广东自考 英语教育本科 美国文学史资料
美国文学史及选读自考考点
The literature of colonial AmericaJohn Smith1)The 1st American writer2)作品“reports of exploration”have been de scribed as the 1st distinctly American literatur e written in English, attracted Pilgrims(朝圣者) &the Puritans.3)1608,写了封信“A true Relation of Such O ccurance&Accidents of Note as Hath Happen ed in Virginia Since the 1st planting of That c olony”4)1612,第二本书“A map of Virginia :with a Description of the Country”5)他一共出版了八本书,公司破产以后做了向导,he sought a post as guide to the pilgrims. 1624,“General History of Virginia”讲述How the Indian princess Pocahonats Saved him. 6)他早期记录和反映的思想慢慢演变成了美国历史的基本思想,这种思想推动了美国边疆的西移。
7)早期英格兰文学主要关于theological(神学), moral(道德), historical and political.The Puritans in New England embraced hards hips, together with the discipline of a harsh church.They had toughness, purpose and cha racter, they grappled strongly with challenges they set themselves.他们的基本价值观:hard w ork, thrift, piety and sobriety.(也是美国作品的主导思想)William Bradford & John Withrop1)William Bradford:“The History of Plymouth Plantation”(从1630年写起,关于一群清教徒从英国出发到Amsterdam最后到新大陆的过程)Cotton Mather评价:“a common blessing and father to them all.”2)John Withrop:“The History of New England”(1630,登上Arbella号去Massachusetts并keep a journal and to the rest of his life.1826年出版)3)Puritans-Puritans wanted to make pure their religious beliefs and practices.The Puritan was Would-be purifier.-Looked upon themselves as a choosen peolple.-Anyone who challenged their way of life wa s opposing God’s will and was not to be ac cepted.-They were zealous in defense of their own beliefs but often intolerant of the beliefs of others-Made laws about private morality as well as public behavior Nathaniel Hawthorne called them“stern and black browed Puritans”John Cotton & Roger Williams1)John Cotton:The patriarch(教父) of New England2)Roger Williams:“A key into the language of Ameriaca”&“A help to the language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England”(美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南)Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor1)Anne Bradstreet:One of the most interest ing of the early poet.(1630乘Arbella到Massa chusetts)“The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in Ameri ca”(在美洲诞生的第十个缪斯)2)Edward Taylor:The best of the Puritan Po ets(作品大部分关于宗教)The Literature of Reason And Revolution1.American Independence WarNoah Webster评价:American must be as ind ependent in literature as she is inpolitics, as famous for arts as for arms.(文化上的独立,艺术上的著名)②Thomas Jefferson:”Declaration of Independ ence(独立宣言)”2.Enlightenment 启蒙运动3文学上独立的代表作1785, Jefferson:“Notes on the State of Virginia.“1791, Bartram:“Travels”Benjamin Franklin 1706-17901)In the colonial period, the only good Ame rican author before the Revolutionary War. -Born in Boston曾创办“Pennsylvania Gazatte”, 1732-1758出版”Poor Richard’s Almanac coll ocation of proverbs”2)founded the Junto&Established America’s first circulating library& founded the Universit y of PennsylvaniaAided Jefferson in writting the Declaration of Independence.3)The 1st major writers.4)“Autobiography”,编辑了美国第一份殖民杂志“General magazine”朋友评价:His shadow lies heavier than any ot her man’s on this young nation.Thomas Paine 1739-18091)“Great Commoner of Mankind”(人类最平凡的人)&Pamphleteer(小册作家)2)1772, he wrote his 1st pamphlet“The case of the Officers of the Excise”1774, Franklin给他写推荐信“an ingenious wort hy young man”He is a political satirist of genius(政治讽刺的天才)3)1776.1.10 His famous pamphlet“Common Sense”appeared, 署名by an Englishman(书中大胆拥护独立宣言各主张,因此成了美国独立革命思想的代言人)4)1776-1783,“American Crisis”signed“Com mon Sense”在部队被广泛传阅鼓舞士气5)1791-1792,“Rights of Man”6)在法国因反对路易十六和恐怖统治入狱,1793-1 795,“The Age of Reason”a deistic treatise a dvocating a rationalistic view of religion.(注重宗教观念的理性)7)最后一部作品“Agrarian Justice”Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826美国历史上最为广泛影响的人物,同Franklin一样具人道主义精神1)1776,with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R Livingston, hedrafted the Declaration of Independence. 2)1800起担任两届美国总统,建立the Library of Congress,1819创建the university of Virginia 并担任第一任校长Philip Freneau1)The most outstanding writter of the Post-Revolutionary period. Double role as poet an d political journalist.2)1770,“The Power of Fancy”因出版有关讽刺英国人作品而被认可3)1776,“The House of Night”(the Gothic mood)F·L·帕蒂称它为“the 1st distinctly romant ic note heard in America”and“The Beauties of Santa Cruz”4)1781,“The British Prison Ship”5)1786,他的早期作品被收录在“The Poems of Philip Freneau Written Chiefly During the Lat e War”6)1788,“Miscellaneous Works”.1791,with Jefferson’s support“National Gaz ette”campaigned against the opinions of the“Gazette of the United States”7)教材作品“The Wild Honey Suckle”“The In dian Burying Ground”“To a Caty-Did”The Literature of Romanticism1)1828年Andrew Jackson as the 7th Presiden t of the United States标志Virginia王朝的结束1 861年开始Civil War.’[[[‘2)美国早期的主要文学形式,被长篇、短篇故事和诗歌所取代novels, short stories, and poems re placed sermons and manifestos as America’s principal literary forms.Washington Irving 1783-18591)He was the 1st great prose stylist of Amer ican romanticism familiar style.第一位浪漫主义散文文体作家,大众化风格2)He was the 1st great belletrist, writing alw ays for pleasure, and to produce pleasure.第一个不折不扣的纯文学作家,他写作只是为了快乐和创造快乐3)1819-1820,His“Sketch Book”appeared t he 1st modern short stories and the 1st great American juvenile literature to write good hi story and biography as literary entertainment.第一部《见闻札记》是现代文学史上的第一部短篇小说,也是美国第一部伟大的青少年文学读物,他把历史与传说当作娱乐形式来写。
美国文学史期末考试资料
一.殖民时期的美国:Colonial America 17c 早 --------- 18c 末1. 从英国探险者和殖民者在新大陆的作品开始,描述他们在新大陆真实而精力充沛的冒险。
2. 另一类为淸教作品Philip Freneau 菲利普•费瑞诺:第•位美国抒情诗人兼记者^Father of American Poe^X 美国 诗歌之父)Puritanism:淸教主义American Puritanism influences on American literature:1. Idealism and optimism 理想主义和乐观主义2. Symbolism 象征主义3. Simplicity.简洁1. Ed wards 爱徳兹:die first modern American can the country's last medieval man.v tlie current of Transcendentalism, originating in tlie piety of the Puritans, vecoimng a philosophy in Jonathan Edwards, passing through Emerson.''超验论由清教徒的虔诚演变而来在乔纳森•爱徳华兹的哲理得到发展继而传给爱默生2 Franklin 富兰克林Edwards & Franklin:Edwards represents the upper levels of the American mind ・1•不同点Franklin represents the lower levers. Tradition of religious idealism 理想主义的宗教信仰 2 the American Puritanism is a two facetedthe levelheaded common sense —明智冷静的判断力 F3. The one was as a good Puritan as the other*.两人均是虔诚的宗教徒American Romanticism:浪漫主义1. Irving 欧文:美国第一个获得国际声誉的浪漫主义作家①The first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. ② The father of American litcraturc.Rip Van WinkleThe Skatch Book 见闻札记The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 睡觉的传说The Sketch Book 见闻札记1) . The short story as a genre in American literature 开创美国短片小说先河2) . The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American Romanticism 标志着浪漫主义的开 始 “ zIrving stories are among the best of American short stories 美国短篇小说之最Irving's charecters:a.Irving's style can be described as beautifiil.lt is imitative,but he was a hightly skillful writerb.He avoids moralizing as much as possible 尽量避免说教 c. He is good at enveloping his stories in an atmosphere •擅长将故事在一个内涵丰富的环 境下A rare genius in human historyJack of all trades (杂家) 1) He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the U.S.: ①TheDeclaration of Independence ②The Treaty of Alliance with France 美法 同盟条约 ① The Treaty of Peace with Englan 英美和平条约 ©Constitution "2) His claim to a place in literature rests chiefly on his Poor Richard'sAlmanac (P34几句需言看)Lightning-rod fire department-street and AiHobio^whv. lighting-bifocal w as the first of its kind in litcraUirc •(文学史上该类作品开山之classes接.明朗) 作)reveal the pattern of Puritan: simplicity, directness, concision.(简单、展开d.His characters are vivid and true 生动,貞实e.Humorf.The finished and musical language 音乐般优美的语言2. Cooper 库珀1). He was one of the first authors to write about the American Westward movement.2). "LeutherstockinQ Tales、'《皮袜子故事集》主人公NaMy BunppoThe Pioneers《拓荒者》The Last of the Mohicans《最后的莫西丁人》The prairie《大章原》The Pathfinder《探鹿者》The Deerslayer《猎鹿者》3)He was a mythic writer. And he was good at inventing plots・神话作家,编造故事的能力The greatness of cooperI ・ He created a myth about the formative period of American nation 创造美国格式时代的神话2.He wrote with increasing awareness of the importance to fiction of the Western Frontier.3.He was at once devoted to principles of social order and responsive to the idea of nature and freedom in the eildemess他马上接受了新的社会规则,对自然和子偶的理念做出了回应4.He is a mythic writer and good at inventing plots・New England Transcendentalism:超验主义DefinitionAuthors: Emerson & Thoreau; Hawthorne & Melville; Whiteman & Dickenson; Allen Poe1 ・ Emerson:强调"oversouL (超灵) 作品:1 ・NaWe 2・The人〃?幺川口〃2 Schohw 3・Self・“liunceNature regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism 新英格兰超验主义的圣经The A〃疋Scholar regarded as American s Declaration of Intellecnial Independence Emerson s 文艺观点optimistic1)True poetry and true art should ennoble .It should serve as a moral purification and a passage toward organic unity and higher reality真正的诗歌和艺术是髙贵•的,是为净化灵魂使之达到有机统一儿通向更髙的现实而服务的、、2)Emerson places emphasis on ideas, symbols, and imaginative words.他注重信念,象征和有想象力的词语3)As to theme, emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a long poem in itself, to celebrate the life of today.他号召美国作家为美国和今天的生活写作,对他来说,豹本身就是一首长诗Emerson's写作特点He placed emphasis on spirit or the oversoul. which is the most important thing in the university He stressed the importance of the individual.He regarded Nature as the symbol of spirit・Emerson's importance in the intellectual history of America lies in the fact that he make the nation have its own feature.标志着美国文化有了自己的地位,特色2.Thoreau 梭罗强调^nature''His masterpiece,瞅〃伽.is the first and foremost, is the book on self-culture and human perfectibility.最董要的,这是一本关于自我修养与完善的书。
美国文学史整理资料
Colonial Period 殖民时期Background: Puritanism 背景:清教主义1. features of Puritanism 特征宿命论:上帝决定一切之前发生的事情(1). Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.(2). Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation. 原罪论:人类生来就是邪恶,这原罪(3). Total depravity 性恶说有限的赎罪:可以通过一代一代(4). Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.只有选举才能得救2. Influence 影响(1). A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature. 一群好的品质——努力工作、节俭、虔诚、节制(严重的和深思熟虑的)美国文学的影响。
(2). It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden. 它导致了永恒的神话。
所有的文学是基于一个神话——伊甸园。
(3). Symbolism: the America n puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American. 象征意义:美国清教徒的隐喻认知模式主要是在调用形成一个文学象征这是典型的美国人。
英语自考《英美文学选读》的资料
