英语专业美国文学简史复习资料
英语美国文学史复习资料
英语美国文学史复习资料英语美国文学史复习资料一、时期综述（关于清教的应该都是重点）1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：A、narratives 日记B、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：①their voyage to the new land ②adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates andcrops③about dealing with Indians ④guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit3、清教徒的想法：①Puritans want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices.净化信仰和行为方式②wish to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of the Bible to theology.重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位③lo ok upon themselves as a chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God’s will and is not to be accepted.认为自己是上帝选民，对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝。
④Puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been e_aggerated.反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步。
⑤reli gious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.强调上帝严厉的一面，忽视上帝仁慈的一面。
期末复习 美国文学简史 ppt汇总
Influence of Puritanism
Influence
- American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature. - American literature is based on a myth, i.e. the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. - Puritanism can be compared with Chinese Confucianism.
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Puritanism: Puritan values /Creeds
hard work thrift piety sobriety
Puritans are more practical, tougher, and to be ever ready for any misfortune and tragic failure. They are optimistic.
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The early settlers
Puritanism in America
Why did Puritans come to America?
- to escape religious persecution - to reform the Church of England - to have an entirely new church
Mark Twain Henry James
2.
Revolutionary period
(1775-1783) Benjamin Franklin Philip Freneau
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。
美国文学史复习资料大全--最全必考考点集结
美国文学史复习资料大全--最全必考考点集结本页仅作为文档页封面，使用时可以删除This document is for reference only-rar21year.MarchL e c t u r eⅠA B r i e f I n t r o d u c t i o n t o A m e r i c a nL i t e r a t u r efeatures of American writersIndependent, Individualistic, Critical, Innovative, HumorousI The Literature of Colonial and American PuritanismThe first American writer: Capitan John Smith.Philip Freneau:( Father of American Poetry)I I T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R e a s o n a n d R e v o l u t i o n,E n l i g h t e n m e n t Jonathan Edwards: First modern American and the country’s last medieval manBenjamin Franklin: The AutobiographyThomas Paine :The American CrisisThomas Jefferson (“The Declaration of Independence” first established the identity of American people)John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and JeffersonI I I T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R o m a n t i c i s mWashing Irving欧文: His first book was “A History of New York ”.“The Sketch Book 美国信札” made him international famousJames Fenimore Cooper: 库伯“Leatherstocking Tales”, 皮袜子故事集a series of five novels about the frontier life of American settlers.Deerslayer (1843), Pathfinder (1841), Last of the Mohicans (1825), The Pioneer (1823),The Prairie ( 1827),Edgar Allan Poe艾伦·坡: Poe was sensitive enough to feel the pressure of a world where science and reason reign supreme, and one where there is neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor peace, nor help from God.“The Raven”, “Israfel”, “Sonnet—to Science” and “To Hellen”.His short stories: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Purloined Letter”, “The Gold Bug” and “The Mystery of Marie Roget”o f T r a n s c e n d e n t a l i s m先验主义A. Emphasis on Spirit (Oversoul)B. Emphasis on individualsC. Taking nature as the symbol of the Spirit (Oversoul)D. Brotherhood of man (equal and liberty)Ralph Waldo Emerson爱默生: Emerson created the school of transcendentalism. His famous essay “American Scholar” established the independence of A merican intellectual.“Nature”Henry David Thoreau梭罗: Walden瓦尔登湖Nathaniel Hawthorne 藿桑Twice-Told Tales ; Moses from an Old Manse, Scarlet Letter红字; The House of Seven Gables; The Blithedale Romance; The Marble FaunHerman Melville麦尔维尔:Moby Dick大白鲸Walt Whitman惠特曼: leaves of grass草叶集, song of myselfEmily Dickinson狄金森I V T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R e a l i s mBeecher Stowe斯托夫人: “Uncle Tom’s Cabin汤姆叔叔的小屋”Henry James 詹姆斯and international theme: The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl,5: American NaturalismStephen Crane克兰: Maggie: A Girl of the StreetsTheodore Dreiser德莱塞: Sister CarrieJack London杰克·伦敦: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf Martin Eden O. Henry欧·亨利 The Gift of the Magi, The Cop and the Athem6T w e n t i e t h-C e n t u r y L i t e r a t u r eEzra Pound庞德: In a Station of the MetroRobert Frost弗罗斯特: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningScott Fitzgerald菲茨杰拉德 and The American Dream: The Great GatsbyErnest Hemingway海明威 and Iceberg Principle: The Sun Also Rises. A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the SeaSteinbeck斯坦贝克: The Grape of WrathWilliam Faulkner福克纳: The Sound and the Fury ,Light in AugustSherwood Anderson安德森: Winesburg, OhioSinclair Lewis路易斯: Main StreetP u r i t a n i s m（清教主义）Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. predestination（命运天定）, original sin（原罪）, total depravity（人类是完全堕落的，所以人要处处小心自己的行为，要尽可能做到最好以取悦上帝）,limited atonement（有限救赎，只有被上帝选中的人才能得到上帝的拯救）（启蒙运动）an intellectual movement in the seventeenth century and eighteenth. The common element was a trust in human reason as adequate to solve the crucial problems and to establish the essential norms in life, together with the belief that the application of reason was rapidly dissipating the remaining feudal traditions.（意象派）1912 and 1917. The typical Imagist poetry is written in free verse and undertakes to be as precisely and tersely as possible. Meanwhile, the Imagist poetry likes toexpress the writers’ momentary impression of a visual object or scene and often the impression is rendered by means of metaphor without indicating a relation.C o l o r i s m地方色彩文学a literary trend belonging to Realism. It refers to the detailed representation in prose fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of thinking and feeling which are distinctive of a particular region.the literature and art after WWII. Postmodernism involves not only a continuation, sometimes carried to an extreme, of the countertraditional experiments of modernism, but also diverse attempts to break away from modernist forms which had, inevitably, become in their turn conventional, as well as to overthrow the elitism of modernist “high art” by recourse to the models of “mass art”.（超验主义）in 1830s in US；emphasis on spirit or oversoul and stressing importance of the individual；regarding nature as symbols of the spirit or God and emphasis on brotherhood of man；representatives: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David ThoreauG e n e r a t i o n（迷惘的一代）American writers of the decade following the end of WWI, disillusioned by their war experience and alienated by what they perceived as the crassness of American culture are often tagged as Lost Generation. Their representatives are F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.（自然主义）Naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity. Inpresenting the extremes of life, the naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death.Lecture 2 Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)1.The theme in the scarlet letterThe sin of Puritanism on human nature(1)Sin: Hawthorne is haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life. Evil seems to be man’s birthmark. Sin will be punished. Hawthorne was predominantly concerned with the moral, emotional, and psychological effect of the sin on people in general. The story of Adam and Eve; Dimmesdale’s "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; Chillingworth's misshapen body reflects the anger in his soul Pearl embodies the poison of her parents' guilt(2)Puritan legalism: Another theme is the extreme legalism of the Puritans and how Hester chooses not to conform to their rules and beliefs Because they rejected Hester, she spent her life mostly in solitude, and wouldn't go to church. As a result, She still sees her sin, but begins to believe that a person's earthly sins don't necessarily condemn them. She even thinks that their sin has been paid for by their daily penance and that their sin won't keep them from getting to heaven, however, the Puritans believed that such a sin surely condemns.When Dimmesdale dies, she knows she has to move on because she can no longer conform to the Puritan's strictness.Her thinking is free from religious bounds and she has established her own, different moral standards and beliefs(3)Past and present: Sins of Hawthorne’s ancestors. The wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones.2.The symbolism in scarlet letter“A”-----adultery, able, angelPearl-----the unique pure person in the puritan communityChillingworth----a bad guyDimmesdale---someone who should be condemned for his evil and sinsLecture 3 Herman Melville 1819-18911. Themes in Moby-Dick:The world is Godless and purposelessThe loss of faith and the sense of futility and meaninglessnessAlienation between man and man, man and society, man and natureDeath-spiritual, emotional and physicalThis work also reveals the basic pattern of nineteenth century American life: loneliness and suicidal individualism in a self-styled democracy.2. Symbolism in Moby DickAhab（圣经中的异教徒国王，昏庸暴虐，在小说中过分自信，在船上如同一个独裁的暴君）and Ishmael （圣经中被抛弃的人，是一个流浪者，在小说里他也是一个被社会所抛弃的人）the voyage: the search for the ultimate truth of experienceMoby Dick: evil or goodness; corruption, purity, innocence, youth, the final mystery of the universePequod: the American soulLecture 4 Walt Whitman (The father of Free Verse) (1819-1892) 1. The definition of Free Verse:Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme,or any other musical pattern What is the difference between free verse and blank verse(blank