自考英美文学选读_重点总结【美国】Chapter 2 The Realistic Period现实主义时期
美国文学II的知识..
美国文学II知识要点总结
1. The authors and the works in the contents and the major works of Mark Twain ; F. Scott Fitzgerald; Hemingway and William Faulkner; O.Henry; T. S. Eliot, and Theodore Dreiser 2. What is the American Naturalism? Who are representatives and masterpiece? 3. What is the American Realism? Who is the arbiter of it ? What is the masterpiece? 4. What is the American Local Colorism,? Who are the representatives ? 5. Modernism 6. What is the psychological realism ? Who is the representative? What’s the meaning of international theme ?
美国文学II知识要点总结
8. Read the extracted chapters from the following works in your books 1) Chapter I from Sister Carrier 2) Chapter III from The Great Gatsby 9. Recite the poem 1) I Die for Beauty –but was scarce 2) Because I could not stop for death 3) The Road Not Taken 4) Evening 5) In a Station of the Metro
自考《英美文学选读》（美）浪漫主义时期（2）
⼆。
美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家 Ⅰ。
Washington Irving（1783-l859） Irving''s position in American literature Washington Irving was one of the first American writers to earn an international reputation， and regarded as an early Romantic writer in the merican literary history and Father of the American short stories. ⼀。
⼀般识记 His life and major works Washington Irving was born in New York City in a wealthy family. From a very early age he began to read widely and write juvenile poems， essays， and plays. In l798， he conc1uded his education at private schools and entered a law office， but he loved writing more. His first successful work is A History Of New York from the Beginning Of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty，which， written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker， won him wide popularity after it came out in 1809. With the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon， Gent. in serials between 1819 and 1820， Irving won a measure of international fame on both sides of the Atlantic. The book contains familiar essays on the Eng1ish life and Americanized versions of European folk tales like "Rip Van Winkle＂， and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Geoffrey Crayon is a carefully contrived persona and behind Crayon stands Irving， juxtaposing the Old World and the New， and manipulating his own antiquarian interest with artistic perspectives. The major work of his later years was The Life of George Washington. ⼆。
英美文学选读自考重点
英美文学选读自考重点英美文学选读是自考中一门重要且富有魅力的课程，它涵盖了英国和美国文学发展历程中的众多经典作品和重要作家。
对于自考生来说，掌握重点内容是顺利通过考试的关键。
以下将为您详细介绍英美文学选读自考的重点。
一、英国文学部分1、古英语时期与中世纪文学这一时期的重点是了解英国文学的起源和早期发展。
比如，《贝奥武甫》是英国文学史上第一部重要的史诗，要理解其主题、结构和语言特点。
另外，乔叟的《坎特伯雷故事集》也是重点，需掌握其对人物的刻画、叙事技巧以及反映的社会现实。
2、文艺复兴时期文学文艺复兴时期的英国文学成就斐然。
威廉·莎士比亚是重中之重，他的戏剧作品如《哈姆雷特》《罗密欧与朱丽叶》《麦克白》等，要深入研究其人物塑造、情节设置、主题思想以及对人性、命运、爱情等问题的探讨。
同时，还需了解这一时期其他重要作家如托马斯·莫尔的《乌托邦》。
3、 17 世纪文学这一时期的玄学派诗歌和清教徒文学是重点。
约翰·多恩的玄学派诗歌以奇特的比喻和复杂的思维著称，要理解其诗歌的独特风格和思想内涵。
而弥尔顿的《失乐园》《复乐园》等作品，则要把握其宗教主题和史诗般的气魄。
4、 18 世纪文学启蒙运动时期的英国文学注重现实和理性。
丹尼尔·笛福的《鲁滨逊漂流记》是必读作品，要分析主人公的形象和作品所反映的殖民主义、个人奋斗等主题。
此外，乔纳森·斯威夫特的《格列佛游记》也是重点，理解其讽刺手法和对社会现象的批判。
5、 19 世纪浪漫主义文学浪漫主义时期的诗人如威廉·华兹华斯、塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治、拜伦、雪莱和济慈的作品都需要认真研读。
了解他们各自的诗歌风格、主题以及对自然、爱情、自由等的追求。
同时，简·奥斯汀的小说《傲慢与偏见》也是常考内容，要分析其细腻的人物描写和婚姻爱情观。
6、 19 世纪现实主义文学查尔斯·狄更斯的作品在这一时期占据重要地位，如《雾都孤儿》《大卫·科波菲尔》《双城记》等，要理解其对社会现实的批判和对人性的关怀。
自考英美文学选读必考重点第三讲美国文学
The period ranging from 1865 to l914 has been referred to as
the Age of Realism in the 1iterary history of the United States, which is actually a movement or tendency that dominated the spirit of American literature, especially American fiction, from the 1850s onwards. Realism was a reaction against Romanticism or a move away from the bias towards romance and self-creating fictions, and it paved the way to Modernism. Instead of thinking about the irrational, the imaginative, realists touched upon social and political realities and pressures in the post-Civil war society. Three dominant figures are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James.
It started with the publication of ________ and ended with _______. It is also called _________.
自考《英美文学选读》(美)现代文学时期(2)-2
自考《英美文学选读》（美）现代文学时期（2）-22) The Lost GenerationIt refers to，in general，the post-World WarⅠgeneration，but specifically a group of expatriate disillusioned intellectuals and artists，who experimented on new modes of thought and expression by rebelling against former ideals and values and replacing them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. The remark of Gertrude Stein，“You are all a lost generation，“addressed to Hemingway，was used as an epigraph to the latter’s novel The Sun Also Rises，which brilliantly describes those expatriates who had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing. The generation was “lost” in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U.S. that seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial，materialistic，and emotional barren. The term embraces Hemingway，F. Scott Fitzgerald，Ezra Pound，E.E.Cummings，and many other writers who made Paris the center of their literary activities in the 1920s.3) What is Expressionism?Expressionism is used to describe the works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision，transforming nature rather than imitating it. In literature it is often considered a revolt against realism and naturalism，a seeking to achieve a psychological or spiritual reality rather than to record external events.In drama，the expressionist work was characterized by a bizarre distortion of reality. Expressionist writers’s concern was with general truths rather than with particular situations，hence they explored in their plays the predicaments of representative symbolic types rather than of fully developed individualized characters. Emphasis was laid not on the outer world，which is merely sketched in and barely defined in place or time，but on the internal，on an individual’s mental state; hence the imitation of life is replaced in Expressionist drama by the ecstatic evocation of states of mind. In America，Eugene O’Neille’s Emperor Jones，The Hairy Ape，etc. are typical plays that employ Expressionism.4) The concept of “wasteland” in relation to the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literatureThe Waste Land is a poem written by T.S.Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of the contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair of the post-War era has appeared over and again in the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literature. Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the Jazz Age. Beneath the masks of relaxation and joviality，there was only sterility，meaninglessness and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance，there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway，the leading spokesman of the Lost Generation，dramatized in his novels the sense of loss and despair among the post-war generation who are physically and psychologically scarred. Though disillusioned in the post-war period，h e strove to bring about man’s “grace under pressure” and tried to bring out the idea that man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually. William Faulkner exemplified T.S. Eliot’s concept of modern society as a wasteland in a dramatic way. He created his own mythical kingdom that mirrored not only the decline of the Southern society but also the spiritual wasteland of the whole American society. He condemned the mechanized，industrialized society that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decrease those essential human values such as courage，fortitude，honesty and goodness.2. Postwar American literature1) The Beat GenerationAlso called Beat Movement，it is an American social and literary movement originating in the 1950s. Beat Generation writings expressed profound dissatisfaction with contemporary American society and endorsed an alternative set of values. They rejected traditional forms and advocated personal release，purification，and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness.Beat poets sought to liberate poetry from academic preciosity and bring it “back to the streets.” Allen Ginsberg and other major figures of the movement，such as the novelist Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder，advocated a kind of free，unstructured composition in which the writer put down his thoughts and feelings without plan or revision-to convey the immediacy of experience-an approach that led to the production of much undisciplined and incoherent verbiage on the part of their imitators.2) The pluralism of postwar American fiction：American fiction from 1945 onwards is a bigger story than poetry and drama.a. War fiction： A group of new writers who survived the war wrote about their traumatic experience within the military machine and on European and Pacific battlefields，among whom we have Norman Mailer and Herman Wouk.b. Southern literature：Robert Penn Warren and Flannery O’Conner are representatives of the talented Southern writers，who followed Faulkner’s footsteps in portraying the decadence and evil in the Southern society in a Gothic manner.[Nextpage]c. Jewish literature：By the 1950s a significant group of Jewish-American writers had appeared and one of them was Saul Bellow. Their works，drawing on the Jewish experience of suffering and endurance，tradition and the Jewish religion，examined subtly the dismantling of the self by an intolerable modern history. Other iportant Jewish writers include Bernard Malamud，Issac Bashevis Singer，and Philip Roth. Saul Bellow placed emphasis upon the power of intellect. The power to understand their own experience，to judge their lives rationally，to think well，is considered a high virtue. Self-teaching is at the heart of all his novels as his Jewish heroes or anti-heroes seek a rational interpretation of the world through their own experiences in it.d. Black fiction：It began to attract critical attention during this period too. The two major figures are Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison，both of whom captured the wide attention of the white readers by truthfully，openly，and shockingly describing the life of black people as they knew it from their own experience. For the first time in the history of American writings，African writers started to question their identity as a group and as an individual.e. Other important writers who were writing at the time include J.D.Salinger and John Updike. Salinger is considered to be a spokesman for the alienated youth in the post-war era and his The Catcher in the Rye (1951) is regarded as a students’ classic. Updike’s Rabbit novels examine the middle-class values and portray the troubled relationships in people’s private life and their internal decay under the stress of the modern times.f. “new fiction” or Novels of absurdity：American fiction in the 1960s and 1970s proves to be different from its predecessors in that the writers started to depart from the conventions of the novel writing and experimented with some new forms. Hence，it is referred to as “new fiction，”with Kurt Vonnegut，Joseph Heller，John Bath，and Thomas Pynchon at its forefront. Roughly speaking，these writers shared the same belief that human beings are trapped in a meaningless world and that neither God nor man can make sense of the human condition. What’s more，this absurdist vision is integrated with an absurd form，which is characterized by comic exaggerations，ironic uses of parodies，multiple realities，often two-dimensional characters，and a combination of fantastic events with realistic presentations.g. Literature of ethnic groups：More recently American literature is alive with a diversity of interests. Writers from different ethnic and multicultural backgrounds，including women writers，African-Americans，Asian-Americans，and Indian-Americans，are beginning to make their voices heard and they are writing about American experience and consciousness from quite a fresh outlook，hence，bringing vitality to the American literary imagination.3.The literary characteristics of American modern literature：1) Theme：In general terms，much serious literature written from 1912 onwards attempted to convey a vision of social breakdown and mora1 decay and t he writer’s task was to develop techniques that could represent a break with the past. Thus，the defining formal characteristics of the modernistic works are discontinuity and fragmentation.2) Technical experimentation：An awareness of the irrational and the workings of the unconscious mind are pervasive in much modernistic writing. Technically，modernism was marked by a persistent experimentalism. It rejected the traditional framework of narrative，description，and rational exposition in poetry and prose，in favor of a stream of consciousness presentation of personality，a dependence on the poetic image as the essential vehicle of aesthetic communication，and upon myth as a characteristic structural principle.Compared with earlier writings，modern American writings are notable for what they omit ——the explanations，interpretations，connections，and summaries. There are shifts in perspective，voice，and tone，but the biggest shift is from the external to the internal，from the public to the private，from the chronological to the psychic，from the objective description to the subjective projection. Modern American writers in general emphasize the concrete sensory images or details as the direct conveyer of experience. They strive for directness，compression，and vividness and are sparing of words. Modern fiction prefer suggestiveness and tend to employ the first person narration or limit the reader to the “central consciousness” or one character’s point of view. This limitation accorded with the modernistic vision that truth does not exist objectively but is the product of a personal interaction with reality. As a result，the effect of modern American writings is surprising，unsettling。
