(0097)美国文学史复习思考题
《美国史》课后思考题
《美国史》课后思考题一、名词解释：印第安人、新英格兰、“五月花号公约”、“七年战争”、“波士顿倾茶事件”、“不可容忍”法案、大陆会议、《常识》、邦联时期、谢斯起义、费城会议、联邦党人、“杰、汉之争”、1787年西北法令、“1800年革命”、路易斯安娜购买、1812年战争、西进运动、“杰克逊民主”、“门罗宣言”“天定命运”“分赃制”、密苏里妥协、废奴运动、“地下铁路”、1850年妥协、“堪萨斯内战”、“斯科特判决”、约翰·布朗起义、葛底斯堡演说、海斯--蒂尔顿协定、黑幕揭发、暴露文学、社会正义运动、谢尔曼反托拉斯法、新国家主义、新自由、“海权”理论、边疆学说、美西战争、“缅因”号事件、门户开放、“十四点计划”、“泰勒制”、柯立芝繁荣、“胡佛村”、布雷顿森林协定、“遏制”理论、“铁幕”演说、杜鲁门主义、马歇尔计划、第四点计划、“公平施政”、忠诚调查计划、1947年的劳资关系法、“现代共和党主义”、麦卡锡主义、“垮掉的一代”、“布朗诉托皮卡教育局案”、“抵制公共汽车”运动、“新边疆”、“自由乘客”运动、阿波罗登月计划、向贫困宣战、“伟大社会”、“黑人权力”、休伦港宣言、反正统文化运动、新联邦主义、“税收分享”、家庭援助计划、“南部战略”、水门事件、“马到成功”计划、能源危机、“第二次能源危机”、“信任危机”演说、里根经济学、供应学派、货币主义、尼克松主义、人权外交、卡特主义。
二、问答题1、英属北美殖民地为何能够后来居上？2、列举美国独立战争爆发的原因。
3、阐述“独立宣言”的基本思想及其意义。
4、分析美国独立战争的性质及其历史意义。
5、邦联政府存在哪些缺陷？6、评1787年美国宪法。
7、如何看待美国建国初期的党争？8、评“杰斐逊民主”。
9、如何看待美国历史上大规模的领土扩张？10、西进运动给美国留下了怎样的遗产？11、试析南北战争爆发的原因。
12、“重建”的历史意义。
13、评林肯。
14、19世纪末至20世纪初期美国外交政策的演变。
美国文学期末复习资料(完美版)
Black humor(黑色幽默)：Black humor refers to the use of the morbid and the absurd in literature for darkly comic purpose. It carries the tone of anger and bitterness in the grotesque situations of suffering, anxiety and death. It makes readers laugh at the blackness of modern life. The representative novel of black humor in American literature is Joseph Heller’ Catch -22. 《第二十二条军规》Anti-hero （反英雄）:Ant-ihero refers to the chief person in a modern novel or play whose character is widely discrepant from that which we associate with the traditional protagonist or hero of a serious literary work. Instead of manifesting largeness, dignity, power, or heroism, the antihero is petty, ignominious, passive, ineffectual, or dishonest. The use of non-heroic protagonists occurs as early as the picaresque novel （流浪汉小说） of the 16th century, and the heroine of Defoe’s Moll Flanders 《摩尔·弗兰德斯》is a thief and a prostitute （妓女）. The term ―antihero‖, however, is usually applied to writings in the period of disillusion after the Second World War. For example, Yossarian in Joseph Heller’s Catch -22.《第二十二条军规》Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake The only other sound ’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. 雪夜林畔小驻想来我认识这座森林，林主的庄宅就在邻村,却不会见我在此驻马，看他林中积雪的美景。
童明《美国文学史》（增订版）笔记和课后习题（含考研真题）详解
我国各大院校一般都把国内外通用的权威教科书作为本科生和研究生学习专业课程的参考教材，这些教材甚至被很多考试（特别是硕士和博士入学考试）和培训项目作为指定参考书。
为了帮助读者更好地学习专业课，我们有针对性地编著了一套与国内外教材配套的复习资料，并提供配套的名师讲堂、电子书和题库。
《美国文学史》（增订版）（童明主编）一直被用作高等院校英语专业英美文学教材，被很多院校指定为英语专业考研必读书和学术研究参考书。
为了帮助读者更好地使用该教材，我们精心编著了它的配套辅导用书。
作为该教材的学习辅导书，全书遵循该教材的章目编排，共分27章，每章由三部分组成：第一部分为复习笔记（中英文对照），总结本章的重点难点；第二部分是课后习题详解，对该书的课后思考题进行了详细解答；第三部分是考研真题与典型题详解，精选名校经典考研真题及相关习题，并提供了详细的参考答案。
本书具有以下几个方面的特点：1．梳理章节脉络，归纳核心考点。
每章的复习笔记以该教材为主并结合其他教材对本章的重难点知识进行了整理，并参考了国内名校名师讲授该教材的课堂笔记，对核心考点进行了归纳总结。
2．中英双语对照，凸显难点要点。
本书章节笔记采用了中英文对照的形式，强化对重要难点知识的理解和运用。
3．解析课后习题，提供详尽答案。
本书对童明主编的《美国文学史》（增订版）每章的课后思考题均进行了详细的分析和解答，并对相关重要知识点进行了延伸和归纳。
4．精选考研真题，补充难点习题。
本书精选名校近年考研真题及相关习题，并提供答案和详解。
所选真题和习题基本体现了各个章节的考点和难点，但又不完全局限于教材内容，是对教材内容极好的补充。
第1部分 早期美国文学：殖民时期至1815年第1章 “新世界”的文学1.1 复习笔记1.2 课后习题详解1.3 考研真题和典型题详解第2章 殖民地时期的美国文学：1620—1763 2.1 复习笔记2.2 课后习题详解2.3 考研真题和典型题详解第3章 文学与美国革命：1764—18153.1 复习笔记3.2 课后习题详解3.3 考研真题和典型题详解第2部分 美国浪漫主义时期：1815—1865第4章 美国浪漫主义时期4.1 复习笔记4.2 课后习题详解4.3 考研真题和典型题详解第5章 早期浪漫主义5.1 复习笔记5.2 课后习题详解5.3 考研真题和典型题详解第6章 超验主义和符号表征6.1 复习笔记6.2 课后习题详解6.3 考研真题和典型题详解第7章 霍桑、麦尔维尔和坡7.1 复习笔记7.2 课后习题详解7.3 考研真题和典型题详解第8章 惠特曼和狄金森8.1 复习笔记8.2 课后习题详解8.3 考研真题和典型题详解第9章 文学分支：反对奴隶制的写作9.1 复习笔记9.2 课后习题详解9.3 考研真题和典型题详解第3部分 美国现实主义时期：1865—1914第10章 现实主义时期10.1 复习笔记10.2 课后习题详解10.3 考研真题和典型题详解第11章 地区和地方色彩写作11.1 复习笔记11.2 课后习题详解11.3 考研真题和典型题详解第12章 亨利·詹姆斯和威廉·迪恩·豪威尔斯12.1 复习笔记12.2 课后习题详解12.3 考研真题和典型题详解第13章 自然主义文学13.1 复习笔记13.2 课后习题详解13.3 考研真题和典型题详解第14章 女性作家书写“女性问题”14.1 复习笔记14.2 课后习题详解14.3 考研真题和典型题详解第4部分 美国现代主义时期：1914—1945第15章 美国现代主义15.1 复习笔记15.1 复习笔记15.2 课后习题详解15.3 考研真题和典型题详解第16章 现代主义的演变16.1 复习笔记16.2 课后习题详解16.3 考研真题和典型题详解第17章 欧洲的美国现代主义17.1 复习笔记17.2 课后习题详解17.3 考研真题和典型题详解第18章 两次世界大战间的现代小说18.1 复习笔记18.2 课后习题详解18.3 考研真题和典型题详解第19章 现代美国诗歌19.1 复习笔记19.2 课后习题详解19.3 考研真题和典型题详解第20章 非裔美国小说和现代主义20.1 复习笔记20.2 课后习题详解20.3 考研真题和典型题详解第5部分 多元化的美国文学：1945年至新千年第21章 新形势下的多元化文学21.1 复习笔记21.2 课后习题详解21.3 考研真题和典型题解析第22章 美国戏剧：三大剧作家22.1 复习笔记22.2 课后习题详解22.3 考研真题和典型题详解第23章 主要小说家：1945年至60年代23.1 复习笔记23.2 课后习题详解23.3 考研真题和典型题详解第24章 1945年以来的诗学倾向24.1 复习笔记24.2 课后习题详解24.3 考研真题和典型题详解第25章 20世纪60年代以来的小说发展状况25.1 复习笔记25.2 课后习题详解25.3 考研真题和典型题详解第26章 当代多民族文学和小说26.1 复习笔记26.2 课后习题详解26.3 考研真题和典型题详解第27章 美国文学的全球化：流散作家27.1 复习笔记27.2 课后习题详解27.3 考研真题和典型题详解第1部分 早期美国文学：殖民时期至1815年第1章 “新世界”的文学1.1 复习笔记Ⅰ. Discoveries of America（发现美洲大陆）Who discovered America?谁发现了美洲？1 The credit is often attributed to Christopher Columbus. Yet this argument is controversial.一种说法是哥伦布发现了美洲大陆。
童明《美国文学史》课后习题详解（女性作家书写“女性问题”）【圣才出品】
童明《美国⽂学史》课后习题详解（⼥性作家书写“⼥性问题”）【圣才出品】第14章⼥性作家书写“⼥性问题”Questions for Discussion and Writing Assignments1. Describe how the cultural and legal codes were against women in the late 19th century and early 20th century in America. Key: In the late 19th century and early 20th century was not free of Victorianism.(1)Under cultural and legal codes with Victorianist connotations in America, a woman was dependent upon a man to the extent that all her creativity was either channeled into making utilitarian goods or raising children. (2)She had little chance to receive education or to become a poet, or painter, or doctor, or lawyer, or take up any self-fulfilling career. Society allowed only the man to make major public and private decisions. (3)In those days, a woman had very few legal rights. She could not vote for national or local politics. Only in half of the states were women allowed to vote in school elections. Legally a woman could not contract just by herself.2. What are Amendments 13, 15, 19 in the American Constitution about? How was Amendment 19 won?Key: Amendment 13 abolished slavery. Amendment 15 in effect made racial discrimination illegal. Amendment 19 in effect affirms that women have the rights to vote.During that time, the women suffrage movement—a movement based on the basic assumption that women should have the same rights to vote as men—fought long and hard. And it was not until 1918—after some women suffrage leaders were imprisoned and then released—that women finally got their voting rights.3. What is the conflict Kate Chopin often depicts in her fiction? How is this theme manifested in the plotline of The Awakening?Key: Her main theme is the conflict between a woman’s need for her personhood and the conventionalized expectation that a wife should revolve around her husband. Stated differentl y, the conflict reflects Chopin’s belief that it is very difficult for men and women to reconcile two different needs they have: the need for them to live as discrete individuals (especially for the woman) on one hand and their need to live in a close relationship on the other.The Awakening focuses on this main theme. It presents the story of Edna Pontellier’s doomed attempt to find her own fulfillment through passion. From the perspective of the Victorianist society at the time, Edna should be happy considering that she is a young married woman, with an indulgent husband and attractive children. But she suffers from a lack of opportunity to achieve self-fulfillment. Neither her father nor her husband has encouraged her individuality.4. What does Edna Pontellier in The Awakening really want?Key: She desires what the Emersonian tradition encourages any American man to aspire. She desires to explore her self-potentials in connection with the world. She aspires for the Over-soul. During a summer vacation, sh e “begins to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her.”Edna’s discontent leads to her adultery and then to suicide.5. Compare the husbands in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Chopin’s The Awakening. How are the cultural codes against women manifested in each case?Key: In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the husband, John, is a doctor who administers the “rest cure” by renting “a colonial mansion” (which she describes as “a hereditary estate” and “a haunted house”) for their stay in the summer. She is confined to the nursery upstairs and is forbidden to be with her child. Under the supervising eye of John’s sister, she cannot write nor do anything creative.In The Awakening, the husband, Leonce does not encourage his wife Edna’s individuality. He indulges but sees her “as a valuable piece of property” and thus mocks her artistic pursuit. He will not allow Edna to be free of the patriarchal restraints for a woman.6. How are the repressive gender codes manifested in the “treatment” of the wife(“I”) in “The Yellow Wallpaper?” To what extent is she a victim of the repressive gender codes and to what extent is she even an accomplice at the beginning?Key: “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a powerful feminist indictment of the norms in a patriarchal culture. It is based on the real experiences of Gilman. ‘T’, the protagonist of the story is a married middle-class woman who has just given birth to a child and is suffering from depression. Her husband, John, is a doctor who administers the “rest cure” by renting “a colonial mansion” for their stay in the summer. She is confined to the nursery upstairs and is forbidden to be with her child. Under the supervising eye of John’s sister, she cannot write nor do anything creative.To a great extent, she is a victim of the repressive gender codes, because that she is confined by her husband and has no freedom to do what she wants to do. However, to some extent, she herself is even an accomplice at the beginning, because that at the beginning she is perfectly sane although depressed, she should try her best to choose the way of her treatment and rebel against the ridiculous confinement by her husband.7. What are the ironies on which “The Yellow Wallpaper” turns?Key: “The Yellow Wallpaper” turns on ironies because that at the beginning the woman is perfectly sane although depressed.A sign of her sanity is that she realizes, as she writes in the diary, that she is not getting well because John is aphysician. As her confinement in the upstairs nursery prolongs for weeks, she gets worse and eventually becomes insane or, to use the right words, becomes a “mad woman.”8. What is the social world in which Edith Wharton lived and about which she wrote?Key: The world in which Edith Wharton was born and got married was the world of plutocratic aristocracy, the wealthy and secure society in New York and its affiliated capitals of American social life.She wrote as an insider of this world and of characters whose lives are modeled after those of “four hundred” prominent families in New York. Thematically, her novels reflect the struggles of the individual members of elite societies (particularly the female members) in their attempts to actualize themselves within the rigid behavioral mores of their class. While she exposes the hypocrisy behind the moral rigidity of “society,” she shows that the life in “society” is the richest to be experienced.9. Who is Mrs. Teddy Wharton? Why is she the formidable rival for Edith Wharton? Key: As a “society lady,” Edith Wharton was Mrs. Teddy Wharton.Because that when she writes, she names herself Edith Wharton, however, as a woman writer, she just cannot write what she wants to write freely. That is to say, she can think freely as Mrs. Teddy Wharton, but she cannot write freely as EdithWharton.10. What are the differences in the love situations depicted in the three majornovels by Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence?Key: The House of Mirth is the story of the lovely Lily Bart who is wellborn but has no money. Being poor spells helplessness in a society where money is the only guarantee of security. Lily Bart’s lover is unable to help her because he is also poor. Lily is then tempted to use her beauty to gain the support of a very rich man.Ethan Frome is a powerful story of illicit love. When Ethan Frome survives the accident that kills his young lover, he is physically and psychologically crippled. What makes the novel a fitting example of Wharton’s fictive skills is that the novel achieves intensity not only in the portrayal of Ethan or his unhappy lover or his unfortunate wife, but in the horror as observed by an outsider who comes from a world where the spiritual effects of such crude poverty are not known.The Age of Innocence pairs the enchanting but unhappily married Countess Olenska with Newland Archer. Olenska would seem to have the means of escape that Lily Bart does not. But Archer proves to be too weak a lover. Even when Olenska and Archer are both free, the latter is too timid to leave the security of New York high society and to take a step toward emotional reality.。
童明《美国文学史》课后习题详解（美国浪漫主义时期）【圣才出品】
童明《美国⽂学史》课后习题详解（美国浪漫主义时期）【圣才出品】第4章美国浪漫主义时期Questions for Discussion and Writing Assignments1. What were the feelings of the new nationhood? What are the connections between nationalism and romanticism?Key: The new nationhood was proud of itself, but as a young country it could not be quite free of a sense of inferiority or “colonial complex” in the face of Europe.Nationalism often goes hand in hand with romanticism. The special psychological make-up of nationalism gives romanticism its own particular characteristics.2. Who are the most accomplished writers in this time period? How differently do they define Americanness?Key: Literary giants such as Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville are the most accomplished writers in this time period. Soon, their achievements would be matched by those from Whitman and Dickinson, among others.3. What are the five characteristics of Romanticism as listed in this chapter? Please discuss each by offering examples from authors you have read in this period. Key: First, romanticism celebrates the triumph of feeling and intuition over reason.And it is suspicious of the rationalist explanations of the universe and human nature by the Enlightenment writers. Since romantic writers placed a higher value on the free expression of emotion and on the power of imagination, they showed greater interests in the psychic states. As a result, characters in romantic stories sometimes showed extremes of sensitivity, such as fear of the dark and the unknown. For example, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” depicts the character’s extremes of sensitivity in a very vivid a nd horrifying way, which arouses the reader feelings of fear.Second, if the Enlightenment had annulled the Middle Ages, romanticism looked back to the Middle Ages with a nostalgic fascination. Also, the “Orient”-especially its “glorious” past-was a source of fascination. Gothic styles, “oriental” styles and other exotic styles were favored by romanticists. For example, Melville wrote several famous works following the exotic styles, such as Typee and Mardi.Third, romanticism exalted the individual over society, thus showing a strong disliking for the bondage of convention and customs. As it is sometimes the contradiction, nostalgia for the past traditions is also a romantic strain. For example, Thoreau left society and went to the Walden Pond to live, there, he wrote his famous work Walden.Fourth, nature is believed to be the source of goodness and the antithesis of society as society is inclined to be corrupt. A related manifestation is the moral enthusiasm exhibited in some romantic writers. For example, Emerson turned hisattention to nature, and thought that nature had the function of healing. He left his Nature for the later generations.Fifth, cultural nationalism-or the proud belief in one’s own cultural genius and heritage-is also a striking characteristic of romanticism. For example, Whitman was devoted himself to express the national spirit of America as a young man. His famous poet “There was a Child Went Forth” is a typical instance.。