verse has no rhyme, but it should be iambic pentameter)2. The theme of Leaves of GrassIn spite of the unconventionality of his poetic form and ideas, Whitman is related to the past in many ways. Whitman embraces idealism. Whitman extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man. Parallelism.3. The features of Leaves of GrassA. He extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man.B. employing “free verse” as the form of his poems with two characteristics: parallelism; phonetic recurrenceC. frankness of the commonplace and the ugly sides in human lifeD. direct, plain and even vulgar languageE. “untold latencies” (his poetry suggests rather than tell)F. great influence on the 20th century American poetsEmily Dickinson (1830-1886)4. The themes in Emily DickinsonFlowers and gardensThe Master , Jesus or Godillness, dying and death, immortalitythe mind and spiritA religious certainty, God’s help and good lifeNature, both kind and cruelIndividuality, free will, human responsibilitySympathy for the poor and the weakBeauty, truth and goodnessLecture5 Edgar Allan Poe (1819-1849)1. IntroductionThe father of detective fiction. He is the first professional writer.Poems:“The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, “To Helen”Lecture 6 American realism (the late 19th century, esp. 1870s, 1880s)1. Features of American RealismA. reaction aga inst “the lie” of Romanticism (considering Romanticism made people escape from the social realities)B. theme: the world of experience of the commonplace and the familiar and the lowC. style: genteel, graceful prose by Howells and Henry James; plain and rough by Mark TwainD. vivid description of details from observation of actual lifeE. a reliance on the representative characterF. trying to hold an objective view of human nature and society2. Father of American realism:William Dean Howells (1837 – 1920)3. Features of Henry James’s workThe international theme:“the international theme”: the meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence, and its moral and psychological complications.Special point of view: internal monologue (illumination of the situation and characters through one or several minds)Lecture 7 Local Colorism1. Mark Twain’s real nameSamuel Langhorne Clemens2. 4 classical novels:The Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Man that Corrupted HadleyburgRoughing It3. Trilogy of MississippiLife on the mississippiThe Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn4. The features of Mark Twain’s languageAnglo-Saxon in origin, short, concrete and direct in effect;sentence structure is mostly simple or compound;repetition of words;ungrammatical elementsMark Twain made the colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of America.Lecture 8 Ernest Hemingway1. 4 novels of Ernest Hemingway:The Sun Also RisesFor Whom the Bell TollsThe Old Man and the SeaA Farewell to Arms2. The symbolism of The old man and the sea:Santiago – mankind;sea – nature and environment;marlin – purpose of life;shark – the evil force which control human’s fate3. The features in Ernest Hemingway:Hemingway situation: characterized by chaos and brutality and violence, by crime and death, by sports and sexHemingway theme: “grace under pressure”Lecture 9 American Naturalism1. Major feature of Naturalism godlessDeterminismThe universe is cold, indifferent, godless and hostile to human desires; life becomes a struggle for survivalThemes: social systems that destroy and dehumanize; individual experience of loss and failure3.differences between Realism and Naturalism4. The trilogy of fate:The FinancierThe TitanThe Stoic5. Masterpiece of Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie6. The real name of Jack London:John Ariffith London7. The masterpiece ofThe Gift of the MagiLecture 10 The southern renaissance1. 4 novels of William Faulkner:The Sound and the FuryLight in AugustAbsalom! Absalom!Go Down, MosesAs I lay Dyingthe Marble Faun2. The features of his novels:Theme: in praise of eternal virtues in human history, love, pity, honor and self-sacrifice (despair and destruction)multiple points of viewdislocation of timethe modern stream of consciousnesswords are often run together, with no capitalization and no proper punctuation interior monologuescolloquial and regional dialectsone fragment runs into another without proper noticeLecture 11 American Drama1. 4 novels of E ugene O’Neill:Beyond the HorizonLong Day’s Journey into NightThe Emperor JonesThe Hairy Ape2. Themes of The Hairy Ape:The industrial environment is presented as toxic and dehumanizing; the world of the rich, superficial and dehumanized. Yank has also been interpreted as representative of the human condition, alienated from nature by his isolated consciousness, unable to find belonging in any social group or environment.3. Major themes in A Streetcar Named Desire:Fantasy/IllusionBlanche dwells in illusion; fantasy is her primary means of self-defense.Fantasy has a liberating magic that protects her from the tragedies she has had to endure.Blanche's dependence on illusion is contrasted with Stanley's steadfast realism, and in the end it is Stanley and his worldview that win.To survive, Stella must also resort to a kind of illusion, forcing herself to believe that Blanche's accusations against Stanley are false so that she can continue living with her husband.4. Themes in Death of a Salesman:The American DreamAbandonmentBetrayalLecture 12 Postwar American Literature1. The definition of black humor:Black humor is a way to criticize the army, the bureaucracy and government. Humor—deep, strong, melancholy, self-mocking; to express the most helpless feeling by using seemingly light-hearted treatment;2. Features of the beat generation:free from all formalitiesanti-reasonbreaking down the limitations between poetry and proseThey shock their listeners by reading their works aloud in coffee houses and bars. They lived in a wild way, anti-traditional and rebellious.They cherished a rebellious attitude toward sex, living in groups and engaging themselves in homosexual activities.3. Definition of postmodernism:In general, the postmodern view is cool, ironic, and accepting of the fragmentation of contemporary existence. It tends to concentrate on surfaces rather than depths, to blur the distinctions between high and low culture, and as a whole to challenge a wide variety of traditional cultural values.4. Features of the confessional school:They wrote about themselves, cultivating the inner world of each private individual and challenging the traditional values.They describe personal experience and family problems.A ruthless, excruciating self-analysis of one’s own background and heritage, one’s own most private desires and fantasies etc., and the urgent “I’ll-tell-it-all-to-you” impulse.5. Postwar novels;Saul Bellow : Henderson the Rain King, More Die of Heartbreak;. Salinger : The Catcher in the Rye;John Updike: Rabbit pentalogy,Flannery O'Connor.Joseph Heller: Catch-22Alice Walker 艾丽斯.沃克 :The Color Purple 《紫色》Martin Luther King :I Have a DreamAmy Tan :The Joy Luck Club (1989) 《欣幸俱乐部》。
美国文学史概述及选读复习资料
美国文学史American Literature in the colonical and Revolutionary:1.Benjamin Franklin(本杰明.富兰克林)2.hilip Freneau 菲利普·费瑞诺Benjamin Franklin(本杰明.富兰克林)1)"Poor Richard's Almanac" 穷人查理德的年鉴(以笔名Richard Sunders)2)“annual collection of proverbs “流行谚语集(It soon became the most popular bookof its kind, largely because of Franklin's shrewd humor, and first spread his reputation) 3)The Way to Wealth (Father Abraham’s Sermon)致富之道(as the “perface to Poor RichardImproved)4)The Autobiography自传(18世纪美国唯一流传至今的自传)5)Founded the Junto, a club for informal discussion of scientific, economic and politicalideas. 建立了一个秘密俱乐部，讨论的主题是政治、经济和科学等时事方面的问题.6)established America's first circulating library, founded the college--University ofPennsylvania. 建立了美国第一个可租借的图书馆，还创办了一所大学——就是现在的宾夕法尼亚大学.7)first applied the terms "positive" and "negative" to electrical charges.8)Writer,printer,publisher,scientist,philanthropist,and diplomat,he was the most famousand respected private figure of his time.The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲；The British Prison Ship英国囚船；To the Memory of the Brave Americans纪念美国勇士-----同类诗中最佳；The Wild Honeysuckle野生的金银花；The Indian Burying Ground印第安人殡葬地(1)poet and political journalist 诗人和政治方面的新闻记者(2)perhaps the most outstanding writer of the post-revolutionary period.(3)has been called the "Father of American Poetry" 美国诗歌之父(4)Imaginative and melancholy treatment of nature and human life,and sharp satire against the British tyranny19th Century American LiteratureWashington Irving(华盛顿.欧文)1．James Fenimore Cooper(詹姆斯.芬尼莫.库珀)2．Nathaniel Hawthorne(纳萨尼尔.霍桑)3．Edgar Allan Poe （埃德加.阿伦.坡）4．Henry Daived Thoreau(亨利.戴维.梭罗)5．Herman Melville(赫尔曼.麦尔维尔)6．Walt Whiteman(沃尔特.惠特曼)The Rise of American Romanticism• One of the most important periods in the history of American literature, stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War(1861-65).• It started with the publication of Washington Irving's e T he h Sketch Book(1820) and ended with Whitman's s Leaves f of Grass(1855)..Romanticism的特点：frequently shared certain general characteristics, moral enthusiam,faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and apresumption that he natural world was a source of corruption.浪漫主义之间大多是相通的，都注重道德，强调个人主义价值观和直觉感受，并且认为自然是美的源头，人类社会是腐败之源。
美国文学史复习资料
