美国文学史期末总结
美国文学 期末考试 总结三
1. A Psalm of Life1.1Analysis:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow begins his poem "A Psalm of Life" with the same exuberance and enthusiasm that continues through most of the poem. He begs in the first stanza to be told "not in mournful numbers" about life. He states here that life doesn't abruptly end when one dies; rather, it extends into another after life. Longfellow values this dream of the afterlife immensely and seems to say that life can only be lived truly if one believes that the soul will continue to live long after the body dies.The second stanza continues with the same belief in afterlife that is present in the first. Longfellow states this clearly when he writes, "And the grave is not its goal." Meaning that,life doesn't end for people simply because they die; there is always something more to be hopeful and optimistic for. Longfellow begins discussing how humans must live their lives in constant anticipation for the next day under the belief that it will be better than each day before it: "But to act that each to-morrow / Find us farther than to-day."In the subsequent stanza, Longfellow asserts that there is never an infinite amount of time to live, but art that is created during one's life can be preserved indefinitely and live on long after its creator dies.In the following stanzas, Longfellow likens living in the world to fighting on a huge field of battle.He believes that people should lead heroic and courageous lives and not sit idle and remain ineffectual while the world rapidly changes around them: "Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Bea hero in the strife!" His use of the word "strife" is especially interesting, since it clearly acknowledges that life is inherently difficult, is a constant struggle, and will never be easy. Longfellow then encourages everyone to have faith and trust the lord and not to rely on an unknown future to be stable and supportive.2. Commentary for A Psalm of LifeSensory languageRhyme schemeABABUses descriptive languageUses similes2. ExcelsiorSummary: Excelsior is a poem about a traveler who had only one goal stuck into his head that was to get higher and nothing could make him stop, not even the warm light of houses, nor the warm welcome of a girl, nor the storm that will come at night, nor the avalanche could stop him. And in the end he died. He did what he determined to do and he ended up losing his life.3. Sit and Look OutAnalysis:As the poet surveys the human world, he is struck by the numbers and variety of misfortunes to which mankind is subject and which are the causes of wide-spreading suffering in the world. He sees all this but he remains silent. His silence is of course due to the profundity of suffering in the world and his helplessness in the matter.4. Mending Wall (from North of Boston)Form and style: The poem is in blank verse—that is, unrhymed iambic pentameter. Its forty-five lines are in the form of a monologue, but quite different from the style of dramatic monologuepopularized by Robert Browning’s give a revelation of the speaker’s character, often unintentional, and are focused inward. Frost’s are directed outward, usually at some object that can serve: as a point of departure of general observations. The verse is largely monosyllabic, the language typically unpretentious. His Paleolithic savage, for example, is old-stone, a literal translation of the Greek word and much more effective. Simplicity and dignity set the tone.。
美国文学史总结
●American Puritanism（清教主义）◆Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. The Puritans wereoriginally members of a division of the Protestant Church, who came intoexistence in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. The first settlerswho became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few ofthem Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons, but it should beremembered that they were a group of serious, religious people, advocatinghighly religious and moral principles.◆As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purify their religious beliefs andpractices. They felt that the Church of England was too close to the Churchof Rome in doctrine form of worship, and organization of authority.◆The American Puritans, like their brothers back in England, were idealists,believing that the church should be restored to complete “purity”. Theyaccepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, andlimited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. But in thegrim struggle for survival that followed immediately after their arrival inAmerica, they became more and more practical, as indeed they had to be.◆Puritans’lives were extremely disciplined and hard. Puritans tended tosuspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin: a Puritan woman was oncethreatened with banishment for smiling in church. They drove out of theirsettlements all those opinions that seemed dangerous to them, and history hascriticized their actions. Yet in the persecution of what they considered error,the Puritans were no worse than many other movements in history. As aculture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the earlyAmerican mind.◆American Puritanism also had a enduring influence on American literature. Ithad become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so much a part of thenational cultural atmosphere, rather than a set of tenets.● Influence of American Puritanism on literature◆Basis of American literature: the dream of building an Eden of Garden onearth (Early American literature were mainly optimistic because theybelieved that God sent them to the new continent to fulfill the sacred task sothey would overcome all the difficulties they met at last. GraduallyAmericans found that their dreams would not be successful, so lots ofpessimistic literary works were produced.)◆Symbolism(象征主义): lots of American writers liked to employ symbolismin their works. (typical way of Puritans who thought that all the simpleobjects existing in the world connoted deep meaning.) Symbolism meansusing symbols in literary works. The symbol means something represents orstands for abstract deep meaning.◆Style: simple, fresh and direct (just as the style of the Authorized Version ofHoly Bible)1.3 Colonial Literature● General features◆Humble origins: diaries, histories, letters etc.◆In content: serving either God or colonial expansion or both◆In form: imitating English literary traditionsAmerican Romanticism● General features of Romanticism◆ Stressing emotion rather than reason◆ Stressing freedom and individuality◆ Stressing idealism rather than materialism◆Writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements1.2 Features of American Romanticism (P43-44)● Imitative◆against the literary forms and ideas of classicism, developing some relativelynew forms of fiction and or poetry, emphasizing upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature, a liking for the picturesque, the exotic, the sensuous, the sensational, and the supernatural (P41)● Independent◆peculiar American experience (landscape, pioneering to the West, Indiancivilization, new nation’s democracy and dreams) (P41-42)◆Puritan heritage (more moralizing, edifying more than mere entertainment)(careful about love and sex. example: Scarlet Letter) (P42)◆American national consciousness—the sense of missionTRANSCENDENTALISM:Nature’s voice pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, the summit of American Romanticism.⏹First, the Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul，as the mostimportant thing in the universe.⏹Secondly, the Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. They weretelling people to depend upon themselves for spiritual perfection.⏹Thirdly, the Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of theSpirit or God.⏹New England Transcendentalism was the product of a combination of foreign influencesand native American Puritan tradition⏹Transcendentalism was a way of knowing —the belief that man can intuitivelytranscend the limits of the senses and of logic and receive directly higher truths and greater knowledge denied to other methods of knowing.⏹On the other hand, transcendentalism had some glaring weaknesses.⏹The transcendentalists believed in living close to nature and taught the dignity of manuallabor.1.4 The Scarlet Letter●Sample: Scarlet Letter (A: Adultery to Able to Angel)●Characters:◆Hester Prynne (heroine, attractive, active towards the sin)◆Roger Chillingworth (Hester’s husband, emotionless, only thinking aboutrevenge, real villain in the novel, signifying pure intellect which was merciless in Hawthorne’s mind)◆Arthur Dimmesdale (a handsome and admirable young priest, contradictory onthe sin he made with Hester, being a brave man at last)●Theme:(Ask students: Is this a love story? No)◆The theme of the story should be the moral, emotional and psychologicaleffects of the sin on people. (P76)(对于《红字》的主题，有很多种不同的说法，这和这本小说的复义性有关。
美国文学期末复习知识点-绪论
绪论1.一般认为，美国文学史大致可分为七个时期，分别是殖民地时期、独立战争前后时期、南北战争时期、南北战争后至第一次大战前时期、两次大战之间时期、第二次大战后至越南战争前时期、越南战争后至新世纪初时期。
2.殖民地时期的美国文学主要有三类，它们是原住民印第安人口头文学和民间故事、欧洲探险者到北美的探险日记和航海记录、早期到北美殖民地的英国官员和牧师的散文和游记。
3.在殖民地英国官员和牧师作家们中大致可分为两类，即清教主义作家和反清教主义作家。
4.独立战争前后的美国文学中，发展成果最为突出的文学类型是散文。
5.第一位获得国际声誉的美国小说家是华盛顿·欧文，他的短篇小说代表作是《瑞普·凡·温克尔》、《睡谷传奇》。
6.詹姆斯·范·库柏创作了“皮袜子五部曲”：《开拓者》、《最后一个莫希干人》、《草原》、《探路人》、《逐鹿者》；他是第一位描写美洲殖民地历史的历史小说家、第一位刻画印第安人形象的小说家。
7.爱默生的散文《论自然》是美国超验主义运动的宣言，在该文中，爱默生提出新大陆需要精神独立。
超验主义是民主思想在哲学上的表现。
8.美国诗人瓦尔特·惠特曼的诗集《草叶集》的问世标志着美国浪漫主义运动达到高潮，爱默生欢呼的伟大的美国诗人诞生了。
9.惠特曼去世标志着浪漫主义文学时代的结束，美国文学迅速走进一个现实主义和自然主义文学发展新时代。
10.马克·吐温的小说《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》开创了美国文学的一代新风；威廉·豪威尔斯被认为是美国现实主义文学的奠基人，他最先指出“金钱成了时代的史诗”，“当个百万富翁成了美国人的理想”；而亨利·詹姆斯则开创了20世纪美国心理小说的新方向。
11.欧·亨利被誉为“美国短篇小说之父”，与法国作家莫泊桑和俄国作家契诃夫并列为世界三大短篇小说家。
12.弗兰克·诺里斯是第一个名副其实的美国自然主义作家，西奥多·德莱赛被称为第一次世界大战前最优秀的自然主义作家，其代表作品有《嘉莉妹妹》、《美国的悲剧》。
美国文学期末复习资料
美国文学期末复习资料美国文学期末复习资料美国文学是一门广泛而深入的学科，涵盖了从殖民地时期到现代的众多作品和作家。
为了帮助大家复习期末考试，本文将以不同的主题和时期为线索，介绍一些重要的美国文学作品和相关知识。
一、殖民地时期的文学在殖民地时期，美国文学主要以宗教为主题，反映了早期殖民者的信仰和生活。
《普利茅斯纪事》是美国文学史上的里程碑之一，它记录了普利茅斯殖民地的建立和早期的困难。
另外，约翰·史密斯的《弗吉尼亚史诗》和威廉·布拉德福的《普利茅斯植民地纪事》也是重要的作品。
二、启蒙时代的文学启蒙时代是美国文学的重要时期，这一时期的作品反映了人们对自由、理性和独立思考的追求。
本杰明·富兰克林是启蒙时代的代表人物，他的《贫穷理性者的儿子》和《自传》都是重要的作品。
此外，托马斯·潘恩的《常识》和托马斯·杰斐逊的《独立宣言》也是这一时期的重要文献。
三、浪漫主义时期的文学浪漫主义时期是19世纪美国文学的高峰期，作家们开始关注个人情感和内心体验。
华盛顿·欧文的《睡谷传奇》和爱德加·爱伦·坡的《乌鸦》是这一时期的代表作品。
此外，纳撒尼尔·霍桑的《红字》和赫尔曼·梅尔维尔的《白鲸》也是不可忽视的作品。
四、现实主义时期的文学现实主义时期是19世纪末到20世纪初的文学运动，作家们开始关注社会问题和人类命运。