美国文学史期末考试复习资料
I.Multiple choice. Please choose the best answer among the four items. (10 x 1’=10’)1.In American literature, the 18th century was the age of Enlightenment. ______ was the2.The short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is taken from Irving’s work named______.3.Which of the following is not the characteristic of American Romanticism?4.The short story “Rip Van Winkle” reveals the ____ attitude of its author.5.Stylistically, Henry James’ fiction is characterized by _____.6.Transcendentalist doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in _____ and Thoreau.7.Which is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”?8.____ is considered Mark Twain’s greatest achievement.9._____ is not among those greatest figures in “Lost Generation”.10.Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing b ecomes lessserious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more ____.1-5，BBACD 6-10 BADCDII.Multiple choice. Please choose the best answer among the four items. (10 x 1’= 10’)11.______ is the father of American Literature.12._____ is a fantasy tale about a man who somehow stepped outside the main stream oflife.13._____ was the most leading spirit of the Transcendental Club.14.Which of following is NOT a typical feature of Mark Twain’s language?15.From Thoreau’s jail experience, came his famous essay, _____ which states his belief thatno man should violate his conscience at the command of a government.A. WaldenB. NatureC. Civil DisobedienceD. Common Sense16.17.Most of the poems in Whitman’s Leaves of Grass sing of the “en-mass” and the ____ as18.What did Fitzgerald call the 1920s?19.Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less20.For Melville, as well as for the reader and ____, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery,an ultimate mystery of the universe.1-5 D A B C C 6-10 A C C D CII. Identify Works as Described Below (1’×15 =15’):1.The novel has a sole black protagonist who tells his own story but whose name inunknown to us.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on theMountains2.The main conflict of the play is the protagonist’s false value of fine appearance andpopularity with people and the cruel reality of the society in which money is everything.a.A Street Car Named Desireb. The Hairy Apec.Long Day’s Journey into Nightd. Death of Salesman3.It is an autobiographical play and Edmund in the play is based on the playwright himself.a. Long Day’s Journey into Nightb. Henderson the Rain Kingc. The Hairy Aped. The Glass Menageries4.The novel tells of how a black man kills a white woman by accident and how the society isresponsible for the murder.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on theMountains5._________ is one of the best works in American literature about the Second World War.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Catcher in the Ryec.The Red Badge of Couraged. The Naked and the Dead6. The novel by Hemingway is the best of its kind about World War I.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Sun Also Risesc.The Old Man and the Sead. The Naked and the Dead7.The novel is about how a family of farmers cannot survive in Oklahoma and travel toCalifornia to seek a living and how they suffer hunger in California.a.The Grapes of Wrathb. U.S. A.c.Babbittd. The Adventures of Augie March8.It is a trilogy including The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money, with suchtechniques as biographies, newsreels and camera eye.a.Babbittb. Light in Augustc. U.S.A.d. The Grapes of Wrath9.It is a novel which uses the stream of consciousness technique and whose title is takenfrom Shakespeare’s Macbeth.a. Absolom, Absolom!b. The Sound and the Furyc.A Farewell to Armsd. The Great Gatsby10. It is a naturalistic work about how a country girl is seduced and how she becomes afamous actress and how her lover falls into a beggar and finally commits suicide.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec. McTeagued.Maggie, A Girl of the Streets11. The novel is set on the Mississippi with the protagonist telling us the story in the localdialect. It is a representative work of local colorism.a.Sister Carrieb.The Adventures of Tom Sawyerc. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnd.The Portrait of a Lady12.The novel is a psychological study of a soldier (Henry Fleming)’s reactions in the CivilWar.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec.The Red Badge of Couraged. McTeague13. The poem is written in free verse in 52 cantos with the theme of the universality andequality in value of all people and all things.a.Cantosb. The Ravenc. Song of Myselfd.Chicago14. The novel is about how a group of people on a whaling ship kill a great whale butthemselves are killed by the whale, with the conflict between man and his fate.a.The Octopusb. Moby-Dickc. The Rise of Silas Laphamd. Leaves of Grass15. It is a philosophical essay in 8 chapters plus an introduction mainly concerned with thefour uses of nature.a. Waldenb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. The American Scholar1-5.cdaad 6-10.aacbb cbbI.Choose the Best Answer for Each of the Following (1’×15=15’):1.An English ship brought 102 people from Plymouth, England on September 16, 1620 andarrived in the present Provincetown harbor on November 21 in the same year. This ship was named ____________.a. The Pilgrimsb. Mayflowerc. Americad. Titanic2._________ is father of American drama and in his dramatic career he wrote 49 plays.a. Tennessee Williamsb. Eugene O’Neillc. Arthur Millerd. Elmer Rice3._________ was the first American writer to write entirely American literature.a. Anne Bradstreetb. Washington Irvingc. Mark Twaind. Ernest Hemingway4. _______ was the leader of American transcendentalism.a. Benjamin Franklinb. Washington Irvingc. Ralph Waldo Emersond. Henry David Thoreau5._______was the greatest woman poet in American literature and she wrote about 1,700 shortlyric poems in her life time.a. Pearl S. Buckb.Harriet Bicher Stowec. Emily Dickensond. Walter Whitman6._________ is father of the detective story and of psychoanalytic criticism.a. Washington Irvingb. Ralph Waldo Emersonc. Walt Whitmand. Edgar Allan Poe7.William Dean Howells is concerned with the middle class life; ______ writes about the upper class society, and Mark Twain deals with the lower class reality.a. Stephen Craneb. Frank Norrisc. Theodore Dreiserd. Henry James8. Which of the following is a naturalistic writer?a. William Dean Howellsb. Mark Twainc. Ernest Hemingwayd.Theodore Dreiser9. His writings are characterized by simple, colloquial language and deep thoughts. He is______.a. Ernest Hemingwayb. William Faulknerc. F. Scott Fitzgeraldd. Mark Twain10. He wrote 18 novels all set in Jefferson Town, Yoknapatwapha County in the deep south.He is ______.a. William Faulknerb. John Steinbeckc. Ernest Hemingwayd. Mark Twain11. ________is Jewish in origin and in many of his novels the American Jews are majorcharacters.a. Sinclair Lewisb. Saul Bellowc. Norman Mailerd. Jerome David Salinger12._________ is often regarded as the greatest American woman poet and she wrote over 1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Anne Bradstreetb. Robert Frostc. H.D.d. Emily Dickinson13.________ is father of American drama and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936.a. John Steinbeckb. William Faulknerc. Euge ne O’Neilld. Arthur Miller14. He was the first black American to write a book about black life with great impact on theconsciousness of the nation and his masterpiece is one of the three classics about black Americans. Who is he?a.Richard Wrightb. Harriet Beecher Stowec. Langston Hughesd. Ralph Ellison15. Hemingway wrote about American compatriots in Europe whereas ________ wrote aboutthe Jazz age, life in American society.a.William Carlos Williamsb. William Faulknerc. John Steinbeckd. F. Scott Fitzgerald 1-5 bbccc 6-10.dddaa 11-15.bdcadI.Choose the Best Answer for Each of the Following (1×15 %):2.The American Civil War broke out in 1861 between the Northern states and the Southstates, which are known respectively as the ______and the______.a. N, Sb. Revolutionaries, Reactionariesc. Union, Confederacyd. Slavery, Anti-Slavery2._____________was praised by the British as the “Tenth Muse in America”.a.Anne Bradstreetb. Edward Taylorc. Thomas Pained. Philip Freneau3.Mark Twain was a representative of ________ in American literature.a. transcendentalismb. naturalismc. local colorismd. imagism4. _______ was the leader of American transcendentalism.a. Benjamin Franklinb. Washington Irvingc. Ralph Waldo Emersond. Henry David Thoreau5.The greatest American poet and the first writer of free verse is ____________.a. Washington Irvingb.Ezra Poundc. Walt Whitmand. Emily Dickinson6._________ is father of the detective story and of psychoanalytic criticism.a. Washington Irvingb. Ralph Waldo Emersonc. Walt Whitmand. Edgar Allan Poe7.Henry James is concerned with the upper class life; ______ writes about the middle class society, and Mark Twain deals with the lower class reality.a. Stephen Craneb. Frank Norrisc. Theodore Dreiserd. William Dean Howells8. Which of the following is a naturalistic writer?a. William Dean Howellsb. Mark Twainc. Ernest Hemingwayd.Theodore Dreiser9. ________’s writings are characterized by simple, colloquial language and deep thoughts.a. Ernest Hemingwayb. William Faulknerc. F. Scott Fitzgeraldd. Mark Twain10. ______ wrote 18 novels all set in Jefferson Town, Yoknapatwapha County in the deepsouth. .a. William Faulknerb. John Steinbeckc. Ernest Hemingwayd. Mark Twain11. ________is Jewish in origin and in many of his novels the American Jews are majorcharacters.a. Sinclair Lewisb. Saul Bellowc. Norman Mailerd. Jerome David Salinger12._________ is often regarded as the greatest American woman poet and she wrote over 1,700 short lyric poems in her life time.a. Anne Bradstreetb. Robert Frostc. H.D.d. Emily Dickinson13.________ is father of American drama and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936.a. John Steinbeckb. William Faulknerc. Eugene O’Neilld. Arthur Miller14. _______ was the first black American to write a book about black life with great impact onthe consciousness of the nation and his masterpiece is one of the three classics about black Americans.b.Richard Wright b. Harriet Beecher Stowec. Langston Hughesd. Ralph Ellison15. ________ first used the “Jazz age” as the title of a collection of short storiesa. F. Scott Fitzgeraldb. William Faulknerc. John Steinbeckd. Ernest Hemingway1-5.caccc 6-10.dddaa 11-15.bdcbaII. Identify Works as Described Below (1×15 %):6.The play is about a stoker whose identity as a human being is not recognized by his fellowhuman beings and who tries to find affinity with a monkey in the zoo and is finally killed by the animal.a. The Hairy Apeb. Henderson the Rain Kingc. Long Day’s Journey into Nightd. The Glass Menageries7.The protagonist in this play is a crippled girl named Amanda.a.A Street Car Named Desireb. The Hairy Apec.Long Day’s Journey into Nightd.The Glass Menageries8.The hero of this novel tells about his own story to us but his name is unknown.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on the Mountains4. It is an autobiographical play and Edmund in the play is based on the playwright himself.a. Long Day’s Journey into Nightb. Henderson the Rain Kingc. The Hairy Aped. The Glass Menageries5.The novel tells of how a black man kills a white woman by accident and how he is finallyarrested and tried and sentenced to death.a.Native Sonb.Uncle Tom’s Cabinc.Invisible Mand. Go Tell It on theMountains6._________ is one of the best works in American literature about the Second World War.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Catcher in the Ryec.The Red Badge of Couraged. The Naked and the Dead6. The novel by Hemingway is the best of its kind about World War I.a.A Farewell to Armsb.The Sun Also Risesc.The Old Man and the Sead. The Naked and the Dead10.The novel is about how a family of farmers cannot survive in Oklahoma and travel toCalifornia to seek a living and how they suffer hunger in California.b.T he Grapes of Wrath b. U.S. A.c.Babbittd. The Adventures of Augie March11.It is a trilogy including The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money, with suchtechniques as biographies, newsreels and camera eye.b.B abbitt b. Light in Augustc. U.S.A.d. The Grapes of Wrath12.It is a novel which uses the stream of consciousness technique and whose title is takenfrom Shakespeare’s Macbeth.a. Absolom, Absolom!b. The Sound and the Furyc.A Farewell to Armsd. The Great Gatsby10. It is a naturalistic work about how a country girl is seduced and elopes with Hurstwoodand how she becomes a famous actress and how her lover falls into beggary and finally commits suicide.