美国文学考核大纲

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美国文学复习大纲

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* Second stage: Transcedentalism (p.56-59) Raph Waldo Emerson: Nature Henry David Thoreau: Walden
• Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter • Herman Melville: Moby Dick • Edgar Allan Poe: Gothic novels • “Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque” • Poe’s position in the world literature (P.114-115)
The first peak of literature in US
• Two stages of Romanticism in the first half of 19th century of US: • * First stage: • Washing Irving: Father of American literature; the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame • A History of New York • The Sketch Book: “Rip Van Winkle” “Sleepy Hollow” • James F. Cooper: • Leather-stocking Tales: The Pioneer • The Last of the Mohicans • The Prairie • The Pathfinder • The Deerslayer
• American Movement of Enlightenment (P.27-28) Writers of enlightenment Benjamin Franklin: The Authobiography; Poor Richard’s Amanack The Importance of Benjamin Franklin’s “The Autobiography”. (P. 35-37) Thomas Paine: Common Sense; Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence

美国文学考试范围

一.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN本杰明.富兰克林( 清教主义Puritanism )Pennsylvania Gazette, 宾夕法尼亚公报( helped to draft The Declaration of Independence )Masterpieces: Autobiography自传, Poor Richar’s Almanac穷查理历书His maxims格言: Diligence is the most of good luck勤奋是好运之母; God helps them who help themselves天助自助者* 翻译13条美德：1.TEMPERANCE. — Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.节制—食不过饱而使思想麻木；饮不及醉而使精神亢奋2.SILENCE. — Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.寡言—于人于己不利的话不说，无意义的话不说3.ORDER. — Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.有序—务使物占其所，事占其时4.RESOLUTION. — Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.决心—该做的事情要下决心去做，务必完成无误。

5.FRUGALITY. — Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing.节俭—花钱务必于人于己有益，绝不浪费6.INDUSTRY. — Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.勤奋—不浪费时间，时间总是花在有用的事情上；停止不必要的行为7.SINCERITY. — Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly ; and , if you speak , speak accordingly.诚实—有害于他人的欺骗行为不做，思想务必正当无邪，说话时要有根据8.JUSTICE. — Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.公正—绝不屈待他人，伤害他人；该给予他人的善举，绝不疏忽9.MODERATION. — Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries, so much as you think they deserye.中庸—避免过激行为；对于自己所受的伤害其怨恨程度应控制在合适的程度之内10.CLEANLINESS. — Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes , or habitation.清洁—绝不容忍身体，衣着和住所的不洁11.TRANQUILLITY. — Be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable.平和—不要被小事乱心，不为常见和不可避免的事而恐慌12.CHASTITY. — Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of yourown or another’s peace or reputation.节欲—若非为了身心健康与传宗接代的缘故尽少作爱，过多作爱而使思想麻木，身体虚弱，或损害自己与他人的安宁和声誉13.HUMILITY. — Imitate Jesus and Socrates.谦恭—模仿耶稣和苏格拉底二. RALPH WALDO EMERSON拉尔夫.沃尔多.爱默生( 唯一神教派超验主义Transcendenralism )Nature, The Divinity school Address在神学院的演讲, Self—Reliance自力更生, The Over—Soul超灵,(美国文艺界的独立宣言：the American Scholar )*P331Our day of dependence , our long apprenticeship to the learningof of other lands,, draws to a close.The millions that around us are rushing into life , cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harnests.我们在学术上依赖别人，长期学习他国的学徒时代，就要结束了.我们周围的万千之众都在生活中激流勇进，奋力搏击，依靠异国赏赐的残羹冷炙只是食不果腹。

美国文学大纲

美国文学部分(American Literature)一．殖民时期文学（The Literature of the Colonial Period）1．本章考核知识点和考核要求：1) 早期殖民地时期的文学的特点2) 十八世纪美国文学的特点（重点是独立革命前后时期文学）3) 主要的作家、其概况及其代表作品4) 术语：the colonial period, American Puritanism, Puritans, Enlightenment in American, the Great Awakening2．主要作家作品John Smith第一个美国作家A True Relation of Virginia and General History of Virginia.Anne Bradstreet 殖民地时期女诗人The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650)Jonathan Edwards十八世纪上半叶大觉醒时代的代表人物“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林，散文家、科学家、社会活动家，曾参与起草《独立宣言》。

十八世纪美国启蒙思想代言人。

《穷查理历书》Poor Richard’s Almanac（收录格言警句）《致富之道》The Way to Wealth《自传》The Autobiography （富兰克林原意为写给儿子的家书）Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩，散文家、政治家、报刊撰稿人。

《常识》Common Sense ( Paine 最知名的政论文：It was inspired by the first battle of the Revolutionary War—the Battle of Lexington in Concord.)《美国危机》American Crisis《人的权利》Rights of Man《专制体制的崩溃》Downfall of Despotism《理性时代》The Age of ReasonPhilip Freneau 菲利普·弗伦诺，著名的“革命诗人”。

美国文学史复习大纲

美国文学史复习大纲一：作家作品1.Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio(小镇畸人，1919) The Triumph of the Egg(鸡蛋的胜利，1921)2.John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath(愤怒的葡萄，1939，strong sociological novel,1940年获普利策奖（Pulitzer Prize)),1962年获诺贝尔文学奖①the foremost novelist of the American Depression.美国大萧条时期最杰出的小说家。

②代表作：“Of Mice and Men”《人鼠之间》portrayed the tragic friendship between two migrant workers “The Grapes of Wrath”《愤怒的葡萄》regarded as masterpiece ,showed the migration of the Okies from the Dust Bowls to California ,a migration that ended in broken dreams and misery but at the same time affirmed the ability of the common people to endure and prevail. Theme : strength comes from unity i-we ;faith in life; struggle to live better2.John Dos Passos: 约翰多斯帕索斯His trilogy U.S.A(美利坚)---The 42nd Parallel(北纬42度，1930), 1919(1932), The Big Money(1936), Three Soldiers。

美国文学-文学诗歌期末考试复习大纲

英美文学（2）复习大纲1. Multiple Choices （30 points）基本的文学史实，包括不同时期文学的特点，主要作家的作品以及写作特点等。

2. Gap Filling (10 points)主要作家的代表作3. Definition of Terms (20 points)ImageryWords or phrases that create pictures, or images, in the reader’s mind.American TranscendentalismAme rican Transcendentalism or “New England Transcendentalism” or “American Renaissance” is more of a tendency, an attitude, than the philosophy of Transcendentalists. To “transcend” something is to rise above it, to pass beyond its limits. The major features of New England Transcendentalism can be summarized as the follows:Firstly, the Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirits, or the Over soul, as the most import thing in the Universe.Secondly, they stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society.Thirdly, they offered a fresh perception of nature as symbol of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Transcendentalism is based on the belie f that the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of senses.As a philosophical and literary movement, Transcendentalism flourished in New England from 1830s to the Civil War. Its doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in Emerson and Thoreau.Free VerseFree Verse is a verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern. Although most free verse belongs to the 19th and 20th centuries, it can be found in earlier literature, particularly in the Psalms of the Bible.NaturalismAn extreme form of realism. Naturalistic writers usually depict the sordid side of life and show characters who are severely, if not hopelessly, limited by their environment or heredity.ImagismIt is an influential literary movement that took place in Europe and America from about 1910 to 1920. The imagist poet creates a single sharp image that evokes an emotional response in the reader. Imagism was in a reaction to the “bad habits” of the 19th century poets who were too explicit in their commentary and too repetitious in their subjects, patterns, and meters.Local ColoristsA group of writers who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of specific regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, the other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on. The major local colorists are Hamlin Garland, Mark Twain.Lost GenerationThis term has been used again and again to describe the people of the postwar years. When the First World War broke out, many young men volunteered to take part in “the war to end all wars” only to find that modern warfare was not as glorious or heroic as they thought it to be. Disillusioned and disgusted by the frivolous, greedy, and heedless way of life in America, they began to write and they wrote from their own experience in the war. Among these young writers were the most prominent figures in American literature, especially in modern American literature, for example, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, etc. They were basically expatriates who left America and formed a community of writers and artists in Paris, involved with other European novelists and poets in their experimentation on new modes of thought and expression. They were later called by an American writer, Gertrude Stein, also expatriates, “The Lost Generation”.Hemingway HeroesThose protagonists in Hemingway’s fiction, who survive in the process if seeking to master the code known as “grace under pressure” with honesty, the discipline, and the restraint.American Puritanism1. The beliefs and practices characteristic of Puritans (most of whom were Calvinists who wished to purify the Church of England of its Catholic aspects)2. Strictness and austerity in conduct and religionAmerican Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature. It has become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, rather than a set of tenets, so much a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the Americans breathe. Without some understanding of Puritanism, there can be no real understanding of American culture and literature.The Jazz Agethe era that immediately followed World War I and lasted until the beginning of the Depression, during which jazz increased in popularity. It was a reaction to the austerity and hardship of the war and was characterized by extravagance and hedonism.4. Questions (22 points)Because I could not stop for DeathSong of MyselfThe Road Not TakenPactIn a Station of the Metro5. Topic Discussion(18 points)Summarize the story of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and comment on the theme of the novel。

美国文学复习大纲

十八世纪美国启蒙思想代言人。

英美文学选读自学考试大纲

英美文学选读自学考试大纲一、考试简介英美文学选读自学考试旨在测试考生对于英美文学的基本概念、发展历程、重要作家及其作品的掌握程度，以及对于英美文学的基本理论和分析方法的了解和运用能力。

考试形式为闭卷笔试，考试时间为180分钟，满分为100分。

二、考试内容1、英美文学基本概念及发展历程（20%）测试考生对于英美文学的基本概念、发展历程和重要时期的了解和掌握程度。

2、英美文学重要作家及其作品（30%）测试考生对于英美文学的重要作家及其代表作品的了解和掌握程度，包括但不限于莎士比亚、简·奥斯汀、托尔斯泰、海明威等。

3、英美文学的基本理论和分析方法（30%）测试考生对于英美文学的基本理论和分析方法的了解和掌握程度，包括但不限于新批评、结构主义、后现代主义等。

4、阅读理解与写作能力（20%）测试考生的阅读理解能力和写作能力，包括对于所给文本的理解、分析、评价和论述能力。

三、考试形式及题型1、单项选择题（20分）要求考生从四个选项中选择一个最符合题意的答案。

2、多项选择题（20分）要求考生从五个选项中选择两个或以上的答案。

21、简答题（20分）要求考生用简短的语言回答问题，考查考生的理解和概括能力。

211、分析题（30分）要求考生对所给的文学作品进行分析、评价和论述，考查考生的分析能力和语言表达能力。

2111、写作题（10分）要求考生根据给定的题目和要求进行写作，考查考生的写作能力和语言表达能力。

四、自学建议系统学习英美文学基本知识：了解英美文学的发展历程、重要时期和流派，掌握基本概念和理论。

阅读重要作家作品：选择一些经典作家及其代表作品进行阅读和研究，深入了解作家的创作风格和思想内涵。

培养阅读和分析能力：通过阅读和分析文学作品，提高自己的阅读能力和分析能力，掌握基本的文学分析方法。

加强写作训练：通过写作练习，提高自己的写作能力和语言表达能力，为考试做好准备。

英美文学选读复习资料一、英国文学1、文艺复兴时期：代表人物：莎士比亚、培根、哈姆雷特等。

美国文学考核大纲

《美国文学作品选读》课程考核大纲【考核目的】了解学生对基本文学概念、文学流派及代表作家、文学表现手法、文学人物、文学现象和各种文学术语的掌握。

考核学生对文学作品的理解分析能力和鉴赏能力，帮助学生认识到本课程的学习重点和难点，为以后的深入学习提供可依靠的途径和方法。

【课程学习的基础】《美国文学史及作品选读》课是英语专业的必修课，学生在此前应完成了精读、泛读、写作等基本技能训练，掌握了一定的专业知识和技能，具备一定的语言表达能力和分析论述能力。

