美国文学重点整理

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美国文学重点整理

美国文学重点整理美国文学题型：1.60分三篇小说，三个诗歌，作者，出处，作品分析2.20分名词解释3.20分论述1. 20世纪美国文学发展的经济背景关键词：Urbanization（new farm machines, rising productivity, rising leisure time）Industrialization(electric lights, camera, telephone, radio, type writer) CommercializationGlobalization.Philosophy: Schopenhauer叔本华Nietzsche 尼采Jean PaulFreud补充：Fitzgerald：tender is the night, all the sad young man, the rich boy,2. What is Lost Generation?①It is a term to describe a group of American intellectuals, poets, artists and writers who fled to France in the post WWI years to reject the values of American materialism and to seek the bohemian lifestyle in Paris.②It is full of youthful idealism, seeking the meaning of life, drank excessively, have love affairs,creating some of the finest American literature to date.③American poet Gertrude Stein coined this expression, speaking to Hemingway, she said, you are all a lost generation.the term stuck the mystique surrounding these individuals continues to fancy us.④Main representatives: F. Scott.Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos3. What is modernism? Main features.A cultural movement that generally includes the progressive art and architecture, design, literature, music, dance,painting and other visual arts which emerged in the beginning of the 20century, particularly in the years following WWI. It was a movement of artists and designers who rebelled against late 19th century academic and historic tradition, and embraced the new economic ,social and political aspects of the emerging modern world.The avant-garde movements that followed including impressionism, post-impressionism, cubism（立体主义）, futurism, expressionism, contructivism（构成主义）are generally defined as modernism.4. The Great Gatsby作者： F. Scott Fitzgerald男女主人公：Jay Gatsby & Daisy Fay BuchananWhy is Gatsby great? Why did he die?His flaws in characteristics: Naive,innocent, ideal正是因为美国社会缺乏盖茨比精神，社会不重视精神世界的充实，人们经历spiritual emptiness, 所以盖茨比伟大。

(完整)美国文学复习整理

美国文学复习整理一、殖民主义时期的文学（colonial settlements)＆理性和革命时期文学（revolutionary period）（文艺复兴时期)1.清教主义的shaping influence2.代表人物“T he Tenth Muse”第一位移民诗人2. Philip Freneau 菲利普·佛瑞诺有宗教隐喻，关注本土地貌、人文.写印第安人故事。

美国诗歌之父 father of American poetry代表作《野金银花》The Wild Honey Suckle3。

Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰弗逊起草了独立宣言 The Declaration of Independence 17764.Thomas Paine 托马斯·佩因拥护独立宣言代表作：《常识》Common Sense《理性时代》The Age of Reason5.Jonathan Edwards乔纳森·埃德沃兹大觉醒运动的代表人物 the Great Awakening6.Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林代表作：《自传》The Autobiography《穷理查德历书》Poor Richard's Almanac美国梦的代表二．浪漫主义时期的文学(American Romanticism）早期浪漫主义（Early Romantic Period）1.背景：1> 时间：18世纪末到内战爆发前夕（1861）2> 条件：○1国家的快速发展，大量移民和工业化发展错误!小说的发展，期刊杂志（periodical)出现错误!受英国文学的影响2.浪漫主义的基本特征1>Stressing emotion rather than reason2>Stressing freedom and individuality3>Idealism rather than materialism4>Writing about nature, medieval legends（中世纪传说）and with supernaturalelements。

美国文学知识点总结

1.Twain is also known as a local colorist, who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions. including people living in the area, the landscape, and other peculiarities like the customs, dialects and so on.2.Henry James is considered the founder of psychological realism.3.Mrs. Stowe's masterpiece is Uncle Tom’s Cabin.4. The way in which Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter suggests that American Romanticism adapted itself to American puritan moralism.5.Ishmael is the narrator in Moby Dick.6. The poetic style Walt Whitman devised is now called free verse that is, poetry without a fixed beat or regular scheme.7. The main theme of Emily Dickinson is the following except __D_.A. religionB. love and marriageC. life and deathD. war and peace8.From 1732 to 1758, he wrote and published his famous Poor Richard's Almanack, an annual collection of proverbs9.Philip Freneau has been called the "Fath er of American Poetry", and it is ultimately in a historical estimate that Freneau is imp ortant.10.Cooper's "Leather-stocking Tale" are a series of five novels, including The Pioneers(1823),The Last of the Mohicans(1825),The Prairie(1827),The Pathfinder(1841),and TheDeerslayer(1843)11.Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.12.Henry David Thoreau's work, Walden, has always been regarded as a master piece of New England Transcendentalism.13.Hester Pryme, Dimmes date, Chilling worth,and Pearl are most likely the names of the characters in the novel The Scarlet Letter.14.The impact of Darwin's evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism: American naturalism.15.Mark Twain, Henry James and William Dean Howells are the three strong advocates of 19th century American realism.16.The poetic style Whitman devised is now called free verse , that is poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.17. The Gilded Age (1873), written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner.19. In 1881, Henry James published his novel The Portrait of a Lady, which is generally considered as his masterpiece. 21. Theodore Dreiser’s “Trilogy of Desire” includes The Financier,The Titan, and The Staic.22. Ezra Pound was the leader of a new movement in poetry which was called the "Imagis t Movement".23. In Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken", the speaker tells us how the course of his life was determined when he came upon two roads that diverged in a wood24. With the publication of The Sun Also Rises,Hemingway became the spokesman for what Gertrude Stein had called “Lost Generation”25. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded a Nobel Price for his Literature/ The Old Man and the Sea26. John Steinbeck gave a realistic account of farmers miserable experience during the Great Depression in his novel The Grapes of Wrath27. F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel The Great Gatsby, shattered the "American dream" that so many people craved. Exercises on Realism and Naturalism Ⅰ. Blank Filling.The arbiter of nineteenth century literary realism in America was _____. (William Dean Howells)_______had an evident influence on naturalism. It seemed to stress the animal man, to suggest that he was dominated by the irresistible forces of evolution. (Darwinism)In his cluster of poems called Leaves ofGrass , ______gave America its first genuine epic poem. (Walt Whitman)Samuel Langhorne Clemens is better known by the pen name (Mark Twain) One of Clemens’ best books ______is based on his experiences as a steamboat pilot. (Life on the Mississippi)The result of Mark Twain’s European trip was a series of newspaper articles, later published as a book called _____. (Innocents Abroad)_______was the first literary giant born West of the Mississippi. (Mark Twain)William Sidney Porter, whose pen name was_________, was the author of The Cop and the Anthem. (O. Henry)Ma ny of O. Henry’s stories tell about the lives of poo r people in _____. (New York) O. Henry sympathized with the poor and hated those rich who exploited and despised them. This is especially seen in his story entitled ________. (An Unfinished Story)It is said that O. Henry imitated De_______as a model , and there is indeed much in common between these two writers. (Maupassant)The title o f one of O. Henry’s books _____ indicates that he considered all the people of New York city worth writing about, instead of only the upper class. (The Four Millions)Henr y James’ first important fiction was__________, which he took up for the first time the theme of The American-in-Europe.(A Passionate Pilgrim)In 1881, Henry James published his novel _________, which is generally considered as his masterpiece. (The Portait of a Lady) By emphasizing the inner awareness and inward movements of his characters in face of outside occurrences ________ is considered the founder of Psychological realism. (Henry James) The name of the heroine in The Portrait of a Lady is_________. (Isabel Archer)In 1902, Jack London published his first novel ______________.(A Daughter of the Snowy)________ is the novel into which Jack London put most of himself. (Martin Eden) The first novel of Theodore Dreiser was _________. (Sister Carrie)The identification of potency with money is at the heart of Dreiser’s masterpiece______. (An American Tragedy)The protagonist of Dreiser’s Trilogy of Desire is ________. (Frank Cowperwood) Dreiser’s novel _______, a commercial and critical failure when first published in 1900, was reissued in 1907 and won high praise for its grim, naturalistic portrayal of American society. (Sister Carrie)Mark Twain’s first novel, _____was an artistic failure, but it gave its name to the America of the post-bellum period which it attempts to satirize. (The Gilded Age) Three years’ life on the Mississippi left such a fond memory with Mark Twain that he returned to the theme more than oncein his writing career, his book ______relates it in a vivid, moving way. (Life on the Mississippi)_____ was Mark twain’s masterwork from which, as Hemingway noted , ―all modern American literature comes. (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)The best work that Mark Twain ever produced is _______, which was a success from its first publication in 1884, and has always been regarded as one of the great books of western literature and western civilization. (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)_______ is the pioneer who wrote in the naturalistic tradition.(Stephen Crane) Crane’s novel _________relates the story of a good woman’s downfall and destruction in a slum environment. (Maggi: A Girl of the Streets)War in the novel by Crane _______ is a plain slaughter-house. There is nothing like valor or heroism on the battlefield, and if there is anything, it is the fear of death, cowardice, the natural instinct of man to run from danger. (The Red Badge of Courage) Norris’s novel _______has been called ―the first full bodied naturalistic American nove l ‖ and ―a consciously naturalistic manifesto. (Mcteague)Jack London’s masterwork ______________ is somewhat autobiographical. (Martin Eden) O. Henry’s ________ is a very moving story of a young couple who sell their bestpossessions in order to get money for a Christmas present for each other. (The Gift of the Magi)Three novels, ______, _________, ________, were considered as the summit of Henry James’s artistry. (The Golden Bowl, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove) Norris’s ―Trilogy of Wheat‖includes______, _________, and The Wolf. ( The Octopus, The Pit)The appearance of ________by Bret Harte in 1868 pushed the development of local colorism in America greatly. (The Luck of Roaring Camp)1. _______stands as a great dividing line between the nineteenth century and the contemporary American literature.(The First World War)2. The publication of The Waste Land, written by _____, helped to establish a modern tradition of literature rich with learning and allusive thought. (T.S.Eliot)3. Fitzgerald summarized the experiences and attitudes of the 1920s decade in his masterpiece novel _______. (The Great Gatsby)4. ______of the 1930s greatly weak ened the American nation’s self-confidence. (The Great Depression)5. The 1950s American writers often used the narrative techniques derived from William _______. (Faulkner)6. An American woman writer named________who had lived in Paris since 1903, welcomed the young expatriates to her literary salon, and gave them aname ―the Lost Generation‖. (Gertrude Stein)7. _______ wrote about the disintegration of the old social system in the American Southern states, and its effect on the lives of modern people , both black and white. (William Faulkner)8. Pound was the most important leader ofa new movement in poetry which was known as the _________ movement. (Imagist)9. Ezra Pound’s major work of poetry is the long poem called_______. (The Cantos) 11.Frost’s second volume of poems was_______. (North of Bosten)12.―The Road Not Taken‖ is a well-known poem written by_________. (Robert Frost) 13.____ was considered as an American epic William Carlos Williams attempted to create. (Paterson)14.As T. S. Eliot declared, he followed strictly the advice of his close friend ______ _in cutting and concentrating The Waste Land. (Ezra Pound)15.Eliot wrote seven plays, the best of which is ________, a verse play on an ancient historical subject, written in 1935. (Murder in the Cathedral)16.In 1925, Fitzgerald wrote his best novel _______. It is the story of an idealist who was destroyed by the influence ofthe wealthy, pleasure-seeking people around him. (The Great Gatsby)17.In American history, the 1920s is known as the roaring twenties or ______ _____ by Fitzgerald gives the name of age(The Jazz Age; Tales of The Jazz Age)18.Fitzgerald’s last novel ________ remained unfinished. (The Last Tycoon)19.With the publication of The Sun Also Rises, ________became the spokesman for what Gertrude Stein had called ―a Lost Generation‖.(Ernest Hemingway)20.Hemingway’s stature as a wr iter was confirmed with the publication of his novel _______ in 1929. The novel portrayed a farewell both to war and to love. (A Farewell to Arms)21.Set in Spain during the Civil War, the novel ________ by Hemingway emphasizes the theme of human brotherhood. (For Whom the Bell Tolls)22.In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway portrayed an old fisherman named _____, who shows triumphant even in defeat. (Santiago)23. In 1954, ______was awarded the Nobel Prize for his―mastery of the art of modern nar ration‖. (Ernese Hemingway)25.In the same way that Fitzerald’s ―Tales of the Jazz Age‖ became the symbol for an age, Hemingway’s novel _______ painted the image of a whole generation, the Lost Generation. (The Sun Also Rises)26._______ was the foremost novelist of the American Depression of the 1930s. (John Steinbeck)27.In the short novel _____, Steinbeck portrayed the tragic friendship between two migrant workers. (Of Mice and Men) 29.Quentin is a character in Faulkner’s novel__________.(The Sound and the Fury) 30.Thomas Sutpen is a character in Faulkner’s novel ____.(Absalom, Absalom!)31.The works written by ______may be viewed as a culmination of the development of twentieth-century southern fiction. (William Faulkner)32.In one sense Hemingway wrote all his life about one theme, which is neatly summed up in the famous phrase,―________, and created one hero who acts that theme out. (grace under pressure) 33.Hemingway hero possesses a kindof ―_______. It is t his courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. (despairing courage)1. TO HELENTHEME: The beauty of a woman with whom Poe became acquainted when he was 14. Apparently she treated him kindly and may have urged him or perhaps inspired him to write poetry.Beauty, as Poe uses the word in the poem, appears to refer to the woman’s body as well as her soul.On the one hand ,he represents her as Helen of Troy—the quintessence（典范）of physical beauty-at the beginning of this poem. On the other ,her represents her as Psyche –at the end of the poem.In Greek, Psyche means soul修辞美:① 头韵（alliteration) 第一节中的Weary、way--worn、Wanderer,第二节中的glory、Greece、grandeur,第三节中的Statue-like、stand等。

美国文学重点和归纳

美国文学重点和归纳The American CharacterPractical, Religious, Work Ethic,The American Dream. Freedom and liberty PurityFaithfulness .optimism. Idealist .Practical and hardworkingEnthusiasm in and call for business investmentEnthusiasm in charity-workRespect for Educationthe puritan beliefsColonial American literatureThe first American writer Captain John SmithGeneral featuresTypes of writing: diaries, histories, letters etc.Content: serving either God or colonial expansion or bothForm: imitating English literary traditionsAnne BradstreetThe first American female poetA Puritan poet, “Tenth Muse”“Contemplations”《沉思录》The literature of reason and revolutionBenjamin FranklinJack of all trades, Spokesman of Enlightenment ,Autobiography《自传》Poor Richard’s Almanac 《穷理查德历书》Edwards and Franklin made the whole of a true puritan, an AmericaThomas PaineAmerican CrisisThese are the times that try men’s souls: the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. Common Sense 常识Thomas JeffersonThe Declaration of Independence 1976/7/4We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,--That to secure their Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from theConsent of the Governed ,--That whenever any Form of government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Rights of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundationon such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.Philip Freneau father of an poetryAmerican RomanticismWashington Irvingfather of American literature father of American short story The sketch Book 见闻札记Tales of a Traveller(first in installment in America, marked the beginning of American Romanticism)Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow 睡谷的传说James Fenimore CooperHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. The American Walter Hollow. The first important American novelist.The PilotThe Leatherstocking Tales 皮袜子故事集the Deers layer 杀鹿者The last of the Mohicans 最后的莫西干人Edgar Allen Poefather of modern short story father of detective story father of psychoanalytic criticism Annabel leeThe fall of the House of UsherDuring the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.Had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain.Ralph Waldo Emersonresponsible for bringing TranscendentalismRalph Waldo Emerson = The chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism 超验主义He was a descendent of a long line of New Englandclergymen牧师【pastor】.The American Scholar Spirit The Divinity School Address Representative Men English TraitsNatureIf the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe andadore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out there preachers of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.Thoreau Waldennot only fully demonstrates Emersonian ideas of self-reliance but also develops and tests Thoreau’s own transcendental philosophy.Waldena collection of nature essaysa great Transcendentalist worka book about man, what he is, and what he should be and must be.full of ideas expressed to persuade his neighbors out of their complacencyPolitical views: disapproved of slavery , condemn the government’s conduct of theMexican War.Nathaniel HawthorneThe Scarlet Letter the Blithedale Romance , Mosses from an Old Manse, The Marble FaunHerman MelvilieTypee Mody DickThe three great American authors of the last century who had no contemporary readers and yet became great in this century:ThoreauHerman MelvilleEmily DickinsonThe literature of realism1861-1865 the civil warWalt Whitman Leaves of Grass epic poem Song of myselfEmily Dickinson the greatest woman writer of the ageHarriet Beecher Stowe the author of uncle Tom's cabin.An American institution and the most famous literary woman in the worldWilliam Dean Howells 浪漫主义第一人Father of American realism in literatureEditor of the Atlantic MonthlyThe first president of American Literature and Arts AssociationThe Rise of Silas Lapham, 1885 《塞拉斯拉帕姆的发迹》A Modern Instance, 1882《现代婚姻》A Hazard of New Fortunes, 1890《新财富的危机》Henry JamesA writer who not only bridged the 19th and 20th centuries but connected America and Europe.Daisy Miller ,The Portrait of a Lady the AmericanMark Twain原名：Samuel Langhorne Clemens 美国真正作家之一The Adventures of Tom SawyerO. HenryPseudonym of William Sidney Porter“The Gift of the Magi" "The Cop and the Anthem“ Soapy "A Municipal Report"Collections：The Four Million, 1906 Heart of the West, 1910NaturalismJack Londonbefore London, the fictions are all for girl's sakeA Daughter of the SnowsThe Call of the Wild (1903) (an all-time best-seller)The Sea-Wolf (1904) White Fang (1906)The Iron Heel (1908) Martin Eden (1909)Theodore DreiserThe predominant naturalistic novelist from a German-speaking familySister Carrie An American Tragedy Janine Gerhardt Trilogy of DesireThe Financier The Titan The StoicThe Twentieth-Century LiteratureEugene O'NeillAmerican drama developed into a form of literaturethe Desire Under the Elm the Emperor JonesAnna Christie the Hairy ApeTennessee Williamsthe Streetcar Named Desire 欲望阶车Ezra pound The CantosEdwin Arlington Robinsonone of the most productive of the new poetsthe house on the hill . Richard Cory .Miniver cheeryRobert Frost“The father of American modern poetry” The national bardThe nation’s unofficial Poet LaureateNorth of Boston 《波士顿以北》Mountain Interval 《山间》New Hampshire 《新罕普什尔》West Running Brook 《西流的溪涧》A Further Range 《又一片牧场》A Witness Tree 《一棵见证的树》“The Road Not Taken” “St opping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”“The Wood Pile” “Design” ”Mending Wall “Ernest HemingwayThe lost generation ,A tough guyHemingway hero: A despairing courage Grace under pressure The Sun Also Rises (spokesman of The Lost Generation )A Farewell to Arms 1928 (a tragic story about war and love) (Hero and heroine: Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley) For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940 (Spanish civil war)In Our Time“No man is an island.”The Old Man and the SeaCa quite special novel in all his novels ..theme: the importance of life lies in the process of searching and resistance The Torrents of the Spring 《春潮》Winner Take Nothing 《胜者无所得》Death in the Afternoon 《午后之死》Green Hills of Africa 《非洲的青山》To Have and Have Not 《富有与贫穷》The Fifth Column 《第五纵队》Across the River and into the Trees 《过河入林》Francis Scott FitzgeraldThe evaporation of the American DreamThe Jazz AgeThe Lost GenerationThe Great GatsbyJoseph HellerCatch-22 （Absurdist theme Black Humor）William FaulknerFather of American modern novela great plot weaverThe greatest writer of fiction that the US has yet produced Literary Scene in the SouthA Rose for Emily The Sound and the Fury 《喧嚣与愤怒》Go Down, Moses 《去吧，摩西》Absalom! Absalom! 《押沙龙！押沙龙！》Sanctuary 《圣殿》Light in August 《八月之光》As I Lay Dying《在我弥留之际》John Steinbeck the Grapes of WrathWhat is Puritanism?A code of values, a philosophy of life, a point of view, a state of mind, the most enduring influence in American thought and literature, a part of the national atmosphere.AutobiographyA story that a person writes about his or her own life is called an autobiography. Autobiographies are written in first-person point of view, and biographies, third-person point of view.RealismA time of disillusionment and loss of hope- a literary revulsion against the false imagination and sentimentality of Romanticism.Naturalism：Naturalist point of view: to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness C everything is determined by environment and heredity.ImagismTo express the momentary impression through the use of one dominant image.The Lost Generation（Ernest Hemingway，pound , Fitzgerald ）was a group of rebellious youth appeared in America after the First World War.Romanticismis a complex artistic ,literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Resolution.American TranscendentalismAs a philosophical and literary movement, American Transcendentalism (also known as “ American Renaissance”) flourshed in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War. It is the high tide of American romanticism and its doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in Emerson and Thoreau.Transcendentalists spoke for the cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society.① The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. 思想超灵宇宙② The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual is the most important element of Society. 个体+社会③ The Transcendentalists off ered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. 自然+上帝。

