新编美国文学简史
常耀信《美国文学简史》(第3版)配套题库【章节题库(含名校考研真题)+模拟试题】
目录第一部分章节题库（含名校考研真题） (5)第1章殖民地时期的美国 (5)第2章爱德华兹•富兰克林•克里夫古尔 (12)第3章美国浪漫主义•欧文•库柏 (17)第4章新英格兰超验主义•爱默生•梭罗 (25)第5章霍桑•麦尔维尔 (33)第6章惠特曼•狄金森 (42)第7章埃德加•爱伦•坡 (51)第8章现实主义时期•豪威尔•詹姆斯 (55)第9章地方色彩小说•马克.吐温 (63)第10章美国自然主义•克兰•诺里斯•德莱赛•罗宾森 (69)第11章20世纪20年代•意象派•庞德 (78)第12章艾略特•史蒂文斯•威廉斯 (82)第13章弗罗斯特•桑德堡•卡明斯•哈特•克兰•穆尔 (90)第14章菲茨杰拉德•海明威 (96)第15章南方文艺复兴•威廉姆•福克纳 (106)第16章安德森•斯坦•刘易斯•凯瑟•沃尔夫 (114)第17章20世纪30年代•多斯•帕索斯•斯坦贝克 (118)第18章波特•韦尔蒂•麦卡勒斯•韦斯特•新批评 (121)第19章美国戏剧 (123)第20章二战后诗歌•20世纪40年代的诗人 (128)第21章自白派•垮掉的一代 (129)第22章纽约派诗人•沉思型诗歌•黑山派诗人 (131)第23章二战后美国小说（1） (132)第24章二战后美国小说（2） (135)第25章多种族文学（1） (139)第26章多种族文学（2） (145)第二部分模拟试题 (147)第1章常耀信《美国文学简史》（第3版）模拟试题及详解（一） (147)第2章常耀信《美国文学简史》（第3版）模拟试题及详解（二） (154)第一部分章节题库（含名校考研真题）第1章殖民地时期的美国I. Fill in the blanks.1. Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety, these were the _____ values that dominated much of the early American writing.【答案】Puritan【解析】清教主义，起源于英国，在北美殖民地得以实践与发展。
美国文学简史
Transcendentalism refers to a kind of attitude that believes in the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively（直觉地）or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses. In a literal sense, it means the belief that knowledge and principles of reality can be obtained by studying thought, not necessarily by practical experiences.Realism It is, in literature, an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. In part. Realism was a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away.Local Colorism the writings of local colorists are concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town. Local colorists were consciously nostalgic historians of a vanishing way of life, recorders of a present that faded before their eyes.1) The Lost Generationthey had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing which had never been tried before. Among these writers, the most famous are Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dos Passos.Chapter ThreeAmerican Romanticism * Irving * CooperII. Washington Irving (1783-1859)1 Writing StyleIrving’s style can only be described as beautiful though imitative.A. Irving avoids moralizing as much as possible: he wrote to amuse and entertain.B. He was good at enveloping his stories in a rich atmosphere, which is often more than compensation for the slimness of plot.C. His characters are vivid and true so that they tend to linger in the mind of the reader.D. He was such a humorous writer that it is difficult not to smile and occasionally even chuckle.E. His language was finished and musical.2. Literary StatusFather of American literatureThe first professional American writerThe first American Romantic writerThe first American short story writerThe first American imaginative writerto be recognized by the Europeans3. His Works:A History of New York (1809)The Sketch Book (1819-20)The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book, a collection of essays, sketches, and tales, of which the most famous and frequently anthologized are “Rip Van Winkle”and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”Rip Van Winkle《瑞普*凡*温尔克》It is a fantasy tale about a man who somehow stepped outside the main stream of life.Rip Van Winkle is a simple, good-natured, and hen-pecked man. An amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglect, he is loved by all but his wife. One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife ，after drinking some of ghosts of Henry Hudson’s crew’s liquor, he falls asleep. He wakes up twenty years later and returns to his village. He finds out that everything changes.The Legend of Sleepy HollowThe History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828)The Alhambra《阿尔罕伯拉》(1832)Life of Goldsmith, Life of WashingtonTales of a TravelerIII. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)1. Literary Status:The first American Frontier novelThe first American Sea novelThe first American Spy NovelThe first American Historical NovelHis Leatherstocking Tales as the American National Epic3. His major works:Precaution (1820)The Spy (1821)“The Leatherstocking Tales” includesThe Pioneers (1823)The Last of the Mohicans (1826)The Prairie (1827)The Pathfinder (1840)The Deerslayer (1841)The Leatherstocking Tales is a series of novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper, each featuring the main hero Natty Bumppo, known by European settlers as "Leatherstocking," 'The Pathfinder", and "the trapper" and by the Native Americans as "Deerslayer," "La Longue Carabine"and "Hawkeye". He becomes a type, a representation of a nation struggling to be born, progressing from old age torebirth and youth.5. Writing Features:A. Plot construction:Cooper was good at inventing plots. Hisplots are sometimes quite incredible, but his stories are immensely intriguing.B. Landscape description: His landscape descriptions aremajestic and suggestive of sir Walter Scott, the legendary spirit of whose border tales might have been a source of inspiration for him.C. A rich imagination: He had never been to the frontier andamong the Indians and yet could write five huge epic books about them with his rich imagination. Free from injustice, he treated the American Indians as noble savages.D.Clumsy style: his style is dreadful; his characterizationseems wooden and lacking in probability.6. His Contributiona. Cooper hit upon the native subject of frontier andwilderness.b. He contributed to American literature different subgenres ofnovels: spy novel, sea novel, frontier novel, and historical romance.c. He created the first legendary frontier hero Natty Bumppoas the typical Pioneering figure.d. He introduced the West and the frontier as a usable past intoAmerican literature, thus ushering in the Western tradition into American world of letters.Chapter4New England Transcendentalism * Emerson * ThoreauPrinciples of Emerson’s transcendentalismThe over-soulPrimacy of IndividualPrimacy of NatureII. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)1. Literary Status:“Father of American Essay”,The Concord SageLeader and spokesman of New England Transcendentalism Essayist, poet, philosopher, orator, critic.His major works:A. CollectionsPoems(1847); Representative Men(1850); English Traits (1856)The Conduct of Life (1860); May Day and Other Poems (1867)Society and Solitude(1870); Letters and Social Aims (1876)Essays"Self-Reliance" "Compensation" "The Over-Soul""The Poet" "Experience""Nature" (the Bible and manifesto of the New England Transcendentalism)Emerson’s Nature has been called the “Manifesto of American Transcendentalism”"The American Scholar" (Intellectual Declaration of Independence)His The American Scholar has been rightly regarded as America’s “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”.C. Poems"Concord Hymn""The RhodoraNature(1836): “The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul, Spirit is present everywhere”The book presents a theory of the universe, its origin, present condition, and final destiny. Nature’s voice pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, the summit of American Romanticism/ American Renaissance.The American Scholar(1837): In this essay, Emerson calls for adistinctive American style, dealing with American subjects. Thus, regarded as “America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence”Self-Reliance(1841): This essay focuses on his discussion on the individual’s relation’s with his culture—culture in the broadest definition, thus exploring the implications of the fierce individualism at the heart of his Transcendental faith: the dignity, the ultimate sanctity[holiness] of each human beingThe Over-Soul(1841): It is a philosophic work, in which Emerson gives an explicit discussion on his idea of the over-soul, with a most comprehensive and sensitive analysis of the varieties of religious experienceEvaluation to him:1. He was the first American to call for an independent culture in both Nature and The American Scholar.(America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence).He called on American writers to write about America in a way peculiarly American.2.Emerson’s aesthetics places emphasis on ideas, symbol, andimaginative words, which brought about a revolution in American literature in general and in American poetry in particular.3.He embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert itsown identity in its formative period.4.In modern times he is sometimes dismissed as having no senseof evil, and his optimistic philosophy as so much Transcendentalist folly.Henry Davis Thoreau(1817---1862)His major works:★Walden★Civil DisobedienceChapter 6Walt Whitman (1819-1892)Evaluation•One of the great innovators in American literature.•An author during the transition between Transcendentalism and Realism.•His masterpiece is Leaves of Grass (1855), which he spent his entire life writing.Major works1. Leaves of Grass the most influential volume of poems in the history of American literatureSong of Myself An epic poem published in Leaves of Grass using an all-powerful first person narrationEmily Dickinson 1830-1886Style•As part of Dickinson seeking essence or the heart of things,she eliminated inessential language and punctuation from her poems. She leaves out helping verbs and connecting words;she drops endings from verbs and nouns.•It is not always clear what Dickinson’s pronouns refer to;sometimes a pronoun refers to a word which does not appear in the poem. At her best, she achieves breathtaking effects by compressing language•Dickinson’s disregard for the rules of grammar and sentence structure is one reason twentieth century critics found her so appealing; her use of language anticipates the way modern poets used language.•The downside of her language is that the compression may be so drastic that the poem is incomprehensible; it becomes a riddle or intellectual puzzle.•Readers are still saying "What?" in response to some of her poems.Chapter 7Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)1. Literary Position⏹1. father of modern short story⏹2. father of detective story⏹3. father of psychoanalytic criticism3. Works⏹Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque《奇异怪诞故事集》⏹MS. Found in a Bottle《瓶子里发现的手稿》⏹The Murders in the Rue Morgue《毛格街杀人案》⏹The Fall of the House of Usher《厄舍古屋的倒塌》⏹The Masque of the Red Death《红色死亡的化妆舞会》⏹The Cask of Amontillado《一桶酒的故事》⏹The Raven《乌鸦》⏹Israfel《伊斯拉菲尔》⏹Annabel Lee《安娜贝尔•李》⏹To Helen《致海伦》⏹The Poetic Principle《诗歌原理》⏹The Philosophy of Composition《创作哲学》5. His Reputation:French imagists: Baudelaire (1821-1867), Mallarme (1822-1898), and Valery (1871-1945) used Poe as the model for their symbolist school.He is admired for his poetic vocabulary (pure poetry), his themes and his view that underneath human nature is cruel and irrational (ahead of his time)As a tragic young aristocrat who had been betrayed by American societyMajor European writers such as Swinburne (1837-1909), Bernard Shaw (1856-1926) and Dostoevsky (1821-1881) all appreciated Poe’s achievements.It was not until the 20th century when Americans started to learn from the French that Poe became popular in Europe. Chapter 8American Realism1.William Dean HowellsHis Works:☐The Rise of Silas Lapham☐ A Chance Acquaintance☐ A Modern Instance2.Henry JamesHis Works:Literary Career : Three Stages1. 