先修课程不在考核范围之内。

【考核的内容范围】本课程的考核主要包括基本文学概念、文学流派及代表作家、文学表现手法、文学人物、文学现象和各种文学术语。

【考核的具体内容】第一部分文学基础知识介绍知识点：1．什么是文学2．文学的基本概念和要素3．学习文学的方法4．美国文学历史简介考核目标：1．识记：文学的基本分类2．理解：文学的基本概念和要素3．运用：学习文学的有效方法和途径第二部分殖民时期的文学知识点：1．美国殖民时期文学概述2．北美拓殖的开始3．美国清教主义思想4．美国清教主义思想对早期美国文学的影响5．殖民时期的代表作家及作品考核目标：1．识记：（1）安妮•布雷兹特里特（Anne Bradstreet）（2）爱德华•泰勒（Edward Taylor）（3）迈克尔•维哥斯沃斯(Michael Wigglesworth) 及代表作品2．理解：早期北美殖民地时期文学状况3．运用：殖民地时期文学的主要特征第三部分独立革命时期的文学知识点：1．独立时期文学的主要特征2．启蒙运动及主要思想3．启蒙运动的代表：本杰明•富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）考核目标：1．识记：（1）托马斯•杰弗逊（2）托马斯•潘恩(Thomas Paine) （3）本杰明•富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）2．理解：启蒙运动3．运用：（1）启蒙运动的主要思想（2）本杰明•富兰克林Benjamin Franklin）的思想意识及精神风貌第四部分浪漫主义时期的文学1．英格兰超验主义2．欧洲浪漫主义文学的影响3．美国浪漫主义文学的特4．美国本土文学的崛起及其特征5．浪漫主义时期代表作家及作品考核目标：1．识记：（1）华盛顿•欧文（Washington Irving）（2）詹姆斯•弗尼莫•库柏（James Fenimore Cooper）（3）威廉姆•卡兰•布赖恩特（William Cullen Bryant）（4）埃德加•爱伦•坡（Edgar Allan Poe）（5）纳撒尼尔•霍桑（Nathaniel Hawthorne）（6）拉多夫•瓦尔多•爱默生(Ralph Waldo Emerson) （7）亨利•大卫•梭罗（Henry David Thoreau）（8）赫曼•麦尔维尔（HermanMelville）（9）沃尔特•惠特曼（Walt Whitman）（10）艾米莉•狄金森（Emily Dickinson）及其作品。

美国文学复习提纲(呕心沥血完全版)

美国文学复习提纲平时35。

期末65。

1．Match the literary work in column B with the author in the column A. (20 points)2. Decide the following statements true or false. (10 points)3. Define the following literary terms (20 points)一、时间（1分）；二、代表人物（1分）；三；主要特征（2分）；四、文学文化意义（1分）Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” and “the code hero”Iceberg theory:It was firstly proposed by Ernest Hemingway, the representative writer of the Lost Generation, in Death In the Afternoon (1932) which has such a description “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.”The theory suggests that the writer include in the text only a small portion of what he knows, leaving about ninety percent of the content a mystery that grows beneath the surface of the writing. It‟s influence as a stylist was nearly expressed in the praise of the Nobel Prize Committee about “his powerful style-forming mastery of the art” of writing modern fiction.The code hero: Term Coined by Philip Young in 1952 to refer to Hemingway characters that have learned to control the chaos in their lives, chaos in the form of physical or mental stress, sometimes both. As Bertrand Russell comments, Hemingway‟s heroes have such kind of courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert this dignity in face of diversity. A code hero could be destroyed but not defeated.Modernism:Modernism is an omnibus term for a number of tendencies in the arts which were prominent in the first half of the 20th c.; In English literature it includes symbolism, futurism, expressionism, imagism, dada, and surrealism. It is particularly associated with the writings of T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce etc. Broadly, Modernism reflects the impact upon literature of the psychology of Freud and the anthropology of Sir J. Frazer, as expressed in The Golden Bough (1890-1915). A sense of cultural relativism is pervasive in much modernist writing, as is an awareness of the irrational and the workings of the unconscious mind. Modernist literature is a literature of discontinuity, both historically, being based upon a sharp rejection of the procedures and values of the immediate past, to which it adopts an adversary stance; and aesthetically.The Lost Generation:The "Lost Generation" is a term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway in his novel, "The Sun Also Rises" used to refer to his generation; those who experienced alienation and the loss of ideals yet unable to come to terms with the new era when civilization had gone mad resulting from World War I .This generation included distinguished artists such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. EliotThe beat generation:The Beat Generation is a term for a group of American writers who came into prominence during the 1950s and offered a radical critique of middle class American values. The beats celebrated individual freedom, Zen Buddhism, and the free use of drugs;they attacked the conformity, complacency, and commercialism of the “tranquilized fifties.” The most prominent members of the group were the poet Allen Ginsberg and the novelist Jack Kerouac.New Criticism:The New Criticism is a movement in American literary criticism from the 1930s to the 1960s, which name comes from John Crowe Ransom‟s book The New Criticism (1941).The basic principle of New Criticism was to locate the meaning of a literary work not in the intention of the author nor in the experience of the reader, but in “the text itself,”the internal relations of language that constitute a “poem.”Also to be avoided, or at least subordinated to close reading, were “extrinsic” (that is, not dealing exclusively with the language of the text) approaches to the study of literature: social, psychological, economic, political, or historical.When it was at its peak, New Criticism greatly influenced both literary critics in their evaluation of literary works and poets in their writing of poems.Postmodernism:In literature, Postmodernism is a term used to describe characteristics of some contemporary literature that distinguish it from the literature of modernism. Where modernist literature was characterized by its commitment to the value of a unified, coherent work of art employing symbol and myth, exhibiting alienation from ordinary life, postmodernism celebrates incoherence, discontinuity, parody, popular culture, and the principle of metafiction. Postmodernism has combined formal experimentalism with powerful social and cultural criticism.Stream of Consciousness:The term was originally a psychological term to refer to the continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind. In literature it refers to a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. As an important device of modernist fiction and its later imitators, the technique was pioneered by Dorothy Richardson in Pilgrimage (1915-35) and by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922), and further developed by Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway (1925) and William Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury (1928).4. text analysis: 6选3 (30 points)In a Station of the Metro:1. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians “apparition”?Pound contrasts the factual, mundane image that he actually witnessed with a metaphor from nature and thus infuses this “apparition” with visual beauty. There is a quick transition from the statement of the first line to the second line‟s vivid metaphor; this …super-pository‟ technique exemplifies the Japanese haiku style. The word “apparition” is considered crucial as it evokes a mystical and supernatural sense of imprecision which is then reinforced by the metaphor of the second line.2. What do “petals” and “bough” stand for?The plosive word …Petals‟ conjures ideas of delicate, feminine beauty which contrasts with the bleakness of the …wet, black bough‟.The Red Wheelbarrow:1. How does the first two lines differ from the other pairs of lines?There is no exact thing presented in the 1st two lines. But, by adding those first four words the meanings of the poem just explode into a million different possible meanings.2. What is the meaning of “depends upon” in the 1st pair of lines?“Hardness and aesthetics of life.”One’s-self I singThe 1855 "Song of Myself" had announced that the "word of the modern" was "a word en masse," and eventually Whitman would revise this 1867 Inscription to affirm that "En-Masse" was also "the word Democratic." In a modern, democratic society, as Tocqueville had said, no intermediate allegiances stand between the individual citizen and the entire body politic. The Self is indeed separate, isolated; it has renounced party and creed and local custom, all mediating bodies that provide a system of preference or exclusion."One‟s-Self I sing, a simple separate person," run the opening lines of Leaves of Grass from 1871 on, "Yet utter the word Democratic." A poetic universe of productive tension is hinted by that "Yet"; the tense equipoise between individualism and democracy, this poem suggests, is the foundational theme of Whitman‟s book. The poem then goes on to introduce the site and symbol for this reconciliation of individual to mass: the body, "physiology from top to toe." We receive individual identity through our body, . . . yet at the same time, physicality, and especially physical affection, are universal, binding us together in common humanity. Much of the boldly progressive politics of Whitman‟s poetry will follow from this emphasis on the body; thus his introduction of the theme of "physiology" is followed by his (then quite radical) insistence on the political equality of male and female.The poet he imagines in the 1855 preface is, like his ideal republic, balanced between self and other: "The soul has that measureless pride which consists in never acknowledging any lessons but its own. But it has sympathy as measureless as its pride and the one balances the other and neither can stretch too far while it stretches in company with the other. The inmost secrets of art sleep with the twain. The greatest poet has lain close betwixt both and they are vital to his style and thoughts."This vision of a poet stretching within a universe bounded by pride and sympathy had as its political analogue the paradox of an American republic poised between self-interest and public virtue, liberty and union, the interests of the many and the good of the one. The secretof Whitman's art and the American Union, the paradox of many in one, eventually became the opening inscription and balancing frame of Leaves of Grass:One's-Self I sing, a simple separate person,Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.Balanced between the separate person and the en masse, the politics of Leaves of Grass is neither liberal nor bourgeois in the classical sense of the terms; rather, the poems represent the republican ideals of early-nineteenth-century artisan radicalism, emphasizing the interlinked values of independence and community, personal wealth and commonwealth.The open boatNature’s Indifference to ManDespite the narrator‟s profusion of animistic (animal-like), humanistic (manlike), and deistic (godlike) characterizations of nature, Crane makes clear that nature is ultimately indifferent to the plight of man, possessing no consciousness that we can understand. As the stranded men progress through the story, the reality of nature‟s lack of concern for them becomes increasingly clear. The narrator highlights this development by changing the way he describes the sea. Early in the story, the sea snarls, hisses, and bucks like a bronco; later, it merely “paces to and fro,” no longer an actor in the men‟s drama. In reality, the sea does not change at all; onl y the men‟s perception of the sea changes. The unaltered activity of the gulls, clouds, and tides illustrates that nature does not behave any differently in light of the men‟s struggle to survive.Crane strengthens the idea that nature is indifferent to man by showing that it is as randomly helpful as it is hurtful. For every malevolent whim that the men suffer, they experience an unexpected good turn in the form of a favorable wind or calm night. The fact that the men almost seem to get assistance from nature destroys the notion of nature as an entirely hostile force. Nothing highlights this point so much as the correspondent‟s final rescue. Plowed to shore and saved by a freak wave, the correspondent must embrace the fact that the very thing that has put him in harm‟s way has saved him. This freak wave, however, may also be responsible for killing the much hardier oiler, a turn of events that demonstrates two ideas: nature is as much a harsh punisher as it is a benefactor, and nature does not act out of any motivation that can be understood in human terms.Man’s Insignificance in the Universe“The Open Boat” conveys a feeling of loneliness that comes from man‟s understanding that he is alone in the universe and insignificant in its workings. Underneath the men‟s and narrator‟s collective rants at fate and the universe is the fear of nothingness. They have an egotistical belief that they should have a role in the universe, that their existence should mean something. When the correspondent realizes by section VI that fate will not answer his pleas, he settles into despair. His subsequent recollection of the poem about the soldier who lies dying in Algiers reflects his feelings of alienation at being displaced from his position in the universe. Like the soldier who dies in alien territory, the correspondent fears that he too will perish without a connection to whatever gives him his sense of self.Throughout “The Open Boat,” the correspondent understands pain to be the necessary byproduct of his efforts to overcome nature, the willful enemy. He comes to value hissuffering because it is nobly derived; in the earlier sections, the correspondent, whom the narrator says is cynical, is often cheerful and talkative in his descriptions of the physical pain he experien ces. By the end of the story, however, the correspondent‟s new awareness that the universe is unconcerned with the situation‟s outcome makes him physically and spiritually weary. He decides that there is no higher purpose to surviving other than prolonging a life that is meaningless. His comment in section VII that the coldness of the water is simply “sad” underscores this despair. At this point, all sensations of pain and pleasure are merely physical and have no spiritual meaning.A clean well-lighted placeLife as NothingnessIn “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway suggests that life has no meaning and that man is an insignificant speck in a great sea of nothingness. The older waiter makes this idea as clear as he can when he says, “It was all a nothing and man was a no thing too.” When he substitutes the Spanish word nada (nothing) into the prayers he recites, he indicates that religion, to which many people turn to find meaning and purpose, is also just nothingness. Rather than pray with the actual words, “Our Father wh o art in heaven,” the older waiter says, “Our nada who art in nada”—effectively wiping out both God and the idea of heaven in one breath. Not everyone is aware of the nothingness, however. For example, the younger waiter hurtles through his life hastily and happily, unaware of any reason why he should lament. For the old man, the older waiter, and the other people who need late-night cafés, however, the idea of nothingness is overwhelming and leads to despair.The Struggle to Deal with DespairThe old man and older waiter in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” struggle to find a way to deal with their despair, but even their best method simply subdues the despair rather than cures it. The old man has tried to stave off despair in several unsuccessful ways. We learn that he has money, but money has not helped. We learn that he was once married, but he no longer has a wife. We also learn that he has unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide in a desperate attempt to quell the despair for good. The only way the old man can deal with his despair now is to sit for hours in a clean, well-lit café. Deaf, he can feel the quietness of the nighttime and the café, and although he is essentially in his own private world, sitting by himself in the café is not the same as being alone.The older waiter, in his mocking prayers filled with the word nada, shows that religion is not a viable method of dealing with despair, and his solution is the same as the old man‟s: he waits out the nighttime in cafés. He is particular about the type of café he likes: the café must be well lit and clean. Bars and bodegas, although many are open all night, do not lessen despair because they are not clean, and patrons often must stand at the bar rather than sit at a table. The old man and the older waiter also glean solace from routine. The ritualistic café-sitting and drinking help them deal with despair because it makes life predictable. Routine is something they can control and manage, unlike the vast nothingness that surrounds them.A rose for EmilyTradition versus ChangeThrough the mysterious figure of Emily Grierson, Faulkner conveys the struggle that comes from trying to maintain tradition in the face of widespread, radical change. Jefferson is at a crossroads, embracing a modern, more commercial future while still perched on the edge of the past, from the faded glory of the Grierson home to the town cemetery where anonymous Civil War soldiers have been laid to rest. Emily herself is a tradition, steadfastly staying the same over the years despite many changes in her community. She is in many ways a mixed blessing. As a living monument to the past, she represents the traditions that people wish to respect and honor; however, she is also a burden and entirely cut off from the outside world, nursing eccentricities that others cannot understand.Emily lives in a timeless vacuum and world of her own making. Refusing to have metallic numbers affixed to the side of her house when the town receives modern mail service, she is out of touch with the reality that constantly threatens to break through her carefully sealed perimeters. Garages and cotton gins have replaced the grand antebellum homes. The aldermen try to break with the unofficial agreement about taxes once forged between Colonel Sartoris and Emily. This new and younger generation of leaders brings in Homer‟s company to pave the sidewalks. Although Jefferson still highly regards traditional notions of honor and reputation, the narrator is critical of the old men in their Confederate uniforms who ga ther for Emily‟s funeral. For them as for her, time is relative. The past is not a faint glimmer but an ever-present, idealized realm. Emily‟s macabre bridal chamber is an extreme attempt to stop time and prevent change, although doing so comes at the expense of human life.The Power of DeathDeath hangs over “A Rose for Emily,” from the narrator‟s mention of Emily‟s death at the beginning of the story through the description of Emily‟s death-haunted life to the foundering of tradition in the face of modern changes. In every case, death prevails over every attempt to master it. Emily, a fixture in the community, gives in to death slowly. The narrator compares her to a drowned woman, a bloated and pale figure left too long in the water. In the same description, he refers to her small, spare skeleton—she is practically dead on her feet. Emily stands as an emblem of the Old South, a grand lady whose respectability and charm rapidly decline through the years, much like the outdated sensibilities the Griersons represent. The death of the old social order will prevail, despite many townspeople‟s attempts to stay true to the old ways.Emily attempts to exert power over death by denying the fact of death itself. Her bizarre relationship to the dead bodies of the men she has loved—her necrophilia—is revealed first when her father dies. Unable to admit that he has died, Emily clings to the controlling paternal figure whose denial and control became the only—yet extreme—form of love she knew. She gives up his body only reluctantly. When Homer dies, Emily refuses to acknowledge it once again—although this time, she herself was responsible for bringing about the death. In killing Homer, she was able to keep him near her. However, Homer‟s lifelessness rendered him permanently distant. Emily and Homer‟s grotesque marriage reveals Emily‟s disturbing attempt to fuse life and death. However, death ultimately triumphs.5. Writing: focus on the main characters in the following texts. 5选2。