一莎士比亚In 1593 and 1594, he published two narrative poems(叙事诗), Venus and Adonis(维纳斯和安东尼斯) and The Rape of Lucrece(鲁克丽斯受辱记).Four period:First: The first period of Shakespeare's dramatic career was one of apprenticeship(学徒期). He wrote five history plays: Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III(亨利六世上,中,下),Richard III(理查三世), and Titus Andronicus(泰托斯.安东尼); and four comedies: The Comedy of Errors(错误的喜剧), The Two Gentlemen of Verona(维洛那二绅士), The Taming of the Shrew(训悍记), and Love's Labour's Lost(爱的徒劳).Second: In the second period, Shakespeare's style and approach became highly individualized. By constructing a complex pattern between different characters and between appearance and reality, Shakespeare made subtle comments on a variety of human foibles. In this period he wrote five histories: Richard II(理查二世), King John(约翰王), Henry IV, Parts I and II(亨利四世上部和下部), and Henry V(亨利五世); six comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream(仲夏夜之梦), The Merchant of Venice(威尼斯商人),Much Ado About Nothing(无事生非), As You Like It(皆大欢喜), Twelfth Night(第十二夜), and The Merry Wives of Windsor(温莎的风流娘们儿); and two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet(罗密欧与朱丽叶) and Julis Caesar(裘里斯.凯撒).Third: Shakespeare's third period includes his greatest tragedies and his so-called dark comedies. The tragedies of this period are Hamlet(哈姆雷特), Othello(奥赛罗), King Lear(李尔王), Macbeth(麦克白), Angony and Cleopatra(安东尼与克利奥佩特拉), Troilus and Cressida(克利奥拉纳斯), and Coriolanus(). The two comedies are All's Well That Ends Wells(终成眷属)and Measure for Measure(一报还一报).Last: The last period of Shakespeare's work includes his principal romantic tragicomedies(浪漫悲喜剧): Pericles(伯利克里), Cymbeline(辛白林), The Winter's Tale(冬天的故事) and The Tempest(暴风雨); and his two final plays: Henry VIII(亨利八世) and The Two Noble Kinsmen(两位贵族亲戚).Shakespeare's authentic non-dramatic poetry consist of two long narrative poems: Venus and Adonis(维纳斯和安东尼斯) and The Rape of Lucrece(鲁克丽斯受辱记), and his sequence of 154 sonnets. Shakespeare's sonnets are the only direct expression of the poet's own feelings.With three exceptions (99,126,154) Shakespeare writes his sonnets in the popular English form, first fully developed by Surrey, of three quatrains and a couplet(三节四行诗加一节偶句).Shakespeare's history plays are mainly written under the principle that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity(在一个强大英明的君主统治下的国家,统一是非常必要的).The three history plays on the reign of Henry VI are the beginning of Shakespeare's epic treatment.The first and second parts of Henry IV are undoubtedly the most widely read among his history plays. It reveals a troubled reign in the 15th century. Shakespeare presents the patriotic spirit when mourning over the loss of English territories in France. He also dramatizes the class struggle between the oppressors and the oppressored during Jack Cade's rising of 1450. Furthermore, he condemns the War of the Roses waged by the feudal barons in which innocent people were killed. Here Shakespeare has liberated himself from any imitations of the contempory example .In his romantic comedies, Shakespeare takes an optimistic attitude toward love and youth, and the romantic elements are brought into full play.(在他的浪漫喜剧中,莎士比亚以乐观的态度对待爱情与青春,并将流浪色彩渲染到极致。
自考英美文学选读(美国文学史)
PART TWO: AMERICAN LITERATUREChapter1 The Romantic Period1.主要作家及其作品:i.Washington Irving:The Sketch Book; Rip Van Winkle;The Legend of Sleepy Hollowii.Ralph Waldo Emerson:Essays; The American Scholar; Self-Reliance;The Over-Soul; The Poet; Experience; Nature iii.Nathaniel Hawthorne:Mosses from an Old Manse; The Scarlet Letter;The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales;The House of the Seven Gables;The Blithedale Romance;The Marble Fauniv.Walt Whitman:Leaves of Grass; There was a Child Went Forth;Drum Taps; Cavalry Crossing a Ford; Song of Myself;When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’dv.Herman Melville:Moby-Dick; Billy Budd; Typee; Omoo;Mardi; Redburn; White Jacket.2.清教主义Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. As the word itself hints,Puritans wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They felt that the Church of England was too close to the Church of Rome in doctrine form of worship,and organization of authority. American Puritans,like their brothers back in England,were idealists,believing that the church should be restored to complete "purity". They accepted the doctrine of predestination,original sin and total depravity,and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. But in the grim struggle for survival that followed immediately after their arrival in America,they became more and more practical,as indeed they had to be. Puritans were noted for a spirit of moral and religious earnestness that determinated their whole way of life. As a culture heritage,Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind and American values. American Puritanism also had a conspicuously noticeable and an enduring influence on American literature. It had become,to some extent,so much a state of mind,so much a part of the national cultural atmosphere,rather than a set of tenets.3.超验主义Transcendentalism has been defined philosophical1y as "the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively,or of attaining knowledge transcendingthe reach of the senses." Emerson once proclaimed in a speech,"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism inc1ude the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and,therefore,self-re1iant. The transcendentalists reacted against the cold,rigid rationalism of Unitarianism in Boston. They adhered to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation ,the innate goodness of man,and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.4.象征主义5.自由诗Whitman is also radically innovative in terms of the form of his poetry. He adopted "free verse," that is,poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. A looser and more open-ended syntactical structure is frequently favored. Lines and sentences of different lengths are left lying side by side just as things are,undisturbed and separate. There are few compound sentences to draw objects and experiences into a system of hierarchy. Whitman was the first American to use free verse extensively. By means of "free verse," Whitman turned the poem into an open field,an area of vital possibility where the reader can allow his own imagination to play.6.爱默生的超验主义思想及他的自然观In his essays, Emerson put forward his philosophy of the over-soul, the importance of the Individual, and Nature. Emerson rejected both the formal religion of the churches and the Deistic philosophy. Emerson and other Transcendentalists believed that there should be an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal ―over-soul,‖ since the over-soul is an all-pervading power from which all things come from and of which all are a part. Emerson is affirmative about man’s intuitive knowledge, with which a man can trust himself to decide what is right and to act accordingly. The ideal individual should be a self-reliant man.. he means to convince people that the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite. Emerson’s nature is emblematic of the spiritual world, alive with God’s overwhelming presence; hence, it exercises a healthy and restorative influence on human mind. ―God back to nature, sink yourself back into its influence and you’ll become spiritually whole again.‖ By employing nature as a big symbol of the Spirit, or God, or the over-soul. Emerson has brought the Puritan Legacy of symbolism to its perfection. 7.《小伙子布朗》中的寓言和象征In ―Young Goodman Brown,‖ Hawthorne set out to prove that everyone possesses some evil secret. The story illustrates Hawthorne's allegorical theme of human evil. In the manner of its concern with guilt and evil,it exemplifies what Milville called the" power of blackness" in Hawthorne's work. In "Young Goodman Brown," he sets out to prove that everyone possesses some evil secret. "Evil is thenature of mankind." Its hero,a naive young man who accepts both society in general and his fellow men as individuals worth his regard,is confronted with the vision of human evil in one terrible night,and becomes thereafter distrustful and doubtful.Allegorically,our protagonist,becomes an Everyman named Brown,a "young man" who will be aged in one night by an adventure that makes everyone in this world a fallen idol.However, The story is manipulated in such a way that we as readers feel that Hawthorne poses the question of Good and Evil in man but withholds his answer,and he does not permit himself to determine whether the events of the night of trial are real or the mere figment of a dream.8.霍桑的清教思想和他人性本恶的观点As we can see, Hawthorne’s literary world turns out to be a most disturbed, tormented and problematical one possible to imagine. This has much to do with his ―black‖ vision of life and human beings. According to Hawthorne, ―There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity. One source of evil that Hawthorne is concerned most is overreaching intellect, which usually refers to someone who is too proud, too sure of himself. He believed that ―the wrong doing of one generation lives into the successive ones,‖ and often wondered if he might have inherited some of their guilt. This sensibility led to his understanding of evil being at the very core of human life., which is typical of the Calvinistic belief that human beings are basically depraved and corrupted, hence, they should obey God to atone for their sins.9.麦尔维尔长篇小说《白鲸》的象征意义Moby-Dick is not merely a whaling tale or sea adventure,it is also a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe,a spiritual exploration into man's deep reality and psychology.Like Hawthorne,Melville is a master of allegory and symbolism. He uses allegory and symbolism in Moby-Dick to present its mighty theme. Instead of putting the battle between Ahab and the big whale into simple statements,he used symbols,that is,objects or persons who represent something else. Different people on board the ship are representations of different ideas and different social and ethnic groups;facts become symbols and incidents acquire universal meanings;the Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truth. The white whale,Moby Dick,symbolizes nature for Melville,for it is complex,unfathomable,malignant,and beautiful as well. For the character Ahab,however,the whale represents only evil. Moby Dick is like a wall,hiding some unknown,mysterious things behind. Ahab wills the whole crew on the Pequod to join him in the pursuit of the big whale so as to pierce the wall,to root out the evil,but only to be destroyed by evil,in this case,by his own consuming desire,his madness. For the author,as well as for the reader and Ishmael,the narrator,Moby Dick is still a mystery,an ultimate mystery of the universe,inscrutable and ambivalent,and the voyage of the mind will forever remain a search,not a discovery,of the truth.10.