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec. McTeagued.Maggie, A Girl of the Streets11. It is a novel with 135 chapters plus an epilog; in it a group of people on a whaling ship killa great whale but they themselves are killed by the whale in the end, except Ishmael thenarrator who survives by adhering to a coffin.b.Sister Carrie b.The Adventures of Tom Sawyerc. Moby Dickd. The Portrait of a Lady12.The novel is a psychological study of a soldier (Henry Fleming)’s reactions in the Civil War,in which wound is called the red badge which symbolizes courage.a.An American Tragedyb. Sister Carriec.The Red Badge of Couraged. McTeague13. The poem is written in free verse in 52 cantos with the theme of the universality andequality in value of all people and all things.a.Cantosb. The Ravenc. Song of Myselfd.Chicago14. The novel is about how a man falls economically and socially but who rises morallybecause he gives up the opportunity to sell his factory to an English Syndicate, which would otherwise mean a ruin to that syndicate.a.The Octopusb. The Rise of Silas Laphamc. Moby-Dickd. Leaves of Grass15. It is a speech delivered at Harvard University. It is often hailed as the “declaration ofintellectual independence” in America.a. The American Scholarb. Naturec. The Scarlet Letterd. Walden1-5.adcad 6-10.aacbb cbaII. Match the following (1×20%)A. Match Works with Their Authors1.Hugh Selwyn Mauberly2.Walden3. Autobiography4. The Scarlet Letter5.Leaves of Grass6.The Raven7. The Rise of Silas Lapham8. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer9. Long Day’s Journey into Night10. The Old Man and the Seaa.Mark Twain b . Ernest Hemingwayc. Eugene O’Neilld. William Dean Howellse. Edgar Allan Poef. Walt Whitmang. Nathaniel Hawthorne h. Benjamin Franklini.Henry David Thoreau j. Ezra Poundk.Thomas Jefferson l. T.S. EliotB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear.1.Hester Prynne2.Mrs. Touchett3.Frederick Henry4.Benjy Compson5.the Joads6.General Edward Cummings7.Holden Caulfield 7.Bigger Thomas8.Yank 9.Happya.The Portrait of a Ladyb. The Scarlet Letterc. The Hairy Aped. A Farewell to Armse.The Sound and the Furyf. The Grapes of Wrathg. The Naked and the Deadh. The Catcher in the Ryei. Native Sonj. Death of a Salesmank.Invisible Manl.Catch-22A. Match Works with Their Authors1-5.jihgf 6-10.edccbB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear. 1-5.badef 6-10.ghicjIII. Match the following (1’×20=20’)A. Match works with their authors1.Nature2.Rip Van Winkle3. Nature4. The Scarlet Letter5.Leaves of Grass6.The Raven7. The Rise of Silas Lapham8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn9. Cantos10. The Old Man and the Seaa.Ezra Poundb. Ernest Hemingwayc. Mark Twaind. William Dean Howellse. Edgar Allan Poef. Walt Whitmang. Nathaniel Hawthorne h. Ralph Waldo Emersoni.Washington Irving j. Waldo Emersonk.T.S. Eliot l. Robert FrostB. Match characters with the works in which they appear.2.Captain Ahab and Starbuck 2.Isabel Archer3.Frederic Henry and Catherine4.Benjy Compson5.the Joads6.General Edward Cummings7.Holden Caulfield 8.Bigger Thomas9.The Tyrones 10.Willy Lomana.The Portrait of a Ladyb. Moby-Dickc. Death of a Salesmand. A Farewell to Armse.The Sound and the Furyf. The Grapes of Wrathg. The Naked and the Dead h. The Catcher in the Ryei. Native Son j. Long Day’s Journey into Nightk.Absalom, Absalom l. The Old Man and the SeaA. Match Works with Their Authors1-5.jihgf 6-10.edcabB. Match the Characters with the works in which they appear.1-5.badef 6-10.edcabV. Essay Questions (30%; c hoose only ONE of the following three topics and write a short essay of at least 200 words. Note: [1]Your essay should have at least 2 paragraphs; you are not simply to make a list of facts.[2] You may give a title to your essay, but you are required to indicate which of the 3 topics it belongs to. [3]You are not to write on a topic of your own.1.To the best of your knowledge, analyze and make comments on Emerson’s Naturement on any American poet you like.3.Analyze and/or comment on any one of the American novels or plays you have read.V. Essay Questions (30%; c hoose only ONE of the following three topics and write a shortessay of at least 200 words. Note: [1]Your essay should have at least 2 paragraphs; you arenot simply to make a list of facts.[2] You may give a title to your essay, but you are requiredto indicate which of the 3 topics it belongs to. [3]You are not to write on a topic of yourown.)4.Make comments on an American novel we have discussed in this course.ment on an American poet.6.Describe how your knowledge of American literature is improved after taking thiscourse..IV. Please answer the following questions briefly. (2 x 10’ = 20’)1.Why do people think Franklin is the embodiment of American dream?2.What is “Lost Generation”?V. Discussion. (1 x 20’ = 20’)State your own interpretations of Hemingway’s iceberg theory of writing?IV. Please answer the following questions briefly. (2 x 10’ = 20’)3.Wha t is Hawthorne’s style? Explain the style with examples.4.At the end of the 19th century, there were three fighters for Realism. Who are they?What are their differences?________True or False. (10 x 2’= 20’)1. American literature is the oldest of all national literature.2. Thomas Jefferson was the only American to sign the 4 documents that created the US.3. All his literary life, Hawthorne seemed to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil.4. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass are about human psychology.5. Hurstwood is a character in Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.6. Faulkner’s region was the Deep North, with its bitter history of slavery, civil war and destruction.7. Placed in historical perspective, Howells is found lacking in qualities and depth. But anyhow he is a literaryfigure worthy of notice.8. Faulkner’s works have been termed the Yoknapatawpha Saga, “one connected story”.9. As a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematical.10. Emily Dickinson expr esses her deep love in the poem “Annabel Lee”.1-5 F F T F F 6-10 F F T F FII. Decide whether the statements are True or False. (10 x 2’= 20’)1. Early in the 17th century, the English settlements in Virginia and began the main stream of what we recognize as the American national history.2. American Romantic writers avoided writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements.3. As a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematical.4. “Young Goodman Brown” wants to prove everyone possesses kindness in heart.5. Henry James was a realist in the same way as one views the realism of Twain or Howells.6. The American realists sought to describe the wide range of American experience and to present the subtleties of human personality.7. Frost’s concern with nature reflected his deep moral uncertainties.8. Faulkner’s works have been termed the Yoknapatawpha Saga, “one connected story”.9. Roger Chillingworth is a character in Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.10. After the Civil War, the Frontier was closing. Disillusionment and frustration were widely felt. What had been expected to be a “Golden Age” turned to be a “Gilded” one.1-5 T F T F T 6-10 F T T F TIII. Please explain the follo wing terms. (5 x 6’ = 30’)1. Puritanism2. Free verse3. International novel: 4．Romanticism 5. Naturalism 6. American Realism 7.American Naturalism Modernism Imagism1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.2.Free verse: It is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length and that attempts toavoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it uses the cadences of natural speech.3.International novel: IN brings together persons of various nationalities who representcertain characteristics of their own countries.4.Naturalism: It views human beings as animals in the natural world responding toenvironmental forces and internal stresses and drives, over none of which they havecontrol and none of which they fully understand. The literary naturalists have a majordifference from the realists. They look at a different spot to find real life.III. Please explain the following terms. (5 x 6’ = 30’)1. Puritanism2. international novel3. the lost generation4. free verse5.American transcendentalism Hemingway heroes1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.2.international novel: IN brings together persons of various nationalities who representcertain characteristics of their own countries.3.the lost generation: reveals the huge destruction of the wars to the young generation. Itdescribes the Americans who remained in Paris as a colony of “expatriates”. They werelost in disillusionment.4.free verse: It is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length and that attempts toavoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it uses the cadences of natural speech.5.transcendentalism: It stressed the power of intuition, believing that people could learnthings both from the outside world by means of the five senses and from the inner worldby intuition. It took nature as symbolic of spirit or God. All things in nature were symbolsof the spiritual, of God’s presence. It emphasized the significance of the individual andbelieved that the individual was the most important element in society and that the idealkind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish. Transcendentalists envisioned religion asan emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal “Oversoul”.。
(0097)美国文学史复习思考题
（0097）《美国文学史》复习思考题I. Write out the authors’ names of the following works. (15)1. Poor Richard’s Almanac2. The Wasteland3. The Pioneers4. The Leaves of Grass5. Go Tell it on the Mountain6. For Whom the Bell Tolls?7. Catch 22 8. Of Mice and Men9. The Sound and the Fury 10.Huck Finn11. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 12. The Old Man and the Sea13. Mending Walls 14. Beloved15. Invisible Man 16. Beyond the Horizons17. Of Mice and Men 18. The Raven19. The Great Gatsby 20. The Streetcar Named Desire21. Rip van Winkle 22. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 23. The Scarlet Letter 24. Moby Dick25. Desire Under the Elms 26. The Gilded Age27. The Sound and Fury 28. The Road Not Taken29. The Death of a Salesman 30. The Pathfinder31. Walden 32. Daisy Miller33. Song of Myself 34. The Call of the Wild35. Martin Eden 36. Long Day’s Journey into NightII. Define the following literary terms. (20)1. Beat Generation2. Protagonist3. Biography4. Novel5. Anti-hero6. Free Verse7. Drama 8. Jazz Age9. Biography 10. Blank Verse11. Black Humor 12. Head Rhyme13. Surprise ending 14. Transcendentalism15. Imagery 16. Stream of Consciousness17. Lost Generation 18. Short storyIII. Give brief answers to the following questions. (15)1.Who is the father of American literature?2.Who is the father of American poetry?3.What is Poe’s theory concerning poetry?4.What is Poe’s theory concerning the short story?5.What are the major characteristics of Twain’s writing style?6.What are the major characteristics of Irving’s writing style?7.What is “black humor?8.What is the Harlem Renaissance?9.What is the New England Renaissance?10.What are the major characteristics of colonial American literature?11.What is the Lost Generation?12.What are Benjamin Franklin’s contributions to American culture?13.Why is colonial American literature neither American nor literary?14.What is the Jazz Age?15.What is American transcendentalism?16.What is imagism?17.What is O. Henry Ending?18.What is free verse?IV. Read the following poem and try to understand and explain it. (30)FogTHE FOG comesOn little cat feet.It sits lookingOver harbor and cityOn silent haunchesAnd then moves onIn a Station of the Metro(Ezra Pound)The Apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.(Consult your book)The Road Not Taken(By Robert Frost)TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair, Though as for that, the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference. (Consult your book)Dreams(by Langston Hughes)Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.(Consult your book)（0097）《美国文学史》复习思考题答案I. Write out the authors’ names of the following works. (15)Benjamin Franklin T. S. EliotJames Cooper Walt WhitmanJames Baldwell Ernest HemingwayJoseph Heller John SteinbeckWilliam Faulkner Mark TwainWashington Irving Ernest HemingwayRobert Frost Toni MorrisonRalph Ellison Eugene O’NeillJohn Steinbeck Allan PoeF. Scott Fitzgerald Tennessee WilliamsWashington Irving Robert FrostNathaniel Hawthorne Herman MelvilleEugene O’Neill Mark TwainWilliam Faulkner Robert FrostArthur Miller James CooperH. D. Thoreau Henry JamesWhitman Jack LondonJack London O’NeillII. Define the following literary terms. (20)Beat generation: The term was coined by Jack Kerouac in 1948 to refer to a group of disillusioned writers following World War Two. Later, this literary and cultural movement continued into the 1960s. The Beat Generation must not be confused with the Lost Generation of writers. Spokesmen and representatives of the Beat Generation were Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and others. They revolted against an America that was materialistic, belligerent and frustrating. Social, intellectual and sexual freedom was advocated. Traditional culture and normal social behavior were attacked and violated. Many of them were drug addicts wearing long hair and dirty clothes. They were fond of slangs and jazz. Masterpieces created by writers of this group include Kerouac’s On the Road and Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, which were regarded as pocket Bibles of that generation. Other prominent Beats include William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, and Neal Cassady. The Beat Generation, had greatly influenced the countercultural movements of the 1960s and the adolescents and adults in other countries. In England, the “angry young men” made an echo and imitated the American “beatnik.”Protagonist: the principal character in a play or story; the central character who serves as a focus for the work’s themes and incidents and as the principal rationale for its development; and one who is opposed to the antagonist. In the beginning of ancient Greek drama, there were only a chorus and one actor—the leader of the chorus. Thespis invented the first actor. Then Aeschylus and Sophocles added the second andthird actors to the tragedy respectively. The three actors were names Protagonist, Deuteragonist and Tritagonist. In discussions of modernliterature, the protagonist is sometimes referred to as the hero or anti-hero. Biography:an account of a person’s life written by somebody else, or biographical writing as a form of literature.Novel: Generally speaking, it is an imaginative prose narrative of extended length dealing with fictional characters and events. The constituent elements of a novel include plot, character, conflict, and setting. But there can be exceptions. Some novels are short. Some novels are not fictional. Some novels are in verse. And some novels do not even tell a story. There have been many debates over the appropriate length of a novel. No established length for a novel has been agreed upon. It is generally held, however, that a full-length novel is longer than a novella or short novel, and a short novel is longer than a shot story. A