自考英美文学选读要点总结整理出考点26位作家完整
英美文学选读要点总结精心整理(只考26位作家)[英国』Chapter1 The Renaissance period（14世纪至十七世纪中叶）文艺复兴1. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.人文主义是文艺复兴的核心。
2. the Greek and Roman civilization was based on such a conception that man is the measure of all things.人文主义作为文艺复兴的起源是因为古希腊罗马文明的基础是以“人”为中心，人是万物之灵。
3. Renaissance humanists found in then classics a justification to exalt human nature and came to see that human beings were glorious creatures capable of individual development in the direction of perfection, and that the world they inhabited was theirs not to despise but to question, explore, and enjoy.人文主义者们却从古代文化遗产中找到充足的论据，来赞美人性，并开始注意到人类是崇高的生命，人可以不断发展完善自己，而且世界是属于他们的，供他们怀疑，探索以及享受。
4. Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanists.托马斯.摩尔，克利斯朵夫.马洛和威廉.莎士比亚是英国人文主义的代表。
英美文学选读应用
《英美文学选读》应用English LiteratureChapter One The Renaissance PeriodI. Shakespeare’s sonnets1. With a few exceptions, Shakespeare writes his sonnets in the popular English form of three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet usually ties the sonnet to one of the general themes, leaving the quatrains free to develop the poetic intensity.2. The sonnet’s most common themes concern the destructive effects of time, the quickness of physical decay, and the loss of beauty, vigor, and love. Although the poems celebrate life, they are always with a keen awareness of death.3. His sonnet 18 expresses that beautiful things can rely on the force of literature to reach eternity. Literature is created by man, thus it declares man’s eternity. The poem shows the mighty self-confidence of the newly class. The vivid, variable and rich images reflect the lively and adventurous spirits of those who were opening new world.II. Shakespeare’s A Merchant of Venice1. Theme(1) Justice vs. mercy: Shakespeare suggests that all men should be merciful. There is a further aspect of justice—the injustice revealed in the Christians’ treatment of the Jews.(2) Appearance vs. reality: e.g. superficial or external beauty vs. moral or spiritual beauty or truth (in the case of three caskets); the letters of law vs. the spirit of the law.(3) Commercial or material values vs. love: True love is much more worthwhile than money and material values. Antonio epitomizes true love in his friendship for Bassanio.2. The character analysis of ShylockShylock is a Jewish usurer, and he is a tragic-comic character.He is comic because he finally becomes the one punished by his own evil deed. He is avaricious. He accumulates as much wealth as he can and he even equates his lost daughter with his lost money. He is also cruel. In order to revenge, he would rather claim a pound of flesh from his enemy Antonio than get back his loan.He is tragic, because he is the victim of the society. As a Jew, he is not treated equally by the society. The law is harsh to him. He has to make as much money as he can in order to protect him. He is abused by Antonio, so he wants to get revenge.III. The character analysis of HamletHamlet is a scholar and a warrior. His father has been killed by his uncle, Claudius, who then take the throne and marries his mother. Hamlet is informed by the ghost of his father to take revenge, but the weakness of indecisiveness or indetermination in his character always delay his action, and finally leads to his tragic fall of death. Hamlet is not a man of action, but a man of thinking at first. He hesitates at some crucial moments. At last when he is forced to take some actions, he does kill Claudius gloriously, but he also sacrifices his own life.V. Milton’s Paradise Lost :1.Structure: The story is taken from the Old Testament. It extends chronologically from the exaltation of Christ before the creature of universe to the second coming of Christ. Geographically, it ranges over the entire world.2. The character analysis of Satan:He has the strength, the courage and the capacity for leadership, but he devoted all those qualities to evil. His defiance of God shows his egoistic pride, his false conception of freedom, and his alienation from all good. His own evil and damnation give him potentially tragic dimensions. Therefore, Satan is enveloped in dramatic irony because he fight in ignorance of the unshakable power of God and goodness.3.Features: Parallel and contrastThe central conflict and contrast between good and evil are intensified by the contrast between heaven and hell, light and darkness, love and hate, reason and passion, etc.Chapter Two The Neo-classical PeriodIII. The social satire of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s TravelsThe account of Lilliputian life, especially the games for people at court, alludes to the similar ridiculous practices or tricks in the English government. The description of the competition in the games before the royal members leads to the fact that the success of those government officials such as the Prime Minister lies not in their being any wiser or better but in their being more dexterous in the game. This alludes to the practices in England. And the pompous words singing of the Lilliputian emperor ridicule the aristocratic arrogance and vanity.IV. Henry Fielding and his Tom JonesIt is a good example of “comic epic in prose”. Fielding describes the fight between Molly and the villagers and her fistfight with Goody Brown in the grand style of the Homeric epic. He first of all calls on the Muses to assist him in recounting the fight as if it were of great historical importance. Like Homer who would list names of gods involved in the battle, he lists the names of the villagers. He treats Molly as a great hero at battle, an “Amazonian heroine”. Besides, he uses a mock-epic tone and seems very solemn about what he is describing. He uses formal words and refined language. Finally, he makes use of different figures of speech, particularly, irony and hyperbole.Chapter Three The Romantic PeriodI. Wor dsworth and his “I wandered lonely as a cloud”The poem is crystal clear and lucid. Below the immediate surface, we find that all the realistic details of the flowers, the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the realistic details of the active joy, are absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor, the recurrent image of the dance. The flowers, the stars, the waves are units in this dancing pattern of order in diversity, of linked eternal harmony and vitality. Through the revelation and recognition of his kinship with nature, the poet himself becomes as it were a part of the whole cosmic dance.II. Shelley and his “Ode to the West Wind”In the poem, Shelley eulogizes the west wind as a powerful phenomenon of nature that is both destroyer and preserver. The w ind enjoys boundless freedom and has the power to spread messages far and wide. The keynote in the poem is Shelley’s ever-present wish for himself and his fellow men to share the freedom of the west wind, remembering meanwhile his own and common human miseries. And the dominant mood is that of hope rather than despair, as the poet is hoping for the realization of the freedom and joy. The optimism expressed in the last two lines show the poet’s critical attitude toward the ugly social reality and his faith in a bright future for humanity.IV. The character analysis of Elizabeth in Jane Austen’s Pride and PrejudiceElizabeth is a beautiful young lady in the Bennets. She is intelligent, contrasting her empty-minded, snobbish and vulgar mother. She is a women of distinct character. She is not passive, but pursue her true love bravely. She turns down Mr. Collin’s marriage proposal and seeking her happiness with Darcy, the one she possesses true affection for her. She is also courageous. When Darcy’s aunt lady co mes to force her into a promise of never consenting to marry Darcy, she boldly challenges her authority, contempt and arrogance. On the whole, Elizabeth is a typical image of the good, attractive lady in the 19th century.Chapter Four The Victorian PeriodI. The features of Charles Dickens1. His critical realism: While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the 18th-century realist novel, he carried the duty to the criticism of the society and the defense of the mass.2. He is a mas ter storyteller. With his first sentence, he engages the reader’s attention and holds it to the end.3. What he writes is mainly the middle and lower-middle class life in London.4. He is a master of language with a large vocabulary and an adeptness with the vernacular.5. He is a great humorist as well as a great painter of pathos. He always mingles the two to make his fictional world realistic.6. His characters are not only true to life but also large than life. There are both individual characters and type characters.II. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre1. Theme: The novel sharply criticizes the religious hypocrisy of charity institutions like Lowood School, where girls are trained to be humble slaves. It rebukes the social discrimination and false convention about love and marriage. Besides, the novel is a moral fable. It tells us that people have to go through all kinds of physical or moral tests to obtain their final happiness.2. The character analysis of Jane Eyre: Jane Eyre is an orphan child with a fiery spirit and a longing to love and be loved. She is poor and plain, but she dares to love her master, a man superior to her in many ways, as a little governess. She is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him. She cuts a completely new women image. She represents those middle-class working women who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being.III. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Height1. The novel is an extraordinary moving love story: the passion between Heathcliff and Catherine is the most intense, beautiful, and the most horrible passions ever found among human beings.2. It is also a work of critical realism. Heathcliff is abused, rejected and distorted by the society only because he is a poor orphan of obscure parents. He suffers all kinds of inhuman treatment after the death of his benefactor. He loves Catherine dearly but forced to be separated from her. So, Heathcliff’s cruel revenge upon his enemies is justified in a way.3. The author makes clear that it is wrong to discriminate on the basis of social status, and it is cruel and destructive to break genuine, natural human passions. Although Catherine and Edgar’s marriage is ideal in the eyes of the whole neighborhood, her love for Heathcliff is hard and everlasting.Chapter Five The Modern PeriodI. The features of Shaw’s plays:1. Problem plays: He took the modern social issues as his subject with the aim of directing social reforms. Most of his plays are concerned with political, economic, or religious problems.2. In his characterization, he makes the tricks of showing up one character vividly at the expense of another. His characters are the representatives of ideas, which shift and alter during the play.3. The strong sense of comedy in his play are achieved through his witty dialogues, sharp satires, and vivid portrayal of characters.II. The theme of Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s profession1. The play is not only moral, but also has a strong realistic theme. The guilt for prostitution lies more upon the social system than immoral woman. He shows all human sufferings are consequences of the economic exploitation.2. The play is a spiritual triumph for Vivie who experiences a journey from illusion to reality. At first, she is ignorant of the evil, and through a series of temptations, she understands the capitalist world better.IV. T. S. Eliot’s “The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock”Written in the form of monologue, the poem is the song of a being divided between passion and timidity. It is about the impotence and futility of a modern everyman and his existence. Prufrock is an interesting tragic figure. He is a man caught in a sense of defeated idealism and tortured by unsatisfied desire. He does not dare to seek love because even if he could find it, it would not satisfy his needs. He compares himself with Hamlet. As a result of his timidity he has become incapable of action of any sort.V. D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers1. Theme: Sociologically, it is a novel about modern civiliza tion, the “sickness of a whole civilization”. Psychologically, it isa case study of the Oedipus complex theory, for it deals with a son who loves the mother too dearly and hates the father too despisingly. The psychic conflict (between dark self and white self) in human relationships is the central theme of the novel.2. The character analysis of Paul Morel:He is a light, quick, slender boy. From his childhood, he is especially sensitive, artistic and imaginative, and he becomes extraordinarily dependent on his mother. When he gets older, his distorted relationship with his mother prevents him from loving girls as fully as he feels he should. Besides, Paul is also an artist, and a likeable young man adored by many girls.VI. The features of stream of consciousness1. The unspoken thoughts and feelings of their characters are described without resorting to objective description or conventional dialogue.2. The flux of a character’s thoughts, impressions, emotions are often shown without logical sequence or syntax.American LiteratureChapter one : The romantic periodII. Hawthorne’s Puritanism and his black vision of man:1. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puristans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the church of England.2. his black vision of man—by the Calvinistic concept of original sin, he believed that human being are evil natured and sinful, and this sin is ever present in human heart and will pass one generation to another.3. Young Goodman Brown—it shows that everyone has some evil secrets. The innocent and naïve Brown is confronted with the vision of human evil in one terrible night, and then he becomes distrustful and doubtful. Brown stands for everyone ,who is born pure and has no contact with the real world ,and the prominent people of the village and church. They cover their secrets during daily lives, and under some circumstances such as the witch’s Sabbath, they become what they are. Even his closed wife, Faith, is no exception. So Brown is aged in that night.III. The symbolism of Melville’s Mobby-Dick1.The voyage to catch the white whale is the one of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of universe.2. To Ahab, the whale is an evil creature or the agent of an evil force that control the universe. As to readers, the whale is a symbol of physical limits, or a symbol of nature. It also can stand for the ultimate mystery of the universe and the wall behind which unknown malicious things are hiding.IV. Whitman and his Leaves of Grass :1. Theme: sing of the “en-mass” and the self / pursuit of love, happiness, and sexual love / sometimes about politics (Drum taps)2. Whitman’s originality first in his use of the poetic form free verse (i.e. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rh yme scheme),by means of which he becomes conversational and casual.3.He uses the first person pronoun “I” to stress individualism, and oral language to acquire sympathy from the common reader.Chapter two : The realistic periodI. The character analysis and social meaning of Huck Finn in Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark TwainHuck is a typical American boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”. He appears to be vulgar in language and in manner, but he is honest and decent i n essence. His remarkable raft’s journey down on the Mississippi river can be regarded as his process of education and his way to grow up. At first, he stands by slavery, for he clings to the idea that if he lets go the slave, he will be damned to go to he ll. And when the “King” sells Jim for money, Huck decides to inform Jim’s master. After he thinks of the past good time when Jim and he are on the raft where Jim shows great care and deep affection for him, he decide to rescue Jim. And Huck still thinks he is wrong while he is doing the right thing.Huck is the son of nature and a symbol for freedom and earthly pragmatism. Through the eye of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed. Twain contrasts the life on the river and the life on the banks, the innocence and the experience, the nature and the culture, the wilderness and the civilization.II. Daisy Miller by Henry James1. Theme: The novel is a story about American innocence defeated by the stiff, traditional values of Europe. James condemns the American failure to adopt expressive manners intelligently and point out the false believing that a good heart is readily visible to all. The death of Daisy results from the misunderstanding between people with different cultural backgrounds.2. The character analysis of Daisy: She represents typical American girl, who is uninformed and without the mature guidance. Ignorance and parental indulgence combine to foster he assertive self-confidence and fierce willfulness. She behaves in the same daring naive way in Europe as she does at home. When someone is against her, she becomes more contrary. She knows that she means no harm and is amazed that anyone should think she does. She does not compromise to the European manners.3. The character analysis of Winterbourne: He is a Europeanized American, who has live too long in foreign parts. He is very experience and has a problem understanding Daisy. He endeavors to put her in sort of formula, i.e. to classify her.III. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser:1. Theme: The author invented the success of Carrie and the downfall of Hurstwood out of an inevitable and natural judgment, because the fittest can survive in a competitive, amoral society according to the social Darwinism.2. The character analysis of Carrie: She follows the right direction to a pursuit of the American dream, and the circumstances and her desire for a better life direct to the successful goal. But she is not contented, because with wealth and fame, she still finds herself lonely. She is a product of the society, a realization of the theory of the survival of the fittest.3. The character analysis of Hurstwood: He is a negative evidence of the theory of the survival of the fittest. Because he is still conventional and can not throw away the social morals, he is not fitted to live in New York.Chapter three : The Modern PeriodI. Ezra Pound and his theory of Imagism1. The principles: a. direct treatment of the thing; b. to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation; c. to compose in the sequence of the musical; d. to use the language of common speech and the exact word; e. to create new rhythms; f. absolutely freedom in the choice of subject.2. Imagism is to present an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. An imagistic poem must present the object exactly the way the thing is seen. And the reader can form the image of the object through the process of reading the abstract and concrete words.II. Frost and his poetry on nature:Frost is deeply interested in nature and in men’s relationship to nature. Nature appears as an explicator and a mediator for man and serve as the center of reference of his behavior. Peace and order can be found in Frost’s poetical natural world. With surface simplicity of his poems, the thematic concerns are always presented in rich symbols. Therefore his work resists easy interpretation.III. F. Scott Fitzgerald and his The Great Gatsby1. Theme: Gatsby is American Everyman. His extraordinary energy and wealth make him pursue the dream. His death in the end points at the truth about the withering of the American Dream. The spiritual and moral sterility that has resulted from the withered American Dream is fully revealed in the article. However, although he is defeated, the dream has gave Gatsby a dignity and a set of qualities. His hope and belief in the promise of future makes him the embodiment of the values of the incorruptible American Dream .2. The character analysis of Gatsby: Gatsby is great, because he is dignified and ennobled by his dream and his mythic vision of life. He has the desire to repeat the past, the desire for money, and the desire for incarnation of unutterable vision on this material earth. For Gatsby, Daisy is the soul of his dreams. He believe he can regain Daisy and romantically rebels of time. Although he has the wealth that can match with the leisured class, he does not have their manners. His tragedy lies in his possession of a naive sense and chivalry.IV. Ernest Hemingway’s artistic features:1. The Hemingway code heroes and grace under pressure:They have seen the cold world ,and for one cause, they boldly and courageously face the reality. They has an indestructible spirit for his optimistic view of life. Whatever is the result is, the are ready to live with grace under pressure. No matter how tragic the ending is, they will never be defeated. Finally, they will be prevail because of their indestructible spirit and courage.2.The iceberg technique:Hemingway believe that a good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or action. The one-eighth the is presented will suggest all other meaningful dimensions of the story. Thus, Hemingway’s language is symbolic and suggestive.V. The character analysis of Emily in A Rose for Emily:Emily is a symbol of old values, standing for tradition, duty and past glory. But she is also a victim to all those she cares and embrace. The source of Emily’s strangeness is from her born pride and self-esteem, the domineering behavior of her father and the betrayal of her lover. Barricaded in her house, she has frozen the past to protect her dreams. Her life is tragic because the defiance of the community, her refusal to accept the change and her extreme pride have pushed her to abnormality and insanity.。
自学考试英美文学选读要点中英文概要
1234代价,与敌人同归于尽。
51. In his life, Milton shows himself a real revolutionary, a master poet and a great prose writer. 弥尔顿毕生都展现了真正的革命精神和非凡的诗歌才华。
52. Paradise Lost:人类由于理性不强,意志薄弱,经不起考验,暗示英国自产主义革命失败的原因。
Chapter2 The Neoclassical Period(1660-1798新古典主义1. In short, it was an age full of conflicts and divergence of values. 总之, 这一时期是矛盾与价值观分歧的时期。
2. The eighteenth-century England is also known as the Age of Enlighte nment or the Age of Reason. 英国的十八世纪也同时是启蒙主义时代, 或曰理性时代。
3. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas. 运动的主旨便是用当代哲学与艺术思想的晨光启迪整个世界。
4. Enlighteners held that rationality or reason should be the only, the fin al cause of any human thought and activities. They called for a referenc e to order, reason and rules. 启蒙者主张理性是任何人思想与行动的唯一缘由。
他们大力提倡秩序,理性及法律。
5. As a matter of fact, literature at the time, heavily didactic and moralizi ng, becamea very popular means of public education. 其实, 当时的文学作品种充满了说教与道德理念,就已经成为大众教育的良好工具。
新大纲自考《英美文学选读》笔记总结-背完必过