惠特曼《草叶集》的结构(自由诗)、主题、语言特色1. The themes in Whitman's poetry:His poetry is filled with optimistic expectation and enthusiasm about new things and new epoch. Whitman believed that poetry could play a vita1 part in the process of creating a new nation. It could enab1e Americans to celebrate their release from the Old World and the colonia1 rule. And it could also help them understand their new status and to define themse1ves in the new wor1d of possibi1ities. Hence,the abundance of themes in his poetry voices freshness. He shows concern for the whole hard-working people and the burgeoning life of cities. Pursuit of love and happiness is approved of repeatedly and affectionately in his lines. Sexual 1ove,a rather taboo topic of the time,is displayed candidly as something adorable. The individual person and his desires must be respected.2.Leaves of GrassWalt Whitman is a poet with a strong sense of mission,having devoted all his life to the creation of the "single" poem,Leaves of Grass.(1)the title :It is significant that Whitman entitled his book Leaves of Grass . He said that where there is earth,where there is water,there is grass. Grass,the most common thing with the greatest vitality,is an image of the poet himself,a symbol of the then rising American nation and an embodiment of his ideals about democracy and freedom.(a)theme:In this giant work,openness,freedom,and above all,individua1ism(the belief that the rights and freedom of individual people are most important)are all that concerned him. Whitman brings the hard-working farmers and laborers into American literature ,attack the slavery system and racial discrimination. In this book he also extols nature,democracy,labor and creation ,and sings of man's dignity and equality,and of the brightest future of mankind . Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass sing of the "en-masse" and the self as well.(b)the poet's essentia1 purposeHis aim was nothing less than to express some new poetica1 feelings and to initiate a poetic tradition in which difference shou1d be recognized. The genuine participation of a poet in a common cultural effort was,according to Whitman,to behave as a supreme individualist;however,the poet's essentia1 purpose was to identify his ego with the world,and more specifically with the democratic "en-masse" of America,which is established in the opening lines of "Song of Myself".3.Whitman's poetic style and languageTo dramatize the nature of these new poetical fee1ings,Whitman employed brand-new means in his poetry,which would first be discerned in his style and language.(1)Whitman's poetic style is marked,first of a1l,by the use of the poetic "I." Whitman becomes all those people in his poems and yet still remains "Walt Whitman",hence a discovery of the self in the other with such an identification. Insuch a manner,Whitman invites his readers to participate in the process of sympathetic identification.(3)Whitman is conversational and casual,in the fluid,expansive,and unstructured style of talking. However,there is a strong sense of the poems being rhythmical. The reader can feel the rhythm of Whitman's thought and cadences of his feeling. Parallelism and phonetic recurrence at the beginning of the lines also contribute to the musicality of his poems.(4)Whitman's languageContrary to the rhetoric of traditional poetry,Whitman's is relatively simple and even rather crude. Most of the pictures he painted with words are honest,undistorted images of different aspects of America of the day. The particularity about these images is that they are unconventional in the way they break down the social division based on religion,gender,class,and race. One of the most often-used methods in Whitman's poems is to make colors and images fleet past the mind's eye of the reader. Another characteristic in Whitman's language is his strong tendency to use oral English. Whitman's vocabulary is amazing. He would use powerfu1,colorful,as well as rarely-used words,words of foreign origin and sometimes even wrong words.美国现实主义时期1.Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn;The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County;Innocents Abroad; The Gilded Age2.Henry James: The American; Daisy Miller;The Europeans; The Portrait of A Lady;What Maisie Knows; The Wings of the Dove;The Ambassadors; The Golden Bowl; The Art to Fiction3.Emily Dickinson:4. Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie; American Tragedy1.What is Realism?In art and literature, Realism refers to an attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or to represent figures exactly as they act or appear in life. Realism emerged as a literary movement in Europe in the 1850s. In reaction to Romanticism, realistic writers should set down their observations impartially and objectively. They insisted on accurate documentation, sociological insight, and avoidance of poetic diction and idealization. The subjects were to be taken from everyday life, preferably from lower-class life. Realism entered American literature after the Civil War. William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James were the pioneers of realism in the U.S.1.What is Naturalism? (or American Naturalism)In literature, the term refers to the theory that literary composition should aim at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man. The movement is an outgrowth of 19th –century scientic thought, following in general the biological determinism of Darwin’s theory, or the economic determinism of Karl Marx. American Naturalism is a more advanced stage of realism toward the close of the 19th century. The American naturalists accepted the more negative implications of Darwin’s theory and used it to account for the behavior of those characters in literary works who were conceived as more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces. And consciously or unconsciously the American naturalists followed the French novelist and theorist Emile Zola's cal l that the 1iterary artist ―must operate with characters, passions, human and social data as the chemist and the physicist work on inert bodies, as the physiologist works on living bodies.‖ They chose their subjects from the lower ranks of society and portrayed the people who were demonstrably victims of society and nature. And one of the most familiar themes in American Naturalism is the theme of human ―bestiality‖, especially as an explanation of sexual desire.Artistically, naturalistic writings are usually unpo1ished in language, lacking in academic skills and unwieldly in structure. Philosophically, the naturalists believe that the real and true is always partially hidden from the eyes of the individual, or beyond his control. Devoid of rationality and caught in a process in which he is but a part, man cannot fully understand, let alone contro1, the world he lives in; hence, he is left with no freedom of choice.In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author's tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more detached, ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a different philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence. Notable writers of naturalistic fiction were Frank Norris, Sherwood Anderson, and Theodore Driser.2.The distinction between Realism and NaturalismNaturalism is evolved from realism when the author's tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more detached, ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a different philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence.The distinction lies, first of all, in the fact that Realism is concerned directly with what is absorbed by the senses; Naturalism, a term more properly applied to literature, attempts to apply scientific theories to art. Second, Naturalism differs from Realism in adding an amoral attitude to the objective presentation of life. Naturalistic writers, adopting Darwin’s biological determinism and Marx’s economic determinism, regard human behavior as controlled by instinct, emotion, or social and economic conditions, and reject free will. Third, Naturalism had an outlook often bleaker than that of Realism, and it added a dimension of predetermined fate that rendered human will ultimately powerless.3.What is (Social) Darwinism?Social Darwinism is a belief that societies and individual human beings compete in astruggle for existence in which natural selection results in ―struggle of the fittest.‖ Social Darwinists base their beliefs on theories of evolution developed by British naturalist Charles Darwin. Social Darwinists typically deny that they advocate a ―law of jungle.‖ But most propose arguments that justify imbalances of power between individuals, races, and nations because they consider some more fit to survive than others. The theory had produced a big impact on Naturalism.马克吐温1.Twain as a local coloristTwain is also known as a local colorist, who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, and other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on. Consequently, the rich material of his boyhood experience on the Mississippi became the endless resources for his fiction, and the Mississippivalley and the West became his major theme. Unlike James and Howe1ls, Mark Twain wrote about the lower-class people, because they were the people he knew so we1l ancl their 1ife was the one he himself had lived. Moreover he successfully used local color and historical settings to i1lustrate and shed light on the contemporary societyAnother fact that made Twain unique is his magic power with language, his use of vernacular. His words are col1oquial, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simp1e, even ungrammatical, which is typical of the spoken 1anguage. Mark Twain's humor is remarkable, too. It is fun to read Twain to begin with, for most of his works tend to be funny, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks, etc., and some of them are actually tall ta1es.(2) The novel’s theme, characterization of ―Huck‖ and the novel’s social significance: Theme: The novel is a vindication of what Mark Twain called ― the damned human race.‖ That is the theme of man’s inhumani ty to man---of human cruelty, hypocrisies, dishonesties, and moral corruptions. Mark Twain’s thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is best known for Mark Twain’s wonderful characterization of ―Huck,‖ a typical American boy whom its creator described as a boy with ―a sound heart and a deformed conscience,‖ and remarkable for the raft’s journey down the Mississippi river, which Twain used both realistically and symbolically to shape his book into an organic whole.Through the eyes of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed and at the same time we are deeply impressed by Mark Twain’s thematic contrasts between i nnocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization.黛西米勒的主题和主要人物的性格分析1.The theme of the novelDaisy Miller is one of James’s early works that dealt with the international theme, i.e.,to set against a large international background, usual1y between Europe and America, and centered on the confrontation of the two different cu1tures with two different groups of peop1e representing two different value systems: American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence and the moral and psychological complications arising therefrom.2.Characterization of Daisy MillerIn this novel, the ―Americanness ‖in Daisy is revealed by her relatively unreserved manners. Daisy Miller, a typical young American girl who goes to Europe and affronts her destiny. The unsophisticated girl is cruelly wronged because of the confrontation between the two value systems. Miller has ever since become the American Girl in Europe, a celebrated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the New World. However, innocence, the keynote of her character, turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality and her defiance of social taboos in the Old World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between two different cultures. In this novel James’s sympathy for Daisy could be easily felt when we think of a tender flower crushed by the harsh winter in Rome.3.The content of this selection: Daisy has just arrived at Switzerland with her family and meets Winterborne for the first time. Two days later Daisy goes alone with Winterborne on an excursion to an old castle, which is soon in the air among theby its narration from the point of view of the American youth Winterborne狄金森诗歌的主题结构及艺术特色The thematic concerns and the original artistic features of Dickinson's poetry: 1.Themes: Dicksinson’s poems are usually based on her own experiences, her sorrows and joys. But within her litlle lyrics Dickinson addresses those issues that concern the whole human beings, which include religion, death, immortality, love, and nature.2.Artistic features: Her poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines. In her poetry there is a particular stress pattern, in which dashes are used as a musica1 device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis. Most of her poems borrow the repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns, with two lines of four-beat meter alternating with two lines of three-beat meter. A master of imagery that makes the spiritual materialize in surprising ways, Dickinson managed manifold variations within her simple form: She used imperfect rhymes, subtle breaks of rhythm, and idiosyncratic syntax and punctuation to create fascinating word puzzles, which have produced greatly divergent interpretations over the years. Dickinson’s irregular or sometimes inverted sentence structure also confuses readers. However, her poetic idiom is noted for its laconic brevity, directness and plainness. Her poems are usually short, rarely more than twenty lines, and many of them are centered on a single image or symbo1 and focused on one subject matter. Due to her deliberate sec1usion, her poems tend to be very personal and meditative. She frequently uses personae to render the tone more familiar to the reader, and personification to vivifysome abstract ideas. Dickinson's poetry, despite its ostensible formal simplicity, is remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness; and her limited private world has never confined the limitless power of her creativity and imagination.美国现代时期1.Ezra Pound: The Cantos; In a Station of the Metro.2.Robert Lee Frost: The Road Not Taken; Stopping by Woods on aSnowy Evening3.Eugene O’Neill: Beyond the Horizon; The Emperor Jones; The HairyApe;All God’s Chillun Got Wings; Desire under the Elms;Anna Christie; The Great God Brown; Lazarus Laughed;Strange Interlude; The Iceman Cometh;Long Day’s Journey Into Night.4. F Scott Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise; The Beautiful andDamned;The Great Gatsby; Tender is the Night;Flappers and Philosophers; Tales of the Jazz Age;All the Sad Young Men; Taps at Reveille;Babylon Revisited.5.Ernest Hemingway: In Our Time; The Sun Also Rises;A farewell to Arms; For Whom the BellTolls;The Old Man and the Sea; Men Without Women.6.William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury; Light in August;Absalom, Absalom; Go Down, Moses;A Rose for Emily.1)The Imagist Movement and the artistic characteristics of imagist poems:Led by the American poet Ezra Pound,Imagist Movement is a poetic movement that flourished in the U.S. and England between 1909-1917. It advances modernism in arts which concentrates on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed to Romanticism,especially Tennyson's worldliness and high-flown language in poetry. Pound endorsed three main principles as guidelines for Imagism,including direct treatment of poetic subjects,elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words,and rhythmical composition should be composed with the phrasing of music,not a metronome. The primary Imagist objective is to avoid rhetoric and moralizing,to stick closely to the object or experience being described,and to move from explicit generalization. The leading poets are Ezra Pound,Wallace Stevens,wrence,etc.The characteristic products of the movement are more easily recognized than its theories defined;they tend to be short,composed of short lines of musical cadence rather than metrical regularity,to avoid abstraction,and to treat the imagewith a hard,clear precision rather than with overt symbolic intent. The influence of Japanese forms,tanka and haiku,is obvious in many. Most of the imagist poets wrote in free verse and they like to emply common speech. They stressed the freedom in the choice of subject matter and form.2)The Lost GenerationIt refers to,in general,the post-World WarⅠgeneration,but specifically a group of expatriate disillusioned intellectuals and artists,who experimented on new modes of thought and expression by rebelling against former ideals and values and replacing them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. The remark of Gertrude Stein,"You are all a lost generation,"addressed to Hemingway,was used as an epigraph to the latter's novel The Sun Also Rises,which brilliantly describes those expatriates who had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing. The generation was "lost" in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U.S. that seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial,materialistic,and emotional barren. The term embraces Hemingway,F. Scott Fitzgerald,Ezra Pound,E.E.Cummings,and many other writers who made Paris the center of their literary activities in the 1920s.3)What is Expressionism?Expressionism is used to describe the works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision,transforming nature rather than imitating it. In literature it is often considered a revolt against realism and naturalism,a seeking to achieve a psychological or spiritual reality rather than to record external events.In drama,the expressionist work was characterized by a bizarre distortion of reality. writers's concern was with general truths rather than with particular situations,hence they explored in their plays the predicaments of representative symbolic types rather than of fully developed individualized characters. Emphasis was laid not on the outer world,which is merely sketched in and barely defined in place or time,but on the internal,on an individual's mental state;hence the imitation of life is replaced in Expressionist drama by the ecstatic evocation of states of mind. In America,Eugene O'Neille's Emperor Jones,The Hairy Ape,etc. are typical plays that employ Expressionism4)The concept of "wasteland" in relation to the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literatureThe Waste Land is a poem written by T.S.Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of the contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair of the post-War era has appeared over and again in the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literature. Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the Jazz Age. Beneath the masks of relaxation and joviality,there was only sterility,meaninglessness and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance,。
美国文学史概述及选读复习资料
美国文学史American Literature in the colonical and Revolutionary:1.Benjamin Franklin(本杰明.富兰克林)2.hilip Freneau 菲利普·费瑞诺Benjamin Franklin(本杰明.富兰克林)1)"Poor Richard's Almanac" 穷人查理德的年鉴(以笔名Richard Sunders)2)“annual collection of proverbs “流行谚语集(It soon became the most popular bookof its kind, largely because of Franklin's shrewd humor, and first spread his reputation) 3)The Way to Wealth (Father Abraham’s Sermon)致富之道(as the “perface to Poor RichardImproved)4)The Autobiography自传(18世纪美国唯一流传至今的自传)5)Founded the Junto, a club for informal discussion of scientific, economic and politicalideas. 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.6)established America's first circulating library, founded the college--University ofPennsylvania. 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.7)first applied the terms "positive" and "negative" to electrical charges.8)Writer,printer,publisher,scientist,philanthropist,and diplomat,he was the most famousand respected private figure of his time.The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲;The British Prison Ship英国囚船;To the Memory of the Brave Americans纪念美国勇士-----同类诗中最佳;The Wild Honeysuckle野生的金银花;The Indian Burying Ground印第安人殡葬地(1)poet and political journalist 诗人和政治方面的新闻记者(2)perhaps the most outstanding writer of the post-revolutionary period.(3)has been called the "Father of American Poetry" 美国诗歌之父(4)Imaginative and melancholy treatment of nature and human life,and sharp satire against the British tyranny19th Century American LiteratureWashington Irving(华盛顿.欧文)1.James Fenimore Cooper(詹姆斯.芬尼莫.库珀)2.Nathaniel Hawthorne(纳萨尼尔.霍桑)3.Edgar Allan Poe (埃德加.阿伦.坡)4.Henry Daived Thoreau(亨利.戴维.梭罗)5.Herman Melville(赫尔曼.麦尔维尔)6.Walt Whiteman(沃尔特.惠特曼)The Rise of American Romanticism• One of the most important periods in the history of American literature, stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War(1861-65).• It started with the publication of Washington Irving's e T he h Sketch Book(1820) and ended with Whitman's s Leaves f of Grass(1855)..Romanticism的特点:frequently shared certain general characteristics, moral enthusiam,faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and apresumption that he natural world was a source of corruption.浪漫主义之间大多是相通的,都注重道德,强调个人主义价值观和直觉感受,并且认为自然是美的源头,人类社会是腐败之源。
美国文学史复习资料(DOC)
附:作者及作品(第一、二册)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 America”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。
