(0171)《美国文学史及选读》复习思考题答案

（0171）《美国文学史及选读》复习思考题答案

I. Write out the authors’ names of the following works. (15)

Benjamin Franklin T. S. Eliot

James Cooper Walt Whitman

James Baldwell Ernest Hemingway

Joseph Heller John Steinbeck

William Faulkner Mark Twain

Washington Irving Ernest Hemingway

Robert Frost Toni Morrison

Ralph Ellison Eugene O’Neill

John Steinbeck Allan Poe

F. Scott Fitzgerald Tennessee Williams

Washington Irving Robert Frost

Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville

Eugen e O’Neill Mark Twain

William Faulkner Robert Frost

Arthur Miller James Cooper

H. D. Thoreau Henry James

Whitman Jack London

Jack London O’Neill

II. Define the following literary terms. (20)

Beat generation:The term was coined by Jack Kerouac in 1948 to refer to a group of disillusioned writers following World War Two. Later, this literary and cultural movement continued into the 1960s. The Beat Generation must not be confused with the Lost Generation of writers. Spokesmen and representatives of the Beat Generation were Jack Kerouac, Allen

Ginsberg and others. They revolted against an America that was materialistic, belligerent and frustrating. Social, intellectual and sexual freedom was advocated. Traditional culture and normal social behavior were attacked and violated. Many of them were drug addicts wearing long hair and dirty clothes. They were fond of slangs and jazz. Masterpieces created by writers of this group include Kerouac‟s On the Road and Ginsberg‟s Howl and Other Poems, which were regarded as pocket Bibles of that generation. Other prominent Beats include William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, and Neal Cassady. The Beat Generation, had greatly influenced the countercultural movements of the 1960s and the adolescents and adults in other countries. In England, the “angry young men” made an echo and imitated the American “beatnik.”

Protagonist: the principal character in a play or story; the central character who serves as a focus fo r the work‟s themes and incidents and as the principal rationale for its development; and one who is opposed to the antagonist. In the beginning of ancient Greek drama, there were only a chorus and one actor—the leader of the chorus. Thespis invented the first actor. Then Aeschylus and Sophocles added the second and third actors to the tragedy respectively. The three actors were names Protagonist, Deuteragonist and Tritagonist. In discussions of modern literature, the protagonist is sometimes referred to as the hero or anti-hero.

Biography:an account of a person‟s life written by somebody else, or biographical writing as a form of literature.

Novel: Generally speaking, it is an imaginative prose narrative of extended length dealing with fictional characters and events. The constituent elements of a novel include plot, character, conflict, and setting. But there can be exceptions. Some novels are short. Some novels are not fictional. Some novels are in verse. And some novels do not even tell a story. There have been many debates over the appropriate length of a novel. No established length for a novel has been agreed upon. It is generally held, however, that a full-length novel is longer than a novella or short novel, and a short novel is longer than a shot story. A novel should be long enough so as to appear in print in an independent volume. The great length of a novel makes it possible for the characters and themes in it to be developed more fully and subtly.

Antihero: a main character in a story, novel, play or film who behaves in a completely different way from what people expect a hero to do. A non-hero is without the qualities and features of a