美国文学史(考点)
(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 of the 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 hiswife 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 a very 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 want colonial 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 of their 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 the Puritan 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 Experience►He 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 “To 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。
美国文学史考试复习资料
1）puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology. 3look upon themselves as chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged the ir way of life is opposing God's will and is not to be accepted.
poet and political journalist 诗人和政治方面的新闻记者
1）perhaps the most outstanding writer of the post-revolutionary period. 2)has been called the "Father of American Poetry" 美国诗歌之父
"Great Common of Mankind" 最平凡的人 1）famous pamphlet "Common Sense" 著名的政治小册子《常识》 it boldly advocated a
"Declaration for Independence", and brought the separatist agitation to a crisis. 拥护独立宣
ar.
6）As an author he had power of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor, sarcastic.
美国文学史复习资料(名词解释)
1. American Puritanism: a domination factor in American life. AmericanPuritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thoughts and literature.2. Transcendentalism: time 1836. Features: 1.the transcendentalistsplaced emphasis on spirit, or over soul, as the most important thing in the universe 2. The transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. 3. The transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit of God. The representatives are Emerson and Thoreau.3. Free Verse: like traditional verse, it is printed in short lines instead ofthe continuity of prose, but it has no meter and either lack rhyme or uses it occasionally. A representative is Whitman’s Leave of Grass. 4. Realism: time: 2nd and half of 19th century. Features: verisimilitude ofdetails derived from observation. Representatives are Howells, James, Mark Twain5. Local Colorism: It is a branch of Realism; it refers to detailedrepresentation, in fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of thinking which are distinctive of a particular region. The representative of Local Colorism is Mark Twain.6. American Naturalism: time: 1890s. Features: 1. naturalists wroteabout the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world, and his lack of dignity in face of the crushing forces of environment and heredity.2. They reported truthfully and objectively with passion for scientific accuracy and an overwhelming accumulation of factual detail.3. The representatives are Crane, Dreiser.7. Imagism: six principles: momentary, one dominant image, hardpersonal word, direct treatment, concise, free verse. The representatives are Pound.8. Lost generations: it refers to a group of American writers of thedecade following WWI, disillusioned by their War experience or by materialization of American culture, holds a pessimistic new of life.The representatives are Fitzgerald and Hemingway.9. Flashback: interpolating narratives or scenes which represent eventsthat happened before the story began. For example: Miller used flashback in Death of Salesman.10. Black Humor: the tragic absurdity of the human condition is oftenseen in their novels. As a cosmic joke. The response they intend to provoke in the reader to the blackness of modern life is a laughter that is, laughing in face of a tragic situation. The representative work of black humor is Heller’s Catch-22.11. Harlem Renaissance: a period of remarkable creativity in literatureand other arts by African Americans, from the end of WWI in 1917 through the 1920s. The representative is Hughes.12. Irving: 1.He is was the first American writer of imagination literature to gain international fame. 2 The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book.3.The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American romanticism.13. Hawthorne: feature: 1, symbol2, deep analysis of psychology3, gloomy and depressive tone4. evil sides of the world5, super natural element14. The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne): 1, Character: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdable, Roger Chillingworth. 2. Theme: criticizing Puritan suppression/ sin and atonement.15. Emily Dickinson: feature: 1.short and concise2. approximate rhyme and meter3. ungrammatical elements 4. original images5. many poems about death15. Moby Dick (Melville): character: Ishmael (survivor), Ahab (captain) 12.Allan Poe: 1. the poetic principle ①the poem, he says, should be short, at one sitting ②Its chief aim is beauty ③melancholy is the most legitimate of all the poetic tone. ④the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.⑤stress rhyme, defines true poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty. 2. Work: to Helen, The Fall of the House of Usher.13. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain): 1. His usually use French, mostly Anglo-Saxon on origin, and his words are short, concrete and direct in effect.2. Most of his sentence structures are simple or compound.3. he use”took”repeatedly.4. There have ungrammatical elements in his work. One of his significant contributions to American literature lies in fact that he made colloquial speech an accepted.14. Frost: the features of his work1.he usually use traditional form 2. His language is plain3. He likes to use symbolism4. Most his poems describe nature of famers’ life.15. Fitzgerald: the Great Gatsby: 1.characters: Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanam, Tom Buchanam, Myrtle Wilson, George Wilson, Jay Gatsby, 2. Theme: criticizing materialized society, disillusionment of American dream.16. Miller: Death of Salesman: 1.Charaters: Willy &Linda&Biff&Happy Loman, Chalery and Bernard. 2. Theme: a criticizing metalized society/ understanding between parents and children.17. Salinger: The Catch in the①. Setting: 1950s New York2. Plot: Holden Caulfied 1st day: expelled. 2nd day: Sally (shallow). Carl (hypocritical).2nd night: Sneak home—Phoebe, Mr.Antolini. 3rd day: go to the west.②.character: Holden---rebellious, innocent, sincerely③. Style: This novel use colloquial and vulgar worlds. There also has exaggeration in this work ④: theme: growing pain.18: Cath-22: Yossarian, Milo, And Snowden.19. Lolita :( Nabokov): character: Humbert Humbert, Dolores Haze (Lolita), Clare Qulity .。
美国文学史复习资料大全--最全必考考点集结