B050206 英语教育 华师 广东自考真题 10101 10100 英国美国文学选读,自己整理
20150119 B050206 英语教育本科自考真题。
自己整理的。
英国文学选读题型:英国文学因为监考老师很严,我秒抄了题型,具体题目没有。
Sorry :-(1.Multiple Choice choose the best answer (20%).2.Cloze Fill in the blanks (10%)3.Choose T/F statement (10%)4.Answer briefly like writers, their masterpiece ect. (15%)5.Read passages (3 passages 30%) answer questions like ?6.Essay question (15%)美国文学选读题型:1.Multiple choice1.1which of the followings is written by Walt Whitman?A.The most of itB. Rights of manC. The song of HiawathaD. Song of myself1.2__’s famous essay”civil Disobedience” came from his experience in Jail. In this essay hestated his belief that no man should violate his conscience at the command of agovernment.B.Emerson B.HawthorneC.ThoreauD.Longfellow1.3In American literature,the 18th century was an age of__A.Colonial AmericaB.Reason and RevolutionC.RomanticismD.Realism.1.4Which of the following is not written by Carl Sandburg?A.ChicargoB.Cool tombsC.The harborD.To Helen.1.5 The Grapes of Wrath is generally regarded as __’s masterpiece?A.John SteinbeckB.Willam FaulknerC.F.scott FitzgeraldD.Ernest Hemingway.1.6 __has been called the “Father of American poerty”?A.Thomas TelfersonB.Thomas PaineC.Philip Freneau.D.Anne Bradstreet.1.7 ___ is the finest example of Henry James’s early work?A.Martin EdenB.The sea wolf c.The portrait of a lady后面由于时间关系大致记了题型The __第几___muse lately spring up in America is a…by Anne bradstreet.Which role 出现在scarlet letter中,选项给出了几个人名。
自考英语本科《英美文学选读》-美国现代时期一天全掌握
自考英语本科《英美文学选读》-美国现代时期一天全掌握The modern period 现代时期the second American Renaissance,the expatriate移居海外movement,the Lost Generation, 迷茫的一代a transformation from order to disorderSeize the day, enjoy the present, 及时行乐spiritual wasteland, collective unconscious,psychoanalysisImagist movement, Jazz Age应用名词解释:"迷惘的一代",意象派诗歌,象征主义,表现主义,意识流"荒原"意识在美国20世纪文学中的反映《地铁站一瞥》《盟约》《河商的妻子》:主题、意象、语言弗洛斯特的自然诗《摘苹果后》《未选择的路》《雪夜停马在林边》:主题、象征与比喻、语言《毛猿》第八场:主题结构、表现主义和象征主义手《了不起的盖茨比》第三章:主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格age:second half of the 19th century to early decades of the 20th centurybackground:(1)the U.S. has become the most powerful country(2)technological revolution(3)a decline in moral standard, a spiritual wasteland, feelings of fear, loss, disorientation and disillusionmentinfluencing ideas:(1)the same as English Modern period: Karl Marx, Darwin,Freud(2)stream of consciousness:modernism's features:literature: convey a vision of social breakdown and moral decaywriter: develop techniques that could represent a break with the past. modernistic works are discontinuity and fragmentation The differences between Modernism America and England(1)American writers emphasize the concrete sensory images or details as the direct conveyor of experience(2)modern fiction employ the first narration or confine the reader to the "central consciousness" or one character‘s point of viewcommon ground: directness, compression, vividness, sparing of wordsThe idea of “seize the day” or “enjoy the present ” was pervasive, as opposed to placing all hope in the future.“及时行乐”的思想十分横行,他们不把希望寄托在将来。
美国文学史考试开卷资料
原文:THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF by Washington Irving 作者自述我总喜爱游览新奇美景,观赏奇风异俗。
幼年之时,我便四处漫游,走过不少地方,深入故土的穷乡僻壤,作一番探索。
为此,父母常感惊恐,不过公告传报员1[1]却受益不少。
及至少年,观察范围更趋广泛。
每逢假日下午,我便畅游四周。
由此,历史上或传说中的著名地方,我无不知晓。
哪里有过凶杀抢劫,哪里出现过幽灵,我均能一一告知。
我去邻近的村庄,观察其风俗习惯,与贤明之士和不凡人物交谈,从而知识大增。
在一个漫长的夏日,我甚至远走他乡,爬上一座高山,极目远眺,凝视尚未去过的陌生地带。
目睹我所居住的地球广阔无垠,我惊叹不已。
我年岁愈增,愈加喜欢漫游。
种种游记书籍,令我爱不释手,读得废寝忘食,以致把学校日常功课忽略。
我多么渴望在风和日丽之际,漫步码头,看只只船儿远去。
我心驰神往,凝视它们愈来愈小的风帆,想象中随之漂向天涯海角。
此种爱好,当时不过朦朦胧胧;以后读书更多,思想更广,爱好亦更具有理性,更加明确。
我到美国各地游览。
但我并非仅喜爱美丽风光——果真如此,便毋须去国外旅游,因自然赐予美国的妩媚,并不少于其他国家。
美国有辽阔的湖水,银波闪闪;有巍峨的群山,色彩鲜明;有富饶的山谷,植物茂密,鸟兽众多;有巨大的瀑布,在幽静的山中隆隆作响;有广袤的平原,草木青葱起伏,天然而成;有深广的河流,庄严肃穆地流向海洋;有人迹罕至的森林,宏伟壮观;有蓝蓝的天空,夏日彩云飞舞,阳光灿烂,魅力无穷。
不,美国人若欲观赏壮丽美景,美国已绰绰有余,无需他求了。
然而,欧洲自有其迷人之处——它能给人以历史与诗意的联想。
那里不乏艺术杰作,上流社会生活风雅,当地古老习俗奇异非凡。
不错,我的祖国朝气蓬勃,前程似锦;而欧洲历史悠久,其留传的珍品丰富多彩。
即使一座座废墟,也在述说着一个个动人的历史故事。
每一块朽石即是一部编年史。
凡功名远扬之处,我均渴盼一游,似欲步一步古人后尘,流连于坍塌的城堡,面对摇摇欲坠的高塔凝目遐想——简言之,我欲脱身于平凡的现实,沉醉在古昔朦胧的壮丽之中。
学历类《自考》自考专业(英语)《英美文学选读》考试试题及答案解析
学历类《自考》自考专业(英语)《英美文学选读》考试试题及答案解析姓名:_____________ 年级:____________ 学号:______________1、Opposition leaders will be watching carefully to see how the Prime Minister ________ the crisis.A、handlesB、conductsC、observesD、directs正确答案:A答案解析:A应付,对付,控制B引导,进行,实施C观察,监测,遵守D指导,监督2、Now many major employers are beginning to demand _______ the completion of schoolA、morethanB、ratherthanC、otherthanD、betterthan正确答案:A答案解析:morethan:多于,不只。
句意:现在很多雇主开始不仅仅要求学业的完成。
3、In the original test,all the animals in a test group are given a substance _______ half of them dieA、unlessB、untilC、lestD、provided正确答案:B答案解析:本题考查词义辨析。
until:直到。
符合句意,表示givenasubstance持续到halfofthemdie。
4、Nobody but you _______ what he said.A、agreeswithB、agreesoutC、agreewithD、agreeto正确答案:A答案解析:主语为nobody时,谓语动词用单数,如果主语被but,aswellas,with等短语修饰,谓语仍与主语的数保持一致。
该题易误选C、D,选D的原因在于词组记忆不清,用介词to时之后应加具体项目。
2024年自考-自考专业(英语)-英美文学选读考试历年真题常考点试题4带答案
2024年自考-自考专业(英语)-英美文学选读考试历年真题常考点试题带答案(图片大小可任意调节)第1卷一.单选题(共20题)1.It was his masterpiece The Great Gatsby that made( )one of the greatest American novelists.A. FitzgeraldB.William FaulknerC.Ernest HemmingwayD.Gertrude Steinbeck2.In 1920,( )published his first novel This Side of Paradise which was,to some extent,his own story.A.F·Scott FitzgeraldB.Ernest HemingwayC.William FaulknerD.Emily Dickinson3.“The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one- eighth of it being above wa ter. ” This “iceberg ” analogy is put forward by( ).A.Mark TwainB.Ezra PoundC.William FaulknerD.Ernest Hemingway4.Now many major employers are beginning to demand _______ the completion of schoolA.more thanB.rather thanC.other thanD.better than5.William Faulkner set most of his works in the American( ),with his emphasis onthe( )subjects and consciousness.A.North...NorthernB.East...EasternC.West...WesternD.South...Southern6.Which of the following statements is NOT true of Emily Dickinson and her poetry?A.She remained unmarried all her lifeB.She wrote,1,775 poems,and most of them were published during her life time.C.Her poems have no titles,hence are always quoted by their first lines.D.Her limited private world has never confined the limitless power of her creativity and imagination.7.The Nobel Prize Committee highly praised( )for “his powerful style - forming mastery of the art ” of creating modern fiction.A.Ezra PoundB.Ernest HemingwayC.Robert FrostD.Theodore Dreiser8.In the original test,all the animals in a test group are given a substance _______ half of them dieA.unlessB.untilC.lestD.provided9.After the American Civil War,the literary interest in the so- called “reality ” of life started a new period in the American literary writings know an the Age of( ).A.RealismB.Reason and RevolutionC.RomanticismD.Modernism10.The effect of Darwinist idea of “survival of the fittest ” was shattering in() ’s fictional world of jungle,where “kill or to be killed ” was the law.A.Mark TwainB.Henry JamesC.Theodore DreiserD.Walt Whitman11.Nobody but you _______ what he said.A. agrees withB.agrees outC.agree withD.agree to12.In 1950,( )was awarded the Nobel Prize for the anti-racist Intruder in the Dust.A.William FaulknerB.Robert FrostC.Ezra PoundD.Ernest Hemingway13.Greatly and permanently affected by the( )experiences,Hemingway formed his own writing style,together with his theme and hero.A.miningB.farmingC.warD.sailing14.Among the following writers( )is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th - century “stream - of - consciousness ” novels and the founder of psychological realism.A. T. S. EliotB.James JoyceC.William FaulknerD.Henry James15.Eugene O’Neill ’s first full — length play,( ),won him the first Pulitzer theme is the choice between life and death,the interaction of subjective and objective factors.A.Bound East for CardiffB.The Hairy ApeC.Desire Under the ElmsD.Beyond the Horizon16.Man is a “victim of forces over which he has no control. ” This is a notion held strongly by( ).A.Robert FrostB.Theodore DreiserC.Henry JamesD.Hamlin Garland17.In Go Down,Moses,( )illuminates the problem of black and white in Southern society asa closeknit destiny of blood brotherhood.A.William FaulknerB.Jack LondonC.Herman MelvilleD.Nathaniel Hawthorne18.Mark Twain employed an unpretentious style of( )in his novels which is best described as “vernacular ”.A.standard EnglishB.Afro-American EnglishC.colloquialismD.urbanism19.The attitude towards life that( )had been trying to demonstrate in his works is known as “grace under pressure ”.A.William FaulknerB.Theodore DreiserC.Ernest HemingwayD.F·Scott Fitzgerald20.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and,especially,its sequence( )proved themselves to be the milestone in the American literature.A.The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnB.Life on the MississippiC.The Gilded AgeD.Roughing It第2卷一.单选题(共20题)1.Most literary critics think that Fitzgerald is both an insider and an outsider of( )witha double vision.A.the Jazz AgeB.the Age of Reason and RevolutionC.the Babybooming AgeD.the Post- Modern Age2.At the age of eighty -seven,( )read his poetry at the inauguration of President John in 1961.A.Robert FrostB.Walt WhitmanC.Ezra Pound3.What he had done is _______A.valueB.of valuableC.of no valueD.of no valuable4.That is the house _______ you can enjoy the scenery.A. in thatB.thatC.whichD.from which5.“My last Duchess ” is a poem that best exemplifies Robert Browning ’s( ).A.sensitive ear for the sounds of the English languageB.excellent choice of wordsC.mastering of the metrical devicese of the dramatic monologue6.William Faulkner once said that( )is a story of “lost innocence, ” which proves itself to be an intensification of the theme of imprisonment in the past.A.The Great GatsbyB.The Sound and the FuryC.Absalom,Absalom!D.Go Down,Moses7.She disagrees ______ him ______ everything.A.with, onB./, onC.with, atD.on, with8.( )is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th —century “stream— of —consciousness ” novels and the founder of psychological realism.A.Theodore DreiserB.William FaulknerC.Henry JamesD.Mark Twain9.The childhood of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in the Mississippi is a record of a vanished way of life in the( )Mississippi valleyA.pre - War of IndependenceB.post - War of IndependenceC.pre - Civil WarD.post - Civil War10.Hemingway’s “Indian Camp ” is one of the fourteen short stories collected under the title of( ).This title is very ironic because there is no peace at all in the stories.A.Three Stories and Ten PoemsB.Across the River and into the TreesC.The Green Hills of AfricaD.In Our Time11.Robert Frost is generally considered a regional poet whose subject matters mainly focus on the landscape and people in( ).A.the westB.the southC.AlaskaD.New England12.