I. Multiple Choice (20 points in all, 1 for each)1) Check the dictionary: pompous, vernacular2) At the beginning of Faulkner’s福克纳（美国小说家，曾获1949年诺贝尔文学奖）A Rose For Emily, there is a detailed description of Emily’s old house. The purpose of such description is to imply that the person living in it __C____.A. is a wealth ladyB. has good tasteC. is a prisoner of the pastD. is aconservative aristocrat3) Stylistically, Henry James’s亨利·詹姆斯（美国著名小说家和批评家）fiction is characterized by ___D_____.A. short clear sentencesB. abundance of local imagesC. ordinary American speechD.highly refined language1. The convention of the desire for an escape from society and a reture to nature inAmerican Literature is particularly evident in __A______A. Cooper’s L eather-Stocking TakesB. Hawthorne’s . 霍桑The Scarlet Letter红色禁恋；红字C.Whitman’s惠特曼Leavesof Grass草叶集D.Irving’s 欧文Rip Van Winkle里普·万·温克尔（美国作家欧文的作品中人物名）2. In 1873,Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生（美国作家）made a speech entitled at Harvard,which was hailed by Ol iver Wendell Homes as “our Intellectual Dedaration of Independence” DA.NatureB.Self-RelianceC.Divinity Scholar AddressD.The AmericanScholar3. What’s the analogy that Emily Dickin son uses in her poem Because I could not stopfor death? AA.Horse and carriageB. stage and performanceC.Cloud and ShadeD.ship and harbor4. Most of the writers in the Modern Period were able to probe into the inner would of ofhuman reality on the base of _D___A.Carl Jung’s “collective unconscious”集体无意识and “archetypal symbol”B.Sigmound Frend’s “interpretation of dreams”C.William Jame’s “stream of consciousness”意识流（一种文学流派）D.all of the above.II. Blank Filling (10 points in all, 1 for each)1) __Henry James____ is considered the founder of Psychological realism. He believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator.2) Mark Twain’s first novel, __ The Gilded Age______ 镀金时代was an artistic failure, but it gave its name to the America of the postbellum美国南北战争后的period which it attempts to satirize.Blank Filling1. The best of puritan poets was Edward Taylor 爱德华.泰勒, whose complete edition of poems appeared in 1960, more than two hundred years after his death.7. The Financier, The Titan 巨人；提坦；太阳神and The Stoic 斯多葛学派哲学家form D reiser’s Martin Eden.8. Edwin Arlington Robinson produced a large body of works and was honored with the Pulitzer 普利策奖Prize in 1522, 1925 and 1928.10. Fitzgerald’s菲茨杰拉德（美国作家，弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德）first novel This Side of Paradise, with its portrayal of casual dissipations of “flaming youth”, was an immediate commercial success.3. In “Song of Myself”, Whitman’s惠特曼own early experience may well be identified with the children of a young growing American.4. The range of Dickinson’s poetry suggests not her limited experience but the power of her creativity and imagination.5. Mark Twain, breaking out of the narrow limits of local color fiction, described thebreadth of American experience as no one had ever done before, or since.6. Mark Twain’s first novel, The Gilded Age was an artistic failure ,but it gave its name to the America of the postbellum period which it attemps.7. Many of O.Henry’s stones talk about the life of poor people in New York.8. Henry James realism is characterized by his psychological approach to his subject matter.9. The Financier, T he Tifan and The Stoic form Dreiser’s “Trilogy of Desire”欲望三部曲12. American writers of first postwar era self ——consciously acknowledged that they were a “Lost Generation ” devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization.13. At one time, Sandburg’s reputation mainly rested on a multi ——volume biography of Abraham Lincoln 亚伯拉罕including “The Prairie Years”and “The War Years”14. For publication of his collected Poems, Wallace Stevens华莱士.史蒂文斯received the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize.15. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded a Nobel Prize for his “mastery of the art of modern narration”.16. In 1935, Steinbeck斯坦贝克published Tortilla Flat. A collection of short story which vividly described the “life of poor Mexican——Americans with affection and humor.17. The Yoknapatawpha Country is a legendary kingdom created by Faulkner.18. The most significant American poem of the 20th century was The Waste Land.19. Edwin Arlington Robinson produced a large body of works and was honored with the Pulitzer Prize in 1922, 1925 and 1928.21. As Thomas Sterns Eliot’s declared, he followed strictly the advice of his doze friendEzra Pound in cutting and concentrating The Waste Land12.“Martin Eden”is the novel into which Jack London put most of himself。
美国文学史简写版复习资料
I. The literature of colonial America (1590-1750)(1) Cultural background:<1> Early in 17th cen., most of the settlers in North America were the puritans who wanted to avoid the religious persecution of the Church of England and seek religious freedom in the new land.☆Puritans -- a ―would-be purifier‖, a radical sect of the Protestant reformers who wanted to purify the religious beliefs and practices of the Church of England净化宗教观念，简化仪式Thus they suffered fierce persecution and attack from the Church of England. In order to avoid such persecution, they fled to the American Continente.g. the Mayflower 1620 in PlymouthThe founding myth 美国的建国神话They regarded themselves as the chosen people and were sent to the America by God in order to create a New world (a new Garden of Eden) in the America. By doing so, they can get the chance of salvation. (optimism/ idealism)in the grim struggle for survival that followed immediately after their arrival in America, they became more and more practical.They were noted for a spirit of moral and religious earnestness that determinate their whole way of life. The Puritans in New England practiced theocracy神权政治Their way of life were based on their somber religion and stressed hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety（节制）They opposed arts and pleasure. They suspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin. In people’s daily life, religious activities were a matter of first importance and all others should serve the religion.<4> Their practices and beliefs (American Puritanism)greatly influenced the literature of this period (e.g. practical matter-of-fact accounts of life in the new world; highly theoretical discussions of religious questions)(2) Major works and writers:<1> The first writings in American literature were the narratives and journals of the early colonial settlements, which helped to lure more Europeans, especially the Puritans to seek fortune or religious freedom in the new continent<2> John Smith wrote about the exploration in A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony《关于弗吉尼亚的真实描述》and became the first American Writer.<3> Poetry:Anne Bradstreet ’s The Tenth Muse Recently Sprung Up in America----the first poetess in AmericaII.The literature of Reason and Revolution (1750-1810)While purtianism dominated the writings of the colonial times, politics政治论辩permeated the writing of the Revolution period.<1>Background:{1} political backgroundIndustrial Revolution: spurred the economy in American colonies. Independence War: Around the war, many political writings were written to support and defend American independence and democracy.{2} Cultural backgroundThe Enlightenment: a literary movement which flourished in France & swept through the whole Western Europe in 18th century. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modem philosophical & artistic ideas. The enlighteners celebrated reason or rationality, equality & science &human beings’ability to perfect themselves and their society. What’s more, they believed that man is basically good and free by nature, endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.While in America the humanistic ideas of the movement dealt a heavy blow to Puritanism in advocating science, knowledge and the power and ability of man. It brought to life secular education and literature. The Enlightenment had also influenced the literature of that period(1) form a style of clarity and precision.(2) its secular ideals (the possibilities of human progress, man has the rights to pursue equality, liberty, and the happiness) are reflected in the writingsE.g. Franklin. (P16 )<2> Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)(1) Life achievement:He was born into a poor candle-maker’s family. He had very little education. He learned in school only for two years, but by self-improvement and self-reliance, he made a great fortune and did lots of contribution to the society.The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in his life and career.(2)Important works:Poor Richard’s Almanac穷查理历书:An annual collection of proverbs. Franklin’s pragmatism （实用主义, how to make fortune by efforts & sense of humor are fully demonstrated in this work.E.g. God help them that help themselves. No man was glorious, who was not laborious.The Autobiography自传:(1) It not only narrates Franklin’s early life, but his life principles and philosophy.(2) sets autobiography as a literary genre in American literature.(3) Through telling a success story of self-reliance, the book celebrates, in fact, thefulfillment of the American dream which inspired generations of Americans.Recording his story form rags to riches by self-reliance and self-improvement (for example, Franklin’s 13 virtues), the book demonstrated F’s belief that the new world of America was a land of opportunities where people can gain success through hard work and wise management (American Dream--- one important theme in American literature)He was the first positive representation of the values of the American Dream.<3> Philip FreneauHe anticipated the American literary independence, so he is widely acclaimed as “Father of American Poetry”美国诗歌之父(P44)(2)Writing style:Subject: treat the indigenous本土的wild life and other native American subjects(e.g. The Indian Burying Ground印第安人殡葬地The Wild Honeysuckle 野忍冬花) Diction: natural, simple and concrete(3) The Wild Honey Suckle 野忍冬花1. the background:This poem is Philip Freneau’s most widely read natural lyric. Freneau was inspired by the beauty of the wild honey suckle at Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered as his best poem.2. The central image is a native wild flower, which makes a drastic difference from elite flower images typical of traditional English poems.3. in terms of the rhyme scheme: the poem was written in six-line tetrameter stanzas rhyming ababcc. The structure of the poem is regular, so it has the Neoclassic quality of proportion and balance.4. The theme:By celebrating the beauty of the frail forest flower{1}the poet expresses his keen awareness of the liveliness and transience of nature, thus showing his deep love for natural beauty, which was the characteristic of romantic poets.{2} And also his own understanding about mortality/ death ( life and death are inevitable law of nature. )5. The tone of the poem is both sentimental and optimistic.Chapter 3 American Romanticism (1810-1860 civil war)<1> Time Range: (the 1st half of 19th century)From the end of the 18th century (after the War for Independence) through the outbreak of the Civil War.<2> Literary characteristics of this period : (p 57)American literature in this period was not a servant of religious and politics. Novels, short stories, and poems replaced the sermons and manifestos as American’s principal literary forms. In a word, the literature at this age flourished and developed its own native features & gained literary independence in the real sense.II. Pre-Romanticism(1) Washington Irving 欧文(1783--1859)<1> the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.<2> The Sketch Book《见闻札记》became the first work by an American writer to win financial and critical success on both sides of the Atlantic。