1865~1882: international theme☐The American (1877)☐The Europeans (1878)☐Daisy Miller (1878)☐The Portrait of a Lady (1881)The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880–1881 and then asa book in 1881. It is one of James' most popular long novels,and is regarded by critics as one of his finest.☐Washington Square (1881)2.1882~1895: Novels in the naturalistic mode:The Bostonians, 1886 波士顿人Turning to three dominant subjects:☐The Figure in the Carpet, 1896 地毯上的图案☐What Mazie Knew, 1897 梅瑟所知道的☐The Turn of the Screw, 1898 螺丝在拧紧☐The Beast in the Jungle, 1903 丛林猛兽3.1895~1900: Returning to international themesNovels complex and profound☐The Wings of the Dove, 1902 鸽翼☐The Ambassadors, 1903 奉使记☐The Golden Bowl, 1904 镀金碗Stylist: Henry Jamesnguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurate.2.V ocabulary: large.3.Construction: complicated, intricateJames’ place in American Literature☐Bridging the 19th and 20th c.☐Connecting America and Europe.☐A pioneer in psychological realism☐A “master craftsman”☐Criticized by some because of his focus on the elite (James deals largely with the moral and social problems of middle- and upper-class society. )☐Along with the increasing complexity of his style, his hypersensitive narrators, or protagonists, having alienated James from the common reader, as James himself realized.Mark Twain (1835-1910)Major works1.“Personalized fiction”1.The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day (1873)This novel is about thepost-Civil War boom years in the south called Reconstruction. It satirizes the greed and selfishness in the speculative exploitation of public resources during the administration of Grant.☐The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) a novel set in the South before the Civil War that criticizes racism and the disastrous effects of slavery on the victimizer and the victim alike. It reveals to us a Mark Twain whose conscience as a white southerner was tormented by fear and remorse.☐The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)A classic book written for boys about their particular horrors and joys☐The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)2. Travel fiction:☐The Innocents Abroad (or The New Pilgrim’s Progress)(1869) 《傻子国外旅行记》This is the fictionalized account of Mark Twain’s steamboat tour to Europe and Israel. The pilgrims are real people that Mark Twain knew.☐Roughing It (1873) 《艰难生涯》recounts his early adventures as a miner and journalist in a jocular, often scoffing way/ a “nonfiction novel,”: a novel that employs the conventions of fiction to tell a true story / New journalism新新闻体：以报导者主观的反应为特点的新闻学,常含有虚构成分2. Travel fiction:☐Life on the Mississippi (1883) （密西西比河上的生活）combines an autobiographical account of his experiences as a river pilot with a visit to the Mississippi nearly two decades after he left it;3. Historical RomanceThe Prince and the Pauper (1882)（王子与贫儿）, a children's book, focuses on switched identities in Tudor England(1485-1603). It is a carefully structured historical romance with many humorous situations☐A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur‘s Court（在亚瑟王朝廷中的康涅狄格州美国人）(1889)satirizes oppression, cruelty,aristocracy and feudalism in Arthurian England(6th century). It isa parable of colonialization. A representative of moderntechnology and ideas came to a historically backward feudal society and offered to develop the Arthurian world and rid it of superstition, however, he destroyed rather than modernized it.4. Tall tales⏹The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865)《卡拉维拉斯县驰名的跳蛙》 a tale filled with the kind of exaggeration and comedy that characterize the frontier life.Twain's first book in 1867 /collects 27 stories that were previously published in magazines and newspapers.⏹The title story first appeared in print in 1865 / "The NotoriousJumping Frog of Calaveras County" / "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog."⏹The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900) 《败坏了哈德莱堡的人》is an ingeniously plotted parable of a town proud of its reputation for honesty with the motto “Lead Us Not Into Temptation.” However, the citizens surrender to a stranger’s temptation of gold, and in the end Hadleyburg changes to a new name and revises its motto to “Lead Us Into Temptation.”In the novel, his obsessive vision of humanity as greedy, oafish, hypocritical, cruel and predatory was wholly apparent.5. Anti-imperialist:The essay “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” (1901)is a response to the Boxer rebellion in China. It is a scathing political attack against imperialismFeatures / Contributions☐As a literary artist:⏹He made colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literarymedium in the literary history of the country. His success in creating this plain but evocative language precipitated the end of American reverence for British and European culture.⏹He is justly renowned as a humorist of his time but successivegenerations of writers, however, recognized the role that Twain played in creating a truly American literature.⏹Twain's work was inspired by the unconventional West and thepopularity of his work marked the end of the domination of American Literature by New England writers.⏹His adherence to American themes, settings, and language sethim apart from many other novelists of the day and had a powerful effect on such later American writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, both of whom pointed to Twain as an inspiration for their own writing.Chapter NineAmerican Naturalism1.Stephen Crane (1871 –1900)Short stories:The Open Boat《海上扁舟》H. G. Wells holds it beyond all question, the crown of all his work.The Blue Hotel《蓝色旅馆》Poems:The Black Riders and Other Lines《黑衣骑士及其他》War is Kind《战争是仁慈的》Fictions:Stephen Crane's fiction is typically categorized as representative of Naturalism, Realism, Impressionism or a mixture of the three.•Maggie: A Girl of the Streetsthe first naturalistic; Critics would later call the novel "the first dark flower of American Naturalism" for its distinctive elements of naturalistic fiction•The Red Badge of Courage•his masterpiece•one of the finest books of American literature;Significant Style•Crane's works reflect many of the major artistic concerns at the end of the nineteenth century, especially naturalism,impressionism, and symbolism.•His works insist that people live in a universe of vast and indifferent natural forces, not in a world of divine providence or a certain moral order. "A Man Said to the Universe" is useful in identifying this aspect of Crane.Many readers (including Hamlin Garland and Joseph Conrad, who were personal friends of Crane) have used the term impressionist to describe Crane's vivid renderings of moments of visual beauty and uncertainty.•Crane's vivid and explosive prose styles distinguish his works from those by many other writers who are labeled naturalists. Writing features1.Syntax is direct and simplees symbols3.careful in choosing narrative point of view4.vivid color, animal imagery, stereotyped characters, colloquialEnglish, and simple and straightforward narration.Frank Norris(1870-1902)Works of Frank NorrisTheme:Depictions of suffering caused by corrupt and greedy turn-of-the-century corporate monopolies✓Mc Teague (1899) 《麦克提格》His trilogy on the production, distribution and consumption of wheat:The Octopus (1901) 《章鱼》His most glaring metaphor is that of the tentacles of the railway tracks spreadingand choking the countryside in the appropriately titledbook The Octopus.It is based on an actual clash in 1880 between farmers in the San Joaquin Valley(圣华金河) and the SouthPacific railroad. The land is assigned to the railroadcompany, and then rented to the farmers. But therailroad raises the price of the land. After that the freightrate is also raised so much that the farmers are ruinedaltogether. All of the farmers are crushed under thewheels of the railroad. Some of them die, others go mad.The pit 《深渊》The Wolf (Never Written)✓The Responsibilities of the Novelist (1903)《小说家的责任》Theodore Dreiser 西奥多·德莱塞(1871-1945)Dreiser’s Major Works1) Sister Carrie«嘉莉妹妹»2) Jennie Gerhardt «珍妮姑娘»3) The Trilogy of Desire«欲望三步曲»(1) The Financier«金融家»(2) The Titan«巨人»(3) The Stoic«斯尔葛»4) The Genius «天才»an autobiographical work5) An American Tragedy «美国悲剧»(it was banned in Boston in 1927)6)The Bulwark《堡垒》Dreiser’s Style•Without good construction•deficient characterization•lack in imagination•Simple words•Journalistic method of reiteration重复新闻手法•Techniques in painting (word-picture, sharp contrast, truth in color, movement in outline)Evaluation•He faced every form of attack that a serious artist could encounter misunderstanding, misrepresentation, artistic isolation and commercial seduction. But he survived to lead the rebellion of the 1900s.•Dreiser has been a controversial figure in American literary history.•His works are powerful in their portrayal of the changing American life, but his style is considered crude.•It is in Dreiser’s works that American naturalism is said to have come of age.•Dreiser’s novels are formless at times and awkwardly written, and his characterization is found deficient and his prose pedestrian and dull, yet his very energy proves to be more thana compensation.•Dreiser’s stories are always solid and intensely interesting with their simple but highly moving characters. Dreiser is good at employing the journalistic method of reiteration to burn a central impression into the reader’s mind.For a commemorative service in 1947, H. L. Mencken wrote a eulogy in which he stuck by the argument that he had been making for over thirty-five years: despite Dreiser's flaws as a stylist, "the fact remains that he is a great artist, and that no other American of his generation left so wide and handsome a mark upon the national letters•American writing, before and after his time, differed almost as much as biology before and after Darwin. He was a man oflarge originality, of profound feeling, and of unshakable courage. All of us who write are better off because he lived, worked, and hoped."•Here lies the power and permanence that have made Dreiser one of America’s foremost novelists.Jack London(1876-1916)Works•London's most famous novels:The Call of the Wild 《野性的呼唤》White Fang 《白牙》The Sea-Wolf 《海狼》The Iron Heel 《铁蹄》Martin Eden 《马丁·伊甸》•Love of Life One of his most famous short fiction。
美国文学简史
It was the work of immigrants from England. It was an interesting mixture of travel accounts and religious writings. John Smith, William Bradford, John Winthrop Anne Bradstreet, the “Tenth Muse” Philip Freneau,important poet of 18th century
American Romanticism
Features: “pioneering”, a new experience;
American Puritanism; “new” country as a result: imitative and independent
Washington Irving(1783-1859)
the first settlers in America; Mayflower ship; features of Puritans;
“doctrinaire opportunist” (practical idealist)
cultural heritage
The Literary Scene in Coloniicism,Irving, Cooper
American Romanticism Background democracy and political equality, the ideals of new nation spread of industrialism, sudden influx of immigrants, “pioneers” further west—ecnomic boom, optimism and hope—cried for literary expression foreign influences:Romantic movement in England and Europe, a model for American romantic writing