“The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one -eighth of it being abov e water. ” This “iceberg ” analogy about prose style was put forward by( ).A.William FaulknerB.Henry JamesC.Ernest HemingwayD.F· Scott Fitzgerald13.In Death in the Afternoon( )presents his philosophy about life and death through the depiction of the bullfight as a kind of microcosmic tragedy.A.William FaulknerB.Jack LondonC.Ernest HemingwayD.Mark Twain14.considered( ) “the true father of our national literature ”.A.Bret HarteB.Mark TwainC.Washington IrvingD.Walt Whitman15.Some persons gain goal and direction from their tensions;others ________ under pressure.A.fall outB.fall apartC.fall back onD.fall in with16.The Portrait of A Lady is generally considered to be( )masterpiece,which describes the life journey of an American( )in a European cultural environment.A.Henry Adams’…widowB.William James ’…girlC.Henry James’…girlD.Theodore Dreiser ’s…widow17.In 1950,one of the leading American writers( )was awarded the Nobel Prize for the anti-racist Intruder in the Dust.A.Robert FrostB.Theodore DreiserC.William FaulknerD.Fitzgerald18.Henry James’ fame generally rests upon his novels and stories with the( )theme.A.internationalB.localC.colonialD.post-modern19.Ezra Pound,a leading spokesman of the “( ) ”,was one of the most important poe ts in his time.A.Imagist MovementB.Cubist MovementC.Reformist MovementD.Transcendentalist Movement20.The( )Age of the 1920s characterized by frivolity and carelessness is brought vividly to life in The Great Gatsby.A.LostB.JazzC.ReasonD.Gilded第1卷参考答案一.单选题1.参考答案: A本题解析:《了不起的盖茨比》是菲茨杰拉德的代表作,也使其成为了美国文坛上得一颗明星。
自考英语本科《英美文学选读》美国文学史梗概
自考英语本科《英美文学选读》美国文学史梗概一、殖民地时代和美国建国初期最早来自这片新大陆的欧洲移民主要是定居在新英格兰的清教徒和马萨诸塞的罗马天主教徒,二者虽然在教义上有很多不同之处,但他们都信奉加尔文主义:人生在世只是为了受苦受难,而他们唯一的希望是争做上帝的“选民”,死后进天国,相信“原罪”。
这时的文学作品也主要反映了这些思想,和欧洲文学一脉相承。
代表作家:考顿·马瑟,乔纳森·爱德华兹,安妮·布拉兹特里特,爱德华·泰勒。
二、18世纪独立战争胜利后,美国经济社会进入稳步发展时期这一时期是启蒙主义文学运动的时期,主要文学指导思想是“自然神论”(Deism),强调理性,认为“宇宙的运动始于上帝”;自然万物是“神的体现”,人生在世,不再是受苦受难以换取来世的新生,而是要消灭种族、性别和信仰的不平等,建立自己的“人间乐园”。
主要特点:作家多是美国独立战争的积极拥护者和参加者;文学指导思想除了自然神论之外还有“唯理主义”和“新古典主义”,18世纪末还开始萌发了“早期浪漫主义”;文学种类主要有历史、日记和政论,也有诗歌,讽刺小品和劝人向善的故事,18世纪末还产生了话剧。
启蒙运动中出现大量优秀的散文作品,并多出自开国元勋之手,如本杰明·富兰克林,托马斯·潘恩,以及托马斯·杰斐逊。
三、19世纪南北战争时期这一时期的文学先后发展了浪漫主义,现实主义和自然主义。
浪漫主义:18世纪70年代-19世纪30年代是浪漫主义发展的初期,南北战争前30年(1830-1860)为极盛时期,南北战争后10年逐渐衰微并向现实主义过度。
浪漫主义注重“想象”、“激情”和“个性解放”,认为人本质是善良的,铲除邪恶和拯救人类的手段是抛弃一切传统束缚,摧毁一切陈规陋习而回归到“自然的原始状态中去。
超验主义是其一分支,强调“天人合一”,认为上帝、人类和自然都是“超灵”的组成部分。
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。
自学考英语美国文学复习资料
殖民主义时期的文学清教徒的想法:①Puritans want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices.净化信仰和行为方式②wish to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of the Bible to theology.重建教堂,提供简单服务,建立神圣地位③look upon themselves as a 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。
④Puritan 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。
⑤religious 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。
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 meant 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 and Edward Taylor, rose to the level of real poetry.4、The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards Italian, and Portuguese. 理性和革命时期文学Representatives: Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Prose \ essay Thomas Paine: Common SenseThomas Jefferson: Declaration of IndependencePhilip Freneau: poet \ journalist启蒙运动对美国的影响 oppose coliral order and religious obscurantism. Secular education and literature → Franklin 1、Benjamin Franklin 本杰明.弗兰克林①代表作:“PoorRichard’s Almanac”穷人理查德的年鉴⑦“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“Great Commoner of Mankind” 最平凡的人①famous pamphlet “Common Sense” 著名的政治小册子《常识》,②“American Crisis”《美国危机》, signed “Common Sense”.署名为“常识”。
英美文学史复习资料-全
Unit One The Anglo-Saxon Period⏹I. Historical Background⏹II. Anglo-Saxon Poetry⏹III. Anglo-Saxon ProseI. Historical BackgroundThe English people are a complicated race.The first inhabitants of the island were commonly known as the Celts (or Kelts).⏹55 BC saw the invasion of the island headed by Julius Caesar.During the invasion these aborigines(土著人)Celts withdrew to the Welsh and Scottish mountains and left a great part of England to the Romans.⏹Not until the 5th century did the Romans withdrew. England had been made a Roman Provincesince 80 AD.As the Roman legions withdrew, the Celts came back.⏹Originally the name Anglo-Saxon denotes two of the three Germanic(日尔曼)tribes --- Angles,Saxons and Jutes -- who in the middle of the 5th century left their homes on the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic(波罗的海)to conquer and colonize distant Britain.They lived in the northern top of Germany and the southern part of Denmark at that time.⏹The historical date that is worth memorizing is 449 AD.⏹These three invading tribes came to settle down: Angles in the north of Thames, Jutes mainly in thesouthwest called Kent(英国东南部郡), and Saxons in the other places.English literature originated in the Angles and Saxons who formed a literary tradition of their own.⏹Important historical events:1. Heptarchy(七王国):⏹The informal confederation(联邦)of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the fifth to the ninth century,consisting of Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia.2. the Vikings invasion:⏹Vikings, collective designation of Nordic(北欧人)people—Danes, Swedes, Norwegians—whoexplored abroad during a period of dynamic Scandinavian expansion from about AD 800 to 1100.⏹Land shortage, improved iron production, and the need for new markets probably all played a partin Viking expansion.3. King Alfred the Great:⏹In 871, Ethelred of Wessex is defeated by Danish forces January 4 at Reading, gains a brilliant victory4 days later at Ashdown, is defeated January 22 at Basing, triumphs again March 2 at Marton inWiltshire, but dies in April.⏹His brother, 22, pays tribute(贡物)to the Danes but will reign until 899 and be called Alfred theGreat.4. Canute (994?-1035):⏹King of England(1016-1035), Denmark (1018-1035), and Norway (1028-1035) whose reign, at firstbrutal, was later marked by wisdom and temperance.⏹He is the subject of many legends.5. The Norman Conquest in 1066⏹The year 1066 was a turning point in English history. William I, the Conqueror, and his sons gaveEngland vigorous new leadership. Norman feudalism (封建制度) became the basis for redistributing the land among the conquerors, giving England a new French aristocracy and a new social and political structure. England turned away from Scandinavia toward France, an orientation (倾向性) that was to last for 400 years.6. St. Augustine:⏹Italian-born missionary and prelate (高级教士) who introduced Christianity to southern Britain 597and was ordained as the first archbishop (大主教) of Canterbury 598. Died c 604.II. Anglo-Saxon Poetry1. Beowulf --- the national epic⏹Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic poem, the most important work of Old English literature.The poem consists of 3183 lines, each line with four accents marked by alliteration and divided into two parts by a caesura (节律的停顿).⏹The structure of the typical Beowulf line comes through in modern translation, for example: Thencame from the moor under misted cliffs Grendel marching God's anger he bore . . .⏹The somber (昏暗的,忧郁的) story is told in vigorous, picturesque (独特的) language, with heavyuse of metaphor; a famous example is the term “whale-road”for sea.⏹The poem tells of a hero, a Scandinavian prince named Beowulf, who rids the Danes of the monsterGrendel, half man and half fiend (魔鬼) and Grendel's mother, who comes that evening to avenge Grendel's death.⏹Fifty years later Beowulf, now king of his native land, fights a dragon who has devastated his people.Both Beowulf and the dragon are mortally wounded in the fight.⏹The poem ends with Beowulf's funeral as his mourners chant his epitaph.⏹Beowulf is a long verse narrative on the theme of “arms and man”and as such belongs to thetradition of a national epic in European literature that can be traced back to Homer’s Iliad (荷马史市诗,描写特洛伊战争)and Virgil’s (古罗马诗人) Aeneid (埃涅伊德叙事诗).⏹The earliest poets, whose names have long since been forgotten performed as storytellers andminstrels before gatherings of listeners.Often a lyre (七弦琴) or some other simple stringed instrument was used to accompany the poet's tale or song.2. Secular (非宗教的) Poems(1) Narrative Poems(2) Lyrical Poems(3) Riddles⏹ 3. Religious poems:⏹(1) Caedmon (7th century): Died c. 680. The earliest English poet.⏹According to Bede, Caedmon was an elderly herdsman who received the power of song in a vision.⏹Caedmon was an illiterate herdsmen who had a vision one night and heard a voice commandinghim to sing of “the beginning of created things.”⏹Later Caedmon supposedly wrote the poem about the creation known as Caedmon's Hymn, whichBede recorded in prose.Cynewulf⏹(2) Cynewulf (8th century)⏹Cynewulf (flourished AD 750), Anglo-Saxon poet, possibly a Northumbrian minstrel.⏹In his poetry, he is revealed as a man of learning familiar with the religious literature of his day.⏹Cynewulf’s (基涅武甫,古诗诗稿公元十世纪被发现) poems are religious works in Old Englishentitled Ascension (耶稣升天), The Fates of the Apostles(使徒的命运), Juliana, and Elene; the latter two are legends about saints.III. Anglo-Saxon Prose⏹ 1. Anglo-Latin Prose⏹The Venerable Bede (673? –735): English Benedictine (天主教本笃会修士或修女) monk andscholar, Father of English history, chiefly known for his Ecclesiastical (教会)History of the English People, a history of England from the Roman occupation to 731, the year it was completed.⏹The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (55 BC -- 731):This work is the only source of information about the most momentous (重大的) period in English history -- the period of change from barbarism to civilization.⏹ 2. Anglo-Saxon Prose (Old English Prose)⏹(1) King Alfred (849 -- 901)a. Numerous translations from Latinb. The development of a natural style in Englishc. The launching of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (1 AD -- 1154 AD)⏹(2) Aelfric (c. 965 -- 1020)Anglo-Saxon abbot (修道士) who is considered the greatest Old English prose writer.His works include Catholic Homilies, Lives of the Saints, and a Latin grammar.Aelfric brought English prose to high cultivation before the Norman Conquest -- a clear, flexible and popular English prose.Unit Two The Late Middle AgesI. The Anglo-Norman PeriodII. The Age of ChaucerIII. Geoffrey ChaucerThe Middle Ages:In European history, the Middle Ages was the period between the end ofthe West Roman Empire in 476 AD and the beginning of Renaissance about 1500 AD, especiallythe later part of this period.I. The Anglo-Norman Period (1066-1350)History:(1) the Norman Conquest of 1066feudalism -- a strong centralized government(2) the Magna Carta (the great charter) of 1215: charter granted by KingJohn of England to the English barons (男爵,英国最低贵族爵位) in 1215, and considered the basis of English constitutional liberties.This is a document of concession made by King John to the feudal lordsThe charter covered a wide field of law and feudal rights, but the two mostimportant matters were :A. no tax should be made without the approval of the council,B. no freeman should be arrested or imprisoned except by the law of theland.