新大纲自考《英美文学选读》笔记总结-背完必过(总65页)--本页仅作为文档封面，使用时请直接删除即可----内页可以根据需求调整合适字体及大小--《英美文学选读》笔记背完必过Part One: English LiteratureAn Introduction to Old and Medieval English LiteratureI Understanding and application: (理解应用)1. England’s inhabitants are Celts. And it is conquered by Romans, Anglo Saxons and Normans. The Anglo-Saxons brought the Germanic language and culture to England, while Normans brought the Mediterranean civilization, including Greek culture, Rome law and the Christian religion. It is the cultural influence of these two conquests that provided the source for the rise and growth of English literature.2. The old English literature extends from about 450 to 1066, the year of the Norman conquest of England.3. The old English poetry that has survived can be divided into two groups: The religious group and the secular one4. Beowulf: a typical example of Old English poetry is regarded as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. It is an example of the mingling of nature myths and heroic legends.5. After the Norman’s conquest, three languages co-existed in England. French is the official language that is used by king and the Norman lords. Latin is the principal tongue of church affairs and in universities. Old English was spoken only by the common English people.6. In the second half of 14th century, English literature started to flourish with the appearance of writers like Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, John Gower, and othersII Recite: (识记再现)1. Romance:①It uses narrative verse or prose to sing knightly adventures or other heroic deeds is a popular literary form in the medieval period.②It has developed the characteristic medieval motifs of the quest, the test, the meeting with the evil giant and the encounter with the beautiful beloved.③The hero is usually the knight, who sets out on a journey to accomplish some missions. There are often mysteries and fantasies in romance.④Romantic love is an important part of the plot in romance.Characterization is standardized, While the structure is loose and episodic, the language is simple and straightforward.⑤The importance of the romance itself can be seen as a means of showing medieval aristocratic men and women in relation to their idealized view of the world.2. Heroic couplet:Heroic couplet is a rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter. It is Chaucer who used it for the first time in English in his work The Legend of Good Woman.3. The theme of Beowulf:The poem presents a vivid picture of how the primitive people wage heroic struggles against the hostile forces of the natural world under a wise and mighty leader. The poem is an example of the mingling of the nature myths and heroic legends.4. The Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales:The Wife of Bath is depicted as the new bourgeois wife asserting her independence. Chaucer develops his characterization to a higher artistic level by presenting characters with both typical qualities and individual dispositions.5. Chaucer’s achievement:①He presented a comprehensive realistic picture of his age and created a whole gallery of vivid characters in his works, especially in The Canterbury Tales.②He anticipated a new ear, the Renaissance, to come under the influence of the Italian writers.③He developed his characterization to a higher level by presenting characters with both typical qualities and individual dispositions.④He greatly contributed to the maturing of English poetry. Today, Chaucer’s reputation has beensecurely established as one of the best English poets for his wisdom, humor and humanity.6. “The F ather of English poetry”:Originally, Old English poems are mainly alliterative verses with few variations.①Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry to replace it.②In The Romaunt of the Rose (玫瑰传奇), he first introduced to the English the octosyllabic couplet (八音节对偶句).③In The Legend of Good Women, he used for the first time in English heroic couplet.④And in his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, he employed heroic couplet with true ease and charmfor the first time in the history of English literature.⑤His art made him one of the greatest poets in English; John Dryden called him “the father of Englishpoetry”.【例题】The work that presented, for the first time in English literature, a comprehensive realistic picture of the medieval English society and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life is most likely ______________. (0704)A. William Langland’s Piers PlowmanB. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury TalesC. John Gower’s Confession AmantisD. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight【答案】B【解析】本题考查的是中世纪时期几位诗人作品的创作主题和创作范围。
自考英美文学选读00604考前串讲(8)
英美文学考前串讲（8）AMERICAN LITERATUREChapter 2 The Realistic PeriodI. Choose the right answer:1. Emily Dickinson was sometimes curious about the feeling of speech of death and in one of her poems she wrote about the______of death, the title of the poem is "I heard a Fly buzz when I died".A. momentB. sufferingC. happinessD. meaningAnswer: A (P518)2. Theodore Dreiser belonged to the school of literary ______which emphasized heredity and environment as important deterministic forces shaping individualized characters who were presented in special and detailed circumstances.A. naturalismB. realismC. determinismD. humanismAnswer: A (P524)3. More than five hundred poems that Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general _____about the relationship between man and nature is well expressed.A. scepticismB. eulogyC. happinessD. denialAnswer: A (P518)4. "This is my letter to the World" is a poem expressing Emily Dickinson’s _____about her communication with the outside world.A. happinessB. angerC. anxietyD. sorrowAnswer: C (P520)5. Though secluded herself in her own house, Emily Dickinson was never really indifferent of the outside world, as could be seen in her poems such as "I like to see it lap the Miles", which describes a(n) ______, an embodiment of modern civilization.A. snakeB. animalC. the roadD. trainAnswer: D (P521)6. After "The Adventure of Tom Sawyer", Twain gives a literary independence to Tom’s buddy Huck in a book called_____, and the book from which "all modern American literature comes".A. Life on the Mississippi RiverB. The Gilded AgeC. Adventures of Huckleberry FinnD. The Sun Also RisesAnswer: C (P479---480)7. Winterbourne is used as a ______in Henry James’s "Daisy Miller".A. ProtagonistB. Narrator of the eventsC. A character of central consciousnessD. PersonaAnswer: C (P499)8. Emily Dickinson’s verse is most aptly characterized as ___________.A. exposing the evils of the societyB. paving the way for the following generation of free verse poetsC. sharing the same poetic conventions as Walt WhitmanD. exhibiting sensitiveness to the symbolic implications of experience, such as love, death, immortality and etc.Answer: D (P518)9. The author of "The Portrait of a Lady" is best at_______.A. probing into the unsearched secret part of human lifeB. a truthful delineation of the motives, the impulses, the principles that shape the lives of actual men and women.C. a dramatizing the collisions between two very different cultural systems on an international sceneD. disclosing the social injustices and evils of a civilized society after the Civil War. Answer: C (P496)10. The period ranging from 1865 to 1914 has been referred to as _____________.A. the Age of RealismB. the Age of ModernismC. the Age of RomanticismD. the Age of ColonicalismAnswer: A (P471)11. Who exerts the simple most important influence on literary naturalism?A. EmersonB. Jack LondonC. Theodore DreiserD. DarwinAnswer: D (P475)12. One of the most familiar themes in American naturalism is the theme of human "______".A. bestialityB. goodnessC. compassionD. greedAnswer: A (P476)13. ______is considered by H.L. Mencken as "the true father of our national literature."A. HemingwayB. PoeC. IrvingD. TwainAnswer: D (P477)14. Mark Twain wrote most of his literary works with a _______language.A. grandB. pompousC. simpleD. vernacularAnswer: D (P481)15. Henry James’s fame generally rests upon his novels and stories with________.A. international themeB. national themeC. European themeD. Regional themeAnswer: A (P497)16. In the following writers, who is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th century "Stream-of-consciousness" novels and the founder of psychological realism______________.A. Henry JamesB. Mark TwainC. Emily DickensonD. Theodore DreiserAnswer: A (P498)17. In Henry James’ "Daisy Miller", the author tries to portray the young woman as an embodiment of ___________.A. the corruption of the newly richB. the free spirit of the New WorldC. the decline of aristocracyD. the force of conventionAnswer: B (P499)18. Which of the following is NOT a usual subject of poetic expression of Emily Dickinson’s?A. War and peaceB. Love and marriageC. Life and deathD. ReligionAnswer: A (P517)19. The following titles are all related to the subject that escapes from the society and returns to nature except__________.A. Dreiser’s Sister CarrieB. Copper’s Leather-Stocking TalesC. Thoreau’s WaldenD. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnAnswer: A (P401 / P526)20. The greatest work written by Theodore Dreiser is__________.A. Sister CarrieB. An American TragedyC. The FinancierD. The TitanAnswer: B (P525)21. Closely related to Emily Dickinson’s religious poetry are her poems concerning ___________.A. ChildhoodB. Youth and happinessC. LonelinessD. Death and immortalityAnswer: D (518)22. With Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the literary scene, _________became the major trend in American literature in the seventies and eighties of the 19th century.A. sentimentalismB. romanticismC. realismD. naturalismAnswer: C (P474)。
英美文学选读要点总结精心整理3
【美国】Chapter 1 The Romantic Period浪漫主义时期1. From the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of he Civil War. It started with the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. It is also called “the Americ an Renaissance”.浪漫主义时期开始于十八世纪末，到内战爆发为止，华盛顿.欧文出版的《见闻札记》标志着美国文学的开端，惠特曼的《草叶集》是浪漫主义时期文学的压卷之作。
（也可称为“美国德文艺复兴”）2. The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature.对逃离社会，回归自然的渴求成为美国文学的一个永恒的话题。
3. The American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values.美国清教作为一种文化遗产，对美国人的道德观念产生了很大的影响。
4. Besides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of original sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesser writers. 在霍桑，麦尔维尔以及其他一些小作家的作品种加尔文主义的原罪思想和罪恶的神秘性都得到了充分的表现。
英美文学各章学习重点
英美文学各章学习重点英国文学—The old and medieval periods1．Beowuf这部作品Romance是这个时期最流行的文学形式；Chaucer第一个引进“英雄偶句”诗体。
Beowulf（贝奥武甫(八世纪初的一篇古英语史诗; 该史诗中的主角)）, a typical example of old English poetry, is regarded today as the national epic (民族史诗)of the Anglo-Saxons. Literary position: The poem was originally in an oral form, it is written down in the 10th century. Thematically the poem presents a vivid picture of how the primitive people wage heroic struggles against the hostile forces of the natural world under a wise and mighty leader.Romance (骑士抒情诗)，a popular literary form in the medieval period) uses narrative verse or prose to sing knightly adventures or other heroic deeds, whose motifs（主题, 主旨）of the quest is for truth, beauty and kindness.Chaucer(乔叟): whose masterpiece is The Canterbury Tales 《坎特伯雷故事集》. The famous character of his works is the Wife of Bath. Chaucer employed the heroic coupletverse form (英雄双韵诗形式) with true ease and charm for the first time in the history of English literature. He is the father of English poetry.英国文学—The renaissance periods 1.《仙后》一部寓言(allegory), 人物象征意义与主题.The Faerie is an allegory.The Red-crosse Knight stands for St.George, the patron saint of England, and he also represent Holiness.A lovely Ladie, virgin Una, symbolizes the thruth or the true faith of religion.A milke white lambe reprents the God.Dragon and infernall feend refer the SatanThe theme is not “Arms and the man,” but something more romantic—“fiece warres and faithful loves”.2. 斯宾塞的诗歌特点The five main quailites of spenser’spoetry are:1) a perfect melody;2) a rare sense of beauty;3) a splendid imagination;4) a lofty purity and seriousness;5) a dedicated idealism.3.《浮士德》的主题Dr. Faustus is a play based on theGerman legend of a magician aspiringfor knowledge and finally meeting histragic end as a result of selling his soulto the Devil. The play’s dominantmoral is human than religious. Itcelebrates the human passion forknowledge, power and happiness; italso reveals man’s frustration inrealizing the high aspiration in ahostile moral order. And theconfinement to time is the cruelest factof man’s condition.4.《威尼丝商人》的故事及主题The play has a double plot:1) Bassanio——Portia2) Antonio——ShylockThe traditional theme of the playis to praise the friendship betweemAntonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of greate beaulity, wit and loyalty, and to expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew. Tody, many people tend to regard the play as a satire of the christians’hypocrisy and their false standards of frindship and love, their cunning way of pursuing worldliness(俗心, 俗气)and their unreasoning prejudice against Jews.5．Milton的三部作品Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes.英国文学—The neoclassical periods 1．Bunyan的《天路历程》是一部寓言(allegory)，其主题及《名利场》的寓意The Pilgrim’s Progress is themost successful religious allegory in the English language. Its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggle with their own weakness and all kinds of social evils. Its predominant metaphor —life as a journey — is simple and familiar. The objects that Christian meets are homely and commonplace, and the scence presented a typical Englishones, but throughout the allegory a spiritual signifiance is added to the commonplace details.The Vanity Fair symbolizeshuman world, for “All that cometh is vanity.”Everything and anything inthis world is “vanity”, having no value and no meaning. The Vanity Fair, a “marcket selling nothingness” of all sorts, is a dirty place originally built up by devils, but, this town “lay” in the way to the Celestial City, meaning pilgrims had to resist the tempatations there way through. So, the depiction of the “Fair” in selling things worldly and in attracting people bad, represents John Bunyan’s rejection of the worldly seekings and pious longing for the pure and charming “Celestial City” his Christian ideal.2．