美国文学复习重点

1. Colonial American (1607-1765)Puritanism in America 清教主义1.Influence①American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature. It has become, to some extent, so much a state of mind(思维模式),rather than a set of tenets.( ['tɛnɪt] 教义)②To them, religion was a matter of primary importance.③They accepted the doctrine of predestination(命运),original sin(原罪),total depravity(堕落),and limited atonement(赎罪) through a special infusion([ɪn'fjuʒn] 神典) of grace from God.[John, Calvin]④In a word, American Puritans are ready for any misfortune and tragic failures that might lie in wait for them.2. Colonial America did not always write the way Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor wrote. Some people wrote for civil and religious freedom, and some others wrote for America shaking off(摆脱) the fetter(束缚) of the savage(残酷) and rapacious(贪婪) British colonial rule.3. Early writersJohn Smith A Description of New England《新英格兰叙事》Anne Bradstreet(first American poet) Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America ( 1650 )《第十位诗神》.On the Burning of Our House 《写在我家失火之际》Edward Taylor(finest 出色的) Huswifery 《家务》Upon a Spider Catching a Fly《蜘蛛扑捉苍蝇之遐想》Chapter 2. The period of Enlightenment and the Independence War (1765 -1800)1.Eighteenth-century American thinking was dominated by two basic patterns of thought .Toward the latter part of theseventeenth century, a completely new view of the universe came into being.(Deism 自然神论)2.Benjamin Franklin(Enlightenment thinkers and writers)1）Poor Richard’s Almanac《格言历书》（Maxims格言and axioms哲理)2）Autobiography《自传》a.It is perhaps the first real post-revolutionary (开山之作)American writing as well as the first real autobiography inEnglish.b.It gives us the simple yet immensely(全面) fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state ofpoverty and obscurity(卑微) into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man. (自我奋斗成功)c．Comments1) First of all, it is a puritan document(清教徒传记). The most famous section describes his scientific scheme ofself-examination(审视) and self-improvement(完善).2) It is also an eloquent elucidation(清楚表明) of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenthcentury enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free(善良自由), by nature endowed(赋予) by God with certain inalienable(不可剥夺的) rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.3) It is the pattern of Puritan(典型清教写作风格) simplicity, directness, and concision(明朗). The plainness(平实) of itsstyle, the homeliness(通俗) of imagery(比喻), the simplicity of diction(措词), syntax and expression are some of the salient(突出) features we cannot mistake.3.Hector St John de Crevecoeur Letters From an American Farmer «美国农人书简»或者《信札》\American Romanticism（1800-1865）Section 1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is Romanticism?A．Romanticism is a literary movement throughout the 19th C and it can be divided into the early period and the late period. Also it remains powerful in contemporary literature and art.B. It started with the publication of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass.C. Romanticism is associated with imagination and boundlessness, as contrasted with classicism,D. The most clearly defined romantic literary movement in the U. S. was Transcendentalism.E. The representatives of the early period includes Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper. Waldo EmersonHistorical Background: 1.American Puritanism 2.New England Transcendental Movement 3.American westward Expansion.American RomanticismFeatures：(1)American romanticism was in a way derivate: American romantic writing was some of them modelled onEnglish and European works.(2)American romanticism is a cultural heritage(文化遗产),American moral values were basically Puritan.(3)American romanticism was both imitative and independent.(4)Writers like Emerson and Whitman thought and wrote differently. They calling for the creation of a nativeAmerican culture and literature, represent“the deeper forces(坚实力量) ”of a Romanticisms at onceindigenous(本土化) and universal(广为人知).1. Washington Irving-- One of the first American writers to earn an international reputation, an early Romantic writer, and Father of the American short stories, The Father of American Literature ,“the American Goldsmith”Work：A History of New York《纽约外史》（DK）won him wide popularityThe Sketch Book《见闻札记》（GC）won international fame→contains German folk tales Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy HollowThe History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus 《哥伦布市传》A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada《攻克格拉纳达》The Alhambra《阿尔罕伯拉》Selections:Rip Van Winkle:I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient, henpecked husband.Rip’s sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much henpecked as his master; For a long while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village, which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of his majesty George the Third. “The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle.”Instead of the great tree which used to shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red nightcap, and from it was fluttering a flag. The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, a sword was stuck in the hand instead of a scepter, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large characters, GENERAL WASHINGTON.The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Tarry Town, New York, Ichabod Crane, Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, Katrina Van Tassel Literary career: two parts---1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique---1832~1859: back to USStyle –beautiful, Romanticism, Humor, Irony(1)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(2)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(3)vivid and true characters(4)humour – smiling while reading(5)musical language2.James Fenimore Cooper (the American Scott)a. He is the first border writer;(边疆作家)b. Created a myth about the formative period of American nation;（创造了美国格式化时代的神话）c. Helped introduce the “Western”tradition into American literatureWork：A：Leatherstocking Tales 《皮袜子故事集》(masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Pioneers《拓荒者》The Prairie (1827), 《大草原》(1823)---old The Last of Mohicans(1826), 《最后的莫西干人》The Pathfinder 《探路者》(1840)---middle-age, The Deerslayer (1841) 《杀鹿人》---youth (This process is the American quest for an ideal community.)Analysis of Natty Bumppo:Presented as an ideal American, living a virtuous and free life in God’s world. To him the wilderness is good, pure, perfect, where there is freedom not tainted （变质）by human institutions; He find “civilization” both corrupt and corrupting; The civilization is poisoned at the root from the very beginning.Analysis of Judge Temple: Judge Temple is a good indication of Cooper’s ambivalence(矛盾)，as a Writer of frontier life; He is a man of honor and integrity. He is as much a frontiersman as Natty Bumppo; He represents “the practically inevitable” (实实在在的实用)aspect of frontier life, He symbolizes law and civilization.His themes:a.Native subject of frontier and wilderness(荒原)b.New sources of fiction.Section 2 American Transcendentalism （summit of the Romantic Movement）（1836-1860）Appearance：1836, “Nature” by EmersonBackground: The Mexican-America War(1846-1848)美西战争，The westward expansion 西部大开发开始What is Transcendentalism：（Puritan heritage+Foreign influence）●appeared in 1830s in US●emphasis on spirit or Oversoul and stressing importance of the individual●regarding nature as symbols of the spirit or God and emphasis on brotherhood of man●representatives: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David ThoreauResources：Transcendentalist Club in New England—the Dial《日晷》Features1.spirit/oversoul(超灵)2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/God; garment(外衣) of the oversoulSignificanceA. influenced a large group of writersB. summit of American RomanticismC. marked the independence of American literatureTranscendentalism: quotes----“Go back to nature, sink yourself back into its influence and you’ll become spiritually whole again.”1. Ralph Waldo Emerson (Father of Transcendentalism)Works:Nature 自然(1836) ：“the manifesto(宣言) of American transcendentalism” and “the Bible of New Eng land Transcendentalism.”----“a transparent eyeball”The American Scholar美国学者(1837)："America's Declaration of Intellectual Independence"(知识分子独立宣言) Self-Reliance 论自助: the importance of cultivating oneself (自我培养)----individualism2. Henry David ThoreauCivil Disobedience 《论公民的不服从》Walden：a series of 18 essays；Comparing with Emerson who was a great thinker, Thoreau was a great experimentalist Selection:“I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of lif e and see if I could not learn what it has to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.“We live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men ... it is error upon error and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail. .”3. Nathaniel Hawthorne (Typical romantic writer ;born in Massachusetts)Works:Major romances or novels ：•The Scarlet Letter 《红字》(1850) (Hester Prynne 女主；Arthur Dimmesdale 情人；Roger Chillingworth 丈夫) •The House of the Seven Gables《七个尖角阁的房子》(Matthew Maule被害死，坏人也受到诅咒而死---sin will get punished)•The Blithedale Romance 《福谷传奇》(1852)•The Marble Faun《玉石雕像》(1860)Short stories：a)Twice-Told Tales 1837 《故事重述》b)Mosses from an Old Manse1843 《古宅青苔》c)The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales 1852 《雪人和其他重讲一遍的故事》Puritan background•The Birth-Mark《胎记》(1843)•Rappaccini’s Daughter《拉帕奇尼的女儿》(1844)•The Minister’s Black Veil《教长的黑面纱》(1836)•Young Goodman Brown《好小伙子布朗》(1835)* The Scarlet Letter(清教思想融入了美国浪漫主义，象征手法)：Adultery(通奸)—Able(能干)—Angle(天使)The scarlet letter A is ambiguous(不明确的). And the ambiguity is one of the salient(显著的) characteristics of Hawthorne’s art.*Young Goodman Brown :( Goodman Brown and Faith) Everyone possesses some evil secret.Hawthorne’s point of viewEvil is at the core of human life.(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation.(3) Evil educates.(4) He has disgust in science. One source of evil is overweening (too proud of oneself) intellect.4.Herman Melville (全拼—Going out to sea; marriage; friendship with Hawthorne)Works:•Typee«泰皮»•Omoo«欧穆»•Mardi«玛地»South Pacific islands•Redburn«雷得本»voyage to England•White Jacket«白外衣»United States•Pierre«皮埃尔»•Billy Budd《比利•巴德》(a sign that he had resolved his quarrel with God)•Clarel《克拉莱尔》( a poem)Moby-Dick «白鲸»(masterpieces)A．the first American prose epic散文史诗B．an encyclopedia百科全书of everythingC．a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fatesPrincipal CharactersIshmael (The narrator of the story) ；Captain AhabThe symbolism of Mobby-Dick1.The voyage to catch the white whale is the one of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of universe.2. To Ahab, the whale is an evil creature or the agent of an evil force that control the universe. As to readers, the whale is a symbol of physical limits, or a symbol of nature. It also can stand for the ultimate mystery of the universe and the wall behind which unknown malicious things are hiding.5.Walt Whitman（Free verse（自由体诗）, Envelope structure（信件结构）I - me, my nation (society), Catalogue）Work：Leaves Of Grass 《草叶集》written in the founding documents of both the Revolutionary War in the United States and the Civil War.Including：1. There Was a Child Went Forth 2. Cavalry Crossing a Ford 3. Song of MyselfThere Was a Child Went Forth 《一个孩子的成长》how a child is greatly influenced by his growing environments, be identified with the childhood of a young, growing America.Selected readings：There was a child went forth every day, And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became, And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day, Or for many years or stretching cycles of years. The early lilacs became part of this child, And grass and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird, And the Third-month lambs and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the mare's foal and the cow's calf, And the noisy brood of the barnyard or by the mire of the pond-side,I Hear America Singing 《我听见美利坚在歌唱》Selected readings：I hear American singing, the varied carols I hear,Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strongThe carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck.The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, The hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,The day what belongs to the day-at night the party of young fellows, Robust, friendly,Singing with open moths their strong melodious songs.Song of Myself 《自我之歌》The longest and the best . Whitman is a man bubbling with energy and laden(装满) with ideas, spontaneous(自发的) expression of his original ideasSong of MyselfSelected readings：I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death.O Captain! My Captain! ( Captain" is Lincoln himself)When Lilac s Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,(小院丁香花开时)6. Emily Dickenson (Along with Whitman, Dickinson is one of the two giants of American poetry of the 19th century)Works(1)Because I Can’t Stop for Death (masterpiece about death )Selection:Because I could not stop for Death—He kindly stopped for me—The Carriage held but just Ourselves—And Immortality.We slowly drove—He knew no haste. And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility We passed the School, where Children strove .At Recess—in the Ring—We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—We passed the Setting Sun—Or rather—He passed Us—The Dews drew quivering and chill—For only Gossamer, my Gown—My Tippet—only Tulle—We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground—The Roof was scarcely visible—The Cornice—in the Ground—Since then—'tis Centuries—and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity—(Death is not to be feared since it is a natural part of the endless cycle of nature. )(2)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died (a description of the moment of death)Selection: I heard a Fly buzz --- when I died --- The stillness in the Room Was like the stillness in the Air -- Between the Heav es of Storm --The Eyes around -- had wrung when them dry -- And breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset -- when th e King Be witnessed ---- in the Room - I willed my keepsakes ---Signed away What portion of me be Assignable --- and then it was There interposed a Fly -With Blue - uncertain stumbling Buzz - Between the light ---- and me --And the windows failed ----and then I could not see to seethemes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4)physical aspect of desire(5)nature – kind and cruel(6)free will and human responsibilityStyle:(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification – make some of abstract ideas vividComparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled(赞美), in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, itsindividualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention ofthe iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in Americanpoetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitm an is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) which Whitman doesn’t have.7. Edgar Allen Poe (inventor of the detective-fiction )WorksNovels(1)The Tell-tale Heart《泄密的心》(2)The Gold-Bug（侦探小说）《金甲虫》(3)The Black Cat《黑猫》(4)The Fall of the House of Usher”《厄舍古屋的倒塌》(5)The Purloined Letter” –one of the world’s greatest detective stories. 《一封失窃的来信》Poems•To Helen 《致海伦》-----physical beauty-soulful beauty–(选读)•Annabel Lee 《安娜贝尔·李》--expresses great loss and sadnessSelection: That a maiden there lived whom you may know 住着一位少女你或许认得Second stanza---But we loved with a love that was more than love可我们相爱，爱超越了爱---Coveted her and me. 也把我和她妒嫉。

美国文学考试重点

美国文学考试重点美国文学考试的重点可以分为以下几个方面：1. 早期美国文学：- 殖民时期文学：包括早期殖民地的日记、信件和宗教作品等，如《普利茅斯纪事》和《普罗维登斯计划》。

- 紧随其后的大量宗教文学作品，如《新英格兰的校训》。

- 托马斯·佩恩的《常识》：这本书在美国独立运动中起到了重要的作用。

2. 美国文学的形成与发展：- 19世纪初的浪漫主义文学：如华盛顿·欧文的《睡美人和其他故事》和詹姆斯·菲尼莫尔·库珀的《最后的莫西干人》。

- 华尔特·惠特曼的《草叶集》：这本诗集在美国文学史上具有重要地位。

- 女性作家：如哈丽特·比彻·斯托的《汤姆叔叔的小屋》和艾米莉·迪金森的诗歌作品。

3. 20世纪的美国文学：- 现代主义文学：如欧内斯特·海明威的《老人与海》和威廉·福克纳的《喧哗与骚动》。

- 战争文学：如约翰·史坦贝克的《愤怒的葡萄》和约瑟夫·海勒的《23个故事和一个司令》。

- 迈尔斯·杰克逊的《杀死一只知更鸟》：这是美国文学中一本重要的反种族主义作品。

4. 当代美国文学：- 现实主义：如托尼·莫里森的《亲爱的》和唐·德里罗的《百年孤独》。

- 同性恋与性别研究：如杰夫·艾斯特里奇的《中性国度》和艾美丽·P. 亨德森的《一个男小地方》。

此外，还需要了解美国文学的主要流派和文学理论，如现实主义、象征主义、后现代主义等，以及相关的文学批评方法。

最好的准备方式是广泛阅读美国经典文学作品并理解其背后的文化、历史和社会背景。

美国文学知识整理

reasoning and revolution代表作家：1、Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林 1706-17901）"Poor Richard's Almanac" 穷人查理德的年鉴annual collection of proverbs 流行谚语集It soon became the most popular book of its kind, largely because of Franklin's shrewd humor, and first spread his reputation2) Founded the Junto, a club for informal discussion of scientific, economic and political ideas. 建立了一个秘密俱乐部，讨论的主题是政治、经济和科学等时事方面的问题3）established America's first circulating library, founded the college--University of Pennsylvania. 建立了美国第一个可租借的图书馆，还创办了一所大学——就是现在的宾夕法尼亚大学。

4）first applied the terms "positive" and "negative" to electrical charges.5)As a representative of the Colonies, he tried in vain to counsel the British toward policies that would let America grow and flourish in association with England. He conducted the difficulty negotiations with France that brought financial and military support for America in the war. 作为殖民地的代表，他不断建议英国改变政策，使美国可以和英国一起发展、繁荣。

