AMERICAN LITERATURE

AMERICAN LITERA TUREChapter I The Romantic Period1.The Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of Americanliterature, stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War.It started with the publication of(华盛顿，欧文) Washington Irving's The Sketch Book （见闻札记）and ended with （沃尔特，惠特曼）Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. （叶草集）It is also called "the American Renaissance."2.the nation felt an urge to have its own literary expression, to make known its newexperience that other nations did not have: the early Puritan settlement（早起清教徒殖民）, the confrontation with the Indians（与印第安人的遭遇）, the frontiersmen's life（边疆开发者的生活）, and the wild west(西部荒原)。

3. a. Foreign literary masters, especially the English counterparts exerted a stimulatingimpact on the writers of the new world. Born of one common cultural heritage, the American writers shared some common features with the English Romanticists.Washington Irving against the literary forms and ideas of the period of classicism by developing some relatively new forms of fiction or poetry. In most of the American writings in the period there was a new emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature想象力和情感因素, which included a liking for the picturesque生动描写, the exotic异国情调, the sensuous, the sensational感官体会, and the supernatural超自然能力. The strong tendency to exalt the individual and the common man was almost a national religion in America.b.the great works that demonstrate what American Romantic writings were aretypically American. For example, the American national experience of "pioneering into the west" proved to be a rich source of material for American writers to draw upon.c. Then the American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences overAmerican moral values. And this Puritan influence over American Romanticism was conspicuously noticeable. One of the manifestations is the fact that American romantic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts. the Calvinistic view of original sin and the mystery of evil (加尔文主义的原罪思想和罪恶的神秘性)纳撒尼尔，霍桑Nathaniel Hawthorne.简而言之美国浪漫主义时期文学的特点1，受英国文学的影响2美国本土特色3清教徒思想的影响。

4.New England Transcendentalism （新英格兰超验主义）拉尔夫，华尔多，爱默生Ralph Waldo EmersonTranscendentalism has been defined philosophically as "the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses."承认人类具有本能了解或认识真理的能力，能够超出感官获取知识Emerson once proclaimed in a speech, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." 只有人心灵的尊严才是最神圣的。

Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling自然是高尚的and the idea that the individualis divine个人是神圣的and, therefore, self-reliant.自立5.The fiction of the American Romantic period is an original and diverse 独创性和多样性body of work. It ranges from the comic fables喜剧性寓言体小说of Washington Irving to the Gothic tales of Edgar Allen Poe, from the frontier adventures of James Fenimore Cooper to the narrative quests长篇叙事of Herman Melville, from the psychological romances心里罗曼史of NathanieI Hawthorne to the social realism of Rebecca Harding Davis.一．华盛顿，欧文 Washington Irving Father of the American short stories.The sketch book (见闻札记) Rip Van Winkle(瑞普，凡，温克尔) 选文The Legend of Sleepy Hollow （睡谷的传说）二．拉尔夫，华尔多，爱默生Ralph Waldo Emerson New England TranscendentalisEssays（散文集）The American Scholar（论美国学者）Self-Reliance（论自助）The over-soul (论超灵) The poet（论诗人）Experience（论经验）Nature(论自然)选文三．纳撒尼尔，霍桑Nathaniel HawthorneMosses From an Old Manse (古屋青苔) The Scarlet Letter(红字)The Snow-Image and Other T wice-T old T ales(雪的形象及其他尽人皆知的故事)The House of the Seven Gables(有七个尖角阁的房子)The Blithedale Romance（福谷传说）The Marble Faun（石玉雕像）选读（小伙子布朗）Young Goodman Brown四．沃尔特，惠特曼Walt WhitmanLeaves of grass（草叶集）选文there was a child went forth（有一个孩子在长大）Drum Taps（鼓点）选文Cavalry Crossing a Ford（渡河的骑兵）Song of Myself (自我之歌)When Lilacs Last in The Dooryard Bloom’d（小院丁香花开时）五．赫尔曼，麦尔维尔Herman Melville选读Mody-Dick （白鲸）Billy Budd（比利·巴德）Typee（泰比）Omoo（奥穆）Mardi(玛地) Redburn（雷德本）White Jacket（白外衣）Chapter 2 The Realistic PeriodThe period ranging from 1865 to 1914 has been referred to as the Age of Realism in the literary history of the United States, Realism was a reaction against Romanticism and paved the way to Modernism.社会背景Mark Twain马克吐温referred to as "The Gilded Age镀金时代."The three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain马克吐温, and Henry James詹姆斯亨利. they differed in their understanding of the "truth." While Mark Twain马克吐温and Howells seemed to have paid more attention to the "life" of the Americans, Henry James had apparently laid a greater emphasis on the"inner world" of man. Though Twain and Howells both shared the same concern in presenting the truth of the American society, they had each of them different emphasis. Howells focused his discussion on the rising middie class and the way they lived, while Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories. This particular concern about the local character of a region came about as "local colorism," a unique variation of American literary realism现实主义.the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism:American naturalism. And one of the most familiar themes i n American naturalism is the theme ofhuman "bestiality," especially as an explanation of sexual desire.Theodore Dreiser西奥多，德莱塞's forgiving treatment of the career of his heroine in Sister Carrie嘉利姐妹(1900) also drew heavily upon the naturalistic understanding of sexuality.In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author's tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic讽刺and more pessimistic悲观.一．马克吐温Mark Twain H. L. Mencken considered "the true father of our national literature."Adventure of Huckleberry Finn （哈克贝利，芬历险记）选读The Adventures of T om Sawyer （汤姆，索亚历险记）The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County（加拉维县有名的跳蛙）Innocents Abroad （傻瓜出国记）The Gilded Age （镀金时代）二．亨利.，詹姆斯T Henry JamesThe American （美国人）Daisy Miller （黛西，米勒）选读The Europeans （欧洲人）The Portrait of a Lady（贵妇人的画像）What Maisie Knows （梅西所知道的）The Wings of the Dove （鸽翼）The Ambassadors（专使）The Golden Bowl（金碗）The Art of Fiction（小说的艺术）三．艾米丽，狄金森Emily Dickinson选读I heard a fly buzz-when I died-我死时-听见一只苍蝇嗡鸣选读Because I could not stop for death 因为我不能为死神停下选读This is my letter to the world 这就是我给世人的书信选读I like to see it lap the miles 我喜欢看它添食着一路向前四．西奥多，德莱塞Theodore Dreiser选读Sister Carrie 嘉莉妹妹American T ragedy 美国悲剧Chapter 3 The Modern Period1.The twentieth century began with a strong sense of social breakdown.In a word, there was a decline in moral standard and the first few decades of the twentieth century was best described as a spiritual wasteland. The censor of a great civilization being destroyed or destroying itself, social breakdown, and individual powerlessness and hopelessness became part of the American experience as a result of the First World War, with resulting feelings of fear, loss, disorientation and disillusionment.2.American literature and made it possible for most of the writers in the modern period to probe into the inner world of human reality.3. There was a spiritual crisis in this period, but a full blossoming of literary writings. The most recognizable literary movement that gave rise to the twentieth century American literature, or we may say, the second American Renaissance, is the expatriate movement. When the First World War broke out, many young men volunteered to take part in "the war to end wars" only to find that modern warfare was not as glorious or heroicas they thought it to be. Disillusioned and disgusted by the frivolous, greedy, and heedless way of life in America, they began to write and they wrote from their own experiences in the war. Among these young writers were the most prominent figures in American literature, especially in modern American literature. They were basically expatriates who left America and formed a community of writers and artists in Paris, involved with other European novelists and poets in their experimentation on new modes of thought and expression. These writers were later named by an American writer, Gertrude Stein, also an expatriate, "The Lost Generation."Among those greatest figures in "The Lost Generation" or modern American literature are famous poets such as Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Robert Frost.Ezra Pound's role as a leading spokesman of the famous Imagist Movement in the history of American literature can never be ignored and his one-image poem best demonstrates his principles of what a new poetry should be. Robert Frost is always liked by the Americans because the subject and the landscape of his poems are forever New England and his simplicity never fails to reveal some profound truth.F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner are considered to be the masters in the field of American fiction, each of them producing some distinguished literary works in their lifetime. The Jazz Age of the 1920s characterized by frivolity and carelessness is brought vividly to life in The Great Gatsby(1925); Hemingway dramatizes in his novels the sense of loss and despair among the post-war generation who are physically and psychologically scarred; Faulkner creates his own mythical kingdom that mirrors not only the decline of the Southern society but also the spiritual wasteland of the whole American society.The leading playwright of the modern period in American literature, if not the most successful in all his experiments, is Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill is remembered for his tragic view of life and most of his plays are about the root, the truth of human desir es and human frustrations.In general terms, much serious literature written from 1912 onwards attempted to convey a vision of social breakdown and moral decay and the writer's task was to develop techniques that could represent a break with the past. Thus, the defining formal characteristics of the modernistic works are discontinuity and fragmentation.一.埃兹拉，庞德Ezra PoundThe Cantos （诗章）In a Station of The Metro （在地铁车站）选读二．罗伯特，李，佛罗斯特Robert Lee FrostThe Road Not T aken （未选择的路）Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (雪夜林边停)三．尤金，奥尼尔Eugene O’NeillBeyond the horizon 天外边The emperor jones 琼斯皇帝The hairy ape 毛猿All god’s chillum got wings 所有上帝烟斗都有翅膀Desire under the elmsAnna Christie （安妮，克里斯汀）The great god brown 伟大的布朗Lazarus laughed 拉扎拉斯笑了Strange interlude 奇怪的幕间剧The iceman cometh 冰人来了Long day’s journey into night 直到夜晚漫长的一天四．F, 司各特，菲兹杰拉德F, Scott FitzgeraldThis side of paradise 人间天堂The beautiful and damned 美丽而遭骂的人The great Gatsby 了不起的盖子比选读T ender is the night 夜色温柔Flappers and philosophers 吹捧者与哲学家T ales of the jazz age 爵士时代的故事All the sad young men 所有悲惨的小伙子T aps at reveille 里维尔的鼓点Babylon revisited重访巴比伦五，奥内斯特，海明威Ernest HemmingwayIn our time 在我们的时代里The sun also rises 太阳照样升起A farewell to arms 永别了，武器For whom the bill tolls 丧钟为谁敲响The old man and the sea 老人与海Men without women 没有女人的男人六．威廉，福克纳William FaulknerThe Sound and The Fury 喧嚣与骚动Light in August 八月之光Absalom, Absalom押沙龙押沙龙Go Down, Moses 摩西，走下去A Rose For Emily 给艾米丽的玫瑰选读。