novel should be long enough so as to appear in print in an independent volume. The great length of a novel makes it possible for the characters and themes in it to be developed more fully and subtly. Antihero: a main character in a story, novel, play or film who behaves in a completely different way from what people expect a hero to do. A non-hero is without the qualities and features of a traditional or old-fashioned hero. He is doomed to fail. Antiheroes of early days were Don Quixote, Macbeth, Rip Van Winkle, and Tristram Shandy. Examples of antiheroes in modern literature include Leopold Bloom, Jim Dixon, Jimmy Porter, Herzog, and Yassarian.Free verse:a form of poetry without rhyme, meter, regular line length, and regular stanzaic structure. It depends on natural speech for rhythm. Robert Frost compared it to “playing tennis with the net down.” Though much simpler and less restrictive than conventional poetry and blank ver se, free verse does no mean “formlessness.” T. S. Eliot once said that “no verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.” Though its origin is unknown, it was attempted by such early poets as Surrey, Milton, Blake, and Macpherson. It was Whitman who did the greatest contribution to the development and popularity of free verse. Whitman favored the simplicity and freedom of expression. According to him, “The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of light of letters is simplicity. Noting is better than simplicity.”Drama: a form of literature written for actors to perform. A drama is divided into acts. An act can be subdivided into scenes. The constituent elements of a drama include dialogue, plot, characters, setting, stage direction, and others. A drama can be as long as three parts called trilogy, or as short as one act only. Greek drama originated in religious ceremonial in honor of Dionysus. Medieval drama developed out of rites celebrating the life events of Jesus Christ. Dramatists of great importance in literary history include Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Shaw. In America, the firs important dramatist was Eugene O’Neill who wrote the first serious plays. Before O’Neill, America had theatre. Starting from O’Neill, it began to have drama.Jazz age: Jazz is a form of dance music that is derived from early Afro-American folk music, ragtime, and Negro blues. It is marked with exciting rhythm, pronounced syncopation, and constant improvisation. The musical instruments used are mainly drums, trumpets, and saxophones. Major composers of Jazz music include Irvin Berlin and W. C. Handy. The term Jazz Age was specifically employed by Fitzgerald to denote the 1920s, which was characterized by the loss of traditional moral standards, indulgence in romantic yearnings, and great social excitement. According to Malcolm Cowley, the Jazz Age was “a legend of glitter, of recklessness, and of talent in such profusion that it was sown broadcast like wild oats.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age, like Mark Twain’s The Gilded Age, was an epoch-making work. Autobiography: a story a writer writes about his or her own life experiences. It is narrated from the first-person point of view. The term was probably first used by Southey. But the first important autobiography was Confessions written by Augustine of Hippo. Other examples include Franklin’s Autobiography, Adams’s The Education of Henry Adams, John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography, Carlyle’s Reminiscences, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, and so on. Sometimes, an autobiography can be fictionalized. An example of this kind is Rousseau’s Confessions. Some novels and long poems are used for autobiography. Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Wordsworth’s The Prelude fall in this category. Dickens’s David Copperfield, Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers and O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night have strong autobiographical elements in them.Blank verse:poetry that does not rhyme but has iambic pentameter lines. Though not originated in England or America, it has been the most important and most widely used English verse form. Blank verse is popular because it is closest to the rhythm of daily English speech. Thus most English poems which are dramatic, reflective or narrative are in the form of blank verse. This verse was probably first used in England by Surrey who translated Aeneid, by Sackville and Norton who composed Gorboduc. It was developed and perfected by Marlowe, Shakespeare and Milton. In the 18th century, most poets favored heroic couplets. But Young and Thomson were able to write in the tradition of blank verse. The 19th century saw a renewed interest in this poetic form. Masters of blank verse included Wordsworth, Coleridge and Bryant. The fact that blank verse is still practiced by writers like T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Frost and Stevens shows how influential and favorable it really is.Black humor: a term frequently used in modern literary criticism. It is sometimes called ‘black comedy’ or ‘tragic farce.’ It is humor or laughter resulting from great pain, despair, horror and the absurdity of human existence. Black humor is a common quality of modern anti-novels and anti-dramas. Examples are Franz Kafka’s stories like “Metamorphosis”, “The Castle” and “The Trial”, Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22and Albee’s The Zoo Story.Other writers who did much contribution to the popularity of black humor were Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, Vonnegut, Pynchon and so on.Head rhyme:the use in verse or prose of several words close together which all begin with the same letter. It is done for special musical effect comparable to the effects of end rhyme. In most cases, alliteration is the repetition of identical initial consonant sounds. Examples are Pope’s “For fools rush in where ange ls fear to tread,” Poe’s “The weary, wayworn wanderer bore,” and Coleridge’s “Five miles meandering with a mazy motion.” Alliteration of initial vowels is quite limitedin number. An example of vowel alliteration is “It is impossible to enjoy idling thorou ghly unless one has plenty of work to do.”Surprise Ending:Also called “O. Henry ending,” it is a completely unexpected turn or revelation of events at the conclusion of a story or play. An example is “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. Another instance is O. Henry’s story “The Gift of the Magi.”III. Give brief answers to the following questions. (15)19.Who is the father of American literature? (Consult your book)20.Who is the father of American poetry? (Consult your book)21.What is Poe’s theory concerning poe try? (Consult your book)22.What is Poe’s theory concerning the short story? (Consult your book)23.What are the major characteristics of Twain’s writing style? (Consult yourbook)24.What are the major characteristics of Irving’s writing style? (Consult yourbook)25.What is “black humor? (Consult your book)26.What is the Harlem Renaissance? (Consult your book)27.What is the New England Renaissance? (Consult your book)28.What are the major characteristics of colonial American literature? (See yourbook)29.What is the Lost Generation? (Consult your book)30.What are Benjamin Franklin’s contributions to American culture? (See your book)31.Why is colonial American literature neither American nor literary? (See yourbook)32.What is the Jazz Age? (Consult your book)33.What is American transcendentalism? (Consult your book)34.What is imagism? (Consult your book)35.What is O. Henry Ending? (Consult your book)36.What is free verse? (Consult your book)IV. Read the following poem and try to understand and explain it. (30)FogTHE FOG comesOn little cat feet.It sits lookingOver harbor and cityOn silent haunchesAnd then moves on(An imagist poem by Carl Sandburg; depicting the fog and its movement; free verse written in the tradition of Whiman.)In a Station of the Metro(Ezra Pound)The Apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.( a poem of the Imagist school, written by Ezra Pound.)The Road Not Taken(By Robert Frost)TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,Though as for that, the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.(A poem by Robert Frost. It is about the difficulty of making a choice.)Dreams(by Langston Hughes)Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.(Consult your book)（注：可编辑下载，若有不当之处，请指正，谢谢!）。
童明《美国文学史》(增订版)笔记和课后习题答案考研资料
童明《美国文学史》（增订版）笔记和课后习题（含考研真题）详解完整版>精研学习网>无偿试用20％资料全国547所院校视频及题库资料考研全套>视频资料>课后答案>往年真题>职称考试目录隐藏第1部分早期美国文学：殖民时期至1815年第1章“新世界”的文学1.1复习笔记1.2课后习题答案1.3考研真题和典型题详解第2章殖民地时期的美国文学：1620-17632.1复习笔记2.2课后习题答案2.3考研真题和典型题详解第3章文学与美国革命：1764-18153.1复习笔记3.2课后习题答案3.3考研真题和典型题详解第2部分美国浪漫主义时期：1815-1865第4章美国浪漫主义时期4.1复习笔记4.2课后习题答案4.3考研真题和典型题详解第5章早期浪漫主义5.1复习笔记5.2课后习题答案5.3考研真题和典型题详解第6章超验主义和符号表征6.1复习笔记6.2课后习题答案6.3考研真题和典型题详解第7章霍桑、麦尔维尔和坡7.1复习笔记7.2课后习题答案7.3考研真题和典型题详解第8章惠特曼和狄金森8.1复习笔记8.2课后习题答案8.3考研真题和典型题详解第9章文学分支：反对奴隶制的写作9.1复习笔记9.2课后习题答案9.3考研真题和典型题详解第3部分美国现实主义时期：1865-1914第10章现实主义时期10.1复习笔记10.2课后习题答案10.3考研真题和典型题详解第11章地区和地方色彩写作11.1复习笔记11.2课后习题答案11.3考研真题和典型题详解第12章亨利詹姆斯和威廉迪恩豪威尔斯12.1复习笔记12.2课后习题答案12.3考研真题和典型题详解第13章自然主义文学13.1复习笔记13.2课后习题答案13.3考研真题和典型题详解第14章女性作家书写“女性问题”14.1复习笔记14.2课后习题答案14.3考研真题和典型题详解第4部分美国现代主义时期：1914-1945第15章美国现代主义15.1复习笔记15.2课后习题答案15.3考研真题和典型题详解第16章现代主义的演变16.1复习笔记16.2课后习题答案16.3考研真题和典型题详解第17章欧洲的美国现代主义17.1复习笔记17.2课后习题答案17.3考研真题和典型题详解第18章两次世界大战间的现代小说18.1复习笔记18.2课后习题答案18.3考研真题和典型题详解第19章现代美国诗歌19.1复习笔记19.2课后习题答案19.3考研真题和典型题详解第20章非裔美国小说和现代主义20.1复习笔记20.2课后习题答案20.3考研真题和典型题详解第5部分多元化的美国文学：1945年至新千年第21章新形势下的多元化文学21.1复习笔记21.2课后习题答案21.3考研真题和典型题解析第22章美国戏剧：三大剧作家22.1复习笔记22.2课后习题答案22.3考研真题和典型题详解第23章主要小说家：1945年至60年代23.1复习笔记23.2课后习题答案23.3考研真题和典型题详解第24章1945年以来的诗学倾向24.1复习笔记24.2课后习题答案24.3考研真题和典型题详解第25章20世纪60年代以来的小说发展状况25.1复习笔记25.2课后习题答案25.3考研真题和典型题详解第26章当代多民族文学和小说26.1复习笔记26.2课后习题答案26.3考研真题和典型题详解第27章美国文学的全球化：流散作家27.1复习笔记27.2课后习题答案27.3考研真题和典型题详解内容简介隐藏作为该教材的学习辅导书，全书完全遵循该教材的章目编排，共分27章，每章由三部分组成：第一部分为复习笔记（中英文对照），总结本章的重点难点；第二部分是课后习题详解，对该书的课后思考题进行了详细解答；第三部分是考研真题与典型题详解，精选名校经典考研真题及相关习题，并提供了详细的参考答案。
童明《美国文学史》课后习题详解(自然主义文学)【圣才出品】
第13章自然主义文学Questions for Discussion and Writing Assignments1. Explain how the Darwinian belief in naturalism is opposed to the Christian creationist view.Key: The Darwinist belief that humans are highly evolved animals is opposed to the Christian creationist view that humans exists below angels and above animals.2. What is the determinist view of existence that informs naturalism? What are the implications of this view on ethics?Key: The existence of a human person is limited by where and when he or she is born and restricted by the socioeconomic forces he or she has to wrestle with. Only the fittest survives in the life struggle.Because freedom of will does not exist, ethical choices are illusory. Naturalism thus eliminates the ethical problem that lies at the heart of the realist novel. Since human behavior is determined, it cannot be judged in terms of right or wrong, good or bad.3. Hamlin Garland’s announcement of a naturalist break from realism in Crumbling Idols offered a new theory called “veritism.” This announcement ornew theory shows that Garland stands opposed to Howells’ theory of realism. Explain their differences.Key: Howells was concerned with a faithful representation of reality as he saw it, but in doing so he limited the range of pessimistic material by conventional standards of taste and ethics. He was also restrained in matters of sexuality.While, Hamlin Garland raised issues that Howells avoided. He proposed that American fiction should explore truth for its underlying meaning and that it should deal with the unpleasant as well as pleasant aspects of life. The veritist, Garland suggested, should picture the ugly and warfare and, at the same time, conjure up the picture of beauty and peace.4. What is Stephen Crane’s fictional world like in general? In what sense is it naturalistic?Key: Crane’s fictional world is governed by a God who is either indifferent to humanity or is unable to intervene in human affairs. The characters subsist in the struggles of life and in the midst of violence. The author observes them with pessimistic detachment but offers psychological insights about them; in the latter respect, Crane was a decade or so ahead of his time.A distinct character trait in Crane’s fiction is how he, through the effect of fear, reveals the horror of war, depicts irrational human responses to the condition of life, exposes poverty, as well as the associated vices and unprovoked cruelty. In short, his depiction of fear compels the reader to look at themeaninglessness of life. Therefore, it reflects the naturalistic feature of his works.5. How did Crane’s career as a journalist help him as a fiction writer?Key: Crane’s career as a fiction writer paralleled his career as a newspaper reporter, which explains why his narration is objective, his observation and his time-sequence accurate. Also reflecting his experience as a journalist are the swift impressions he uses to introduce events and characters.6. Give an example to illustrate that the “reality effects” in Crane’s fiction are often included to enhance the allegorical.Key: “The Open Boat” is an allegorical tale. It tells of four survivors from a sunken gun-runner—the captain, an oiler, a cook and a correspondent—who are in the same boat rowing towards the Florida coast. This open boat is metaphorical for the humanity in the same boat. The sea, which stands for nature, is indifferent but not hostile. Everyone in the boat is aware of the possibility of death. But a sense of brotherhood grows among them. Just when they are about to land, the boat capsizes. The young and able oiler shows a quiet heroism that is ironically rewarded with death.7. What are the common elements in Red Badge of Courage and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets? And what is being mocked in each of the two?Key: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and The Red Badge of Courage have a greatdeal in common.(1) Both are impressionistic studies of elemental fear, one associated with shame, the other with the failure of courage in military combat.(2) Each portrays a young person facing a crisis in life.(3) Each presents the color and movement of circumstances from without and the psychological and emotional forces from within.