美国文学简史
Chapter 1 Colonial PeriodI. Background: Puritanism1. features of Puritanism(1) Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.(2) Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.(3) Total depravity(4) Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.2. Influence(1) A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.(2) It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth –garden of Eden.(3) Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.(4) With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.II. Overview of the literature1. types of writingdiaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books,autobiographies/biographies, sermons2. writers of colonial period(1) Anne Bradstreet(2) Edward Taylor(3) Roger Williams(4) John Woolman(5) Thomas Paine(6) Philip FreneauIII. Jonathan Edwards1. life2. works(1) The Freedom of the Will(2) The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3) The Nature of True Virtue3. ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism(1) The spirit of revivalism(2) Regeneration of man(3) God’s presence(4) Puritan idealismIV. Benjamin Franklin1. life2. works(1) Poor Richard’s Almanac(2) Autobiography3. contribution(1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.(2) He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven”.(3) Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is Romanticism?l An approach from ancient Greek: Platol A literary trend: 18c in Britain (1798~1832)l Schlegel Bros.I. Preview: Characteristics of romanticism1. subjectivity(1) feeling and emotions, finding truth(2) emphasis on imagination(3) emphasis on individualism – personal freedom, no hero worship, natural goodness of human beings2. back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature(1) unrestrained by classical rules(2) full of imagination(3) colloquial language(4) freedom of imagination(5) genuine in feelings: answer their call for classics3. back to naturenature is “breathing living thing” (Rousseau)II. American Romanticism1. Background(1) Political background and economic development(2) Romantic movement in European countriesDerivative – foreign influence2. features(1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien.(2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained.(3) The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism.(4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent.III. Washington Irving1. several names attached to Irving(1) first American writer(2) the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3) father of American literature2. life3. works(1) A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(2) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication of this.)(3) The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5) The Alhambra4. Literary career: two parts(1) 1809~1832a. Subjects are either English or Europeanb. Conservative love for the antique(2) 1832~1859: back to US5. style – beautiful(1) gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2) avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(3) enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4) vivid and true characters(5) humour – smiling while reading(6) musical languageIV. James Fenimore Cooper1. life2. works(1) Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2) The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3) Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3. point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4. style(1) highly imaginative(2) good at inventing tales(3) good at landscape description(4) conservative(5) characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6) language and use of dialect not authentic5. literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.、Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – American TranscendentalismI. Background: four sources1. Unitarianism(1) Fatherhood of God(2) Brotherhood of men(3) Leadership of Jesus(4) Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character)(5) Continued progress of mankind(6) Divinity of mankind(7) Depravity of mankind2. Romantic IdealismCenter of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3. Oriental mysticismCenter of the world is “oversoul”4. PuritanismEloquent expression in transcendentalismII. Appearance1836, “Nature” by EmersonIII. Features1. spirit/oversoul2. importance of individualism3. nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment of the oversoul4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV. Influence1. It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2. It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritua l height.3. It helped to create the first American renaissance –one of themost prolific period in American literature.V. Ralph Waldo Emerson1. life2. works(1) Nature(2) Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet3. point of view(1) One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the “oversoul”.(2) He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3) If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”.(4) Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by making himself.4. aesthetic ideas(1) He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2) True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3) The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4) As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrateAmerica which was to him a lone poem in itself.5. his influenceVI. Henry David Thoreau1. life2. works(1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2) Walden(3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3. point of view(1) He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.(2) He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3) Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being.(4) He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5) He was very critical of modern civilization.(6) “Simplicity…simplify!”(7) He was sorel y disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society”.(8) He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of menSection 3 Late RomanticismI. Nathaniel Hawthorne1. life2. works(1) Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2) The Scarlet Letter(3) The House of the Seven Gables(4) The Marble Faun3. point of view(1) Evil is at the core of human life, “that blackness in Hawthorne”(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality).(3) He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4) He has disgust in science.4. aesthetic ideas(1) He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2) He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5. style – typical romantic writer(1) the use of symbols(2) revelation of characters’ psychology(3) the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4) his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5) use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty –multiple point of viewII. Herman Melville1. life2. works(1) Typee(2) Omio(3) Mardi(4) Redburn(5) White Jacket(6) Moby Dick(7) Pierre(8) Billy Budd3. point of view(1) He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of “Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2) One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress4. style(1) Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2) He tends to write periodic chapters.(3) His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised.(4) His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5) He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick) Chapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Background: From Romanticism to Realism1.the three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period(1)industrialism vs. agrarian(2)culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west(3)plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility2.1880’s urbanization: from free competition to monopoly capitalism3.the closing of American frontierII.Characteristics1. truthful description of life2.typical character under typical circumstance3.objective rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life“Realistic writers are like scientists.”4.open-ending: Life is complex and cannot be fully understood. It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves.5.concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustrations of characters in an environment of sordidness and depravity III.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”(1)Realistic principlesa.Realism is “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”.b.The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of American life”.c.Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells’s fictional representation.d.Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals but includes a central concern with “motives” and psychological conflicts.e.He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, and avoids such themes as illicit love.f.Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense of something “desultory, unfinished, imperfect”.g.Characters should have solidity of specification and be real.h.Interpreting sympathetically the “common feelings of commonplace people” was best suited as a technique to express the spirit of America.i.He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with current humanitarian ideals.j.Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates all things.k.With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjective evaluations on books but should follow the detached scientist in accurate description, interpretation, and classification.(2)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb.A Chance Acquaintancec.A Modern Instance(3)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethicscking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Life(2)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international themeThe AmericanDaisy MillerThe Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some playsDaisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence, then back to international themeThe Turn of the ScrewWhen Maisie KnewThe AmbassadorsThe Wings of the DoveThe Golden Bowl(3)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent lifemon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(4)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(5)Style –“stylist”nguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb.V ocabulary: largec.Construction: complicated, intricate3.Mark Twain (see next section)Local Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sChapter 4 American NaturalismI.Background1.Darwin's theory: "natural selection"2.Spenser's idea: "social Darwinism"3.French Naturalism: ZoraII.Features1.environment and heredity2.scientific accuracy and a lot of details3.general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the societyIII.significanceIt prepares the way for the writing of 1920s’“lost generation” and T. S. Eliot.IV.Theodore Dreiser1.life2.