美国文学选读复习资料

1、Benjamin Franklin（1706-1790）本杰明·富兰克林He is the representative of the Enlightenment in America in 18th century. Humanist, statesman, writer, scientist, inventor.

The Autobiography《自传》

♂简析：The book is about the course of Franklin's struggle for success. It tells us the importance of being diligent. The book had a great influence on American people,and changed the destinies of many youth.It is the first America successful biographical work（传记文学）, has an important position in the history of American Literaturel.

Poor Richard’s Almanac 《格言历书》

♂简析：A collection of maxims （格言），or proverbs, on the value of work and savings for success.

2、Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849) 埃德加·爱伦·坡 Novelist,poet,critic.

Good at writing Gothic（哥特式）and detective fiction.

Father of western detective stories and psychoanalytic criticism.

（扩展：文学理论建树不容忽视，影响深远。在理论、实践、手法、风格等方面都有独到之处。）

The Cask of Amontillado《阿芒提拉多的酒桶》Is the famous horror short story.The typical Gothic theme of the novel is terror and death. And tells the story of the character’s revenge.The writer uses irony (反讽)to reveal the Gothic theme.

（扩展：《阿芒提拉多的酒桶》体现了其小说创作艺术的基本特征。主题，人物塑造。情节、气氛渲染。叙事手法和风格、以及语言修辞等艺术特征都颇具特色。堪谓这一创作实践成功地图解了其创作理论，产生了强烈的艺术效果。）

To Helen《致海伦》

Sonnet—To Science《致科学》

3、Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-0882)拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生American essayist, lecturer,poet. The founder of American Transcendentalism(美国超验主义).

（扩展：深受英国浪漫主义影响，宣扬超验主义哲学，鼓吹个人应摆脱人为的束缚。表现出业已成熟的人文主义思想，反应了他对人类局限的认知。）

American Transcendentalism was the first American intellectual movement, The key point of it is that people can transcend(超越) the feeling and reason and learn the truth directly.

Self-Reliance《论自助》

♂简析：Self-Reliance is an important and influential work which encourages a man to be confident and

ind ependent. Four main ideas in the work including “The Confidence” , “The Independence” , “The Personality” ,

“Showing no Sympathy to the Poor”, of which “The Confidence” is the core point in this thesis.《论自助》是表达爱默生的超验主义观点最重要的作品之一。

4、Nathaniel Hawthorne（1804-1864）纳撒尼尔·霍桑American novelist and short story writer.

A sighificant romantic writer and master of psychological insight.

The Scarlet Letter《红字》

♂简析：Describe the Puritan(清教徒) society life style in 17th century New England in Northern American.

Reveal the darkness of the American society in 19th century .The heroine(女主人公) has lofty moral,and helps the bad people to change,devoting to creating a harmony society.Is an important Romantic novel.

5、Herman Melville（1819-1891）赫尔曼·梅尔维尔Novelist,poet.

Moby Dick《白鲸》

♂简析：Mainly tells the long ocean story of hunting an imaginary mysterious Moby Dick.The book reveals the basic pattern(模式) of 19th century American life: loneliness and suicidal individualism in a self-styled democracy（民主）. It is the typical work of Symbolism.

6、Henry David Thoreau亨利·大卫·梭罗American Essayist, poet, philosopher

Walden《沃尔登》

♂简析：Walden is a record of Thoreau’s two year experiment of living alone at Walden pond in a self-built house at the edge of the woods.

It is not only fully demonstrates Emersonian ideas of self-reliance(自力更生) ,but also develops and tests Thoreau’s own transcendental philosophy（先验哲学）.

Civil Disobedience《论公民之不服从》（认为人民应该拒绝服从自己认为是不正当的法律。）

◎Franklin & Thoreau

Through his writing thoreau wanted to illustrate thet the pursuit of material things had no value. He desired a life of contemplation, of being in harmony with nature, and of acting on his own principles. Both Franklin and Thoreau advocated thrift and hard work, but while Franklin expected the frugal to get richer and richer, Thoreau thought physical labor and a minimum of material goods made men more sensitive and kept them closer to nature.

7、Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)朗费罗One of the greatest American Romantic poet in the 19th century.

I Shot an A rrow…《我射出一支箭……》

♂简析：A famous short lyric.This lyric praises the great friendship with the images of shotting an arrow and singing the es tiaditional four iambic pentameter and four lines of verse.

译文：我射出一支箭…我把一支箭射向空中不知它落在何方