(4) Not insignificantly, Maggie Johnson and Henry Fleming are both portrayed in their first encounter with death.In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the point of the story, through the ironies, is its mockery of the theory that possessing moral qualities superior to one’s environmental situation can enhance one’s survival. The irony of The Red Badge of Courage turns on the fact that Fleming’s fear first leads to his “cowardly” flight and then ends with his “heroic” attack.8. What is Frank Norfis’s own explanation of his fiction? Why then would critics link him with Crane as naturalists? What is naturalistic about McTeague and The Octopus?Key: What is striking about Norris’s explanation of his fiction is that he denied any kinship with realism and defined himself in the tradition of “romance.”Because that his “romance” clearly shows the naturalist characteristics: pessimism of human existence in the short run; genetic determinism; Darwinist view of nature which is inclusive of sex, growth, hunger, environment; the naturallaws of economic forces. In 1899, three years after Maggie was published, Norris’s McTeague appeared. It was then that critics linked Crane and Norris as naturalists.McTeague tells of how an unschooled and crude San Francisco dentist, due to envious rivalry, fate and greed, bludgeoned his young wife to death. The story ends with the lurid double death of McTeague and his rival Marcus. The Octopus is an epic of the far West, although flawed by inconsistencies. Through several intertwined narratives, it tells the struggle between speculative California wheat farmers and the railroad. The greed on both sides and relentless economic forces result in tragic endings.9. In what sense is Jack London a writer of romance? And in what sense is he a naturalist?Key: London used the romantic fiction to preach the radicalism of his day—a combination of evolutionist theory and the vision of a classless society. His form—romantic fiction—was a main reason for his popularity. With the form, he personified to his magazine readers the romantic impulse of the new century which was naive yet vigorous.There is a general determinist overtone in his themes, namely, men and women are more evolved animals whose behavior is determined by laws of nature. In life, the fittest thrive and individual claims on life must be subjected to the survival of the human species. For the purpose of survival, animals, inclusiveof humans, can regress from the level of their current evolution to more primitive levels. Humans can act like beasts. These naturalist themes came from Jack London’s reading of Darwin, Marx, Herbert Spencer and Nietzsche. He was a declared Spencerian evolutionist and Marxist-socialist.10. Describe brie y the three “animals” in The Call of the Wild, White Fang and The Sea Wolf.Key: (1) The animal in The Call of the Wild is a dog named Buck. Buck is taken to the Alaskan Klondike where, in the wilderness, he must retrieve ancient instincts in order to survive. Buck answers and becomes the call of the wild. Through his fights he comes to be the head of a pack of wolves.(2) The animal in White Fang is a little puppy from Alaska, half wolf and halfdog. He is taken to be domesticated and has to bear the pains of being “civilized.”(3)The Sea Wolf is about the human wolf, so to speak. Captain Wolf Larsonwants to force Humphrey Van Weyden to discover his “manhood” and subjects him to a brutal but vitalizing education. Larson is killed by Weyden when the latter discovers his manhood.11. What is the main naturalist theme in Dreiser’s fiction? How does the pursuit ofsexual gratification acquire a naturalist undertone?Key: A major theme in Dreiser’s fiction is that men and women will, according。
美国文学思考题
Basic Literary KnowledgeI.Literary Terms1. Short story: A fictional prose tale of no specified length, but too short to be published as avolume on its own. A short story will normally concentrate on a single event with only one or two characters, more economically than a novel‘s sustained exploration of social background.The short story flourished in the magazines of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the USA.2. Plot: Plot is the first and most obvious quality of a story. Plot is what happens in a story.Unlike life, which is random and unpredictable, the story will usually be shaped by a chain of events, one leading inevitably to another in a line of rising action to a moment of crisis—the climax.3. Nonfiction: It refers to any prose narrative that tells about things as they actually happen orthat presents factual information about something. Autobiography and biography are among the major forms of nonfiction. The purpose of this kind writing is to give a presumably accurate accounting of a person‘s life. Essays are also common forms of nonfiction. Other kinds of nonfiction include the stories, editorials, and letters to the editor found in newspapers, as well as diaries, journals and travel literature.4. Imagery:It is the representation in poetry of sensory experiences. It is a device by whichpoets appeal to our senses. Although we usually think with words, many of our thoughts come to us as pictures or imagined sensations in our minds. Such imagined pictures or sensations are called images.5. Character: Characters are the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work. In order tohave a full understanding of a character‘s moral, dispositional and emotional qualities, the readers need to interpret what they say and what they do.6. Surrealism:It is a literary and art movement influenced by Freudianism, dedicated toexpressing the imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious control of reason and convention. In literature, surrealism was confined almost exclusively to France, and was based on the associations and implications of words. Surrealism was a major intellectual force between the wars.7. Theatre of absurdity: It is a term used to identify a body of plays written primarily inFrance from the mid-1940s through the 1950s. the plays usually employ illogical situations, unconventional dialogues, and minimal plots to express the apparent absurdity of human existence. The leading figures of the movement are Irish-born playwright Samuel Beckett and the French playwright Eugen Ionesco.8. Deconstruction: it is the method of analyzing literature that seeks to uncover multiple layersof meaning, including the author‘s intentions and other meanings that are based on how the same language, images, or ideas have been used before. The leading figure is the French philosopher Jacques Derrida.II.Fill in the blanks.1.American achievements in the short story have demanded international respect andadmiration for more than a century and a half. The first successful Americ an short stories came from Washington Irving in the early 19th century.2.Edgar Allan Poe is generally thought of as the true beginner of the short stories becausehe was the first writer who formulated a poetics of the short stories.3.In the 20th century, there have been many who have won fame abroad as well as in the USfor their short stories: Sherwood Anderson, Hemingway Faulkner, Anna Porter,and dozens of others.4.As you read from writer to writer, from Washington Irving‘s ‗Rip Van Winkle‘toO’Connner‘s ‗A Good Man is Hard to Find‘, you will see the coming of a short story age, growing from an entertaining tale into a story which probes deep into human souls.5.Modern literary fiction has been dominated by two forms: the short story and the novel.6.Washington Irving, the Father of American Literature, developed the short story as agenre in American literature.7.Allan Poe is usually acknowledged as the originator of detective stories. He is alsocredited with developing many of the standard features of detective fiction.III.Multiple choice1.Edgar Allan Poe wrote poems which are marvels of beauty and craftsmanship, such as____.A. I Hear America SingingB. The RavenC. To a waterfowlD. The fall of the House of Usher2.The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the___.A. revolutionismB. reasonC. individualismD. rationalism3.In American literature, the 18th century was the Age of the Enlightenment, ___ was thedominant spirit.A. humanismB. rationalismC. revolutionD. evolution4.Who was considered the ―Poet of American Revolution‖?A. Michael WigglesworthB. Edward TaylorC. Anne BradstreetD. Philip Freneau5.Thomas Jefferson‘s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness,is typical of the period we now call___.A. Age of EvolutionB. Age of ReasonC. Age of RomanticismD. Age of Regionalism6.Mark Twain created, in _____, a masterpiece of American realism that is also one of thegreat books of world literature.A. Huckleberry FinnB. Tom SawyerC. The Man That Corrupted HadleyburyD. The Gilded Age7.The pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervaded the works of suchAmerican writers as___.A. Mark TwainB. Scott FitzgeraldC. Walt WhitmanD. Stephen Crane8.Although realism and naturalism were products of the 19th century, their final triumphcame in the 20th century, with the popular and critical successes of such writers as Edwin Arlington, William Cather, Robert Frost, William Faulkner and_____.A. Edgar Allan PoeB. Sherwood AndersonC. Washington IrvingD. Ralph Ellison9.American literature produced only one female poet during the 19th century. She was___.A. Anne BradstreetB. Jane AustenC. Emily DickinsonD. Harried Beecher10.With Howells, James and Mark Twain active on the scene, ____ became the major trend inthe seventies and eighties of the 19th century.A. sentimentalismB. romanticismC. realismD. naturalism11.Choose from the following writers a staunch advocate of the 19th century Americanrealism.A. Mark TwainB. Washington IrvingC. Stephen CraneD. Jack London12.Which writer has naturalist tendency?A. Frank NorrisB. William Dean HowellsC. Theodore DreiserD. Both A and C13.Early in the 20th century, ____ published works that would change the nature of Americanpoetry.A. Ezra PoundB. T.S. EliotC. Robert FrostD. Both A and B14.The Imagist writers followed three principles. They respectively are direct treatment,economy of expression and ____.A. local colorB. ironyC. clear rhythmD. blank verse15.____, one of the essays in The Sacred Wood, is the earliest statement of T.S. Eliot‘saesthetics, which provided a useful instrument for modern criticism.A. ‗Sweeny Agonistes‘B. ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’C. ‗A Primer of Modern Heresy‘D. ‗Gerention‘16.T.S Eliot used a form, that is, the orchestration of related themes in successivemovements, in such works as ____.A. The Waste LandB. ‗A Rose for Emily‘C. The Scarlet LetterD. The Egg17.T.S. Eliot‘s first major poem (1917)____, has been called the first masterpieces ofmodernism in English.A. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’B. ‗The Waste Land‘C. ‗Four Quartets‘D. Prelude18.The three poets Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and ____ opened the way to modern poetry.A. O. HenryB. Henry David ThoreauC. E.E. CummingsD. Robert Frost19.In 1954, ___ was awarded the Nobel prize for literature fro his ―mastery of the art ofmodern narration‖.A. T.S EliotB. Earnest HemingwayC. John SteinbeckD. William Faulkner20.William Faulkner is one of the most important southern writers in the United States. ____,As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! are works that ambitious critics tend to admire.A. The Sound and the FuryB. The Invisible ManC. A Good Man is Hard to FindD. The Wrath of the GrapesIV. Questions and answers.1.How do you understand Mark twain‘s use of local color in his writing?Mark Twain‘s narratives are distinguished for his use of local color. This may bedefined as the careful attention to details of the physical scene and to those mannerismsin speech, dress, or behavior peculiar to a geographical locality. He insisted that the jobof the native novelists was to depict each of the country‘s regions and people accurately.Only in this way could the peculiarity of American experience, the polyglot tongues ofits people, and the vastness of the continent be captured. He mainly exploited thepossibilities of the local color in the Mississippi region.2.Discuss the concept of wasteland in relation to the works of those writers in the 20thcentury American literature.‗The Waste Land‘ is a poem written by T.S. Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaosof th3 contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair in thepostwar era has appeared over and over again in the works of those writers in the 2othcentury American literature. Faulkner exemplified T.S. Eliot‘s concept of modernsociety as a wasteland is a dramatic way, he condemned the mechanized, industrializedsociety that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decreasethose essential human values such as courage, fortitude, honesty and goodness.Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the jazz age. Beneath the masks ofrelaxation and joviality, there was only sterility, meaningless and futility amid thegrandeur and extravagance, there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway,the leading spokesman of the Lost Generation, though disillusioned in the postwarperiod, strove to bring about man‘s ―grace under pressure‖. He tried to bring out theidea than man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually.3.Analyze Walt Whitman‘s ‗O Captain! My Captain‘ in terms of free verse.In the poem, Whitman celebrates the heroic struggle of the American people fordemocracy, freedom and justice and expresses his seething hatred of slavery.Free verse is a kind of poetry that lacks regular meter or pattern and may not rhyme.Depending on natural speech rhythms, its lines may be of different lengths and mayswitch abruptly from one rhythm to another. Whitman was the first American poet touse free verse extensively, because it is an appropriate form for his liberating view oflife and for his poetry that would allow every aspect of life to speak without restraint.He tried to approximate the natural cadences of speech in his poetry, carefully varyingthe length of his lines according to his intended emphasis.Literature of Colonial AmericaI.Literary Terms1.Separatists:In the colonial period, the Puritans who had gone to extreme were known as―separatists‖. Unlike the majority of Puritans, they saw no hope of reforming the Church of England from within. They felt that the influences of politics and court had led to corruptions within the church. They wished to break free from the Church of England.Among them was the Plymouth plantation group. They wished to follow Calvin‘s model, and to set up ―particular‖ churches.2.Pilgrims and Puritans: A small group of Europeans sailed from England on theMayflower in 1620. The passengers were religious reformers--- Puritans who were critical of the Church of England. Having given up hope of ―purifying‖the Church from within, they chose instead to withdraw from the Church. This action earned them the name Separatists. We know them as the pilgrims.II.Fill in the blanks1.The term ―Puritan‖ was applied to those settlers who originally were devout members ofthe Church of England.2.Harvard College was established in 1636, with a printing press set up nearly in 1639.3.Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety, these were the puritan values that dominated muchof the early American writing.4.The American poets who emerged in the seventeenth century adapted the style ofestablished European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange, new environment. Anne Bradstreet was one of such poets.5.Bradstreet used a word ―pilgrim‖ to describe the community of believers who sailed fromSouthampton England, on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.6.The writer who best expressed the Puritan faith in the colonial period was JohnWinthrop.7.The Puritan philosophy known as Puritanism was important in New England duringcolonial time, and had a profound influence on the early American mind for several generations.III.Multiple choice1.Early in the 17th century, the English settlements in ___ began the main stream of what werecognize as the American national history.A. Virginia and PennsylvaniaB. Massachusetts and New YorkC. Virginia and MassachusettsD. New York and Pennsylvania2.The first writings that we call American were the narratives and ___ of the earlysettlements.A. journalsB. poetryC. dramaD. folklores3.Among the earliest settlers in North America were Frenchmen who settled in the NorthernColonies and along the ____ River.A. St. LouisB. St. LawrenceC. MississippiD. Hudson4.In 1620 a number of Puritans came to settle in ___.A. VirginiaB. GeorgiaC. MarylandD. Massachusetts5.Whose reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been regarded as thefirst distinct American literature written in English?A. John Winthrop‘sB. John Smith’sC. William Bradford‘sD. Christopher Columbus‘s6.What style did the seventeenth century American poets adapt to the subject matterconfronted in a strangely new environment?A.The style of their own.B.The style mixed with English and American elements.C.The style mixed with native-American and British tradition.D.The style of established European poets.7.____ was a civil covenant designed to allow the temporal state to serve the godly citizen.A.The early history of Plymouth Colony.B.The Magnalia Christi America.C.Mayflower Compact.D.Freedom of the Will8.Who among the following translated the Bible into the Indian tongue?A. Roger WilliamsB. John EliotC. Cotton MatherD. John Smith9.The best of Puritan poets was____, whose complete edition of poets appeared in 1960,more than two hundred years after his death.A. Anne BradstreetB. Michael WigglesworthC. Thomas HookerD. Edward Taylo r10.English literature in America is only about more than ___ years old.A. 500B. 600C. 200D. 10011.The early history of ___ Colony was the history of Bradford‘s leadership.A. Plymout hB. JamestownC. New EnglandD. Mayflower12.The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the ___.A. revolutionismB. reasonC. individualismD. rationalism13.Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such a stir in England that shebecame known as the ―___‖ who appeared in America.A. Ninth MuseB. Tenth MuseC. best MuseD. First Muse14.The ship ―___‖carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat its wayacross the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.A. SunflowerB. ArmadaC. MayflowerD. Titanic15.Which writer best expressed the Puritan sense of the self?A. Jonathan EdwardsB. Cotton MatherC. John SmithD. Thomas Hooker16.Before _____ the American newspapers were cultural and literary nature, but after thistime, they became more political.A. 1620B. 1700C. 1775D. 1750IV.Question and answer.Who was Anne Bradstreet? What were her literary achievements?Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) is one of the most important figures in the history of American literature. She is considered by many to be the first American poet and herfirst collection of poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America, by aGentlewoman of Those Parts, was the first book written by a woman to be published inthe United States. Mrs. Bradstreet‘s work also serves as document of the struggles of a Puritan wife against the hardships of new England colonial life.Literature of Reason and RevolutionI.Literary terms.1.Autobiography:An autobiography is a person‘s account of his or her life. Generallywritten in the first person, with the author speaking as ―I‖. Autobiographies present life events as the writer views them. In addition to providing inside details about the writer‘s life, autobiographies offer insights into the beliefs and perceptions of the author. They also offer glimpse of what it was like to live in the author‘s time period. They often provide a view of historical events that you won‘t find in history books. Benjamin Franklin‘s Autobiography set the standard for what was then a new genre.2.Persuasion: Persuasion is writing meant to convince readers to think or act in a certainway. A persuasive writer appeals to emotions or reason, offer opinions and urges action.3.Aphorism:An aphorism is a short, concise statement expressing a wise or cleverobservation or a general truth. A variety of devices make aphorisms easy to remember.Some contain rhymes or repeated words or sounds. Others use parallel structure to present contrasting ideas. The aphorism ―no pains no gains‖uses rhyme, repetition and parallel structure.II.Fill in the blanks.1.At the initial period the spread of ideas of the American Enlightenment was largely due tojournalism.2.Franklin edited the first colonial magazine, which he called the Great Magazine.3.Franklin‘s beat writing is found in his masterpiece Autobiography.4.Thomas Paine, with his natural gift for pamphleteering and rebellion, was appropriatelyborn into an age of revolution.5.On January 10, 1776, Paine‘s famous pamphlet Common Sense appeared.6.Paine‘s second most important work The Rights of Man was an impassioned plea againsthereditary monarchy.7.The most outstanding poet in America of the 18th century was Philip Freneau.8.Philip Freneau‘s famous poem ―The British Prison Ship”was written about hisimprisoned experience.9.Philip Freneau was a close friend and political associate of President Thomas Jefferson.10.Philip Freneau was considered as the ―poet of the American Revolution‖, because hewrote impassioned verse in support of the American revolution.11.Philip Freneau was noteworthy first because of the nature of his poems. They were trulyAmerican and very patriotic. In this respect, he reflected the spirit of his age. Therefore, he has been called the ―father of American poetry‖.12.In American literature, the eighteenth century was an Age of Reason and Revolution.III.Multiple choice1.In American literature, the eighteenth century was the age of the Enlightenment. ___ wasthe dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. rationalismC. RevolutionD. Evolution2.In American literature, the Enlighteners were not opposed to___.A. the colonial orderB. religious obscurantismC. the Puritan traditionD. the secular literature3.The English colonies in North America rose in arms against their parent country and theContinental Congress adopted ___ in 1776.A. the Declaration of IndependenceB. the Sugar ActC. the Stamp ActD. the Mayflower Compact4.Which statement about Franklin is not true?A.He instructed his countrymen as a printer.B.He was a master of diplomacy.C.He was a Puritan.D.He was a scientist.5.The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and careerof ___.A. Thomas HoodB. Benjamin FranklinC. Thomas JeffersonD. George Washington6.Which of the following does not belong to this literary period?A. The American CrisisB. The FederalistC. Declaration of IndependenceD. The Waste Land7.Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the ___.A. American Enlightenmen tB. Sugar ActC. Chartist movementD. Romanticist8.From 1732 to 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published his famous ___, an annualcollection of proverbs.A. The AutobiographyB. Poor Richard’s AlmanacC. Common SenseD. The General Magazine9.The first pamphlet published in America to urge immediate independence from Britain is___.A. The Rights of ManB. Common SenseC. The American CrisisD. Declaration of Independence10.―These are the times that try men‘s souls‖, these words were once read to Washington‘stroops and did much to shore up the spirits of the revolutionary soldiers. Who is the author of these words?A. Benjamin FranklinB. Thomas JeffersonC. Thomas PaineD. George Washington11.Which statement about Philip Freneau?A. He was a satiristB. He was a pamphleteer.C. He was a singer.D. He was a bitter polemicist.12.Who was considered as the ―poet of American Revolution‖?A. Michael WigglesworthB. Edward TaylorC. Anne BradstreetD. Philip Freneau13.At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the Europeanmovement called the___.A. Chartist MovementB. Romanticist MovementC. Enlightenment MovementD. Modernist Movement14.Thomas Jefferson‘s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness,is typical of the period we now call____.A. Age of EvolutionB. Age of ReasonC. Age of RomanticismD. Age of RegionalismIV.Questions and Answers.1.What are the characteristics of Benjamin Franklin‘s literary work?The main quality in all Benjamin Franklin‘s writing is its genuine humanness. His literary work was typical of himself. Honest, plain, democratic, clear-headed, shrewd, worldly-wise, he was interested in the practical side of life. The absence of ideality is obvious in all his compositions. He never reached the high levels of imaginative art. But on this lower plane of material interest and every-day life he was, the works possess a universal charm2.Give a brief account of American literature of this period.Much work during the Revolutionary period was public writing. By the time of the War for Independence, nearly fifty newspapers had been established in the coastal cities. At the time of Washington‘s inauguration, there were nearly forty magazines. Almanacs were popular from Massachusetts to Georgia. The mind of the nation was on politics.Journalists and printers provided a forum for the expression of ideas. The writing of permanent importance is mostly political writing. The best-known writing of the period outside the field of politics was done by Benjamin Franklin.3.Write an analysis of The Declaration of Independence.The Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation, it also set forth a philosophy of human freedom which served as an important force in the western world. Its ideas inspired mass fervor for the American cause, for it instilled among the common people a sense of their own importance, and inspired struggle for personal freedom, self-government, and a dignified place in society.Romantic Period of American LiteratureI.Literary Terms.1.Romanticism: The literature term was first applied to the writers of the 18th century inEurope who broke away from the formal rules of classical writing. When it was used in American literature it referred to the writers of the middle of the 19th century who stimulated the sentimental emotions of their readers. They wrote the mysteries of life, love, birth and death. The romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all kinds of materials: poetry, essays, plays, fiction, history, works of travel, and biography.2.Fireside poets:William Gullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James RusselLowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Greenleaf Whittier constituted a group called the Fireside Poets. They earned this nickname because they frequently used the hearth asan image of comfort and unity, a place where families gathered to learn and tell stories.They were widely read around the hearthsides of 19th-century American families.3.Transcendentalism:In New England, an intellectual movement known astranscendentalism developed as an American version of Romanticism. The movement began among an influential set of authors based in Concord, Massachusetts and was led by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Like Romanticism, transcendentalism rejected both 18th century rationalism and established religion, which for the transcendentalists meant the Puritan tradition in particular. The transcendentalists celebrated the power of the human imagination to commune with the universe and transcend the limitations of the material world. They found their chief source of inspiration in nature. Emerson‘s essay nature was the major document of the transcendental school and stated the ideas that were to remain central to it.4.Symbolism: It is a movement in literature and the visual arts that originated in France inthe poetry of Charles Baudelaire in the late 19th century. In literature, symbolism was an aesthetic movement that encouraged writers to express their ideas, feelings, and values by means of symbols or suggestions rather than by direct statements. Hawthorne and Melville are masters of symbolism in America in the 19th century.5.Free verse: free verse is the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without attention t oconventional rules of meter. Free verse was first written and labeled by a group of French poets of the late 19th century. Their purpose was to deliver poetry from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to recreate the free rhythms of natural s peech. Walt Whitman was the precursor who wrote lines of varying length and cadence, usually not rhymed.The emotional content or meaning of the work was expressed through its rhythm. Free verse has been characteristic of the work of many modern American p oets, including Ezra Pound and Carl Sandburg.6.Puritanism:The word is originally used to refer to the theory advocated by a partywithin the Church of England. It is also used to refer to attitudes and values considered characteristics of the Puritans. It denotes a rigid moral, or the condemnation of innocent pleasure, or religious narrowness adhered by the early New England Puritans. It exerted great influence over American Romanticism. The preoccupation with the Calvinist view of original sin and the mystery of evil marked the works by such famous writers as Hawthorne and Melville.II.Fill in the blanks1.In the early 19th century Rip Van Winkle established Washington Irving‘s reputation athome and abroad, and designed the beginning of American Romanticism.2.Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s first book in 1836 Nature brought American Romanticism into anew phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism.3.In the early 19th century, Washington Irving wrote The Sketch Book which became thefirst work by an American writer to win financial success on both sides of the Atlantic.4.Allan Poe‘s poems have the musical quality and romantic beauty. The Raven is his。