美国文学期末考试复习大纲

美国文学期末考试复习大纲Ⅰ. 文学史1.American Puritanism (美国请教主义):Puritanism was a religious reform movement that arose within the Church of England in the late 16th century.I.Background: Puritanism1.features of Puritanism(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 atonement: Only the ―elect‖ can be saved.2.Influence(1)A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.(2)It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.(3)Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calli ng into beinga literary symbolism which is distinctly American.(4)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.II.Overview of the literature1.types of writing: diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons2.writers of colonial period(1)Anne Bradstreet(2)Edward Taylor(3)Roger Williams(4)John Woolman(5)Thomas Paine(6)Philip Freneau(7)Jonathan Edwards(8)Benjamin Franklin2.American Enlightenment (美国启蒙运动):Enlightenment is a philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to scrutinize previously accepted doctrines and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms.The American Enlightenment is a term sometimes employed to describe the intellectual culture of the British North American colonies and the early United States (as they became following the American Revolution).It is commonly dated from 1750—1820.Among the leading intellectual figures of this period are Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776—18201.Background: American Revolution——historicalEuropean Enlightenment2.Basic Assumptions:(1)Reg ard ―enlightenment‖ or ―education‖ as the principle means for development of society(2)Show concern for civil rights, democracy in government and tolerance rather than earlier religious mysticism(3)Reconsider the relationship between man & God. Brief-Deism (natural religion)3.Transcendentalism (超验主义):Transcendentalism is literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about1836 to 1860.It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church, developing instead their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world.The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in such essays as Nature (1836) and Self-reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden (1854).I.Background: four sources1.Unitarianism(1)Fatherhood of God(2)Brotherhood of men(3)Leadership of Jesus(4)Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character)(5)Continued progress of mankind(6)Divinity of mankind(7)Depravity of mankind2.Romantic Idealism: Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticism: Center of the world is ―oversoul‖4.Puritanism: Eloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, ―Nature‖ by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/God; garment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV.Influence1.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 becameopportunism, 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 literature.4.Dark Romanticism1.Dark Romanticism & Gothic FictionSimilarities: darkness, supernatural, featuring charactersDifferences: sheer horror——Gothic Fiction’s purposedark mystery & skepticism of man——Dark Romance’s purpose2.Dark Romanticism——reaction against transcendentalismDark Romanticism is a literary subgenre that emerged from the transcendental philosophical movement popular in 19th century America. Some writers, including Poe, Hawthorne and Melville, found transcendental belief far too optimistic and egotistical and reacted by modifying.3.Dark Romanticism & Transcendentalism:Dark Romantics are much less confident about the notion that perfection is an innate equality of mankind, as believed by transcendentalists. Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom.While both groups believe nature is a deep spiritual force, Dark Romanticism views it in a much more sinister light than does transcendentalism, which sees nature as a divine & universal organic mediator. For Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious, when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil.Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals, falling in their attempts to make changes for the better.4.Fiction:⑪ General term for invented storiesNovel, short story, novellas, romance, fable etc.《堂吉诃德》——the first novel of European⑫ Types of novel:①.Kunstlerroman 成长小说Bildungroman——《麦田守望者》②.Spy novel③.Historical novel④.Campus novel 校园小说⑤.Gothic novel⑥.Epistolary novel⑦.Picaresque novel⑧.Detective novel⑨.Sociological novel⑩.Psychological novel⑬ Elements of fiction:①.Setting (time, place, environment)②.Plot (selected events, cause & effect, structure)——conflict (exposition, rising action/complication, climax, falling action, resolution)③.Character (animal, inanimate things)④.Point of view (first person, third person, multiple)⑤.Theme (different from ―subject‖)⑥.Style (diction, syntax, figure of speech)⑦.Symbol & IronyⅡ. 文学概念1. Allegory (寓言)：Allegory is a story with a symbolic meaning used to teach a moral principle.Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy.Thus, an allegory is a story with two meanings: a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.Many of Hawthorne’s stories are allegories dealing with pride, isolation, love and betray. For example, Y oung Goodman Brown tells Brown’s journey in the forest. After the journey, Brown changed a lot. In fact the story shows Brown’s struggle between goodness and evil and re veals the processes of losing one’s innocence.2. Romance:―Romance‖ is now frequently used as s term to designate a kind of fiction that differs from the novel in being more freely. It is the product of the author’s imagination than the product of an effo rt to represent the actual world with verisimilitude.Romance is a heightened, emotional, and symbolic form of the novel. Romances are not love stories, but serious novels that use special techniques to communicate complex and subtle meanings.Nathaniel Hawthorne is a representative of dark romance, most of his works reveals the dark side of human beings.3. Lyric(抒情诗)：In the modern sense, it is any fairly short poem expressing the personal mood, feeling, or meditation of a single speaker. Lyric poetry is the most extensive category of verse. Lyrics may be composed in almost any meter and on almost every subject, although the most usual emotions presented are those of love and grief. Among the common lyric forms are the sonnet, ode, elegy, and the more personal kinds of hymn.Lyric poetry is genre that does not attempt to tell a story but instead of a more personal nature. It portrays the poet’s own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions.While the genre’s name derived from ―lyre‖, implies that it is intended to be sung, much lyric poetry is meant purely for reading.The most popular form for western lyric poetry to take may be the 14-line sonnet, as practiced by Petrarch and Shakespeare. Lyric poetry shows a bewildering variety of forms, including, increasingly in the 20th century, unrhymed ones.Lyric poetry is the most common type of poetry.5.Allusion:It is one of the figures of speech.An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication.For example, in literature, the snake often represents the evil. It’s an allusion of Bible. In Bible, the snake allured Eve to eat the apple. Thus, they were punished by God.5. T rickster:Trickster always appears in mythology, it’s a kind of literary character.In mythology, and in the study of folklore and relig ion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior.Trickster is the ―rebellion‖ that challenges authority.The trickster is a very important archetype in the history of human kind.H e is the ―wise fool‖.It is he, through his creations that destroy the authority.He exists to question and to cause us to question.He is the Destroyer of the world and at the same time the Savior of us all.For example, Robin Hood, he is a thief, who steals the rich to help the poor. On one hand, a thief is supposed to be punished, but on another hand, he steals the money not for himself but to help others. Thus, we call him a trickster.6.Gothic Fiction:Gothic fiction rises in the late of 18th century.The Gothic relates the individual to the infinite universe.Gothic literature pictures the human condition as an ambiguous mixture of good and evil power that cannot be understood completely by human reason.The Gothic novel or short story is any story which can be describe as dark, mysterious, and grotesque. A Gothic story often has supernatural elements that give it a hint of horror/ terror.Gothic fiction is often psychological (from the villain’s perspective)It has romantic elements: the damsel in distress, the ghost of a loverCreates suspense: never sure what is going to happenIt adopts the use of doppelganger theme.The most familiar Gothic fiction to me is The V ampire Diaries. Similar to the Twilight, it tells a love story between the V ampire and a human being. There are many terror scenes with suspense and a doppelganger in the story. Now The V ampire Diaries is made into TV series. In the TV series, a vampire called Damon is my favorite one.7. Kunstlerroman8. Quest:―quest‖ means search, pursue, go on adventure. The Quest myth/ Quest story, similar to Romance is a genre of literature.The background, such as an imbalanced society, is often challenging.The hero leaves the society. His goals are always noble. He is always on the side of goodness, and his enemies are always evil.The hero must undergoes trials: physical tests—slaying a dragon, battling powerful opponents, rescuing maidens in distress etc.Having completed his quest, the hero returns to society to bring about spiritual transformation and restore the perfect human community.The Captain Ahab in Moby Dick is a hero of quest but not a traditional one, he is a villain hero who tries to conquer the nature.9. Iambic Pentameter:10. Point of View(视角)：It is the relationship of the storyteller or narrator, to the story.A story has a first-person point of view if one of the characters, referred to as ―I‖, tells the story.A story has a limited third-person point of view if the narrator reveals the thoughts of only one character but refers to that character as ―he‖ or ―she‖.A narrator who tells the thoughts of all the characters and who tells things that no one character could know uses the omniscient (all-knowing), or third-person, point of view.For example, in Moby Dick, Melville adopted the first-person narrator, Ishmael was the observer who saw the events of the story and played s minor role in the action.Ⅲ. 重要作家及作品Nathanial Hawthorne (纳撒尼尔·霍桑)1.life2.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun3.point of view(1)Evil is at the core of human life, ―that blackness in Hawthorne‖(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.4.aesthetic美学的ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yetnot to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5.style – typical romantic writer(1)the use of symbols(2)revelation of characters’ psychology(3)the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of viewThe Scarlet Letter, （adultery）1.About the story:(1)The story of Hester Prynne Set: the 17th century(2)What is situated immediately outside the door of the prison in which Hester is kept: A rosebush(3)How does Hester support herself financially: as a seamstress(4)She always wears: black(5)―A‖ represents: adultery2.Major characters in the story:(1)Hester Prynne: wears ―A‖; ―A‖ defines her identity(2)Arthur Dimmesdale: wears ―A‖ in his heart; his soul never in peace (invisible wearer)(3)Roger Chillingworth: the maker of scarlet letter(4)Pearl: the p roduct/result of ―A‖3.Symbolism: (special movement in literature; the use of symbols)In ―The Scarlet Letter‖:(1)The rosebush: passion(2)The forest: an ungovernable place(3)The scarlet letter: adultery; sin(4)Pearl: wildness; passion(5)The meteor: community4.Refuse to take off ―A‖:(1)For Hester, to remove scarlet letter would be to acknowledge the power it has in determining who she is(2)She is determined to transform its meaning and her identity(3)She wants to be the one who controls its meaning(4)She stands as a self-appointed reminder of the evils society can commitYoung Goodman Brown1. Psychological interpretation——Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychology):(1)superego——consciousness——the principle of morality 超我(2)ego——subconsciousness——the principle of reality 自我(3)id——unconsciousness——the principle of pleasure 本我Brown’s journey is psychological as well as physical:Village, a place of light and order——Forest, a place of darkness and wildnessconsciousness——unconsciousnessvillage——superego——FaithBrown——egoforest——id——SatanHawthorne saw the dangers of an overactive suppression of libido and the consequent development of tyrannous superego.2. Men, Women, and the loss of Faith:Despite the literary sexism of his day, Hawthorne portrays women as powerful moral agents.Although Faith is not a three-dimensional character, the story centers on her husband’s rejection of her. Women are victimized.Women——angle in the house——do not have desires, rights and needsFallen women——prostitutes, witches, and mad womenFaith to Brown is female sexuality; Satan to Brown is patriarchal authority3. Female images:Innocents vs. Temptresses:(1)Governor’s wife, Goody Cloyse, prostitutes, maidens, witches, Quaker women, Faith(2)Sex is seen as alluring and dangerous(3)Brown is an empty and failed husband and fatherHerman Melville (赫尔曼·麦尔维尔)1.life(1)Typee 《泰皮》(2)Omio 《殴穆》(3)Mardi 《玛地》(4)Redburn 《雷德本》(5)White Jacket 《白外衣》(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre 《皮埃尔》(8)Billy Budd 《比利·巴德》3.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of ―Everlasting Nay‖ (negative attitudetowards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multipleview of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or onthe route (Moby Dick)Moby Dick《白鲸》：Moby-Dick, often considered the greatest American novel, is a masterpiece with many layers. It is a sea adventure, an exciting chase after a destructive and mysterious creature. The enormous white whale Moby-Dick torments Captain Ahab, who is obsessed with finding and killing Moby-Dick, having lost a leg in a previous encounter with the whale, and Ahab’s burning desire for revenge really is the center of the story. At the novel’s end, Ahab finds and attacks Moby-Dick, but the terrible whale takes Ahab, his ship Pequod, and nearly all its crew down to a watery grave with him.1. An encyclopedia of everythingA Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fates (extreme individualism)2. Image of ship: ship on the sea is the human soul search the meaning in the universe.3. Purpose——noble: he think Moby Dick as an evilHero: he is a hero but not a traditional hero (he does not stand for goodness); a villain hero4. Byronic hero (create by Byron): mad, bad, dangerous to know, obsessive——rebellions: challenge the authority; unconventional; right the wrongSatanic: revengeful; rebellious; the fight between God & Satan5. The Pequod——a symbol of doom(named after a native American tribe in Massachusetts; did not long survived of white men(extincted); is painted gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones)The sailors are of different ethics——all people in American (individual)Queequeg’s Coffin——life boat; life6. Theme of Moby Dick:(1)Melville’s bleak view (negative attitude) the sense of futility and meaninglessness of the w orld. His attitude to life is―Everlasting Nay‖. Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futility.The adventure of killing Moby Dick is meaningless. Ahab tries to control it, which leads to his doom.Modern life——the loss of faith, the sense of futility——well expressed in Moby Dick(2)Alienation (far away from each other): exists between man & man, man & society, and man & nature.(3)Loneliness and suicidal individualism——the basic pattern of 19th century American life(individualism causing disaster and death)——Moby Dick is a negative reflection upon Transcendentalism.(4)Rejection and quest:V oyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and valuesHenry David Thoreau1.life(1)A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3)A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw natur e as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritualwell-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.(6)―Simplicity…simplify!‖(7)He was sorely disgusted with ―the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society‖.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.WaldenEdgar Allen PoeI.LifeII.Works1.short stories(1)ratiocinative storiesa.Ms Found in a Bottleb.The Murders in the Rue Morguec.The Purloined Letter(2)Revenge, death and rebirtha.The Fall of the House of Usherb.Ligeiac.The Masque of the Red Death(3)Literary theorya.The Philosophy of Compositionb.The Poetic Principlec.Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told TalesIII.Themes1.death – predominant t heme in Poe’s writing―Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.‖2.disintegration (separation) of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIV.A esthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. Hecalls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V.Style – traditional, but not easy to readVI.R eputation: ―the jingle man‖ (Emerson)VII.His influencesWalt Whitman1.life2.work: Leaves of Grass (9 editions)(1)Song of Myself(2)There Was a Child Went Forth(3)Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4)Democratic V istas(5)Passage to India(6)Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking3.themes –―Catalogue of American and European thought‖He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson’s individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything):●equality of things and beings●divinity of everything●immanence of God●democracy●evolution of cosmos●multiplicity of nature●self-reliant spirit●death, beauty of death●expansion of America●brotherhood and social solidarity (unity of nations in the world)●pursuit of love and happiness4.style: ―free verse‖(1)no fixed rhyme or scheme(2)parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3)phonetic recurrence(4)the habit of using snapshots(5)the use of a certain pronoun ―I‖(6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(10)sentences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines5.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated andEuropeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.Ralph Waldo Emerson (拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生)1.life (American philosopher, poet and essayist; the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism)2.works(1)Nature——his first book expressing the main principle of Transcendentalism. It is regarded as ―American’sDeclaration of Intellec tual Independence‖(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet3.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the ―oversoul‖.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of aspiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become betterand even perfect. This is what Emerson means by ―the infinitude of man‖.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by makinghimself.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2)True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3)The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceWashington Irving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father of American literature2.life3.works(1)A History of New Y ork from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication ofthis.)(3)The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4)A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra4.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US5.style – beautiful(1)gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4)vivid and true characters(5)humour – smiling while reading(6)musical languageJames Fenimore Cooper1.life (―father of American novelists‖; the creation of the west frontier and its heroes)2.works(1)Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3.point of viewThe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape description(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic5.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Benjamin Franklin1.life (printer, enlightener, inventor, scientist, statesman, diplomat)2.works(9)Poor Richard’s Almanac(10)Autobiography——form: the first autobiography of Americanmeaning: American dream & individualismself-improvement; business (contents); prototype of American success (significance); Puritanism and enlightenment spirits 3.contribution(11)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.(12)He was called ―the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven‖.(13)Everything seems to meet in this one man –―Jack of all trades‖. Herman Melville thus described him ―master of each and mas tered by none‖.(14)Aid Jefferson in writing The Declaration of IndependenceThomas Paine1.father of the American Revolution2.propagandist, pamphleteer, a master of persuasion who understands the power of language to move a man to action3.main works:(1)The American Crisis(2)Common Sense(3)The Right of Man(4)The Age of Reason。