马克·吐温的《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》和斯蒂芬·克莱恩的《红字》是这一时期的代表作品。
此外，亨利·詹姆斯的《国际象棋之家》和埃德蒙·威尔逊的《了不起的盖茨比》也是重要的作品。
五、现代主义和后现代主义时期的文学现代主义和后现代主义时期是20世纪美国文学的重要阶段，作家们开始挑战传统的叙事方式和观念。
欧内斯特·海明威的《老人与海》和威廉·福克纳的《喧哗与骚动》是现代主义时期的代表作品。
(完整版)美国文学史总结
ⅠColonial America(17th century)殖民主义时期文学1.In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America and he mistook the native people onthe new continent for Indians.Character of colonial literature:a.content: religious, politicalb.form: diary, journal, letters, travel books, sermons, history (personalliterature)c.Style: simple. direct, concised.out of humble originsEarly in the 17th century, the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts began the main stream of what we recognize as the American national history.The earliest settlers in America included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese.The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607(北美弗吉尼亚詹姆斯顿)2.Captain Town Smith, the first American writer3.Puritan Thoughts: hard work, thrift(节俭), piety(虔诚), sobriety(节制), 这些也成了早期美国作品主导思想.典型的清教徒：John Cotton & Roger William, John Cotton was called “the Patriarch of New England(新英格兰教父)”清教徒采用的文学体裁：narratives(日记) and journals(游记)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 spirit4.Private literature: theological, moral, historical, political5.The work of two writers, Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, rose to the level of realpoetry. Anne Bradstreet is one of the most interesting of the early poets, 英国最早移民到美国的诗人. The best of the Puritan poets was Edward Taylor.ⅡReason and Revolution(18th century)理性和革命时期文学1.The War for Independence (1776-1783) ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeoisdemocratic republic - the United States of America.2.Bourgeois Enlightenment3.Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard’s Almanac(穷人理查德的年鉴), an annual collection ofproverbs.The Autobiography, 18世纪美国唯一流传至今的自传⏹The Autobiography is, first of all, a Puritan document. It is Puritan because it is a recordof self-examination and self-improvement. The Puritans, as a type, were very much given to self-analysis.⏹The Autobiography shows Franklin was spokesman for the new order of 18th-centuryEnlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free, by nature endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.⏹It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision. The plainness of its style,the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the obvious features we cannot mistake.⏹Tone: OptimismThe American dream began with the settlement of the American continent –the Promised Land – the Garden of Eden – optimistic about the future4.Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, 极大恢复士气5.Thomas Jefferson:The Declaration of Independence6.Philip Freneau, Father of American Poetry: The Indian Burring Ground(印第安人的坟地)The Wild Honey Suckle(野忍冬花)⏹The poem is an indication of the poet’s dedication to American subjectmatter and the natural scenes on the new continent.⏹Here in this poem Freneau deals with the themes of loveliness and thetransience of life.⏹This poem, well within the melancholy genre, consists of the poet’s pensivemusings on the flower’s story.⏹The first two stanzas picture the advantages of the flower’s country retreat.⏹The next two stanzas unite the theme of the seasons with the thought that allmust die. Death and decay, as well as creation, are so common, so much a part of the universal law.ⅢRomanticism(end of the 18th century——Civil War)浪漫主义文学1.Washington Irving, Father of American literature: Sketch Book(见闻札记, the firstmodern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature, a collection of essays, sketches, and tales)2.James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales(皮袜子故事集, the AmericanNational Epic) contains of The Deerslayer(杀鹿者), The Last of the Mohicans(最后的莫希干人), The Pathfinder(探路人), The Pioneers(拓荒者), and The Prairie(大草原).3.Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven(乌鸦), Annabel Lee(安娜贝尔·李), The Fall of the House ofUsher(鄂榭府崩溃记)To Helen○Edgar Allan Poe wrote “To Helen” as a reflection on the beauty of Mrs. Jane Stith Stanard, of Richmond, Va., who died in 1824. She was the mother of one of Poe’s school classmates, Robert Stanard. When Robert invited Edgar, then 14, to his home (at 19th and East Grace Streets in Richmond) in 1823, Poe was greatly taken with the 27-year-old woman, who is said to have urged him to write poetry. He was later to write that she was his first real love.○ 1 stanza⏹Helen: An allusion to Helen of Troy in Greek mythology.⏹Nicean: Of or from Nicea (also spelled Nicaea), a city in ancient Bithynia (nowpart of present-day Turkey) near the site of the Trojan War.⏹Barks: small sailing vessels.⏹End rhyme: A, B, A,B, B.○ 2 stanza⏹wont: accustomed to⏹Naiad: Naiads were minor nature goddesses in Greek and Romanmythology. They inhabited and presided over rivers, lakes, streams, and fountains.⏹Naiad airs: Peaceful, gentle breezes or qualities⏹The glory that . . .Rome: These last two lines, beginning with the glorythat was, are among the most frequently quoted lines in world literature.⏹End rhyme: A, B, A, B, A.Half rhyme: Face and Greece○ 3 stanza⏹Psyche: In Greek and Roman mythology, Psyche was a beautifulprincess dear to the god of love, Eros (Cupid), who would visit her in a darkened room ina palace. One night she used an agate lamp to discover his identity. Later, at the urging ofEros, Zeus gave her the gift of immortality. Eros then married her.⏹End rhyme: A, B, B, A, B.⏹from the regions which are Holy Land: from ancient Greece and Rome;from the memory Poe had of Mrs. Stanard○Theme■Beauty, as Poe uses the word in the poem, appears to refer to the woman's soul as well as her body. On the one hand, he represents her as Helen of Troy–the quintessence of physical beauty–at the beginning of the poem. On the other, he represents her as Psyche–the quintessence of soulful beauty–at the end of the poem. In Greek, psyche means soul.4.Transcendentalism(超验主义):❖19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence 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. In their religious quest, the Transcendentalists rejected the conventions of 18th-century thought; and what began in dissatisfaction with Unitarianism developed into a repudiation of the whole established order.❖Representative figures: some 30 men and a couple of women such as Emerson, Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, and Margaret Fuller, most of them teachers or clergymen, radicals against rigid rationalism of Unitarianism.❖Time: 1836-1855❖Essence: “Transcendentalism is idealism” in essence❖Major Features:A.Emphasis on spirit;B.The importance of the individual as the most important element ofsociety;C．N ature as symbolic of the Spirit or GodRalph Waldo Emerson, Father of American Essay, Essayist, poet, philosopher, orator, critic : Nature(the Bible and manifesto(宣言) of the New England Transcendentalism), Self-relianceHenry David Thoreau(The Prophet(提倡者) of Non-Violence Movement, he wasEmerson’s truest disciple, who put into practice many of Emerson’s theories): Walden5.Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter⑴女主角honest, calmly face fault 诚实，坦然的面对罪过。
美国文学史总结
美国文学史总结Part I The Literature of Colonial America（殖民地时期的文学）Chapter 1→John Smith 约翰.史密斯1. A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened inVirginia Since the First Planting of That Colony 《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》（1608）2. A Map of Virginia with a Description of the Country 《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》（1612）3.The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles 《弗吉尼亚通史》（1624）Chapter 2→William Bradford （威廉.布拉德福德）→Of Plymouth Plantation 《普利茅斯开发史》（1826）→John Winthrop （约翰.温思罗普）→The History of New England from 1630 to 1649 《新英格兰史》（1856）Chapter 3→John Cotton （约翰.科登）→Roger Williams （罗杰.威廉姆斯）→ A Key into the Language of America 《开启美国语言的钥匙》/《美国新英格兰地区土著居民语言指南》Chapter 4→Anne Bradstreet（安妮.布雷兹特里特）（女性作家）→The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America 《在美洲诞生的第十位缪斯》→Edward Taylor （爱德华.泰勒）（女性作家）→Psalms 《诗篇》Part II The Literature of Reason and Revolution（理性和革命时期文学）Chapter 5→Benjamin Franklin （本杰明.富兰克林）1.Poor Richard ’s Almanac 《穷理查德年鉴》（1732-1758，1729年正式出版）2.The Declaration of Independence 《独立宣言》（Franklin & Jefferson 杰弗逊）3.The Autobiography 《自传》4.Collect Works 《作品选集》Chapter 6→Thomas Paine （托马斯.佩因）1.The Case of the Officers of the Excise 《收税官的案子》（1772）（his first pamphlet）mon Sense 《常识》（1776）3.The America Crisis 《美国危机》（1776-1883）（a series of sixteen pamphlets）（signed“Common Sense” ）4.Rights of Man 《人权》（I 1791年， II 1792年）5.The Age of Reason 《理性时代》6.Agrarian Justice 《土地公平》（his last important treatise 他最后一部重要著作）Chapter 7→Thomas Jefferson （托马斯.杰弗逊）The Declaration of Independence 《独立宣言》（Benjamin Franklin & Jefferson 杰弗1.该集子并不是按写作顺序来安排的，而是按事件发展的先后顺序重新编排，即：TheDeerslayer（《杀鹿者》）；The Last of the Mohicans《最后的莫希干人》；The Pathfinder 《探路人》；The Pioneers《拓荒者》；The Prairie《大草原》}Chapter 11→William Cullen Bryant （威廉.卡伦.布莱恩特）1.Thanatopsis《死亡思考/死之思考》（1817）2.To a Waterfowl《致水鸟》（is perhaps the peak of his work 是其巅峰之作）Chapter 12→Edgar Allan Poe （埃德加.艾伦.坡）1.MS. Found in a Bottle 《金瓶子城的方德先生》2.The Fall of the House of Usher《鄂榭府崩溃记》3.Tales Of the Grotesque and Arabesque《述异集》（1840）4.The Raven《乌鸦》（1845）5.To Helen《给海伦》6.Annabel Lee《安娜贝尔.李》Chapter 13→Ralph Waldo Emerson（拉尔夫.沃尔多.爱默生）1.Nature《论自然》（1836）2.Two speeches（正真让他功成名就的是两次演讲）：The American Scholar《美国学者》（a great statements 一篇优秀的论说文）& Divinity School Address《神学院致辞》3.Poem《诗集》（1847）4.Essay《随笔录》5.Representative Men《代表》（1850）6.English Traits《英国人》（1856）7.Nature《论自然》8.Self-Reliance《论自助》Chapter 14→Henry David Thoreau（亨利.戴维.梭罗）1.Walden《沃尔登》（1854）Chapter 15→Nathaniel Hawthorne （纳撒尼尔.霍桑）1.The House of the Seven Gables《七个尖角阁的房子》2.Mosses from an Old Manse《古厦青苔》（1846）3.The Scarlet Letter 《红字》（1850）The Scarlet Letter is the introductory chapter of The Scarlet Letter. 《海关》是《红字》的前言。
美国文学史及选读期末复习
美国文学史及选读期末复习.美国文学史复习1（colonialism)第一部分殖民主义时期的文学一、时期综述1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：a、narratives 日记b、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作容：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 whochallenged 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。
期末复习-美国文学简史汇总
A
5
Chapter One
Colonial Period (1607-1775)
A
6
Historical background
❖ The first permanent English settlement in North America at James town, Virginia in 1607.
2) Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.
3) Total depravity: Humanity’s utter corruption since the Fall.
- to escape religious persecution - to reform the Church of England - to have an entirely new church
* God’s chosen people * To seek a new Garden of Eden * To build “City of God on earth”
❖ Anti—Puritanism: Roger Williams, John Woolman, Thomas Paine, Philip Freneau
A
17
Major Writers
Captain John Smith （约 翰·史密斯）
the first American writer
A Description of New England 《新英格兰叙事》 (1616)
美国文学期末复习知识点-第三部分
第三部分1.美国南北战争以北方的彻底胜利告终，蓄奴制瓦解了，为工业资本主义的大发展开辟了道路，标志着旧时代的结束和新时代的开始。
2.美国与欧洲的交往增多，英国查尔斯·达尔文的《物种的起源》和哲学家赫伯特·斯宾塞的“适者生存”理论传入美国，影响深远。
3.马克·吐温与查尔斯·华纳合著的《镀金时代》成了19世纪最后二十五年的简称。
4.宗教界的神学理论也出现了相应的变化。
神学家们指出财富是神圣的标志，根据上帝的旨意，政府的职责是保护私人财富。
哲学家和神学家顺应时势，力图证明自由竞争是合法的，政府应给予大力支持，让民众享受内战后重建时期带来的好处。
5.内战后的十年最突出的变化是商业成了全国实力和尊严的主要象征。
6.1899年，美国文学艺术院成立；1904年又建立美国文学艺术科学院，进一步从体制上巩固了严肃文学的地位。
7.来自欧洲的现实主义和自然主义思潮进一步推动了美国文学的发展。
8.批评家泰纳将孔德的实证主义理论引入文艺批评，提出文学本质上来说是观察和分析人的主要方法，小说是社会的科学实验室，可以观察各种复杂的社会因素。
他强调种族、环境和时代是文学创作的三要素，他的观点成了美国现实主义的理论基础。
9.法国的自然主义也受到美国作家重视，法国作家左拉认为社会像个生物的有机体，小说家应该收集事实，做个“人与人的情欲的审问官”。
10.20世纪初，法国巴黎出现了现代主义文学思潮，影响了不少英美青年作家。
斯坦因是美国现代主义小说的奠基人。
诗歌方面，诗人庞德等在欧洲倡导意象派诗歌运动，后来由艾米·洛厄尔引入美国诗坛，揭开了美国现代片诗歌的序幕。
11.马克·吐温是美国伟大的批判现实主义文学大师，其代表作是长篇小说《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》。
海明威曾评价该书：全部现代美国文学作品来自马克·吐温写的《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》这本书。
12.威廉·迪恩·豪威尔斯的代表著作是《塞拉斯·拉法姆发家记》。
美国文学期末考试总结
Ⅰ. Write the author of each item. 10’1．Anne Bradstreet（The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America）①Contemplation②To My Dear and Loving Husband2. Benjamin Franklin①The Autobiography (early American Dream)3. Philip Freneau (Poet of American; The Father of American Poetry)①The Wild Honey Suckle②The Indian Burying Ground③To a Caty-Did4. Washington Irving(The Father of American Short Story; first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame; regarded as Father of American literature.)①The legend of Sleep Hollow②Rip Van Winkle③The Sketch Book(the beginning of American Romanticism)5. James Fennimore Cooper①The Last Mohicans②Leather Stocking Tales6. William Cullen Bryant① Thanatopsis② To a Water Fowl7. Edgar Allen Poe (Father of Modern Short Story; Father of Psychoanalysis criticism)①To Helen②The Raven③The Fall of the House of Usher④The Black Cat8. Ralph Waldo Emerson (leading new England transcendentalist)①Nature②Self-Reliance③The American Scholar9. Henry David Thoreau (an active transcendentalist)①Walden10. Nathaniel Hawthorne (a master of symbolism; first great American writer of fiction to work in moralistic tradition. combined the American romanticism with puritan moralism; created a new genre psychological romance)①The Scarlet Letter②Twice Told Tales③The Marble Faun④Blithedale Romance⑤The Minister’s Black Veil11. Herman Melville①Moby Dick12. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(the fireside poet; love of nature, love for the past)①A Psalm of Life②The Slav e’s Dream③My Lost Youth④The Song of Hiawatha13. Walt Whitman①Leaves of Grass(first genuine epic poem)②Song of Myself③I Sit and Look Out④ Beat！Beat！Drums！14. Emily Dickinson (the theme of her poetry concern religion, life, death, marriage, immorality, nature etc.)①I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed②I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain③A Bird Came Down the Walk④I Died for Beauty ___but Was Scarce⑤I Hear a Fly Buzz ___When I Died⑥Because I Could not Stop for DeathⅡ.True or False choice. 20’Ⅲ. Choose the best answer 10’Ⅳ. Appreciation 30’The Scarlet LetterAuthor: Nathaniel HawthorneSymbolism：The Scarlet Letter, A symbol of shame, but instead it becomes a powerful symbol of identity to Hester. The letter’s meaning shifts as time passes. Originally inte nded to mark Hester as an adulteress, the “A” eventually comes to stand for “Able.”Ralph Waldo Emerson1.NatureThe declaration of TranscendentalismAnalysis of “Nature”A long essay which has eight parts: the opening, commodity, beauty, language, discipline, Idealism, spirit and prospects. Our selection is taken from the opening. Taken as a whole, “Nature” expresses Emerson’s philosophy in a more systematic fashion than any other work of his.Meanings of natureI Beautynature is beautiful. : the complete, mysterious, useful and moral beauty of nature. First, nature’s beauty lies in its completeness. Second, nature’s beauty lies in its mystery. cannot be manipulated. Only when he holds a sincere respect for nature, can man feel the mysterious beauty of nature. Third, nature’s beauty lies in its usefulness. Nature provides man without any benefitII Nature Is Divine●Nature is divine and has the eternal order which should not be violated. Influenced in a way byChinese ancient philosophy, Emerson believes that all the things in the world come from the same root---the Oversoul.●Emerson believes that man can find God in his own heart by direct contact with nature●Nature has permeated (penetrate) all aspects of human life. Spirit embodied in nature hasinfluence upon us. Nature inspires man and gives him\her power. Man should find the truth,goodness and beauty in his own soul and bring into play his potentiality as human being. Then, he will become himself “All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and c an do".For Emerson, the individual is potentially the most divine and any organization or existing idea can not limit the development of individual.III Nature Is ChangingEverything in nature is in a process---growing, withdrawing and falling into the ground. The flowing of nature comes from a force which impels it to develop. For instance, a river is always in constantly flowing. It originates from mountains, flows along great plains and ultimately converges into the sea. Transcendental philosophyNature symbolizes freedom, independence and change. These are Individualism elements which attend to significance of common life. Therefore Emerson's nature is the theoretical base of American Individualism---one of the characteristics of American culture. As the symbol of Spirit, nature helps to prove that man's soul is beautiful, divine and fluid. Man should pursue spiritual fulfillment2.Self-Reliance①“The Confidence”. a man must show his opinion confidently and bravely in spite of different ideas.②“The Independence”. A man should keep himself firmly ; not be easily influenced by environment.③Keep personality, which is closely related to the confidence and the independence. a man must keep his personality and conform to his own principles.④“Showing no Sympathy to the Poor” shows that why the poor are poor is mainly due to their backward thinking. Showing help to this kind of people means doing harm to them.Comment: In Self-reliance, Emerson expressed the romantic idea of individualism, with an emphasis on being self-sufficient. He promoted relying on oneself rather than on established society. Emerson was known for his repeated use of phrase “trust thyself”. “Self-reliance”is his explanation---both systematic and passionate of what he meant by this, and why he was moved to make it his catchphrase. Every individual possesses a unique genius, emerson argues, that can only be revealed when that individual has the courage to trust his or her own thoughts, attitudes, and inclinations against all public disapproval.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1. A Psalm of Life①Love of nature, love for the past ②Trochaic tetrameter③constant theme for poets: The relationship of life and death. ④He expresses his pertinent interpretation to that by warning us that though life is hard and everybody must die, time flies and life is short, yet, human beings ought to be hold “to act,” to face the reality straightly so as to make otherwise meaningless life significant.2. My Lost YouthⅤ. Terms 10’New England PoetsThe new England poets were the representatives of imitation, authors like Irving, William Cullen Bryant, Henry wadsworth Longfellow etc. tried to imitate the forms and themes of their English brothers, such as Alexander Pope, Robert Burns, Thomas Gray, wordsworth and so on.Rip van winkleThis is one story in Washington Irving’s Sketch Book. It tells a story of a kind but hen-pecked man ripvan winkle. The protagonist does not take care of his own family very well and just wants to live idly. But his wife does not want him to live the life like that and keeps talking to him. Unhappy at home, he enters in the mountain with his gun and dog. One afternoon, he meets some strangers looking people playing at nine pins. Out of curiosity, he drinks the wine and falls into sleep. When he wakes up, he finds his dog missing and his gun rusted. He has to go back to the village again. But can not recognize the village and the folks. Later his surprise, he has been slept for 20 years. And his wife has been dead and his children grow up. At the end of story, his daughter takes him home and he still lives the life as he was used to.Ⅵ.Comment 20’1. Comment on Moby Dick:a. Although the narrator sees insanity in Ahab, Melville’s emotional sympathy is with the deficient Ahab. He begins with a noble intention to crush evil, but in taking this to the extreme, he becomes evil himself. He is destroyed by his consuming desire to root out evil.b. Moby Dick is a symbol to represent cruel, brutal, malicious powers of nature. Nature is capable of destroying the human world. Nature threatens humanity & thus calls out the heroic powers of the human beings. So the power of the universe is both of blessing and curse. In this way, the author constructs a complicated statement about American view of nature.2. Compare: Emily Dickinson with Walt Whitman in their writing style.Similarities①Along with Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman stands as one of the two giants of American ②poetry in the nineteenth century.③Pioneers of imagism④Part of American Renaissance⑤Influenced by transcendentalism⑥Thematically, they both extolled in their different ways and emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance”⑦Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they are pioneers in American poetry.Differences①Whitman seems to keep his eyes on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual.②Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook. Dickinson is “regional”③Whitman has the “catalogue techniques”, all-inclusive catalogue. Whereas Dickinson’s concise, direct, simple diction and syntax。