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius3.point of view(1)He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned to regard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the "fittest", the most ruthless,survive.(2)Life is predatory, a "game" of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man, being "a waif and an interloper in Nature",a "wisp in the wind of social forces", is a mere pawn in the generalscheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complexof internal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.4.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis5.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in paintingChapter 5 The Modern PeriodSection 1 The 1920sI. IntroductionThe 1920s is a flowering period of American literature. It is considered “the second renaissance” of Americ an literature. The nicknames for this period:(1) Roaring 20s – comfort(2) Dollar Decade – rich(3) Jazz Age – Jazz musicII. Backgrounda) First World War –“a war to end all wars”(1) Economically: became rich from WWI. Economic boom: newinventions. Highly-consuming society.(2) Spiritually: dislocation, fragmentation.b) wide-spread contempt for law (looking down upon law)1. Freud’s theoryIII. Features of the literatureWriters: three groups(1) Participants(2) Expatriates(3) Bohemian (unconventional way of life) – on-lookersTwo areas:(1) Failure of communication of Americans(2) Failure of the American societyImagismI. BackgroundImagism was influenced by French symbolism, ancient Chinese poetry and Japan ese literature “haiku”II. Development: three stages1. 1908~1909: London, Hulme2. 1912~1914: England - America, Pound3. 1914~1917: Amy LowellIII. What is an “image”?An image is defined by Pound as that which presents an intellectualand em otional complex in an instant of time, “a vortex or cluster of fused ideas” “endowed with energy”. The exact word must bring the effect of the object before the reader as it had presented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of writing.IV. Principles1. Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective;2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation;3. As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome.V. Significance1. It was a rebellion against the traditional poetics which failed to reflect the new life of the new century.2. It offered a new way of writing which was valid not only for the Imagist poets but for modern poetry as a whole.3. The movement was a training school in which many great poets learned their first lessons in the poetic art.4. It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern English and American poetry.VI. Ezra Pound1. life2. literary career3. works(1) Cathay(2) Cantos(3) Hugh Selwyn Mauberley4. point of view(1) Confident in Pound’s belief that the artist was morally and culturally the arbiter and the “saviour” of the race, he took it upon himself to purify the arts and became the prime mover of a few experimental movements, the aim of which was to dump the old into the dustbin and bring forth something new.(2) To him life was sordid personal crushing oppression, and culture produced nothing but “intangible bondage”.(3) Pound sees in Chinese history and the doctrine of Confucius a source of strength and wisdom with which to counterpoint Western gloom and confusion.(4) He saw a chaotic world that wanted setting to rights, and a humanity, suffering from spiritual death and cosmic injustice, that needed saving. He was for the most part of his life trying to offer Confucian philosophy as the one faith which could help to save the West.5. style: very difficult to readPound’s early poems are fresh and lyrical. The Cant os can be notoriously difficult in some sections, but delightfully beautiful in others.Few have made serious study of the long poem; fewer, if anyone at all, have had the courage to declare that they have conquered Pound; and many seem to agree that the Cantos is a monumental failure.6. ContributionHe has helped, through theory and practice, to chart out the course of modern poetry.7. The Cantos –“the intellectual diary since 1915”Features:(1) Language: intricate and obscure(2) Theme: complex subject matters(3) Form: no fixed framework, no central theme, no attention to poetic rulesNovels in the 1920sI. F. Scott Fitzgerald1. life – participant in 1920s2. works(1) This Side of Paradise(2) Flappers and Philosophers(3) The Beautiful and the Damned(4) The Great Gatsby(5) Tender is the Night(6) All the Sad Young Man(7) The Last Tycoon3. point of view(1) He expressed what the young people believed in the 1920s, the so-called “American Dream” is false in na ture.(2) He had always been critical of the rich and tried to show the integrating effects of money on the emotional make-up of his character. He found that wealth altered people’s characters, making them mean and distrusted. He thinks money brought only tragedy and remorse.(3) His novels follow a pattern: dream – lack of attraction – failure and despair.4. His ideas of “American Dream”It is false to most young people. Only those who were dishonest could become rich.5. StyleFitzgerald was one of the great stylists in American literature. His prose is smooth, sensitive, and completely original in its diction and metaphors. Its simplicity and gracefulness, its skill in manipulating the relation between the general and the specific reveal his consummate artistry.6. The Great GatsbyNarrative point of view – NickHe is related to everyone in the novel and is calm and detectedobserver who is never quick to make judgements.Selected omniscient point of viewII. Ernest Hemingway1. life2. point of view (influenced by experience in war)(1) He felt that WWI had broken America’s culture and traditions, and separated from its roots. He wrote about men and women who were isolated from tradition, frightened, sometimes ridiculous, trying to find their own way.(2) He condemned war as purposeless slaughter, but the attitude changed when he took part in Spanish Civil War when he found that fascism was a cause worth fighting for.(3) He wrote about courage and cowardice in battlefield. He defined courage as “an instinctive movement towards or away from the centre of violence with self-preservation and self-respect, the mixed motive”. He also talked about the courage with which to face tragedies of life that can never be remedied.(4) Hemingway is essentially a negative writer. It is very difficult for him to say “yes”. He holds a black, naturalistic view of the world and sees it as “all a nothing” and “all nada”.3. works(1) In Our Time(2) Men Without Women(3) Winner Take Nothing(4) The Torrents of Spring(5) The Sun Also Rises(6) A Farewell to Arms(7) Death in the Afternoon(8) To Have and Have Not(9) Green Hills of Africa(10) The Fifth Column(11) For Whom the Bell Tolls(12) Across the River and into the Trees(13) The Old Man and the SeaSouthern LiteratureI. HeritageAmerican southern literature can date back to Edgar Allen Poe, and reach its summit with the appearance of the two “giants” – Faulkner and Wolfe. There are southern women writers – Katherine Anne Porter,Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor.II. Southern Myths – guilt, failure, poverty1. Chevalier [w]heritage[/w]2. Agrarian virtue3. Plantation aristocracy4. Lost cause5. White supremacy6. Purity of womanhoodSouthern literature: twisted, pessimistic, violent, distortedGothic novel: PoeIII. William Faulkner1. life2. literary career: three stages(1) 1924~1929: training as a writerThe Marble FaunSoldie's PayMosquitoes(2) 1929~1936: most productive and prolific periodSartorisThe Sound and the FuryAs I Lay DyingLight in AugustAbsalom, Absalom(3) 1940~end: won recognition in AmericaGo Down, Moses3. point of viewHe generally shows a grim picture of human society where violence and cruelty are frequently included, but his later works showed more optimism. His intention was to show the evil, harsh events in contrast to such eternal virtues as love, honour, pity, compassion, self-sacrifice, and thereby expose the faults o f society. He felt that it was a writer’s duty to remind his readers constantly of true values and virtues.4. themes(1) history and raceHe explains the present by examining the past, by telling the stories of several generations of family to show how history changes life. He was interested in the relationship between blacks and whites, especially concerned about the problems of the people who were of the mixed race of black and white, unacceptable to both races.(2) Deterioration(3) Conflicts between generations, classes, races, man andenvironment(4) Horror, violence and the abnormal5. style/features of his works(1) complex plot(2) stream of [w]consciousness[/w](3) multiple point of view, circular form(4) violation of chronology(5) courtroom rhetoric: formal language(6) characterization: he was able to probe into the psychology ofcharacters(7) “anti-hero”: weak, fable, vulnerable (true people in modernsociety)He has a group of women writers following him, includingO’Connor and Eudora WeltySection 2 The 1930sRadical 1930sI. BackgroundGreat Depression (1929 “Black Thursday”)II. Literature1. Writers of the 1920s were still writing, but they didn’t producegood works.2. The main stream is left-oriented.III. Writers of 1930s1. social concern and social involvement2. revival of naturalistic tradition of Dreiser and NorrisIV. John Steinbeck1. life2. works(1) Cup of Gold(2) Tortilla Flat(3) In Dubious Battle(4) Of Mice and Men(5) The Grapes of Wrath(6) Travels with Charley(7) Short stories: The Red Pony, The Pearl3. point of view(1) His best writing was produced out of outrage at the injustices ofthe societies, and by the admirations for the strong spirit of the poor.(2) His theme was usually simple human virtues, such as kindness and fair treatment, which were far superior to the dehumanizing cruelty ofexploiters.4. style(1) poetic prose(2) regional dialect(3) characterization: many types of characters rather than individuals(4) dramatic factors(5) social protect: spokesman for the poverty-stricken people5. The Grapes of Wrath。
二十世纪美国文学简史(20c初期文学)
二十世纪美国文学简史二十世纪初期的文学群星灿烂的第三次文学高潮十九世纪未到二十世纪初，是美国资本主义向垄断资本主义发展的时期。
具有十九世纪优秀的浪漫主义和现实主义传统的美国小说，伴随着美国社会的这一演变踏进了二十世纪的门槛，在丰富的民族传统和社会土壤的培育下，形成了二十世纪初期绚丽多彩的创作景色，它不但产生了一大批杰出的小说家和优秀的作品，而且在形成美国民族文学独特的风格和众多的流派上起了巨大的作用。
从整个美国文学发展历程看，它是继十九世纪三十年代至五十年代的浪漫主义高潮和七十年代至九十年代的现实主义高潮之后的第三个高潮。
从本世纪初开始，以马克·吐温和弗兰克·诺里斯为代表的现实主义作家，直接培养出他们出色的继承者——西奥多·德莱塞、杰克·伦敦，随后又现出舍伍德·安德森、厄普顿·辛克莱、维拉·凯瑟、辛克莱·刘易斯、厄内斯特·海明威、司各特.菲茨杰拉德、威廉·福克纳、约翰·斯担贝克、托马斯·沃尔夫、多斯·帕索斯这样一批出类拔萃的作家，以及象珀尔·布克、玛莱丽特·米切尔等在某个时期因某个作品而具有一定影响的小说家他们当中的好几位获得过诺贝尔文学奖，使美国小说一跃成为世界文坛上的一支劲旅。
左翼小说是美国现实主义小说的一个重要组织部分，诞生于美国危机年代发展起来的左翼文学运动之中。
它与左翼戏剧、左翼诗歌、左翼报告文学和左翼文学理论一起组成规模巨大的左翼文学运动。
约翰·里德（1887—1920）曾亲自经历俄国十月社会主义革命，是美国左翼文学的先驱。
迈克尔·高尔德（1894—1967）的文学评论对左翼小说作了理论上的阐述。
阿格尼丝·史沫特莱（1890—1950）是一位与中国人民革命斗争息息相通的左翼作家，她的自传小说《大地的女儿》以同情的态度记载了青年转向革命的过程。
美国文学简史American Literature Poetry
