美国文学考试重点总结

Realism

1、It aims at the interpretation of actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color.

2、Major features：（Familiar aspects of contemporary and everyday life are represented in a）straightforward or matter-of-fact manner;Characters from all social levels社会阶层; Open ending; Focus on commonness of the lives of the common people;objectivity客观; it presents moral visions.

American realistic authors

1、Bret Harte：the first American writer of local color .

2、William Dean Howells: the arbiter of American realism /holds that truth is the highest beauty.

3、Henry James insisted that art must be related to life.

4、Henry James / Mark Twain: the greatest of American realists.

5、Samuel Langhorne Clemens：American writer and humorist, whose best work is characterized by broad, often irreverent humor or biting social satire.（无礼的幽默和尖锐的社会讽刺）

Twain's writing is also known for realism of place and language, memorable characters, and hatred of hypocrisy and oppression（憎恨虚伪和压迫）.

6、Mark Twain's work during the 1890s and the 1900s is marked by growing pessimism and bitterness（不断增长的悲观和痛苦）

Major works: The Gilded Age镀金时代（第一部长篇小说）: A Tale of To-day (1873); The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894);The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876);The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)《哈克贝里·费恩历险记》

Travel fiction: The Innocents Abroad (or The New Pilgrim’s Progress)(1869) 《傻子国外旅行记》;Roughing It (1873) 艰难生涯;Life on the Mississippi (1883) 密西西比河上的生活，combines an autobiographical account(结合了自传)

7、Historical Romance: The Prince and the Pauper(1882)（王子与贫儿）, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court（在亚瑟王朝廷中的康涅狄格州美国人）, It is

a parable of colonialization(这是一个殖民化的寓言).

8、The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865) 《卡拉维拉斯县驰名的跳蛙》充满夸张和喜剧的边疆生活。The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900) 《败坏了哈德莱堡的人》

Anti-imperialist:反帝国主义，The essay “To the Person Sitting in Darkness”坐在黑暗中的人(1901)

9、The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches (1867) 加拉维拉县有名的跳蛙。

10、He hated tyranny and iniquity, despised meanness and cruelty, and took his role as

a social critic in a serous and responsible manner.他讨厌专制和罪孽，藐视卑鄙和残忍，负责任，社会评论家。

11、《汤姆·索亚历险记》发表于1876年。小说主人公汤姆·索亚天真活泼，敢于探险、追求自由，不堪忍受束缚个性、枯燥乏味的生活，幻想干一番英雄事业。小说通过主人公的冒险经历，对美国虚伪庸俗的社会习俗、伪善的宗教仪式和刻板陈腐的学校教育进行了讽刺和批判，以欢快的笔调描写了少年儿童自由活泼的心灵。《汤姆·索亚历险记》以其浓厚的深具地方特色的幽默和对人物敏锐

观察，一跃成为最伟大的儿童文学作品，也是一首美国“黄金时代”的田园牧歌。本书的姊妹篇是《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》-Twain's masterpiece.

12、哈克贝利是一个聪明、善良、勇敢的白人少年。他为了追求自由的生活，逃亡到密西西比河上。在逃亡途中，他遇到了黑奴吉姆。吉姆是一个勤劳朴实、热情诚实、忠心耿耿的黑奴，他为了逃脱被主人再次卖掉的命运，从主人家中出逃。两个人历经种种奇遇。这部小说从思想到技巧都有许多创新。小说赞扬了男孩哈克贝利的机智和善良，谴责了宗教的虚伪和信徒的愚昧，同时，塑造了一位富有尊严的黑奴slave形象。

Theme: Racism and Slavery种族主义与奴隶制; Intellectual and Moral Maturation 聪明的、道德成熟；The Hypocrisy of "Civilized" Society文明社会的虚伪；

Commen t:流浪汉小说，第一人称的叙事，插曲式的结构，定型化的人物形象，幽默生动、诙谐讽刺的艺术风格，哈克反传统风格。

Theodore Dreiser

1、American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school.美国小说家、自然主义

2、His career as a novelist began in 1900 with Sister Carrie嘉莉妹妹

《嘉莉妹妹》是美国现实主义作家德莱塞的重要作品之一，是《珍妮姑娘》的姐妹篇。《嘉莉妹妹》描写了农村姑娘嘉莉来到大城市芝加哥寻找幸福，为摆脱贫困，出卖自己的贞操，先后与推销员和酒店经理同居，后又凭美貌与歌喉成为演员的故事。作家以嘉莉为代表深刻揭露了美国资本主义制度对贫苦人民压榨的残酷性和资产阶级生活方式对小资产阶级分子的腐蚀性。

3、The Financier (1912) , The Titan (1914), and The Stoic (1947),

4、Real fame, come to Dreiser until 1925, when his An American Tragedy美国悲剧

had great popular success.

5、Point of view: Social Darwinism (Herbert Spencer) 社会达尔文主义（赫伯特斯潘

塞）

6、Theme: American Dream

Jack London

1、short stories,：The Son of the Wolf; his masterpiece The Call of the Wild (1903

2、London's style—brutal, vivid, and exciting残忍、生动、令人兴奋

3、Mayor works: The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904), White Fang 白牙,Martin Eden (1909),

4、意象和主题：Images of death, cruelty, and Darwinian struggle死亡意象，残酷，和达尔文斗争

Martin Eden

1、It is about a writer who bears an extremely strong resemblance相似to Jack

London.

2、Theme: criticism 批判主义of American society; disillusion破灭of American

dream

Henry James

1、His fiction juxtaposed American innocence and European experience in a series of intense, psychologically complex works.

2、James's work is characterized by leisurely pacing and subtle delineation of character悠闲地