美国文学史考试总结
•Brief introduction of his life•Eliot（1888-1965）•American-born English poet，literary critic, and dramatist，who is best known for his poem The Waste Land. He was born in St. Louis，Missouri.•Features of his poetry••Eliot’s poetry was becoming noted for its fresh visual imagery视觉表象, its flexible 灵活tone语气音调and highly expressive rhythm.韵律•His famous principle “objective correlative”客观相关物i.e. using related有关联的objects, situations情境, events, all external外部的事实facts, to expressemotions.情感•His criticism他善于以精辟和富于权威性的语言表达其他人经常想到和提到，然而不能准确讲出的论点•Eliot was a distinguished literary critic. He became “a giver of laws and the arbiter of taste”in the new poetry and criticism.•His criticism possessed an air of authority and offered a measure of reassurance•The basic them of his criticism•the relationship of between tradition and individual talent, and between the past, the present and the future•His famous doctrine on poets and poetry•“impersonal theory" or the theory of impersonality and objectivity.•To Eliot, what the poet has to express, is not a “personality,个性”but a particular 方法medium in which impressions印象and experiences经历combine结合in 奇特peculiar and unexpected 出乎意料的ways.•Poetry is not a turning loose释放of emotion, but an escape from it; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from it.•The influence of his theory•Lead to the emergence of the New Criticism新批评主义in later years and influence a whole generation of poets.一代•His theory became something like a law for American poets for over two decades from mid 1920s through the 1950s.••The waste land is a reprehensive谴责work of the high modernism of 1920s, impersonal, 客观的discontinuous间断的with its fragments片段, full of literary allusions暗示and ancientmyths古代神话, measuring测量modern life against the historical past and finding itwanting不足in many ways.••The change of these five parts is abrupt 生硬and jerky, with no hint of logical order逻辑次序的暗示and causal relationship.因果关系•Through gaps, absence of connective tissues连接词, and discordant不和谐juxtapositions并列, the poet intends the reader to see and feel the 碎片agmentary nature of life.His influence on American literature•He was the most successful literary dictator独裁者in American literature history,one who wielded the most decisive influence over literary development for a long time.∙《普鲁弗洛克及其他》（Prufrock and Other Observations，1917年）∙《诗集》（Poems，1919年）∙《荒原》（The Waste Land，1922年）∙《诗集1909-1925》（Poems 1909-1925，1925年）∙《圣灰星期三》（Ash Wednesday，1930年）∙《老负鼠的猫经》（Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats，1939年）∙《焦灼的诺顿》（Burnt Norton，1941年）∙《四个四重奏》（Four Quartets，1943年）《诗集》（Collected Poems，1962∙《圣林》（The Sacred Wood，1920年）∙《安德鲁·马维尔》（Andrew Marvell，1922年）∙《但丁》（Dante，1929年）∙《当代文学的传统和尝试》（Tradition and Experimentation in Present-Day Literature，1929年）∙《朗伯斯后的沉思》（Thoughts After Lambeth，1931年）∙《约翰·德莱顿》（John Dryden，1932年）∙《古典与现代散文》（Essays Ancient and Modern，1936年）∙《诗与剧》（Poetry and Drama，1951年）∙∙《岩石》（The Rock，1934年）∙《大教堂中的谋杀》（Murder in the Cathedral，1935年）∙《家庭聚会》（The Family Reunion，1939年）∙《鸡尾酒会》（The Cocktail Party，1950年）∙《老政治家》（The Elder Statesman，1958年）托马斯·艾略特是英国20世纪影响最大的诗人。
美国文学期末复习知识点-第四部分
第四部分1.第一次世界大战之后，欧洲各国文化界充斥着对西方文明的悲观失望情绪，对道德观和价值观产生了怀疑，诚如T. S. 艾略特在长诗《荒原》中描绘的景象。
德国哲学家尼采宣称“上帝死了”。
西方社会走入“荒原时代”。
2.受战火洗礼的法国，战后汇集了各种想变革、求生存的现代主义思潮。
法国巴黎成了国际现代主义文艺思潮的中心。
先锋派、达达主义、超现实主义、未来主义等流派十分活跃，吸引了许多英美青年作家，如海明威、多斯·帕索斯、菲茨杰拉德、庞德、艾略特、乔伊斯等等，他们被称为“迷茫的一代”的代表。
3.战后的美国，根深蒂固的清教主义社会习俗受到新思潮冲击，一个狂欢享乐，追求物质享受的时代出现了，这一时期被称为爵士乐时代。
4.菲兹杰拉德的长篇小说《了不起的盖茨比》描绘了爵士乐时代“美国梦”的破灭。
20年代美国小说繁荣发展，成为伟大的“第二次文艺复兴”。
5.1930年，美国小说家辛克莱·路易斯荣获诺贝尔文学奖，是第一个获此殊荣的美国作家。
其代表作是《巴比特》。
6.1929年，欧美经济进入大萧条时期，引发了一场全球性的经济和政治危机。
7.20世纪三、四十年代，美国文坛上涌现出一支左翼作家生力军，如多斯·帕索斯、德莱塞、里德等，他们先后访问苏联，赞赏那里的社会主义文学，其创作受到______主义的影响。
8.海明威是美国伟大的小说家和文体家。
1926年，出版了首部长篇小说《太阳照常升起》，1929年，小说《永别了，武器》奠定了他小说家的地位。
1940年，以西班牙内战为背景的长篇小说《丧钟为谁而鸣》出版。
1952年，中篇小说《老人与海》一鸣惊人，轰动国内外，次年该书获得普利策奖。
9.1954年，海明威荣获诺贝尔文学奖。
诺贝尔文学奖评委会对海明威的颁奖词指出海明威的获奖是由于他精通现代叙事艺术，突出地表现在他的近作《老人与海》中，同时也由于他对当代文风的影响。
他还塑造了感人的硬汉子形象。
瑞典皇家文学院常任秘书奥斯特林的评价更为具体：“我们不能忘记，他的描述技巧往往以小巧的、短小精悍的作品形式达到巅峰。
美国文学 期末考试 总结一
1.The Minister’s Black V eil--Hawthorne,人物：Hooper总结：A universally beloved minister appears in church one Sunday wearing a small black veil which hides his face from the forehead to the mouth. Everyone is made uneasy by this.After he has worn it for several Sundays a delegation from the congregation go to his home to ask him to remove it, or at least explain why he is wearing it. But intimidated胁迫by the veil, they are afraid to raise the subject.His bride-to-be then declares she will speak to him about it. When he will not discuss the matter with her she says she is afraid to marry him unless he lifts the veil at least once, or tells her why he must refuses. He will not but begs her to marry him anyway, instead of condemning them each to a lonely life. He continues to wear the veil throughout a lonely life. Everyone avoids him but his sermons布道become even more impressive and many people are brought to a state of grace by them.“black veil”symbolizes the cover used to keep one’s guilt as a secret.Themes: light vs. dark integrity vs. hypocrisy free will vs. conformity openly sin vs. guilt 2.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—Mark Twain人物：Huck, JimThemes: 1.Huck’s quest for freedom and Jim’s quest for anti-slavery2. Society vs. individual3. H uck’ birth and rebirth4. Huck’s loneliness and isolation人物性格分析：Huck is always practical and natural, exhibiting good common sense. Huck is extremely adaptable. Huck is also very shrewd and possesses a good inventive ability. His sympathy for other human beings, his shrewdness and ingenuity, his basic intelligence, his good common sense and his basic practicality.3.An American Tragedy-- Theodore Dreiser 人物：Clyde Griffths总结：Clyde thinks money and success will bring him happiness. When a pregnant girlfriend threatens to destroy this dream, he plans to kill her. At the last moment, he changes his mind, but the girl dies accidentally anyway. Since Clyde has decided not to kill her, is he really responsible for her death? This becomes the main question during the trial审判. The trial itself is not really fair. The newspapers stir up public anger against him. In the end, Clyde is executed. Clearly, Dreiser believes that Clyde is not really guilty. Dreiser calls his novel a tragedy, and in certain ways it is similar to classical Greek tragedy. It concentrates on a single individual, who gives it unity; and his individual is eventually destroyed by forces which he cannot control.4.The Hairy Ape—Eugene O’Neill 人物：Yank全文总结：Yank, the ape-like seaman, attempts to rise to a higher level. Yank’s initial crisis is seeing himself unfavorably in the mirror of the society girl when she calls him a filthy beast. After this incident, and throughout the play, he struggles to find out exactly who and what he is. Ultimately he tries to find meaning and purpose in the animal world by freeing a caged gorilla, but this final effort fails also. In the end, Yank dies, without ever finding his place of belonging. The general feeling is one of despair: Man is rootless in an indifferent and impersonal universe. Summary of Act VIII: The next day Yank goes to the monkey house at the zoo. The gorilla’s brute strength impresses him and he speaks to the animal as a friend. He describes the feelings he had in the park, watching the sun rise on the sea. At last he understood Paddy’s nostalgia for the old life, but he knew he could never belong to it. This realization led him to seek out the gorilla. Yank saysthe gorilla is lucky to belong to one world while he belongs to neither heaven nor earth. Identifying himself with the animal, Yank frees him to get even with the men who have put him in the cage. The gorilla picks him up, crushes him and throws him into the open cage. When the door has slammed shut on him and the gorilla has gone the dying Yank calls out mockingly to imaginary spectators to step right up and have a look at the one and only--- Hairy Ape. He dies, having pronounced this final judgment on himself. In a stage note the playwright suggests that perhaps Yank at last belongs.5.A Farewell to Arms—Ernest Hemingway 人物：Henry, Catherine Barkley, EmilioWriting features:DialogueInterior monologue// stream of consciousnessUnderstatementThemesThe Grim Reality of WarThe Relationship between Love and PainFeelings of lossSummary:The novel tells about the war experience and the love story of an American lieutenant, Henry, during the World War I. Henry serves in the Italian ambulance crops, andfall in love with an English nurse, Catherine. Although in civilian clothes, he is suspected,and forced to flee with Cat to Switzerland. They go to Lausanne for the birth of their child,but the baby is stillborn and Cat dies in childbirth. Henry is left alone in a strange land; his dream of leading a decent life broke into smithereens. So the novel is both farewell to war,and a farewell to love.6.Autobiography-- Benjamin FranklinSummary:It is probably the first autobiography in American literature. It is an interesting record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity. It’s a record of self-examination and self-improvement. He wrote it at 65.。
美国文学史期末考试总结