吴定柏《美国文学大纲》笔记和典型题（含考研真题）详解（现代诗歌）【圣才出品】

吴定柏《美国⽂学⼤纲》笔记和典型题（含考研真题）详解（现代诗歌）【圣才出品】第8章现代诗歌8.1 复习笔记Ⅰ. Overview1. Background2. Modernism3. Imagism(1) Emergence(2) Major features(3) CommentⅡ. Ezra Loomis Pound (1885-1972)1. Life2. Literary CareerⅢ. Thomas Stearns Elliot (1888-1968)1. Life2. Literary CareerⅣ. Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)1. Life2. Literary Career3. Views of Poetry4. Major FeaturesⅤ. E. A. Robinson (1869-1935)1. Life2. Literary Career3. CharacteristicsⅥ. Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963)1. Life2. Literary Career3. CommentⅦ. Contemporary American PoetryⅠ. Overview1. BackgroundIn the 20th century, two characteristic strains in American poetry are introspection and social criticism. But they were often combined together.Ⅰ. 概述1. 背景20世纪，美国诗歌有两⼤类型，即内省和社会批判。

但是两种类型经常结合在⼀起。

2. Modernism(1) Modernism dramatized severance from the past while using the past, its valuesand artistic forms in new literary production.(2) Modernists had a sense of fragmentation in social communities and the individual himself.(3) The distinctive feature of literary modernism was its strong break withtraditional forms and techniques of expression.2. 现代主义(1) 现代主义与过去相隔离，但同时也在新的⽂学作品中使⽤过去的观点和艺术形式。