(3) the Hundred Years’ WarHundred Years' War, series of armed conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453between England and France.The origin of the dispute lay in the fact that successive kings of Englandcontrolled large areas of France and thus posed a threat to the French monarchy.During the 12th and 13th centuries, the kings of France attempted tore-impose their authority over those territories.(4) the Black Death of 1348 -- 49outbreak of the plague, so called from the symptoms of internalhaemorrhage (内出血)which blackens the skin of the suffererThe Black Death struck England in 1349, reducing the population by asmuch as a third.A labour shortage resulted, and when attempts to freeze wages were made,unrest developed among serfs and workers, leading to the demise (瓦解) of serfdom in the next century.(5) the Statute of Pleading (辩护法令)Passed in 1362, according to which it was required that court proceedingsbe conducted in English2. Literature(1) Anglo-Latin literatureGeoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 -- c. 1155): English historian and ecclesiastic(牧师).He was the author of Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), a work purportingto delineate (描绘) the lives of British kings from Brutus the Trojan, the mythical progenitor(祖先)of the British people, to Caedwalla, king of North Wales (reigned about 625-34).Roger Bacon (1214?-1294), English Scholastic philosopher and scientist, one of the most influentialteachers of the 13th century.In the late 1260s Bacon wrote his Opus Majus, an encyclopedia of all science.He has been called Father of experimental science.(2) Anglo-Norman literatureromance (Chanson de Roland)--- fabliau (讽刺性寓言诗)(3) Folk literature in Middle AgesA few themes:Social satiresThe popular lyric, with nature and love as the theme(4) Religious work:The Pearl : a didactic poemThe Pearl is an allegorical (寓言的) poem of 101 stanzas of 12 lines each, with both alliteration andrhyme, and relates the vision of one who has lost a pearl of a daughter.(5) Romances in Middle EnglishThree themes:the matter of France;the matter of Britain;the matter of Rome.The most outstanding single romance on the Arthurian legend was the anonymous Sir Gawain andthe Green Knight......Two motifs (主题):(the tests of faith, courage and purity; the human weakness of self-preservation自卫本能).King Arthur and the Knights of the Round TableThe semi-legendary King Arthur is probably the most well-known king in all of English literature.Tales of Arthur and his knights span several centuries and many different languages. The so-called Round Table, the meeting place of Arthur and the knights, was round so that no one memberseemed favored over the others.In Arthurian legend, the Round Table at Camelot served as a gathering place for King Arthur’sknights.The table’s shape ensured that all who sat around it were equals.This replica of the Round Table can be seen at Winchester Castle in England.King Arthur’s Round TableArtistic merits:(1) careful interweaving of episodes;(2) the elements of suspense and surprise;(3) psychological analysis;(4) elaborate descriptions;(5) simple, straightforward languageII. The Age of Chaucer (1350 -- 1400)1. History:(1) the Peasants’ Uprising in 1381:led by Wat Tyler, Jack Straw and John Ball“When Adam delve and Eve span,Who was then the gentleman?”Wat Tyler, died in 1381English revolutionary who led the Peasants' Revolt against Richard II's poll tax in June 1381.The uprising ended when he was killed.(2) The Lollards: church reformers, John Wycliff and his followersLollards, members of a religious sect in 14th- and 15th-century England. They were led by theEnglish theologian (神学者) and religious reformer John Wycliffe and followed the doctrines he preached. Lollards held the Bible to be the only authentic rule of faith; exhorted the clergy to return to the simple life of the early church; and opposed war, the doctrine of transubstantiation(圣餐的变体), confession, and the use of images in worship.(3) the decline of feudalism in England2. Three important writers:(1) John Wycliff (1324 -- 84)Church reformer;Father of English Prose: earliest translation of the entire Bible(2) John Gower (1330 -- 1408)three chief works in three different languages(3) William Langland (1332?-1400?), English poet, who was supposedly the author of the religiousallegory The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman (written 1360?-1400?), better known as Piers Plowman.Piers the Plowman holds up a mirror to Langland’s England, showing on the one hand thecorruption prevalent among the ruling classes, both secular and clerical, and on the other hand the uprightness and worthiness of the labouring folk and the miseries of the poor and needy.In the form of allegory and vision, it is a “gospel of the poor”.III. Geoffrey ChaucerFather of English Literature, and Father of English Poetry. A great master of the English language1. Three periods:(1) The first period (1360 -- 1372): French influenceThe Book of Duchess(公爵夫人之书)(2) The second period (1372 -- 1385): Italian influenceThe House of Fame(声誉之堂);Troylus and Criseyde(特罗勒斯与克丽西斯);The Legend of Good Women(善良女子徇情记)(3) The third period (1386 -- 1400): English period or mature periodThe Canterbury Tales(坎特伯雷故事集)The Canterbury Tales, generally considered to be Chaucer’s masterpiece, was written chiefly in theyears 1386-1400.It begins with a general prologue that explains the occasion for the narration of the tales and gives adescription of the pilgrims who narrate the tales. 120 tales are intended, but only 24 are completed.The Canterbury TalesSignificancea comprehensive picture of the social reality of the poet’s daya framed storyanthology of medieval literaturehumour, satire, ironyChaucer, a master of the English languageUnit Three The Transitional Period (The 15th CenturyI. Popular BalladsII. Early English DramaIII. Chaucerian PoetsIV. Le Morte d’ArthurHistorical Background1. The 15th century was a period of transition for Britain from the medieval to the Renaissanceworld.2. The War of the Roses (1455 -- 85): The rival houses of Lancaster and York, which were bothdescended from Edward III, started a fight for power.The flag for Lancaster showed a red rose, and the flag for York showed a white rose, so the struggle between them became known as the War of the Roses.3. Printing press was introduced into England by William Caxton in 1476.William Caxton (1422?-1491), first English printer, born probably in Tenterden, Kent. His translation and print of The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye (1474?) was the first book printed in English.The more notable books from his press include The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde byEnglish poet Geoffrey Chaucer and Confessio Amantis by English poet John Gower.Fewer than 40 of Caxton's publications still exist.Caxton printed nearly 100 publications, about 20 of which he also translated from French and Dutch.4. The literature of the 15th century was also in a transitional stage between the Age of Chaucerand the Renaissance.Themes:(1) Border ballads: popular ballads narrating incidents on theEnglish-Scottish border.(2) Robin Hood ballads(3) Arthurian legend and Biblical material(4) Domestic life: e.g. Get Up and Bar the Door(5) Love(6) Political treachery: e.g. Sir Patrick Spens(7) Intelligence of the common labouring peopleBallad Metres are four-line stanzas with the alteration of 4 and 3 feet verse to the odd and evennumbered lines, and rhyming usually on the 2nd and 4th lines.“The king sits in Dumferling touneDrinking the blude-reid wineO whar will I get guid sailor,To sail this schip of mine?”from Sir Patrick SpensRobin Hood balladsRobin Hood ballads are popular ballads dealing with the famous outlaw Robin Hood and his men and their activities.Robin Hood, hero of a group of English ballads of the late 14th or early 15th century.Robin Hood was portrayed as an outlaw who lived and poached in royal forests such as Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire.Robin Hood robbed and killed those who represented government or church power, and he defended the needy and oppressed.His comrades included Little John, Will Scarlet, and Friar Tuck.Get Up and Bar the DoorIt fell about the Martinmas timeAnd a gay time it was then,When our goodwife got puddings to make,And she’s boild them in the pan.The wind sae cauld blew south and north,And blew into the floor;Quoth our goodman to our good wife,‘Gae out and bar te door.’II. Early English Drama1. Folk drama: sword dance, morris dance, murmurs’ plays2. Religious drama:(1) The mystery play: drama based directly on stories from the Bible.The best-known mystery play in England is the so-called Second Shepherds’ Play -- the second of the plays on the shepherds, in the Towneley Cycle. Its theme is to greet the newborn Christ.The Birth of Jesus(2) The miracle play: drama dealing with the legends of the Christian saints.