鲁宾逊的意义Robinson is here a real hero: atypical eighteenth-century Enlish middle-class man, with a great capacity for work, inexhaustible energy, courage, patience and persistence in overcoming obstacles, in stuggling against the hostile natural environment. He is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist.3．Gulliver’s Travel的四个部分The book contains four parts.The first part —— LilliputThe second part —— BrobdingnagThe third part —— flying IslandThe fourth part —— Houyhnhnmland, YahooAs a whole, the book is one of themost effcetive and devastatingcriticisms and satires of all aspects inthen English and European life —socially, politically, religiously,philosophically, scientifically, andmorally.4．Fielding的贡献Fielding has been regarded by some as “Father of the English Novel”.He was first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specifically a “comic epic in prose,” the first to give the modern novel its structure and syle. Before him, the relating of a story in a novel was either the Episolary form or the picaresque form, but fielding adopted “the third-person narration,” in which the author become the “all-knowing God”.英国文学—The romantic periods 1．Blake青春之歌与经验之歌的比较The Song of Innocence is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and suffering.His Songs of Experiecnce paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with melancholy tone.The two “Chimney Sweeper” poems are good examples toreveal the relation between an economic circumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor, and an ideological circumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making compiant to exploitation. The poem from the Songs of Innocence indicates the conditions which make religion a consolation, a prospect(景色, 前景)of “illusory happiness;” the poem from the Songs of the Experience reveals the true nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor child.2．拜伦式英雄Buyron’s chief contribution is his creation of the “Byronic hero,” a proud, mysterious rebel figu re of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burdens of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustilbeenergies.3．KEATS的希腊古瓮颂的主题Ode on an grecian Urn shows thecontrast between the permanence of artand the transcience of human passion.4．奥丝丁的三种婚姻观Stories of love and marriageprovide the major theme in all JaneAusten’s novels, in which femalechatacters are always playing an activepart. In their pursuit of a marriage,they ate usually categorize into threetypes according to their differentattitudes: those who would marry for material wealth and social position, those who would marry just for beauty and passion, and those who would marry for true love with a consideration of the partn er’s personal merit as well ad his economical and social status.5.《傲慢与偏见》的故事及主题Pride and Prejudice mainly tellsof the love story between a rich, pround young man Darcy and the beautiful and intelligent Elizaeth Bennet. None of the daughters can inherit the estate of the family for it has been entailed upon the nearest male heir, Willian Collins, Collins intends to marry and he decides to shoose Elizabeth as a way of making amends for inheriting the family’s estate. Collins is a preposterous(荒谬的) suitor, and Elizabeth rejects the proposal. Another young man called Darcy proposes her, but she has prejudice against him because she thinks that he has nothing but pride. After many twists and turns, they are happily united. This book tells us a great deal about attitude toward marriage in Austen’s time.Stories of love and marriageprovide the major themes in all her novels, Jane Austen tries to say that it is wrong to marry just for money or for beauty, but it is also wrong to marry without it.as it is said in the book that it is a truth universally acknowledged that a singe man in possession of a good foutune must be in want of a wife.英国文学—The victorian periods 1．Dickens小说的3种角色类型及创作生涯。
英美文学选读美国2.The Realistic Period
●The Realistic Period1. What is local colorism in American literature?A. Mark Twain, Sarah Orne Jewett and Joseph Kirkland are the representative of local colorists whose writings are concerned with the life of a small, well defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town.B. These local colorists, especially Mark Twain, preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, and other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on.C. This particular concern about the local character of a region came about as "local colorism", a unique variation of American literary realism.2. The literary school of naturalism was quite popular in the late 19th century. What are the major characteristics of naturalism?A. Strongly influenced by social Darwinism, naturalism emphasizes t和determining power of the crushing forces of environment and heredity.B. Being devoid of the freedom of choice and incapable of shaping their own destinies, men and women are helpless and insignificant in a cold and indifferent world.C. The naturalistic writers reported truthfully and objectively, with a passion for scientific accuracy and overwhelming accumulation of factual detail.3. What are the similarities and differences between the three literary giants, Howells, Mark Twain, Henry James, in terms of their literary orientation?A. They are the three dominant figures of the Realistic Period. Together they brought to fulfillment native trends in the realistic portrayal of the landscape and social surfaces, brought to perfection the vernacular style, and explored and exploited literary possibilities of the interior life.B. Together in short, they set the example and charted the future course for the subject, themes, techniques and styles of fiction we still call modern.C. Howells focused his discussion on the rising middle class .and the way they lived. Mark Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories. While Henry James had apparently laid a greater emphasis on the "inner world" of man.4. Why are naturalists inevitably pessimistic in their view?A. Naturalism was greatly influenced by Darwin's evolutionary theory and French literature.B. Naturalists accepted the more negative implications of Darwin’s theory and use it to count for the behavior of those characters in literary works who were conceived as more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.C. Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author's tone in writing becomesless serious and less sympathetic but moreironic and more pessimistic.◆Mark Twain(The Celebrated JumpingFrog of Calaveras County//InnocentsAbroad//The Gilded Age)1. Mark Twain and Henry James are tworepresentatives of the realistic writers inAmerican literature. How is Twain'srealism different from James’s realism?A. Mark Twain's realism is tainted withlocal color, preferring, to have his ownregion and people at the forefront of hisstories.B. James's realism is concerned with the"inner world" of man.C. James's realism is also concerned withthe international theme.D. Twain's language is simple andcolloquial.E. Twain employs humor in h is writingF. James's language is elaborate and refinedwith lengthy psychological analyses.2. What is the language style of MarkTwain?A. Use of vernacular made colloquialspeech an accepted, respected literarymedium in literary history.B. Words: colloquial, concrete and direct ineffect;C. Sentence structures: simple, evenungrammaticalD. Local colorism: his characters areconfined to a particular region and to aparticular historical moment; speak with astrong accent; different characters fromdifferent background talk differently.3. In American literature what is thesignificance of Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn by Mark Twain?The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and,especially, its sequence Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn proved themselves to bethe milestone in American literature, andthus firmly established Twain's position inthe literary world.The childhood of Tom Sawyer and HuckFinn in the Mississippi is a record of avanished way of life in the pre-Civil WarMississippi valley and it has movedmillions of people of different ages andconditions all over the world.Huckleberry Finn marks the climax ofTwain's literary creativity. Hemingwayonce described the novel the one bookforms which “a modern American literaturecomes".4. Briefly discuss Mark Twain's art offiction in terms of the setting, thelanguage and the characters, etc. , basedon his novel Adventures of HuckleberryFinn.A. Mark Twain uses the Mississippi valleyas his fictional kingdom, writing about thelandscape and people, the customs and thedialects of one particular region, and istherefore known as a local colorist.B. He creates life-like characters, especiallythe conventional Huckleberry Finn, whoruns away from civilization and standsopposite to conventional morality.C. He uses a simple, direct vernacularlanguage, totally different from anyprevious literary language. It is the kind ofcolloquial language belonging to the lowerclass, the living local American English.D. He has created a special humor tosatirize social injustices and the decayedconvention.5. Summarize the story of Mark Twain'sAdventures of Huckleberry Finn inabout 100 words and comment on thetheme of the novel.Huck escapes from a lonely cabin where hehas been punished by his father. He meetsJim, a run-away slave, and they start downthe river on a raft. After several adventures,the raft is hit and they are separated. Huckis saved and later he discover Jim. They setout again, giving refuge to a gang of frauds.Then he finds that Jim has been sold by the“King”. He and Tom try to rescue Jim. Inthe rescue, Tom is shot and Jim isrecaptures. Later, Tom reveals that therescue is necessary only because he wantsthe adventure. At last Huck is safe becausehis father dies. The theme of the novel is toexpose the pre-Civil War American society.It presents a sample of the small townworld of America and a survey of the socialworld from the bank of the river that runsthrough the heart of the country.◆Henry James(Daisy Miller//TheAmerican)1. What is the most famous theme inHenry James's fiction? And what is hisfavourite approach in characterization,which makes him different from MarkTwain and W. D. Howells as realists?Give two titles of his works in which thistheme and this approach are employed.(l) His most famous theme is internationaltheme.(2) Psychological approach.(3) The Portrait of A Lady; Daisy Miller.2. Daisy Miller brought Henry Jamesinternational fame for the first time.What’s the character of Daisy Miller, theprotagonist?A. the American Girl in Europe, embodyingthe spirit of the New World.B. Innocence turns out to be an admiringbut a dangerous quality and her defiance ofsocial taboos in the Old World finallybrings her to a disaster.3. According to Henry James' viewpoint,what is the conflict between theAmerican personalities and Europeanpersonalities?James's admiration for European culture ledhim to a lifelong interest in the conflict ofthe American and European personalities.He saw that Europeans were often regardedas overrefined, degenerate, and artificial byAmericans, and that Americans wereconsidered naive, vulgar, and ignorant bymany Europeans. The misunderstandingcaused personality conflicts. The typicalAmerican in James’ nov el is fresh,enthusiastic, not perhaps as cultured as hemight be, but eager to learn, and basically“good" in spite of h is disregard of theoutworn conventions and social graces ofEurope. The European, on the other hand, ishighly cultivated, urban, sometimes boring,but always correct. He was, however,something unprincipled. The Americansoften appeared to stand for morality, theEuropeans for manners.4. Henry James is regarded as one of themost important writers in the Age ofRealism in America. Try to discuss hisliterary achievements.A. International themes: novels always setagainst larger international background,usually between Europe and America;B. Psychological realism: concerned withthe inner life of human being, generallyregarded as the founder of psychologicalrealism and of 20th century"stream-of-consciousness;C. Highly refined language: most expertstylist in his time;D. Narrative point of view: moving awayfrom authorial omniscience9 makingcharacters reveal themselvesE. Literary criticism: “The Art of Fiction",theme: aim of the novel is to present life;freedom of the artist to write aboutanything that concerns him.5. Henry James is generally regarded asthe forerunner of the 20th century"stream-of-consciousness" novels andthe founder of psychological realism.Based on his work Daisy Miller, brieflydiscuss why he achieved this glory.A. James's fame generally rests upon hisnovels and stories with the internationaltheme.B. Henry James's literary criticism is anindispensable part of his contribution toliterature. It is both concerned with formand devoted to human values.C. James's emphasis on psychology and onthe human consciousness proves to be a bigbreakthrough in novel writing and has greatinfluence on the coming generations.D. Henry James is not only one of the mostimportant realists of the period before theFirst World War, but also the most expertstylist of his time.6. The publication of Daisy Millerbrought Henry James international famefor the first time. Try to discuss thecharacter of Daisy Miller and the themeof the novel.Daisy MillerA. A cultural type who embodies the spiritof the New World.B. Innocence--- the keynote of hercharacter; defiance of social taboo in theOld World which brings her to a disaster inthe clash between two different cultures.Theme of the novel: one of James's earlyworks dealing with the international theme----to set a novel against a largerinternational background, usually betweenEurope and America, and centered on theconfrontation of the two different cultureseach with its peculiar value, systems.