美国文学史复习资料大全--最全必考考点集结本页仅作为文档页封面，使用时可以删除This document is for reference only-rar21year.MarchL e c t u r eⅠA B r i e f I n t r o d u c t i o n t o A m e r i c a nL i t e r a t u r efeatures of American writersIndependent, Individualistic, Critical, Innovative, HumorousI The Literature of Colonial and American PuritanismThe first American writer: Capitan John Smith.Philip Freneau:( Father of American Poetry)I I T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R e a s o n a n d R e v o l u t i o n,E n l i g h t e n m e n t Jonathan Edwards: First modern American and the country’s last medieval manBenjamin Franklin: The AutobiographyThomas Paine :The American CrisisThomas Jefferson (“The Declaration of Independence” first established the identity of American people)John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and JeffersonI I I T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R o m a n t i c i s mWashing Irving欧文: His first book was “A History of New York ”.“The Sketch Book 美国信札” made him international famousJames Fenimore Cooper: 库伯“Leatherstocking Tales”, 皮袜子故事集a series of five novels about the frontier life of American settlers.Deerslayer (1843), Pathfinder (1841), Last of the Mohicans (1825), The Pioneer (1823),The Prairie ( 1827),Edgar Allan Poe艾伦·坡: Poe was sensitive enough to feel the pressure of a world where science and reason reign supreme, and one where there is neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor peace, nor help from God.“The Raven”, “Israfel”, “Sonnet—to Science” and “To Hellen”.His short stories: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Purloined Letter”, “The Gold Bug” and “The Mystery of Marie Roget”o f T r a n s c e n d e n t a l i s m先验主义A. Emphasis on Spirit (Oversoul)B. Emphasis on individualsC. Taking nature as the symbol of the Spirit (Oversoul)D. Brotherhood of man (equal and liberty)Ralph Waldo Emerson爱默生: Emerson created the school of transcendentalism. His famous essay “American Scholar” established the independence of A merican intellectual.“Nature”Henry David Thoreau梭罗: Walden瓦尔登湖Nathaniel Hawthorne 藿桑Twice-Told Tales ; Moses from an Old Manse, Scarlet Letter红字; The House of Seven Gables; The Blithedale Romance; The Marble FaunHerman Melville麦尔维尔:Moby Dick大白鲸Walt Whitman惠特曼: leaves of grass草叶集, song of myselfEmily Dickinson狄金森I V T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f R e a l i s mBeecher Stowe斯托夫人: “Uncle Tom’s Cabin汤姆叔叔的小屋”Henry James 詹姆斯and international theme: The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl,5: American NaturalismStephen Crane克兰: Maggie: A Girl of the StreetsTheodore Dreiser德莱塞: Sister CarrieJack London杰克·伦敦: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf Martin Eden O. Henry欧·亨利 The Gift of the Magi, The Cop and the Athem6T w e n t i e t h-C e n t u r y L i t e r a t u r eEzra Pound庞德: In a Station of the MetroRobert Frost弗罗斯特: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningScott Fitzgerald菲茨杰拉德 and The American Dream: The Great GatsbyErnest Hemingway海明威 and Iceberg Principle: The Sun Also Rises. A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the SeaSteinbeck斯坦贝克: The Grape of WrathWilliam Faulkner福克纳: The Sound and the Fury ,Light in AugustSherwood Anderson安德森: Winesburg, OhioSinclair Lewis路易斯: Main StreetP u r i t a n i s m（清教主义）Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. predestination（命运天定）, original sin（原罪）, total depravity（人类是完全堕落的，所以人要处处小心自己的行为，要尽可能做到最好以取悦上帝）,limited atonement（有限救赎，只有被上帝选中的人才能得到上帝的拯救）（启蒙运动）an intellectual movement in the seventeenth century and eighteenth. The common element was a trust in human reason as adequate to solve the crucial problems and to establish the essential norms in life, together with the belief that the application of reason was rapidly dissipating the remaining feudal traditions.（意象派）1912 and 1917. The typical Imagist poetry is written in free verse and undertakes to be as precisely and tersely as possible. Meanwhile, the Imagist poetry likes toexpress the writers’ momentary impression of a visual object or scene and often the impression is rendered by means of metaphor without indicating a relation.C o l o r i s m地方色彩文学a literary trend belonging to Realism. It refers to the detailed representation in prose fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of thinking and feeling which are distinctive of a particular region.the literature and art after WWII. Postmodernism involves not only a continuation, sometimes carried to an extreme, of the countertraditional experiments of modernism, but also diverse attempts to break away from modernist forms which had, inevitably, become in their turn conventional, as well as to overthrow the elitism of modernist “high art” by recourse to the models of “mass art”.（超验主义）in 1830s in US；emphasis on spirit or oversoul and stressing importance of the individual；regarding nature as symbols of the spirit or God and emphasis on brotherhood of man；representatives: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David ThoreauG e n e r a t i o n（迷惘的一代）American writers of the decade following the end of WWI, disillusioned by their war experience and alienated by what they perceived as the crassness of American culture are often tagged as Lost Generation. Their representatives are F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.（自然主义）Naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity. Inpresenting the extremes of life, the naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death.Lecture 2 Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)1.The theme in the scarlet letterThe sin of Puritanism on human nature(1)Sin: Hawthorne is haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life. Evil seems to be man’s birthmark. Sin will be punished. Hawthorne was predominantly concerned with the moral, emotional, and psychological effect of the sin on people in general. The story of Adam and Eve; Dimmesdale’s "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; Chillingworth's misshapen body reflects the anger in his soul Pearl embodies the poison of her parents' guilt(2)Puritan legalism: Another theme is the extreme legalism of the Puritans and how Hester chooses not to conform to their rules and beliefs Because they rejected Hester, she spent her life mostly in solitude, and wouldn't go to church. As a result, She still sees her sin, but begins to believe that a person's earthly sins don't necessarily condemn them. She even thinks that their sin has been paid for by their daily penance and that their sin won't keep them from getting to heaven, however, the Puritans believed that such a sin surely condemns.When Dimmesdale dies, she knows she has to move on because she can no longer conform to the Puritan's strictness.Her thinking is free from religious bounds and she has established her own, different moral standards and beliefs(3)Past and present: Sins of Hawthorne’s ancestors. The wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones.2.The symbolism in scarlet letter“A”-----adultery, able, angelPearl-----the unique pure person in the puritan communityChillingworth----a bad guyDimmesdale---someone who should be condemned for his evil and sinsLecture 3 Herman Melville 1819-18911. Themes in Moby-Dick:The world is Godless and purposelessThe loss of faith and the sense of futility and meaninglessnessAlienation between man and man, man and