American Literature: PoetryINTRODUCTIONAmerican Literature: Poetry, verse in English that originates from the territory now known as the United States. American poetry differs from British or English poetry chiefly because America’s culturally diver se traditions exerted pressure on the English language, altering its tones, diction, forms, and rhythms until something identifiable as American English emerged. American poetry is verse written in this form of English.The term American poetry is in some ways a contradiction. America represents a break with tradition and the invention of a new culture separate from the European past. Poetry, on the other hand, represents tradition itself, a long history of expression carried to America from a European past. American poetry thus embodies a clearly identifiable tension between tradition and innovation, past and future, and old forms and new forms. American poetry remains a hybrid, a literature that tries to separate itself from the tradition of English literature even as it adds to and alters that tradition.American poetry could be defined differently, however, especially if it is not limited to poetry in English. Without that qualifying term, American poetry has its origins in the rich oral traditions of Native American cultures. Each of these cultures developed complex symbolic tales of the origins and history of its people, akin to epic poems in the European tradition. These tales were performed as part of rituals and passed on through memorization from one generation to the next. Some of them have been translated into English. Yet these works tend to vanish from most histories of American poetry because they were part of ongoing performances based in spoken rather than written language. Moreover, their rhythms and sounds are bound to the native languages in which they evolved.Other cultures have contributed to the rich heritage of American poetry. Spanish-language poetry has been produced in America from the time of the earliest Spanish explorers to current Hispanic and Chicano and Chicana poetry. American poetry traditions also have thrived in many other languages, from Chinese to Yiddish, as the result of centuries of immigration to the United States.But most people mean by American poetry those rhythmic, memorable, and significant verse forms composed in English in the United States or in lands that became the United States. This overview of more than 300 years of American poetry tracks the creation of a national literature identifiably different from that of any other nation. In the 1600s colonial poets responded to the challenges of their new world and expressed the hopes and fears of Europeans who settled there. In the years following the Declaration of Independence (1776) American poets created a patriotic poetry as a defining literature for the new nation. A powerful new kind of poetry flowered in the mid- and late 19th century among the first poets to be born and raised as actual citizens of the United States. American modernist poetry emerged in the first half of the 20th century, as many writers sought to subdue nationalist impulses in their poetry and define themselves as part of an international advance in the arts. Finally, in the second half of the 20th century a multiplicity of diverse voices redefined American poetry. For information on American prose or drama, see American Literature: Prose; American Literature: Drama.I I BEGINNINGS: 1600S THROUGH THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION(1775-1783)From the beginning until well into the 19th century, widespread agreement existed that American poetry would be judged by British standards, and that poetry written in America was simply British poetry composed on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet in responding to British styles, American poetry took inspiration from the new physical environment and the evolving culture of the colonies. In the process it recorded a subtle shift from poets who were dependent imitators to poets who spoke for and in the language of the new nation.A New England PuritanPoetryPuritans who had settled in New England were the first poets of the American colonies. Most Puritan poets saw the purpose of poetry as careful Christian examination of their lives; and private poems, like Puritan diaries, served as a forum where the self could be measured daily against devout expectations. Puritan leaders deemed poetry a safe and inspiriting genre, since they considered the Bible itself to be God’s poetry. Thus poetry became the literary form that allowed devout believers to express, with God’s help, divine lessons. Other genres, such as drama and fiction, were considered dangerous, capable of generating lies and leading to idle entertainment instead of moral uplift.Puritan poets had grown up in England during a period when Christian epic poetry—culminating in Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton—was considered the highest literary accomplishment. When they came to America they maintained their cultural allegiances to Britain. Anne Bradstreet looked to British poets Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser; Edward Taylor looked to poets George Herbert and John Donne.Bradstreet was the first poet in America to publish a volume of poetry. The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America was published in England in 1650. Bradstreet had lived in England until 1630, when at the age of 18 she arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where she spent the rest of her life. Although Bradstreet wrote many poems on familiar British themes and produced skilled imitations of British forms, her most remarkable works responded directly to her experiences in colonial New England. They reveal her attraction to her new world, even as the discomforts of life in the wilderness sickened her. Her poetry contains a muted declaration of independence from the past and a challenge to authority.Although Bradstreet’s verses on the burning of her house in 1666 and poems on the death of three grandchildren end by reaffirming the God-fearing Puritan belief system, along the way they also question the harsh Puritan God. Further, Brads treet’s work records early stirrings of female resistance to a social and religious system in which women are subservient to men. In “The Prologue” (1650), Bradstreet writes, “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue / Who says my hand a needle better fits, / [than] A poet’s pen.…” Bradstreet’s instincts were to love this world more than the promised next world of Puritan theology, and her struggle to overcome her love for the world of nature energizes her poetry.Taylor, a poet of great technical skill, wrote powerful meditative poems in which he tested himself morally and sought to identify and root out sinful tendencies. In “God's Determinations Touching His Elect” (written 1680?), one of Taylor’s most important works, he celebrates God's power in the triump h of good over evil in the human soul. All of Taylor’s poetry and much of Bradstreet’s served generally personal ends, and their audience often consisted of themselves andtheir family and closest friends. This tradition of private poetry, kept in manuscript and circulated among a small and intimate circle, continued throughout the colonial period, and numerous poets of the 17th and 18th centuries remained unknown to the general public until long after their deaths. For them, poetry was a kind of heightened letter writing that reaffirmed the ties of family and friends. Taylor’s poems remained unpublished until 1939, when The Poetical Works of Edward Taylor appeared. Many of Bradstreet’s most personal poems also remained unpublished during her lifetime.Public poetry for the Puritans was more didactic or instructive in nature and often involved the transformation into verse of important biblical lessons that guided Puritan belief. Poet and minister Michael Wigglesworth wrote theological verse in ballad meter, such as The Day of Doom (1662), which turned the Book of Revelation into an easily memorized sing-song epic. Puritan poetry also included elaborate elegies,or poems honoring a person who had recently died. Puritans used these poems to explore the nature of the self, reading the character of the dead person as a text and seeing the life as a collection of hidden meanings.B SouthernSatireColonial poets of the 18th century still looked to British poets of their time, such as Alexander Pope and Ambrose Philips. Both were masters of pastoral verse—poetry that celebrated an idealized English countryside and rural life—and of satirical verse. Initially, this satiric tone was more prevalent in the southern colonies than in New England.Two poets from the Maryland Colony, Ebenezer Cook and Richard Lewis, wrote accomplished satirical poems based on British pastoral models. But their poems cleverly undermine those models by poking fun at the British. Cook’s The Sot-Weed Factor (1708) is a long narrative poem written in rhyming couplets that mocks Americans as a backward people but aims its satire most effectively at the poem’s narrator, who is a British snob. Americans may be laughable, Cook suggests, but they are not as ridiculous as the British with their ignorance and prejudice about Americans.C Revolutionary Era PatrioticPoetryA penchant for satire continued in the American Revolutionary era, when American poetry was centered on Connecticut and a group of poets known as the Connecticut Wits (or Hartford Wits). This group, most of whose members were associated with Yale University, included David Humphreys, John Trumbull, and Joel Barlow. Along with other writers they produced The Anarchiad (1786-1787), a mock epic poem warning against the chaos that would ensue if a strong central government, as advocated by the Federalists, was not implemented in the United States. American poets used the British literary model of the mock epic as a tool to satirize and criticize British culture. Trumbull’s mock epic M’Finga l (1775-1782) lampooned the British Loyalists during the Revolution.Revolutionary-era poets composed more than satire, however. They felt an urgency to produce a serious—even monumental—national poetry that would celebrate the country’s new democratic ideals. Epic poems, they believed, would confer importance and significance on the new nation’s culture. Educated in the classics, these poets were also lawyers, ministers, and busy citizens of the new republic. They did not bother with the question whether a new nation required new forms of poetry, but were content to use traditional forms to write about new subjects in orderto create the first truly American poetry. Whereas traditional epics celebrated past accomplishments of a civilization, American epics by necessity celebrated the future. Examples of such epics include Barlow’s The Vision of Columbus(1787), later revised as The Columbiad (1807); Greenfield Hill (1794) by clergyman Timothy Dwight; and The Rising Glory of America (1772) by Philip Freneau. All offered the prospect of America as the future culmination of civilization.Freneau, the most accomplished patriot poet, was not associated with Connecticut. He was born in New York City and later lived in a variety of places. His range of experience and clarity of expression made him a very popular poet, widely regarded as the first poet who spoke for the entire country. Much of his poetry focused on America’s future greatness, but he also wrote on other subjects, including the beauties of the natural w orld. Such