◆Emily Dickinson(Because I could not stop for Death----//Iheard a Fly buzz—When I died---//Thisis my Letter to the World//I Like to see itlap the Miles---)Emily Dickinson is now recognized notonly as a great poetess on her own rightbut as a poetess of considerable influenceupon American poetry of the presentcentury. What are the qualities of herpoems?A. Dickinson’s poems are usually based onher own experiences, her sorrows and joys.B. Love is another subject Dickinson dwelt on.C. Many poems Dickinson 'wrote are about nature, in which her general skepticism about the relationship between man and nature is well-expressedD. Dickinson's poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines.Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death-------"What figure of speech is used in Line l and Line 4? Personification.What do "the School”,"the Fields of Gazing Grain" and "th eSetting Sun”represent?They represent three stages of life: "the School"-youth; "the Fields of Gazing"----ma ture period; “the Setting Sun"-end of life.◆Theodore Dreiser(Sister Carrie//American Tragedy)1. Theodore Dreiser is a celebrated American novelist in the realistic period. What does he discuss in his novel? Give examples to prove your viewpoint. Dreiser set himself to project the American values for what he had found them to be materialistic to the core. Living in such a society with such a value system, the human individual is obsessed with a never-ending, yet meaningless search for satisfaction of his desires. One of the desires is for money which was a motivating purpose of life in the United States in the late 19th century.For example, in Sister Carrie, there is not one character whose status is not determined economically. Sex is another human desire that Dreiser explored to considerable lengths in his novels to reveal the dark side of human nature. In Sister Carrie, Carrie climbs up the social ladder by means of her sexual appeal. Like all naturalists he was restrained from finding a solution to the social problems that appeared in his novels and accordingly almost all his works have tragic endings.2. What is Dreiser’s style?A. For lack of concision, his writings appear more inclusive and less selective, and the readers are sometimes burdened with massive detailed descriptions of characters and events.B. The time sequence is clear and the plot is straightforward, his sentence structure is awkward, inept and occasionally flatly wrong in word selection and meaning, and mixed and disorganized in voice and tone.C. He broke away from the genteel tradition of literature and dramatized the life in a very realistic way.3. Even then he stood there, hidden wholly in that kindness which is night, while the uprising fumes filled the room. When the odor reached his nostrils , he quit his attitude and fumbled for the bed."What's the use?" he said, weakly, as he stretched himself to rest.The above is quoted from Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie. Brieflytell the situation that leads to the suicideand interpret Hurstwood's final words"What's the use"?A. Sister Carrie has made a great success.As her fame arises, she deserts her formerlover Hurstwood In a cold winter;Hurstwood makes a last attempt to seekhelp from Carrie, but has failed, so indesperation, he decides to kill himself byturning on the gas.B. By making that comment, Hurstwoodseems to have realized that it is useless tocontinue to fight against fate. His fate isnot controlled by his own efforts but bysome social forces too strong for him toresist, so he decides to give up.11. “ln your rocking-chair, by yourwindow dreaming, shall you long, alone.In your rocking-chair, by your window,shall you dream such happiness as youmay never feel. “(from TheodoreDreiser's Sister Carrie)What idea can you draw from the“rocking-chair"?A. The rocking-chair is a symbol standingfor fate. It is like a cradle that makes onefeel peaceful.B. It is also like a tide that ever goes onwith life, the destiny of which is uncertain.1.We dasn't stop again at any town fordays and days; kept right along down theriver. We was down south in the warmweather now, and a mighty long ways fromhome. We begun to come to trees withSpanish moss on them, hanging downfrom the limbs like long, gray beards. Itwas the first I ever see it growing, and itmade the woods look solemn and dismal.So now the frauds reckoned they was outof danger, and they begun to work thevillages again.答：Mark Twain's Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn, “we” refers to Jim andHuck, The features of the language of thisnovel:Vernacular language.2.This is my letter to the world/that neverwrote to me/the simple News that naturetold /with tender Majesty答：Emily Dickinson, “the world ”meansthe human world. The author thinks Natureis more friendly than the human world. Shecould communicate with nature easily.Nature usually reveals the truth of life,i.ethe simple new.3.“The eyes around-had wrung themdry-/and breaths were gathering firm/Forthat last Onset-when the King/bewitnessed-in the Room-”答：EmilyDickinson ,I heard a Fly buzz-when I died.The theme is description of the moment ofdeath. The first line means the relatives andfriends had cried and cried that there wereno tears any more.4.With Blue-uncertain stumblingBuzz-/Between the light-and me -/Andthen the Windows failed-and then/I couldnot see to see-答：Emily Dickinson ,I hearda Fly buzz-when I died.windows stand foreyes,for they are considered as the windowsof human soul.What idea does the quoted passage express?The last ting the dying person saw was thefly and its buzz.when the eyes failed,thehuman soul was closed and the person died.The speakers could not see any of theafterlife or God or angels she expected tosee.5.I like to see it lap the Miles-/And lickthe V alleys up-/And stop to feed itelf atTanks/-And then-prodigious step”答：Emily Dickinson. I like to see it lap theMiles. It refers to a train.here it is comparedto a part of nature. This poem express idea:the author’s suspicion of the relationshipbetween man and nature6.To fit it’s Ribs/And crawlbetween/Complaining all the while/Inhorrid-hooting stanza-/then chase itselfdown Hill-答：Emily Dickinson, this poemis an interesting study of how Dickinsonmakes the train part of nature byanimalizing it. The poet is getting the soundof the train into the poem.7.We slowly drove-He knew no haste,AndI had put away My labor and my leisuretoo, For His Civility- we passed the Schoolwhere Children strove At Recess-in theRing-We passed the Fields of GazingGrain-We passed the Setting Sun-答：Emily Dickinson Because I could not stopfor Death-, Figure of speech:Personification. They represent three stagesof life: the school-youth; the Fields ofGazing-mature period the SettingSun-end of life.。
自考“英美文学选读”总复习概要（2）
Thomas Hardy 1.evaluation：naturalist（wrance； Theodore Dreiser； George Eliot），also critical realist writer （Dickens） 2.works：Wessex， The Return of the Nature； The Mayor of Casterbridge； Tess of the D‘Urbervilles； Jude the Obscure 3.features：nostalgic（Washington Irving； F.Scott Fitzergerald； William Faulkner），also pessimistic 4.naturalism：Darwin‘s idea of “survival of the fittest” （1）man is born with tragic，inevitably bound by his own hereditary traits （2）man proves powerless before fate however he tries，he seldom escapes his doomed destiny 5.Tess of the D‘Urbervilles： （1）criticize the society， hypocrisy of the society （2）nauralism， the misery， poverty Tess suffers Chapter5 The Modern Period （England） 1.background：second half of the 19th century to early of the 20th decades （1）natural and social sciences enormously advanced （2）capitalism came into its monopoly stage （3）the gap between the rich and the poor was further deepened （4）World War 1 2 broke 2.what ideas influence this period： all kinds of philosophical ideas （1）Karl Marx： scientific socialism （2）Darwin‘s theory of evolution， “survival of the fittest” （3）Freud‘s analytical psychology （4）The irrationalist philosophers give immense influence 3.ideas：（1）Modernism originated from skepticism and disillusion of capitalism （2）The French symbolism announced modernism （3）takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base.The major themes are the distorted，alienated and ill relationships 4.difference between Modernism and Realism Modernism is a reaction against realism in many aspects （1）Modernism rejects rationalism， which is the theoretical base of Realism （2）Modernism refects the source of Realism， i.e. the external， objective， material world （3）Modernism rejects almost all the traditional elements in literature wence‘s works’ features： （1）he interests in exploring the psychological development， he thinks life impulse is man‘s instinct. any conscious oppression will cause distortion of the individual’s personality （2）make a psychological exploration of human relationships， especially those between men and women （3）he emphasizes that it‘s capitalist industrialization that turn man into inhuman machines. And the desires for powerand money cause the alienation of human relationships 6.John Osborne： “Look back in Anger” “Angry Young Man”， the working-class drama and the Theater of Absurb George Bernard Shawn 1.idea：against “art for art‘s sake”， art should serve social purposes by reflecting human life， revealing social contradictions and educating common people 2.works features： prolem plays， only one passion： indignation （1）showing one‘s character by the expense of another’s （2）inversion。
自考英美文学选读复习纲要 sinceChapter4 Victorian Period1836
Chapter4 Victorian Period1836-19012. background（1）early years： rapid economic development as well as serious social problems（2）the next twenty years： prosperity and relative stability. a national spirit of earnestness，respectability， modesty domesticity（3）the last three decades： the decline of the British empire and the decay of the Victorian values3. idea：（1）Darwin‘s The Origin of Species； The Descent of Man shook the theoretical basis of the traditional faith（2）Utilitarianism： whether it could promote the material happiness（3）socially conscious writers criticized（2）‘s depreciation of cultural values，cold indifference towards human feeling（4）literature： magnitude and diversity， romantically and realistically4.critical realist writers： criticized the society， concerned about the fate of common peopleCharles Dickens1.theme：critical realist writers， criticize： poverty， injustice， hypocrisy，corruptness2.works： Oliver Twist； The Pickwick Paper； David Copperfield； Domeby and Son； A Tale of Two Cities； Bleak House； Little Dorrit； Hard Times； Great Expectations3.characteristics：（1）he is skillful in the dialect and have a large vocabulary（2）character portrayal（3）characters are mostly innocent， helpless ，persecuted child characters（4）a mixture of humor and sympathism（5）bizarre figure， horrible4.Oliver Twist： the cruelty and hypocrisy of the workhouse system and the dark criminal underworld lifeThe Bronte Sisters1.scene：vast，rough，untouched moorland wilderness2.Charlotte Bronte： Jane EyreMr. Rochester and Jane Eyre.Rochester： a grim-looking， energetic， quick-tempered， but an understanding middle-aged manJane Eyre： has a burning spirit and a longing to love and be lovedJane Eyre： struggles for recognition of her basic rights and equality as a woman. It‘s an individual conscious struggle towards self-realization. She gets joy through the sacrifice of herself or her weakness overcome3.Emily Bronte： Wuthering Heights（uses flashbacks）Nelly： Catherine‘s old nurse， narrator， told Mr.Lockwood， a temporary tenant the storyAlfred Tennyson1.Crossing the Bar； Ulysses； Break， Break， Break2.uation：Poet Laureate （Wordsworth， Southey）3.features：a powerful expression_r of the poet‘s philosophical and