美国文学史复习知识点

PuritanismFeatures of Puritanism1. Purification of the church2. Calvinism (John Calvin, 1509-1564, French protestant reformer)(1). Emphasis of Predestination “预定论”(2). Total depravity (Original Sin) 彻底的堕落(因原罪而起）(3). Limited atonement 有限的赎罪Anne Bradstreet (1612 — 1672)First famous poet in North America, known as the “Tenth Muse”最早写出真正有价值的英文诗歌的女诗人Major works:the first collection of poems in North America.The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650)《最近在美洲出现的第十位缪斯》Contemplations《沉思录》Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790 )Statesman, essayist, orator, philosopher, ambassador, scientist, inventor, publisher“master of each and mastered by none”—Herman MelvilleOne of the Founding Fathers of AmericaSymbol of America in the Age of EnlightenmentThe only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:the Declaration of Independencethe treaty of alliance with Francethe treaty of peace with Englandthe constitutionThe symbol of American Dream, a self-made manHis Major WorksPoor Richard’s Almanac (1732)《格言历书》poems and essaysa good many adages and common sense witticismsAutobiography (1868)— the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity—the faithful account of the colorful career of American’s first self-made man.— a Puritan document (self-examination and self-improvement; illustration of Puritan ethics ) — a story of the fulfillment of American dream.Thirteen virtues from The Autobiography1. Temperance节制. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.2. Silence沉默. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.3. Order秩序. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.4. Resolution决心. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.5. Frugality节俭. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself, i.e., waste nothing.6. Industry勤奋. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessaryactions.7. Sincerity诚实. Use no harmful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speakaccordingly.8. Justice公正. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.9. Moderation适度. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.10. Cleanliness清洁. Tolerate no uncleanlinessin body, clothes, or habitation.11. Tranquility宁静. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.12. Chastity贞洁. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or theinjury of our own or another’s peace or reputation.13. Humility谦虚. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.The Style of Puritan Writing1. Protestant - against ornateness; reverence for the Bible. The Puritans chose the Bible as the guidebook to their Promised Land.2. Puritan writing reflected the character and scope of the reading public, which was literate and well-grounded in religion.American RomanticismTime Range:From the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War.Historical Background:National independence, democracyRising materialism and business: leisure and wealthReligious dogma, rationalismFeatures:American Romanticism was both imitative and independent.Imitative: English and European Romanticists, about home, family, nature, children and idealized love, etc.Independent: Emerson and Whitman, on major problems of American life, like the westward expansion and democracy and equality, etc.1. Romantic Subject Matter(1). The quest for beauty: non-didactic, "pure beauty." (Allan Poe)(2). The use of the far-away and non-normal - antique and fanciful (Hawthorn, Poe)(3). Escapism - from American problems (Irving).(4). Interest in external nature - for itself, for beauty(Emerson, Thoreau)2. Romantic Attitudes :(1). Appeals to imagination:remoteness of settings in time and space. improbable plots.(2). Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism,(3). Authorial subjectivity: in form and meaning.3. Major Themes:a.Primitivism and the cult of the “noble savage”(Hiawatha 《海华沙》);b.The celebration of natural beauty and the simple life (Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau);mon man, uncorrupted by civilization (Whittier, Cooper);d.Interest in the picturesque past (Irving, Hawthorne);e.Interest in the remote places (Melville); medievalism (Longfellow);Representitive Writers and WorksWashington Irving’s The Sketch Book 《见闻札记》marks the beginning of American Romanticism.Whitman’s (慧特曼) Leaves of Grass 《草叶集》) is the last masterpiece of American Romanticism.James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales 《皮裹腿故事集》depicts as a pioneer,effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West.Washington Irving（1783-1859）Father of the American short stories；the first great American writer；the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.Masterpiece:The Sketch Book (1820）marks the beginning of American Romanticism.Rip Van Winkle （《瑞普·凡·温克尔》）The Legend of Sleepy Hollow （《睡谷的传说》）James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)One of the first authors to write about the American Westward movement.The creation of a myth about the formative period of the American nation.The introduction of the “Western” tradition into American literature.Masterpiece:Leatherstocking Tales 《皮裹腿故事集》（a collection of tales）The Pioneer, 1823; 《拓荒者》The Last of the Mohicans, 1826;《最后的莫西干人》The Prairie, 1827; 《大草原》The Pathfinder, 1840; 《探路人》The Deerslayer, 1841.《杀鹿者》TranscendentalismFeatures:1.Oversoul2.Individualism3.NatureThe Transcendentalists:The Big Three:1.Ralph Waldo Emerson;2.Henry David Thoreau;3.Margaret FullerThree sources:1.A thoughtful revolt against Puritanism (total depravity, the original sin etc.).2.German philosophers of the 18th century.3.The effect of oriental thought on the Western world.Ralph Waldo EmersonMajor Works:1.Nature:Emerson’s best know workThe bible of New England transcendentalism2.“Divinity School Address”attacks organized Christianityargues for “moral sentiment” --- essence of all religionsurges the listeners to be the true teacher: offering first-hand revelations3.“The American Scholar”:America’s declaration of Intellectual Independenceasserts nature as a teacher that instructs man to see his connection with the worldmaintains creation is continuous and each age must have its own booksdeclares self-trust and independent thinking a necessity for the new scholar.Henry David ThoreauMajor Works:1.WaldenA book on self-culture and human perfectibilitycarrying out an experimentrecording in great detail a spiritually rewarding yet simple lifereflecting on nature’s restorative influenceA book that inspired modern nature preservation2.Civil DisobedienceNathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)Major Works:(1). Fanshawe《范肖》(2). The Token were reprinted in Twice-told Tales. 《重述一遍的故事》(3). Twice-Told Tales, 1837; 《重述一遍的故事》(4). Mosses from an Old Manse, 1846; 《古屋青苔》,including “Young Goodman Brown”《年轻的古德曼·布朗》, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”《拉帕西尼的女儿》, “The Artist of the Beautiful”, “The Birthmark”, and “Roger Malvin’s Burial”.(5). Books for children:Grandfather’s Chair(1841);Famous Old People(1841),Liberty Tree(1841),Biographical Stories for Children(1842)(6). The Scarlet Letter, 1850; 《红字》(7). The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales (1851)(8). The House of Seven Gables , 1851; 《七个尖角阁的房子》(9). The Blithedale Romance, 1852; 《福谷传奇》(10). The Marble Faun , 1860; 《玉石雕像》(11). The Centenary Edition of the Works of Hawthorne, 18 vols. ed. W. Charvat et al., 1962-1987. Masterpieces:The Scarlet Letter (1850), written after Hawthorn’s dismissal from his post owing to a change of administrations, proved to be his greatest work, and indeed summed up in classic terms the Puritan dilemma that had so long occupied his imagination.Other Important books:The House of the Seven Gables (1851); is another great romance, concerned with the decadence of Puritanism, a novel based upon colonial America and filled with mysticism.The Blithedale Romance, (1852) in which he tuned to the contemporary scene and his Brook Farm experiences;The Scarlet Letter (1850)人物:1.Wife: Hester Prynne2.丈夫改名后: Roger Chillingworth3.Priest: Arthur DimmesdaleWalt Whitman (1819-1891)Whitman’s (慧特曼) Leaves of Grass 《草叶集》) is the last masterpiece of American Romanticism.Free verse1. without a fixed, traditional rhyme scheme2. It is sometimes referred to as “open form” verse, or by the French term vers libre.Whitman’s statusWhitman stands as one of two giants of American poetry in 19th C.found new subjects for typical American type of poetry.rejected conventional themes, traditional rhymeHe influenced Harlem Renaissance writers as Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson.Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot (Modernist poets) were also influenced by Whitman.Major Works:1.Leaves of Grass2.Song of Myself3.Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking4.When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d 纪念林肯Edgar Allan Poe1. Position(1). Poet, short-story writer and critic.(2). Unique position in the history of American literature:a. ancestor of the detective story (influencing Conan Doyle)b. forefather of psychological novels (psychological analysis)c. the first important American critic and father of psychoanalytic criticismd. (be regarded as) one of the first aesthetes in literary historyHowever, Poe may be the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature.2. Masterpieces:The Raven (1844)—one of his most enduring worksTo HelenHerman Melville:major theme: aliennationMasterpiece:Moby Dick 《白鲸》人物:1.Ishmael2.船长: Ahab3.白鲸: Moby Dick4.船: PequodA common Theme: one of“Rejection and quest”1.19世纪中期2.Cooper, Hawthorne, MelvilleEmily Dickinson (1830-1886)1.Pioneer of Imagism2.Calvinist family诗歌特点:1.Love: “With a Flower”, “Proof”2.Nature: “A Service of Song”, “Summer Shower”3.Death and immortality: “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”4.Miscellaneous: “Tell all the Truth but tell It Slant”Her techniques originality:1.Capitalizations and dashes2.Metaphors3.symbolismDickinson’s status1. Her unconventionality influenced modern poets like Adrienne Rich, Richard Wilbur, and William Stafford.Along with Walt Whitman, Dickinson is considered a true genius of American poetry of the 19th C. Works1.Because I could not …2.Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-3.With A Flower4.Proof5.A Service of Song6.This is my letterAmerican RealismTime Range:1865 – 1910Background:1. Aftermath of the Civil Wara.Social Problems: deterioration of moral values; extremes of wealth and poverty; majoritystruggled for survivalb.Question on the Transcendentalists’ assumptions2. A great interest in the realities of life3. The close of the frontierFeatures:1. Anti-romantic, anti-sentimental ; truthful description of life真实性2. Typical character and plot under typical setting人物情节与背景的典型性、代表性3. Objective rather than idealized view of human nature and experience客观性4. Concern for social and psychological problems关注社会与个人心理问题Realistic Techniques(1). Settings thoroughly familiar to the writer(2). Plots emphasizing the norm of daily experience(3). Ordinary characters, studied in depth(4). Complete authorial objectivity(5). Responsible morality; a world truly reportedRepresentative Writers and Works:1. William Dean Howells is the the champion of literary realism in America. His The Rise of SilasLapham, is about critical of the rise of materialism in American life2. Henry James is the forefather of psychological analysis and stream of consciousness.His famous work is The Portrait of a Lady.3. Mark Twain represents social life through portraits of local places which he knew best.His famous word is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.William Dean Howells （1837 — 1920）1.middle class2.smiling aspectcking of psychological depthMajor Works1.The Rise of Silas Lapham （1885）《塞拉斯·拉帕姆的发迹》Protagonist: Silas Lapham, a self-made man , a upstart2. A Modern Instance （1881）《现代婚姻》3.Indian Summer （1886）《晚秋之暧》4.Annie Kilburn （1888）《安妮·吉尔伯恩》5.A Hazard of New Fortunes （1890）《时来运转》6.A Chance AcquaintanceHenry James（1843 — 1916）1.upper class2.Harvard3.Novelist, critic, playwright, essayist4.Forefather of psychological analysis and stream of consciousness5.International theme: American innocence in face of European sophisticationMajor Works:1.The American （1877）《美国人》2.Daisy Miller （1879）《苔瑟·密勒》3.The Portrait of a Lady （1881）《贵妇人的画像》4.The Bostonians （1886）《波士顿人》5.The Princess Casamassima （1886）《卡萨玛西玛公主》6.What Maisie Knew （1897）《梅吉的见闻》7.The Turn of the Screw 《拧螺丝》Three great novels8.The Wings of the Dove （1902）《鸽翼》9.The Ambassadors （1903）《专使》10.The Golden Bowl （1904）《金碗》Local Colorism (1860s -- 1900) 乡土文学Features1.Emphasis of elements which characterize a local culture, such as speech, customs, and morespeculiar to one particular place.2.Emphasis of physical setting and those distinctive qualities of landscape which condition humanthought and behavior.3.dialect4.frame storyMark Twain（1835 — 1910）1.lower class2.social critic, local colorist3.colloquial speech4.southwestern humor5. stories peculiar to Mississippi and WestMajor Works1. 《卡拉韦拉斯县驰名的跳蛙》The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County 第一个成功文学作品2.《镀金时代》（The Gilded Age, 1873）3.《汤姆·索耶历险记》（The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876）4.《王子与贫儿》（The Prince and the Pauper, 1881）5.《密西西比河上》（Life on the Mississippi, 1883）6.《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》（The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1886）7. 《傻瓜威尔逊》Pud’nhead Wilson （1893）8. 《圣女贞德》Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc （1896）Following the Equator （1897）《赤道旅行记》9.《败坏了赫德莱堡的人》The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900)10.《傻子国外旅行记》Innocents Abroad (1869)11.《神秘的来客》The Mysterious Stranger (1906)12.《人是怎么一回事》What Is Man (1906)The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)人物:1.Huckleberry Finn: Main character of the book, who runs away from his adopted family to be freeof society and civilization.2.Tom Sawyer: Huck's best friend who freely spins lies and loves adventure.3.Widow Douglas: Adopts Huck to try and civilize him.4.Miss Watson: Sister of the Widow Douglas. She tries to teach Huck religion and how to spell.5.Jim: Miss Watson's slave. He runs away and journeys down the Mississippi River with Huck.6.Pap: Huck's drunkard father.7.The King and the Duke: two swindlersComparison of the three “giants”1. ThemeHowells – middle classJames – upper classTwain – lower class2. ToneHowells – smiling/genteel realismJames – psychological realismTwain – local colourism and colloquialismAmerican NaturalismTime Range:1890 -- 1920Background:1. Emergence of “Modern America” : financial giants vs. industria l proletariat2. New ideas about man and man’s place in the universe: in a cold, indifferent andGodless world, man is insignificant without freedom of will.3. Younger generation of writers thought Howellsian realism was too restrained andgenteel to tell the truth of the harsher realities of American life.Definition:a critical term applied to the method of literary composition that aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man. It is thus more inclusive and less selective than realism, and holds to the philosophy of determinism. It conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by his social and economic environment and circumstances. Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments, and as a determinist he tends toward pessimism. (The Oxford Companion to American lit.)Features:1. Humans are controlled by some deterministic forces, both internal (heredity) and external (environment)2. The universe is indifferent and hostile.3. The literary naturalists have a major difference from the realists.They described the violent, sensational, sordid, unpleasant, and ugly aspects of life instead of the averageInstead of reflecting the middle-class life, they would rather write about the life of failure, poverty and even crime.4. general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, pessimismRepresentative Writers and Works1. as a response to a darkening social outlook: the harsh futility of life in nature, on the farm, or inthe city (Stephen Crane) Maggie: A Girl of the Street (1893)2. Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie is a spiritual tragedy.3. the political implications of economic forces (Frank Norris) McTeagueStephen Crane (1871-1900)1.Pioneer in the field of Modern poetry : One of the two precursors of Imagist, the other beingEmily DicksonMajor Works:1. Maggie: A Girl of the Street (1893) 《街头女郎梅季》a.A masterpiece of Am. naturalism, the first naturalistic novel in American Literature.b.Tragic lifec.died in riverd.Pete seduces and abandons Maggie2.The Red Badge of Courage (1895)《红色英勇勋章3.The Open Boat《海上扁舟》(1897)4.The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky《新娘来到黄天镇》5.The Blue Hotel《蓝色旅馆》6.An Experiment in Misery7.Collection: The Black Riders and Other Lines《黑衣骑士及其他》(1895）8.Long poem: War Is Kind《战争是仁慈的》（1899）9.A Man Said to the Universe (book)10. A Man Adrift on a Slim Spar”(book)Frank Norris(1870-1902)Major Works:1. McTeague (1899) 《麦克提格》“the first full-bodied naturalistic American novel” / full l ength2.“The Epic of the Wheat”: a trilogy 《小麦史诗》3.The Octopus （1901）《章鱼》the best, about the production of the wheat, the octopus—the railroad4.The Pit (1903)《陷阱》the distribution and consumption of the wheat on the market5.The Wolf《野狼》Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)Major Works:1.Sister Carrie (1900) 《嘉莉妹妹》a.第一部小说b.先遭拒绝, 后出版2.The Trilogy of Desire”《欲望三部曲》:a.The Financier (1912) 《金融家》b.The Titan (1914) 《巨头》c.The Stoic,《禁欲者》(1945, unfinished)3.The 'Genius' (1915) 《天才》4.An American Tragedy (1925) 《美国悲剧》, 自传5.Dawn 《曙光》(1931)6.The Bulwark 《堡垒》(1946)Sister Carrie (1900)人物:1.Caroline Meeber, known as Carrie2.Charlie Drouet3.George HurstwoodThe 1920sAmerican ModernismTime Range:1910s – 1945Historical Background:1. The Influence of the WWI:A stronger image of America in international arena;The economic boom-a deceptive affluence;The development of a new type of industrial economy;2. Intolerance in American society: the discrimination against minorities.3. The loss of faith—the death of God.Intellectually, Darwin, Freud, Nietzsche, MarxSpiritually, sense of disillusionment & fragmentationDefinition:1. The attempt to create something new in the space of modern crisis and change.2.Discontentment and a deliberate & radical break with traditional ways of expression in Western arts & lit.3.Innovative experimentation in subjects, forms, concepts & stylesFeatures:Fragmentation and open-endedness in structureAlienation as the chief characteristicInterests in the psychological depths of characters (method of stream-of-consciousness)Gender, race, class as accepted registers-- efforts to represent postwar world as incoherent, futile, fragmented, and meaningless, man as misplaced, lost and alienated, to resist traditional totalized views of realityRepresentitive Writers and Works1.T. S Eliot is the most dominant literary figure between the two world wars.The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock2.Ezra Pound is the leader of the Imagist movement, mentor of many literary talents, tried for treasonIndebtedness to Chinese culture.In a Station of the Metro.Imagism 意象主义(1912—1914, with Ezra Pound as the leader)1.Rejected the effusive nature of Romantic and Victorian poetry2.Focused on directness of idea and economy of language3.Contemporary with and in harsh contrast to Georgian poetry4.Contemporaries: Ezra Pound, T.S. EliotRepresentatives: Pound, Hulme, Amy Lowell, H.D., Richard Aldington, William Carlos WilliamsFeatures of the Imagist Poetry:1.To use the language of common speech2.To create new rhythms – a new cadence means a new idea3.To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject4.To present an image5.To produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred or indefinite6.Concentration is the very essence of PoetryEzra Pound (1885—1972) 庞德Major Works:1.In a Station of the Metro2.Indebtedness to Chinese culturea.Hugh Selwyn Mauberley《休·西尔文·毛伯莱》b.Cantos （1915-1945）《诗章》3.1908 A Lume Spento《灯火熄灭之时》4.1909 Personae《人物》5.1910 The Spirit of Romance《罗曼斯精神》6.1915 Cathay《中国》7.1919 Homage to Sextus Propertivs《向塞克斯图斯·普罗佩提乌斯致敬》8.1920 Hugh Selwyn Mauberley《休·赛尔温·毛伯利》9.1945 The Pisan Cantos《比萨诗章》10.1954 Letters of Ezra Pound，1907—1941《埃兹拉·庞德书信集》11.1973 Literary Essays《文学论文集》SelectedProse 1909—1965《文选》Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)1.fragmentation2.modern man alienationMajor Works:1.The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1911)《普鲁弗洛克的情歌》2.The Waste Land (1922) 《荒原》3.Hollow Man (1925) 《空心人》4.Ash Wenesday (1930)《圣尘星期三》5.Four Quartets (1943)《四个四重奏》F.Scott Fitzgerald (1896—1940) 菲茨杰拉德1.The spokesman of the “Roaring twenties” and The Jazz Age2.StylistMajor Works:1.This Side of Paradise (1920) 《人间天堂》2.The Beautiful and Damned (1922)《美人与丑鬼》The first attempt at writing The Great Gatsby.3. The Great Gatsby (1925) 《了不起的盖茨比》a.F’s best, written in Paris, a masterpiece of the 1920sb.criticism on the Jazz Age4. Tender Is the Night (1934) 《夜色温柔》F’s second important novel, condemning the wasted energy of misguided youth.5. The Last Tycoon (1941)《最后一个巨头》unfinished6. Two short story collections:a.Flappers and Philosophers (1920) 《少女与哲学家》b.Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) 《爵士时代的故事》Give its name to the decade (1919-1929) –the Jazz Age (the “Roaring Twenties”, “The Flapper Period”)7.The Crack-Up (1945), essays collected by Edmund Wilson 《崩溃》The Great Gatsby (1925) 《了不起的盖茨比》人物:1.Tom Buchanan2.Daisy3.Gatsby4.Wilson5.Nick CarrawayErnest Hemingway (1899—1961) 海明威1.colloquial style2.iceberg theoryMajor Works:1. The Sun Also Rises (1926)《太阳照样升起》paints the image of a whole generation—the lost generation, spiritual crisis2. A Farewell to Arms (1929) 《永别了，武器》based on his war experience in Italy, a love tragedy in the War, the lovers called “modernRomeo and Juliet”, firmly established H’s reputation3. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) 《丧钟为谁而鸣》（《战地钟声》）Based on his experience as a journalist in Spain during its civil war, anti-Fascism4. The Old Man and the Sea (1952) 《老人与海》One of his best, winning the Nobel Prize5. Short story collections:a.Men without Women (1927)《没有女人的男人》b.Winner Take Nothing (1933) 《胜者无所得》6. Play:The Fifth Column (1940) 《第五纵队》The Old Man and the Sea (1952) 《老人与海》人物:1.Santiago2.marlinThe Lost Generation 迷惘的一代Writing Features:ing of age during the War, having something to do with it2.Disillusioned and antagonistic against war3.Unhappy about American culture4.Expatiates in Paris5.grace under pressure6.death7.war,violent, meaningless, chaotic, purposeless slaugterWilliam Faulkner(1897-1962)福克纳1.Southern Literature and Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha saga2.Fictional world3.Family community4.Style:a.stream of consciousness and interior monologueb.disorder of timec.freshMajor Works:1.The Sound and The Fury (1929) 《喧嚣与骚动》2.As I Lay Dying (1930) 《我弥留之际》3.Sanctuary (1931) 《圣殿》4.Light in August (1932) 《八月之光》5.Absalom, Absalom (1936)《押沙龙！押沙龙！》6.Go Down, Moses (1942) 《去吧，摩西》7.Trilogy of the Snopes familyThe Hamlet (1940) 《村子》The Town (1957) 《小镇》The Mansion (1959)《大宅》8. Short Story collection:The Unvanquished, 《没有被征服的人》(1938)9. A Rose for EmilyJohn Dos Passos (1896—1970) 约翰·多斯·帕索斯U. S. A. Trilogy 《美国》三部曲a. The 42nd Parallel (1930)《北纬四十二度》“machine” dominates and impedes the free growth of individuals b. 1919 （1932）《一九一九》A record of W W I, depersonalizing machinec. The Big Money （1936）《赚大钱》The booming twentiesJohn Steinbeck (1902-1968) 约翰•斯坦贝克The Grapes of Wrath （1939）《愤怒的葡萄》被称作”Uncle Tom’s Cabin” of the 1930sEugene O’Neill (1888-1953) 尤金·奥尼尔1.“Founder of the American drama,” and “the American Shakespeare” in the history of Americandrama.2.receive the Nobel Prize for literature (1936).Major Works:1.Bound East for Cardiff （1916）《东航卡迪夫》his first play, marking the beginning of O’s long and successful dramatic career and ushered in the modern era of the American theatre2.Beyond Horizon (1920) 《天边外》his first play of success, established his reputation, Pulitzer Prize3.The Emperor Jones (1920) 《琼斯王》4.The Hairy Ape (1922) 《毛猿》Ralph (Waldo) Ellison (1914-1994)Invisible Man--An archetypal existential story of modern times.（注：可编辑下载，若有不当之处，请指正，谢谢!）。