lyric poems as “The Wild Honey Suckle” (1786) and “On a Honey Bee” (1809), can be seen as the first expressions in American poetry of a deep spiritual engagement with nature.D Early BlackVoicesSlavery was the great contradiction in the new nation that had affirmed in its Declaration of Independence a basic belief that “all men are created equal” and have “inalienable” rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Many of the country’s early leaders believed that African slaves were intellectually inferior to whites. Phillis Wheatley, a Boston slave, challenged those racist assumptions early on. Brought to America as a young girl, Wheatley was educated by her masters in English and Latin. She became an accomplished poet, and her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral(1773) was published in England. Like the white patriot poets, Wheatley wrote in 18th-century literary forms. But her highly structured and elegant poetry nonetheless expressed her frustration at enslavement and desire to reach a heaven where her color and social position would no longer keep her from singing in her full glory.Wheatley’s poetry, along with that of other slaves, begins a powerful African American tradition in American poetry. In 1746 Lucy Terry, a slave in Massachusetts who was also educated by her owner, wrote the first poem to be published by a black American: 'Bar's Fight.' The poem, which was not published until 1855, describes the victims and survivors of a Native American raid against settler s. It was followed by Jupiter Hammon’s biblically inspired, hymnlike verse, “An Evening Thought; Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries” (1761).Born at the time of the founding of the nation, African American poetry retained its concern with the burning issues of the American Revolution, including liberty, independence, equality, and identity. It also expressed African American experiences of divided loyalties. Just as white Americans experienced divided loyalties in the republic’s early years—unsure whether their identity derived from the new country or from their European past—so too did African Americans, who looked always to their African past and to their problematic American present.I IITHE 19TH CENTURYThe 19th century began with high hopes for poetic accomplishment. The first comprehensive anthologies of American poetry appeared in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s. In the first half of the century poets sought to entertain, to inform, and to put into memorable language America’s history, myths, manners, and topography, but they did not seek to forge a radical new poetic tradition. Their poetry built upon tradition, and they met the first great goal of American poetry:that it be able to compete in quality, intelligence, and breadth with British poetry. But just as they achieved this goal, poetic aspirations began to change. By the mid-19th century the new goal for American poetry was to create something very different from British poetry. Innovative poets, particularly Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, led the way.A The FiresidePoetsWilliam Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Greenleaf Whittier constituted a group sometimes called the Fireside Poets. They earned this nickname because they frequently used the hearth as an image of comfort and unity, a place where families gathered to learn and tell stories. These tremendously popular poets also were widely read around the hearthsides of 19th-century American families. The consensus of American critics was that the Fireside Poets first put American poetry on an equal footing with British poetry.Bryant gained public recognition first and is best remembered for “Thanatopsis,” published in 1821 but written when he was a teenager. Still widely anthologized, this poem offers a democratic reconciliation with death as the great equalizer and a recognition that the “still voice” of God is embodied in all processes of nature. During a busy life as a lawyer and editor of the New York Evening Post, Bryant wrote accomplished, elegant, and romantic descriptions of a nature suffused with spirit.Longfellow was the best known of the Fireside Poets, and it was with him that American poetry began its emergence from the shadow of its British parentage. His poetic narratives helped create a national historical myth, transforming colorful aspects of the American past into memorable romance. They include Evangeline (1847), which concerns lovers who are separated during the French and Indian War (1754-1763), and The Song of Hiawatha (1855), which derives its themes from Native American folklore. No American poet before or since was as widely celebrated during his or her lifetime as Longfellow. He became the first and only American poet to be honored with a bust in the revered Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey in London, England.The accomplishments of the other Fireside Poets were various. Lowell’s Biglow Papers (1848) added to the American tradition of long satirical poems. Holmes wrote several memorable short po ems such as “The Chambered Nautilus” (1858). Whittier became best known for Snow-Bound (1866), a long nostalgic look at his Massachusetts Quaker boyhood, when the family gathered around the fireside during a snowstorm.B AbolitionistPoetryDuring the 19th century, black and white poets wrote about the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of slaves. George Moses Horton, a North Carolina slave, was the first Southern black poet. Joshua McCarter Simpson was a black poet from Ohio whose memorable songs of emancipation were set to popular tunes and sung by fugitive slaves. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper wrote passionate abolitionist and early feminist poems that called both blacks and whites to action against oppression. James M. Whitfield wrote powerful poems criticizing America for its failure to live up to its ideals. In his long poem “America” (1853), he writes: “America, it is to thee, / Thou boasted land of liberty,— / It is to thee I raise my song, / Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong.”Black poets at this time appropriated the language and style of the predominantly white, mainstream patriotic America. In using mainstream language, these black poets showed their white audiences how differently songs of liberty and freedom sounded from the perspective of those who had been left out of the “all men are created equal” equation. Black poets also often expressed themselves with irony and ambiguity so that different audiences heard different intonations and meanings, a double voicing that would become central to later African American writing.White abolitionist poets, from their more privileged social position, could afford to be more confrontational about the issue of slavery. Whittier was a fiery abolitionist whose numerous antislavery poems were collected in Voices of Freedom(1846). Longfellow’s Poems on Slavery (1842) forms a long-forgotten but illuminating contribution to the tradition of American political poems. Lowell also was an ardent abolitionist.C WaltWhitmanA newspaper reporter and editor, Whitman first published poems that were traditional in form and conventional in sentiment. In the early 1850s, however, he began experimenting with a mixture of the colloquial diction and prose rhythms of journalism; the direct address and soaring voice of oratory; the repetitions and catalogues of the Bible; and the lyricism, music, and drama of popular opera. He sought to write a democratic poetry—a poetry vast enough to contain all the variety of burgeoning 19th-century American culture.In 1855 Whitman published the first edition of Leaves of Grass, the book he would revise and expand for the rest of his life. The first edition contained only 12 untitled poems. The longest poem, which he eventually named “Song of Myself,” has become one of the mos t discussed poems in all of American poetry. In it Whitman constructs a democratic “I,” a voice that sets out to celebrate itself and the rapture of its senses experiencing the world, and in so doing to celebrate the unfettered potential of every individual in a democratic society. Emerging from a working class family, Whitman grew up in New York City and on nearby Long Island. He was one of the first working-class American poets and one of the first writers to compose poetry that is set in and draws its energy from the bustling, crowded, diverse streets of the city.Whitman later added a variety of poems to Leaves of Grass. They include “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856), in which Whitman addresses both contemporary and future riders of the ferry, and “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” (1860), a reverie about his boyhood on the shores of Long Island. Other poems were about affection between men and about the experiences and sufferings of soldiers in the Civil War (1861-1865).Whitman’s work was initially embraced more fully in Britain than in the United States. An influential 1872 anthology, American Poems, published in England and edited by English literary critic William Michael Rossetti, was dedicated to Whitman and gave him more space than any other poet. From then on American poetry was judged not by how closely it approximated the best British verse, but by how radically it divorced itself from British tradition. Rough innovation came to be admired over polished tradition.D EmilyDickinsonEmily Dickinson, along with Whitman, is one of the most original and demanding poets in American literature. Living her whole life in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson composed nearly2,000 short, untitled poems. Despite her productivity, only a handful of Dickinson’s poems were published before her death in 1886. Most of her poems borrow the repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns, with two lines of four-beat meter alternating with two lines of three-beat meter. A master of imagery that makes the spiritual materialize in surprising ways, Dickinson managed manifold variations within her simple form: She used imperfect rhymes, subtle breaks of rhythm, and idiosyncratic syntax and punctuation to create fascinating word puzzles, which have produced greatly divergent interpretations over the years.Dickinson’s intensely private poems cover a wide range of subjects and emotions. She was fascinated with death, and many of her poems struggle with the contradictions and seeming impossibility of an afterlife. She carries on an argument with God, sometimes expressing faith in him and sometimes denying his existence. Many of her poems record moments of freezing paralysis that could be death, pain, doubt, fear, or love. She remains one of the most private and cryptic voices in American literature.Because of Dickinson’s prominence, it sometimes seems that she was the only female poet in America in the 19th century. Yet nearly a hundred women published poetry in the first six decades of the 1800s, and most early anthologies of American poetry contained far more women writers than appeared in anthologies in the first half of the 20th century. Dickinson’s work can