Terms(取5个, 每个3分)Trickster talesNative American oral literature. People are in the form of animal or half human half animal. Trickster characters exist in the margins of social world, they are resourceful and clever. They attempt to violate established rules and engage in socially unacceptable acts.Origin storiesNative American oral literature. creator takes the animal form. Sun Father. Earth Mother. Historical narrativesNative American oral literature. A mix of legend and history. The line between actual event and tribal beliefs is blurred.PuritanismDuring the colonial period in America. Beliefs held by Puritans: original sin, elect group, receive God’s Grace, total depravity, a way of life that stresses hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.TranscendentalismAmerican Romanticism’s mature period. It emphasized the significance of the individual. It stressed the power of intuition. Spirit transcended matter. Emerson’s Nature.AllegoryA tale in verse or prose in which characters, settings or actions represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. An allegory is a story with two meanings: a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Hawthorne’s Dr. Heidegger’s ExperimentFree verseOrigin: in the 19th century, a group of French poets intended to free French poetry from restrictions of formal pattern. It is a kind of poetry that lacks regular meter. It has repetition and parallel constructions. Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.RealismRealism(from the end of Civil War to the year before WWI)emphasizes fidelity and accurate observation to actuality of life(objectivity), thus against romanticism’s optimistic view. It insists on precise description to everyday scene of lives of common people and presents moral visions. It often has an open/surprising ending, for example, O Henry’s The Last Leaf.Local ColorismDominant in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Works could not be written in any other place or by anyone else than a native. The aim is to create an indigenous little world that differs from the world outside. Mark Twain’s Running for GovernorNaturalismNaturalism(late 19th c)tries to apply the determinism to fiction.It believes that a person is controlled by environment and heredity and the universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. For example, Jack London’s Moon FaceLost generationApplied to US disillusioned intellectuals and artists after WWI. They were cut off from the old values and unable to adapt to the new era. It may also refer to the entire post-WWI American generation. Ernest Hemingway’s In another Country.ImagismA poetic movement in England and US flourishing from 1908 to 1917. Anti-Romantic, anti-Victorian. Dealing with single, concentrated moments of experience, using common speech and concise language, producing free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern, recording objective observations.Ezra Pound’s In a Station of The MetroModernismModernism(1914~1945) emerged under the background of the Lost Generation and the Great Depression, influenced by Freud, Marxism and Nietzsche. 1. It indicates an impulse to “make it new”. 2. It leads to a greater awareness of internationality in American literature. 3. It has a more complex view of reality. For example: Ernest Hemingway’s In another Country. Fragmentationthe technique of pasting different fragments together in the text. a fragment is a broken piece. When dissociated fragments are put together, they present the effects ofjuxtaposition, and discontinuity. What the reader experiences is the sense of uncertainty or indeterminacy. Harlem RenaissanceIn the 1920s, a rebirth of African American arts, known as the “New Negro Movement”. In the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Open racial pride. Langston Hughes’Early AutumnSlave narrativeThe Afro-American literature in the middle of the 19th century. Fugitive slaves wrote the cruelties of their lives under slavery. It can be categorized into threeforms: tales of religious redemption, tales to inspire the abolitionist struggle, and tales of progress.Langston Hughes’s Early Autumn.一篇小essay, 两个题选一个1.Modernismvs. Post-modernismModernism and post-modernism have shared similarities and distinctions.Modernism (1914~1945) emerged under the background of the Lost Generation and the Great Depression, influenced by Freud, Marxism and Nietzsche.1. It indicates an impu lse to “make it new”.2. It leads to a greater awareness of internationality in American literature.3. It has a more complex view of reality. For example: Ernest Hemingway’s In another Country.Post-modernism(after WWII) has shared goals of breaking away from traditions through experimentation with new literary forms. However, it more emphasizes constructivism, idealism, pluralism. It includes genres as the Absurd, the Antinovel, the Beat Generation. For example: Allen Ginsberg’s A Supermarket in California.The novel of Modernism represents social reality. However, in Post-modernism, the literature is exhausted and dead. The novel favors “fiction” over “reality”. The time、structure of language are disjointed. Subject functions only as a symbol. The world is hopelessly dark.2.Realism vs. NaturalismRealism and Naturalism have shared similarities and distinctions.Realism(from the end of Civil War to the year before WWI)emphasizes fidelity and accurate observation to actuality of life(objectivity), thus against romanticism’s optimistic view. It insists on precise description to everyday scene of lives of common people and presents moral visions. It often has an open/surprising ending, for example, O Henry’s The Last Leaf.Naturalism(late 19th c)tries to apply the determinism to fiction.It believes that a person is controlled by environment and heredity and the universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. For example, Jack London’s The Call of The Wild.There are many differences between Realism and Naturalism. Firstly, realism is mimesis while naturalism is reproduction. Secondly, realism has ethical choices while naturalism has no freedom of will, only uncontrollable forces. Thirdly, for realism, there are limited range of materials filtered by conventional standardswhile naturalism is less restrained in matters of sexuality.填空1.获得诺贝尔奖的作家：Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, TonyMorrison.2.Native American literature: the Maya and the Aztec. Native Oral Literature: speech,chant, song. performative dimension: ritual dances. Major Types: Origin stories, Trickster tales, Historical Narratives. (explore both their rich heritage and their tragic loss of identity; find themselves trapped between white culture and a culture that is vanishing).Literature of early settlements: travel accounts, utilitarian, fresh and simple, nobility.Puritan idealism: to build New England a new Garden of Eden. The first Americanliterature was neither American (immigrants from England) nor really literature (mixture of travel accounts and religious writings).3.The rise of national literature: the Great Awakening, Puritanism declines, Newton,Neoclassicism in arts, Deism and Unitarianism(come from the Enlightenment, simplify the Christian religion, antidote to Puritanism), American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin(individualism)/Thomas Paine/Thomas Jefferson.4.Romantics: against the objectivity of rationalism. Emphasizes feeling, intuition, emotion.Emphasizes individualism. Close relationship between man and nature. Favor the past and irregular. Washington Irving(Rip Van Wrinkle), James Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe(The Cask of Amontillado)5.Transcendentalism:sources: Neo-Platonism, Oriental mysticism, German Romanticism,Unitarianism(Channing). Represented by Emerson(Nature) and Thoreau(Walden).Also include Hawthorne(Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment), Melville(Moby Dick), Dickinson, Whitman(Leaves of Grass). Romanti cism’s mature period. Emphasizes the importance of individual. Individuals can intuitively receive higher truths. Emphasis on senses and intuition over reason and intellect. Spirit transcended matter. Nature symbolizes God.Religion is emotional communication between individual soul and the universal “over-soul”.6.Realism:against Romanticism. Fidelity to actuality, accurate observation of humanexperiences, everyday scenes, open ending, common people, objectivity, presents moral visions.Emphasizing pragmatic experience. Mimesis: literature imitates reality. O Henry(The Last Leaf)7.Local Color Fiction: a form of Regionalism. Locale, indigenous, exotic, picturesque,nostalgia. Distinctive setting, dialect, customs, dress, ways of thinking and feeling. Mark Twain.8.Naturalism: post-Darwinian movement. Darwin’s biological determinism; Marx’ssocio-economic determinism. Deterministic universe. Controlled by environment and heredity(instincts and passion). It stems from Zola in French literature. It aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man. Dark and pessimistic.Characters often at the lowest social class. Theodore Dreiser(Sister Carrie). Jack London.9.Women Writing: conventional attitude to women during Victorian Age(Victorianism).Women suffrage movement. (Amendment19: rights to vote; amendment13: abolished slavery; amendment15: made racial discrimination illegal). New women. Kate Chopin, Katherine Anne Porter.10.Imagism: inspired by Greek and Roman classics and Japanese and Chinese poets.Anti-Romantic, anti-Victorian. Express momentary impressions. Dealing with single, concentrated moments of experience, using common speech and concise language, producing free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern, recording objective observations. Juxtapose with other images. Ezra Pound: In a Station of The Metro、E.E.Cumming: L(a)、Hilda Doolittle: Oread、William Carlos Williams: The RedWheelbarrow; The Great Figure 5、Carl Sandburg: The Harbor; Fog11.Modernism:To “make it new”. Internationality. More complex view of reality.Background: the lost generation, the Great Depression. influenced by Freud, Marxism and Nietzsche. Robert Frost: The Road Not Take. Earnest Hemingway.12.Afro-American literature: literary development: Oral traditions, Slave narratives,Spiritual narratives, Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes: Early Autumn.13.Post-Modernism: after WWII. it more emphasizes constructivism, idealism, pluralism. Itincludes genres as the Absurd, the Antinovel, the Beat Generation(in the late 1950s, A group of American poets and novelistspublicly advocated antiestablishment views), meta-fiction(novels that specifically and self-consciously examine the nature and the status of fiction itself; Fiction about fiction). For example: Allen Ginsberg’s A Supermarket in California.Identification(5个，每个4分，没有诗歌。
美国文学考试期末知识点