美国文学期末复习知识点-绪论

绪论1.一般认为，美国文学史大致可分为七个时期，分别是殖民地时期、独立战争前后时期、南北战争时期、南北战争后至第一次大战前时期、两次大战之间时期、第二次大战后至越南战争前时期、越南战争后至新世纪初时期。

2.殖民地时期的美国文学主要有三类，它们是原住民印第安人口头文学和民间故事、欧洲探险者到北美的探险日记和航海记录、早期到北美殖民地的英国官员和牧师的散文和游记。

3.在殖民地英国官员和牧师作家们中大致可分为两类，即清教主义作家和反清教主义作家。

4.独立战争前后的美国文学中，发展成果最为突出的文学类型是散文。

5.第一位获得国际声誉的美国小说家是华盛顿·欧文，他的短篇小说代表作是《瑞普·凡·温克尔》、《睡谷传奇》。

6.詹姆斯·范·库柏创作了“皮袜子五部曲”：《开拓者》、《最后一个莫希干人》、《草原》、《探路人》、《逐鹿者》；他是第一位描写美洲殖民地历史的历史小说家、第一位刻画印第安人形象的小说家。

7.爱默生的散文《论自然》是美国超验主义运动的宣言，在该文中，爱默生提出新大陆需要精神独立。

超验主义是民主思想在哲学上的表现。

8.美国诗人瓦尔特·惠特曼的诗集《草叶集》的问世标志着美国浪漫主义运动达到高潮，爱默生欢呼的伟大的美国诗人诞生了。

9.惠特曼去世标志着浪漫主义文学时代的结束，美国文学迅速走进一个现实主义和自然主义文学发展新时代。

10.马克·吐温的小说《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》开创了美国文学的一代新风；威廉·豪威尔斯被认为是美国现实主义文学的奠基人，他最先指出“金钱成了时代的史诗”，“当个百万富翁成了美国人的理想”；而亨利·詹姆斯则开创了20世纪美国心理小说的新方向。

11.欧·亨利被誉为“美国短篇小说之父”，与法国作家莫泊桑和俄国作家契诃夫并列为世界三大短篇小说家。

12.弗兰克·诺里斯是第一个名副其实的美国自然主义作家，西奥多·德莱赛被称为第一次世界大战前最优秀的自然主义作家，其代表作品有《嘉莉妹妹》、《美国的悲剧》。

美国文学重点整理

美国文学重点整理O u t l i n e o f A m e r i c a n L i t e r a t u r e1.T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f C o l o n i a lA m e r i c a殖民地时期美国文学 (17t h c e n t u r y)2.T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R e a s o n a n d R e v o l u t i o n理性和革命时期文学（18t h C）3.T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R o m a n t i c i s m 浪漫主义文学（19t h C）4.T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R e a l i s m理性主义文学（19t h C）5.T w e n t i e t h-c e n t u r y L i t e r a t u r e 现代主义文学（20t h C）O u t l i n e o f E n g l i s h L i t e r a t u r e1.m e d i a e v a l l i t e r a t u r e中世纪文学（约5世纪—1485）2.R e n a i s s a n c e l i t e r a t u r e文艺复兴时期文学（15世纪后期—17世纪初）3.17t h C e n t u r y L i t e r a t u r e17世纪文学4.L i t e r a t u r e E n l i g h t e n m e n t p e r i o d启蒙时期文学（17世纪后期—18世纪中期）5.R o m a n t i c l i t e r a t u r e p e r i o d浪漫主义时期文学1798-1832）6.R e a l i s m p e r i o d现实主义时期文学 (19世纪30年代-1918）7.M o d e r n L i t e r a t u r e p e r i o d现代主义文学时期（1918-1945）8.C o n t e m p o r a r y L i t e r a t u r e当代文学（1945—今）P a r t I.T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f C o l o n i a l A m e r i c a殖民地时期美国文学1.E a r l y i n t h e17t h C.,t h e E n g l i s h s e t t l e m e n t s i n V i r g i n i a a n d M a s s a c h u s e t t s b e g a n t h e m a i n s t r e a m o f A m e r i c a n n a t i o n a l h i s t o r y.2.I n1607,t h e f i r s t p e r m a n e n t E n g l i s h s e t t l e m e n t i n N o r t h A m e r i c aw a s e s t a b l i s h e d a t J a m e s t o w n, V i r g i n i a. T h i s y e a r i s o f t e n c o n s i d e r e da s t h eb e g i n n i n g o f A m e r ic a n h i s t o r y.3.C a p t a i n J o h n S m i t h---f i r s t A m e r i c a n w r i t e r,p u b l i s h e d8w o r k s i na l l.H i s r e p o r t s o f e x p l o r a t i o n h a v e b e e n d e s c r i b e d a s t h e f i r s td i s t i n c t l y A me r i c a n l i t e r a t u r e t o b e w r i t t e n i n E n g l i s h.h i sd e s c r i p t i o n o f A m e r i c a w e r e f i l l e d w i t h t h e m e s,m y t h s,i m a g e s,s c e n e s,c h a r a c t e r s a nde v e n t s t h a t w e r e af o u n d a t i o n f o r t h e n a t i o n’s l i t e r a t u r e.4.P u r i t a n w r i t e r s：t w o P o e t s：A n n eB r a d s t r e e t（T h e T e n t h M u s e L a t e l y S p r u n g u p i n A m e r i c a--《美国新崛起的第十位缪斯女神》）H e r w o r k s e r v e s a s a d o c u m e n t o f t h e s t r u g g l e s o f a P u r i t a n w i f e a g a i n s t t h e h a r d s h i p s o f N e w E n g l i s h c o l o n i a l l i f eE d w a r d T a y l o r①R e g a r d e d a s t h e b e s t o f t h e P u r i t a n p o e t s.②R e l i g i o u s t h e m e s.③B a s e d d i r e c t l y o n t h e P s a l m s(圣诗).P u r i t a n v a l u e s(e n d u r i n g持久的 i n f l u e n c e)s t r e s s e d h a r d w o r k,t h r i f t, p i e t y,s o b r i e t y（节制)T h e y r e g a r d e d t h e m s e l v e s a s c h o s e n p e o p l e o f G o d.T h e y e m b r a c e dh a r d s h i p s,i n d u s t r y a n d f r u g a l i t y(节俭).T h e y f a v o r e d a d i s c i p l i n e d,h a r d,s o m b e r,a s c e t i c(禁欲的)a n d h a r s h l i f e.T h e y o p p o s e d反对 a r t s a n d p l e a s u r e.T h e y s u s p e c t j o y a n d l a u g h t e r a s s y m p t o m s o f s i n.(c a n’t s m i l e i n t h e c h u r c h)P a r t I I.T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R e a s o n a n d R e v o l u t i o n(18t h C)R e a s o n----- A m e r i c a n E n l i g h t e n m e n t1) P h i l o s o p h i c a l a n d i n t e l l e c t u a l m o v e m e n t.2)A d v o c a t e d r e a s o n(理性)o r r a t i o n a l i t y,t h e s c i e n t i f i c m e t h o d,e q u a l i t y a n d h u m a n b e i n g s'a b i l i t y t o p e rf e c t t h e m s e l v e s a n d t h e i rs o c i e t y.3. A g r e e d o n f a i t h i n h u m a n r a t i o n a l i t y a n d e x i s t e n c e o f d i s c o v e r a b l ea n d u n i v e r s a l l y v a l i d(有效的)p r i n c i p l e s g o v e r n i n g h u m a nb e i n g s,n a t u r ea n d s o c i e t y.4. O p p o s e d i n t o l e r a n c e, r e s t r a i n t, s p i r i t u a l a u t h o r i t y a n d r e v e a l e d r e l i g i o nB e n j a m i n F r a n k l i n(1706-1790)—T h e e p i t o m e(集中体现)o f t h e A m e r i c a n E n l i g h t e n m e n tM a i n W o r k s:P o o r R i c h a r d’s A l m a n a c《穷理查德年鉴》/《格言历书》 A c o l l e c t i o n o f p r o v e r b sA u t o b i o g r a p h y《自传》W i t h i t h e s e t t h e f o r m f o r a u t o b i o g r a p h y a s a g e n r e.建立了传记文学传统（A n i n s p i r i n g a c c o u n t o f a p o o r b o y’s r i s e t o a h i g h p o s i t i o n.I t i s a h o w-t o-d o-i t b o o k,o n e o n t h e a r t o f s e l f-i m p r o v e m e n t./S i g n i f i c a n c e:I t p r e s e n t s a p r o t o t y p e(原型)o f A m e r i c a n s u c c e s s w h i c h i n s p i r e d g e n e r a t i o n s o f A m e r i c a n s.I t i s a n e m b o d i m e n t体现 o f P u r i t a n i s m a n d e n l i g h t e n i n g s p i r i t.）S t y l e:h e d e v e l o p e d a n u t i l i t a r i a n(实利主义的 )a n d d i d a c t i c s t y l e.H i s s t y l e i s c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y s i m p l i c i t y,f r a n k n e s s,w i t,c l a r i t y, l o g i c a n d o r d e r.T h o m a s P a i n e托马斯佩恩(1737-1809)——F o u n d i n g F a t h e r o f U S AO f a l l t h e w r i t e r s o f t h e A m e r i c a n R e v o l u t i o n,h e w a s t h e l e a s t A m e r i c a n i n b a c k g r o u n d,i n s p i r i t a n d i n p u r p o s e.M a i n w o r k s:C o m m o n S e n s e《常识》T h e A m e r i c a n C r i s i s《美国危机》T h e r i g h t s o f m a n《人的权利》T h e A g e o f R e a s o n《理性时代》 D o w n f a l l o f D e s p o t i s m《专制体制的崩溃》“T h e m o s t b r i l l i a n t p a m p h l e t w r i t t e n i n A m e r i c a n R e v o l u t i o n,a n d o n e o f t h e m o s t b r i l l i a n t p a m p h l e t s e v e r w r i t t e n i n t h e E n g l i s h l a n g u a g e.”————C o m m o n S e n s e“T h e s e a r e t h e t i m e s t h a t t r y m e n's s o u l s."T h i s s i m p l e q u o t a t i o n n o t o n l y d e s c r i b e s t h e b e g i n n i n g s o f t h e A m e r i c a n R e v o l u t i o n,b u t a l s o t h e l i f e o f P a i n e h i m s e l f.“I l o v e t h e m a n t h a t c a n s m i l e i n t r o u b l e,t h a t c a n g a t h e r s t r e n g t h f r o m d i s t r e s s,a n d g r o w b r a v e b y r e f l e c t i o n.”T h o m a s J e f f e r s o n托马斯·杰斐逊（1743－1826）s y m b o l o f A m e r i c a n d e m o c r a c y.P o l i t i c a l l y, h e i s c o n s i d e r e d t h e f a t h e r o f t h e d e m o c r a t i c s p i r i t i n h i s c o u n t r y.T h e D e c l a r a t i o n o f I n d e p e n d e n c e《独立宣言》:T h e e s s a y,a d o p t e d J u l y4, 1776,n o t o n l y a n n o u n c e d t h e b i r t h o f a n e w n a t i o n,b u t a l s o s e t f o r t h a p h i l o s o p h y o f h u m a n f r e e d o m w h i c h s e r v e d a s u n i m p o r t a n t f o r c e i n t h e w e s t e r n w o r l d.I t i s a s t a t e m e n t o f A m e r i c a n p r i n c i p l e s a n d a r e v i e w o f t h e C a u s e s o f t h e q u a r r e l w i t h B r i t a i n, p r e s e n t e d t h e A m e r i c a n v i e w t o t h e w o r l d w i t h c l a s s i c d i g n i t y.I t i n s t i l l e d(逐步灌输)a m o n g t h e c o m m o n p e o p l e a s e n s e o f t h e i r o w n i m p o r t a n c e a n d i n s p i r e d s t r u g g l e f o r p e r s o n a l f r e e d o m,s e l f g o v e r n m e n t a n d a d i g n i f i e d p l a c e i n s o c i e t y.P h i l i p F r e n e a u（佛瑞诺）(1752-1832)f a t h e r o f A m e r i c a n P o e t r y &l e a d e r o f18t h c e n t u r y n a t u r a l i s m‘P o e t o f t h e A m e r i c a n R e v o l u t i o n’T h e f i r s t A m e r i c a n-b o r n p o e t.H i s p o e m s p r e s e n t e d R o m a n t i c s p i r i t s b u t h i s f o r m w a s m a i n l y i n f l u e n c e d b y C l a s s i c i s m. M a i n W o r k s:T w o t h e m e s：n a t u r e a n d t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p b e t w e e n m e n a n d n a t u r e&t h e A m e r i c a n R e v o l u t i o n.T h e R i s i n g G l o r y o f A m e r i c a《蒸蒸日上的美洲》(1772) T h e B r i t i s h P r i s o n S h i p《英国囚船》 (1781)T o t h e M e m o r y o f t h e B r a v e A m e r i c a n s《纪念美国勇士》--同类诗中最佳T h e I n d i a n B u r y i n g G r o u n d《印第安人墓地》 (1788)T h e W i l d H o n e y S u c k l e《野生的金银花》 (1786)Q u e s t i o n s：W h a t’s t h e p o e t’s t o n e i n t h e p o e m,o p t i m i s t i c o r p e s s i m i s t i c?W h a t a r e t h e t h e m e s? W h a t c a n w e l e a r n f r o m t h e p o e m?S t a n z a1T h e f i r s t s t a n z a o f t h e p o e m t r e a t s t h e a d v a n t a g e s a s w e l l a s d i s a d v a n t a g e s o f t h e f l o w e r’s m o d e s t r e t i r e m e n t(隐居)—i t i s d e s i g n e d w i t h b e a u t y(f i r s t2l i n e s)a n d w e l l p r o t e c t e d(t h e l a s t2l i n e s) i n s o l i t u d e;w h e r e a s i t s b e a u t y m i g h t b e a d m i r e d b y f e w(t h e3r d &4t h l i n e s).S t a n z a2T h e s e c o n d s t a n z a s u g g e s t s t h a t t h e h o n e y s u c k l e b e a r s a s p e c i a l r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h n a t u r e w h i c h h a s a d v i s e d i t t o k e e p a w a y f r o m“v u l g a r e y e”,i t h a s s e n t t h e s o f t w a t e r s f l o w i n g g e n t l y b y.H o w e v e r,i n s p i t e o f a l l t h e n a t u r e’s k i n d n e s s,t h e f l o w e r c a n n o te s c a p e i t s d o o m(d e s t i n y).T h e b e s t t i m e of i t s l i f e i s f a d i n g,f o r d e a t h i s w a i t i n g.Q u e s t i o n s f o r D i s c u s s i o n：.F r e n e a u w a s e x t r e m e l y s e n s i t i v e t o t h e b e a u t i e s o f n a t u r e.I n t h i s p o e m h e e x p r e s s e s a k e e n a w a r e n e s s o f t h e l o v e l i n e s s a n d t r a n s i e n c e（短暂）o f n a t u r e.W h a t i m p r e s s i o n o f t h e f l o w e r i s g i v e n i n t h e f i r s t t w o s t a n z a s p a r t i c u l a r l y t h r o u g h t h e p e r s o n i f i c a t i o n o f n a t u r e?S t a n z a3T h e t h i r d s t a n z a r e v e a l s t h e i n d i f f e r e n c e o f n a t u r e---t h e “u n p i t y i n g f r o s t s” a r e a s m u c h a p a r t o f n a t u r e a s t h e“s o f t w a t e r s”. T h u s,t h e n o t i o n t h a t n a t u r e h a s p r o v i d e d a“g u a r d i a n s h a d e” f o r t h e p r o t e c t i o n o f t h e h o n e y s u c k l e i s a s e n t i m e n t a l f a n c y.W h y d o e s t h e p o e t f e e l g r i e f悲痛 a b o u t t h e f l o w e r’s d o o m? T o w h a t d o e s h e c o m p a r e i t s c h a r m s?S t a n z a4I n t h e f o u r t h s t a n z a,t h e p o e t s e e s h i s f a t e m i r r o r e d i n t h a t o f t h e f l o w e r. H u m a n b e i n g s, a s a n y o t h e r c r e a t u r e s o r f l o w e r s, a r e a p a r t o f n a t u r e.T h e y o r i g i n a t e d f r o m n a t u r e a n d w i l l s u r e l y r e t u r n t o n a t u r e s o m e d a y,t h u s t h e i r r e d u c t i o n t o n a t u r e i n t h ed a y a he a d w i l l c o n s t i t u t e n o r e a l l o s s.1.W h a t c o n c l u s i o n d o e s t h e p o e t d r a w i n t h e l a s t s t a n z a?2.D o y o u t h i n k F r e n e a u i s c o m p a r i n g t h e l i f e o f a f l o w e r w i t h t h e l i f e o f m a n?E x p l a i n y o u r r e a s o n i n g.W h a t m e a n i n g i s s u g g e s t e d b y t h e p h r a s e“b u t a n h o u r”?C o m m e n t o n“T h e W i l d H o n e y S u c k l e”：I t i s a d e i s t i c（自然神论的）c e l e b r a t i o n o f n a t u r e, r o m a n t i c u s e o f s i m p l e n a t u r e i m a g e r y, i n s p i r e d b y t h e m e s o f d e a t h a n d t r a n s i e n c e（短暂）.M u c h o f t h e b e a u t y o f t h e p o e m l i e s i n t h e s o u n d s o f t h e w o r d s a n d t h e e f f e c t s c r e a t e d t h r o u g h c h a n g e s i n r h y t h m(a b a b c c).F l o w e r v s H u m a n B e i n g& D u r a t i o n持久 v s L i f eS h o w u s h o w t o l i v e a n u s e f u l l i f e. I n a r e v o l u t i o n,o n e s h o u l d n o t d o n o t h i n g f o r h i s c o u n t r y f o r f e a r o f b e i n g h u r t,h a r m e d a n d d e s t r o y e d.D i f f e r e n t c o m m e n t s o n t h e p o e m：（1）T h e p o e m i s a b o u t l i f e.T h e f i r s t s t a n z a d e s c r i b e s a b a b y i n t h e w o m b.U n t o u c h e d,u n s e e n,a n d p r o t e c t e d.T h e s e c o n d t a l k s a b o u t c h i l d h o o d,b e i n g p r o t e c t e d i n s h a d e a n d f r o m v u l g a r i t y.T h e t h i r d i s a b o u t a g i n g t o t h e p r i m e o f l i f e“n o r w e r e t h o s e f l o w e r sm o r e g a y,T h e f l o w e r s t h a t d i d i n E d e n b l o o m.” F r e n e a u i n c l u d e s f o r e s h a d o w i n g o f t h e i m p e n d i n g（临近）d e c a y.T h e f l o w e r d i e s i n t h e f o u r t h s t a n z a a n d l e a v e s n o t r a c e. I t’s a l m o s ta s i f i t w a s n e v e r t h e r e.A l t h o u g h t h e h o n e y s u c k l e h a s g o n e t h r o u g ht h e s e c h a n g e s,i t's l i f e w a s s h o r t.B a s i c a l l y,F r e n e a u t e l l s u s t h a t o u r l i v e s a r e a l s o f r a i l a n d s h o r ta n d a r e a l l e q u a l i n d e a t h.（2）I m a g e r y意象P h i l i p F r e n e a u e m p l o y s a l a n g u a g e f u l l o f i m a g e r y.E s p e c i a l l y p e r s o n i f i c a t i o n s c o n s t i t u t e a m a i n p a r t o f“T h e W i l d H o n e yS u c k l e”.M o r e o v e r,t h e f l o w e r i t s e l f i s p e r s o n i f i e d.T h e n a r r a t o rt a l k s t o t h e f l o w e r a s i f i t w e r e a h u m a n b e i n g. H e e x p r e s s e s t h a tt h e“l i t t l e b r a n c h e s g r e e t” (l i n e4),h o p e s t h a t t h e r e w i l l b e n o “t e a r” (6) o f t h e f l o w e r a n d a d v i c e s i t t o“s h u n t h e v u l g a r e y e” (8).T h e“r o v i n g f o o t”a n d t h e“b u s y h a n d”(5f)a r e m e t a p h o r s o f t h ed e s t r u c t i o n o f n a t u r e b y m e n. N a t u r e i t s e l f i s p e r s o n i f i e d a s“N a t u r e’s s e l f” (7)w h i c h a r r a y e d t h e f l o w e r s“a n d p l a n t e d h e r e t h e g u a r d i a ns h a d e a n d s e n t s o f t w a t e r s m u r m u r i n g b y”(9f).T h e w a t e r s a r ep e r s o n i f i e d a s w e l l,b e i n g s m o o t h a n d p r o d u c i n g s o u n d s l i k e s i l e n tt a l k i n g.总结：这是一首脍炙人口的小诗，诗人以敏锐的观察力，浅俗的词汇，优美的韵律和清晰的意象，细腻生动地描述了盛开于北美大地不为人们注意的野金银花。