美国文学史期末考试复习题
美国文学史期末考试复习题(使用书本为童明的《美国文学史修订版》)一、名词解释（交代背景、内容/特点、代表人物/作品）1. American Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience. (the representative writers and its features should be also added.)2. Black Humor :1）In the 1960s, in literature, drama, and film, black humor refers to grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world.2）Black humor often uses low comedy farce and low comedy to make clear that individuals are helpless victims of fate and character.3）Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is an example of this school3. Henry James’s international theme: 书p1594. Beat Generation：1) American poets, 1950s-1960s, a rebellion ,counterculture, romantic, drugs and uninhibited sex.2)Best and most influential poem: “Howl”:denounces the life-denying effects of American culture.5.American Puritanism：it comes from the American puritans, who were the first immigrants moved to American continent in the 17th century. Original sin, predestination and salvation were the basic ideas of American Puritanism. And, hard-working, piousness，thrift and sobriety were praised.书p176. Transcendentalism: is a philosophic and literary movement that flourished in New England, particular at Concord, as a reaction against Rationalism and Calvinism. Mainly it stressed intuitive understanding of God, without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind. The representative writers are Emerson andThoreau.7. Themes of Henry James’s writing: 书p1588.The Lost Generation:it refers to a group of young intellectuals who came back from war，were injured both physically and mentally. They lived by indulging themselves in the Bohemian way of life. Their American dream was disillusioned. The best representative of the lost generation was Ernest Hemingway.二、回答问题1. What are the characteristics of American romanticism？（书本p68. 3点+ P69.5点）2. How is the Darwinian belief in naturalism opposed to the Christian creationist view? 书p166What is the determinist view of existence that informs naturalism? What are the implications of this view on ethics?3. What are the philosophical foundations and characteristics of American naturalism? 书p1664. What are the important point s for Hawthorne’s sty le?5. What is the predominant mood in Poe’s poetry? Discuss with two poems as examples.6. What are the parameters of American Realism?书P1457. How is Thoreau revolt manifested both in his social actions and his writing?书p99What is the nature of his revolt?书p100( and nature in Civil Disobedience should be added)8. The age of American realism is divided into two more periods. What are the periods called? What are the characteristics and who are the representatives of each period?。
美国文学史考试复习资料全
1美国文学史复习（colonialism)第一部分殖民主义时期的文学一、时期综述1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：a、narratives 日记b、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：1）their voyage to the new land2) Adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops 3) About deal ing with Indians4) Guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit3、清教徒的思想：1）puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology.3look upon themselves as chosen people, and it follow logically tha t anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God's will and is not to be accepted.4）puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exagge rated. 步5）religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.。
4、典型的清教徒：John Cotton & Roger William他们的不同：John Cotton was much more concerned with authority than with democrac y;William begins the history of religious toleration in America.5、William的宗教观点：Toleration did not stem from a lack of religious convictions. Instead , it sprang from the idea that simply to be virtuous in conduct an d devout in belief did not give anyone the right to force belief o n others. He also felt that no political order or church system cou ld identify itself directly with Go6、英国最早移民到美国的诗人：Anne Bradstreet7、在殖民时期最好的清教徒诗人：the best of Puritan poets is Edward Tayor.学习指南：1、Could you give a description of American Puritans? 关于美国清教徒的描绘Like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to the "purity" of the first·c entury church as established by Jesus Christ himself. To them religion was a matter of primary importance. They made it their chief busi ness to see that man lived and thought and acted in a way which t ended to the glory of God. They accepted the doctrine of predestinat ion, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God, all that John Calvin, the gre at French theologian who lived in Geneva had preached It was this kind of religious belief that they brought with them into the wild ness. There they meaant to prove that were God's chosen people enjoy ing his blessings on this earth as in Heaven.2，，Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety were the Puritan values that d ominated much of the earliest American writing.3、The work of two writers, Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor, rose to t he level of real poetry.4．The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spani ards Italian, and Portuguese.美国文学史复习2（reasoning and revolution) )一、美国的性质：The war for Independence ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republic - the United States of America. 联邦的资产阶级民主共和国--美利坚合众国。
童明《美国文学史》课后习题详解(霍桑、麦尔维尔和坡)【圣才出品】
第7章霍桑、麦尔维尔和坡Questions for Discussion and Writing Assignments1. What are the commonalities of the three writers that allow us to group them in this chapter despite their idiosyncrasies? How do they differ from the main doctrines of Transcendentalism?Key: They all belonged to the group of romanticist writers and their literary achievements marked a new level of maturity in 19th century American literature. The three are strikingly similar in one aspect, namely: they are all masters of negative capability. The negative capability, by immersing us in ambiguities, doubts and other negative emotions, in fact strengthens us and improves our judgment by complicating our existing system of judgment. It is therefore a sign of the kind of aesthetic sophistication found only in good poets. Poe, Hawthorne and Melville were all healthy skeptics. Their ability in doubts, irony and detachment enabled them to interrogate the innocence of the age.Of the three, Poe was not associated with Transcendentalism or any other noticeable -isms of his age. Hawthorne and Melville were marginally associated with the ideas of Transcendentalism, but they would often take a critical distance from that movement. Hawthorne was quite suspicious of the Transcendentalists’ sunny optimism. He also disapproved of their experimental community called Brook Farm. Melville’s skepticism about Transcendentalism is evident in what hesays in Moby Dick: “He who hath more of joy than sorrow in him … cannot be true—not true, or undeveloped.” Poe is unique in that his interest in the complex dynamism of the human psyche made him a precursor to the 20th century phenomenon of psychoanalysis.2. What i s “negative capability?” Briefly discuss how “negative capability” is manifested in Hawthorne, Melville and Poe.Key: The phrase, “negative capability,” was first used by the British romantic poet John Keats. In a letter written in December 1817, Keats defined it as the capability in good poets of including uncertainties and other negative emotions without stretching for reason and without losing reason. Keats wrote: “... that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” The negative capability, by immersing us in ambiguities, doubts and other negative emotions, in fact strengthens us and improves our judgment by complicating our existing system of judgment. It is therefore a sign of the kind of aesthetic sophistication found only in good poets.Hawthorne was good at using ambiguities in his works. Melville created many mysteries in his works, such as in Moby Dick, the ship, the whale, the sea… are all mysterious images. Poe was good at setting up special conditions to create mysteries, thus arousing negative emotions of characters as well as readers.3. How is Hawthorne connected with Salem witch-hunt trials?Key: Hawthorne was a native of Salem, Massachusetts. One of Hawthorne’s ancestors was William Hawthorne who came from Cheshire to Massachusetts in 1630 among the earliest settlers and who, according to Hawthorne, had “all the Puritan traits, both good and evil.” William had a son who served as a judge in the Salem witchcraft t rial and, in Hawthorne’s thinking, was stained by Puritanism’s own sins. Hawthorn was intensely conscious of the wrongdoing of his ancestors, and this awareness led to his understanding of evil being at the core of human life, so he seemed to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil in his life. A theme evident in Hawthorne’s writings is the guilty stains of human nature.4. What is Hawthorne’s own moral vision as compared to the Puritan tradition? Which story is a good illustration of your point?Key: Hawthorne is not only connected with the Puritan heritage but is ambivalent towards it. The Scarlet Letter is a very typical example to illustrate my opinion. When examined more closely, this work is not so much a retrospective look at the Puritan past, to be more exact, it is Hawthorne measuring how distanced the Puritan “past” is from the Transcendentalist “present” in terms of the emotional, literary and religious patterns. The gray iron-bound law of Puritan society, one which meted out its law to Hester and her daughter Pearl, is shown to be sharply contrasted to the world of nature allowing the “freedom ofspeculation,” one which is the space for Hester and Pearl. The “Boston” depicted in the novel is thus inclusive of these two worlds. Beside the scaffold, Hawthorne juxtaposes the prison—“the black flower of civilized society”—with the wild rosebush, a “sweet moral blossom” symbolizing” the deep heart of Nature.” The Hester who comes out of prison, bearing the letter “A” in her bosom and holding Pearl in her arms is an image of life. With her strong will and honest way of living, Hester transforms the mean ing of “A” so that it signifies, to her community and to the reader, not Adultery but Able or Angel. Pearl is even freer from this world and its “moral” laws. She is a child of natural innocence roaming in a forest that seems to promise a transcendental release from the fallen social world of guilt and sin. It is in Pearl, more than in the other characters, that the Emersonian idealism sneaks into Hawthorne’s moral vision.5. How do irony and allegory work in Hawthorne’s stories to convey his moral vision? Discuss with two or three of his stories.Key: The combination of allegory and irony is characteristically Hawthornian. For example, “Young Goodman Brown” is the dream experience of Goodman Brown who is young, innocent and, as his name suggests, an average man. Brown is newlywed and one night, he leaves his wife “Faith” behind to go on a journey in the forest. The forest, in Hawthorne’s allegorical tale, is the abode of sin and evil. There in the forest Brown discovers the Puritan community in its entirety, engaged in a collective confession of their association with evil and sin. But thegreatest shock is that he finds hi s “Faith” to be among them, at the devil worship. Just as he calls up his “Faith” to refuse the baptism of evil, Goodman Brown wakes up. Thereafter, whenever he sees his Salem Puritan neighbors, he sees them not as what they claim to be, but as secret and hypocritical sinners. Allegorically, the tale reveals that the Puritan community has an inclination towards evil in that they secretly harbor sin and the attendant guilt. What is interesting is that Hawthorne both confirms the Calvinist/Puritan tenet of original sin and exposes the hypocrisy in how the Puritan community, in their practices, tried to hide their sins. Another tale is “The Minister’s Black Veil”. Reverend Hooper wears a thin black veil for life because he feels a sense of personal guilt not confessed. The veil is a symbol of universal guilt concealed by hypocrisy. By wearing it and thus by drawing attention to the existence of the hypocrisy, the black veil enhances the ministerial power of Reverend Hooper.6. With appropriate stories, discuss the kinds of internal conflicts in Hawthorne’s characters.Key: The internal conflict in Hawthorne’s characters is often moral in nature and should be read in the Puritan context, as we have discussed. That’s why Hawthorne’s characters—such as Goodman Brown, Reverend Hooper, Ethan Brand, and John Endicott—are obsessed with sins. Some of the characters suffer because of unconfessed sins (e.g., Dimmesdale). Some others—such as Beatrice in “Rappcinni’s Daughter”) —suffer for their ancestors and fathers.Hawth orne depicts “sin” not for its own sake. He allows us to study the effects of the sin on the sinners and on people related to them. However, doctrinarian morality is not the substance of Hawthorne’s moral vision. At least for his characters, the moral vision is acquired through an inner struggle or exploration which first places them in unfamiliar territories. The journey ends with the loss of innocence, and typically does not conclude with a life lived happily ever after. Some of the characters do not know what to do with their new selves or newly gained knowledge. Goodman Brown is a case in point.7. Discuss the allegorical roles of Hester Prynne, Pearl and Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter.Key: In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, being the one penalized by the community for her adultery and thus the one bearing the scarlet “A” openly, gains a sympathetic knowledge of the existence of sin in other hearts. In that sense, Hester embodies this Hawthornian moral tenet: “if the truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth from many another bosom.” In contrast to Hester Prynne who finds salvation by willingly acknowledging her guilt, Arthur Dimmesdale conceals his sin so deeply that he is eventually destroyed when Roger Chillingworth coldly probes into his heart. But Dimmesdale’s weakness is in a sense also his healing power. Pearl is even freer from this world and its “moral” laws. She is a child of natural innocence roaming in a forest that seems to promise a transcendental release from the。