1. features of Puritanism 请教主义(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. (3)Total depravity(4)Limited atoneme nt: Only the “elect” can be saved.2, American Puritanism 美国请教主义的Basic Puritan Beliefs(1)Total Depravity - through Adam and Eve's fall, every person is born sinful - concept of Original Sin.(2)Unconditional Election - God "saves" those he wishes - only a few are selected for salvation - concept of predestination. (3)Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone. (4)Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied. Grace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God.(5)Perseverance of the "saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God - something impossible in Puritanism.(6)Puritan values (creeds): Hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety, simple tastes. Puritans are more practical, tougher, to be ever ready for any misfortune and tragic failure and optimistic..3.Influence on American Literature对美国文学影响定义:America literature is in good measure a literary expression of the pious idealism of the American Puritanism bequest. All literature is based on a myth of garden of Eden.Symbolism象征the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chie fly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American. Symbolism as a technique has become a common practice in American literature.With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.4. The literary Scene in colonial America 殖民地的美国Humble origins: diaries, histories, journals, letters,travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons各种作家Writers: (1)John Smith: the first American writer(2)Anne Bradstreet: a Puritan poet ,The Complete Work: Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America(3)Edward Taylor: a variety of verse: funeral elegies, lyrics, a medieval "debate," and a 500-page Metrical History of Christianity (mainly a history of martyrs). His best works, according to modern critics, are the series of short Preparatory Meditations.5;Features of Colonial Poets殖民地诗人的特征American literature grew out of humble origins. Diaries, histories, journals, letters, commonplace books, travel books, sermons, in short, personal literature in its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period.They faithfully imitated and transplanted English literary traditions.---In English styleThey were servants of God.---Puritan poetsThey served either God or colonial expansion or both.6,Anne Bradstreet’s Works1,“Some vers es on the Burning of Our House”2,“The Spirit and the Flesh”3,The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America(the first collection published by English colonists living in America)7.several points in this period:(1)William Hill Brown published the first American novel The Power of Sympathy in 1789.(2)Charles Brockden Brown) was the first American author to attempt to live from his writing. He developed the genre of American Gothic. He employed new narrative techniques. Another significance was his description of his characters’ in ner world, so his works can be read as psychological novel.(3)Roger Williams (1603-1683)Preach for civil and religious liberty and against the puritan oligarchy of Boston.Call for democratic government and oppose to the eviction of the Indians.Works: The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience(4)CJohn Woolman1:From a pious Quaker family 2:Transcendentalism humanitarianism3:Plea for the rights of all men and the abolition of the slavery system.Works: Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes; A Plea for the Poor.(5)Thomas Paine :A great influence in the American RevolutionWorks: The Rights of Man; The Age of Reason(6)Philip Freneau:“Poet of the American Revolution”“Father of American Poetry”,the most significant poet of 18th century in America. Some off his themes and images anticipated theworks of such 19th century American Romantic writers as Cooper, Emerson, Poe and Melville.His works:(1) The Rising Glory of America1772 《美洲光辉的兴起》(2) The Wild Honey Suckle 1786 《野地里德忍冬》(3) The Indian Burying Ground1788 《印第安人墓地》(4The Dying Indian: Tomo Chequi《奄奄一息的印第安人：托姆·柴吉》关于他的评价：He was the most significant poet of 18th century America.Some of his themes and images anticipated the works of such 19th century American Romantic writers as Cooper, Emerson, Poe and Melville.Poet of American Independence: Freneau provides incentive and inspiration to the revolution by writing such poems as "The Rising Glory of America" and "Pictures of Columbus."Journalist: Freneau was editor and contributor of The Freeman's Journal (Philadelphia) from 1781-1784. In his writings, he advocated the essence of what is known as Jeffersonian democracy - decentralization of government, equality for the masses, etc.Freneau's Religion: Freneau is described as a deist - a believer in nature and humanity but not a pantheist. In deism, religion becomes an attitude of intellectual belief, not a matter of emotional of spiritual ecstasy. Freneau shows interest and sympathy for the humble and the oppressedFreneau as Father of American Poetry: His major themes are death, nature, transition, and the human in nature. All of these themes become important in 19th century writing.All the while.in romanticizing the wonders of nature in his writings...he searched for an American idiom in verse.8：The American Enlightenment 美国启蒙运动(1)It was a part of a larger intellectual movement known as the Age of Enlightenment. Influenced by the scientific revolution of the 17th century, the Enlightenment took scientific reasoning and applied it to human nature and society.(2)Reason was advocated as the primary source and basis of authority.There was a shift from God-centered thinking to human being centered. Instead of going through life unhappy and thinking they had to suffer so they could enjoy the afterlife - people began to think about what they could accomplish on earth.(3)Equality The American Enlightenment inflenced Benjamin Franklin dramatically.Great Awening影响(1)It is a serires of religious revivals that swept over the American colonies about the middle of the 18th century.(2)It results in doctrinal changes and influnce social and political thought.In New England it was started by the rousing preaching of Jonathan Edwards9:Jonathan Edwards Works: (1)The Freedom of the Will《论意志自由》(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended《论原罪》(3)The Nature of True Virtue《论真实德行的本原》AssessmentJonathan Edwards was a good deal of a transcendentalistbecause of his ideas:a, The spirit of revivalism b. Regeneration of man c. God’s presence d. Puritan idealism10:Benjamin Franklin Works:1：The Autobiography《自传》（1）The Autobiography is, first of all, a Puritan document. It is a record of self-examination and self-improvement.（2）The Autobiography is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Benjamin Franklin was spokesman for the new order of 18th century enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free, by nature endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.（3）Through telling a success story of self-reliance, the book celebrates, in fact, the fulfillment of the American dream.Now a look at the style of The Autobiography will readily reveal that it is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concisionThe Autobiography《自传》:It is perhaps the first real post-revolutionary American writing as well as the first real autobiography in English.It gives us the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man:2：Poo r Richard’s Almanac《穷理查德格言历书》Poor Richard’s Almanac is full of adages and common-sense witticism which became ,very quickly, household words.Benjamin Franklin Borrowed from such writers as Defoe, Swift, and Pope , and used his own wit to simplify and enrich their axioms11：General Introduction to Romanticism 浪漫主义介绍a. Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution.b. It was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature.The movement stressed运动强调a. strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories.b. It elevated folk art and custom to something noble.c. It argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the formof language, custom and usage.12：Characteristics of Romanticism:浪漫主义特征（1）an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society—reliance on the subconscious, the inner life, the abnormal psychology（2）an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination—rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed formality, order and authority（3）a profound love for nature—nature as a source of knowledge, nature as a refuge from the present, nature as a revelation of the holy spirit the quest for beauty—pure beautythe use of antique and fanciful subject matters—sense of terror, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queer13，Romanticism Historical Background历史背景1，Political: After American Revolution, American developed into a political, economic and cultural independence. Democracy and equality became the ideals of the new nation. Complete changes came about in the political life of the country.2. Economic: Industrialism spread widely and fast. A large number of immigrants arrived. All these produced an economic boom.3. Both the change in political and the economic development brought about a sense of optimism and hope.4. Culturally: Magazines appeared in ever-increasing numbers and they played an important role in facilitating literary expansion.5. Foreign influence added incentive to the growth of romanticism in America.14Features of American Romanticism美国浪漫主义特征a. Imitative: Some of the American Romantic writings were modeled on English and European works. The Romantic Movement proved to be a decisive influence. Without it, the rise of Romanticism would have been impossible. Romanticism writers such as Scott, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron all made a stimulating impact on American literature.b. Independent: From the very beginning, American Romanticism exhibited distinct features of its own. It originated from a mixture of factors which were altogether American rather than anything else.c. Puritan influence over American Romanticism was clearly noticeable. E.g., the author tended more to moralize than writers in England.15：Uniqueness of Am. Romanticism:美国浪漫主义独特性Unique subject matter：The western movement ：the American national experience of pioneering into the west proved to be a rich source of material for American writers to draw upon. They celebrated American’s landsc ape with its virgin forests, meadows, groves, endless prairies, stream, and vast oceans. The wildness came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral law.Uniqueness of Am. Romanticism:：the newness as a nation美国浪漫主义独特性的具体体现（1）The ideals of individualism and political equality, and their dream that America was to be a new Garden of Eden for man were distinctly American. This feeling of newness was strong enough to inspire the romantic imagination and channel it into different vein of writing.Puritan moral values（2）Puritan influence over American Romanticism was clearly noticeable. E.g., the author tended more to moralize than writers in England.