美国文学简史复习总结模板计划模板重点学习的资料精华版本.doc
A Concise History of American LiteratureChapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.Jonathan Edwards1.life2.works(1)The Freedom of the Will(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3)The Nature of True Virtue3.ideas –pioneer of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)God’s presence(4)Puritan idealismII.Benjamin Franklin1.works(1)Poor Richard ’s Almanac(2)Autobiography2.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the AmericanPhilosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolenfire(electricityin this case) from heaven”.(3) Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jackof all trades ”.Herman Melville thus described him “ masterof each and mastered bynone ”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodI.Washington 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.works(1)A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to theEnd of the Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure ofinternational recognition with the publication of this.)(3)The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus(4)A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra3.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US4.style –beautiful(1)gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing –amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmosphere。
美国文学史复习资料
一、殖民主义时期 The Literature of Colonial America1．船长约翰•史密斯 Captain John Smith《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚垦荒以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》“A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony”《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》“A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country”《弗吉尼亚通史》“General History of Virginia”2．威廉•布拉德福德 William Bradford 《普利茅斯开发历史》“The History of Plymouth Plantation”3．约翰•温思罗普 John Winthrop《新英格兰历史》“The History of New England”4．罗杰•威廉姆斯 Roger Williams《开启美国语言的钥匙》”A Key into the Language of America”或叫《美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南》Or “ A Help to the Language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England ”5．安妮•布莱德斯特 Anne Bradstreet 《在美洲诞生的第十个谬斯》”The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in Americ a”二、理性和革命时期文学 The Literature of Reason and Revolution1。
本杰明•富兰克林 Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)※《自传》“ The Autobiography ”《穷人理查德的年鉴》“Poor Richard’s Almanac”2。
美国文学简史复习资料[1]
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美国文学美国文学Part 1. Colonial AmericaPhilip Freneau Philip Freneau菲菲利普·弗伦诺1752-1832The Wild Honeysuckle野生的金银花；The Indian Burying Ground 印第安人殡葬地印第安人殡葬地 Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards The Freedom of the Will The Great Doctrine of Original Sin The Freedom of the Will The Great Doctrine of Original Sindefended T he The Nature of True VirtueBenjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林本杰明·富兰克林Poor Richard’s Almanack 穷查理历书；The Autobiography 自传Part 2. A merican American Romanticism It is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature ,t Romantic Period ,which stretches from the end of the 18th century through the out breakof Civil War.It started with the publication of Washington Irving's The Sketch bookand ended with Whitman's Leave of Grass .American Romanticism was in essence the expression of "a real new experience "and contained "an alien quality "for the simplereason that "the spirit of the place" was radically new and alien.And it was bo imitative and independent.Washington Irving 华盛顿·欧文1783-1859 A History of New York 纽约的历史纽约的历史---------------美国人写的第一部诙谐文学美国人写的第一部诙谐文学杰作；杰作；The The Sketch Book 见闻札记The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 睡谷的传说的传说---------------使之成为美国第一个获得国际声誉的作家；使之成为美国第一个获得国际声誉的作家；Rip Van Winkle -------short storyJames Fenimore Cooper 詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀1789-1851The Spy 间谍;The Pioneer 拓荒者；;The Prairie 大草原;ThePathfinder 探路者;The Deerslayer 杀鹿者Part 3.New England TranscendentalismRalf Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生1803-1882Essays 散文集散文集::Nature 论自然-----新英格兰超验主义者的宣言书;TheAmerican Scholar 论美国学者;Henry David Threau 亨利·大卫·梭罗1817-1862W adden,or Life in the Woods 华腾湖或林中生活Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ·朗费罗 An April Day 四月的一天/A Psalm of Life 人生礼物(poem )/PNathaniel Hawthorne 纳撒尼尔·霍桑1804-1864 Twice-told Tales 尽人皆知的故事尽人皆知的故事;Mosses from an Old Manse ;Mosses from an Old Manse 古屋青苔:Young Goodman Brown 年轻的古德曼·布朗年轻的古德曼·布朗年轻的古德曼·布朗;The Scarlet Letter ;The Scarlet Letter红字红字;The House of the Seven Gables ;The House of the Seven Gables 有七个尖角阁的房子有七个尖角阁的房子----------------心理若们罗曼史心理若们罗曼史;The Blithedale Romance ;The Blithedale Romance 福谷传奇福谷传奇;The Marble Faun ;The Marble Faun玉石雕像玉石雕像Herman Melville Moby Dick/The White Whale 莫比·迪克/白鲸；Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass 草叶集:Song of Myself 自我之歌Emily Dickinson ； “Because I could not stop for death ” “I ＇ｍ no body... ”poemEdgar Allan Poe 埃德加·爱伦·坡1809-18491809-1849（以诗为（以诗为诗；永为世人共赏的伟大抒情诗人伟大抒情诗人----------叶芝）叶芝）The Fall of the House of Usher 厄舍古屋的倒塌;Annabel Lee 安娜贝尔·李Poem-----歌特风格；首开近代侦探小说先河，又是法国象征主义运动的源头T 诗:The Raven 乌鸦;To Hellen 致海伦 Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin 汤姆叔叔的小屋;Part 4. The age of RealismWilliam Dean Howells 威廉·狄恩·豪威尔斯恩·豪威尔斯The Rise of Silas Lapham 赛拉斯·拉帕姆的发迹;A Hazard of Now Fortunes 时来运转;2323、、Henry James 小说：Daisy Miller苔瑟·米乐；The Portrait of a Lady 贵妇人画像；Part 5. Local ColorismMark Twain 马克·吐温（Samuel Longhorne Clemens Clemens））------美国文美国文学的一大里程碑学的一大里程碑The Gilded Age 镀金时代 -----------novel;The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 哈克贝利·费恩历险记How to Tell a Story 怎样讲故事怎样讲故事---------对美国早期幽默文学的总结对美国早期幽默文学的总结对美国早期幽默文学的总结 O. Henry short story 短篇小说 The Four Million ”《四百万》”《四百万》 小说集小说集、“The Gift of the Magi ”《麦琪的礼物》《麦琪的礼物》Part 6. American NaturalismFrank Norris The Octopus 章鱼,The Pit 小麦交易所);4040、、JackLondon 杰克·伦敦1876-1916T he Call of the Wild 野性的呼唤----novel ;The Sea-wolf 海狼;White Fang 白獠牙;T ;Martin Eden 马丁·伊登;Part 7. The 1920s ImagismEzra Pound 艾兹拉·庞德1885-1972美国现代诗歌之父美国现代诗歌之父Cathay 华夏（英译中国诗The Cantos of Ezra Pound 庞德诗章（109首及8首未完成稿）《In a station of the Metro 》----在地铁站里 Thomas Stearns Eliot The Waste Land 荒原;名诗：名诗：Ash Ash Wednesday 圣灰星期三圣灰星期三;;FourQuarters 四个四重奏Robert Frost 罗伯特·弗罗斯特1874-1963 After Apple-picking 摘苹果之后)(The Road Not taken 没有选择的道路)----poem---------Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening <雪夜林畔>F Scott Fitzgerald 弗朗西斯·菲茨杰拉德1896-1940(迷惘的一代一代) )The Side of Paradise 人间天堂;The Beautiful and the Damned 美丽的和倒霉;The Great Gatsby 了不起的盖茨比;Tender in the Night 夜色温柔Ernest Ernest Hemingway Hemingway 欧内斯特·海明威1899-19611899-1961（“迷惘（“迷惘的一代”的代表人物）物）The Sun Also Rises 太阳照样升起太阳照样升起;;Farewellto Arms 永别了，武器;For Whom the Bell Tolls 丧钟为谁而鸣William William Faulkner Faulkner威廉·福克纳1897-1962短篇小说：;The Sound and the Fury 愤怒与喧嚣;；Short story ------A Rose For Emily 《给艾米丽小姐的玫瑰》 Theodore Dreiser西奥多·德莱塞1871-1945Sister Carrie 嘉莉姐妹----Novel ;Trilogy of Desire 欲望三部曲(Financer 金融家,The Titan 巨人,The Stoic);An American Tragedy 美国的悲剧（被称为美国最伟大的小说） Arthur Miller ;The Death of a Salesman 推销员--------Play ;１．《了不起的盖茨比》表现了“美国梦”的幻灭，这部小说谴责以托姆为代表的美国特权阶级自私专横，为所欲为，以同情的态度描写了盖茨比的悲剧，并指出他的悲剧来自他对生活和爱情的幻想，对上层社会缺乏认识。
英语专业 美国文学复习资料
Unit 2埃德加·爱伦·坡(Edgar Allan Poe,1809—1849)，小说家、诗人、批评家。
幼年时不幸父母双亡，无依无靠,心灵蒙受创伤,后由商人约翰·爱伦作为义子收养。
1815年至1820年，他在伦敦就读小学，接受了英国传统的文化教育，后返回美国在弗吉尼亚大学、西点军校读书，1831年因违反校记被西点军校除名。
此后，他一度以出卖文稿谋生，始终为生活的贫困所缠绕，后曾担任《南方文学使者》等多家刊物的编辑或评论家。
1847年妻子病故，他颇为悲伤，精神恍惚,常常不能自已，1849年因酗酒丧生。
自青少年开始，埃德加·爱伦·坡(Edgar Allan Poe)便对文学表现出浓厚的兴趣，博览了古今大量的作品，而且很早显露出创作的天分。
1827年，他自费出版了第一部诗集《帖木尔》(Tamerlane and Other Poems)，随后出版的诗集包括《艾尔·阿拉夫》(Al Araaf, 1829)、《诗集》(Poems, 1831)和《乌鸦及其他诗篇》(The Raven and Other Poems, 1845)。
他的诗歌《乌鸦》1845年问世后，受到美国乃至欧洲文学届的普遍好评，他的旷世奇才由此得到了社会的认同。
与诗歌相比，他在短篇小说方面的成就更为显著，尤其长于创作哥特式的小说和侦探小说，作品主要收入《述异集》(Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840)与《故事集》(Tales, 1845)。
其中,脍炙人口的名篇佳作有《厄舍古厦的倒塌》(“The Fall of the House of Usher”)、《红色死亡假面舞会》(“The Masque of the Red Death”)、《莉盖亚》(“Ligeia”)、《黑猫》(“The Black Cat”)、《阿芒提拉多的酒桶》(“The Cask of Amontillado”)、《莫格街谋杀案》(“Murders in the Rue Morgue”)、《被窃的信件》(“The Purloined Letter”)和《金甲虫》(“The Gold Bug”)。
英语专业英美文学史复习要点.doc