美国文学考试大纲

美国文学备考大纲1，A. 梭罗的主要观点in Life without Principles1. Don’t cheat people by conspiring with them to protect their comfort zones.2. Don’t make religions and other such institutions the sort of intellectual comfort zonethat prevents you from entertaining ideas that aren’t to be found there.3. Don’t cheat yourself by working primarily for a paycheck. If what you do with your lifefree-of-charge is so worthless to you that you’d be convinced to do something else in exchange for a little money or fame, you need better hobbies.4. Furthermore, don’t hire someone who’s only in it for the money.5. Sustain yourself by the life you live, not by exchanging your life for money and livingoff that.6. It is a shame to be living off an inheritance, charity, a government pension, or togamble your way to prosperity – either through a lottery or by such means asprospecting for gold.7. Remember that what is valuable about a thing is not the same as how much money itwill fetch on the market.8. Don’t waste conversation and attention on the superf icial trivialities and gossip of thedaily news, but attend to things of more import: “Read not the Times. Read theEternities.”9. Similarly, politics is something that ought to be a minor and discreet part of life, not thegrotesque public sport it has become.10. Don’t mistake the march of commerce for progress and civilization– especially whenthat commerce amounts to driving slaves to produce the articles of vice like alcoholand tobacco. There’s no shortage of gold, of tobacco, of alcohol, but there is a sh ortsupply of “a high and earnest purpose."B. 超验主义（transcendentalism）的特点（self-improvement，oversoul），Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement that was developed during the late 1820s and 1830s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest to the general state of culture and society, Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people and nature. Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. They had faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed.There are three main ideas of the transcendentalist. First of all, the transcendentalists emphasis on spirit, or the oversoul, they think this is the important factor the existence of the universe. Oversoul is ubiquitous and the soul of all things,, and it exists in nature. Secondly, the transcendentalist stressed the importance of the individual. They think that individual is the most important part of the society, social innovation can only be achieved through personal cultivation. So man's first duty is to self-improvement, not sedulous pursuit wealth. The ideal person is relying on its own people. Thirdly, the transcendentalist in a whole new view of nature that nature is the symbol of oversoul or god. In their view, nature is not just material. It has a life, filled with thespirit of god, it is the outside performance of the oversoul. Transcendentalist view regression nature, accept its influence to become perfect in spirit. Natural connotation of the idea is that all natural symbolic and the outside world is the embodiment of the spirit world.对自然的看法Transcendentalists stressed a point that come into nature, have natural practice experience and have a strong passion in the wilderness.Nature is the symbol of the spirit, the coat of oversoul ，and nature is full of vitality, can purify one's soul.一、The behavior principle to treat and cherish all life二、Return to nature and man is an integral part of nature,people should live in harmony with nature三、Valued spiritual despised material’s life realmC. quotations（对作业里那四个句子的理解）•2, Sister Carrie•文本描写(Carrie 和husband) Oh, Carrie, Carrie! Oh, blind strivings of the human heart! Onward, onward, it saith, and where beauty leads, there itfollows. Whether it be the tinkle of a lone sheep bell o'er some quiet landscape, or the glimmer of beauty in sylvan places, or the show of soul in some passing eye, the heart knows and makes answer, following. It is when the feet wearyand hope seems vain that the heartaches and the longings arise. Know, then,that for you is neither surfeit nor content. In your rocking-chair, by yourwindow dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by yourwindow, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel.•It was thus that the little theatre resounded to a babble of successful voices, the creak of fine clothes, the commonplace of good-nature, and all largely because of this man's bidding. Look at him any time within the half hour before thecurtain was up, he was a member of an eminent group -- a rounded companyof five or more whose stout figures, large white bosoms, and shining pinsbespoke the character of their success. The gentlemen who brought their wives called him out to shake hands. Seats clicked, ushers bowed while he lookedblandly on. He was evidently a light among them, reflecting in his personalitythe ambitions of those who greeted him. He was acknowledged, fawned upon,in a way lionised. Through it all one could see the standing of the man. It wasgreatness in a way, small as it was.Carrie is a rudderless but pretty small-town girl who comes to the big city filled with vague ambitions. She is used by men and uses them in turn to become a successful Broadway actress while George Hurstwood, the married man who has run away with her, loses his grip on life and descends into beggary and suicide. Sister Carrie was the first masterpiece of the American naturalistic movement in its grittily factual presentation of the vagaries of urban life and in its ingenuous heroine, who goes unpunished for her transgressionsagainst conventional sexual morality. The book's strengths include a brooding but compassionate view of humanity, a memorable cast of characters, and a compelling narrative line. The emotional disintegration of Hurstwood is a much-praised triumph of psychological analysis.自然主义，重要思想，uncontrollableThat‟s because instead of singing praise of Carrie‟s success, Dreiser seems to reject it. Carrie‟s wasteland in spirit indicates Dreiser‟s pessimistic determinism. That is the limitation where Dreiser‟s naturalistic thought lies. According to him, man‟s fate is completely at the mercy of environment and heredity. In man‟s lifetime, man is controlled by the two powerful forces, so man is helpless and hopeless. Despite the limitation, we cannot deny Dreiser and his novel, because Dreiser‟s pessimistic determinism has its origins.First, the social background of Dreiser‟s age contributes to the formation of his pessimistic opinion. The civil war ended with the victory of the northern troops. Ever since that, industry and commerce developed by leaps and bound. American experienced the transition from an agricultural one to an industrial one. Industrialization speeds up American modernization, brings changes in every aspect of American life, especially people‟s values, and American culture. The big cities are flooded with materials and consuming culture, while the life in rural area is very lonely and poor. With the development of city, the gap between remote area and city is becoming larger, so many people lived in villages and small towns immigrate to large city to join the work forces.People can sense disillusionment and get frustrated, feeling hopeless.（重点）Second, what causes the pessimistic determinism is the naturalistic vision of man. According to naturalism, human being is helpless, subject to their biological and environmental determinism. Human beings always fight hopelessly against the odds under harsh conditions. Their fates are predetermined by mysterious forces, so the fates are completely out of control. No matter what efforts human beings make, they cannot escape their predetermined destinies. Under influence of the pessimistic view of man, the pictures depicted in naturalistic writings, including Sister Carrie, are always bleak and permeated with the tone of pessimism3, Gatsby有关Gatsby 富有的supporting details，1.There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.2. There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler’s thumb.3. At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored li ghts to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden.4. By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums.5. A high Gothic library, paneled with carved English oak, and probably transported complete from some ruin overseas.各种人物如何看待GatsbyThe two girls and Jordan leaned together confidentially.“Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.”A thrill passed over all of us. The three Mr. Mumbles bent forward and listened eagerly.“I don’t think it’s so much that,” argued Lucille sceptically; “it’s more that he was a German spy during the war.”One of the men nodded in confirmation.“I heard that from a man who knew all about him, grew up with him in Germany,” he assured us positively.“Oh, no,” said the first girl, “i t couldn’t be that, because he was in the American army during the war.” As our credulity switched back to her she leaned forward with enthusiasm. “You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I’ll bet he killed a man.”，narrator 为什么找Gatsby，He heard so many different descriptions for Gatsby, Curious what kind of person he is.宴会看什么人Instead of rambling, this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the country-side — East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety.Gypsies ,Englishmen and prosperous Americans ,single girl, nobleman，Gatsby给narrator留下了什么印象。

美国文学复习大纲

美国文学复习大纲美国文学1THE LITERATURE OF COLONIAL AMERICA1.1 The first permanent English settlement in North America wasestablished at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.1.2 The first writing that we call American were the narratives andjournals of these settlements.1.3The first American writer is Captain John Smith,settled inJamestown.1.4 The first American poet is1.5 Puritan Thoughts:the puritans establish their own moral andreligious principles known as American Puritanism, which became one of the enduring influences in American literature. American Puritanism stressed on predestination, depravity, original sin, and salvation of selected few from God's grace. With such doctrines in their minds, Puritans left Europe for America in order to establish a theocracy in the new world. over the years in new homeland they establish a new way of life stressed on hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety( 其中也包括个人主义再现)1.6Anne Bradstreet-------the first poet in America by crisis-------the first woman poet in America-------she settled in Massachusetts------ The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America2THE LITERATURE OF REASON AND REVOLUTION2.1主要文体------ politics essay2.2 The War for Independence-----1776-1783---ended in the formation ofa Federative bourgeois democratic republic- the United States ofAmerica2.3 Benjamin Franklin-----思想：自助者天助（God helps those who help themselves）2.4 Thomas Paine----- Great Commoner of Mankind----- Rights of Man; The Age of Reason; Agrarian JusticeAmerican Crisis (a series of 16 pamphlets)2.5 P32 ①for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine,the coal can never expire.------ spirit / enthusiasm of struggle② but if a thief breaks into my house---- British government2.6★Philip Freneau-----美国前期浪漫主义的代表诗人/ the mostoutstanding writer of the post-Revolutionary period----- “The Poet of Revolution”----- “Father of American Poetry”(连线)----- he settled in Mount Pleasant, near Freehold, NewJersey---- The Wild-Honey Suckle(If nothing once, you nothing lose)3THE LITERATURE OF ROMANTICISM3.1起止时间：Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book(1819-1820)---Whitman’s Leaves of Grass(1858)3.2浪漫主义的一般特点：moral enthusiasm, faith in the value ofindividualism and intuitive perception, a presumption thatthe naturalworld was a source of goodness and man’s societies a source ofcorruption.3.3Oversoul: an all-pervading power for goodness from which all thingscome and of which all thing are a part.3.4美国国歌：Star-Spangled Banner3.5Literature from: novels, short stories, poems.3.6The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature becamea permanent convention of American literature.3.7★Washington Irving---- Father of American short stories(连线)-----the messenger sent from the new world to theold world----- the first great prose stylist of Americanromanticism----- Sketch Book (33篇文章+ 1篇自传)----- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow3.8James Fenimore Cooper--------The founder of the frontier stories-------- two kinds of immensely popular stories:the sea adventure tale; the frontier saga.The best of his many sea romances was ThePilot---------★连线Leatherstocking Tales(TheDeerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, ThePathfinder, The Pioneers, The Prairie)------“The nearest approach yet to anAmerican epic”3.9William Cullen Bryant-----Thanatopsis（意为view of death）To a Waterfowl3.10★Edgar Allan Poe------ the founder of detective stories-------T o Helen: perfumed sea(one’s home land)of yore (cherish the ancient time/ancient beauty) bore to (brought to);wont to (be accustomed to)classic face (face of classic beauty) To the glory that was Greece, And the grandeur thatwas Rome (the great achievement in Greece and Rome) --------Annabel Lee (①倒数第二个stanza 运用comparison 的手法表现了对LEE 的爱。

美国文学复习提纲

美国文学复习提纲考试复习提纲The Outline of American LiteraturePuritanism: Edward TaylorRevolution and Reason: Franklin, Paine, Jefferson, FreneauEarly Romanticism: Irving, Cooper, BryantTranscendentalism: Emerson, ThoreauBlack Romanticism: Allan Poe, Hawthorne, MelvilleRealism:Poem: Whitman and DickinsonLocal Colorism: Mrs. Stowe, Mark TwainPsychological: Henry JamesNaturalism: O’Henry, Jack London, DreiserModernismImagism: Ezra PoundLyrical Poet: Robert FrostJazz Age: FitzgeraldLost Generation: Hemingway, T.S. EliotSouthern literature: FaulknerII. Blank Filling1. The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at _____, Virginia.2. The term “Puritan” was applied to those settlers who originally were devout members of the Church of __.3. Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety, these were the _____ values that dominated much of the early American writing.4. The best of puritan poets was _____, whose complete edition of poems appeared in 1960, more than two hundred years after his death.5. Franklin’s best writing is found in his masterpiece _____6. Thomas Paine, with his natural gift for pamphleteering, was appropriately born into an age of ______7. _____ has been called the “Father of American Poetry”.8. In American literature, the eighteenth century was an Age of ______ and Revolution.9. ______ was regarded as the first great prose stylist of American romanticism.10. In Irving’s work _____ appeared the first modern short stories and the first American juvenile literature.11. The central figure in the Leatherstocking Tales is _____.12. To a Waterfowl is perhaps the peak of ______’s work, it has been called by an eminent English critic “the most perfect brief poem in the language”.13._______ was the first American to gain the stature of a major poet in the world literature.14. It is supposed by many that Edgar Allan Poe wrote the beautiful poem _____ to remember his dead wife.15. In 1836, a little book came out which made a tremendous impact on the intellectual life of America. It was entitled Nature by ______.16. Emerson’s essay _____ has been regarded as “American Declaration of Intellectual Independence”. It called on American writers to write about America in a way peculiarly American.17. Melville’s novel ______ is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.18. After his death, _____ became the only American to be honored with a bust in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.19. _______ had originated in the country, France as a literary doctrine that called for “reality and truth” in the depiction of ordinary life.20. The poetic style Whitman devised is now called ______, that is poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.21. Abraham Lincoln ever said, “a little woman wrote a book which made this great war”, which refers that ______ wrote ______ to make ______war.22. ______ was Mark Twain’s masterwork from which, as Hemingway noted, “all modern American literature comes”.23. The title of one of O. Henry’s books ______ indicates that he considered all the people of New York city worth writing about, instead of only the upper class.24. In the period of American realism, ______ probed deeply at the individual psychology of his characters, writing in a rich and intricate style that supported his intense scrutiny of complex human experience.25. The novel which was described by an American critic as “an outrage to American girlhood”is Henry James’ ______.26. Jack London’s masterwork ______ is somewhat autobiographical.27. The identification of potency with money is at the heart of Dreiser’s masterpiece ______.28. Ezra Pound was the leader of a new movement in poetry which he called the “______”movement.29. In 1920. T.S. Eliot began to write his masterpiece ______, one of the major works of modern literature.30. In 1925, Fitzgerald wrote his best novel ______. It is the story of an idealist who was destroyed by the influence of the wealthy, pleasure-seeking people around him.31. With the publication of The Sun Also Rises, ______ became the spokesman for what Gertrude Stein had called “a Lost Generation”.32. In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway portrayed an old fisherman named______, who shows triumphant even in defeat.33. _____ wrote about the disintegration of the old social system in the Americ an Southern States, and its effect on the lives of modern people, both black and white.III. Questions and Answers (24 points in all, 6 for each)1. What’s American Puritanism?2. What’s American Romanticism?3. What’s American Transcendentalism?4. Make a brief comment on Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter.1) intelligent and capable 2) passionate 3) strong5. List the features of Whitman’s poetry?6. What’s American Realism?7. What’s Hemingway’s style and his code Hero?(1) Hemingway’s novels are always exposed to and victimized by violence in various forms with all the dignity and courage he could muster, confronts situation. (2) They are a group of wandering, amusing, but aimless people, who are caught in the war and removed from the path of ordinary life. (3) They are the men trapped both physically and mentally. (4) God’s design or his beneficence and to suggest that man is doomed to be entrapped. (5) They believe: life is worth living and there are causes worth dying for. (6) In a tragic sense, the struggle of Hemingway’s heroes show: it is a representation of life as a struggle against unconquerable natural forces in which only a partial victory is possible. Nevertheless, there is a feeling of great respect for the struggle and mankind. (7) Hemingway hero of athletic prowess and masculinity and unyielding heroism.8. What’s the relationship between The Great Gatsby and the American Dream?Gatsby is a mythical figure whose intensity of dream stands for a state of mind that embodies America itself; Gatsby is the last of the romantic heroes, whose energy and senseof commitment take him in search of his personal grail; Gatsby’s failure symbolizes to a great extent the end of the America Dream.IV. Topic Discussion (20 points in all, 10 for each)1. Discuss the figure of speech under the theme of Moby Dick.2. Discuss Twain’s art of fiction: the setting, the language, and the characters, etc., based on his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.3. How do you understand the Emersonian “Oversoul”?1) Emerson envisioned religion as an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal “Oversoul”.2) The “Oversoul” was an all-pervading unitary spiritual power of goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which everyone was a part.3) Generally, the Oversoul referred to spirit or God as the most important thing in the universe. Since the Oversoul was a single essence, and since all people derived their beings from the same source, the seeming diversity and clash of human interests was only superficial, and all people were in reality striving toward the same ends by different but converging paths.4) The harder each person strove to express his or her individuality, the more faithfully he or she followed the inner voice, the more surely would the aims of his or her life coincide with those of his or her neighbor.。