(3) The morality play: drama presenting allegorically some objects, lesson, or warning by means ofabstract characters or generalized types of man’s spiritual good.The best known of the morality play is Everyman, produced in the last quarter of the 15th century,dealing with what is supposed to happen to Everyone at the close of his life.III. Chaucerian Poets1. English Chaucerian:John Lydgate (1370 -- 1450): English poet, born in Suffolk and educated at the monastery (修道院)of Bury Saint Edmunds, where he was ordained a priest in 1397.Lydgate may have been a friend and disciple (信徒,弟子) of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, and the two were equally popular in their time.Some of Lydgate's work shows Chaucer's influence.Although Lydgate was a prolific and influential poet of his day, much of his work is now considered verbose (冗长的) and overly moralistic.His major poems include Troy Book (1412-1420), The Siege (围攻) of Thebes (1420-1422), and Fall ofPrinces (1430-1438).2. Scottish Chaucerians:(1) James I of Scotland(2) Robert Henryson(3) William Dunbar(4) Gavin DouglassIV. Le Morte d’ArthurIt is a kind of final summing-up of the Arthurian legend built up from the 12th century to the 15thcentury (21 books).The Passing of ArthurAccording to legend, King Arthur was seriously wounded in battle by his illegitimate son, Mordred.Arthur’s half sister Morgan le Fay and a group of women then took him away to the island of Avalon to heal.Le Morte d’Arthur may well be called the swan-song (最后的作品) of feudal knighthood and chivalrywhich were much idealized in the heyday (全盛时期) of feudalism.It is written in a lucid and simple style.Both the Arthurian legendary material and the simple style had their wide and lasting influenceupon the English literature of later centuries.Unit Four The Early Tudor Age and the Elizabethan AgeI. RenaissanceII. The Early Tudor AgeIII. The Elizabethan AgeI. RenaissanceRenaissance is a political and cultural epoch.The word “Renaissance”, meaning “rebirth”, is commonly applied to the movement or period whichmarks the transition from the medieval to the modern world in Western Europe.It is also called the revival of learning.1. Characteristics:(1) centralization of power(2) church reformation(3) geographical discoveries(4) bankruptcy of peasantry(5) emergence of bourgeoisie and proletariat(6) growth of a new cultureThe characteristics of the Renaissance1.Politically the feudal nobility lost their power and with the establishment of the great monarchies therewas the centralization of power necessary for the development of the bourgeoisie.2.The Catholic Church was either substituted by Protestantism(新教)as a result of the so-calledReformation (as in Germany and England) or weakened in its dictatorship(专制)over men’s minds (asin Italy and France and Spain).3.Geographical discoveries opened up colonial expansion and trade routes to distant parts of the worldand brought back gold and silver and other wealth and also broadened men’s mental horizons.4.In the countryside the peasants were terribly exploited and they either rose in uprisings or ran awayand flocked to the cities and added to the proletariat there.5.In the cities the merchants and the master artisans(工匠)grew in wealth and in power and becamethe bourgeoisie while handicraft turned gradually into manufacture and the modern proletariat sprang up among the employed workers in the factories.6.Culturally, as the interest in God and in the life after death was transformed into the exaltation of manand an absorption in earthly life and as materialistic philosophy and scientific thought gradually replaced the church dogmas and religious mysticism of the Middle Ages, a totally new culture rose out of the revival of the old culture of ancient Greece and Rome and out of the emergence of a new philosophy and science and art and literature through the exploration of the infinite capabilities of man.2. Three stages of development:(1) Early Tudor Age (1500 -- 1557)(2) Elizabethan Age (1558 -- 1603)(3) Jacobean Age (1603 -- 1625)3. Two trends:(1) Court literature(2) Bourgeois literatureII. The Early Tudor Age (1500-1557)1. The Oxford Reformers:William Grocyn (1446 -- 1519), Thomas Linacre (1460 -- 1524) and John Colet (1467 -- 1519) ---- allthree of them were students at Oxford University, travelled and studied in Italy and introduced the study of ancient Greek as well as the new science and philosophy of the time in opposition to the rigid church dogmas of medieval scholasticism (经院哲学).The Oxford Reformers helped to lay the foundations of the rise of a new literature in England in the later decades of the century.2. Thomas More (1478 -- 1535)Sir Thomas More was known for his intelligence and devotion to the Catholic church.That devotion put him at odds with his one-time friend, King Henry VIII, who had More beheaded for refusing to sanction (同意), as lord chancellor, Henry’s divorce from Ca therine of Aragu.Thomas More has chiefly been remembered for his Utopia (written in 1515).This book contains (1) a realistic picture of early 16th-century England: social evils are exposed and attacked; (2) the first sketch of the ideal commonwealth by an English writer. It affords (提供) a valuable document of Utopian socialism.UtopiaThomas More’s UtopiaThis woodcut, taken from the first edition of Sir Thomas More’s famous work Utopia, depicts theisland that symbolized More's concept of an ideal community. More, who was a statesman as well as a writer, used the fictional Utopia to satirize conditions in England.Limitations of the book Utopia:(1) His dream world did not have its sound political, economic and social bases;(2) His indifferent attitude toward slavery and his actual contempt for physical labour;(1) John Skelton (1460 -- 1529) (3) Contradictions in his world outlook.Limitations of Utopia1.Writing at the dawn of capitalism, More could not but build his dream of a communist society on thesocial foundations of handicrafts manufacture, and this limitation of his age when there were yet no big industries nor a ripened proletariat, necessarily made his conception of an oppressionless, exploitationless society a rather vague, dreamy world which did not have its sound political, economic and social base.2.More’s limitations as a member of the ruling and exploiting class himself manifest (证明) themselves inhis indifferent attitude toward salves and mercenary soldiers and in his actual contempt for physical labour—in spite of his insistence on the need of most utopians to participate in physical labour.3.When we compare More’s views in Utopia with his life as a courtier (朝臣) and especially as a fervent(狂热的) Catholic who chose rather to die than to give up his belief in the absolute authority of the Pope in Rome, we find curious but unmistakable contradictions in his world outlook.3. Court poets:a great satirist with a most effective verse metre,repeated attacks on the vices of the court and clergy(2) Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 -- 42)He introduced into English poetry the sonnet form from the Italian. (The sonnet: a lyric poem of 14 lines.)Thomas Wyatt also introduced into English poetry other stanzaic form: terza rima (3-line stanzasrhyming aba bcb cdc ded ee; later employed by Shelley in Ode to the West Wind) and strambotti (also called ottava rima; octaves rhyming abababcc; later employed by Byron in Don Juan).Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517 -- 47), English soldier and poet.Although not primarily a man of letters, Howard greatly enriched English literature by his introduction of new verse forms.His love poems, like those of his contemporary Sir Thomas Wyatt, show the influence of Italianmodels.Howard introduced into English poetry the English form of sonnet (abab cdcd efef gg).4. Religious drama:A Pleasant Satire of the Three Estates, a morality by David Lyndsay.An Interlude is a play brief enough to be presented in the interval of a dramatic performance.The chief representative playwright was John Heywood (1497?-1580?), known for his didactic andcomic interludes, such as The Four P's (c. 1520), and numerous epigrams (警句) and proverbs.III. The Elizabethan AgeElizabeth I (1533-1603), queen of England and Ireland (1558-1603), daughter of King Henry VIII andhis second wife, Anne Boleyn.England prospered under her, developing into a great maritime power.Elizabeth was the last of the Tudor rulers of England.The economy was stabilized, and foreign trade was encouraged.Elizabeth never married, but she was besieged (包围) by royal suitors, each of whom she favoredwhen it was in her political interest to do so.1. Court poetry(1) Sir Philip Sydney (1554 -- 1586) :Sydney earned his place of importance in English literature of his time as the earliest writer of a sonnet sequence (Astrophel and Stella), a prose pastoral romance (Arcadia) and a critical essay (The Defence of Poesie).(2) Edmund Spenser (1552 -- 1590), English poet, who is most famous for his long allegoricalromance, The Faerie Queene. Spenser was born in London.In 1579 he met English poet Sir Philip Sidney, to whom he dedicated his first major poem, The Shepheardes Calendar(1579). This work demonstrates the great poetic flexibility of the English language.Spenser’s Works:The Shepherd’s Calendar: a pastoral poem consisting of 12 eclogues(牧歌).Amoretti(爱情小唱) is a sonnet sequence of 88 love poems, written to celebrate his love andmarriage to his wife Elizabeth Boyle.The Faerie QueeneThe Faerie Queene has been regarded as Spenser’s masterpiece.It is one of the great poems in the English language.The poem is a literary epic, and according to the original plan was to consist 12 books but only sixbooks and two cantos of the 7th were completed.The Faerie Queene is written in Spenserian stanza: a 9-line stanzaic form with the rhyme scheme ofabab bcbcc and with the first 8 lines in iambic pentameter and the last or the 9th line an alexandrine(iambic hexameter).(Byron used this form in his Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage; Keats used this form in his Eve of St. Agnes;and Shelley used this form in his Revolt of Islam and Adonais).Spenser's lush and expansive imagination and vigorous approach to structure made him a powerfulinfluence on John Milton and the romantic poets, including John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. 2. Euphuistic style (绮丽体) in prose:The term euphuism takes its name from John Lyly’s two-part work: Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England.Eupheues is marked by(1) the use of balanced sentence construction and other artificial elaborations in language, including antithesis (对偶) and alliteration;(2) the employment of images and similes taken from ancient mythology and history, and also the use of quotations from and references to classical authors.绮丽体,也叫尤弗伊斯体euphuism,指一种矫揉造作,过分文雅的文体,由文艺复兴时期,英国大学才子派剧。
美国文学史复习资料
附:作者及作品(第一、二册)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 Nativesin 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 America”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。
自考英语本科《英美文学选读》梳理----美国文学
⾃考英语本科《英美⽂学选读》梳理----美国⽂学梳理----美国⽂学1.特⾊美国⽂学的历史不长,它⼏乎是和美国⾃由资本主义同时出现,较少受到封建贵族⽂化的束缚。
美国早期⼈⼝稀少,有⼤⽚未开发的⼟地,为个⼈理想的实现提供了很⼤的可能性。
美国⼈民富于民主⾃由精神,个⼈主义、个性解放的观念较为强烈,这在⽂学中有突出的反映。
美国⼜是⼀个多民族的国家,移民不断涌⼊,各⾃带来了本民族的⽂化,这决定了美国⽂学风格的多样性和庞杂性。
美国⽂学发展的过程就是不断吸取、融化各民族⽂学特点的过程。
许多美国作家来⾃社会下层,这使得美国⽂学⽣活⽓息和平民⾊彩都⽐较浓厚,总的特点是开朗、豪放。
内容庞杂与⾊彩鲜明是美国⽂学的另⼀特点。
个性⾃由与⾃我克制、清教主义与实⽤主义、激进与反动、反叛和顺从、⾼雅与庸俗积极进取与玩世不恭、明快与晦涩、犀利的讽刺与阴郁的幽默、对⼈类命运的思考和探索与对性爱的病态追求等倾向,不仅可以同时并存,⽽且形成强烈的对照。
从来没有⼀种潮流或倾向能够在⼀个时期内⼀统美国⽂学的天下。
美国作家敏感、好奇,往往是⼀个浪潮未落,另⼀浪潮⼜起。
作家们永远处在探索和试验的过程之中。
20世纪以来,许多⽂学潮流起源于美国,给世界⽂学同时带来积极的与消极的影响。
.2.美国⽂学美国⽂学的诞⽣美国第⼀位在⼩说和诗歌创作领域取得显著成就的作家是艾德加·爱伦·坡(1809-1849),他于1835年开始短篇⼩说的创作,其作品包括《红死病》、《陷坑与钟摆》、《颓败之屋》和《莫尔格街凶杀案》。
他的创作触及了前⼈很少涉及的⼼理学领域,并且将神秘、幻想等元素融⼊⼩说创作之中。
1837年,年轻的作家纳撒尼尔·霍桑(Hawthorne)(1804-1864)将他的⼀些短篇⼩说集结成册出版,名为《重讲⼀遍的故事》。
这是⼀部包含了丰富的象征主义及神秘主義元素的作品。
后来,霍桑⼜开始写作长篇的传奇⼩说、类寓⾔⼩说,他的本⼟⼩说《新英格蘭》以⼈类的内疚、荣耀和情感上的压抑为主题。
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第二册美国文学史复习(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。