美国文学上册2

III. Literary Creation:
Poe concentrated on strangeness, mystery, terror, insanity and death. He wrote about people buried while alive; about dreams that become true/ reality that seems like a dream. 1. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1839) ----a collection of short stories. “M.S. Found in a Bottle”; “The Tell-Tale Heart”; “Black Cat”; “The Cask of Amontillado”; “Ligeia”; “The Fall of the House of Usher” (his best one)
2. Poems: A. “The Raven”----best-known poem, another testimony of Poe’s literary tendency. Here, a sense of melancholy over the death of a beloved beautiful young lady pervades the whole poem. • Poe’s poems are heavily tinted in a dreamy and illusory color. B. “To Helen”----an awe-inspiring celebration of classic beauty. one of the most famous of Poe’s lyrics. C. “Annabel Lee”----a poem about “lost love”/the death of a beautiful lady. 3. theme: Beauty and Melancholy/death
3)He employed romance because he thought it the predestined form of Am narrative. By the use of romance, he could reveal reality and satirize it but not to offend the Puritan taste. 4) He frequently employed symbols. 5) He employed the technique of multiple view to keep the readers in a world of uncertainty. He gave the readers many ways to interpret the story and then he stopped without telling the reader which one he wanted the reader to choose.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
I. Life&ideology: his idea is aestheticism: art for art’s sake. Art should create beauty. Literature should have no social responsibility. It should be pure expression of the author’s mental imagination. II. Gothic Novel/Romance: a story of terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old castle or monastery, with a comparably sinister and grotesque atmosphere. Gothic heroes and heroines tend to be equally mysterious, with dark histories and secrets of their own. Exaggeration and emotional language are frequently employed.
II. Literary Creation: 1. Twice-Told Tales (1837) 2. Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) 3. The House of the Seven Gables (1851) 4. The Blithedale Romance (1852) 5. The Marble Faun (1860) III. writing style(including writing technique) 1)His works centered around evils. 2)History furnished his imagination, enabled him to dream strange things, and make his tales look like truth.
William CullenBaidu NhomakorabeaBryant (1794-1878)
I. title: “William Wordsworth in America” forerunner of American romantic poetry II. works: 1.Thanatopsis (1) title: “A meditation upon death” (2) theme: death
It follows the tradition of the English “graveyard school”
(3) Classical form (thanatos- [Greek]) (4) significance: Bryant’s best known poem with the theme of death Make a brief comment on Thanatopsis (120-123)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
• With the publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne became famous as the greatest writer in the United States. And his reputation as a major writer has been on the increase ever since. I. Life Experience: 1. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on the fourth of July, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. 2. Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692. 3. In 1821, Hawthorne went to Bowdoin College, where he had Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a classmate. He also developed a friendship with Franklin Pierce who was to become the 14th president of the United States. From 1825 to 1837, Hawthorne lived in solitude and seclusion.
IV. P’s theory about Poems: • The poem, should be short and readable. Its chief aim is beauty, namely, to produce a feeling of beauty in the reader. V. The Fall of the House of Usher: 1. narrator-----”I” • Poe places Roderick’s school friend besides him, watching and then coming back to retell the appalling process of the dissolution. What drives Roderick crazy is not immediately clear. It leaves for the reader’s imagination. Here, the use of the narrator, gives readers more vivid and detailed descriptions, and thus enhances the effect of horror.
III. Close reading (p124-125)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
I. title: the most influential American poet of history. II. Works: 1. collections of poetry: • Voices of the Night Ballads and Other Poems Poems on Slavery 2. poems: • (1) A Psalm of Life ---- the most famous poem in Voices of the Night. P. 253-255. • (2)The Slave’s Dream • (3)My Lost Youth • (4)The Song of Hiawatha III. Feature: romantic spirit + Puritan thoughts
2.To a Waterfowl
(1) comment: “the peak of Bryant’s poetic creation.” “a lyric poem with strong spiritual intent” “the most perfect brief poem in the language.” (2) structure: 8 stanzas (3) form: epistolary (4) “To” : intimacy; affection admiration; persuasion; respect; awe “waterfowl”: bird; hope/ life/ joy; nature ………
2. content: nature&human beings (individual) • Tone: melancholy (graveyard school) • Religion (not Puritanism) • Classical form • Simple language 3. feature----Poe combines the outside world with the hero’s inner world perfectly. 4. symbolism: • It signifies “the doom of the isolated consciousness”--a modern theme. VI. Two Sides of Poe’s Literary Creation: • the world of imagination and fancy; rational human being, with an intuitive faculty and a sixth sense.