I.Some Historical Facts ★★★The earliest inhabitants: Britons （a tribe of Celts）Britain: "the land of Britons" © Now, the Three Famous Conquests:A.The Roman Conquest （55BC-410AD）1.Britain was invaded by the Romans under the leadership of Julius Caesar in 55 BC, and was completely subjugated to the Roman Empire in 78 A.D.2.Roman mode of life came across to Britain:Conquerors— theaters; bathsnative Britons— slaves3.Roman Empire began to decline at the beginning of the 5th C.In 410 A. D. all the Roman troops withdrew and never returned.B.The Anglo-Saxon Conquest （449-1066）In 449 A.D., Britain was invaded by three Germanic tribes from the Northeast of Europe:Angles （盎格鲁人）Saxons （撒克逊人）Jutes （朱特人）C.The Norman Conquest （1066-1485）French-speaking Normans, under the leadership of Duke William （William the Conqueror） came in 1066.After defeating the English at Hastings, William was crowned as the King of England. In the Anglo-Norman period, the prominent kind of literature, Romances, were at first all in French.At the end of the 14th century, English became dominant once more.II. Anglo-Saxon LiteratureAnglo-Saxon Poetry★★1.Pagan Poetry （世俗诗）Also called secular poetry, it does not contain any specific Christian doctrine. It was represented by Beowulf （贝奥武甫）.2.Religious Poetry （宗教诗）Also called Christian poetry, it is mainly on biblical stories and saints9 lives. But sometimes there is a mixture of Christian and pagan （异教徒）ideas. It is represented by Caedmon （凯德蒙）and Cynewulf （基涅武甫）・National epic （民族史诗）★★National epic: epic written in vernacular （本国的）languages, namely, the languages of various national states that came into being in the Middle Ages.It was the starting point of a gradual transition of European literature from Latin culture to a culture that was the combination of a variety of national characteristics. Poetic Features of “Beowulf （贝奥武甫）★★★i.The use of alliteration （头韵）is one of its most striking features.In alliterative verse, certain stressed or accented words in a line begin with the same consonant. There are 4 stresses in a line generally, of which three or two show alliteration.ii.The use of kennings:Kenning （代喻）:compound words that serve as metaphor, used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry.For example: "storm of swords" is a kenning for "battle".iii.The use of understatements（抑言陈述）or euphemism （委婉语），e.g.: "not troublesome" > very welcome"need not praise" > a right to condemniv.The basically pagan poem has an evident Christian overlay.e.g.:（l） "God" or "Lord" is frequently mentioned as the omnipotent supreme being, along with such Christian concepts as the belief in "future life".（2）Grendel is said to be descendant of the errant biblical figure, Cain.The Religious Poetry ★★The religious poetry is also called Christian poetry. It is mainly on biblical stories and saints9lives. But sometimes there is a mixture of Christian and pagan ideas in these poems. It is represented by Caedmon and Cynewulf.Anglo-Saxon Prose （散文）★★Prose literature did not show its appearance until the 8th century.There were two famous prose writers:Venerable Bede （比德）Alfred the Great （阿尔弗烈德大王）Anglo-Norman Literatures^1066, the year of the Norman conquest, marks the beginning of Anglo-Norman period （1066-1485）.Ca. 1200: the beginning of the Middle English Literature.A. Romance ★★★Romance （骑士文学），mostly in French, is the dominant kind of literature in the Anglo-Norman period.It is a long composition in verse or prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. It generally concerns knights and involves a large amount of fighting as well as a number of miscellaneous adventures.Essential features of the Romanced ★★1.It lacks general resemblance （相似）to truth or reality.2.It exaggerates the vices （罪恶）of human nature and idealizes the virtues.3.It contains perilous （危险的）adventures more or less remote from ordinary life.4.It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to lady.5.The central character of the romance is the knight, a man of noble birth, skilled in the use of weapons. He is commonly described as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournaments, or fighting for his lord in battle. He is devoted to the church and the king.The Matters of Britain★★★This Cycle mainly deals with the exploits （功绩）of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the culmination （高潮）of the Arthurian romances.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight**Sir Gawain and the Green Knight （《高文爵士和绿衣骑士》），a verse romance of 2530 lines, derived from Celtic legend. It was considered as the best of Arthurian romance.English Ballads (民歌)★★1.It is oral literature of the English people (esp. peasants).2.It is a story told in song, usu. in 4-line stanzas, with the 2nd and the 4th lines rhymed.3.Its subject matters: young lovers9 struggle against patriarchy (父权制)；conflict between love and wealth; cruelty of jealousy; criticism of the civil war (1337〜1453) between England and France.; matters of class struggle.Robin Hood Ballads: most noted.Translation of the Bible**1. John Wycliffe (1320-1384), the first attempt to translate the Latin version of the Bible into Middle English.King James9 version (the Authorized Version) (1611)Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)杰弗里•乔叟(GeoffreyChaucer) ★★★Father of English poetryThe first great poet writing in Middle EnglishFounder of English realismMain WorksThe Romance of the Rose《玫瑰传奇》The House of Fame《声誉殿堂》Troilus and Criseide《特罗伊拉斯和克莱西德》The Canterbury Tales《坎特伯雷故事集》Chaucer's Contributions★★★i.Chaucer made the London dialect the standard for modern English language, and was the first to write in English. In doing so, established English as the literary language of the country.ii.He introduced ( from France and Italy) the rhymed stanza (诗节)of various types, esp. heroic couplet (英雄偶句诗),to take the place of the old alliterative verse.iii.His works give a comprehensive picture of Chaucer's time; For his true-to-life (写实的)depictions, Chaucer is generally regarded as the forerunner of English realism.iv.Chaucer's gentle satire （讽束!j） and mild irony made him a pioneering English humorist writer.The Canterbury Tales （坎特伯雷故事集）（1387-1400）***1.The outline of the storyThe story opens with a general prologue telling that on a spring evening, at the Tabard Inn （泰巴旅店）,at the South end of London Bridge, Chaucer meets 29 pilgrims ready for Canterbury and he joins them.Suggested by the host of the inn, each is to tell 2 stories going and 2 returning. The best teller will be treated with a fine supper, by the host.Clearly, the structure of The Canterbury Tales is indebted to Boccaccio's Decameron （《十日谈》）.As a gigantic plan, 120 stories should be told but only 24 were written.But these tales cover practically all the major types of medieval literature: a. romance;b. folk tale;c. beast fable （1 申话）；d. adventures;e. saint's life;f. allegorical tale （寓言）;g. sermon （训诫）;h. alchemical account （炼丹术）,etc.2.The General Prologue （总序言）The Canterbury Tales consists of three parts:The General Prologue,24 tales, four of which left unfinished,Separate prologues to each tale.The General Prologue was considered the best part of the whole work, which supplies a picture of people from all walks of life in the medieval England. It in essence serves asa guide.3.The charactersAll kinds of people except the highest and the lowest are represented by these thirty pilgrims （朝圣者）：The gentle class （2申士阶层）is represented by the knight, the squire （骑士扈从）, the monk, the prioress （女修道院院长）,the Oxford scholar, and the Franklin （地主）; The burgher class （市民阶层）is represented by the wealthy trademan, thehaberdasher（月艮装店主），the carpenter, the landed proprietor（土地业主），the weaver, the tapestry-maker （挂毯商）,and the Wife of Bath （巴斯夫人）；The professionals are represented by the lawyer and the physician.Rhymed ★Alliteration （头韵）：stressed words in a line begin with the same consonant, e.g.: great, grewAssonance （谐韵）:stressed words in a line share the same vowel （谐元韵），e.g.: great, failRhyme （尾韵）：Identity or sameness of terminal sounds in poetic lines or in words, e.g.: great, bait Feet （音步）feet: small groups of syllables （音节）,i.e. the combination of a strong stress and one or two weak stresses.simply put （简言之）:Combination of one stressed syllable （重读音节）& one or two unstressed syllables （非重读音节）e.g. hazel; to swell;The clock struck one.Four standard（1）iambic （抑扬格,n. iamb）an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable:defeat return（2）anapestic （抑抑扬格,n. anapest）two unstressed syllables t a stressed:understand with a leap（3）trochaic （扬抑格,n. trochee）a stressed an unstressed:listen double（4）dactylic （扬抑抑格,n. dactyl）a stressed 一 two unstressed syllables: Here we go merrilyNumber of feet in a(1)monometer 单音步(one foot)(2)dimeter 二音步(two feet)(3)trimeter 三音步(three feet )(4) tetrameter 四音步(fourfbet )(5) pentameter 五音步(five feet )(6) hexameter 六音步(six feet)(7) heptameter 七音步(sevenfeet)(8) octameterMeter (韵律)八音步(eightfeet)The meter of a line (诗行的韵律)not only includes the predominant foot of the line, but also the number of feet that it contains.rhymed stanza (押＜尾＞韵诗节)Rhymed: correspondence of terminal sounds of words, or of lines of verse.Stanza: a group of lines in a repeated pattern that form a unit within a larger poem.List of stanza names according to number of lines:2lines = Couplet (对联)3lines = Tercet (三行诗)4lines = Quatrain (四行诗)5lines = Cinquain (五彳亍诗)6lines = Sestet (六行诗)7lines = Septet (七行诗)8lines = Octave (八行诗)heroic couplet (英雄诗体，英雄双韵句)It is a rhymed couplet (押韵对句)：a pair of rhyming lines in iambic pentameter.rhyming scheme (韵法)英语诗歌的行与行之间的押韵格式称韵法。
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。
期末复习-美国文学简史汇总
Washington Irving Edgar Allan Poe Nathaniel Howthorne
6. The 1920s
T.S. Eliot William Faulkner Ernest Hemingway
William Whitman
(Lost Generation)
* Transcendentalism
A
13
Puritanism: Puritan values /Creeds
hard work
thrift
piety
sobriety
Puritans are more
practical, tougher, and
to be ever ready for
any misfortune and
tragic failure.
A
7
The early settlers
❖ Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent in 1492.
❖ Captain John Smith reached Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.
❖ Puritans came to the New England area, by Mayflower in 1620.
4) Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.
美国文学史复习资料（名词解释）