society, man and natureDeath-spiritual, emotional and physicalThis work also reveals the basic pattern of nineteenth century American life: loneliness and suicidal individualism in a self-styled democracy.2. Symbolism in Moby DickAhab（圣经中的异教徒国王，昏庸暴虐，在小说中过分自信，在船上如同一个独裁的暴君）and Ishmael （圣经中被抛弃的人，是一个流浪者，在小说里他也是一个被社会所抛弃的人）the voyage: the search for the ultimate truth of experienceMoby Dick: evil or goodness; corruption, purity, innocence, youth, the final mystery of the universePequod: the American soulLecture 4 Walt Whitman (The father of Free Verse) (1819-1892) 1. The definition of Free Verse:Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme,or any other musical pattern What is the difference between free verse and blank verse(blank verse has no rhyme, but it should be iambic pentameter)2. The theme of Leaves of GrassIn spite of the unconventionality of his poetic form and ideas, Whitman is related to the past in many ways. Whitman embraces idealism. Whitman extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man. Parallelism.3. The features of Leaves of GrassA. He extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man.B. employing “free verse” as the form of his poems with two characteristics: parallelism; phonetic recurrenceC. frankness of the commonplace and the ugly sides in human lifeD. direct, plain and even vulgar languageE. “untold latencies” (his poetry suggests rather than tell)F. great influence on the 20th century American poetsEmily Dickinson (1830-1886)4. The themes in Emily DickinsonFlowers and gardensThe Master , Jesus or Godillness, dying and death, immortalitythe mind and spiritA religious certainty, God’s help and good lifeNature, both kind and cruelIndividuality, free will, human responsibilitySympathy for the poor and the weakBeauty, truth and goodnessLecture5 Edgar Allan Poe (1819-1849)1. IntroductionThe father of detective fiction. He is the first professional writer.Poems:“The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, “To Helen”Lecture 6 American realism (the late 19th century, esp. 1870s, 1880s)1. Features of American RealismA. reaction aga inst “the lie” of Romanticism (considering Romanticism made people escape from the social realities)B. theme: the world of experience of the commonplace and the familiar and the lowC. style: genteel, graceful prose by Howells and Henry James; plain and rough by Mark TwainD. vivid description of details from observation of actual lifeE. a reliance on the representative characterF. trying to hold an objective view of human nature and society2. Father of American realism:William Dean Howells (1837 – 1920)3. Features of Henry James’s workThe international theme:“the international theme”: the meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence, and its moral and psychological complications.Special point of view: internal monologue (illumination of the situation and characters through one or several minds)Lecture 7 Local Colorism1. Mark Twain’s real nameSamuel Langhorne Clemens2. 4 classical novels:The Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Man that Corrupted HadleyburgRoughing It3. Trilogy of MississippiLife on the mississippiThe Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn4. The features of Mark Twain’s languageAnglo-Saxon in origin, short, concrete and direct in effect;sentence structure is mostly simple or compound;repetition of words;ungrammatical elementsMark Twain made the colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of America.Lecture 8 Ernest Hemingway1. 4 novels of Ernest Hemingway:The Sun Also RisesFor Whom the Bell TollsThe Old Man and the SeaA Farewell to Arms2. The symbolism of The old man and the sea:Santiago – mankind;sea – nature and environment;marlin – purpose of life;shark – the evil force which control human’s fate3. The features in Ernest Hemingway:Hemingway situation: characterized by chaos and brutality and violence, by crime and death, by sports and sexHemingway theme: “grace under pressure”Lecture 9 American Naturalism1. Major feature of Naturalism godlessDeterminismThe universe is cold, indifferent, godless and hostile to human desires; life becomes a struggle for survivalThemes: social systems that destroy and dehumanize; individual experience of loss and failure3.differences between Realism and Naturalism4. The trilogy of fate:The FinancierThe TitanThe Stoic5. Masterpiece of Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie6. The real name of Jack London:John Ariffith London7. The masterpiece ofThe Gift of the MagiLecture 10 The southern renaissance1. 4 novels of William Faulkner:The Sound and the FuryLight in AugustAbsalom! Absalom!Go Down, MosesAs I lay Dyingthe Marble Faun2. The features of his novels:Theme: in praise of eternal virtues in human history, love, pity, honor and self-sacrifice (despair and destruction)multiple points of viewdislocation of timethe modern stream of consciousnesswords are often run together, with no capitalization and no proper punctuation interior monologuescolloquial and regional dialectsone fragment runs into another without proper noticeLecture 11 American Drama1. 4 novels of E ugene O’Neill:Beyond the HorizonLong Day’s Journey into NightThe Emperor JonesThe Hairy Ape2. Themes of The Hairy Ape:The industrial environment is presented as toxic and dehumanizing; the world of the rich, superficial and dehumanized. Yank has also been interpreted as representative of the human condition, alienated from nature by his isolated consciousness, unable to find belonging in any social group or environment.3. Major themes in A Streetcar Named Desire:Fantasy/IllusionBlanche dwells in illusion; fantasy is her primary means of self-defense.Fantasy has a liberating magic that protects her from the tragedies she has had to endure.Blanche's dependence on illusion is contrasted with Stanley's steadfast realism, and in the end it is Stanley and his worldview that win.To survive, Stella must also resort to a kind of illusion, forcing herself to believe that Blanche's accusations against Stanley are false so that she can continue living with her husband.4. Themes in Death of a Salesman:The American DreamAbandonmentBetrayalLecture 12 Postwar American Literature1. The definition of black humor:Black humor is a way to criticize the army, the bureaucracy and government. Humor—deep, strong, melancholy, self-mocking; to express the most helpless feeling by using seemingly light-hearted treatment;2. Features of the beat generation:free from all formalitiesanti-reasonbreaking down the limitations between poetry and proseThey shock their listeners by reading their works aloud in coffee houses and bars. They lived in a wild way, anti-traditional and rebellious.They cherished a rebellious attitude toward sex, living in groups and engaging themselves in homosexual activities.3. Definition of postmodernism:In general, the postmodern view is cool, ironic, and accepting of the fragmentation of contemporary existence. It tends to concentrate on surfaces rather than depths, to blur the distinctions between high and low culture, and as a whole to challenge a wide variety of traditional cultural values.4. Features of the confessional school:They wrote about themselves, cultivating the inner world of each private individual and challenging the traditional values.They describe personal experience and family problems.A ruthless, excruciating self-analysis of one’s own background and heritage, one’s own most private desires and fantasies etc., and the urgent “I’ll-tell-it-all-to-you” impulse.5. Postwar novels;Saul Bellow : Henderson the Rain King, More Die of Heartbreak;. Salinger : The Catcher in the Rye;John Updike: Rabbit pentalogy,Flannery O'Connor.Joseph Heller: Catch-22Alice Walker 艾丽斯.沃克 :The Color Purple 《紫色》Martin Luther King :I Have a DreamAmy Tan :The Joy Luck Club (1989) 《欣幸俱乐部》。