（3）Mixture of different races：The immigrants coming from different cultural and social background bring with them different cultures16. Two phases:两个时期a. 1770s to 1830s Early period Representatives: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooperb.1830s to 1860s Late period summit of American literature Representatives: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, Poe etc.；Washington Irving “Father of the American short storyHis Worksa. A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty1809 《纽约外史》b. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent1819-1820 《见闻札记》c. Bracebridge Hall 1822 《布雷斯布里奇庄园》d. Oliver Goldsmith 1840 《哥尔德斯密斯》e. Life of George Washington1855-1859 《华盛顿传》The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent1819-1820 《见闻札记》评价：（1）The Sketch Book is a collection of essays, sketches, and tales.（2）In The Sketch Book, the most famous and frequently anthologized（选编）are “Rip Van Winkle” 《瑞普·凡·温克》“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《睡谷的传说》(3）The short story as a genre in American literature began with The Sketch Book.(4)The book touched the American imagination and foreshadowed the coming of Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe. (5)It also marked the beginning of American Romanticisms.The evaluation of Irving：a:Father of American literatureb：The beginning of short story as a genre-“Father of the American short story”c The first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international famed The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American RomanticismThe theme of the storyThe story of man who has difficulties facing his advancing ageThe contradictory impulses in America toward work- the puritan attitude as opposed to the American desire for leisureThe theme of escape from one’s responsibilities and even one’s historyThe loss of identity19：James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851)Major Works：Precaution戒备(1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) The Spy间谍(his second novel and great success)皮袜子故事集：“Leatherstocking Tales” (his masterpiece, a series of five novels): The Pioneers开拓者, The Last of the Mohicans最后的莫西干人, The Prairie草原, The Pathfinder探路者, The Deerslayer 杀鹿者point of view：the theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rightsTheme：a. America was made conscious of his past, particularly the contribution from the Mohicans.b. The antithesis between nature and civilization, at the cost of the life and labor, will be dissolved to push the development of frontiers.c. The battle between the colonists caused the trage dy of Indians in American continentThe features of Cooper ：He is a mythic writer Good at inventing plots (Cooper had never been to the frontier area personally.)Style: powerful, yet clumsy and dreadfulWooden Characters ：Use of dialect, but not authentic (criticized by Mark Twain)19：超验主义：Transcendentalism （1）定义Emerson’s Definition：In his essay "The Transcendentalist," Emerson explained transcendentalism is “idealism; i dealism as it appears in 1842".The factors that influenced New England Transcendentalism：New England Transcendentalism was the Product of a combination of foreign influences and the American Puritan traditiona. Foreign influences: the introduction of idealism (唯心主义)from Germany and France and Oriental mysticismb. American PuritanismMajor Features超验主义特征：emphasis on spirit or the Oversoul as the most important thing in the universe. 1 The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. It exists in nature and man alike and constituted the chief elements of the universe2 It emphasized the significance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish.It took nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God3 All things in nature were symbols of the spiritual, of God’s presence. Nature was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Everything in the universe was viewed as an expression of the divine spirit.4 It stressed the power of intuition. It stressed the power of intuition, believing that people could learn things both from the outside world by means of the five senses and from the inner world by intuition. But the things they learned from within were truer than the things they learned from without, and transcended them. It held that everyone had access to a source of knowledge that transcended the everyday experiences of sensation and reflection. Intuition was inner light within.Influence超验主义的影响：1 It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2 It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.It helped to create the first American renaissance –one of the most prolific period in American literatureSignificance: New England Transcendentalism is the summit of American Romanticism. Representatives: Emerson, Thoreau20：Ralph Waldo Emerson拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生His Works：a. Essays《散文集》b. Nature《论自然》(a book which declared the birth of Transcendentalism)c. The American Scholar《论美国学者》(American’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence)d. Divinity, The Oversoul《论超灵》e. Self-reliance《论自立》f. The Transcendentalist《超验主义者》His point of view a. One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the “oversoul”.b. He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying(圣洁的神圣化的) moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent(内在的固有的) God in nature.c. If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”.d. Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by making himself.His aesthetics a. poets should function as preachers who gave directions to the mass.b. True poetry and true art should ennoble and serve as a moral purification and a passage toward organic unity(有机统一) and higher reality.c. Emerson places emphasis on ideas, symbols and imaginative words.d. As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America and the life today.e. Emerson’s aesthetics brought about a revolution in American li terature in general and in American poetry in particular. It marked the birth of true American poetry and true America poets such as Whitman and DickinsonNature （论自然）：Emerson’s first published work was Nature(1836). This work has the clearest statement of Transcendentalist ideas. Nature is considered the “gospel” (真理信条)of American Transcendentalism. It has an Introduction and eight chapters:1.Nature2. Commodity3. Beauty4. Language5. Discipline6. Idealism7. Spirit8. Prospects.The major thesis of the essay, in Emerson‘s words, is that we should now “enjoy an original relation to the universe,” and not become dependent on past experiences of others or on holy books, creeds ,dogma(教条教理).主要内容：In it Emerson stated that man should not see nature merely as something to be used; that man’s relationship with nature transcends the idea of usefulness. Nature is a kind of discipline to man. Once you are in nature, totally in solitude, you feel you’re nothing, but you see all. Nature makes people feel transparent(透明的) and humble. Meanwhile, He saw an important difference between understanding (judging things only according to the senses) and reasonThe American Scholar论美国学者These two works made him famous.As “Man Thinking”, the Scholar should know how to think when confronted with Nature, the Past (in the form of books) and Action (life).Emerson particularly warns that the past should be used to inspire and not to enslave the scholar. Emerson argued in the speech that the age called to the Scholar for active participation and leadership.It is American’s Declaration of Intellectual IndependenceSelf-Reliance(论自助)Self-Reliance is one of the most famous of these lecture essays, and is widely read in American high schools today. Emerson believed above all in individualism, independence of mind, and self-reliance; He admired courage and was not afraid of changing or clashing ideas.Equally important is Emerson’s essay The Over-Soul (1841).The Major Themes in Emerson’s Works：the emphasis on the independence and separateness of the individual, and the right (and duty) of man rise to his full potential, asserting the inalienable worth of every man.“Another sign of our times…is the new importance given to the single personEmerson’s Influences on A.La He called on American Writers to write about America in a peculiarly American way.b His perception of humanity and nature as symbols of universal truth encouraged the development of the symbolist movement in A. art and literature.c He embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert（维护主张）its own identity in its formative period.Henry David Thoreau a. A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers(1849)《康科德和梅里马克河上的一周》b. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Walden / Walden《瓦尔登湖》c. Civil Disobedience《论公民之不服从》It influenced people such as Mahatma Gandhi.point of viewHe did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently(激烈的) outspoken on the point.He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.Like Emerson, but more tha n him, Thoreau saw nature as a healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being.He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.He was very critical of modern civilization.