美国文学史复习提纲

美国文学史复习提纲I. Explain the following literary terms.1. RomanticismThe most profound and comprehensive idea of romanticism is the vision of a greater personal freedom for the individual. Appeals to imagination; Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, geniality. Subjectivity: in form and meaning.2 American transcendentalismAmerican transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy and literature that flourished during the early to middle years of the nineteenth century (about 1836-1860). For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains.3 Realism: ―nothing more and nothing less than the tru thful treatment of material.‖ theCivil wara. verisimilitude of details derived from observationb. representative in plot, setting and characterc. an objective rather than an idealized view of human experience4. Modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. The general term covers many political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in Western society at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at theturn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century.II. Questions and Answers. Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English.1. What is local color？an amalgam of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the dialects, customs, sights, and sounds of regional America‖2. What is American Puritanism1). Total Depravity - the concept of Original Si2). Unconditional Election - the concept of predestination3). 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.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.3. Analyze Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography.themes in autobiography: Self- Improvement Mind: Self-education Body: Physical ActivityBehavior: Moral Perfection Religion: The best service to God is to be good to man Benjamin Franklin and aspects of The American DreamRags to Riches: Impotence to Importance: A Philosophy of Individualism:Freewill vs. Determinism: Hope and Optimism:The Autobiography is a record of self-examination and self-improvement.Benjamin Franklin was a spokesman for the new order of the 18th century enlightenment The Autobiography is a how-to-do-it book, a book on the art of self-improvement. (for example, Franklin’s 13 virtues)Through telling a success story of self-reliance, the book celebrates, in fact, the fulfillment of the American dream.The Autobiography is in the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision4. What is Imagism?It is a movement of English and American poets in revolt from Romanticism, which flourish 1910-1917. The characteristic products of the movement are more easily recognized than its theories defined: they tend to be short ,composed of short lines of musical cadence rather than metrical regularity, to avoid abstraction, and to treat the image with a hard, clear precision rather than with overt symbolic intent.As part of the modernist movement, away from the sentimentality and moralizing tone of nineteenth-century Victorian poetry, imagist poets looked to many sources to help them create a new poetic expression, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. III. Topic discussion.1. Discuss Allen Poe’s literar y achievements with his works.famous American poet, short-story writer and critic father of detective storymaster of gothic novel forerunner of symbolisma father of detective storyPoe introduced of a new form of short fiction--- the detective story.Th e word ―detective‖ did not exist in English at the time thatPoe was writing, but the genre has become a fundamental mode of twentieth-century literature and film.b) master of gothic novelGothic novel, a genre that rose with Romanticism in Britain in the late eighteenth century, explores the dark side of human experience—death, alienation, nightmares, ghosts, and haunted landscapes. Poe brought the Gothic to America.Gothic novels originated from The Castle of Otranto, written by Horace Walpole in Britain at the end of the 18th century, which created the early classical Gothic novel mode.It leads habitually with darkness and horror. Gothic elements include horror, mystery, supernatural phenomenon, misfortune, death, haunted houses, and family curses.C Literary criticPoe is one of the few American writers who not only wrote poetry, but also wrote about how to write poetry. His critical essays on poetry include The Poetic Principle, and The Philosophy of Composition.Poe remained the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature.2. Analyze Freneau’s The Wild Honeysuckle.野金银花Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, 美好的花呀，你长得：这么秀丽，Hid in this silent, dull retreat, 却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方——Untouched thy honey'd blossoms blow, 甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，Unseen thy little branches greet; 招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；No roving foot shall crush thee here, 没游来荡去的脚来把你踩碎，No busy hand provoke a tear. 没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。

英美文学选读考试大纲

英美文学选读考试大纲一、考试目的与要求本考试旨在评估学生对英美文学经典作品的理解和鉴赏能力，以及对文学理论、历史背景和文化语境的掌握程度。

考生应具备以下能力：1. 阅读并分析英美文学作品的能力。

2. 理解和评价文学作品中的主题、风格和技巧。

3. 对英美文学发展史有一个基本的了解。

4. 能够将文学作品与社会、历史背景联系起来进行综合分析。

二、考试内容1. 英国文学- 古代至文艺复兴时期：包括但不限于乔叟、莎士比亚的作品。

- 17世纪至18世纪：如约翰·弥尔顿、亚历山大·蒲柏、简·奥斯汀的作品。

- 19世纪：浪漫主义、维多利亚时期的作家，如华兹华斯、拜伦、狄更斯等。

- 20世纪至今：现代主义和后现代主义作家，如弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫、乔治·奥威尔、多丽丝·莱辛等。

2. 美国文学- 殖民时期至独立战争：包括但不限于爱德华·泰勒、本杰明·富兰克林的作品。

- 19世纪：浪漫主义和现实主义作家，如爱默生、霍桑、梅尔维尔、马克·吐温等。

- 20世纪：现代主义和后现代主义作家，如菲茨杰拉德、海明威、福克纳、塞林格等。

- 当代文学：包括多种族、多文化背景下的作家，如托尼·莫里森、唐·德里罗等。

三、考试形式与题型1. 选择题：考察学生对文学作品的基本事实、作者、历史背景等的了解。

2. 简答题：要求学生对文学作品的主题、人物、情节等进行简要分析。

3. 论述题：要求学生综合运用文学理论知识，对文学作品进行深入分析和评价。

4. 作文题：根据给定的文学作品或文学现象，撰写一篇有观点、有分析、有论证的论文。

四、考试范围与重点1. 英国文学的重点包括但不限于：- 莎士比亚的戏剧和诗歌。

- 18世纪启蒙时期的文学作品。

- 19世纪的浪漫主义和现实主义作品。

- 20世纪现代主义和后现代主义文学。

2. 美国文学的重点包括但不限于：- 早期美国文学与美国独立精神的关系。

文学考试复习提纲

美国文学期末复习提纲一、考试题型1.作家作品名称匹配2.名词解释3.根据作品内容写出作家、作品及作品简短评价4.诗歌赏析（两首诗歌，选择一首进行作答）二、作家与作品总结1）.需要记住作家和作品名字，并能准确书写出来的十六位作家，同时要求记得这些作品的评价，一两句话即可。

Washington Irving 《Rip Van Winkle》Henry David Thoreau 《Walden》Nathaniel Hawthorne 《The Scarlet Letter》Walt Whitman 《Song of Myself》Emily Dickinson《I’m Nobody! Who Are You?》、《Success Is Counted Sweetest》、《This Is My Letter to The World》、《Because I Could Not Stop for Death》(她的诗歌标题一般是诗歌的第一句话)Mark Twain 《Adventures of Huckleberry Finn》O’Henry 《The Cop and the Anthem》Robert Frost 《Nothing Gold Can Stay》、《The Road Not Taken》、《Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening》、《Mending Wall》Sherwood Anderson 《The Triumph of the Egg》Katherine Anne Porter 《The Jilting of Granny Weatherall》Ezra Pound 《In a Station of the Metro》、《A Pact》Langston Hughes 《Cross》、《Dream》Ernest Hemingway 《Indian Camp》Arthur Miller 《The Death of a Salesman》Allen Ginsberg 《Howl》2）.下列作家只需要记得作品和作者能够配对即可，不需要知道具体书写。

美国文学大纲

苏州科技学院外国语学院___美国文学史___(课程名称)课程考试大纲一、课程性质与特点美国文学史为“英语”和“英语（师范）”专业任意选修课，属于考查课，共24学时，1.5学分。

本课程涵盖美国文学史上从殖民地时期、浪漫主义、现实主义、现代主义、后现代主义至当代各个时期重要的文学思潮、流派及其发生的社会、文化、哲学背景以及各个时期重要作家的代表性作品。

本课程所讲授的知识是英语专业本科生知识结构不可或缺的一部分，是英语专业学生人文素养必要的组成成分，也是英语专业八级考试“人文知识”部分考核的内容之一。

鉴于本课程学时短，内容多，本课程的特点是以史为经，以作家作品为纬，详讲浪漫主义、现实主义和现代主义部分，略讲其它部分。

二、课程目标与基本要求学生在学习本课程后应该对美国文学史上殖民地时期、浪漫主义、现实主义、现代主义、后现代主义至当代各个时期重要的文学思潮、流派及其发生的社会、文化、哲学背景以及各个时期重要作家的代表性作品有个宏观的了解，能解释相关的名词，熟悉各个时期的主要特点和重要作家及其重要作品，并能结合文学外在与内在因素对文学作品做出初步评论。