religious thoughts， his doubts about life， soul.Robert Browning1.features：perfects “dramatic monologue”， keeps readers onmouseover，thoughtful and enlightened2.works： My Last Dutches， in heroic couplets， dramatic monologueGeorge Eliot1.idea：founder of “stream of consciousness”， focus on inner struggle. hereditary influences govern human action. concern forthe destiny of woman. the tragedy of women lies in their very birth（hereditary influences）2.works features ：naturalistic and psychological novel3.works：Middlemarch：a full view of life in a small EnglishtownThomas Hardy1.uation：naturalist（wrance； Theodore Dreiser； George Eliot），also critical realist writer （Dickens）2.works：Wessex，The Return of the Nature； The Mayor of Casterbridge； Tess of the D‘Urbervilles； Jude the Obscure3.features：nostalgic（Washington Irving； F.Scott Fitzergerald； William Faulkner），also pessimistic4.naturalism：Darwin‘s idea of “survival of the fittest”（1）man is born with tragic，inevitably bound by his own hereditary traits（2）man proves powerless before fate however he tries，he seldom escapes his doomed destiny5.Tess of the D‘Urbervilles：（1）criticize the society， hypocrisy of the society（2）nauralism， the misery， poverty Tess suffersChapter5 The Modern Period （England）1.background：second half of the 19th century to early of the 20th decades（1）natural and social sciences enormously advanced（2）capitalism came into its monopoly stage（3）the gap between the rich and the poor was further deepened（4）World War 1 2 broke2.what ideas influence this period： all kinds of philosophical ideas（1）Karl Marx： scientific socialism（2）Darwin‘s theory of evolution，“survival of the fittest”（3）Freud‘s analytical psychology（4）The irrationalist philosophers give immense influence3.ideas：（1）Modernism originated from skepticism and disillusion of capitalism（2）The French symbolism announced modernism（3）takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base.The major themes are the distorted，alienated and ill relationships4.difference between Modernism and RealismModernism is a reaction against realism in many aspects（1）Modernism rejects rationalism， which is the theoretical base of Realism（2）Modernism refects the source of Realism， i.e. the external， objective，material world（3）Modernism rejects almost all the traditional elements in literaturewence‘s works’ features：（1）he interests in exploring the psychological development， he thinks life impulse is man‘s instinct. any conscious oppression will cause distortion of the individual’s personality（2）make a psychological exploration of human relationships， especially those between men and women（3）he emphasizes that it‘s capitalist industrialization that turn man into inhuman machines. And the desires for power and money cause the alienation of human relationships6.John Osborne：“Look back in Anger”“Angry Young Man”， the working-class drama and the Theater of AbsurbGeorge Bernard Shawn1.idea：against “art for art‘s sake”， art should serve social purposes by reflecting human life， revealing social contradictions and educating common people2.works features： prolem plays， only one passion： indignation（1）showing one’s character by the expense of another’s（2）inversion3.works：Mrs Warren‘s Profession（a play about the economic oppression of woman）；St. Joan（historical play）； The Apple Cart（political play）； The Doctor’s Dilemma （political play）John Galsworthy1.works： trilogy：The Man of Property； In Chancery； To Let2.The Man of Property：Soames（husband），Irene（wife），Bosinney（wife‘s lover）the predominant possessive instinct of the ForsytesSoames represents the principle that the accumulation of wealth in the aim of life，for he considers everything in terms of one‘s property，he never pays any attention to his wife’s thoughts and feelings，he takes her merely as part of his own property.theme：human relationships of the contemporary English Society are merely an extension of property relationshipsWilliam Butler Yeats1.works：The Lake Isle of Innisfree； Down by the Salley GardensT.S.Eliot1.works：The Waste Land（1）presents physical disorder and spiritual decadence in the modern western society（2）reflects disillusion and despair of a whole post war generation.anguish，menace，sterility had been afflicting all sensitive members of the postwar generation（3）concerns with the spiritual breakup of a modern civilization in which human life has lost its meaning（4）reflects the 20th century people‘s disillusion and frustration in a meaningless and boring world2.works：The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock： dramatic monologue in ironic tonecontent： the meditation of an aging young man over the proposing marriagetheme： the speaker‘s incapability of facing up to love and to life in a sterile upper-class worldwence1.works：The Rainbow； Women in Love； Lady Chatterley‘s Lover2.Sons and Loverscontents： ignorant， drunken and brutish father（Mr.Morel）， the weary，frustrated mother（Mrs.Morel）， the intelligent and ambitious woman， tries to find emotional fulfillment in her sons（Paul）。
自考英美文学选读_重点总结【美国】Chapter 2 The Realistic Period现实主义时期
【美国】Chapter 2 The Realistic Period现实主义时期1. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life.由于对现实生活产生了浓厚的兴趣，产生了新的创作灵感。
2. The three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James.这一时期的三个代表作家是豪威尔斯，亨利.詹姆斯和马克.吐温。
3. In short, they set the example and charted the future course for the subjects, themes, techniques and styles of fiction we still call modern.总之，他们为后来的现实文学在题材，技巧和风格上都树立了典范。
4. Howells focused his discussion on the rising middle class and the way they lived, while Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories.豪威尔斯讨论上升的中产阶级及其生活方式，而马克.吐温则喜欢把他自己家乡的人放在故事的最前沿。
5. In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.总之，自然主义产生现实主义，只是在创作上更富讽刺，更加悲观。
湖北自考《英美文学选读》重点总结
上古及中世纪英国文学Old and Medieval English literature上古：450 to 1066 中世纪;1066-14世纪中叶CeltsOld English poetry: the religious group and the secular oneBeowulf: national epic poem Chaucer introduced from F rance the rhymed s tanzas of various types to English poetry to replace the Old English alliterative verse.<The Canterbur y Tales >The father of English poetry English Homer In the medieval period ：use narrative verse of prose to tell stori es of knightly adventures or other heroic deeds.第一章文艺复兴时期the RenaissancePeriod 14th andmid-17th centuries Humanism is the essence of theRenaissance. Golden AgeIt started in ItalyHenry VIII Defender of the FaithBible in English ancient Romanand Greekculture classstruggle Petrarchpoetry and poetic dramaElizabethan dra madramatists: Christopher Marlowe ,Willia m Shakespeare andBen Jonson3威廉莎士比亚William Shak espeare 1564-1616Playwrights , dramatist, poets 1591-1611was i n t he prime of his dramati c career.38plays 戏剧154sonnets 十四行诗 2 long poems叙事诗Stratford-on-A von“University w i ts”“an upstart crow”Sonnet18 : meditation eter nal beauty origin:Italy<Hamlet>“to be,or not t o be-that is the question”<the merchant of V eni ce> against Christians /Jews.Tw o narrative poems <venus and Adonis> <the rape of lucrece> Tragedies: <hamlet> <Othello> <k ing lear> <Macbeth><re meo and Juliet> <Julius casear>Six comedies:<a midsummer night‟s dream> <the merchant of Venice> <much ado about nothing> <sa you like it> <twelfth night> <the merry wives of Windsor><all‟s well that ends well> <measure for measure e>Romantic tragicomedi es: <[eroc;es> <Cymbeline> <The Winter‟s T ale> <the T e mpest>Romantic tragedy <Romeo and Juliet> tragedy but optimistic 乐观spirit.1 a play in t he play2 borrow plots from other stories such sa Roman,Greekand ancient myth.3 several threads running through the play4 combination of tragic and comic elements.Writing style:1 trimendous vocabulary(16,000words,invent words) 2literary devices(allit erat eion头韵，simile明喻，metaphor暗喻)3 use poetry in his playThe theme of the sonnet:1 express love and praise to a young man2 immortali ze beauty through verses3friendship or betrayal of friendship6约翰弥尔顿John Milton 1608-1674A Catholic family天主教Latin blind .<P Lost>失乐园masterpiece.a story taken from “the old Testament” ,a long epic divided into 12 book s ,taken from the Bible.the theme is “fall of man”The main idea:to beg for me rcy and worship his power were more shamefull and disgrace full than this downfall.<Samson Agonists>the most powerfull dramatic poem on the Gree k model.Three group: A the early poeticworks B the middle prosepamphletsC the last great poemsThe fre edom of the will is thek e ystone of Milton‟s creed.<Paradise Regained>第二章新古典主义时期the NeoclassicalPeriod1660-1798(18t hcentury)人社会动物industrial revolution工业革命the RestorationGothic Novel:1 content: magic, supernaturallelements, ghost s, monsters.2setting: old castle, graveyard, dardforest3atomsphere:horribleThe enlightenmen t movement（theage of reason ）：启蒙运动It was a progressive in telle ctuall进步知道份子movement which flourishedin F ranc e a nd swept the w holewestern Europe at the time. Itsenlighten the wholeworld with the light of modernphilosophical and artistic ideas.哲学和艺术思想The enlightenerscelebrated reason or rationality,equality and scienc e,理性平等科学and they also advocated universaleducation.全民普及教育1约翰班杨John Bunyan 1628-168818年坐牢，Christianity基督教<the pilgrim’s progress>”the vani tyfair”is the most successfulreligious allegory 宗教寓言i n theEnglish langua ge.Me taphor暗喻-life as a journeysearch for spiritual salvationStyle: Moded after the Bible,language:e asy to read,colloquial,concrete and concise form:allegorian form,reallystic,true to life.3丹尼尔笛福Daniel defoe1660-1731butcher‟s fa mily 卖肉家庭Englishmiddle –class<Robinson Crusoe>masterpiece,Robinson is the empire builder,thepioneer colonist.The theme:A man‟s strugglees against natureB glorifyication of the bourgeois menwho has the courage and will to facehardship and determineation toimprove his livelihood.C glorifyication of labor(Robinsonlives on hi s own hands)笛福的创作特点：Defoe w as a ver ygood story-telle r.he had a gift fororganizing minute details in such avivid w a y that his stories could beboth credible可信and fascinating神奇.his sentences ar e sometimesshort,crisp 短小干脆and pl ain,andsometimes long and rambling,w hichleave on the reader an impression ofcasual narration.his language issmooth,easy,colloquial口语andmostly vernacula r方言.there isnothing artificeial in his language: itis common English at its best.4乔纳森斯威夫特Jonathan Sw ift1667-1745<a tale of a tub><the battle of the books><Gulli ver’s travels>th e greatestsatiric w or k<a modest proposal>a greatest andbitter est satire.Lilliput yahoos bitter satire5亨利菲尔丁Henry F ield ing1707-1754Born of an old aristocratic family.老贵族家庭“father of the Englishnovel”“the third-person nar ration”第三人称叙述<the histor y of TomJones ,afoundling> “prose homer”散文荷马”comic epic in prose”散文体喜剧史诗:1 the descryiption in a grand style ofclassic epic.”classic epic”has:A a great hero Bcalls on Muses Cgive a list of na mes of gods Dcompare s mall fights to great wars.2 use verifyied language t o narrate asmall fight3 different figure of speech .esp,irony讽刺,hyperbole夸张<the histor y of Amelia>费尔丁的语言特色：Fielding‟slanguage is easy, unlaboured andfamil iar,自然流畅通俗易懂butextremely vivid and vigorous. Hissentences are always distinguished bylogic逻辑性and rhythm,韵律性andhis structure carefully planed towardsan inevitable ending. His works arealso noted for lively,dramatic dialogues戏剧性对话and other theat ricaldevices such as suspendse,悬念coincidence巧合and unexpectedness.出人意料第三章浪漫主义时期theRomantic Periodis an age ofpoetry.1798-1832人的孤单状态P assi ve , old and conservative :“lak e poets”William Wordsw or th Rober t South eySamuel Taylor ColeridgeActi ve , young and revolutionar y:Byron Shelly Keats1威廉布莱克William Blak e1757-1827候看见过天使，他父亲死后他弟弟也死了，神秘主义。
美国文学选读2知识整理
2.Rhyme occurs in most traditional poetry (except blank verse), and often with various schemes. In free verse, however, rhyme may or may not be present; but when it is, used with great freedom. 3.In conventional verse, the unit is often foot, or the line; but in free verse, the units are much larger, sometimes being paragraphs or strophes诗节. If the free verse unit is the line, as it is in Whitman, the line is usually determined by qualities of actual speech rhythm and thought, rather than feet or syllable count; thus the line may be as short as one word, or as long as a passage. 4.In comparison with conventional verse, free verse may be composed with rhythms and melodies more personal and individual, more appropriate to the subject and the theme. In the hands of the gifted poets free verse very often acquires rhythms and melodies of its own. There is in free verse greater flexibility of the form and greater agreement between sound and sense. There are signs of it in medieval alliterative verse and in the translation of the Authorized King James Bible, which attempts to approximate the Hebrew cadences. The Psalms and The Song of Solomon are noted examples of free verse.