美国文学考试重点

1.The literature of colonial AmericaWilliam Bradford威廉·布拉德福德（1590年-1657年），五月花号公约签署人之一，于1620年参与创立了普利茅斯殖民地，并在长达30余年的时间里担任普利茅斯总督。

他所撰写的《普利茅斯垦殖记》是关于欧洲新世界殖民史的早期著作之一。

Anne Bradstreet美国女诗人布莱德斯特律1612英格兰比安普敦～1672.9.16,马萨诸塞湾殖民地安多弗美国最早写出真正有价值的英文诗歌的一位女诗人。

她的宗教组诗《沉思集》(Contemplations)受到20世纪文学批评界的重视，被认为是一部不朽之作。

《凡人的虚荣》(Of the vanity of all worldly creatures)、《灵与肉》(The Flesh and the Spirit)、《献给我亲爱的丈夫》(To My Dear and Loving Husband)、《人世正凋萎，万物有终极》(All things within this fading world hath end)、《心痛手颤写诗句》(With troubled heart and trembling hand I write)、《大卫对扫罗和约拿单的哀悼》(David's Lamentation for Sauland Jonathan)Puritan Thoughts美国清教主义从一开始就是一种精神运动，它不仅仅是一种宗教信仰，而且还是一种极端民主与共和的理论。

清教徒在自己的祖国遭受迫害，对英国严酷的社会现实不满而移民到美国。

他们希冀按自己的意欲信仰上帝。

于是，他们致力于建立一个乌托邦式的重视伦理和精神生活的社会模式。

他们崇尚真正的自由——这种真正的自由涵盖了广泛的道德的含义。

他们把一切破坏和蔑视这种自由信念的行为一概斥责为对权威的亵渎。

因此，他们认为自己是一群称之为美国人的新人，命定要建立一个新的世界，为人类建造一座“山上的光辉的城市”。

美国文学选读期末考试重点

1、The Colonial Period（1607-1765）American Puritanism ( in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th)北美第一位女诗人Anne Bradstreet(宗教气息，夫妻恩爱)Edward Taylor 都受英国玄学派影响（metaphysical）2、The Enlightenment and Revolution PeriodBenjamin Franklin:Poor Richard's Almanac The Autobiography---“美国梦”的根源3、American Romanticism（end of 18th to the civil war）American writers emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature.早期浪漫主义Washington Irving father of American Literature <The Sketch Book>短篇小说James Fenimore Cooper 历史，冒险，边疆小说《The Leather-stocking Tales>文明发展对大自然的摧残与破坏William Cullen Bryant 美国第一个浪漫主义诗人《To a Waterfowl><The Yellow Violet>美国山水，讴歌大自然，歌颂美国生活现实Edgar Allan Poe ---(48 poems,70 short stories)He greatly influenced the devotees of “Art for art’s sake.”He was father of psychoanalytic criticism , and the detective story.Ralph Waldo Emerson---The chief spokesman of New England TranscendentalismAmerican Transcendentalism (also known as “American Renaissance”) It is the high tide of American romanticism Transcendentalists spoke for the cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society. 《Nature》---the Bible of Transcendentalism by Emerson 《Self-Reliance》表达他的超验主义观点Henry David Thoreau------ Waldenhe regarded nature as a symbol of spirit.Thoreau was very critical of modern civilization.小说家：Hawthorne-赞成超验He is a master of symbolism The Scarlet Letter《红字》Melville 怀疑，悲观，sailing experiences Moby Dick百科全书式性质/海洋作品/动物史诗诗人Longfellow《I Shot an Arrow...》《A Psalm of Life》第一首被完整地介绍到中国的美国诗歌Whitman （Free Verse---without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme ）《Leaves of Grass》《One's Self I Sing》《O Captain! My Captain!》songDickinson inner life of the individual ---died for beauty4、The Age of RealismJames upper reaches of American society. <一位女士的肖像》inner world of manHowells, concerned himself chiefly with middle class life.<The Rise of Silas Lapman>Twain the lower strata of society. humor and local colorism<Life on the Mississippi> <The Adventures of Tom Sawyer> <The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn >American Naturalism 自然主义（新型现实）Stephen Crane；《Maggie: A Girl of the Streets》《The Red Badge of Courage》pessimisticTheodore Dreiser；Sister Carrie；Jennie Gerhardt；An American Tragedy(Trilogy of Desire)O.Henry (William Sydney Porter)：The Gift of the Magi；The Cop and the anthemJack London：The Call of the Wild；Martin Eden5、The Modern Period The 1920s-1930s ( the second renaissance of American literature)The Roaring Twenties ，The Jazz Age ，“lost”(Gertrude Stein) and “waste land”(T.S.Eliot)现代主义小说家F. Scott Fitzgerald：《The Great Gatsby》被视为美国文学“爵士时代”的象征，以美国梦American Dream为主线。

美国文学考试重点

填空1. Christopher Columbus discovered America.2. The earliest settlers were Dutch, Swedish, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.3. In the early 17th century, English began their settlement of the North American continent.4. Puritans were to become founding-fathers of the United States years later.5. American Puritanism was a dominant factor in American life and worked as one of the most enduring shaping influence in American thought and American literature.6. Most of the writing during the early years of the colonists’settlement was forcing on a God-centered world. And sermon was one of its highest writing forms.7. The American Revolution was brought to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.8. George Washington was the first president of the United States of America.9. As a European literary movement, Romanticism originated and strengthened in German, France and England in the middle of 18th century as a rebellion against the prevailing Neo-classicism and Rationalism during the Age of Reason.10. Transcendentalism or Romantic Idealism emerged after the publication of Nature, written by Ralph Waldo Emerson.11. New England Transcendentalism was the summit of American Romanticism.12. Emerson described Allan Poe in three words: the jingle man.13. In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne remarkably handles the Puritan background.14. The dominating theme of the Scarlet Letter is about sin and its consequences.15. Poe emphasized the significance of art and he thought that works of art should be created for the sake of beauty. He insisted that the creation of a work of art require the utmost concentration and unity, as well as the most careful use of words.16. The Raven is a verse-narrative and has 108 lines.17. The dominant themes of Melville’s major works include the exploration of historical and psychological origins, the development of self and society, and the desire to create and destroy gods and heroes.18. Realism appeared in the American literature in the form of local color.19. Mark twain means two fathoms deep.20. The “international situation”was Henry James’term for the fictional encounters between Americans and Europeans.21. Henry James was one of the three strong advocates of 19th century American realism, the other two being Howells and Mark Twain.22. Henry James’realism emphasizing the inner awareness and inward movements of his characters in face of outside occurrences, was called psychological realism.23. Sinclair Lewis was the first American novelist, who awarded the Nobel Prize.24. Gertrude Stein was the center of the expatriates. She said: “All of you young people who served in the war, you are the lost of generation.”25. Pounds’ three famous principles: direct treatment, economy of expression and rhythm.26. The Great Gatsby is a blend of romanticism and cynicism, a story of doomed love and helpless obsession set amid the harsh glitter of wealthy New York society in the 1920s.27. The term “Hemingway Style” is widely used today to refer to the kind of prose writing which is characterized by simplicity, directness, clarity, freshness and naturalness.名词解释1. PuritanismPuritanism refers to the practice and beliefs of the puritans. Puritans were originally pious members of the church of England who wanted to “purify” the rituals and to lessen the authority of bishops. To them, religion had the highest priority and man should live, think and act in a way which tended to the glory of God. The doctrines of them are predestination, original sin, total depravity, and limited atonement. Puritanism remained the dominant cultural force into the 19th century. In the grin struggle for survival, the puritans became more practical. They believe in hardworking, piety and sobriety. In a word, American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and literature.2. RomanticismRomanticism is a reaction neoclassicism and artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the 18th century. This early 19th century movement elevated the interest in nature, the individual, the passions and the inner life. It stressed strong emotion, imagination, freedom from classical correctness in art forms, and rebellion against social convention.3. RealismRealism is a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully an actual way of life. The term refers, both to a literary method based on detailed accuracy of description, and to a more general attitude that rejects idealization, escapism, and other extravagant qualities of romance in favor of recognizing soberly the actual problems of life.4. NaturalismNaturalism mainly refers to American naturalism, which occurred in later 19th century and early 20th century. It was a literary approach of French origin that vividly depicted social problems, and viewed human beings as helpless and passive victims of natural forces and social environment.5. Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin was one of the most important American thinkers during the revolutionary period and had tremendous influence on the subsequent development of American literature. He demonstrated all the major principles of the Enlightenment in America and stood as the versatile embodiment of rational man of the period. His life experiences remind us of “American Dream”. Franklin was well known principally as an accomplished scientist, natural philosopher, statesman and literary man. The two major works: Poor Richard’s Almanac and The Autobiography brought Franklin great fame as a man of letters. He was the only American to sign the four documents that brought the United States into being: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, the Treaty of Peace with England, and the Constitution. He died in 1790 and is remembered as one of the most beloved of the founding fathers.6. Poor Richard’s AlmanacPoor Richard’s Almanac is Benjamin Franklin’s masterpiece. The book was an immediate success upon its publication. It contains a number of practical, witty and humorous maxims about life,spreading ways of how to succeed in acquiring wealth and how to get along with people. In the preface entitled The Way to Wealth to the last edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac, the spirit of obtaining wealth as a direct result of hard work and thrift was promoted. Many of the adages are still of great importance to the modern man.7. Code HeroThe Hemingway hero is an average man of decidedly masculine taste, sensitive and intelligent, a man of action, and one of few words. That is an individualist keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place. These people are usually spiritual strong, people of certain skills, and most of them encounter death many times.8. Iceberg styleIt is to present the story with simple sentences and dialogues and leave a large space for readers to explore, to reflect. It was just like the iceberg, which had only 1/8 part above the water, 7/8 part under the water.问答题1. Irving’s main contribution on American literature.①He was a father of American literature. (Though many of his works were not finished in America. In 1832, he returned to America where he was lavishly welcomed.)②He was a father of American short stories. (During his time, American short stories had a fixed style. After his death, many American writers continued his writing style.)③He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.2. Comment on Dreiser’s Writing Style.①Weak points: Dreiser’s works have no good structure; Dreiser’s works are deficient characterization; Dreiser’s works are lack in imagination.②Strong points: Reiteration is one main writing method of his works; He uses painting techniques in his works, such as, sharp contrast, word-pictures, truth in color, and movement in outline.③Though Dreiser has some shortcomings in his writing style, his strengths are more outstanding and make up for these weak points. So he became one of American foremost novelists.3. What is the significance of character Ahab in the history of American literature?①Ahab may have been Melville’s portrait of an Emersonian self-reliant individualist.②Ahab is a criticism of New England Transcendentalism, especially the individualism of over-soul.③The whole of Moby Dick is a negative reflection upon transcendentalism.4. Analyzing Hemingway Hero (Code Hero).In Hemingway’s works, there are many heroes. The most famous one is character Santiago of Thee Old Man and the Sea.①He is an average man of decidedly masculine taste, sensitive and intelligent, a man of action, and one of few words.②He is an individualist keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadfulplace.③He is usually spiritual strong, with good fishing skills and encounter death many times when fighting with the shark.分析1. Style of WhitmanWalt Whitman was one of the great innovators and pioneers in American poetry. He broke the convention of iambic pentameter in poetry and exhibited a free form-free verse-poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. The range of Whitman’s subjects is remarkable, for he intended to include and celebrate everything. His poetry lacks the traditional rhyme and meter. Most of them employ the line, not the foot, as their stylistic unit, and depend on parallelism and other reiterative devices for their structure and cadence. He introduced his unique rhythm and movement to his lines. As a poet, Whitman supported and sang highly of democratization of the nation, advocated equality and pursued truth. Whitman’s poetry is original, revolutionary and indisputably American. Instead of the traditional English poetical devices like alliteration, assonance, balance and repetition, he used free verse in plain words to convey the multiple themes in his poems.2. Style of IrvingArtistically, in Rip Van Winkl e, Irving distinguished himself as a highly skillful writer. The reader sees and hears the hero while reading about him. His lucid style is as enjoyable as the story itself. The character of Rip is so vividly and humorously depicted that he lingers in the reader’ s mind and it is difficult for the reader not to smile or even laugh to him. The style of Irving’ works is characterized by simplicity, lucidity, poise and ease flow, featuring a strong sense of humor. His humor is always mild and prone to be accepted.3. Style of PoePoe’s poetry is forever enchanting and unforgettable. The Raven is a verse-narrative and has 108 lines. It portrays a young man grieving over his lost Lenore. His grief is turning to madness under the steady one-word repetition of talking bird. This repetition produces an even metrical flow in versification and makes the poem a marvel of regularity, which in accordance with Poe’s definition of poetry “as the rhythmical creation of beauty”, a definition giving unparalleled emphasis upon the importance of the rhythmical or musical element in poetry. As a verse-narrative, it has a complete plot, but it is highly symbolic and difficult to read because it lacks adequate suggestions of certain meanings.。