美国文学史复习资料（名词解释）1. American Puritanism: a domination factor in American life. AmericanPuritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thoughts and literature.2. Transcendentalism: time 1836. Features: 1.the transcendentalistsplaced emphasis on spirit, or over soul, as the most important thing in the universe 2. The transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. 3. The transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit of God. The representatives are Emerson and Thoreau.3. Free Verse: like traditional verse, it is printed in short lines instead ofthe continuity of prose, but it has no meter and either lack rhyme or u ses it occasionally. A representative is Whitman’s Leave of Grass. 4. Realism: time: 2nd and half of 19th century. Features: verisimilitude ofdetails derived from observation. Representatives are Howells, James, Mark Twain5. Local Colorism: It is a branch of Realism; it refers to detailedrepresentation, in fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of thinking which are distinctive of a particular region. The representative of Local Colorism is Mark Twain.6. American Naturalism: time: 1890s. Features: 1. naturalists wroteabout the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world, and his lack of dignity in face of the crushing forces ofenvironment and heredity.2. They reported truthfully and objectively with passion for scientific accuracy and an overwhelming accumulation of factual detail.3. The representatives are Crane, Dreiser.7. Imagism: six principles: momentary, one dominant image, hardpersonal word, direct treatment, concise, free verse. The representatives are Pound.8. Lost generations: it refers to a group of American writers of thedecade following WWI, disillusioned by their War experience or by materialization of American culture, holds a pessimistic new of life.The representatives are Fitzgerald and Hemingway.9. Flashback: interpolating narratives or scenes which represent eventsthat happened before the story began. For example: Miller used flashback in Death of Salesman.10. Black Humor: the tragic absurdity of the human condition is oftenseen in their novels. As a cosmic joke. The response they intend to provoke in the reader to the blackness of modern life is a laughter that is, laughing in face of a tragic situation. The representative work of black humor is Heller’s Catch-22.11. Harlem Renaissance: a period of remarkable creativity in literatureand other arts by African Americans, from the end of WWI in 1917 through the 1920s. The representative is Hughes.12. Irving: 1.He is was the first American writer of imagination literature to gain international fame. 2 The short story as a genrein American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book.3.The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American romanticism.13. Hawthorne: feature: 1, symbol2, deep analysis of psychology3, gloomy and depressive tone4. evil sides of the world5, super natural element14. The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne): 1, Character: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdable, Roger Chillingworth. 2. Theme: criticizing Puritan suppression/ sin and atonement.15. Emily Dickinson: feature: 1.short and concise2. approximate rhyme and meter3. ungrammatical elements 4. original images5. many poems about death15. Moby Dick (Melville): character: Ishmael (survivor), Ahab (captain) 12.Allan Poe: 1. the poetic principle ①the poe m, he says, should be short, at one sitting ②Its chief aim is beauty ③melancholy is the most legitimate of all the poetic tone. ④the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.⑤stress rhyme, defines true poetry as “t he rhythmical creation of beauty. 2. Work: to Helen, The Fall of the House of Usher.13. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain): 1. His usually use French, mostly Anglo-Saxon on origin, and his words are short, concrete and direct in effect.2. Most of his sentence structures are simple or compound.3. he use”took”repeatedly.4. There have ungrammatical elements in his work. One of his significant contributions to American literature lies in fact that he made colloquial speech an accepted.14. Frost: the features of his work1.he usually use traditional form 2. His language is plain3. He likes to use symbolism4. Most his poems describe nature of famers’ life.15. Fitzgerald: the Great Gatsby: 1.characters: Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanam, Tom Buchanam, Myrtle Wilson, George Wilson, Jay Gatsby, 2. Theme: criticizing materialized society, disillusionment of American dream.16. Miller: Death of Salesman: 1.Charaters: Willy &Linda&Biff&Happy Loman, Chalery and Bernard. 2. Theme: a criticizing metalized society/ understanding between parents and children.17. Salinger: The Catch in the①. Setting: 1950s New York2. Plot: Holden Caulfied 1st day: expelled. 2nd day: Sally (shallow). Carl (hypocritical).2nd night: Sneak home—Phoebe, Mr.Antolini. 3rd day: go to the west.②.character: Holden---rebellious, innocent, sincerely③. Style: This novel use colloquial and vulgar worlds. There also has exaggeration in this work ④: theme: growing pain.18: Cath-22: Yossarian, Milo, And Snowden.19. Lolita :( Nabokov): character: Humbert Humbert, Dolores Haze (Lolita), Clare Qulity .。
美国文学简史复习资料
美国文学简史复习资料2016年12月23日目录殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学美国浪漫主义早期新英格兰超验主义美国浪漫主义后期美国现实主义文学美国乡土文学美国现代诗歌美国现代小说美国南方文学美国现代戏剧美国黑人文学美国华裔文学殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学New England：Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, named by Captain John SmithPuritanismDoctrines of Puritanism：predestination（命运神定), original sin, total depravity (彻底的堕落), and limited atonement (有限的赎罪)from God’s gracePuritans left Europe for America in order to prove that they were God’s chosen people who would enjoy God’s blessings on earth and in Heaven. They felt that they were exiles under the special grace of God to establish a theocracy in the New World. Style of writing：the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest；a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible Puritans’ way of Life：hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter there is a good description of the Puritans’life.Main writersWilliam BradfordOf Plymouth Plantation普利茅斯垦殖记Thomas PaineCommon Sense 常识；American Crisis美国危机；The Rights of Man人权；The Age of Reason 理性时代Philip FreneauThe Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲；The Wild Honeysuckle野金银花Benjamin FranklinAutobiography富兰克林自传Thomas JeffersonDraft the Declaration of Independence.美国浪漫主义早期RomanticismBackground of Romanticism：Economic boom and national optimism ；Favorable literary milieu: increasing number of magazines ；Foreign influences: the Romantic Movementin Europe.Characteristics of Romanticism：A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.Feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important for romantics than reason and common sense.An emphasis on individualism; placing the individual against the group, against authority.Stress on the close relationship between man and nature.Fascination with the wild, the irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious,and the strangeCherishing a strong interest in the past, especially the medieval.Features of American Romanticism：New experience in the American Romanticism.The exotic landscape, the frontier life, the westward expansion, the myth of a New Garden of Eden in America, and the Puritan heritage, etc., these were all materialsfor an indigenous literature.A deep influence from the American Puritanism. Different from their European counterparts, American romantics tended to moralize,to edify rather than to entertain.The “newness” of the Americans as a nation.The Americans are different from the Europeans. Their ideals of individualism and political equality, and their dream that America was to be a new Garden of eden forman were distinctly American.The New England Poets:Henry W. Longfellow-A Psalm of Life 人生礼赞Main writersWashington IrvingThe Sketch Book (1819-1820)见闻札记;The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说James Fenimore CooperLeather-stocking Tales皮裹腿故事集;The Pioneers 拓荒者;The Last of the Mohicans 最后一个莫希干人;The Prairie 大草原;The Pathfinder探路人;The Deerslayer猎鹿人新英格兰超验主义TranscendentalismTranscendentalismas a way of knowing, believes that individuals can intuitively receive higher truths otherwise unavailable through common methods of knowing, thus transcending the limits of rationalism. Some of its major concepts are:It placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over-soul（超灵）, as the most important thing in the universe.It emphasized the importance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish.It offered a fresh view of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God.SignificanceA group of new writers apply transcendental ideas in their worksWeaknessTranscendentalism tended to become mysticism.sometimes resulted in rampant individualismmake moral indignation an irrelevant emotion.Main writersRalph Waldo Emerson(超验主义领袖）Nature（标志性之作）;The American Scholar论美国学者Henry David ThoreauWalden:informal,spontaneous and so easy. His sentences are concentrated and vigorous.美国浪漫主义后期High Romantics in fictionNathaniel HawthorneThe Scarlet letter红字；The House of Sever Gables有七个尖角阁的房子Herman MelvilleMoby-Dick白鲸；Pierre皮埃尔High Romantics in poetryEdgar Allen Poe-the father of modern horror story and detective storyTales of the Grotesque and Arabesque怪诞故事集；The Raven乌鸦Literary theories (on poetry)Poetical principlesLength: there is a distinct limit to all works of literary art—the limit of a single sitting.Province: Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.Tone: Sadness is the tone of Beauty’s highest manifestation. Melancholy is the most legitimateof all the poetical tones. Death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world.The immediate object of poetry is pleasure, not truth.Poe defines true poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty”, and declares that music is theperfection of the soul, or idea, of poetry.Walt WhitmanLeaves of Grass草叶集Emily DickinsonFeatures of Dickinson’s poemsDickinson’s style is characteristic of frequent use of dashes, sporadic capitalization of nouns,convoluted and ungrammatical phrasing, off-rhymes, broken meters, bold and unconventional and often startling metaphors, and aphoristic wit. Her poetry prepares for modern poetry in the 20th century.lyric. Her poems are remarkable for their variety, subtlety, and richness.brevity and intensity.unorthodox syntax and punctuation.innovation in rhyme. One the whole, her poetry is irregular in rhyme and rhythm.