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（0097）《美国文学史》复习思考题I. Write out the authors’ names of the following works. (15)1. Poor Richard’s Almanac2. The Wasteland3. The Pioneers4. The Leaves of Grass5. Go Tell it on the Mountain6. For Whom the Bell Tolls?7. Catch 22 8. Of Mice and Men9. The Sound and the Fury 10.Huck Finn11. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 12. The Old Man and the Sea13. Mending Walls 14. Beloved15. Invisible Man 16. Beyond the Horizons17. Of Mice and Men 18. The Raven19. The Great Gatsby 20. The Streetcar Named Desire21. Rip van Winkle 22. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 23. The Scarlet Letter 24. Moby Dick25. Desire Under the Elms 26. The Gilded Age27. The Sound and Fury 28. The Road Not Taken29. The Death of a Salesman 30. The Pathfinder31. Walden 32. Daisy Miller33. Song of Myself 34. The Call of the Wild35. Martin Eden 36. Long Day’s Journey into NightII. Define the following literary terms. (20)1. Beat Generation2. Protagonist3. Biography4. Novel5. Anti-hero6. Free Verse7. Drama 8. Jazz Age9. Biography 10. Blank Verse11. Black Humor 12. Head Rhyme13. Surprise ending 14. Transcendentalism15. Imagery 16. Stream of Consciousness17. Lost Generation 18. Short storyIII. Give brief answers to the following questions. (15)1.Who is the father of American literature?2.Who is the father of American poetry?3.What is Poe’s theory concerning poetry?4.What is Poe’s theory concerning the short story?5.What are the major characteristics of Twain’s writing style?6.What are the major characteristics of Irving’s writing style?7.What is “black humor?8.What is the Harlem Renaissance?9.What is the New England Renaissance?10.What are the major characteristics of colonial American literature?11.What is the Lost Generation?12.What are Benjamin Franklin’s contributions to American culture?13.Why is colonial American literature neither American nor literary?14.What is the Jazz Age?15.What is American transcendentalism?16.What is imagism?17.What is O. Henry Ending?18.What is free verse?IV. Read the following poem and try to understand and explain it.(30)FogTHE FOG comesOn little cat feet.It sits lookingOver harbor and cityOn silent haunchesAnd then moves onIn a Station of the Metro(Ezra Pound)The Apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.(Consult your book)The Road Not Taken(By Robert Frost)TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, Though as for that, the passing thereHad worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference. (Consult your book)Dreams(by Langston Hughes)Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.(Consult your book)（0097）《美国文学史》复习思考题答案I. Write out the authors’ names of the following works. (15)Benjamin Franklin T. S. EliotJames Cooper Walt WhitmanJames Baldwell Ernest HemingwayJoseph Heller John SteinbeckWilliam Faulkner Mark TwainWashington Irving Ernest HemingwayRobert Frost Toni MorrisonRalph Ellison Eugene O’NeillJohn Steinbeck Allan PoeF. Scott Fitzgerald Tennessee WilliamsWashington Irving Robert FrostNathaniel Hawthorne Herman MelvilleEugene O’Neill Mark TwainWilliam Faulkner Robert FrostArthur Miller James CooperH. D. Thoreau Henry JamesWhitman Jack LondonJack London O’NeillII. Define the following literary terms. (20)Beat generation:The term was coined by Jack Kerouac in 1948 to refer to a group of disillusioned writers following World War Two. Later, this literary and cultural movement continued into the 1960s. The Beat Generation must not be confused with the Lost Generation of writers. Spokesmen and representatives of the Beat Generation were Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and others. They revolted against an America that was materialistic, belligerent and frustrating. Social, intellectual and sexual freedom was advocated. Traditional culture and normal social behavior were attacked and violated. Many of them were drug addicts wearing long hair and dirty clothes. They were fond of slangs and jazz. Masterpieces created by writers of this group include Kerouac’s On the Road and Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, which were regarded as pocket Bibles of that generation. Other prominent Beats include William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, and Neal Cassady. The Beat Generation, had greatly influenced the countercultural movements of the 1960s and the adolescents and adults in other countries. In England, the “angry young men” made an echo and imitated the American “beatnik.”Protagonist: the principal character in a play or story; the central character who serves as a focus for the work’s themes and incidents and as the principal rationale for its development; and one who is opposed to the antagonist. In the beginning of ancient Greek drama, there were only a chorus and one actor—the leader of the chorus. Thespis invented the first actor. Then Aeschylus and Sophocles added the second and third actors to the tragedy respectively. The three actors were names Protagonist, Deuteragonist and Tritagonist. In discussions of modern literature, theprotagonist is sometimes referred to as the hero or anti-hero.Biography:an account of a person’s life written by somebody else, or biographical writing as a form of literature.Novel: Generally speaking, it is an imaginative prose narrative of extended length dealing with fictional characters and events. The constituent elements of a novel include plot, character, conflict, and setting. But there can be exceptions. Some novels are short. Some novels are not fictional. Some novels are in verse. And some novels do not even tell a story. There have been many debates over the appropriate length of a novel. No established length for a novel has been agreed upon. It is generally held, however, that a full-length novel is longer than a novella or short novel, and a short novel is longer than a shot story. A novel should be long enough so as to appear in print in an independent volume. The great length of a novel makes it possible for the characters and themes in it to be developed more fully and subtly.Antihero: a main character in a story, novel, play or film who behaves in a completely different way from what people expect a hero to do. A non-hero is without the qualities and features of a traditional or old-fashioned hero. He is doomed to fail. Antiheroes of early days were Don Quixote, Macbeth, Rip Van Winkle, and Tristram Shandy. Examples of antiheroes in modern literature include Leopold Bloom, Jim Dixon, Jimmy Porter, Herzog, and Yassarian.Free verse:a form of poetry without rhyme, meter, regular line length, and regular stanzaic structure. It depends on natural speech for rhythm. Robert Frost compared it to “playing tennis with the net down.” Though much simpler and less restrictive than conventional poetry and blank vers e, free verse does no mean “formlessness.” T. S. Eliot once said that “no verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.” Though its origin is unknown, it was attempted by such early poets as Surrey, Milton, Blake, and Macpherson. It was Whitman who did the greatest contribution to the development and popularity of free verse. Whitman favored the simplicity and freedom of expression. According to him, “The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of light of letters is simplicity. Noting is better than simplicity.”Drama: a form of literature written for actors to perform. A drama is divided into acts. An act can be subdivided into scenes. The constituent elements of a drama include dialogue, plot, characters, setting, stage direction, and others. A drama can be as long as three parts called trilogy, or as short as one act only. Greek drama originated in religious ceremonial in honor of Dionysus. Medievaldrama developed out of rites celebrating the life events of Jesus Christ. Dramatists of great importance in literary history include Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Shaw. In America, the firs important dramatist was Eugene O’Neill who wrote the first serious plays. Before O’Neill, America had theatre. Starting from O’Neill, it began to h ave drama.Jazz age: Jazz is a form of dance music that is derived from early Afro-American folk music, ragtime, and Negro blues. It is marked with exciting rhythm, pronounced syncopation, and constant improvisation. The musical instruments used are mainly drums, trumpets, and saxophones. Major composers of Jazz music include Irvin Berlin and W. C. Handy. The term Jazz Age was specifically employed by Fitzgerald to denote the 1920s, which was characterized by the loss of traditional moral standards, indulgence in romantic yearnings, and great social excitement. According to Malcolm Cowley, the Jazz Age was “a legend of glitter, of recklessness, and of talent in such profusion that it was sown broadcast like wild oats.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age, like Mark Twain’s The Gilded Age, was an epoch-making work.Autobiography: a story a writer writes about his or her own life experiences. It is narrated from the first-person point of view. The term was probably first used by Southey. But the first important autobiography was Confessions written by Augustine of Hippo. Other examples include Franklin’s Autobiography, Adams’s The Education of Henry Adams, John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography, Carlyle’s Reminiscences, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, and so on. Sometimes, an autobiography can be fictionalized. An example of this kind is Rousseau’s Confessions. Some novels and long poems are used for autobiography. Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Wordsworth’s The Prelude fall in this category. Dickens’s David Copperfield, Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers and O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night have strong autobiographical elements in them.Blank verse: poetry that does not rhyme but has iambic pentameter lines. Though not originated in England or America, it has been the most important and most widely used English verse form. Blank verse is popular because it is closest to the rhythm of daily English speech. Thus most English poems which are dramatic, reflective or narrative are in the form of blank verse. This verse was probably first used in England by Surrey who translated Aeneid, by Sackville and Norton who composed Gorboduc. It was developed and perfected by Marlowe, Shakespeare and Milton. In the 18th century, most poets favored heroic couplets. But Young and Thomson were ableto write in the tradition of blank verse. The 19th century saw a renewed interest in this poetic form. Masters of blank verse included Wordsworth, Coleridge and Bryant. The fact that blank verse is still practiced by writers like T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Frost and Stevens shows how influential and favorable it really is.Black humor:a term frequently used in modern literary criticism. It is sometimes called ‘black comedy’ or ‘tragic farce.’ It is h umor or laughter resulting from great pain, despair, horror and the absurdity of human existence. Black humor is a common quality of modern anti-novels and anti-dramas. Examples are Franz Kafka’s stories like “Metamorphosis”, “The Castle” and “The Trial”, Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22and Albee’s The Zoo Story. Other writers who did much contribution to the popularity of black humor were Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, V onnegut, Pynchon and so on.Head rhyme: the use in verse or prose of several words close together which all begin with the same letter. It is done for special musical effect comparable to the effects of end rhyme. In most cases, alliteration is the repetition of identical initial consonant sounds. Examples are Pope’s “For fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” Poe’s “The weary, wayworn wanderer bore,” and Coleridge’s “Five miles meandering with a mazy motion.” Alliteration of initial vowels is quite limited in number. An example of vowel alliteration is “It is impossible to enjoy idling thorough ly unless one has plenty of work to do.”Surprise Ending:Also called “O. Henry ending,” it is a completely unexpected turn or revelation of events at the conclusion of a story or play. An example is “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. Another instance is O. Henry’s story “The Gift of the Magi.”III. Give brief answers to the following questions. (15)19.Who is the father of American literature? (Consult your book)20.Who is the father of American poetry? (Consult your book)21.What is Poe’s theory concerning poetr y? (Consult your book)22.What is Poe’s theory concerning the short story? (Consult your book)23.What are the major characteristics of Twain’s writing style? (Consult your book)24.What are the major characteristics of Irving’s writing style? (Consult your book)25.W hat is “black humor? (Consult your book)26.What is the Harlem Renaissance? (Consult your book)27.What is the New England Renaissance? (Consult your book)28.What are the major characteristics of colonial American literature? (See your book)29.What is the Lost Generation? (Consult your book)30.What are Benjamin Franklin’s contributions to American culture? (See your book)31.Why is colonial American literature neither American nor literary? (See your book)32.What is the Jazz Age? (Consult your book)33.What is American transcendentalism? (Consult your book)34.What is imagism? (Consult your book)35.What is O. Henry Ending? (Consult your book)36.What is free verse? (Consult your book)IV. Read the following poem and try to understand and explain it.(30)FogTHE FOG comesOn little cat feet.It sits lookingOver harbor and cityOn silent haunchesAnd then moves on(An imagist poem by Carl Sandburg; depicting the fog and its movement; free verse written in the tradition of Whiman.)In a Station of the Metro(Ezra Pound)The Apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.( a poem of the Imagist school, written by Ezra Pound.)The Road Not Taken(By Robert Frost)TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,Though as for that, the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.(A poem by Robert Frost. It is about the difficulty of making a choice.)Dreams(by Langston Hughes)Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren field Frozen with snow. (Consult your book)。