美国文学重点总结

I.Benjamin Franklin1.works(1)Autobiography 自传(2)Poor Richard’s Almanac 穷理查德年鉴2.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the AmericanPhilosophical Society.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire(electricity in this case) from h eaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”.Herman Melville thus described him “master of each andmastered by none”.II.Thomas Paine1.works(1)Common Sense(2)American CrisisIII.Thomas Jefferson1.works(1)The declaration of IndependenceIV.Philip Freneau1.works(1)The wild honey suckle(2)The Indian Burying Ground(3)To a Caty-Did2.contribution(1)Poet of the American Revolution(2)Father of American poetry(3)Transitional role of neoclassicism and RomanticismEnlightenment(1)It was an intellectual movement and it originated in Europe in17th C and come to American in 18th C.(2)It stressed the power of human reason, the important ofscientific methods and discoveries.(3)It contributed to freezing American from the limitations ofPuritanism and stimulating.(4)Emphasized independent democratic nation.American Romanticism1.American romanticism is a literary movement swept thoughwestern Europe.2.Emphasized freedom and individualism, like to write sth aboutmoral enthusiasm.3.Interest in medieval literature4.Show love of nature, emphasized mystery and supernatural.I.Washington Irving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer win international fame(2)the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father of American history, write history and biography asliterary entertainment2.works(1)First novel <A History of New York> 纽约外史won him widepopularity(2)<The Sketch Book> 见闻札记 won international fame(3)The Sketch Book :the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip VanWinkle.II.James Fenimore Cooper1.several names attached to Irvingthe first important American novelist began his literary career on dare.2.worksLeatherstocking TaleIII.William cullen BryantThe first American to gain stature of a major poet.1.Thanatopsis” 死亡随想曲2.To the Waterfowl 致水鸟most perfect brief poem in thelanguage.IV.Edgar Allan Poe1.works(1)the fall of the house of Usher(2)to Helen(3)Annabel Lee2.contribution(1)a master of the horror tale(2)first important critics(3)a start of the detective storyTranscendentalism.超验主义1.It is a philosophical and literary movement that flourished inNew England.2.Emphasized intuition, the spirit or the oversoul ,3.Emphasized individualism4.For transcendentalists, nature is a symbol of the spirit or God5.they believe in self-trust and self-reliance6.They appreciated the dignity of manual labor7.represent writer: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry DavidThoreauV.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.works:Nature: Bible of American transcendentalism.2.one of his statement was in The American ScholarVI.Henry David ThoreauWalden 瓦尔登湖VII.Nathaniel HawthorneThe Scarlet Letter 红字Hester Prynne 3A:adultery able angel VIII.Herman MelvilleMoby DickIX.Henry Wadsworth LongfellowA Psalm of Life：stresses the importance of a full and sincere activity in making the most of life’s brief span, rather than succumbing to moods of vain regret and dejection.Realism:a literary movement in Europe and the United States in the last half of the last half of the 19th, early year of 20th. The attempt in literary and art to represent life as it really is, without sentimentalizing or idealizing it. It described Everyday life and speech of ordinary people. Represent writer: William Dean ,Mark Twain ,Henry James.I.Walt WhitmanLeave of grassFree words 自由体II.Emily DickinsonI died for beauty-but was scarceBecause I could not stop for deat hIII.Mark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens1.works:The Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn2.contribute:(1)The true father of all the national literature.(2)Lincoln of our literature.(3)The fountainhead of all modern literature.(4)His writing style: colloquial language dialects, local color,sentence simple brief, sometimes ungrammatical; humor, socialcritic.IV.O. HenryWilliam Sidney Porter1.works:(1)The Cop and the Anthem(2)The Four Million(3)The Gift of the Magi(4) A Municipal Report(5)An Unfinished Story(6)Phoebe(7)The Furnished Room(8) A Lickpenny LoverNaturalism:(1)I t was an outgrowth and extreme form of realism.(2)I t is sometimes defined as the technique of portraying ascientifically accurate, detached picture of life, includingeverything and selecting nothing.(3)I t conveyed that social conditions, heredity and environmenthad inescapable force in shaping human character.(4)I ts characteristics: pessimism, determinism, objectivity.V.Henry JamesHe defined the American literature in the international context.Works:(1)The Portrait of A Lady(2)The Bostonians(3)The Wings of the Dove,(4)Daisy MillerVI.Jack London(1)The Sea Wolf(2)The Iron Heel(3)The Call of the Wild(4)Martin EdenVII.White Fang(1)Sister Carrie(2)Trilogy of Desire 欲望三部曲：The Financier , The Titan, The StoicThe topic: identification of potency with moneyVIII.Ezra Pound(1)Hugh Selwyn Mauberley(2)The Cantos :A Pact, In a Station of the MetroIX.Robert Frost(1) A Boy’s Will(2)North of Boston(3)Mountain interval(4)New Hampshire(5) A Further Range(6) A Witness Tree(7)Steeple Bush(8)In the Clearing(9)The Road Not Taken(10)Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningX.Thomas Stearns Eliot ---T.S Eliot(1)The Hollow Man(2)The Waste land(3)The Love Son of J. Alfred PrufrockXI. F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Great Gatsby,Tender Is the NightXII.Ernest HemingwayA farewell to Arms,For Whom the Bell TollsThe Old Man and the SeaXIII.John SteinbeckThe Grapes of Wrath:earn him a Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 XIV.William FaulknerA rose of Emily: get Nobel Prize for Literature。

美国文学选读知识点整理

美国⽂学选读知识点整理1．Benjamin Franklin(1706~1790)Poor Richard’s AlmanacThe Autobiography2．Edgar Allan Poe(1809~1849)Tamerlane and Other PoemsMurders in the Rue MorguePoemsThe Purloined LetterThe Raven and other PoemsThe Gold BugTales of the Grotesque and ArabesqueThe Philosophy of CompositionTalesThe Poetic PrincipleThe Fall of the House of UsesAl AraafThe Red Masque of the Red Death LigeiaThe Black CatThe Cask of AmontilladoAnnabel LeeSonnet--To ScienceTo Helen3．Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803~1882） NatureSelf-RelianceThe American ScholarThe Divinity School AddressEssays:First SeriesEssays：Second SeriesRepresentative menEnglish TraitsThe Conduct of LifePoemsMay-Day and Other PiecesNathaniel Hawthorne(1804~1864)FanshaweTwice-told TalesMosses from an Old ManseScarlet LetterThe House of the Seven GablesThe Blithedale RomanceThe Marble Faun4．Herman Melville(1819~1891)TypeeOmooMardiRedburnWhite JacketMoby DickThe Confidence ManBattle PiecesClarelTimoleonBilly Budd5．Henry David Thoreau(1817~1862)On the Duty of Civil DisobedienceA Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiverWalden6．Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807~11882) V oices of the Night Ballads and Other PoemsEvangelineThe Song of HiawathaI shot an ArrowA Psalm of Life7．Walt Whitman(1819~1892)Leaves of GrassOne’s Self I SingO Captain!My Captain8．Emily Dickinson(1830~1886)To Make a PrairieSuccess Is Counted SweetestI’m Nobody!9．Mark Twain (1835~1910)The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras CountryThe Innocents AbroadThe Gilded AgeThe Adventures of Tom SawyerLife on the MississippiThe Adventures of Hucklebeerry finnA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg10．Henry James(1843~1916)A Passionate PilgrimRoderick HudsonThe Novels and Tales of Henry JamesThe AmericanDaisy MillerThe Portrait of a LadyThe BostoniansThe Princess of CasamassimaThe Spoils of PoyntonThe Turn of the ScrewThe Awkward AgeThe Wings of the DoveThe AmbassadorsThe Golden BowlThe Art of FictionThe American SceneThe Jolly Corner11．Stephen Crane(1871~1900)Maggie:A Girl of the StreetsThe Red Badge of CourageThe Open BoatThe Bride Comes to Y ellow SkyThe Blue Hotel12．Willa Cather(1873~1947)Miss Jewett13．Sherwood Anderson（176~1941） Windy McPherson’s Son Winesburg,OhioMarching MenPoor WhiteThe triumph of the Egg and Other StoriesHorses and MenMany MarriagesDark LaughterBeyond DesireDeath in the Woods and Other Stories14．Katherine Anne Porter（1890~1980） The Flowering Judas Pale Horse,Pale RiderThe Leaning TowerThe Old OrderOld MortalityA Ship of FoolsThe Jilting of Granny Weatherall15．F.Scott Fitzgerald（1896~1940）This Side of ParadiseThe Beautiful and the DamnedFlappers and PhilosophersTales of the Jazz AgeThe Great GatsbyTender is the NightThe Crack-Up16．William Faulkner(1897~1962)The Marble FaunSoldier’s PayThe Sound and the FuryMosquitoesAs I Lay DyingLight in AugustAbsalom,AbsalomThe HamletSartorisThe TownThe MansionBarn Burning17．Ernest Hemingway(1899~1961)In Our TimeThe Sun Also RisesA Farewell to ArmsFor Whom the Bell TollsThe Old Man and the SeaA Clean,Well-Lighted Place18．Ezra Pound(1885~1972)ExultationsPersonaeCathayCantosDes ImagistesIn a Station of the Metro19．Wallace Stevens(1879~1955)The Necessary AngelAnecdote of the Jar20．William Carlos Williams(1883~1963) Collected Later Poems Collected Early PoemsPatersonThe Red WheelbarrowSpring and All21．Robert Frost(1874~1963)A Boy’s WillNorth of BostonNew HamphshireCollected PoemsA Further RangeA Witness TreeFire and IceStopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningThe Road Not Taken22．Langston Hughes(1902~1967)The Weary BluesFine Clothes to the JewThe Dream Keeper and Other PoemsShakespeare in HarlemDreamsMe and the MuleBorder Line23．Archibald MacLeish(1892~1982)The Happy MarriageThe Poet of EarthConquistadorCollected PoemsJ.B.Ars Poetica24．Eugene Glastone O’Neill(1888~1953) Bound East for Cardiff In The ZoneThe Long V oyage HomeThe Moon of the CaribeesEmperor JonesThe Hairy ApeThe Great God BrownStrange InterludeDesire Under the ElmsMourning Becomes ElectraThe Iceman ComethA Touch of the PoetLong Day’s Journey Into NightThe Moon for the MisbegottenHughieMore Stately Mansions25．Eiwyn Brooks White(1899~1985)Talk of the TownIs Sex NecessaryElements of StyleStuart LittleCharlotte’s WebQuo V adimus or The Case for the Bicycle One Man’s MeatThe Points of My CompassLetters of E.B,whiteEssays of E.B,whitePoems and Sketches of E.B.White Writings from The New Y orkerOnce More to the Lake 26．Tennessee Williams(1911~1983) The Glass MenagerieA Streetcar Named DesireCat On a Hot Tin RoofSummer and SmokeThe Rose TattooCamino RealOrpheus DescendingSuddenly Last SummerThe Sweet Bird of Y outhThe Night of the Lguana27．Ralph Waldo Ellison(1914~1994) Invisible ManShadow and ActGoing to the Territory28．Robert Lowell(1917~1977)Lord Weary’s CastleLife StudiesThe DolphinSkunk Hour29．Elizabeth Bishop(1911~1979) North and SouthCollected PoemsGeography IIIIn the Waiting Room30．Theodore Roethke(1908~1963）The Waking PoemsThe Collected PoemsOn the Poet and His Craft：Selected Prose 31．Allen Ginsberg（1926~1997）HowlA Supermarket in California32．Sylvia Plath（1932~1963）The ColossusArielWinter TreesThe Bell JarLetters HomePoint Shirley33．Robert Hayden （1913~1980）Frederick Douglass34．Robert Bly（1926~）The Light Around the BodyThe SixtiesDriving Through Minnesota During the Hanoi Bombing 35．Maya Angelou（1928~）Still I Rise36．Arthur Miller（1915~2005） All My Sonse Death of a SalesmanThe CrucibleA View from the BridgeAfter the FallThe Archbishop’s CellingThe Misfits37．Saul Bellow（1915~2005） Dangling manThe VictimThe Adventures of Augie MarchHenderson the Rain KingHerzogSeize the DayMr.Sammler’s PlanetHumbolt’s GiftThe Dean’s DecemberMore Die of HeartbreakThe TheftThe ActualRavelsteinMosby’s Memories and Other StoriesThe Last AnalysisLooking for Mr.Green38．Joseph Heller（1923~1999） We Bombed in New Haven Something HappenedGood as GoldGod KnowsCatch-2239．Toni Morrison（1931~）The Bluest EyeSulaSong of SolomonTar BabyBelovedJazzParadiseLoveA MercyRecitatif40．Louise Erdrich（1954~）Love MedicineThe Beet QueenTracksThe Crown of ColumbusThe Bingo PalaceTales of Burning LoveThe Antelope WifeThe Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse The Master Butchers Singing Club Four SoulsThe Painted DrumThe Plague of DovesShadow TagLulu’s Boys。

美国文学重点整理

1.Benjamin Franklin本杰明·富兰克林主要作品：Poor Richard’s Almaral《格言历书》The Autobiography《自传》地位:father of the USLanguage of “The Autobiography”: clear, simple, economic, homely , direct2.Ralph Waldo Emerson拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生主要作品:Nature《论自然》----Manifesto of transcendentalism(超验主义宣言)The American Scholar《美国学者》---independent of American culture(the second declaration of independence )简介：Emerson is one of the major writers of the Mid-19th century, one of the most stimulating American minds, and transcendentalism’s most seminal force.(leader and chief representative of “Transcendentalism”)3.Nathaniel Hawthorne纳桑尼尔·霍桑主要作品: Fanshawe《范肖》Twice-told Tales《故事重述》Mosses from an Old Manse《古宅青苔》地位: a significant romantic writer and master of psychological insight.4.Herman Melville赫尔曼·梅尔维尔主要作品: Typee《泰比》Omoo《欧穆》Moby Dick《白鲸》描述下人物“captain Ahab”(Hero: capable , persistence ; Devil: selfish ,revengeful )5. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow亨利·沃兹沃思·朗费罗主要作品: V oice of the Night《夜吟》Ballads and Other Poems《歌谣及其他》Evangeline《伊凡杰林》The Song of Hiawatha《海伊华沙之歌》translation of Divine comedy of DanteA Psalm of Life<人生颂>6. Edgar Allen Poe爱伦·坡地位：father of detective stories三篇短篇小说: The Fall of the House of Usher《厄舍古屋的倒塌》The Black CatThe Cask of Amontillado三首诗: Annabel Lee《安娜贝尔李》The Raven《乌鸦》To Helen《致海伦》7. Walt Whiteman沃尔特·惠特曼Leaves of Grass(诗歌形式free verse )使他成为美国最伟大和最有影响的现代抒情诗人，8.Emily Dickinson埃米莉·狄金森（美国最重要女诗人之一）诗：Success Is Counted Sweetest(最美妙的胜利感觉)三个问题回答：1,Why is success “counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed”? They are eager to succeed.2,Who are “the purple host”? The successful people.3, Who is “he” in the last stanza? Those who hasn’t succeed.9.Mark Twain马克吐温本名：Samuel Langhorne Clemens代表作：The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(第一部小说)The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn（续集，海明威评论过）The Gilded Age(描述Post civil war)10．F·Scott·Fitzgerald 弗·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德(the spokesman of JAZZ Age1920~ ) 三部小说：This Side of ParadiseThe Great GatsbyTender is the Night评价Gatsby:好的方面：self-made man , intelligent, hard working, faithful and unselfish to his love ,didn’t give up his lover though she got married.不好的方面：earn his money by illegal way11. Ernest Hemingway (Nobel Prize of literature1954)主要作品：A Farewell to ArmsThe Sun Also RisesFor Whom the Bell TollsThe Old Man and the Sea.Iceberg Principle: His sentence only one small bit of the meaning. The rest is implied. One must go very deep beneath the surface to understand the full meaning of his writing. Certainly, there are moments when the reader feels the suggestion of vast meaning beneath Hemingway few spare words.A clean, well-lighted place（Short story，not a novel）一老一少的侍者，一位喝酒的老人Code Hero: Hemingway heroes: a noble but tragic hero, fighting with the overwhelming force, though he knows that he will be defeated at last, he decides to act like a hero.12. Robert Frost罗伯特·弗罗斯特(四次普利策奖得主Pulitzer award)代表作：A boy’s WillNorth of BostonNew HamphshireCollected PoemsA further RageA Witness Tree13.William Faulkner(威廉·福克纳)southern writer, 意识流（stream of consciousness）,诺贝尔文学奖得主14.Eugene Glastone O’Neill尤金·格拉斯通·奥尼尔（诺贝尔文学奖得主，剧作家dramatist）15.Tennessee Williams田纳西·威廉斯和Eugene Glastone O’Neill及Arthur Miller并称美国最重要的剧作家两次普利策得主：A Streetcar Named Desire欲望号街车Cat on a Hot Tin Roof热铁皮屋顶上的猫代表作: The Glass MenagerieA Streetcar Named DesireCat on a Hot Tin Roof欲望号街车中的主要人物：Blanche: active。

（完整版）美国文学史-知识点梳理

（完整版）美国文学史-知识点梳理Part I The Literature of Colonial AmericaI．Historical IntroductionThe colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.)II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds:1) Practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people "at home" what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. III．The First American WriterThe first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians.Captain John Smith is the first American writer.A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608)A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612)General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess PocahontasCaptain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders ofthe colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers.One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV．Early New England LiteratureWilliam Bradford and John WinthropJohn Cotton and Roger WilliamsAnne Bradstreet and Edward TaylorV．Puritan Thoughts1. The origin of puritanIn the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church ofEngland. But there was no radical difference between the doctrines of the Church of England and the Catholic Church. A group of people thought the Church of England was too Catholic and wanted to purify the church. Then came the name Puritans.2. Puritanism -- based on Calvinism(1) predestination: God's electPuritans believed they are predestined before they were born.Nothing or no good work can change their fate.They believed the success of one's business is the sign to show he is the God's elect. So the Puritans works very hard, spend very little and invest more for the future business. They lived avery frugal life. This is their ethics.(2) Origianl sin and total depravityMan is born sinful. This determines some puritans pessimistic attitude towards life.(3) Limited atonement (the salvation of a selected few)(4) theocracyThey combined state with religion. Their government is at least not a liberal one.The Puritans established American tradition -- intolerant moralism. They strictly punished drunks, adultery & heretics.Puritans changed gradually due to the severity of frontier environment3. Influence on American Literature(1) Its optimismAmerican literature was from the outset conditioned by the Puritan heritage. It can be said American literature is based on the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. After that, man have an illusion to restore the paradise. The puritans, after arriving at America, believing that God must have sent them to this new land to restore the lost paradise, to build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden. Fired with such a strong sense of mission, they treated life with a tremendous amount of optimism. The optimistic Puritan has exerted a great influence on American literature.(2) Puritan's metaphorical mode of perception changed gradually into a literary symbolism.Part II The Literature of Reason And RevolutionI．Historical IntroductionWith the growth, especially of industry, there appeared the intense strain with England. The British government did not wantcolonial industries competing with those in England. The British wanted the colonies to remain politically and economically dependent on the mother country. They took a series of measures to insure this dependence. They prevented colonial economy by requiring Americans to ship raw materials abroad and to import finished goods at prices higher than the cost of making them in this country. Politically, the British government forced dependenceby ruling the colonies from overseas and by taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament.However, by the mid-eighteenth century, freedom was won as much by the fiery rhetoric of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the eloquence of the Declaration of Independence as by the weapons of Washington. In the seventies of the 18th century, the English colonies in North America rose in arms against their mother country. The War for Independence lasted for 8 years (1776-1783) and ended in the formation of a federative bourgeois democratic republic -- the United States of America. II．American EnlightenmentIt was supported by all progressive forces of the country which opposed themselves to the old colonial order and religious obscurantism.It dealt a decisive blow upon the puritan traditions and brought to life secular education and literature. The spiritual life during that period was to a great degree moulded by it.The representatives set themselves the task of disseminating knowledge among the people and advocating revolutionary ideas.The writers injected an invigorating vein into the English language in America as they aimed at clarity and precision oftheir writings.At the initial period the spread of the ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to journalism. Writings of Europe were widely read in America. The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of Benjamin Franklin.III．Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)The AutobiographyPoor Richard’s AlmanacLifeBenjamin Franklin came from a Calvinist background.He was born into a poor candle-maker’s family. He had very little education. He learned in school only for two years, but he was a voracious reader.At 12, he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother, a printer.At 16, he began to publish essays under the pseudonym “Silence Do good” .At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune.He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher. In 1727 he founded the Junto club.Multiple identities:a printera leading authora politiciana scientista inventora diplomata civic activistFranklin’s Contributions to SocietyHe helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital.He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania.And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.Franklin’s Contributions to ScienceHe was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices.And for his lightning-rod, he was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.”Franklin’s Contributions to the U.S.He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:The Declaration of Independence,The Treaty of Alliance with France,The Treaty of Peace with England,The ConstitutionThe AutobiographyThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was probably the first of its kind in literature. It is the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man.The Autobiography is, first of all, a Puritan document. It is Puritan because it is a record of self-examination and self-improvement. The meticulous chart of 13 virtues he set for himself to cultivate to combat the tempting vices, the stupendous effort he made to improve his own person, the belief that God helps those who helps themselves and that every calling is a service to God – all these indicate that Franklin was intensely Puritan. Then, the book is also a convincing illustration of thePuritan ethic that, in order to get on in the world, one has to be industrious, frugal, and prudent.The Autobiography is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenth-century enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free by nature, endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.A look at the style of The Autobiography will readily reveal that it is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness and concision. The plainness of its style, the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the salient features we cannot mistake. The lucidity of the narrative, the absence ofornaments in wording and of complex, involved structures in syntax, and the Puritan abhorrence of paradox are all graphically demonstrated in the whole of the book. Taken as a whole, it is safe to say that the book is an exemplary illustration of the American style of writing.IV．Thomas Paine (1737-1809)Common SenseAmerican CrisisV．Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)The Declaration of IndependenceVI．Philip Freneau (1752-1832)“Poet of the American Revolution”“Father of American Poetry”“Pioneer of the New Romanticism”“A gifted and versatile lyric poet”Works“The Wild Honey Suckle”“The Indian Burying Ground”“To a Caty-Did”Freneau as Father of American Poetry: His major themes are death, nature, transition, and the human in nature. All of these themes become important in 19th century writing.Life ExperienceHe was born in New York.At 16, he entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He decided to do a postgraduate study in theology. But two years later he gave it up. While still an undergraduate, he wrote in collaboration with one of his friends (H. H. Brackenridge) a poem entitled “The Rising Glory of America”.Later he attended the War of Independence, and he was captured by British army in 1780.After being released, he published “The British Prison Ship” in 1781.In the same year, he published “T o the Memory of the Brave Americans”.After war, he supported Jefferson, and contributed greatly to American government.But after 50 years old, he lived in poverty. And at last he died in a blizzard.Main Works“The Rising Glory of America” (1772) 《美洲光辉的兴起》“The House of Night” (1779,1786) 《夜之屋》“The British Prison Ship” (1781) 《英国囚船》“To the Memory of the Brave Americans” (1781) 《纪念美国勇士》?“”The Wild Honey Suckle” (1786) 《野忍冬花》“The Indian Burying Ground” (1788) 《印第安人墓地》野忍冬花（黄杲炘译）美好的花呀，你长得：这么秀丽，却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方——甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；没游来荡去的脚来把你踩碎，没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。