美国现实主义文学RealismHistorical backgroundImpact of the Civil WarChanges in national economic lifeConcentration of wealth and powerPolarization of the rich and the poor(This was the beginning of what Mark Twain called “The Gilded Age”— an age of extremes:of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope.) Closing of the frontierDefinitionbased on the accurate, unromanticized observation of human experiences. It insists on precise description, authentic action and dialogue, moral honesty, and a democratic openness in subject matter and style.Realism as a literary movement refers to the approach of realist fiction occurred at the later part of the 19th century.Realism, as a broader term, is also inclusive of naturalism, regionalism and local color writing.Major featuresRealism reacts against Romanticism’s emphasis on intuition, imagination, a dreamy sense of wonder, idealism, faith in nature, and general optimistic belief in the goodness of things.Realists claim that they seek truth that is verifiable by experience and have practical consequences; they do not seek abstract truth.Realists believe that literature imitates reality. They are attentive to such details as dialect, customs, and experiences that are commonplace and “real”. Realists try to describe a small portion of the knowable world in order to maintain “objectivity.”Main WritersWilliam Dean HowellsThe Rise of Silas Lapham塞拉斯·拉帕姆发迹记Henry JamesThe Portrait of a Lady贵妇画像Literary TheoryArt and life:Art must be related to life; it must be life transformed and changed so that the artform would give the truthful impression of actuality.Point of viewPsychological realism（心理现实主义）:by emphasizing the inner awareness and inward movements of his characters in face of outside occurrencesbecame the first of the modern psychological analysts in the novelmodern stream-of-consciousness technique美国乡土文学Local Color FictionFeaturesLocal color fiction presents a locale which is distinguished from the outside world. describes the exotic and the picturesque.glorifies the past.attempts to show things as they are.stresses the influence of setting on character.Dialect peculiarities are the defining characteristic of local color writings. RepresentativesMark TwainThe Gilded Age 镀金时代;The Adventures of Tom Sawyer汤姆·索亚历险记;The Prince and the Pauper 王子与贫儿;Life on Mississippi密西西比河上;The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 哈克贝利·费恩历险记Style:Vernacular language; Local color.ContributionWilliam Deans Howells called Mark Twain “the Lincoln of literature.” .Combining American frontier humor and serious storytelling conventions with his journalistic style, he produced a body of work of enduring value. His writing gives readers a clear sense of life in the prewar Mississippi Valley. Moreover, he initiated the vernacular tradition in American fiction.Francis Bret Harte-the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularityThe Luck of Roaring Camp咆哮营里的幸运儿Harriet Beecher StoweUncle Tom’s Cabin汤姆大叔的小屋Kate ChopinThe Awakening觉醒Stephen CraneThe Red Badge of Courage红色英勇勋章Theodore DresierSister Carrie嘉莉妹妹;An American Tragedy美国悲剧Jack LondonThe Call of the Wild野性的呼唤;Martin Eden 马丁·伊登美国现代诗歌Modern American Poetry-the second flowering(1914-1945)Featurescommon theme:fragmentationstream-of-consciousnessIt also fostered a belief in art and literature as an avenue to self-fulfillment.It was characterized by a conscious rejection of established rules, traditions and conventions. The essence of modernism was a break with the pastIt strove to reflect 20th century’s social and political changesBackgroundthe consequence of the transformation of society brought about by industrialism and technology in the course of the 19th century.Imagist movement (1908-1917)Imagism意象派Ezra Pound-Leader of the Imagist Movement.Two modernist poetsT.S.Eliothe Waste Land 荒原Robert Frost“The Road Not Taken”“没有走过的路”美国现代小说Modern American FictionSocial backgrounds in the 1920sImpact of World War IThe 1920s: the Roaring 20s（咆哮二十年）Jazz Age（爵士时代）Dollar AgeThe Red Scare 恐共浪潮The Prohibition (1919-1933) 禁酒令Lost of faithThe Lost Generationnamed applied to the disillusioned intellectuals and aesthetes of the years following World War I, who rebelled against former ideals and values but could replace them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. The remark of Gertrude Stein, “You are all a lost generation,” addressed to Hemingway, was used as a preface to the latter’s novel The Sun Also Rises, which brilliantly describes an expatriate group typical of the “lost generation.”Two major representativesF. Scott Fitzgerald-the spokesman of the “roaring 20s”The Great Gatsby 了不起的盖茨比Ernest Hemingway-spokesman for the Lost Generationiceberg theory：The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.The Sun Also Rises太阳照常升起；A Farewell to Arms 永别了，武器；For Whom the Bell Tolls 丧钟为谁而鸣；The Old Man and the Sea 老人与海Hemingway’ styleHemingway’s style is noted for its simplicity. In diction, he focus on nouns and verbs and reduces the use of adjectives, especially complicated adjectives. In sentence structure, he uses coordinated clauses to avoid subordinated clauses that would imply vague judgments. This was especially obvious in his writings in the 1920s.Some other writersSherwood AndersonWinesburg, Ohio 小镇畸人Willa CatherMy Antonia我的安东尼亚Sinclair Lewis-The first American writer to win the Nobel Prize.Main street 大街；Babbitt巴比特John Steinbeckhe Grapes of Wrath愤怒的葡萄Margaret MitchellGone With the Wind飘美国南方文学Southern American literatureThe American SouthThe American South includes the southeastern states and the southern states along the Gulf of Mexico.This is a unique region where people speak with strong southern accent. The southerners have their distinctive culture, viewpoint, and history. In the southern history, the South was guilty of slavery which began in 1621, the South failed in the Civil War, and the South is relatively poor in a nation of wealth even today. Guilt, failure, and poverty make the South dark side of American conscience. Southern RenaissanceHere are six myths that southerner have cherished. They are not objectively true,but they are part of the culture and they make the South apart from other regions. Chevalier heritage.骑士 The southerners held that their ancestors were not Puritans but noble chevaliers who came from England to settle down in the New World. This myth created a pride in the region.Agrarian virtue. 农业美德Plantation aristocracy.种植园农场的贵族生活Lost cause. 失去的事业White supremacy. 白人至上Purity of Southern womanhood.Representative Southern writersWilliam FaulknerThe Yoknapatawpha Saga约克纳帕塔法世系：The Sound and the Fury 喧嚣与骚动；As I Lay Dying我弥留之际；Absalom, Absalom!押沙龙，押沙龙！；Go Down, Moses去吧，摩西Major features of Faulkner’s writingsFaulkner used the South to talk about the violence and evil in all human beings.Faulkner was a great avant-garde experimenter. He successfully advanced some modernliterary techniques:Stream of consciousness. (interior monologue)Multiple point of viewAuthorial transcendence instead of authorial intrusion.His prose varies from colloquial口语的, regional, to formal diction and cadences节奏 of American speech.Stream of consciousnessThe continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind; or a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. It is an important device of modernist fiction.In English literature, novels of stream-of-consciousness are represented byJames Joyce and Virginia Wolf. The modern American writer William Faulkner successfully advanced this technique, for example, in his novel, The Sound and the Fury (1929).Thomas WolfLook Homeward, Angel天使，望乡美国现代戏剧Modern American DramasAmerican drama renaissance in the 1920sEugene O’Neil-Founder of modern American drama/regarded as the “American Shakespeare”Bound East for Cardiff 东航卡迪夫(an one-act play, which ushered in the modern era of the American theatre)Beyond the Horizon天边外；The Emperor Jones 琼斯皇；The Hairy Ape毛猿；Desire under the Elms榆树下的欲望Long Day’s Journey into Night日长路远夜深沉Expressionism 表现主义Expressionism, artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him. He accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements.In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the late 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements.The Little Theater Movement in the 1920s and 1930sTennessee WilliamsThe Streetcar Named Desire欲望号街车Arthur MillerDeath of a Salesman推销员之死Theater of the Absurdoften applied to the modern sense of human purposelessness in a universe withoutmeaning or value.The classic work of absurdist theater is Beckett’s En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot, 1952).Edward Albee is most closely connected with the Theater of the Absurd.(Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 谁害怕弗吉尼亚沃尔夫？)美国黑人文学African American LiteratureEarly African American literatureFrederick Douglass;Booker T. Washington;W. E. B. DuBois-The Souls of Black Folks: Essays and Sketches 黑人的灵魂;Jean ToomerHarlem RenaissanceTerm used to describe a flowering of African-American literature and art in the 1920s, mainly in the Harlem district of New York City. During the mass migration of African Americans from the rural agricultural South to the urban industrial North (1914-18), many who came to New York settled in Harlem, as did a good number of black New Yorkers moved from other areas of the city. Meanwhile, Southern black musicians brought jazz with them to the North and to Harlem. The area soon became a sophisticated literary and artistic center.Responding to the heady intellectual atmosphere of the time and place, writers and artists, many of whom lived in Harlem, began to produce a wide variety of fine and highly original works dealing with African-American life.Countee Cullen;Zora Neale Hurston;Langston Hughes-“The Negro Speaks of River”“黑人说河”African American literature in the 1940s and 1950sRichard Wright;Ralph Ellison-Invisible Man看不见的人James Baldwin-Go Tell it on the Mountains向苍天呼吁Contemporary African American literatureAlex Palmer Haley-Roots根;Alice Walker-The Color Purple紫色Tony Morrison-The Bluest Eye最蓝的眼睛；Beloved宠儿美国华裔文学Chinese American LiteratureEdith Maud Eaton水仙花Mrs. Spring Fragrance春香夫人-美国华裔文学的开山之作Louis Chu雷庭招Eat a Bowl of Tea吃一碗茶-第一部以美国华埠为背景的华裔小说Frank Chin赵健秀-第一位引起美国主流批评注意的华裔剧作家Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Prose and Poetry哎呀！美国亚裔作家文集Maxine Hong Kingston汤婷婷The Woman Warrior女勇士China Man中国佬Amy Tan谭恩美The Joy Luck Club喜福会David Henry Hwang黄哲伦M. Butterfly蝴蝶君-第一部在百老汇上演的华裔戏剧作品附：American Nobel Prize Winners in LiteratureSinclair Lewis(1930, the first American writer to win Nobel Prize) The Main Street (1920)《大街》--------------------Eugene O’Neil (1936)Desire under the Elms (1924)《榆树下的欲望》--------------------T. S. Eliot (1948)The Waste Land（1922）《荒原》--------------------William Faulkner (1950)The Sound and the Fury（1929）《喧嚣与骚动》--------------------Ernest Hemingway (1954)The Old Man and the Sea（1952）《老人与海》--------------------John Steinbeck (1962)The Grapes of Wrath (1939《愤怒的葡萄》)。