美国文学史复习知识点
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!）。
美国文学史复习资料(DOC)
附：作者及作品（第一、二册）一、殖民主义时期The Literature of Colonial America1．船长约翰•史密斯Captain John Smith 《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚垦荒以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》“A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony”《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》“A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country”《弗吉尼亚通史》“General History of Virginia”2．威廉•布拉德福德William Bradford 《普利茅斯开发历史》“The History of Plymouth Plantation”3．约翰•温思罗普John Winthrop《新英格兰历史》“The History of New England”4．罗杰•威廉姆斯Roger Williams《开启美国语言的钥匙》”A Key into the Language of America”或叫《美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南》Or “ A Help to the Language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England ”5．安妮•布莱德斯特Anne Bradstreet 《在美洲诞生的第十个谬斯》”The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America”二、理性和革命时期文学The Literature of Reason and Revolution1。
本杰明•富兰克林Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)※《自传》“The Autobiography ”《穷人理查德的年鉴》“Poor Richard’s Almanac”2。
美国文学史(1)所学知识点总结
美国文学史（1）所学知识点总结I The Colonial PeriodCaptain John SmithAmerican PuritanismII The Age of Enlightenment“Reason ”1. Benjamin Franklin1）Aotubiography;2）Poor Richard’s Almanac2. Thomas Paine:Common SenseIII Romantic Period1. Washington Irving “Father of American Literature”1)“Rip Van Winkle”2)“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”2. James Fennimore Cooper“frontier, wilderness”Leatherstocking Tales : a series of 5 novels:The Deerslayer; The Last of the Mohicans; The Pathfinder;The Pioneers; The Prarie3. Nathaniel HawthonreThe Scaletter Letter(Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingwoth, Arthur Dimmesdale, Pearl,) 4. Herman Melville:Moby Dick (symbols, major themes, characters: Ishmael . Ahab) 5: Two transcendentalists:New England Transcendentalism (major features;)Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nature”Henry David Thoreau: Waldon and “Civel Disobedience”6. Edgar Allan PoeGothic Tales : Major featuresa short story: “The Fall of the House of Usher”;Poems: “The Raven”; “To Helen”7. Two Greatest poets in 19th century AmericaWalt Whitman : Free verse ; Leaves of Grass“O Captain! My Captain!”“Song of Myself”Emily Dickinson:“Because I could not stop for Death”“Wild Nights, Wild Nights ”IV. American Realism(Definition; fidelity, actuality, truthful dipiction of life)1. Willam Dean Howells2. Mark Twain (Local Colorism)3. Henry James (international theme) American Naturalism :(3 major ideas; mood:pessimistic Stephne Crane :The Red Badge of Courage (war) Maggie, A Girl of StreetsFrank Norris:The OctopusTheodore Dreiser:Sister Carrie。
美国文学史复习要点手动
美国文学史复习要点手动1.早期美国文学（17世纪-18世纪）-早期美国文学的发展受到清教徒移民和殖民地环境的影响。
-早期作品主题包括宗教信仰、苦难和恐惧。
-著名作家有威廉·布拉德福和乔纳森·爱德华兹。
2.启蒙时期文学（18世纪）-美国启蒙时期的文学受到欧洲启蒙思想的影响。
-作品主题包括理性、自由和平等。
-著名作家有本杰明·富兰克林和汤玛斯·潘恩。
3.罗曼主义时期文学（19世纪早期）-罗曼主义时期美国文学反对启蒙时期的理性主义。
-作品主题包括个人感情、自然和超自然。
-著名作家有华盛顿·欧文和爱默生。
4.特拉华文学（19世纪中期）-特拉华文学是19世纪中期美国文学的重要流派。
-作品主题包括农民和工人的生活以及美国西部探险精神。
-著名作家有赫尔曼·梅尔维尔和华尔特·惠特曼。
5.现实主义和自然主义时期文学（19世纪末-20世纪初）-现实主义和自然主义时期的文学关注社会问题和个人命运。
-作品主题包括工业化、城市化和阶级冲突。
-著名作家有马克·吐温和斯蒂芬·克莱恩。
6.现代主义时期文学（20世纪初-中期）-现代主义时期的文学反对传统形式和价值观。
-作品表现迷失、不安和心理困惑。
-著名作家有欧内斯特·海明威和F·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德。
7.后现代主义时期文学（20世纪中期-现在）-后现代主义时期的文学拒绝一切形式的正统和稳定性。
-作品表现多样化的语言和视觉实验。
-著名作家有托尼·莫里森和大卫·福斯特·华莱士。
(完整word版)美国文学史-知识点梳理(word文档良心出品)
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 of the 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 hiswife 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 a very 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 want colonial 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 of their 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 the Puritan 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 Experience►He 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 “To 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。
美国文学史
美国文学史一.知识点1.清教主义代表人物：Edwards Franklin2.富兰克林的作品：《Poor Richard’s Almanac》《Autobiography》3.富兰克林自传中的十三个美德：Temperance（节制）silence （少言）order（秩序）frugality （节俭）Industry（勤勉）sincerity （真诚）resolution（决心）justice （公正）moderation （中庸）cleanliness（整洁）chastity(镇定) tranquility（节欲）humility（谦逊）This work is a puritan document. It is puritan because it is a record of self-examination and self-improvement.4.富兰克林作品中的谚语:lost time is never found again. A penny saved is a penny earned. God help them that help themselves. Fish and visitors stink in three days. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.5.美国浪漫主义代表人物：Irving Cooper6.Irving was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.His works are《The Sketch Book》《Rip Van Winkle》《The Legend of Sleepy Hollow》7. Cooper’s claim to greatness in American literature lies in the fact that he created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. “Leatherstocking tales” is a series of five novels described the frontier life of American settlers, that is, 《The Pioneers》《The Last of the Mohicans》《The Prairie》《The pathfinder》《The Deerslayer》8. Emerson 的代表作《Nature》. “The American Scholar” has been regarded as the American’s declaration of intellectual independence.9.Thoreau的代表作《Walden》10.美国黑色浪漫主义代表人物：Hawthorne Melville Allan Poe11.Whitman的作品《Leaves of Grass》《Song of Myself》. 用来赞扬林肯的诗歌“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”“Captain, My Captain”12.Dickinson的诗歌“My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close”“Wild Nights”. Dickinson was original. She sees nature as both gaily benevolent and cruel. On the ethical level she emphasizes free will and human responsibility. Like Emerson, she holds that beauty, goodness, truth are the ultimately one. She is good at catching the charm of something but dropping the thing itself. 13. Allan Poe: Father of modern short story;Father of detective story;Father of psychoanalytic criticism;Father of mental analytic theory.14. Local Colorism的代表人物:Mark Twain15.Naturalism 时期：Crane的作品：《Maggie：A Girl of the Street》《The Red Badge of Courage》Dreiser的作品：《Sister Carrie》Jack London；O’Henry16. Imagism 的代表人物：Pound他的作品“In a Station of the Metro”(has been regarded asa classic specimen of imagist poetry) “Cantos”(has been called his intellectual diary since1915).17. Eliot 的作品《The Waste Land》18. Robert Frost的作品“Mending Wall”这里的名言是good fences make good neighbors. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”“The Road not Taken”19. Fitzgerald的作品《This Side of Paradise》《Tender is the Night》《The Last Tycoon》《The GreatGatsby》（代表作）二．名词解释1. American puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of puritans. The puritans areoriginally members of a division of the protestant church who wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin, total depravity and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from god. It had become, to some extent, so much a sense of mind, so much a part of national cultural background, rather than a set of tenets.2. Transcendentalism: it was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophythat emerged in newEngland in the early middle 19th century. Transcendentalists spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism in American society. It place emphasis on spirit, or the over soul as the most important thing in the world. It stressed the importance of the individual and offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit or god.Prominent transcendentalists included Edwards and Thoreau.3. Local Colorism: Mark Twain was the representative of local colorism. It as a trend becamedominant in American literature in the late 1860s and early 1870s, it is defined by Hamlin Garland as having such quality of texture and background that it could not have been written in any other place or by anyone else than a native, as local colorists tried to immortalize the distinctive natural, social and linguistic features. It is characteristic of vernacular language and satirical humor. Generally speaking, the writings of local colorists are concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town.4. Imagism: the 1920s saw a vigorous literary activity in America. In poetry there appeared astrong reaction against Victorian poetry. Imagists placed primary reliance on the use of precise, sharp images as a means of poetic expression and stressed precision in the choice of words, freedom in the choice of subject matter and form, and the use of oral language. Most of the imagist poets wrote in free verse, using such devices as assonance and alliteration rather than formal metrical schemes to give structure to their poetry. Its representative was Pound.5. Modernsim: American modernism was the phenomenon of international modernismtransplanted in the American context. The modernists have a more complex view of reality.They believe that reality is experienced from different perspectives and at different levels.Modernism is pluralistic in styles and inclusive of diverse responses to the human condition in the modern world.6. The Lost Generation: it is a term used to characterize a general feeling of disillusionment ofAmerican literary notables who lived in Europe, most notably Paris, after the First World War.Figures identified with the lost generation included authors and artists such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound and SherwoodAnderson.三．解答题1.超验主义三大特点。
美国文学史及选读自考考点
The literature of colonial AmericaJohn Smith1）The 1st American writer2）作品“reports of exploration”have been de scribed as the 1st distinctly American literatur e written in English, attracted Pilgrims(朝圣者) &the Puritans.3）1608，写了封信“A true Relation of Such O ccurance&Accidents of Note as Hath Happen ed in Virginia Since the 1st planting of That c olony”4）1612，第二本书“A map of Virginia :with a Description of the Country”5）他一共出版了八本书，公司破产以后做了向导，he sought a post as guide to the pilgrims. 1624，“General History of Virginia”讲述How the Indian princess Pocahonats Saved him. 6）他早期记录和反映的思想慢慢演变成了美国历史的基本思想，这种思想推动了美国边疆的西移。
7）早期英格兰文学主要关于theological(神学), moral(道德), historical and political.The Puritans in New England embraced hards hips, together with the discipline of a harsh church.They had toughness, purpose and cha racter, they grappled strongly with challenges they set themselves.他们的基本价值观：hard w ork, thrift, piety and sobriety.（也是美国作品的主导思想）William Bradford & John Withrop1）William Bradford：“The History of Plymouth Plantation”（从1630年写起，关于一群清教徒从英国出发到Amsterdam最后到新大陆的过程）Cotton Mather评价：“a common blessing and father to them all.”2）John Withrop：“The History of New England”（1630，登上Arbella号去Massachusetts并keep a journal and to the rest of his life.1826年出版）3）Puritans-Puritans wanted to make pure their religious beliefs and practices.The Puritan was Would-be purifier.-Looked upon themselves as a choosenpeolple.-Anyone who challenged their way of life wa s opposing God’s will and was not to be ac cepted.-They were zealous in defense of their own beliefs but often intolerant of the beliefs of others-Made laws about private morality as well as public behavior Nathaniel Hawthorne called them“stern and black browed Puritans”John Cotton & Roger Williams1）John Cotton：The patriarch(教父) of New England2）Roger Williams：“A key into the language of Ameriaca”&“A help to the language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England”(美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南)Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor1）Anne Bradstreet：One of the most interest ing of the early poet.(1630乘Arbella到Massa chusetts)“The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in Ameri ca”（在美洲诞生的第十个缪斯）2）Edward Taylor：The best of the Puritan Po ets(作品大部分关于宗教)The Literature of Reason And Revolution1.American Independence WarNoah Webster评价：American must be as ind ependent in literature as she is inpolitics, as famous for arts as for arms.（文化上的独立，艺术上的著名）②Thomas Jefferson：”Declaration of Independ ence(独立宣言)”2.Enlightenment 启蒙运动3文学上独立的代表作1785, Jefferson：“Notes on the State of Virginia.“1791, Bartram：“Travels”Benjamin Franklin 1706-17901）In the colonial period, the only good Ame rican author before the Revolutionary War. -Born in Boston曾创办“Pennsylvania Gazatte”, 1732-1758出版”Poor Richard’s Almanac coll ocation of proverbs”2）founded the Junto&Established America’s first circulating library& founded the Universit y of PennsylvaniaAided Jefferson in writting the Declaration of Independence.3）The 1st major writers.4）“Autobiography”,编辑了美国第一份殖民杂志“General magazine”朋友评价：His shadow lies heavier than any ot her man’s on this young nation.Thomas Paine 1739-18091）“Great Commoner of Mankind”(人类最平凡的人）&Pamphleteer(小册作家)2）1772, he wrote his 1st pamphlet“The case of the Officers of the Excise”1774, Franklin给他写推荐信“an ingenious wort hy young man”He is a political satirist of genius(政治讽刺的天才)3）1776.1.10 His famous pamphlet“Common Sense”appeared, 署名by an Englishman(书中大胆拥护独立宣言各主张，因此成了美国独立革命思想的代言人)4）1776-1783，“American Crisis”signed“Com mon Sense”在部队被广泛传阅鼓舞士气5）1791-1792，“Rights of Man”6）在法国因反对路易十六和恐怖统治入狱，1793-1 795，“The Age of Reason”a deistic treatise a dvocating a rationalistic view of religion.