美国文学考试必备知识点

1. Romantic period2.Washington Irving3. Edgar Allan Poe4. Nathanial Hawthorne5. Walt Whitman6. Emily Dickinson7.II. Realist period8.Mark Twain9.Sherwood Anderson10. Stephen Crane11. Theodore Dreiser12.III. Modern period13. F. S. Fitzgerald14. Ernest Hemingway15. William Faulkner1.TranscendentalismTranscendentalism refers to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800’s, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and Nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant. New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism.2.NaturalismNaturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at “scientific” status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects. Natural fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreiser’s Sister Carrie.3.American DreamThe American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations.4.The Lost GenerationThe term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein (“You are all a lost generation”) as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during World War I. They were “lost” because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to more into asettled life5. ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious.6. Romanticism.7. PuritanismThe principles and practices of puritans were popularly known as Puritanism. Puritanism accepted the doctrines of Calvinism: the sovereignty of God; the supreme authority of the Bible; the irresistibility of God’s will for man in every act of life from cradle to grave. These doctrines led the Puritans to examine their souls to find whether they were of the elect and to search the Bible to determine God’s will.8.Hemingway Heroes / Code Hero“Hemingway Heroes” refer to some protagonists in Hemingway’s works. Such a hero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. And usually he is a man of action and of a few words. He is such an individualist, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happiness. The Hemingway heroes stand for a whole generation. In a world which is essentially chaotic and meaningless, a Hemingway hero fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The awareness that it must end in defeat, no matter how hard he strives, engenders a sense of despair. But Hemingway heroes possess a kind of “despairing courage”as Bertrand Russell terms. It is this courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. Surely Hemingway heroes differ, one from another, in their view of the world. The difference which comes gradually in view is an index to the subtle change which Hemingway’s outlook had undergone.ExpressionismExpressionism refers to a movement in Germany early in the 20th century, in which a number of painters sought to avoid the representation of external reality and, instead, to project a highly personal or subjective vision of the world. The main principle involved is that expression determines form, and therefore imagery, punctuation, syntax, and so forth. In brief, any of the formal rules and elements of writing can be bent or disjointed to suit the purpose. Theatrically, expressionism was a reaction against realism in that it tends to show inner psychological realities. O’Neill’s plays are some of the best examples.The Imagist Movement (Imagism)Led by Ezra Pound and flourished from 1909 to 1917, the movement advanced modernism in arts which concentrated on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed to Romanticism, especially Tennyson' s wordiness and high-flown language in poetry. The three principles followed by the Imagists were:(1)"Direct treatment" (2) "Economy of Expression" (3) " Rhythm" symbolismSymbolism originates in France in the middle 19th century. The poetry collection The Flowers of Evil by the French poet Charles Baudelaire is a representative work of this genre. Symbolism tries to express the dreamy mysterious inner world of the writer.Stream-of-consciousnessStream-of-consciousness begins in the 1920’s in Britain. It is a psychological term indicating “the flux of conscious and subconscious thoughts and impressions moving in the mind at any given time independently of the person’s will”. In late 19th century, the literary device of “interior monologue” was originated in France as an application of modern psychological knowledge to literary creation. In the 20th century, under the influence of Freud’s theory of psychological analysis, a number of writers adopted the “stream of consciousness” method of novel writing. The striking feature of these novelists is their giving precedence to the depiction of the characters’ mental and emotional reactions to external events, rather than the events themselves. (to be continued)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 verse, 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.”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.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-22 and 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.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.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.”Blank verse:poetry that does not rhyme but has iambic pentameter lines. Though notoriginated 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.Characteristics of Realism2.1 Realism aims at the description of the actualities of the life and free from subjective prejudice, idealism or romantic color.2.2 Realism focuses on commonness of the common people. The emphasis is on ordinary people, settings and events.2.3 Life is presented as it is.2.4 Use real characters, real incidents, real language and local dialects.2.5 In matters of style, diction and sentence structure tend toward a plain style.3.Representative writersWilliam Howells .Mark Twain .Henry JamesMajor features of Naturalism1. At the core of naturalism is determinism2.An individual’s course in life is wholly determined by some combination of animal instinct, heredity, and environment. Humans lack freedom of their own will. All of their actions are controlled, determined.3.The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. Life becomes a struggle for survival.Two of the naturalist’s recurrent concerns are: social systems that destroy and dehumanize, and individual experience of loss and failure.4.Naturalism is a harsher and extreme form of realism. The naturalists have a major difference from the realists.Themes of Hawthorne’s writing1. Explore the relationship between the past and the present2. Explore the hidden motivations of his characters.3. Examine the effect of hidden sin and secret guilt4. Moral or immoral, right or wrong is the question Hawthorne always talks about in his works.1.5. Style1. His style was soft, flowing and almost feminine.nguage: smooth, clear, beautiful in sound and meaning3. He also frequently uses symbols and settings to reveal the psychology of the characters.Appreciation of The Scarlet Letter1. Main Character:Hester Prynne.，Roger Chillingworth.，Arthur Dimmesdale3. Character AnalysisHester: brave, strong-minded, warm-hearted, intelligent, sacrificing, decisive Dimmesdale: timid, selfish, irresponsible, cowardly, weak-mindedChillingworth: cold-blooded, dehumanizedTheme of The Scarlet LetterTo escape the bondage of religion either on people’s spirit or on people’s natural desire4. Abundant use of symbolsA ---adultery angel ablePrison—the place that deprived people of spiritual freedomForest---the natureRose near the prison—Hester and her loveCap—sth controlling one’s beautyWalt Whitman(1819-1892)Leaves Of Grass“Song of myself”Analysis of the artistic features2.4.1. form: free verseOral and powerful lg: Although free verse, he wrote with repeated and parallel sentences to strengthen the feelings. He express what he wanted to express freely, smoothly, and heatedly. His poems are like waves of the sea that rushed to the beach violently, one after another.2.4.2 the first person narrator: direct and sympathetic to the reader2.4.3. topic: sex.To use his own expression, “he saw the world as a vision of love.”He believes that life is the source of poems, love and enthusiasm are the motives of creation.III. Comments on the writer3.1. Subject: son of time, feels the pulse of the time. As a romanticist and transcendentalist, he broke the conventional poetic materials, no myth,no romance, no story of king and lords. He sings for self, common people, America, city life, nature, etc.3.2. Form: (Free verse) poetry without fixed beat or regular rhyme. Whitman is the first great American poet to use this form of poetry, he also used it more skillfully than any other poet.(1)One's Self I Sing1. What is the significance of singing about one's self?It is an exaltation of the individual spirit, which is typical of American people.2. What is the difference between physiology and physiognomy? Physiology is a science that deals with the functions and life process of human beings, whereas physiognomy refers to an art of judging character from contours of face itself or the appearance of a person.3. What does Whitman mean by the term of "the Modern Man"?He means that a man should be free from any prejudice and pride, totally different from the traditional one, that is full of bias.(3) O Captain! My Captain!1. Why is the word "Captain" capitalized throughout the poem?In this poem the word “Captain” specially refers to Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States.2. What overall metaphor does the poet employ in this poem?Life is a journey.3. Why do people on the shores exult and bells ring, while the speaker remains so sad?They welcome the ship returning from its hard trip, whereas the speaker is sad because the captain fails to receive his own honor.Mark Twain 马克·吐温The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Count卡拉维拉斯县有名的跳蛙(1865):a short storyThe Innocents Abroad国外的无辜者(1869)Roughing It苦行记(1872): on his experience in the western America The Gilded Age (1873): his first novel, collaborated with Charles Dudley WarnerThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利·费恩历险记(1884): masterpieceLife on the Mississippi (1883)A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court误闯亚瑟王宫(1889)The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg败坏了哈德莱堡的人(1900)The Mysterious Stranger (1916)e. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer1. It is "a boy's book" which sets 20 years before Civil War.2. themes:1)picaresque以流浪汉和无赖为题材的(adventure story)2) moral growth of Tom3. techniques: verisimilitude, humor, colloquial styleMark Twain’s Style in Generalthe true father of American literatureFrequent use of sarcasm, slang and regional dialects.4.5.1. Subject Matter: came directly from American people’s life along the Mississippi River, less influenced by foreign cultures4.5.2. Genuine American style:a) Language: easy, informal, humorous and unaffected [free from affectation; sincere], wildb) He intentionally deviates from classical genteel and tends to use local dialects, colloquial language, even Black English, slang, clipped structures and ungrammatical sentencesMajor work : Huckleberry Finn《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》 show escape to freedomTheodore Dreiser (1871-1945) 德莱赛Naturalism is a theory in literature emphasizing the role of heredity and environment upon human life and character development roughly between 1890’s and early 1900’s. There is no clear-cut chronological division between the American naturalists and the American realists.Realism Naturalismemphasis on the ordinary emphasis also on the extraordinarya mirror a lensthe observer the scientistmoral or rational the accidental and physiologicalMajor Writing Features6.3.1 As a naturalistic writer, Dreiser stressed determinism in his novels.His characters can’t assert their will against natural and economic forces.Dreiser held that people are not entirely to blame for what they are and what they do.6.3.2. He developed the capacity for photographic and relentless observation, thereby truthfully reflecting the society and people of his time and making his novels very believable and convincing.Almost all of his main characters are based on the real people.Vivid description of environmental settings and social background 6.3.3. His novels are full of tragedies, serious subjects and miserable side of the society.·Dreiser broke through the genteel tradition , revealed the life of the lower class people and dared to expose the vulgar and ugly side of the society.Style6.4.1. Language: very awkward, crude/on the bordering of line of grammar.6.4.2. Serious in tone: never satirical or comic6.4.3. Natural narrative method, free from artifice.His narrative is based on quantities of materials and detailed descriptions.作品Si ster Carrie 嘉莉妹妹(1900): the first novel, masterworkJannie Gerhardt (1911)The Fanancier (1912)The Titan (1914)The Stoic (1947)The Genius (1915)An American Tragedy美国悲剧 (1925)Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928)c. Sister Carrietheme:the emptiness of Ameircan Dreami. jungle lawFamous actress bank manager(the unfit is bound to die) <——Country girl (able to follow her instinct) commit suicideii. chance and luckiii. criticism of American values: money and sex —the standards to see if a person is successfuliv. concern for the poorF.Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)an Irish-American Jazz Age novelist and short story writer.Theme of the American DreamFitzgerald’s favorite theme is the American Dream. In The Great Gatsby and other works, a general pattern can be found to fully demonstrate Fitzgerald’s enthusiasm and his disillusionment with the American Dream: formally, a poor young man from the West trying to make his fortune in the East, but thematically, the young man goes on a journey of discovery from dream, through disenchantment, and finally to a sense of failure and despair. In this general pattern of the protagonist’s personal experience is incarnated the whole of American experience.. Languagesmooth, sensitive, original, simple and gracefulJay Gatsby Nick Carraway Tom Buchanan Daisy BuchananThe Great GatsbyTheme:1. about reality and atmosphere of 1920s2. failure of American Dreamc. attitude towards the rich: paradoxicalHe is charmed by the rich.He is critical of the rich who are corrupted themselves and meanwhile corrupting others.d. attitude towards the Jazz Age: insider and outsider人物 Jay Gatsby Nick Carraway Tom Buchanan Daisy Buchanan Gatsby, with all his freshness, his optimism, and his vitality Gatsby in the novel represents the newly rich upstart, vulgar in his ostentatious [showy] wealth. However, he becomes a kind of new American Adam. He is “great”, because he is dignified and ennobled by his dream and his mythic vision of life.Tom Buchanan ：He is vulgar, hypocritical racist and bigot [person who holds sth strongly]. He is practical and non-idealistic, shallow and mistrustful of emotion. He never cares or takes responsibility.Daisy Buchanan：she also has an inner emptiness, marked by her boredom and cynicism and moral irresponsibility. She is afraid of being alone, as though she has no inner self. But she has the power to charm. Daisy represents material wealth to Gatsby, but it also connects with physical attraction. However, Daisy is unworthy of Gatsby’s love. She is incapable of living the fully imagined life that Gatsby has visualized. She is cowardly and selfish.Nick is both a narrator and a character in this novel. He leads us tothe dignity and depth of Gatsby’s character, and suggests the relation of his tragedy to the American situation.Ernest Hemingway 海明威style1.iceberg principle. The meaning here is that the writer should say only one eighth, in such a way that the remaining seven eighths be discerned and provided by the reader.nguage: short, common, fundamental words, simple sentence, structure.The effect of the language: clearness, cleanness and great care.3.dialogue: plays a very important part in his writings. Hemingway’s dialogue can show setting, development of plot, characters, even theme.4.cinematic way: he uses showing instead of telling. He likes to describes actions (kiss, withdraw hand) vividly instead of mentaldescription.5.symbolisme of stream of consciousnesstraits for the Code Hero:(1) Measuring himself against the difficulties life throws in his way, realizing that we will all lose ultimately because we are mortals, but playing the game honestly and passionately in spite of that knowledge.(2) Facing death with dignity, enduring physical and emotional pain in silence(3) Never showing emotions(4) Maintaining free-will and individualism, never weakly allowing commitment to a single woman or social convention to prevent adventure, travel, and acts of bravery(5) Being completely honest, keeping one's word or promise(6) Being courageous and brave, daring to travel and have "beautiful adventures," as Hemingway would phrase it(7) Admitting the truth of Nada (Spanish, "nothing"), i.e., that noexternal source outside of oneself can provide meaning or purpose. This existential awareness also involves facing death without hope of an afterlife, which the Hemingway Code Hero considers more brave than "cowering" behind false religious hopesThemes nada，grace under pressure， code heroMagic realism 加西亚·马尔克斯《百年孤独》Garcia Marques Century Loneliness)Henry JamesThe American (1877): begins with international themeDaisy Miller (1878): brings the author first international fame The Wings of the Dove (1902)The Ambassadors (1903)The Golden Bowl (1904)The Portrait of A Lady贵妇画像:masterpieceJack LondonThe People of the Abyss深渊居民(1903): about London's slumThe Iron Heel 铁蹄(1908): the first proletarian criterion novel which envisages the development of fascismThe Call of the Wild 野性的呼唤(1903): the most widely read book The Sea Wolf 海狼(1904)These two novels reflect the ideas of the law of survival and the will to powerMartin Eden马丁伊登Ezra Pound埃兹拉·庞德Imagism意象派Pound became the most important figure. Imagist poetry reached the peak of literature for three things appeared:i. a manifesto ii. three principles iii. a lot of writingsIn a Station of the Metro在地铁车站1. This is the much-quoted masterpiece of Pound and a representative of the Imagist poetry.2. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians "apparition"?These pedestrians are all walking in a hurry amidst the drizzling rain.3. What do "petals" and "bough" stand for? Petals refer to the faces while the bough stands for the floating crowd.Robert Frostb. Characteristics⏹ 1. not in the main stream of modern poetry, but with conventional form andplain language. That’s why he’s the most popular poet in the 20th century.⏹ 2. a kind of a regionalist----New England, but not local colorism. He usedNew England as a metaphor for the whole world and universe.⏹ 3. a plain poet using symbols from everyday country life. Simple symbols butexpress deep meanings.The Road Not Taken⏹ 1. The poem was written in very regular lines with iambic pentametre and rhymescheme of abaab.⏹ 2. The symbolic meaning of the two divergent roads is rather clear. Theyrepresent any important decisions in one's life.⏹ 3. details:Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening⏹ 1. It is a lyric poem with iambic tetrametre and interlocking enclosed rhyme.⏹ 2. It represents a moment of relaxation from the onerous journey of life,an almost aesthetic enjoyment and appreciation of natural beauty which is wholesome and retorative against the chaotic existence of modern man.William Faulkner (1897-1962)Sound and Fury: divided into 4 parts1. t hemes:a) downfall of the South. The south was in deterioration. It’s going from bad to worse. The present and the past form a contrast from Benjy’s eyes. He’s an idiot so his reactions were distinctive feeling. He felt strongly the loss of love. The downfall of Mr. Campson was not only a personal one but also a universal one---the society was in disorder.b) conflict between the old/young generationsFather of Southern American literatureNobel Prize for literature in 1950Special features2.1. Setting :Oxford is the model for his fictional Jefferson, the central place of his fictional Yoknapatawpha County2.2. Subjects :southern tradition, family, community, the land, history and the past, race, and the passions of ambition and love2.3. Characters:Typical of the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South 写作技巧Multiple Points of View：He always structure his stories in his own original fashion and is proficient in employing a distinctive narrative method of gradually fitting in and of withholding or even giving confusing information.Stream of consciousness，complex structures, epic style, symbolismWilliam Faulkner威廉•福克纳1897-1962 1950年获诺贝尔文学奖, 普利策奖小说奖 1. 1929年《喧嚣与骚动》”The Sound and the Fury”1930年《在我弥留之际》”As I Lay Dying”1932年《八月之光》”Light in August”1936年《押沙龙，押沙龙》”Absalom, Absalom”教材作品：《给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰》：“A Rose for Emily”南方文学特点：主题：作者获奖The Nobel Prize &The Pulitzer Prize: John Steinbeck约翰•斯坦贝克William Faulkner威廉•福克纳Ernest Hemingway厄恩斯特•海明威The Nobel Prize: Thomas Stearns Eliot托马斯•斯特恩斯•爱略特The Pulitzer Prize: Wallace Stevens华莱士•斯蒂文斯Robert Frost罗伯特•弗洛斯特Edwin Arlington Robison埃德温•阿林顿•罗宾逊尤金.奥尼尔（Eugene O’Neill，1888----1952），美国著名剧作家。