美国文学简史复习资料精华版
美国文学简史复习资料精华版A Concise History of American LiteratureChapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.Jonathan Edwards1.life2.works(1)The Freedom of the Will(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3)The Nature of True Virtue3.ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)God’s presence(4)Puritan idealismII.Benjamin Franklin1.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac(2)Autobiography2.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the AmericanPhilosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity inthis case) from heaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”.Herman Melville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodI.Washington 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.works(1) A History of New Y ork from the Beginning of the World to the End ofthe Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure ofinternational recognition with the publication of this.)(3)The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus(4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra3.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US4.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 languageII.James Fenimore Cooper1.works(1)Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride andPrejudice)(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 Prairie2.point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights3.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 authentic4.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 theAmerican settlers exploring and pushing the American frontierforever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectivelyapproximates the American national experience of adventure intothe West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and hehelped to introduce western tradition to American literature. Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – American TranscendentalismI.Appearance1836, “Nature” by Emers onII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)III.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and broughtabout the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressedreligious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs andtraditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctlyAmerican culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expandedeconomy where opportunity often became opportunism, and thedesire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritualheight.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the mostprolific period in American literature.IV.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.works(1)Nature(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet2.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in thetranscendence of the “oversoul”.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moralinfluence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out thedivine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson me ans by “the infinitude of man”.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making hisworld, and that he makes the world by making himself.3.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 celebrateAmerica which was to him a lone poem in itself.4.his influenceV.Henry David Thoreau1.works(1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)2.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing andwas 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 nature as a genuinerestorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-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 institutionsof men’s odd-fellow society”.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a newgeneration of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from andOld Manse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun2.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 passedfrom generation to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.3.aesthetic ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnishthe soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form ofAmerican narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.4.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 viewII.Herman Melville1.works(1)Typee(2)Omio(3)Mardi(4)Redburn(5)White Jacket(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre(8)Billy Budd2.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is theattitude of “Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from eachother).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation ofinnocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea ofprogress3.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguitythrough employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profuselycommented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background ordescription of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)Romantic PoetsI.Walt Whitman1.work: Leaves of Grass (9 editions)(1)Song of Myself(2)There Was a Child Went Forth(3)Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4)Democratic Vistas(5)Passage to India(6)Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking2.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 happiness3.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 lines 4.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Westernculture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacherand recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bearswitness to his great influence.II.Emily Dickenson1.works(1)My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2)Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4)Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5)Wild Nights – Wild Nights2.themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4)physical aspect of desire(5)nature – kind and cruel(6)free will and human responsibility3.style(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification –make some of abstract ideasvividparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergentAmerica, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the newnation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinsonexplores the inner life of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is“regional”.(3)Dickinson has t he “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) whichWhitman doesn’t have.Edgar Allen PoeI.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 TalesII.Themes1.death –predominant theme 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 scienceIII.Aesthetic 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 tonemelancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.IV.Style – traditional, but not easy to readV.Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)VI.His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”(1)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(2)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethicscking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international theme●The American●Daisy Miller●The Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays●Daisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence,then back to international theme●The Turn of the Screw●When Maisie Knew●The Ambassadors●The Wings of the Dove●The Golden Bowl(2)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent lifemon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(3)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(4)Style –“stylist”nguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb.Vocabulary: largec.Construction: complicated, intricate3.Mark Twain (see next section)Local Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sI.Appearance1.uneven development in economy in America2.culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3.magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII.Mark Twain – Mississippi1.works(1)The Gilded Age(2)“the two advantages”(3)Life on the Mississippi(4) A Connecticut Y ankee in King Arthur’s Court(5)The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug2.style(1)colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2)local colour(3)syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimesungrammatical(4)humour(5)tall tales (highly exaggerated)(6)social criticism (satire on the different ugly things in society)parison of the three “giants” of American Realism1.ThemeHowells – middle classJames – upper classTwain – lower class2.TechniqueHowells – smiling/genteel realismJames – psychological realismTwain – local colourism and colloquialismChapter 4 American NaturalismI.Theodore Dreiser1.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius2.point of view(1)He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned toregard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” o f the lecherous and heartless, a junglestruggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex ofinternal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.3.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis4.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in painting。