（注重宗教观念的理性）7）最后一部作品“Agrarian Justice”Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826美国历史上最为广泛影响的人物，同Franklin一样具人道主义精神1）1776，with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R Livingston, hedrafted the Declaration of Independence. 2）1800起担任两届美国总统，建立the Library of Congress，1819创建the university of Virginia 并担任第一任校长Philip Freneau1）The most outstanding writter of the Post-Revolutionary period. Double role as poet an d political journalist.2）1770，“The Power of Fancy”因出版有关讽刺英国人作品而被认可3）1776，“The House of Night”（the Gothic mood）F·L·帕蒂称它为“the 1st distinctly romant ic note heard in America”and“The Beauties of Santa Cruz”4）1781，“The British Prison Ship”5）1786，他的早期作品被收录在“The Poems of Philip Freneau Written Chiefly During the Lat e War”6）1788，“Miscellaneous Works”.1791，with Jefferson’s support“National Gaz ette”campaigned against the opinions of the“Gazette of the United States”7）教材作品“The Wild Honey Suckle”“The In dian Burying Ground”“To a Caty-Did”The Literature of Romanticism1）1828年Andrew Jackson as the 7th Presiden t of the United States标志Virginia王朝的结束1 861年开始Civil War.’[[[‘2）美国早期的主要文学形式，被长篇、短篇故事和诗歌所取代novels, short stories, and poems re placed sermons and manifestos as America’s principal literary forms.Washington Irving 1783-18591）He was the 1st great prose stylist of Amer ican romanticism familiar style.第一位浪漫主义散文文体作家，大众化风格2）He was the 1st great belletrist, writing alw ays for pleasure, and to produce pleasure.第一个不折不扣的纯文学作家，他写作只是为了快乐和创造快乐3）1819-1820，His“Sketch Book”appeared t he 1st modern short stories and the 1st great American juvenile literature to write good hi story and biography as literary entertainment.第一部《见闻札记》是现代文学史上的第一部短篇小说，也是美国第一部伟大的青少年文学读物，他把历史与传说当作娱乐形式来写。
美国文学名师考点整理
美国文学殖民地时期（16 世纪末至 17 世纪中期）：主要记述殖民地时期的历史较多，游记等等作者作品The Bay Psalmbook 《海湾圣诗》 （北美出版的第一本书，是由希伯来语John Winthrop温斯洛普John Smith 约翰 史密斯 （美国文学和北美文学的第一作家）（Hebrew ）翻译过来的民歌体圣诗集）习惯用语 city upon a hill （ft 巅之城）来源于他的作品A True Relation of Virginia《关于佛吉尼亚的真实叙述》（1601 年）独立革命时期（17 世纪中期至18 世纪末）：大多数革命写作都是政治性的，开始出现诗歌浪漫主义时期（18 世纪末至 19 世纪中后期）：又称为为美国的文艺复兴，强调感情和感觉，而不是理性与尝试，超验主义（Transcendentalis ）m 是浪漫主义 （Romanticism ）的成熟期作者作品作者Benjamin Franklin 本杰明 弗兰克林Thomas Paine 托马斯 佩恩Thomas Jefferson 托马斯 杰弗逊（美国第三任总统） Philip Freneau 菲利普 费伦诺 （美国独立革命诗人，美国诗歌之父）作品Declaration of Independence《独立宣言》 Poor Richard’ s Almanac 《穷查理德年鉴》The Autobiography 《自传》 Common Sense 《常识》The American Crisis 《美国危机》 Declaration of Independence《独立宣言》The Wild Honey Suckle《野金银花》Washington Irving 华盛顿欧文（美国文学之父，擅长短篇小说）William Cullen Bryant威廉卡伦布莱恩特（美国首位浪漫派诗人，美国的“华兹华斯”）James Fenimore Copper詹姆斯菲利莫尔库伯Ralph Waldo Emerson拉尔夫瓦尔多爱默生（超自然主义（Supernaturalism）中心人物）Henry David Thoreau亨利大卫梭罗Henry Wadsworth Longfellow亨利沃兹沃斯朗费罗（美国第一个写叙述诗歌的诗人，曾经翻译过但丁（Dante）的神曲（DiveComedy）Nathaniel Hawthrone 纳撒尼尔霍桑（美国科幻小说的第一人）Edgar Allan Poe 埃德加艾伦坡（美国侦探小说之父）Herman M elville 赫尔曼麦尔维尔Emily Dickson 艾米丽迪克逊（其作品主要与宗教、生活和死亡有Rip Van Winkle《李普万温克尔》The Legend of Sleepy Hollow《睡谷的传说》（美国文学史上第一部短篇小说，标志着美国浪漫主义（Romanticism）的开始）To a Waterfowl《致水鸟》Thanatopsis《死亡随想》Leatherstocking Tales《皮袜子五部曲》The Last Mohicans《最后的莫西干人》Nature《自然》（被认为是美国超自然主义（Supernaturali s）m宣言）Walden《瓦尔登湖》Civil Disobedience《论公民的不服从》The Song of Hiawatha 《海华沙之歌》（描写印第安人的第一部作品）Evangeline 《伊万杰琳》APsalm of Life 《人生赞礼》The Scarlet Letter《红字》The House of the Seven Gables《有七个尖角阁楼的房子》Mosses from an Old House 《古屋青苔》诗歌：The Raven 《乌鸦》Annabel Lee《安娜贝尔李》小说：The Fall of the House Asher《厄舍古屋的倒塌》Moby Dick 《蓝鲸》Because I could not Stop for Death《因为我不能死亡》I’m Nobody, Who are You?关）Walt Whitman 沃尔特惠特曼（伟大的民主主义诗人，第一个自由体诗人）《我是无名小卒，你是谁？》Leaves of Grass《草叶集》（标志着美国浪漫主义的结束）现实主义时期(19 世纪中期至 20 世纪初期)：作者Harriet Beecher Stove哈里特比彻斯托美国现实主义（Realism）三位代表人物Henry James 亨利詹姆斯William Dean Howells威廉迪恩豪威尔斯Mark Twain 马克吐温（威廉福克纳（William Faulkner）称他为真正的美国文学之父，乡土文学代表）Stephen C rane 斯蒂芬克莱恩（自然主义（Naturalism）代表人物）Theodore Dreiser 西奥多德莱赛（最伟大的自然主义作家）Jack London 杰克伦敦作品Uncle Tom’s Cabin《汤姆叔叔的小屋》The Portrait of a Lady 《贵妇人画像》The Wings of Dove 《鸽翼》The Ambassadors 《奉使记》The Golden Bowl《金碗》Daisy Miller《黛西米勒》The Rise of Silas Lapham《塞拉斯拉帕姆的发迹》The Celebrated Jumping Frog ofCalaveras County《卡拉维拉斯郡著名的跳蛙》The Gilded Age 《镀金时代》The Adventure of Tom Sawyer《汤姆索亚的历险记》The Prince and the P auper《王子与贫儿》The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn《费恩历险记》The Red Badge of Courage《红色英勇勋章》Sister Carrie《嘉莉妹妹》An American Tragedy 《美国悲剧》Trilogy of Desire《欲望三部曲》Financer 《金融家》The Titan《巨人》Stotic《斯多葛》The Call of Nature 《野性的呼唤》（自然主义代表人物）O Henry 欧亨利（自然主义作家，短篇小说之父）Love of Life《热爱生命》Martin Eden《马丁伊登》The Gifts from Magi 《麦琪的礼物》The Cop and the Anthem《警察与赞美诗》现代主义时期（20世纪）：核心在第一次世界大战和第二次世界大战之时，标志性运动是意象派（Imagism）作者作品The Sun Also Rise 《太阳照常升起》Ernest Hemingway 欧内斯特海明威（第一部小说）（“迷茫的一代”（The Lost Generation ）代言人,1954 获得诺贝尔文学奖）A Farewell to Arms 《永别了，武器》For Whom the Bell Tolls《丧钟为谁而鸣》The Old Man and the Sea 《老人与海》Ezra Pound 埃兹拉庞德史诗：The Cantos 《诗章》（美国现代诗歌之父，最重要的意象派（Imagism）诗人之一）Robert Frost 罗伯特弗罗斯特（新英格兰诗人，四次获得普利策奖（Pulitzer Prize）T.S. Eliot 艾略特（美国出生英语诗人，1948 年获得诺贝尔文学奖）William Faulkner 威廉福克纳（20 世纪最重要的南方作家，1950 年获得诺贝尔文学奖,现代主义(Modernism)最重要的作家之一）Francis Scott Fitzgerald弗司各特菲兹杰拉德（爵士乐时代的代言人）In a Station of the Metro《在地铁站》诗集：Mending Wall《修墙》The R oad N ot T aken 《未选择的路》Stopping by the Woods on a SnowyEvening《雪夜林边小驻》Desert Places 《荒芜地带》The Waste Land《荒原》Four Quarters《四个四重奏》The Sound and the Fury《喧哗与骚动》Light in August 《八月之光》Absalom, Absalom《押沙龙，押沙龙》The Great Gatsby 《了不起的盖茨比》Tender is the Night《夜色温柔》John Steinbeck 约翰斯坦贝克（1962 年获得诺贝尔文学奖）Eugene Gladstone O’Neil尤金奥尼尔（剧本作家，1936 年获得诺贝尔文学奖，4 次获得普利策奖）Pearl S. Buck 赛珍珠（美国历史上第一个获得诺贝尔文学奖的女作家）The Grapes o f Wrath 《愤怒的葡萄》The Hairy Ape《毛猿》The Good Earth《大地》（取材于中国江苏、安徽农村地区）1945 年以来的文学：垮掉的一代、黑色幽默作者Allen Ginsberg 艾伦金斯堡（垮掉的一代（Beat Generation）的代表人物）Joseph Heller 约瑟夫海勒（黑色幽默（Black Humor）的代表人物）Tennessee Williams 西纳西威廉斯（美国战后伟大的剧作家）Arthur Miller 亚瑟米勒（被称为美国的易卜生）作品Howl《嚎叫》Catch 22《第二十二条军规》（黑色幽默代表作品）A Street Car Named Desire《欲望号街车》Death of Salesman 《推销员之死》All My Son《我的儿子们》。
美国文学史复习要点整理【手动】
美国文学史整理一、Colonial America 殖民时期1、New England：Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, andConnecticut.2、Doctrines of Puritanism清教American Puritanism stressed predestination（命运神定), original sin（原罪）, total depravity (彻底的堕落), and limited atonement (有限的赎罪)from God’s grace.3、Writing style：fresh, simple and direct and with a touch of nobility；the rhetoric is plain andhonest.4、Life style：hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.5、Main writer:①Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩work：Common Sense (1776) 《常识》American Crisis (1776-1783)《美国危机》The Rights of Man《人权》The Age of Reason《理性时代》②Benjamin Franklin（本杰明·富兰克林）Poor Richard’s Almanac《穷查理历书》Autobiography 《富兰克林自传》<clarity, good sense, and simplicity of the English essayists Joseph Addison and Richard Steele>③Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰弗逊Declaration of Independence (1776)《独立宣言》<simple and clear, powerful and graceful>二、American Romanticism (early period) 浪漫主义前期1、Characteristics：①A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.反对理性主义的客观性。
美国文学史复习