美国文学学习重点

《美国文学》学习重点说明：1. 教材：常耀信著《美国文学简史》（第三版）南开大学出版社2008年9月该教材的特点是文学史+作品评析，其中作品评析部分是非常好的文学分析范例，课堂时间有限，涉及较少，学习重点中也基本未列及，请同学们灵活自学。

2. 学习重点是需要重点掌握的内容，其他部分可略读，但并不表示不需要读。

3. 本重点适用整个学期，请同学们预习复习的时候都参考使用。

4. 重点概念及重点作家和重点作品在下文中都已列出，请大家尤其重视。

Introduction p. 1-10Colonial Period (1607-1800) –Rise of the American Dream1.Puritanism p. 11-12, 14-152.Jonathan Edwards p. 27-293.Benjamin Franklin:Poor Richard’s Almanac, Autobiography p. 32(para. 3)-36 Romanticism (1800-1865) –Prime of the American Dream1. American Romanticism: p.40-442. Washington Irving: “Rip Van Winkle”, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” p. 44-454.James Fenimore Cooper: Leather stocking Tales, American Westward movement p. 505.New England Transcendentalism: Oversoul p. 56-596.Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nature”(The Bible for Transcendentalism), “The AmericanScholar” (intellectual independence), “The Poet” p.59-647.Henry David Thoreau: Walden, prose8.Nathaniel Hawthorn: novelist, dark side of human beings, The Scarlet Letter, “YoungGoodman Brown”, “The Minister’s Black Veil” p.70-749.Herman Melville: novelist, sea life, Moby Dick, Billy Budd10.Walt Whitman: free verse, Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself”, “O Captain! MyCaptain!”, national poet of America, social and national topics, strongly influenced byEmerson p. 88-9611.Emily Dickinson: poet, regional and inner world, topics on religion, death, love, naturep.96-10312.Edgar Allan Poe: poet and short story writer, “The Raven”, The Fall of the House ofUsher, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter p.104-111Realism and Naturalism (1865-1918)—Questioning the American Dream1.William Dean Howells: middle class, The Rise of Silas Lapham p.116-1222.Henry James: rich class, international theme, psychological descriptions, The Portrait ofa Lady, The Ambassadors, The American, Daisy Miller p124-1263.Mark Twain: Samuel Clemens, lower class, local colorism, The Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn/Tom Sawyer, The Gilded Age p. 130-1404.Stephen Crane: pioneer writing in the naturalistic tradition, Maggie: A Girl of theStreets, The Red Badge of Courage p.141-1455.Frank Norris: McTeague, the first full-bodied naturalistic American novel, a case studyof the inevitable effect of environment and heredity on human lives6.Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, The Financier, An American Tragedyp.147-1507.Jack London: The Call of the Wild, Martin Eden8.O Henry: short story writer, the American Maupassant, surprise endings, “The Gift ofthe Magi”, “The Cop and the Anthe m”Modernism (1918-1945)—Disillusionment of the American Dream1.Imagist poetry: imagism, direct treatment of the thing, use as few words as possiblep.154-1612.Ezra Pound: “In a Station of the Metro”, The Cantos, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley p.163-1693.T. S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; The Waste Land p.171-1824.Wallace Stevens: “Anecdote of the Jar”, “The Idea of Order at Key West” p.1835.William Carlos Williams: “The Red Wheelbarrow” p. 189-1916.Robert Frost: New England poet, “The Road Not Taken”, “Mending Wall”, “AfterApple-picking” p. 195-2007.Modernist Novels: the Lost Generation8. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, the Jazz age p. 213-2209.Ernest Hemingway: the Lost Generation, Hemingway hero, iceberg theory, The Sun AlsoRises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Seap.220-22810.William Faulkner: the Southern Renaissance/myth, Yoknapatawpha, The Sound and theFury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, stream of consciousness1949 Nobel Prize winner p.229-23211.Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio; describing the grotesque12.Sinclair Lewis: Main Street, sociological writer, first American Nobel Prize winner,(1930)13.Willa Cather: female writer, writing about the Old West in traditional way, My Antonio14.John Dos Passos: 1930s, Depression, U.S.A. p.254-26415.John Steinbeck: 1930s, Depression, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, The Pearlp.265-26816.Drama: A renaissance of drama in 1920s—Eugene O’Neill, The theatre of theDepression in 1930s17.Eugene O’Neill: American dram began in 1916 when O’Neil’s first play Bound East f orCardiff was produced, The Hairy Ape, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey intoNight18.Arthur Miller: Death of a SalesmanPost-War American Literature—Multi-faceted1.Post-war Poetry: p.313-3182.The Beat Generation in 1950s: Howl by Allen Ginsberg (poet), On the Road by JackKerouac (novelist), p.362, p365-3713.Post-war Novel: p. 411-4124.Saul Bellow: Herzog, The Adventures of Augie March5.J. D. Salinger: Catcher in the Rye p. 424-4276.The Post-modernist Novel: p.455-4597.Black Humor: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller p.459-4648.African-American literature: Richard Wright, Native Son; Ralph Ellison, The InvisibleMan; Toni Morrison, Beloved p. 504-5069.Post-war drama: Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire;Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman10.Theatre of the Absurd: George Albee, Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Literary Terms:1. American Puritanism: Puritanism is a Protestant movement which spread its influence intothe New England colonies in 17th century. The American Puritans believed that the Church should be restored to the “purity” of the Church as established by Christ himself. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin, total depravity, and limited atonement. 2. American Romanticism: American Romanticism is the literary movement stretching fromthe end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War. It was in essence the expression of “a real new experience” and contained “an alien quality”. There was American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. The features can be found in the major works by Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman.3. Transcendentalism: Transcendentalism is a literary and philosophical movement, associatedwith Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcended the empirical and scientific and was knowable through intuition.4. American Realism: First, American realist authors described life truthfully. Second, they putthe typical characters under typical circumstances. Third, they were objective rather than idealized, in a close observation and investigation life. Finally, realistic works were concerned with social and psychological problems. The famous realistic works include Henry James’s The Ambassadors and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.5. Local Colorism: As a literary trend, local colorism made its presence felt in the late 1860s toearly 70s. Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local characters of their regions. The representative works of local colorism include Bret Hart’s “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and H. B. Stowe’s Oldtown Folks.6. American Naturalism: American naturalism is a literary tendency that prevailed in 1890s.Under the influence of social Darwinism and inspired by French naturalism, American naturalists wrote about the helplessness of man in a cold, amoral world, and his lack of dignity in face of the crushing forces of environment and heredity. The features of naturalism can be found in the major works by Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser.7. Lost Generation: The Lost Generation refers to the group of American writers who came ofage during World War I and established their reputations in the 1920s. The writers considered themselv es “lost” because their inherited values could not operate in the postwar world. The term is commonly applied to Hart Crane, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others.8. Image(in Pound’s poetry): An image is defined by Pound as that which presents anintellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time, “a vortex or cluster of fused ideas”“endowed with energy”.9. Free Verse: Free verse means poetry that has no regular pattern of rhyme and rhythm.10. Code Hero: Code hero is the Hemingwayan hero, an average man of decidedly masculinetastes, sensitive and intelligent, a man of action, and one of few words.11. Southern Literature: Southern Literature is defined as American literature about theSouthern United States or by writers from this region. The Southern literature meets its renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s, and the famous Southern writers include Ellen Glasgow and William Faulkner.12. Anti-hero(as in William Faulkner’s works): A central character in a work of literature wholacks traditional heroic qualities such as courage, physical prowess, and fortitude. Anti-heroes typically distrust conventional values and are unable to commit themselves to any ideals.Anti-heroes usually accept, and often celebrate, their positions as social outcasts.13. Beat Generation: Beat generation is a term applied to a group of American poets andnovelists of the 1950s and 1960s who were in romantic rebellion against the culture and value systems of America. They expressed their revolt through the literary works of loose structure and slang diction. Among the leading members of the loose group were the poet Allen Ginsberg and the novelist Jack Kerouac.14. Black Humor: Black humor is a term applied to a large group of American novels beginningin the 1950s, represented by Joseph Heller’s Catch 22. In the novelists’ opin ion, their society is full of institutionalized absurdity. Therefore, all of them hold a cynical attitude toward society and the conventional moral values. This despondency is reflected in their novels by the use of exaggeration as a vehicle for satire.15. Iceberg Theory: The Iceberg Theory (also known as the "theory of omission") isthe writing style of American writer Ernest Hemingway in which written words in a story focus on surface facts, those easily seen, but beneath and behind the words is a more complete structure supporting the story. Hemingway believed the true meaning of a piece of writing should not be evident from the surface story, rather, the crux of the story lies below the surface and should be allowed to shine through. It is likening the story to an iceberg in which only the tip is visible, but under the surface there is an unseen mass.16. Metafiction: a form of writing about fiction in the form of fiction. It is a style of fictivenarrative that tries to tell the readers that fiction is fiction and is not an illusion of reality as the realists have tried to deceive the readers into believing.特别提示：文学术语部分中，含有括号的说明只提示该术语出现在某部或某些作品中，不表示它局限于某作品。

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Post-war delusion（迷幻，错觉）“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”补充：Fitzgerald：tender is the night, all the sad young man, the rich boy,几个重点背景：roaring twenties, jazz age, the lost generation, American dream5. Ernest Hemingway主要作品：The Sun Also Rises《太阳照常升起》A Farewell to Arms 《永别了，武器》Frederic Henry & Catherine BarkleyFor Whom the Bell Tolls 《丧钟为谁而鸣》The Old Man and the Sea 《老人与海》Santiago“Man is not made for debeat…A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” From The Old Man and the SeaWhat is Hemingway Code Hero? His writing style. What is Iceberg-principle?补充：海明威的writing style:Heroic code : Hemingway has his own understanding of hero. What the hero does is to face adversity with grace. He emphasizes self-control and other facts of his idea of manhood. What people achieve or fail at external is not as significant to heroism as comporting ourselves with inner nobility. As Santiago says, man is not made for defeated. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.Colloquial styleEmphasis on emotionIce burg theoryShort story: man without womenWinter takes nothing主题主要是：life and death, experience and the meaning of life, the physical and psychological wound of the soldier.Hemingway’s writing style: simple, telegraphic, natural, direct, clear, fresh, terse(简洁的，精练的), controversial, commonly found, fundamental words, lean and emotional,simple sentences, ice burg principle, symbolism. His style is probably the most widely imitated of any in the 20th century. He is generally known for his “mastery of the art of modern narration”. He once said, the dignity of movement of an iceburg is due to only 1/8of it above water. According to H, good literature writing should be able to make readers feel the emotion of the characters directly and the bestway to produce the effect is to set down exactly every particular kind of feeling without any authorized comments, without conventionally emotive language, and with a bare minimum of adj, and modifiers. His fiction usually focuses on people living essential, dangerous live -- soldiers, fisherman, athletes, who meet the pain and difficulties of their existence with stoic（坚忍的，苦修的）courage. His celebrated lit stylhe is direct,terse and often monotonous, yet particularly suited to his elemental subject matter. Masculine, man of action, self-discipline, terse.The Hemingway hero codeIt refers to some protagonists in Hemingway’s works. In the general situation of Hemingway’s novels, life i s full of tension and battles. The world is in chaos and man is always fighting a losing battle. Those who survive and perhaps emerge victorious in the process of seeking to master the code with a set of principles such as honor, courage, endurance, wisdom, discipline and dignity are known as Hemingway code. To behave well in the lonely, losing battle with life is to show “grace under power” and constitutes in itself a kind of victory, a theme clearly established in The old man and the sea.A Farewell to armsIs henny a good soldier?No. he escaped and said goodbye to aimless, meaningless war and ran to Switzerland. It is not our war. He is anti-war thinking love may be disastrous, bring death. So man should be cold.6. William Faulkner, Southern writer主要作品：The Sound and the Fury 《喧哗与骚动》,Absalom, Absalom. Go down, moses. Light in august.故事发生地：fictional Yoknapatawpha County四大家族：主题: The burden of history; the South’s conservative culture; the South’s troubled history; family; the land; religion; guilt; identity; death; the search for the redemptive meaning of life.Writing features:1. stream of consciousness and interior monologue.2. multiple point of view3. Violation of chronology4.anti-hero: weak, fable(寓言，无稽之谈), vulnerable,5.mythological pattern and open ending7. The Color Purple作者：Alice Walker 南方黑人女性作家alic主人公：Celie & Nettie论述: Sophia: “All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight my brothers. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men,but I ain't never thought I'd have to fight in my own house!”The Color Purple is an epistolary（书信体的）novel, made up of 91 letters written by Celie and her sister Nettie. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on black female life during the 1930s in the Southern United States.8. The Bluest Eye作者：Toni Morrison 其他作品：Song of Solomon; Beloved.主人公：Pecola Breedlove: inferiority complex,（说过要考几种literary form fiction, poetry, drama）American DramaWhat is drama: a drama is a work of literature or composition which delineates life and human activities by means of presenting various actions, and dialogues between a group of characters and it is designed for theatrical presentation.Elements: plot, character, theme, diction(措辞)，music and auditory aspect of a play.1920s: little theater movement began after 1912 Washington square players. They are free from the conventional theater and can be as experimental as they like.1930s: Eugene O’NeilPost war: Arthur Miller60s：theater of absurd: Edward Albee1.美国最早的剧作家：William Darby代表作：Ye Bare and Ye Cubb2.一定会考第一位获得诺贝尔奖的剧作家：Eugene O’Neil被称为“剧作家之父”Neil is credited with raising America drama theater from its narrow origins to an art from respected around the world. He is regarded as America’s premier playwright.Feature: introduce the European theatrical trends of realism, naturalism and expressionism to the American stage as devices to express his comprehensive interest in his life and humanity. His purpose it to get the root if human desires and frustrations, disappointments and perplexities. As result his tragic and nihilistic view of life, his words in general, indicated chaos and hopelessness.The long days journeyThe emperor jonesThe hairy ape写作风格：realism, naturalism, expressionism代表作：The Emperor Jones,The Long Days Journey Into Night, The Hairy Ape His purpose is to get the root of human desires and frustrations.3.Arthur Miller应该不会考代表作：Death of a Salesman.Main characters: Willy Loman, Biff Loman4.Tennessee Williams代表作：A Street Car Named Desire应该会考流派：Theater of the Absurd 荒谬派BeckettFeatures:the basic assumption: human life lacks coherence and is chaotic. Life operates without rules.The world is meaningless, so the play appears to be meaningless.It examines the problems of life and death, of isolation and communicationIt satirizes people who are unaware of the ultimate reality: deathIn absurd drama, situation is more important than characteristics and events. The dramatists want to show people what their situation is. Therefore, he constructs a play which presents a picture of the universal situation. One result of these is that the characters are so often comic and humorous.5.Edward Albee代表作：The Zoo Story, Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?6.post-moderismpost-modernism is a complicated term, or set of ideas, one that has only emerged as am area of academic study since the mid-90s. post moderation is hard to define because it isA.An emphasize on impressionism and subjectivity in writing. It emphasize on howseeing(or reading or perception itself) takes palce.B. A movement away from the apparent objectivity prob=vided by omniscientthird-person narrators, fixed narrative points of view and clear cut moral positions.C. A blurring of destitution between genres so that poetry seems more dominatingand prose seems more poetic.D.An emphasize on fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives, andrandom-seeming collages of different materials.E. A tendency toward reflexivity, or self-conscious about the production ofself-consciousness about the production of the work of art, so that each piece calls attention to its own status as a production, as sth constructed and consumed in particular ways.F. A rejection of elaborate formal aesthetics in favor of minimalist designs(as in thepoem of williams) and a rejection in large part .G.A rejection of the distinction between high and low or popular culture, both inchoice of materialism used to produce art and in methods of displayingm distributing and consuming art.H.Post-modernism, like modernism, follows most of the ideas, rejecting boundariesbetween high and low forms of art, rejecting rigid genre distinctions, emphasizing pastiche, parody, irony and playfulness. But modern art favors reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity, ambiguity, simultaneity：世界著名剧作家名字：Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, V oltaire, Diderot, Beaumarchais, Henrik Ibsen, Bernard Shaw, ChekhovAmerican novels (World War Ⅱ—)1.Jerome David Salinger代表作：The Catcher in the RyeMain character: Holden Caulfield2.Vladimir Nabokov代表作：LolitaMain characters: Humbert, Lolita3.Jack Kerouac代表作：On the RoadMain characters: Sal Paradise, Dean MonriartyThe Beat Generation:Features: rejection of standard narrative values, the spirit quest, exploration of American and Eastern religious, rejection of materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration.4.Postmodernism: like modernismFeatures of modernism: self-consciousness, spontaneity, fragmentation, discontinuity, ambiguity and simultaneity.American poetry (anti-tradition school)1.Black Mountain School代表诗人：Charles OlsonFeature: projective verseBlack Mountain Review黑山学派的刊物2.The San Francisco School3.Beat Poets代表诗人：Allen Ginsberg (Howl 1956), Jack KerouacBeat poetry is oral, repetitive and immensely effective. It is the most anti-establishment form of literature in America.4.The New York SchoolThey have the best formal educations of any group.Post realism 战后现实主义Features: despair, ethnic groups, existential crisis，oppressed, despair, nihilism, brutality,1.Norman Mailer代表作：The Naked and the Dead, The Armies of the Night2.John Updike代表作：Five Rabbit books:Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; Rabbit Remembered Main character: Harry “Rabbit” AngstromBlack HumorFeatures: grotesque or morbid humor; express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox and the cruelty of the modern world.1.Kurt V onnegut代表作：Slaughter House Five2.Joseph Heller代表作：Catch-22 (means dilemma)Anti-hero: Joseph YossarianPoems20世纪disappointment disillusionment allusionsT.S.Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, E.E.Cummings, Robert Frost (the road not taken)Appreciation of poems: meter and rhyme1. T.S.Eliot 诗歌之父考印象派诗歌（不知道对应）Imagism:20世纪美国文坛流派：Modernism: lost generation. Imagism came into being in Britain and US at around 1910 as a reaction to the traditional English poetry to express the sense of fragmentation and dislocation. T he imagists, with Ezra Pound leading the way, hold that the most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of dominant image.3 poetic principles of imagism:Direct treatment of subject matterEconomy of expressionAs regards rhythm, to compose in the sequence of musical phrase, not in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of metronome.Chaotic and structure less必考：Pound: in a station of the metroIt is a well known imagism poem人群中那些亡魂的脸花瓣，在潮湿的黑色枝头Ezra PoundThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.考：TS Elliot the waste land五个章节分别是：The burial of the diedA game of chessThe fire sermonDeath by waterWhat the thunder saidRobert Frost: the road not takenRealistic depictionRural lifeColloquial speechFeatures: simple graceful traditionLongfellow: a psalm of life记住art is long and time is fleeting ,And our hearts, though stout and braveStill, like muffled drums, are beatifuneral marches to the grave小说补充洛丽塔第二十二条军规。