三、教材及主要参考书教材：童明：《美国文学史》[增订版] ( A History of American Literature, Revised and expanded edition).北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2010.主要参考书：常耀信：《美国文学简史》[第二版](A Survey of American Literature,2nd edition).天津：南开大学出版社，2003.四、考核内容与考核目标Part 1Early American Literature: Colonial Period to 1815Chapter 1 The literature of the New World1. “discoverer” of America: Christopher Columbus, 1492; Amerigo Vespucci ( Hence“America”,1507 world map) （识记，次重点）2.Native (Indian) American Oral literature: origin stories, trickster tales , historical narratives (理解，次重点)Chapter 2The Literature of Colonial America: 1620-17633. Jamestown: first English settlement in North America（识记，重点）5. Captain John Smith: First author in the history of American literature (about Jamestown) （识记，一般）6.William Bradford: Father of American history, author of Of Plymouth Plantation（识记，一般）7. In 1620, the Bradford party sailed on the Mayflower and came to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.（识记，次重点）8. Anne Bradstreet: the first poetess in the colonial period: The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up inAmerica（识记，一般）9.Jonathan Edwards: the great thinker of the “Great Awakening” （识记，一般）Chapter 3 Literature and American Revolution:1764—181510. American Puritanism (重点，理解)11. The 18th century, in America, as in Europe, is known as the Age of Reason and Enlightenment.（识记，次重点）12. Enlightenment in America （理解，次重点）13. Deism and Unitarianism（理解，一般）14. Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard’s Almanacs; Autobiography（理解，重点）15.Thomas Paine: Common Sense; The American Crisis; The Rights of Man（识记，重点）16. Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence（理解，重点）17. Alexander Hamilton: The Federalist Papers (co-author) （识记，一般）18. Philip Freneau: the poet of “American Revolution”: The Wild Honey Suckle, The IndianBurying Ground（识记，重点）Part 2American Romanticism 1815—1865Chapter 4The Age of American Romanticism1.definition and characteristics of American Romanticism （应用，重点）2.First flowering of American literature（识记，次重点）Chapter 5Early Romanticism1.The three early romanticists: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William CullenBryant （识记，重点）3.Washington Irving: The Sketch Book, in which two of Irving’s best known stories“Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” are included（理解，重点）; A History of New York（识记，一般）; A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus（识记，一般）4.James Fenimore Cooper: The Leather-stocking Tales ( The Pioneers, The Last ofthe Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinder, The Deerslayer), the mythic hero of this series is Natty Bumppo (理解，重点)5.William Cullen Bryant: Poems : Thanatopsis (meaning meditation on death); Toa Waterfowl (about Nature’s power) (识记，次重点)Chapter 6Transcendentalism and Symbolic Representation1.The Transcendental Club: 1) published 16 issues of The Dial; 2) establishedBrook Farm, a utopian community （识记，一般）2.Transcendentalism as a philosophy （应用，重点）3.Ralph Waldo Emerson:1)the leading spokesman for Transcendentalism(识记，重点).2)Nature: “the manifesto of American transcendentalism” (理解，重点).;3)Essays (First serirs,1941, Second series,1844): “The Over-soul”,“Compensation”, Self- Reliance ( from which comes the idea “Trust thyself’);“The Poet”.（识记，一般）4)Representative Men（识记，一般）5)Address: “The American Scholar”( called America’s “ intellectualDeclaration of Independence”); “Divinity School Address”. (识记，次重点)6)His poetry（识记，一般）7)His style（识记，一般）4.Margret Fuller: first editor of The Dial, author of Woman in the NineteenthCentury (advocating for women’s rights) （识记，一般）5.Henry David Thoreau:1)today primary remembered for two of his works: Walden and the essay “CivilDisobedience”. (识记，重点)2)Nature and Implications of Thoreau’s revolt as revealed in Walden and“Civil Disobedience”（理解，重点）3)Thoreau’s style: thinking in imagery （理解，一般）Chapter 7Hawthorne, Melville and Poe1.Hawthorne, Melville and Poe are masters of “negative capability”. （理解，重点）2. Nathaniel Hawthorne1)Hawthorne’s moral vision（理解，次重点）2)Hawthorne’s themes: sin and evil, internal contradiction, male withdrawalfrom marriage（识记，重点）3)Hawthorne’s style: 1) elevated in diction and restrained in rhetoric, thusgraceful and polished; 2) allegory and symbol; 3) irony and ambiguity（识记，重点）4)Novels: Scarlet Letter （应用，重点）; The House of Seven Gables（识记，一般）; The Blithedale Romance（识记，一般）; The Marble Faun（识记，一般）5)Short stories: Young Goodman Brown; The Minister’s Black Veil; MajorMolineux; Rappcinni’s Daughter; The Birthmark（识记，一般）3.Herman Melville1)His major works: Moby Dick（应用，重点）2)Other works: Typee; Omoo; Mardi; Redburn（识记，一般）; Billy Budd（理解，次重点）4.Edgar Allen Poe1)Father of American detective stories（识记，重点）;2)His only novel: Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym（识记，一般）3)Gothic fiction: E.g. The Fall of the House of Usher（识记，一般）;4)Short stories: Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque（识记，一般）5)Theme of his poems: Beauty associated with sadness (melancholy)（应用，重点）. E.g. The Raven; To Helen; Ulalume; Annabel Lee（识记，一般）Chapter 8Whitman and Dickinson1.Walt Whitman1) free verse （理解，重点）2) Collected poems: Leaves of Grass（识记，重点）E.g.Song of Myself (celebrating the Self and Individualism) （理解，重点）O Captain! My Captain! (in mourning of Lincoln) （识记，次重点）2. Emily Dickinson; wrote nearly 2000poems,but fewer than 20 were published1) Recluse of Amherst（识记，重点）2) Themes of her poems: individualism and spirituality; suffering, dying and death（识记，次重点）3) style: short words and phrases separated and joined by dashes. （识记，一般）Chapter 9A House Divided: Writing Against Slavery1. Harriet Beecher Stowe (Lincoln called her “the little lady who made this big war), author ofUncle Tom’s Cabin (1851-1852) （理解，重点）2. Frederick Douglass: Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) （识记，次重点）3. Harriet Ann Jacobs : Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) （识记，一般）Part 3American Realism 1865—1914Chapter10The Age of Realism1. subdivided into two periods: the period of an expanding continental nation from 1865 till the1890s and the “progressive period” from the 1890s to 1914. （识记，一般）2. Realism as a broader term is also inclusive of naturalism, regionalism and local color writing.（识记，一般）3. Parameters (characteristics ) ofRealism （运用，重点）Chapter 11 Regional and Local color Writing1. Mark Twain1) Four Types of his writing:A) personalized fiction ( The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; The Adventures of HuckleberryFinn; The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day; The Tragedy of Puddd’nhead Wilson) （理解，重点）B) Travel fiction (The Innocents Abroad; Roughing It; A Tramp Abroad; Life on theMississippi; Following the Equator) （识记，一般）C) Historical romance ( T he Prince and The Pauper; A Connecticut Yankee in KingArthur’s Court; Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc by the Sieur Louis Conte) （识记，一般）D) Tall tales (The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County; The Man that CorruptedHadleyburg) （识记，次重点）2）“All Modern literature come from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.”(Ernest Hemingway) （识记，重点）Chapter 12Henry James and William Dean Howells1.William Dean Howells1)held a central position in the development of American realism,representative of Mid-western realism. （识记，重点）2)His long essay of criticism: Criticism and Fiction（识记，一般）3)Novels: The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) （识记，重点）; A Hazard of New Fortune(1890) （识记，一般）2.Henry James1) Themes of his novels: （识记，重点）A. The international theme;B. the emotion-of-life theme;C. The artist theme;D. psychological realism2) Novels: Three of the best: The Wings of Dove; The Ambassadors; The Golden Bowl（识记，次重点）3) The two best-known novellas: Daisy Miller; The Turn of the Screw（识记，一般）4) Other works: The American; The Portrait of a Lady（识记，次重点）Chapter 13Literary Naturalism1. Philosophical elements and literary characteristics of Naturalism（应用，重点）2. Hamlin Garland’s “veritism” （理解，次重点）3. Stephen Crane (1871-1900)1) Two of his well-known novels: Maggie of the Streets（理解，次重点）; The Red Badge ofCourage（理解，重点）2) Three well-known short stories: The Open Boat; The Monster; The Bride Comes to YellowSky. （识记，一般）4. Frank Norris(1870-19020: American Zola1) The naturalist characteristics of Frank Norris’s “Romance “（理解，次重点）2) Novels: McTeague（理解，重点）; Octopus（识记，一般）; The Pit（识记，一般）5. Jack London(1876-1916)1) London’s naturalist view of life and Man（应用，重点）2) Works：The Call of the Wild（应用，重点）; White Fang（识记，一般）; The Sea Wolf（识记，一般）; Martin Eden（识记，一般）; Iron Heel（识记，一般）6. Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)1) Major theme of Dreiser’s fiction（应用，重点）2) Works: Sister Carrie（应用，重点）; Jennie Gerhart;The Genius（识记，一般）; An American Tragedy（理解，次重点）;Trilogy of Desire: a. The Financier; b. The Titan; c. The Stoic（识记，次重点）Chapter 14Women Writing on the “Woman Question”1. “Woman question” in the late 19th century and early 20th century（理解，一般）2. Kate Chopin (1851-1904)1) Her theme （理解，一般）2) Her work: The Awakening（理解，重点）3. Edith Wharton (1862-1937)1) Her theme（理解，一般）2) Works: The Age of Innocence（应用，重点）; The House of Mirth（理解，次重点）; T he GreatInclination（识记，一般）; Ethan Frome（识记，一般）Part 4American ModernismChapter 15Modernism in American Grain1.American modernism: Second flowering of American Literature（识记，次重点）2.General observation （理解，一般）3.The formal dimensions（理解，一般）4. Philosophical paradigms for modernism（理解，次重点）5.Two short-hand definitions（理解，一般）Chapter 16The Evolution of Modernism1.Robert Frost (1874-1963)1)His vision and Style（理解，一般）2)Poems: The Road Not Taken (depicting a choice made that makes all thedifference)（理解，重点）; Mending Wall ( criticizing the famous line: Good fencesmake good neighbors) （理解，重点）; “ Stopping by the woods on a Snowy Evening（理解，重点）; A Boy’s Will（识记，一般）;After Apple-picking（识记，一般）; The Overn Bird（识记，一般）; Ice and Fire（识记，一般）2.Willa Cather (1873-1947): Author of My Ántonia（识记，重点）3.Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941): “The grotesques”in Winesburg, Ohio（理解，重点）.Chapter 17American Modernism in Europe1.Gertrude Stein (1874-1946): the coiner of “The lost Genration”.2.Ezra Pound (1885-1972)1)Imagist movement (eg. “In a Station of the Metro”) （运用，重点）2)The Cantos （some themes）（理解，次重点）Chapter 18Modern Fiction Between the Wars1.William Faulker (1897-1962)1）Style and Themes ( perspectivism / polyphonic novel; psychoanalysis/ “stream of consciouness”; types of families and characters in the South) （理解，次重点）2）Novels: The Sound and Fury（应用，重点）; As I Lay Dying（理解，次重点）; Light in August（理解，次重点）; Absalom, Absalom!（理解，次重点）3）Short story: “A Rose for Emily”（应用，重点）2.Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)1）recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954,one of the finest literary stylist of the 20th century.（识记，一般）2）Spokesman for “The Lost Generation”（应用，重点）3）His style (diction and syntax; the Iceberg Principle) （理解，重点）4）Hemingway Code Hero （应用，重点）5）Works: The Sun Also Rise（a fine example for “The Lost Generation”，理解，重点）s;A Farewell to Arms（理解，重点）;For Whom the Bell Tolls（理解，重点）; The Old Man and the Sea（理解，重点）; In Our Time（识记，一般）; Deathin the Afternoon（识记，一般）;The Green Hills of Africa（识记，一般）;A Clean,Well-lighted Place（识记，一般）;The Snow of Kilimanjaro（理解，一般）;To haveand Have not（识记，一般）;Indian Camp（识记，一般）3. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)1）spokesman for “The Jazz Age” and “The Roaring Twenties”.（识记，重点）2）Works: The Great Gatsby（应用，重点）; Tender is the Night（识记，重点）4.John Dos Passos (1896-1970): author of USA, a trilogy consisting of TheForty-second Parallel; 1919, and The Big Money (理解，次重点)5.John Steinbeck (1902-1968): recipient of Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962,primarily remembered for three of his many novels: In dubious Battle; （识记，一般）Of Mice and Men; （识记，一般）The Grapes of Wrath(理解，重点)Chapter 19Modern American Poetry1.T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)1）His visionary of The Waste Land （理解，重点）2）His poems: The Waste Land（应用，重点）; The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock（应用，重点）; Ash Wednesday（识记，一般）; The Hollow Men（识记，一般）; FourQuartets（识记，一般）2.Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)1)“ Of Modern Poetry” is Stevens’s carefully considered statement ofmodernism. （识记，一般）2)“Sunday Morning” is one of the best-known poem by Stevens (depicting awoman not going to church but enjoy the sunshine and contemplating whatdivinity is.) （识记，一般）3.William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)1)His themes（理解，一般）2)The Red Wheelbarrow（应用，重点）4. e.e.cummings (1894-1962): His themes and style（eg. “ Buffalo Bill’s）(识记，一般）Chapter 20African American Literature and Modernism1.Harlem Renaissance (理解，重点)ngston Hughes ( 1902-1967): leading writer of the Harlem Renaissance, andone of the most original and versatile black writers in the 20th century;remembered for his poetry. (识记，一般）3.Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)1) a major figure in the Harlem/New Negro Renaissance; (识记，一般）2)Her most important novel: Their Eyes were Watching God (1937) (识记，一般）5.Richard Wright (1908-1960): Author of Native Son(理解，重点); Black Boy(识记，一般）; The Man Who Lived Underground(识记，一般）.Part 5 American Literature Diversified: 1945 to the New MillenniumChapter 21Literature Diversified Under New Conditions1.Existentialism （理解，一般）2.Postmodernism（理解，一般）Chapter 22American Theater: Three Major Playwrights1.Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller are unanimously the bestspecimens of American theater in the 20th century.（识记，重点）2.Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953): Winner of 1936 Nobel Prize for Literature（识记，一般）1）Expressionism（理解，一般）2）His plays: The Hairy Ape (理解，重点); The Emperor Jones(理解，次重点);Desire Under the Elms(理解，次重点);Beyond the Horizon（识记，一般）; The Iceman Cometh （识记，一般）;Long Day’s Journey into Night（识记，一般）3.Tennessee Williams （1911-1983）: the most important dramatist that emerged after WWII.1）The Glass Menagerie: Tennessee Williams’s autobiographical play. （识记，重点）2）A Streetcar Named Desire（识记，重点）4.Arthur Miller (1915-2005): Author of All My Sons（识记，一般）; Death of a Salesman（理解，重点）;The Crucible（识记，一般）Chapter 23 Major Fiction Writers: 1945 till 1960s1.Ralph Ellison(1914-1994): Black novelist, author of Invisible Man（识记，重点）2.James Baldwin (1924-1987): black writer, author of Go Tell it on the Mountain（识记，一般）3.Flannery O’Conner (1925-1964): a southern writer, author of Wise Blood. （识记，一般）4.Saul Bellow (1915-2005): Jewish writer1)winner of 1976 Nobel Prize for Literature.2)Works: Dangling Man（识记，重点）; The Victim（识记，一般）; The Adventures ofAugie March（识记，重点）; Henderson Rain King（识记，重点）;Seize the Day（识记，一般）;Herzog（识记，重点）;Humbolt’s Gift（识记，重点）;Mr. Sammler’s Planet （识记，重点）;The Dean’s December（识记，一般）; More Die of Heartbreak.（识记，一般）5.Bernard Malamud (1914-1986): Jewish writer, author of The Natural; TheAssistant; The Tenants; The Fixer; Dubin’s Lives（识记，一般）6.J.D. Salinger (1919-2010): author of The Catcher in the Rye（理解，重点）.7.Joseph Heller (1923-1999)1)Black Humor（理解，重点）2)Catch-22（理解，重点）Chapter 24Poetic Tendencies Since 19451.Sylvia Plath (1932-1963): a confessional poet（识记，一般）2.Allan Ginsberg (1926-1997)1)Beat Generation （应用，重点）2)Best and most influential poem: “Howl”（理解，重点）Chapter 25Fictional Inclinations Since the 1960s1.John Barth (1930-): postmodern writer, related with the term “metafiction”（识记，一般）2.Thomas Pynchon (1938-): postmodern writer, author of V（识记，重点）;Gravity’sRainbow (识记，重点）;The Crying of Lot 49（识记，一般）3.John Updike（1932-2009）: author of the Rabbit series: Rabbit, Run (1960) （识记，重点）;Rabbit Redux (1971) （识记，重点）; Rabbit is Rich (1981) （识记，重点）;Rabbit at Rest (1990) （识记，重点）Chapter 26Contemporary Multi-ethic literature and Fiction1.Toni Morrison (1931-)1)African American novelist, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.（识记，一般）2)Novels: The Bluest Eyes（识记，重点）; Sula（识记，一般）; Song of Solomon（识记，一般）;Tar Baby（识记，一般）;Beloved（识记，重点）.2.Alice Walker (1944-): African American novelist, author of The Color Purple（识记，次重点）.3.Maxine Hong Kingston (1940-): Chinese American writer, author of The WomanWarrior（识记，重点）;China Men（识记，重点）;Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book （识记，一般）4.Amy Tan (1952-): Chinese American writer, author of The Joy Luck Club（识记，重点）Chapter 27Globalization of American Literature: Diasporic Writers1.Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977): author of Lolita（识记，重点）2.Issa Bashevis Singer (1904-1991): 1978 winner of The Nobel Prize for Litearture,author of The Magician of Lublin; Gimpel the Fool（识记，重点）五，考试方式及试卷结构1．考试类型：闭卷、笔试2．记分方式：五级等级制（五等）3．考试时长：考查课、100分钟4．试题类型及比例：填空：20%；选择：30%；名词解释：20%；问答题：30%5．难度等级及比例：易：50%，中等难度：30%，难：20%；识记：50%，理解：30%，应用：20%6．课程总评成绩构成：平时成绩占60%，期末考试占40%。

