑格▪Number of feet per line▪Mo n ometer▪D imeter[dimitə]▪Tr imeter[trimitə]▪Te tr ameter[tetræmitə ]▪Pentameter▪Hexameter▪Hep t ameter▪Oc t ameter1.4. Some features of poetry▪ 1.4.1. emotional, passionate,▪Expressing and arousing strong feeling such as love, pity, fear, sadness, joy, etc from the author or from the reader▪ 1.4.2. Symbolic▪ A symbol is something that stands for something else. In literature, it refers to any word, object, action, or character that embodies and evokes a range of additional meaning and significance.▪Imagery is the use of figurative language to produce a picture in the minds of readers or hearers.▪ 1.4.3. Condensed and vivid language▪Language is the most important thing in poetry. Poetic language is the most vivid and condensed language in literature.Walt Whitman▪One of the greatest innovators in American literatureHe created a new form of poem: free verse▪---- the verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern, the verse without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.Major works of Whitman▪Leaves of Grass▪Drum-Taps▪Song of Myself。
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美国文学史复习1（colonialism)第一部分殖民主义时期的文学一、时期综述1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：a、narratives 日记b、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：1）their voyage to the new land2) Adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops3) About dealing with Indians4) Guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit3、清教徒的思想：1）puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 净化信仰和行为方式2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology. 重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位3）look upon themselves as chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God's will and is not to be accepted. 认为自己是上帝选民，对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝4）puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exaggerated. 反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步5）religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.强调上帝严厉的一面，忽视上帝仁慈的一面。
4、典型的清教徒：John Cotton & Roger William他们的不同：John Cotton was much more concerned with authority than with democracy; William begins the history of religious toleration in America.5、William的宗教观点：Toleration did not stem from a lack of religious convictions. Instead, it sprang from the idea that simply to be virtuous in conduct and devout in belief did not give anyone the right to force belief on others. He also felt that no political order or church system could identify itself directly with God. 行为上的德，信仰上的诚，并没有给任何人强迫别人该如何行事的权利。
没有任何政治秩序和教会体制能够直接体现神本身的意旨。
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 Tayor.学习指南：1、Could you give a description of American Puritans? 关于美国清教徒的描绘Like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to the "purity" of the first-century church as established by Jesus Christ himself. To them religion was a matter of primary importance. They made it their chief business to see that man lived and thought and acted in a way which tended to the glory of God. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God, all that John Calvin, the great French theologian who lived in Geneva had preached. It was this kind of religious belief that they brought with them into the wildness. There they meaant to prove that were God's chosen people enjoying his blessings on this earth as in Heaven.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 & Edward Taylor, rose to the level of real poetry.4、The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards Italian, and Portuguese.美国文学史复习2（reasoning and revolution)(2009-01-17 15:54:25)一、美国的性质：The war for Independence ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republic - the United States of America. 联邦的资产阶级民主共和国--美利坚合众国。
二、代表作家：1、Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林1706-17901）"Poor Richard's Almanac" 穷人查理德的年鉴annual collection of proverbs 流行谚语集It soon became the most popular book of its kind, largely because of Franklin's shrewd humor, and first spread his reputation2) Founded the Junto, a club for informal discussion of scientific, economic and political ideas. 建立了一个秘密俱乐部，讨论的主题是政治、经济和科学等时事方面的问题3）established America's first circulating library, founded the college--University of Pennsylvania. 建立了美国第一个可租借的图书馆，还创办了一所大学——就是现在的宾夕法尼亚大学。
4）first applied the terms "positive" and "negative" to electrical charges.5)As a representative of the Colonies, he tried in vain to counsel the British toward policies that would let America grow and flourish in association with England. He conducted the difficulty negotiations with France that brought financial and military support for America in the war. 作为殖民地的代表，他不断建议英国改变政策，使美国可以和英国一起发展、繁荣。
他说服法国支持美国的独立战争。
6）As an author he had power of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor, sarcastic.作为作家具有非凡的才能，表达简洁明了，幽默，讽刺天才、7）The Way to Wealth致富之道The Autobiography自传18世纪美国唯一流传至今的自传2、Thomas Paine 托马斯·佩因 1737-1809 "Great Common of Mankind" 最平凡的人1）famous pamphlet "Common Sense" 著名的政治小册子《常识》it boldly advocated a "Declaration for Independence", and brought the separatist agitation to a crisis. 拥护独立宣言，是分裂活动发展成最后危机。
2）"American Crisis" 《美国危机》，signed "Common Sense" (p31,第一段）The Case of the Officers of Excise税务员问题；Common Sense常识；American Cri sis美国危机；Rights of Man人的权利：Downfall of Despotism专制体制的崩溃；The Age of Reason理性时代3、Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰弗逊1）drafted the Declaration of Independence. 起草了独立宣言2）与清教徒不同，主张追求幸福。