be better understood if read in the context of these poets.Lydia Huntley Sigourney was a popular early-19th-century poet whose work set the themes for other female poets: motherhood, sentiment, and the ever-present threat of death, particularly to children. She developed, among other forms, the same hymn stanza that Dickinson used, although she experimented with fewer variations on it than Dickinson, and her poetry was simple and accessible. The work of Sigourney, along with that of Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Frances Sargent Locke Osgood, Alice and Phoebe Cary, and Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, was dismissed by most 20th-century critics until feminist critics began to rediscover the ironic edge to what had before seemed to be conventional sentimentality. The work of these and other women poets offers a window into the way 19th-century culture constructed and understood such concepts as gender, love, marriage, and motherhood.Poe, Melville, andOthersOther poets who tried out distinctive new forms included Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville. Poe devoted great effort to writing poetry that was unlike anything before it. A careful craftsman, he examined in detail the effects that his every poetic choice had. Poe’s poetry earned little respect from his contemporaries, who dismissed him as “the jingle man.” He had, said Whitman, “the rhyming art to excess.” Yet Poe’s nightmarish scenes, unnerving plots, and probings of abnormal psychology gave his poetry, as well as his tales, a haunting, memorable quality that makes him one of the most admired innovators in American literature. The opening lines of his best-kno wn poem, “The Raven” (1845), demonstrate Poe’s love of rhyming and his use of varying rhythm: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.”Melville, though much better known as a novelist, nonetheless wrote powerful poetry about the Civil War, collected in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866). He later wrote a long and mysterious poem, Clarel (1876), about his search for faith, his struggle with doubt, and his anxiety about the decline of civilization.Lesser-known innovators of the 19th century include Jones Very, Sidney Lanier and Henry Timrod. Very was a Massachusetts poet who produced strikingly original religious sonnets. Lanier was a Georgia poet who sought to reproduce in language the effects of music. Timrod, a Southern poet who was known as “the laureate of the Confederacy,” wrote some notably original and dark poetry in the 1860s.Toward the 20thCenturyWhitman had hoped that his work would generate new energy in American poetry. But when he died in 1892, the American poetic scene was relatively barren. Most of the major poets had died and no successor to Whitman was emerging. William Vaughn Moody, a poet born in Indiana, wrote The Masque of Judgement(1900), which was the first in a series of verse dramas about humanity’s spiritual tortures and eventual spiritual victory. Stephen Crane, best known for his novels, published two volumes of poetry, The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895) and War Is Kind and Other Poems (1899). In their tone and fragmented form, his grim poems anticipate the concerns of many modern writers. But neither poet lived far into the 20th century.I VTHE 20TH CENTURYBy 1900 the United States was far different from the new nation it had been a hundred years earlier. Westward expansion, waves of immigration, and increasing urbanization all combined to create a physically larger, more populous, and far more diverse country than its founders could have imagined. These changes are tracked mor e visibly in America’s fiction than in its poetry, but the nation’s growing diversity is evident in the diverse voices of 20th-century American poets. American poetry in the opening decades of the century displayed far less unity than most anthologies and critical histories indicate. Shifting allegiances, evolving styles, and the sheer number of poets make it difficult to categorize 20th-century poetry.A RegionalismIn the last decades of the 19th century, American literature had entered a period of regionalism, exploring the stories, dialects, and idiosyncrasies of the many regions of the United States. Dialect poetry—written in exaggerated accents and colorful idioms—became a sensation for a time though it produced little of lasting value. However, one major poet who rose to fame on the basis of his dialect poems was Paul Laurence Dunbar, a black writer from Ohio. Dunbar’s dialect poems, which romanticized the life of slaves in the pre-Civil War South, were extremely popular. His volumes Oak and Ivy (1893) and Majors and Minors(1895) brought attention to African American literature, although the dialect poems later embarrassed many black poets. Dunbar also wrote many nondialect poems, and through his work initiated an important debate in African American literature about what voices and materials black writers should employ.Other regions and groups developed their own distinctive voices. Kansas-born Edgar Lee Masters achieved success with Spoon River Anthology(1915). His poetic epitaphs (commemorations) capture the hidden passions, deceits, and hopes of Midwesterners buried in the fictional Spoon River cemetery. Edwin Arlington Robinson explored the lives of New Englanders in his fictional Tilbury Town through dramatic monologues—poems written entirely in the voice。
美国文学方向论文参考书目及期刊
美国文学方向论文参考书目及期刊1.《美国文学简史》常耀信南开大学出版社2.《美国文学大纲》吴定柏上海外语教育出版社3.《新编美国文学史》刘海平、王守仁上海外语教育出版社4.《美国文学简史》董衡巽、朱虹，19865.《20世纪美国文学导论》李公昭西安交通大学出版社，20006.Longman Companion to American Literature7. Oxford Companion to American Literature8. A Reader’s Guide to 50 American Novels…by Ian Qusby9.The Norton Anthology of American Literature10.Anthology of American Literature11.Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (TCLC)12.Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC)13.Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism (NCLC)14.中国期刊网15.《外国文学研究》16.《外国文学评论》17.人大复印资料《外国文学研究》18.美国文学简介Fred Medrick 河南大学出版社19.Gale Litery Criticism Series, Detroit: Gale Research Inc. U.S.A20.Roor Martuz, etc.al, ed., Contemporary Literary Criticism (Vol. 1-180), Gale ResearchInc., Detrait, New Y ork, London (CLC)21.Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) Vol. 1-18022.Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (TCLC) Vol. 1-18023.Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism (NCLC) Vol. 1-18024.Contemporary Author Vol.1-15025.Drama Criticism Vol. 1-1326.Short Story Criticism Vol.1-5027.Poetry Criticism Vol. 1-40。
美国文学简史 中文版
美国文学(American Literature)美国文学的历史不长，它几乎是和美国自由资本主义同时出现，较少受到封建贵族文化的束缚。
美国早期人口稀少，有大片未开发的土地，为个人理想的实现提供了很大的可能性。
美国人民富于民主自由精神，个人主义、个性解放的观念较为强烈，这在文学中有突出的反映。
美国又是一个多民族的国家，移民不断涌入，各自带来了本民族的文化，这决定了美国文学风格的多样性和庞杂性。
美国文学发展的过程就是不断吸取、融化各民族文学特点的过程。
许多美国作家来自社会下层，这使得美国文学生活气息和平民色彩都比较浓厚，总的特点是开朗、豪放。
内容庞杂与色彩鲜明是美国文学的另一特点。
个性自由与自我克制、清教主义与实用主义、激进与反动、反叛和顺从、高雅与庸俗、高级趣味与低级趣味、深刻与肤浅、积极进取与玩世不恭、明快与晦涩、犀利的讽刺与阴郁的幽默、精心雕琢与粗制滥造、对人类命运的思考和探索与对性爱的病态追求等倾向，不仅可以同时并存，而且形成强烈的对照。
从来没有一种潮流或倾向能够在一个时期内一统美国文学的天下。
美国作家敏感、好奇，往往是一个浪潮未落，另一浪潮又起。
作家们永远处在探索和试验的过程之中。
20世纪以来，许多文学潮流起源于美国，给世界文学同时带来积极的与消极的影响。
殖民地时期印第安人的文化欧洲人发现新大陆的时候，北美洲的土著居民印第安人处于原始公社制度各种不同的阶段。
印第安人在向大自然的斗争中创造了自己的文化，主要是民间口头创作，包括神话传说和英雄传说。
由于他们没有文字，这些传说后来才得以整理问世，启发了后世美国作家的灵感。
早期移民的文化移民刚到新大陆时忙于生存斗争，所以开始时文学发展比较缓慢。
最早发表的关于北美的作品是游记、日记之类的文字。
作者都是英国人。
英国殖民地建立之后，统治者利用宗教，主要是清教主义作为控制殖民地思想意识的主要手段，因此许多出版物是关于神学的研究。
著名的作家有科顿·马瑟(1663-1728)和乔纳森。
专八人文知识：美国文学简史(一)
专八人文知识：美国文学简史(一)Chapter 1 Colonial PeriodI. Background: Puritanism1. features of Puritanism(1) Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.(2) Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be pass ed down from generati on to generation.(3) Total depravity(4) Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.2. Influence(1) A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.(2) It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth –garden of Eden.(3) Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling int o being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.(4) With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not wit hout a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.II. Overview of the literature1. types of writingdiaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons2. writers of colonial period(1) Anne Bradstreet(2) Edward Taylor(3) Roger Williams(4) John Woolman(5) Thomas Paine(6) Philip FreneauIII. Jonathan Edwards1. life2. works(1) The Freedom of the Will(2) The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3) The Nature of True Virtue3. ideas –pioneer of transcendentalism(1) The spirit of revivalism(2) Regeneration of man(3) God’s presence(4) Puritan idealismIV. Benjamin Franklin1. life2. works(1) Poor Richard’s Almanac(2) Autobiography3. contribution(1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.(2) He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven”.(3) Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thus described him “m aster of each and mastered by none”.。
美国文学简史中文版(上 (1)
֨ӫڏ▲ޏۃЍउङଋ३Иͫ২֢֨ 澝 Ѝۨд▲Зٚםङડ ֫澞֨ਸ਼֢չࠬۨڥङۃՕљ֨Зડ֫ԗО੧Ԉͫ৲ЉՉٝ ଋޞङ॑ڏدѫпࡣگ澝Ю⛻ЊѮङ܃ٴ澞Зࡳࠬ֨ߊޞՑީՕљપ પङз֨ͫە২֢ؼՕљؘؘ֪֨֨Ԅӱ澞йކਫזҽͫ৲ૈॲؑݷݾ ஶկԈЊࣲޞۅїङؑݾ澝࡞ݺ澝ކԗஶոͫ֨םޏஏۨдࡴࣿٯޙङ ࠥڔ澞֨ߊޝङ㼏ࡇ֪ڢИͫભЊ؉յ֠ङډ䂷ࣜࠀ澝ৢَڱՃљե Ԙୂ▲пؔلԚङݷݾޏؘ࣫ީࡇلஶࣲङИࡶ䪖ߴ澞п१ࡇৱђߛӱ םޏஏङ Ѝߍڐؼдކ؆ङӫҁ澞ѕћङӫҁӄؠПީ߄Ҽםޏஏ ङ֦ыە澝ਘࣀչࡇࣿࡴͫѕћ۪ৱљޙઓङ۪ͫڔڥৱљઓ澝சঃ ङߛڔڥઓڣ۱۱澞Љଋͫ֨ ЍФӹͫԘ২םஏЇׂߎ࡚߄эТӟ ࣒࣍չԭӳս澞ߊޝङԭӳսәЧҶୂީђ২֢ԭӳӟ࣍ФեӱԘ২םஏ ߛङ澞םӱд ЍИՙͫԘ২㼏ࡇ֪۵ڐӟ࣫дंلѻ֨םޏஏङކ ыӊӟߛङކ؆ҁս澞ࡶ߂ޞڢ੧ङކ؆ީڔڥ峪࠱ͫҿࠩީͫކށசঃչ ઓ澞ѸЉђӄؠӱͫڔڥଐୃԝӣঠনչ㎷䱣澞ـͫ࠴ײࡂॽީԘ ২םஏߎ֦ણࣿङކ؆ͫީ২ӯֳࡇކޕ؆ङ߂Ӭㄉਃ澞
美国文学简史,翻译第十章,西奥多德莱塞(1871-1914)
西奥多德莱塞（1871-1914）德莱塞出生于印第安纳州，讲德语的父母第九名子女。
他的童年是在极端贫困中度过。
在进入美国印第安纳大学后，他成为一名芝加哥环球报刊的记者，并于1894年抵达纽约之前，曾在圣路易斯和匹兹堡工作。
他的第一部小说《嘉莉妹妹》被拒绝，因为其真实的呈现了美国生活的真正本质。
这位年轻的作者觉得太郁闷了直到“十年的延迟”泽尔齐夫的作品在社会的认可，他说，已经走在世纪之交的东江，认真考虑自杀。
他面对任何形式的攻击,一个严肃的艺术家可能遇到误解、歪曲、艺术隔离,和商业诱惑。
但他忍着，坚持活到20世纪20年代领导的叛乱。
《嘉莉妹妹》在1900年出版，接着是《珍妮姑娘》（1911）和两卷柯帕乌三部曲，《金融家》（1912）和《泰坦》（1914），在他死后才出版。
他的其他作品还包括《天才》（1915）是自传体的作品，一个《美国的悲剧》（1925），和《壁垒》（1946年）。
德莱塞能够左在自己的看法。
他访问了俄罗斯，并写下了《德莱塞看俄罗斯》（1928年）和《美国悲剧》（1931），以表达他的新信仰。
他强烈的同情共产主义，他去世前不久，加入中国共产党。
德莱塞在美国文学史上一直是一个有争议的人物。
他的作品对改变美国人的生活有强大的影响，但他的风格被认为是天然的。
他用一种新的方式呈现现实，他的勇气和洞察力启发了20世纪20年代的作家。
自然主义的复兴在20世纪30年代达到顶峰，德莱塞领导并倡导了近现代的自然主义如博物学家詹姆斯·法瑞尔，约翰·奥哈拉和约翰·道斯·帕索斯，因为在德莱塞的作品中，美国自然主义的时代来临了。
德莱塞阅读面广泛。
除了巴尔扎克，左拉，马克·吐温，还有他的同时代人，杰克·伦敦和弗兰克·诺里斯的作品，都在他的阅读清单里。
到目前为止，最大的影响力来自赫伯特·斯宾塞，在1897年阅读完他的作品后，他对斯宾塞的前景有了决定性的影响。
美国文学简史常耀信版讲义1
Hale Waihona Puke Historical Background
American literature begins with the orally transmitted myths, legends, tales, and lyrics (always songs) of Indian cultures. ---- no written literature The Indian’s contribution to America Indian words in everyday American English today such as “canoe”, “tobacco”, “potato”, “moccasin” 软鞋，鹿皮鞋, “raccoon” 浣熊 “persimmon” 柿子 “moose” 麋鹿 “tomahawk” 战斧 “totem” 图腾
Puritanism
Puritans was the name given in the 16th century to the more extreme Protestants（新 教徒，基督教徒） who thought the English Reformation （英国宗教改革）had not gone far enough. They wanted to purify their national church. In the 17th century many Puritans emigrated to the New World, where they sought to found a holy Commonwealth in New England. Puritanism remained the dominant cultural force in that area into the 19th century.