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考核学生对文学作品的理解分析能力和鉴赏能力，帮助学生认识到本课程的学习重点和难点，为以后的深入学习提供可依靠的途径和方法。

先修课程不在考核范围之内。

【考核的内容范围】本课程的考核主要包括基本文学概念、文学流派及代表作家、文学表现手法、文学人物、文学现象和各种文学术语。

2．理解：浪漫主义文学的特征及超验主义思想3．运用：浪漫主义时期代表作家的创作思想及作品的艺术风格第五部分现实主义时期的文学1．美国现实主义文学产生的社会和文化背景2．美国现实主义时期的文学特3．现实主义时期作家及作品考核目标：1．识记：现实主义, 马克•吐温及其作品2．理解：美国现实主义时期的文学特征，美国乡土文3．运用：马克•吐温的主要代表作及其主题思想和艺术风格第一部分文学基础知识介绍【教学目的和要求】教学目的：了解文学的基本知识教学要求：掌握文学的基本要素【内容提要】第一节文学的定义及研究对象第二节文学的基本要素第三节学习文学的目的和方法第四节美国文学历史简介【教学重点与难点问题】教学重点：文学的基本概念和要素及其区别和联系教学难点：美国文学的形成及发展【复习思考题】1．什么是文学？2．文学的基本分类和要素有哪些？3．美国文学主要分为哪几个发展阶段？第二部分殖民地时期的文学【教学目的和要求】教学目的：介绍殖民地时期的社会及文化背景与新英格兰文学的状况教学要求：理解清教主义思想及其对美国文学的深远影响【内容提要】一美国殖民地时期概述1、北美拓殖的开始2、美国清教主义思想3、美国清教主义思想对早期美国文学的影响二殖民地时期的代表作家及作品1、安妮•布雷兹特里特（Anne Bradstreet）2、爱德华•泰勒（Edward Taylor）【教学重点与难点问题】教学重点：殖民地时期新英格兰文学的特点教学难点：清教主义思想【复习思考题】殖民时期新英格兰文学的主要特点是什么？第三部分理性和革命时期的文学【教学目的和要求】教学目的：介绍理性和革命时期美国文学产生的社会及文化背景教学要求：掌握理性和革命时期美国文学的形式、特点、代表作家及作品【内容提要】1，历史背景介绍2，启蒙运动及其对美国文学的影响3，理性和革命时期的文学家及代表作品：一、本杰明•富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）二、托马斯•杰弗逊（Thomas Jefferson）【教学重点与难点问题】教学重点：理性和革命时期美国文学的主要特征教学难点：本杰明·富兰克林作品反映的思想意识及精神风貌【复习思考题】1．理性和革命时期美国文学主要特征是什么？2．启蒙运动对美国文学有怎样的影响？3．简述富兰克林《自传》的思想内容和文体特征。

第四部分浪漫主义时期的文学【教学目的和要求】教学目的：介绍浪漫主义时期美国文学产生的历史背景及文学的基本特征教学要求：掌握浪漫主义时期主要美国作家及作品的概况【内容提要】第一节美国浪漫主义时期文学概述一、新英格兰超验主义二、欧洲浪漫主义文学的影响三、美国浪漫主义文学的特征四、美国本土文学的崛起及其特征第二节浪漫主义时期代表作家及作品1、华盛顿•欧文（Washington Irving）2、埃德加•爱伦•坡（Edgar Allan Poe）3、纳撒尼尔•霍桑（Nathaniel Hawthorne）4、拉多夫•瓦尔多•爱默生(Ralph Waldo Emerson)5、亨利•大卫•梭罗（Henry David Thoreau）6、亨利·浪费罗（Henry Wadsworth Longfellow）6、沃尔特•惠特曼（Walt Whitman）7、艾米莉•狄金森（Emily Dickinson）【教学重点与难点问题】教学重点：美国浪漫主义文学的特征及该时期的主要作家、作品教学难点：新英格兰超验主义及其主要思想【复习思考题】1．美国浪漫主义时期文学的主要特征是什么？2．欧文的《瑞普•凡•温克尔》故事深刻的内涵是什么？3．爱伦·坡的小说和诗歌的创作原则是什么？4．什么是超验主义？超验主义的主要思想是什么？5．对比惠特曼与狄金森的诗歌，找出其相同之处和不同之处。

第五部分现实主义时期的文学【教学目的和要求】教学目的：了解现实主义时期美国文学产生的历史文化背景及文学的基本特征教学要求：掌握现实主义时期主要美国作家及作品的概况【内容提要】第一节现实主义时期概述一、美国现实主义文学产生的社会和文化背景二、美国现实主义时期的文学第二节现实主义时期作家及作品一、马克•吐温（Mark Twain）二、作品选读：《汤姆•索亚历险记》（The adventures of Tom Sawyer）【教学重点与难点问题】教学重点：现实主义时期美国文学产生的历史社会背景及该时期主要作家、作品教学难点：美国现实主义文学特征及其与自然主义文学的异同【复习思考题】1．美国现实主义文学产生的历史、文化背景是什么？2．什么是现实主义？美国现实主义文学时期占主导地位的文学创作形式是什么？3．什么是美国乡土文学（或称地方色彩文学）？它产生的背景及代表作家是谁？4．马克•吐温的主要代表作是什么？它的主题思想和艺术风格是什么样的？第六部分现代主义文学【教学目的和要求】教学目的：了解现代主义时期美国文学产生的历史文化背景及文学的基本特征教学要求：掌握现代主义时期主要美国作家及作品的概况【内容提要】第一节现代主义时期概述一、美国现代主义文学产生的社会和文化背景二、美国现代主义时期的文学第二节现代主义时期作家及作品一、现代主义诗人：庞德，弗罗斯特二、现代主义小说家：海明威【教学重点与难点问题】教学重点：现代主义时期美国文学产生的历史社会背景及该时期主要作家、作品教学难点：美国现代主义文学特征及其与传统文学的不同《美国文学作品选读》课程考核大纲【考核目的】了解学生对基本文学概念、文学流派及代表作家、文学表现手法、文学人物、文学现象和各种文学术语的掌握。

考核学生对文学作品的理解分析能力和鉴赏能力，帮助学生认识到本课程的学习重点和难点，为以后的深入学习提供可依靠的途径和方法。

先修课程不在考核范围之内。

【考核的内容范围】本课程的考核主要包括基本文学概念、文学流派及代表作家、文学表现手法、文学人物、文学现象和各种文学术语。

【考核方法】期末闭卷，笔试占50%，平时考核（出勤、作业，测验，课堂表现）占50% 。

【考核的具体内容】第一部分文学基础知识介绍知识点：1．什么是文学2．文学的基本概念和要素3．学习文学的方法4．美国文学历史简介考核目标：1．识记：文学的基本分类2．理解：文学的基本概念和要素3．运用：学习文学的有效方法和途径第二部分殖民时期的文学知识点：1．美国殖民时期文学概述2．北美拓殖的开始3．美国清教主义思想4．美国清教主义思想对早期美国文学的影响5．殖民时期的代表作家及作品考核目标：1．识记：（1）安妮•布雷兹特里特（Anne Bradstreet）（2）爱德华•泰勒（Edward Taylor）（3）迈克尔•维哥斯沃斯(Michael Wigglesworth) 及代表作品2．理解：早期北美殖民地时期文学状况3．运用：殖民地时期文学的主要特征第三部分独立革命时期的文学知识点：1．独立时期文学的主要特征2．启蒙运动及主要思想3．启蒙运动的代表：本杰明•富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）考核目标：1．识记：（1）托马斯•杰弗逊（2）托马斯•潘恩(Thomas Paine) （3）本杰明•富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）2．理解：启蒙运动3．运用：（1）启蒙运动的主要思想（2）本杰明•富兰克林Benjamin Franklin）的思想意识及精神风貌第四部分浪漫主义时期的文学知识点：1．英格兰超验主义2．欧洲浪漫主义文学的影响3．美国浪漫主义文学的特征4．美国本土文学的崛起及其特征5．浪漫主义时期代表作家及作品考核目标：1．识记：（1）华盛顿•欧文（Washington Irving）（2）詹姆斯•弗尼莫•库柏（James Fenimore Cooper）（3）威廉姆•卡兰•布赖恩特（William Cullen Bryant）（4）埃德加•爱伦•坡（Edgar Allan Poe）（5）纳撒尼尔•霍桑（Nathaniel Hawthorne）（6）拉多夫•瓦尔多•爱默生(Ralph WaldoEmerson) （7）亨利•大卫•梭罗（Henry David Thoreau）（8）赫曼•麦尔维尔（Herman Melville）（9）沃尔特•惠特曼（Walt Whitman）（10）艾米莉•狄金森（Emily Dickinson）及其作品。