美国文学史复习（一）Colonialism（殖民主义）一、Puritan thoughts:1. to make their religious beliefs and practices pure,2. to restore simplicity,3. to live a hard and disciplined life4. to oppose pleasure and arts.二、Puritan values:hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (they dominated much of the earliest American writing.)（二）Romanticism一、文学特征：1. Environment:①shaped by their New World environment 美洲大陆新环境②array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe 欧洲早期浪漫主义思潮2.美国文学的特点：①pluralistic多元化②manifestations varied 表现形式多样③individualistic个人主义④conflicting 矛盾3. Romanticism的特点：①moral enthusiasm注重道德②faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception强调个人主义价值观和直觉感受③the presumption that the natural world was a source of corruption.认为自然是美的源头，人类社会是腐败之源。
4. Transcendentalism：（超验主义）①As a moral philosophy, it was neither logical nor systematized.It exalted feeling over reason, individual expression over the restraints of law and custom.不讲逻辑，不讲系统只强调超越理性的感受，超越法律和世俗束缚的个人表达。
(完整word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 of the 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 hiswife 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 a very 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 want colonial 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 of their 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 the Puritan 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 Experience►He 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 “To 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。
美国文学史考点整理
美国文学研究一、作者及其主要作品梭罗《瓦尔登，或林中生活》霍桑《红字》短篇小说如《教长的黑面纱》《小伙子布朗》等麦尔维尔《白鲸》爱伦·坡《怪诞故事集》惠特曼《草叶集》亨利·詹姆斯《一位女士的画像》马克·吐温《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》《神秘的陌生人》德莱塞《美国的悲剧》杰克·伦敦《马丁·伊登》、《野性的呼唤》、《海狼》、《白牙》T·S·艾略特《荒原》（诗歌）菲茨杰拉德《了不起的盖茨比》海明威《太阳照常升起》福克纳《喧哗与骚动》尤今·奥尼尔《毛猿》《琼斯皇》《进入黑夜的漫长旅程》（戏剧）斯坦贝克《愤怒的葡萄》索尔·贝娄《洪堡的礼物》、《挂起来的人》诺曼·梅勒《裸者与死者》塞林格《麦田里的守望者》厄普代克《兔子，跑吧》（“兔子四部曲”）海勒《第二十二条军规》纳博科夫《洛丽塔》凯鲁亚克《在路上》威廉斯《玻璃动物园》（戏剧）米勒《推销员之死》（戏剧）拉尔夫·埃里森《看不见的人》托尼·莫里森《所罗门之歌》爱丽丝·沃克《紫色》谭恩美《喜福会》独立战争前后的文学富兰克林《自传》《穷查理历书》《致富之路》托马斯·潘恩《常识》《人的权利》《理性的时代》托马斯·杰弗逊《独立宣言》克里夫古尔《一个美国农夫的信》弗瑞诺《野忍冬花》《印第安人墓地》《纪念英勇的美国人》查尔斯·布罗克丹·布朗《韦兰德》二、简答题+论述题1.美国文学的诞生及一般特色1)历史背景：1775-81年的北美独立战争；1783年美利坚合众国的成立；1861-65年的南北战争。
独立战争以后，特别是进入19世纪之后，独立的美国文学开始诞生。
2)美国文学的一般特色：A.早期人少地多，为个人理想的实现提供了很大的空间和可能性，因此美国文学富于民主自由精神，个人主义、个性解放的观念较为强烈；B.这是一个由各国移民组成的国家，所以文学的内容、思想倾向和艺术风格都呈现出多样性、庞杂性；C.许多作家直接来自社会下层，使得文学的生活气息浓郁，平民色彩鲜明，具有开朗、豪放的特点；D.由于美国作家的敏感、好奇，使得美国文学浪潮迭起，日新月异，瞬息万变。
重点参考美国文学史期末复习
H i s t o r y A n d A n t h o l o g y o f A m e r i c a n L i t e r a t u r e(V o l u m eⅠⅡ)美国文学史及选读1、2PartⅠThe Literature of Colonial America殖民主义时期的文学1.17世纪早期English and European explorers开始登陆美洲。
在他们之前100多年Caribbean Islands, Mexicoand other Parts of South America已被the Spanish占领。
2.17th早期English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts(弗吉尼亚和马萨诸塞)开始了美国历史3.美国最早殖民者(earliest settlers)included Dutch ,Swedes ,Germans ,French ,Spaniards ,Italians and Portuguese(荷兰人，瑞典人，德国人，法国人，西班牙人，意大利人及葡萄牙人等)。
4.美国早期文学主要为the narratives and journals of these settlements采用in diaries and in journals(日记和日志)，他们写关于the land with dense forests and deep-blue lakes and rich soil.5.第一批美国永久居民：the first permanent English settlement in North America was established atJamestown,Virginia in 1607(北美弗吉尼亚詹姆斯顿)。
6.船长约翰·史密斯Captain John Smith他的作品(reports of exploration)17th早期出版，被认为是美国第一部真正意义上的文学作品in the early 1600s,have been described as the first distinctly American literature written in English.他讲述了filled with themes, myths, images, scenes, character and events,吸引了朝圣者和清教徒前往lure the Pilgrims and the Puritans.7.美国第一位作家：1608年Captain John Smith写了封信《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚垦荒以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》“A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony”.8.他的第二本书1612年《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》“A Map of Virginia: with a Description of theCountry”.9.他一共出版了八本书，其中有关于新英格兰的历史及描述。
美国文学史（考点）
美国文学史（考点）A Survey of American LiteratureIntroduction:1. Colonial Period: the early 17th——then end of the 18th2. American Renaissance: 1840s3. The Civil War (1861-1865): the Romantic Peroid to an end.4. Realism: William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, Henry JamesChapter 11.American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thoughtand American literature2.doctrine: predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonementChapter 41.New England Transcendentalism (名词解释)It developed around 1840s, it’s the summit of American Romanticism. The representative writers included Emerosn, Thoreau.The major features of New England Transcendentalism can be summarized as follows: First, it emphasizes on the Oversoul, which was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent; Secondly, the Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual, the regeneration of society could only come about through the regeneration of the individual, his perfection, his self-culture and self-improvement; Thirdly, the Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God.Chapter 51.The Scarlet Letter (分析题)The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850.It is set in the 17th century. One Hester Prynne, who lived before the close of the 17th century, committed some form of adultery and was punished by having the wear a scarlet letter A on her breast.The story shows us the moral, emotional, and psychological effect of the sin on the people in general and those complicated in it in particular. It is not a praise of a Hester Prynne sinning, but a hymn on the moral growth of the woman when sinned against.At first “A” is a token of shame, “Adultery”, but then it is changed to “Able”, “Angel” and “Adamic”.The Scarlet Letter is a kind of cultural allegory.Chapter 81.Age of Realism: 1870s——1880s/doc/6612077094.html,pare Howells, James and Twain (简答题)Similarity: They are all writers of Realism and interpret realism as the “common feelings of commonplace people”.Differences: In thematic terms, James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life, whereas Mark Twain dealt largelywith the lower strata of society; Technically, Howells wrote in the vein of genteel realism, James pursued an “imaginative” treatment of reality or psychological realism, but Mark Twain dealt with local colonism.Chapter 91.Local Colorism （名词解释）Such quality of texture ad background that it could not havebeen written in any other place or by anyone else than a native, such as speech, customs, and mores peculiar to one particular place. 2.