美国文学简史
美国文学简史1. 前言美国文学是指在美国国内创作并流传的文学作品。
随着美国的发展和独立，美国文学在18世纪末至今逐渐形成独特的风格和流派。
本文将从殖民地时期到现代，概述美国文学的发展历程和代表作品，旨在带您了解美国文学的演变和贡献。
2. 殖民地时期（17世纪初-18世纪初）美国殖民地时期是美国文学的起源。
在殖民地时期，殖民者将英国文学的传统与新大陆的经历相结合，创作出了许多有代表性的作品。
2.1 《普利姆斯的历史》（《Of Plymouth Plantation》）《普利姆斯的历史》是由普利茅斯定居者的领导人威廉·布拉德福编写的历史记录。
这本书详细描述了普利茅斯殖民地的建立和发展，记录了殖民者在新大陆的艰苦生活。
它是美国文学中最早的非虚构作品之一，也是学习美国殖民地历史的重要参考书籍。
2.2 《普渡大学诗歌》（《The Bay Psalm Book》）《普渡大学诗歌》是美国第一本印刷书籍，由普渡大学教士翻译和编撰，于1640年出版。
这本书是使用英语将《圣经》诗歌翻译成韵文的作品。
它在美国文学中具有重要的意义，不仅是美国文学的开端，也标志着美国最早的文化实践之一。
3. 独立时期（18世纪中叶-19世纪初）美国在独立战争后建立了独立的政治体系，这对于美国文学的发展起到了积极的推动作用。
该时期的文学作品反映了对独立和自由的渴望。
3.1 《常识》（《Common Sense》）《常识》是由托马斯·潘恩在1776年匿名发表的一本政治小册子。
这本书通过简明易懂的语言向广大美国民众阐述了独立的理由和价值。
它对美国革命的推动作用极大，激发了人们追求自由和独立的火焰。
3.2 《自然》（《Nature》）《自然》是拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生于1836年发表的一篇论文集。
他通过对美国的自然环境的赞美和反思，提出了自然界与人类的和谐关系。
这对于美国的独立文化和民族精神有着重要的影响，成为了美国浪漫主义文学运动的先驱。
美国文学简史
美国文学简史第1章殖民地时期的美国1.1复习笔记I.American Puritanism（美国清教主义）The British began to immigrate to North America in the first half of the 17th century. The firstpermanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.In1620,the ship Mayflower carried about one hundred Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts.Many early American immigrants were Puritans, and they came to the United States for a variety ofreasons.The Puritanism they believed in later took root in the New World and had a profound impacton American thought and American literature.英国向北美的移民活动开始于17世纪上半叶。
英国于1607年在北美建立了第一个永久性海外殖民区：弗吉尼亚州的詹姆斯敦。
1620年“五月花”号载运100余名移民抵达马萨诸塞州的普利茅斯。
很多美国早期的移民是清教徒，他们出于多种原因来到美国。
他们信奉的清教主义后来在新大陆生根发芽，并对美国思想和美国文学产生了根深蒂固的影响。
Doctrines of Puritanism（清教主义的教义）The Puritans believed in the doctrine predestination put forward by the theologian John Calvin,including original sin, complete depravity, and limited redemption.清教徒信奉神学家约翰·加尔文宣扬的预设定论，原罪，彻底的堕落，有限制的救赎等神学主张。
(完整word版)美国文学简史中文版
美国文学简史什么是文学?文学是语言的艺术来实现识别的文艺气质，并传达有意义的信息。
第1章殖民时期一，项目背景：清教主义一，特点清教主义（1）宿命：神决定一切之前的事情发生。
（2）原罪：人类天生是邪恶的，并可以通过这种原罪了一代又一代。
（3）总的堕落（4）有限赎罪：※当选§可以保存。
2.Influence（1）A组每艰苦奋斗，勤俭节约,虔诚，庄重(认真周到的)影响了美国文学的优秀品质。
（2）它导致了永恒的神话.所有文献的基础上每伊甸园的神话。
（3)象征主义:美国的清教徒*隐喻模式的看法，主要是在调用的文学象征，这是典型的美国。
(4）关于他们的写作，风格清新，简单和直接的说辞是平原和诚实，不无淡淡的贵族往往可以追溯到“圣经"的直接影响.II。
文献综述1.型式的写作日记，历史,日记，信件，书籍,自传/传记，布道2。
writers的殖民时期（1）安妮邓白氏(2）爱德华·泰勒(3）罗杰·威廉斯(4）约翰伍尔曼（5）托马斯·潘恩(6）菲利普FreneauIII。
乔纳森·爱德华兹1。
life2。
works（1）自由的意志（2）大原罪的学说辩护（3）自然真德3.ideas每超验主义的先锋（1）精神的复兴运动（2)再生人(3）神*的存在（4）清教徒理想主义IV。
本杰明·富兰克林1.life2。
works(1)差理查德*年鉴（2)自传3。
contribution（1）他帮助了宾夕法尼亚州的医院和美国哲学学会。
（2)他被称为※新普罗米修斯偷火从天上（在这种情况下，电力）§。
（3)一切似乎都在这一个男人，以满足每※万事通§。
赫尔曼·梅尔维尔如此描述他※大师和掌握的没有§.第2章美国浪漫主义第1节什么是早期浪漫主义时期的浪漫主义呢?古希腊柏拉图的LAN的方法LA文学思潮：18C在英国(1798〜1832）lSchlegel兄弟I.预览：浪漫主义的特点1。
美国文学简史chapter11
Chapter 11
The 1920s ∙ Imagism ∙ Pound
Contents:
Background of the1920s Influence of the 1920s
Although Imagism was only a transient phase of no longer than a decade, it was important in a number of ways in the development of modern poetry. It was a rebellion against the traditional poetics which failed to reflect the new life of the new century. And its literary theories and poetic forms have continued to exercise their influence on modern and contemporary poetry. It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern English and American poetry.
20世纪20年代是美国历史上一个特殊的年代。第一 次世界大战结束了(1918)，经济大萧条(1929)还没 有到来。美国在一战前期大发战争财，后期参战， 捡了个便宜，之后赢得了发展经济的宝贵时机。由 于一战的残酷，使得很多人对传统的价值观（比如 国家、荣誉、民主、自由等西方意识形态）产生怀 疑，失去信仰，放浪形骸，沉湎于享乐（跟中国现 在差不多）。传统的清教徒道德已经土崩瓦解，享 乐主义开始大行其道。用当时流行作家菲茨杰拉德 的话来说，“这是一个奇迹的时代，一个艺术的时 代，一个挥金如土的时代，也是一个充满嘲讽的时 代。”菲茨杰拉德称这个时代为“爵士乐时代”（一 般指一战以后，经济大萧条以前的约十年的时间）， 这个时代表面的奢华背后隐藏着空虚和无奈。
美国文学简史(上)
美国文学简史（上）十九世纪以前概述美国是一个年轻的国家。
作为一个国家，它的历史只能从1776 年7 月4 日算起。
作为历史中一个不可分割的组成部分的美国文学史，严格地说，也是从这一天开始谱写的。
哥伦布在1492 年发现新大陆之前，这块土地的主人是印第安人，他们的各个部落还处在原始公社制度各个不同的发展阶段，他们本身并没有发达的文学。
遭到殖民主义者的野蛮屠杀和驱赶之后，这个种族已处于濒临灭绝的境地，仅有的口头创作也几乎完全中断。
美国独立以前，北美大陆受欧洲人统治长达几个世纪。
由于残酷的殖民经治以掠夺财富和剥削廉价劳力为目的，因此，北美大陆既没有发达的经济，更没有发达的文化。
从这个意义上说，美利坚民族的文化，实际上是欧洲文化的移植，文学和艺术绝大数是欧洲的舶来品。
殖民地时期美国仅有的几位诗人和民间作家，由于历史条件的局限和自身生活的局限，也没有能写出具有美洲特色的作品。
独立之后，美国的文学虽然还处于襁褓之中，但它已经开始摆脱殖民文化的桎梏。
在民族独立的历史关头，美国人民，特别是作为当时站在革命斗争最前列的资产阶级左翼分子，已经认识到了建立民族文学的重要性。
一批年轻的诗人就曾预言，美国文学必将有一个灿烂的未来；他们满腔热情地为这个未来的灿烂文学增砖添瓦，贡献自己的聪明才智。
尽管如此，独立以后相当长的一段时间里，美国还不能很快摆脱在文化上依附英国的状况，不利于民族文学繁荣发展的条件依然存在。
首先，在取得政治上的统一以后，各地区在经济、文化上的发展并不平衡。
当时西部大部分还是处女地，那里除了民间故事外，一时还不可能出现反映西部开发业迹的成熟作品。
在愚昧落后的南部，真正的民族文化无从谈起。
思想意识异常顽固的大不列颠王国的臣民，对这个新生国家总是抱着一种不可名状的仇恨和敌视。
他们鄙视美国的一切，当然也包括美国年轻幼稚的文学。
面对英国的一片嘲笑和挖苦声，已经获得了独立的美国人民决心使自己的国家在政治、经济、文化等各个领域都拥有充分的发言权，他们需要有自己的工业、农业、科学和文化。
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• 第五章 爱默生和梭罗与超险主义（1830-1850） 第一节 爱默生与美国超险主义 第二节 梭罗及其《瓦尔登湖》 第三节 超险主义与中国古典哲学思想 第六章 美国“文艺复兴”文学（1830-1860） 第一节 霍桑的小说创作 第二节 麦尔维尔的小说创作 第三节 “南方作家”及其他小说作品 第四节 朗弗罗及共19世纪主要诗人 第五节 道格拉斯与其他散文作家 第六节 惠特曼的诗歌创作 第七节 惠特曼与中国文学
• 第七章 美国文学批评的初起与发展 第一节 早期美国文学评论概述 第二节 坡的文学批评与文学创作理论 第三节 其他小说诗歌理论 附录 一、大事年表 二、主要参考书目 三、中文索引 四、英文索引 后记...
概论 美国文学的源起与发展（起始1860）.
第一章 美国印第安传统文学 第一节 印第安典仪与曲词文学 第二节 印第安起源神话与其他传说 第二章 北美殖民时期文学（1950-1750） 第一节 殖民地建立与开发的一般叙述 第二节 历史意识与殖民地叙史文学 第三节 清教思想的表述及其文学特征 第四节 布拉德斯特理与早期美国诗歌 第五节 殖民时期的其他主要散文作家
• 第三章 独立革命前后的文学（1750-1810） 第一节 独立革命时期的政论文学 第二节 独立革命时期的其他散文 第三节 独立革命时期的美国诗歌 第四节 美国戏剧的初始与发展 第五节 美国小说的产生与发展.. 第四章 美国浪漫主义文学的起始（18101840） 第一节 欧文的散文与小说 第二节 库柏及其小说创作 第三节 坡及其短篇小说 .第四节 坡和布赖恩特与美国浪漫主义诗歌