“Simplicity…simplify!”He has trust in the future and has belief in a new generation of men.Civil DisobedienceThe essay makes it clear that this stance(立场姿态) is not a matter of whim（一时的兴趣奇想）but a demanding moral principle.The appeal of civil disobedience in the North grew in the wake of the Compromise of 1850, whichincluded the hated Fugitive Slave Law, requiring all citizens to aid in the return of escaped slaves to their owners. Though civil disobedience is usually associated with passive resistance, Thoreau brought out the more direct action of John Brown.Thoreau's essay had a profound influence on reformers worldwide, from Gandhi in South Africa and India; to Martin Luther King, and the opposition to the Vietnam War in the United States.Walden (1854In 1854, Thoreau published the book by which he will always be best known, Walden, or Life in the Woods. It is by far the deepest, richest, and most closely jointed of his books. It shows Thoreau at his best, and contains all that he had to say to the world. In fact, he is a man of one book, and that book is Walden. Thoreau's Walden is mythic, poetic, fictitious, fabulous, and metaphoric in the best senses of these terms. In it the artistically recreated real-life experience (itself an experiment in "artistic" living) becomes a symbolic model or paradigm for an embodied spiritual quest for the disembodied, for a journey from the "gross" to the divine "necessaries of life." The thesis of Walden is clearly indicated in the first chapter of the book. True economy has nothing to do with the ways and means of increasing wealth, with methods for multiplying the superfluities, the "gross necessaries of life." True economy is that which simply provides the flesh with what belongs to the flesh so that the spirit may go about its own business.The book described the author’s extremely simple life and regeneration he experienced when he lived near the Walden pond.This is a book on self-culture and human perfectibilityThoreau has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man. He holds that the most important thing for men to do with their lives is to be self-sufficient and strive to achieve personal spiritual perfection.In the book Thoreau criticized the modern civilization and told people to leave the life of hurry and bustle and to sink themselves in nature.It is a book full of ideas expressed to jostle his neighbors out of their smug(自鸣得意的) complacency(自满满足For the fatal modern craze for monetary success he prescribes a panacea(灵丹妙药) “Simplicity…simplify!” Spiritual richness is real wealth.One’s soul might not help one up in the world, but it will help make real progress in self-improvementRegeneration is a major thematic concern of wardenRegeneration is a major thematic concern of warden and thus decide the structural framework of the book. The whole book is within the frame of a single year, and progresses through spring, summer and autumn to winter.EvaluationComparing with Emerson who was a great thinker, Thoreau was a great experimentalist who put Emerson's Transcendental doctrines into practice in the actual life.Herman Melville (1819 ---- 1891):Master of philosophical allegory寓言1:His point of view : a. negative attitude towards life. b. One of the major themes of his is alienation孤立（far away from each other）. c. Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism（individualism causing disaster and death）, rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19th-century idea of progress2:His Writing Stylea. Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.b. He tends to write periodic chapters.c. His rich rhythmical富有节奏感的prose and his poetic power have been profusely丰富地commentedupon and praised. d. His works are symbolic and metaphorical.e. He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)His Worksa.Typee1846《泰比》b. Omoo1874《奥穆》c. Moby Dick 1851《莫比·迪克》d. Mardi1849《玛地》 f. White Jacket1850《白外衣》g. Pierre1852《皮尔埃》h. Billy Budd (posthumously) 《比利·巴德》Moby Dick(1)Ishmael, feeling depressed, seeks escape by going out to sea on the whaling ship, Pequod. The captain is Ahab, the man with one leg. Moby Dick, the white whale, had sheared off his leg on a previous voyage, and Ahab resolves to hunt him to kill him. He hangs a doubloon on the mast as a reward for anyone who sight the whale first. The Pequod makes a good catch of whales but Ahab refuses to turn back until he has killed his enemy. Eventually the white whale appears, and the Pequod begins its doomed fight with it. On the first day the whale overturns a boat; on the second it swamps another. When the third day comes, Ahab and his crew manage to plunge a harpoon into it, but the whale carries the Pequod along with it to its doom. All on board the whaler get drowned, except one, Ishmael, who survive to tell the tale.Moby Dick represents the sum total of Melville’s bleak view of the world in which he lived. It is at once Godless and purposeless. Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life, meaningless because futile.One of the major themes in Melville is alienation, which he sensed existing in the life of his time on different levels, between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Nature has overwhelming power. Man can’t conquer nature. Man, living in this world, is a tragedyIt is a negative reflection of self-reliance, and individualism. Ahab may have been Melville’s portrait of an Emersonian self-reliant individual. Melville lost no opportunity in his criticism of New England Transcendentalism. Constantly under his attack is its emphasis on individualism and Oversoul. The idea that man make the world for himself is nothing but a Transcendentalist folly.Symbolismthe voyage: the search for the ultimate truth of experienceMoby Dick: the final mystery of the universe which man will do well to desist from pursuing Ambiguity (You can understand his Moby Dick differently.)First, it can be understand as a tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming odds in an indifferent and even hostile universe. Thus, Captain Ahab is a hero who dares to fight though he failed at last.Then, it can be understood as a bitter satire on Transcendentalism’s emphasis on self-reliance. Captain Ahab believed in his own power (a human being’s power) too much and thus he doomed to fail, because human’s power is limited and there is a mysterious thing existed in the universe which controlled man’s life and cannot be understood by human being.Nowadays some new research indicated that the story means man should protect the nature otherwise man will be punished as those whalers in the story were punished by the whale.Melville spoke ahead of his time. He knew that he was doomed to write a book like Moby Dick in his day, but he just could not help himself because he was a dedicated literary artist. There was, to be sure, a good deal of Ahab in him. “I have written a wicked book,” he said after finishing Moby Dick, and the public felt outraged. Thus born in the 19th century, Melville did not receive recognition until the twentieth century. Scarlet Letter1:The beauty shows:Free in the jail in her mind.。
美国文学期末复习笔记
美文学美国部分——浪漫主义时期Part two: American LiteratureChapter 1 The Romantic Period浪漫主义时期1. From the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of he Civil War. It started with the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. It is also called “the American Renaissance”.浪漫主义时期开始于十八世纪末，到内战爆发为止，华盛顿.欧文出版的《见闻札记》标志着美国文学的开端，惠特曼的《草叶集》是浪漫主义时期文学的压卷之作。
（也可称为“美国德文艺复兴”）2. The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature.对逃离社会，回归自然的渴求成为美国文学的一个永恒的话题。
3. The American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values.美国清教作为一种文化遗产，对美国人的道德观念产生了很大的影响。
4. Besides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of original sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesser writers. 在霍桑，麦尔维尔以及其他一些小作家的作品种加尔文主义的原罪思想和罪恶的神秘性都得到了充分的表现。
重点参考美国文学史期末复习
H i s t o r y A n d A n t h o l o g y o f A m e r i c a n L i t e r a t u r e(V o l u m eⅠⅡ)美国文学史及选读1、2PartⅠThe Literature of Colonial America殖民主义时期的文学1.17世纪早期English and European explorers开始登陆美洲。
在他们之前100多年Caribbean Islands, Mexicoand other Parts of South America已被the Spanish占领。
2.17th早期English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts(弗吉尼亚和马萨诸塞)开始了美国历史3.美国最早殖民者(earliest settlers)included Dutch ,Swedes ,Germans ,French ,Spaniards ,Italians and Portuguese(荷兰人，瑞典人，德国人，法国人，西班牙人，意大利人及葡萄牙人等)。
4.美国早期文学主要为the narratives and journals of these settlements采用in diaries and in journals(日记和日志)，他们写关于the land with dense forests and deep-blue lakes and rich soil.5.第一批美国永久居民：the first permanent English settlement in North America was established atJamestown,Virginia in 1607(北美弗吉尼亚詹姆斯顿)。
6.船长约翰·史密斯Captain John Smith他的作品(reports of exploration)17th早期出版，被认为是美国第一部真正意义上的文学作品in the early 1600s,have been described as the first distinctly American literature written in English.他讲述了filled with themes, myths, images, scenes, character and events,吸引了朝圣者和清教徒前往lure the Pilgrims and the Puritans.7.美国第一位作家：1608年Captain John Smith写了封信《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”.8.他的第二本书1612年《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》“A Map of Virginia: with a Description of theCountry”.9.他一共出版了八本书，其中有关于新英格兰的历史及描述。
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美国文学史美国文学
全书的焦点集中于南太平洋一条名叫莫比·迪克的白鲸,以及捕鲸船皮廓德(Pequod)号的船长阿哈(Ahab)如何对它有不共戴天的仇恨.阿哈在一次航行中被莫比·迪克咬掉一条腿,立志报仇,指挥皮廓德号环航全球追踪,终于发现了它.经过三天放下小艇紧追.虽然刺中了这条白鲸,但它十分顽强狡猾,咬碎了小艇,也撞沉了大船.它拖着捕鲸船游开时,绳子套住阿哈,把他绞死了.全船人尽皆灭顶.只有一个水手借着由棺材改制的救生浮子而逃得性命.整个故事以这个水手伊希梅尔(Ishmael)自述的方式展开.
The book focuses on a whale named Moby Dick lived in south pacific and the captain of whaler Pequod—Ahab. Ahab was once bite by Moby Dick and lost a leg, determined to revenge,he commanded whaler pequod do global tracking, and finally found it. After three days of hot pursuit with the skiff,while they stabbed this white whale, but it was very tenacious and cunning, eventually chewed the skiff, also sank the ship. It dragged whaler swimming away, the rope was around Ahab, he was hanged. Almost all of people on the boat drowned, only a sailor called Ishmael survived .。