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (分析题)The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain.The book relates the story of the escape of Jim from slavery and, more important, how Huck Finn, floating along with him and helping him as best he could, changes his mind, his prejudice about Black people, and comes to accept Jim as a man and as a close friend as well.What Huck has got to do is to cut through social prejudices and social discriminations to find truth for himself.The theme of the work is: Humanism ultimately triumphs.Chapter 101.American Naturalism focuses on: environment and heredity.Chapter 111.Gertrude Stein: “the Lost Generation”2.Sinclair Lewis: the first Nobel Prize in American literature3.Imagism （名词解释）1912-1922The key wor d is “momentary”. The most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of one dominant image.Three Imagist poetic principles: 1. Direct treatment of the “thing”; 2. no useless word, stresses economy of expression; 3. as regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase.Imagist poets includes William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound and T. E. Eliot.Chapter 141.The Great Gatsby (分析题)It was written in 1925 by F. Scott Fitzgerald.The story is about Gatsy, a poor youth from the Midwest. He falls in love with Daisy, a wealthy girl, but is too poor to marry her. The girl is then married to a rich young man, Tom Buchanan. Gatsby engages himself in bootlegging and other “shady” activities in order to win his love back, thus earning enough money to buy a magnificent villa. There he spreads dazzling parties every weekend in the hope of alluring the Buchanans to come. They finally come and Gatsby meets Daisy again, only to find that the woman before him is not quite the ideal love of his dreams. A sense of loss and disillusionment comes over him. Then Daisy kills a woman in an accident, and plots with Tom to shift the blame on Gatsby. So Gatsby is shot and the Buchanans escape.The story presents a sense of disillusionment of American dream.Gatsby’s personal life has assumed a magnitude as a “cultural-historical allegory”for the nation.2.The Old Man and the Sea--- Ernest Hemingway 1954 Nobel PrizeChapter 151.William Faulkner --- the American Deep South2.William Faulkner --- 1949 Nobel PrizeChapter 171.John Steinbeck --- 1962 Nobel Prize, The Grapes of WrathChapter 191.Eugene O’Neil --- 1936 Nobel Prize, Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956)。
（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。
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A Survey of American LiteratureIntroduction:1. Colonial Period: the early 17th——then end of the 18th2. American Renaissance: 1840s3. The Civil War (1861-1865): the Romantic Peroid to an end.4. Realism: William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, Henry JamesChapter 11.American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thoughtand American literature2.doctrine: predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonementChapter 41.New England Transcendentalism (名词解释)It developed around 1840s, it’s the summit of American Romanticism. The representative writers included Emerosn, Thoreau.The major features of New England Transcendentalism can be summarized as follows: First, it emphasizes on the Oversoul, which was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent; Secondly, the Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual, the regeneration of society could only come about through the regeneration of the individual, his perfection, his self-culture and self-improvement; Thirdly, the Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God.Chapter 51.The Scarlet Letter (分析题)The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850.It is set in the 17th century. One Hester Prynne, who lived before the close of the 17th century, committed some form of adultery and was punished by having the wear a scarlet letter A on her breast.The story shows us the moral, emotional, and psychological effect of the sin on the people in general and those complicated in it in particular. It is not a praise of a Hester Prynne sinning, but a hymn on the moral growth of the woman when sinned against.At first “A” is a token of shame, “Adultery”, but then it is changed to “Able”, “Angel” and “Adamic”.The Scarlet Letter is a kind of cultural allegory.Chapter 81.Age of Realism: 1870s——1880spare Howells, James and Twain (简答题)Similarity: They are all writers of Realism and interpret realism as the “common feelings of commonplace people”.Differences: In thematic terms, James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life, whereas Mark Twain dealt largelywith the lower strata of society; Technically, Howells wrote in the vein of genteel realism, James pursued an “imaginative” treatment of reality or psychological realism, but Mark Twain dealt with local colonism.Chapter 91.Local Colorism （名词解释）Such quality of texture ad background that it could not have been written in any other place or by anyone else than a native, such as speech, customs, and mores peculiar to one particular place. 2.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (分析题)The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain.The book relates the story of the escape of Jim from slavery and, more important, how Huck Finn, floating along with him and helping him as best he could, changes his mind, his prejudice about Black people, and comes to accept Jim as a man and as a close friend as well.What Huck has got to do is to cut through social prejudices and social discriminations to find truth for himself.The theme of the work is: Humanism ultimately triumphs.Chapter 101.American Naturalism focuses on: environment and heredity.Chapter 111.Gertrude Stein: “the Lost Generation”2.Sinclair Lewis: the first Nobel Prize in American literature3.Imagism （名词解释）1912-1922The key word is “momentary”. The most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of one dominant image.Three Imagist poetic principles: 1. Direct treatment of the “thing”; 2. no useless word, stresses economy of expression; 3. as regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase.Imagist poets includes William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound and T. E. Eliot.Chapter 141.The Great Gatsby (分析题)It was written in 1925 by F. Scott Fitzgerald.The story is about Gatsy, a poor youth from the Midwest. He falls in love with Daisy, a wealthy girl, but is too poor to marry her. The girl is then married to a rich young man, Tom Buchanan. Gatsby engages himself in bootlegging and other “shady” activities in order to win his love back, thus earning enough money to buy a magnificent villa. There he spreads dazzling parties every weekend in the hope of alluring the Buchanans to come. They finally come and Gatsby meets Daisy again, only to find that the woman before him is not quite the ideal love of his dreams. A sense of loss and disillusionment comes over him. Then Daisy kills a woman in an accident, and plots with Tom to shift the blame on Gatsby. So Gatsby is shot and the Buchanans escape.The story presents a sense of disillusionment of American dream.Gatsby’s personal life has assumed a magnitude as a “cultural-historical allegory”for the nation.2.The Old Man and the Sea--- Ernest Hemingway 1954 Nobel PrizeChapter 151.William Faulkner --- the American Deep South2.William Faulkner --- 1949 Nobel PrizeChapter 171.John Steinbeck --- 1962 Nobel Prize, The Grapes of WrathChapter 191.Eugene O’Neil --- 1936 Nobel Prize, Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956)。