《英美文学选读》自学资料全
《英美文学选读》自学资料-(全)————————————————————————————————作者: ————————————————————————————————日期：ﻩAmerican LiteratureChapter one : The romantic periodI. Emerson’s transcendentalism and his attitude toward nature:1.Transcendentalism—it is a philosophic and literary movement that flourish in New England, as a reaction against rationalism and Calvinism. It stressed intuitive understanding of god without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind.2. Emerson’s transcendentalism:The over-soul—it is an all-pervading power goodness, from which all things come and of which all are a part. It is a supreme reality of mind, a spiritual unity of all beings and a religion. It is a communication between an individual soul and the universal over-soul. And he strongly believe in the divinity and infinity of man as an individual, so man can totally rely on himself.3.His toward nature:Emerson loves nature. His nature is the garment of the over-soul, symbolic and moral bound. Nature is not something purely of the matter, but alive with God’s presence. It exercise a healthy and restorative influence on human beings. Children can see nature better than adult.II. Hawthorne’s Puritanism and his black vision of man:1. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puristans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the church of England.2. his black vision of man—by the Calvinistic concept of original sin, he believed that human being are evil natured and sinful, and this sin is ever present in human heart and will pass one generation to another.3. Young Goodman Brown—it shows that everyone has some evil secrets. The innocent and naïve Brown is confronted with the vision of human evil in one terrible night, and then he becomes distrustful and doubtful. Brown stands for everyone ,who is born pure and has no contact with the real world ,and the prominent people of the village and church. They cover their secrets during daily lives, and under some circumstances such as the witch’s Sabbath, they become what they are. Even his closed wife, Faith, is no exception. So Brown is aged in that night.III. The symbolism of Melville’s Mobby-Dick1.The voyage to catch the white whale is the one of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of universe.2. To Ahab, the whale is an evil creature or the agent of an evil force that control the universe. As to readers, the whale is a symbol of physical limits, or a symbol of nature. It also can stand for the ultimate mystery of the universe and the wall behind which unknown malicious things are hiding.IV. Whitman and his Leaves of Grass :1. Theme: sing of the “en-mass” and the self / pursuit of love, happiness, and ***ual love / sometimes about politics (Drum taps)2. Whitman’s originality first in his use of the poetic form free verse (i.e. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme),by means of which he becomes conversational and casual.3.He uses the first person pronoun “I” to st ress individualism, and oral language to acquire sympathy from the common reader.Chapter two : The realistic periodI. The character analysis and social meaning of Huck Finn in Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark TwainHuck is a typical American b oy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”. He appears to be vulgar in language and in manner, but he is honest and decent in essence. His remarkable raft’s journey down on the Mississippi river can be regarded as his process of education and his way to grow up. At first, he stands by slavery, for he clings to the idea that if he lets go the slave, he will be damned to go to hell. And when the “King” sells Jim for money, Huck decides to inform Jim’s master. After he thinks of the past good time when Jim and he are on the raft where Jim shows great care and deep affection for him, he decide to rescue Jim. And Huck still thinks he is wrong while he is doing the right thing.Huck is the son of nature and a symbol for freedom and earthly pragmatism. Through the eye of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed. Twain contrasts the life on the river and the life on the banks, the innocence and the experience, the nature and the culture, the wilderness and the civilization.II. Daisy Miller by Henry James1. Theme: The novel is a story about American innocence defeated by the stiff, traditional values of Europe. James condemns the American failure to adopt expressive manners intelligently and point out the false believing that a good heart is readily visible to all. The death of Daisy results from the misunderstanding between people with different cultural backgrounds.2. The character analysis of Daisy: She represents typical American girl, who is uninformed and without the mature guidance. Ignorance and parental indulgence combine to foster he assertive self-confidence and fierce willfulness. She behaves in the same daring naive way in Europe as she does at home. When someone is against her, she becomes more contrary. She knows that she means no harm and is amazed that anyone should think she does. She does not compromise to the European manners.3. The character analysis of Winterbourne: He is a Europeanized American, who has live too long in foreign parts. He is very experience and has a problem understanding Daisy. He endeavors to put her in sort of formula, i.e. to classify her.III. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser:1. Theme: The author invented the success of Carrie and the downfall of Hurstwood out of an inevitable and natural judgment, because the fittest can survive in a competitive, amoral society according to the social Darwinism.2. The character analysis of Carrie: She follows the right direction to a pursuit of the American dream, and the circumstances and her desire for a better life direct to the successful goal. But she is not contented, because with wealth and fame, she still finds herself lonely. She is a product of the society, a realization of the theory of the survival of the fittest.3. The character analysis of Hurstwood: He is a negative evidence of the theory of the survival of the fittest. Because he is still conventional and can not throw away the social morals, he is not fitted to live in New York.Chapter three : The Modern PeriodI. Ezra Pound and his theory of Imagism1. The principles: a. direct treatment of the thing; b. to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation; c. to compose in the sequence of the musical; d. to use the language of common speech and the exact word; e. to create new rhythms; f. absolutely freedom in the choice of subject.2. Imagism is to present an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. An imagistic poem must present the object exactly the way the thing is seen. And the reader can form the image of the object through the process of reading the abstract and concrete words.II. Frost and his poetry on nature:Frost is deeply interested in nature and in men’s relationship to nature. Nature appears as an explicator and a mediator for man and serve as the center of reference of his behavior. Peace and order can be found in Frost’s poetical natural world. With surface simplicity of his poems, the thematic concerns are always presented in rich symbols. Therefore his work resists easy interpretation.III. F. Scott Fitzgerald and his The Great Gatsby1. Theme: Gatsby is American Everyman. His extraordinary energy and wealth make him pursue the dream. His death in the end points at the truth about the withering of the American Dream. The spiritual and moral sterility that has resulted from the withered American Dream is fully revealed in the article. However, although he is defeated, the dream has gave Gatsby a dignity and a set of qualities. His hope and belief in the promise of future makes him the embodiment of the values of the incorruptible American Dream .2. The character analysis of Gatsby: Gatsby is great, because he is dignified and ennobled by his dream and his mythic vision of life. He has the desire to repeat the past, the desire for money, and the desire for incarnation of unutterable vision on this material earth. For Gatsby, Daisy is the soul of his dreams. He believe he can regain Daisy and romantically rebels of time. Although he has the wealth that can match with the leisured class, he does not have their manners. His tragedy lies in his possession of a naive sense andchivalry.IV. Ernest Hemingway’s artistic features:1. The Hemingway code heroes and grace under pressure:They have seen the cold world ,and for one cause, they boldly and courageously face the reality. They has an indestructible spirit for his optimistic view of life. Whatever is the result is, the are ready to live with grace under pressure. No matter how tragic the ending is, they will never be defeated. Finally, they will be prevail because of their indestructible spirit and courage.2.The iceberg technique:Hemingway believe that a good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or action. The one-eighth the is presented will suggest all other meaningful dimensions of the story. Thus, Hemingway’s language is symbolic and suggestive.V. The character analysis of Emily in A Rose for Emily:Emily is a symbol of old values, standing for tradition, duty and past glory. But she is also a victim to all those she cares and embrace. The source of Emily’s strangeness is from her born pride and self-esteem, the domineering behavior of her father and the betrayal of her lover. Barricaded in her house, she has frozen the past to protect her dreams. Her life is tragic because the defiance of the community, her refusal to accept the change and her extreme pride have pushed her to abnormality and insanity.【自考版重要资料汇总】自烤成柴ﻫenｇBus清洁工ﻫﻫ会员等级: 超级版主ﻫ发帖数量:1，２４3精华数量: 0 ﻫ所持现金：3128英币ﻫ银行状态：正常ﻫ用户积分: 10来自:EngＢｕs．ｃoｍ注册日期: 2０0６-02-06# 22006-02-1614:0４English LiteratureChapter One The Renaissance PeriodI. Shakespeare’s sonnets1. With a few exceptions, Shakespeare writes his sonnets in the popular English form of three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet usually ties the sonnet to one of the general themes, leaving the quatrains free to develop the poetic intensity.2. The sonnet’s most common themes concern the destructive effects of time, the quickness of physical decay, and the loss of beauty, vigor, and love. Although the poems celebrate life, they are always with a keen awareness of death.3. His sonnet 18 expresses that beautiful things can rely on the force of literature to reach eternity. Literature is created by man, thus it declares man’s eternity. The poem shows the mighty self-confidence of the newly class. The vivid, variable and rich images reflect the lively and adventurous spirits of those who were opening new world.[/font]II. Shakespeare’s A Merchant of Venice1. Theme(1) Justice vs. mercy: Shakespeare suggests that all men should be merciful. There is a further aspect of justice—the injustice revealed in the Christians’ treatment of the Jews.(2) Appearance vs. reality: e.g. superficial or external beauty vs. moral or spiritual beauty or truth (in the case of three caskets); the letters of law vs. the spirit of the law.(3) Commercial or material values vs. love: True love is much more worthwhile than money and material values. Antonio epitomizes true love in his friendship for Bassanio.2. The character analysis of ShylockShylock is a Jewish usurer, and he is a tragic-comic character.He is comic because he finally becomes the one punished by his own evil deed. He is avaricious. He accumulates as much wealth as he can and he even equates his lost daughter with his lost money. He is also cruel. In order to revenge, he would rather claim a pound of flesh from his enemy Antonio than get back his loan.He is tragic, because he is the victim of the society. As a Jew, he is not treated equally by the society. The law is harsh to him. He has tomake as much money as he can in order to protect him. He is abused by Antonio, so he wants to get revenge.III. The character analysis of HamletHamlet is a scholar and a warrior. His father has been killed by his uncle, Claudius, who then take the throne and marries his mother. Hamlet is informed by the ghost of his father to take revenge, but the weakness of indecisiveness or indetermination in his character always delay his action, and finally leads to his tragic fall of death. Hamlet is not a man of action, but a man of thinking at first. He hesitates at some crucial moments. At last when he is forced to take some actions, he does kill Claudius gloriously, but he also sacrifices his own life.IV. Donne and his “The Sun Rising”1. Metaphysical poet: He wrote poems by using unconventional and surprising conceits and full of wit and humor, but sometimes the logic argument and conceits become pervasive. The language is colloquial but powerful, creating unorthodox images on the reader’s mind.2. H is “The Sun Rising”: In this poem, the love’s wedding room has been intruded by sun and the man takes offence at the intrusion. He attack the sun as an unruly servant, and finally he allow the sun to enter their chamber and warm them. The poem’s true subje ct is the lady—his true emotional love. Every insult to the sun is a compliment to the lady.[font=Times New Roman]V. Milton’s Paradise Lost :1.Structure: The story is taken from the Old Testament. It extends chronologically from the exaltation of Christ before the creature of universe to the second coming of Christ. Geographically, it ranges over the entire world.2. The character analysis of Satan:He has the strength, the courage and the capacity for leadership, but he devoted all those qualities to evil. His defiance of God shows his egoistic pride, his false conception of freedom, and his alienation from all good. His own evil and damnation give him potentially tragic dimensions. Therefore, Satan is enveloped in dramatic irony because he fight in ignorance of the unshakable power of God and goodness.3.Features: Parallel and contrastThe central conflict and contrast between good and evil are intensified by the contrast between heaven and hell, light and darkness, love and hate, reason and passion, etc.自烤成柴eｎｇBｕs清洁工ﻫﻫ会员等级:超级版主发帖数量：1,2４3ﻫ精华数量: 0所持现金:3１28英币银行状态:正常用户积分：1０来自: EngBus．cｏm注册日期:200６-0２－06＃3 2００6-02-16 １4：04English LiteratureChapter One The Renaissance PeriodI. Shakespeare’s sonnets1. With a few exceptions, Shakespeare writes his sonnets in the popular English form of three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet usually ties the sonnet to one of the general themes, leaving the quatrains free to develop the poetic intensity.2. The sonnet’s most common themes concern the destructive ef fects of time, the quickness of physical decay, and the loss of beauty, vigor, and love. Although the poems celebrate life, they are always with a keen awareness of death.3. His sonnet 18 expresses that beautiful things can rely on the force of literature to reach eternity. Literature is created by man, thus it declares man’s eternity. The poem shows the mighty self-confidence of the newly class. The vivid, variable and rich images reflect the lively and adventurous spirits of those who were opening new world.II. Shakespeare’s A Merchant of Venice1. Theme(1) Justice vs. mercy: Shakespeare suggests that all men should be merciful. There is a further aspect of justice—the injustice revealed in the Christians’ treatment of the Jews.(2) Appearance vs. reality: e.g. superficial or external beauty vs. moral or spiritual beauty or truth (in the case of three caskets); the letters of law vs. the spirit of the law.(3) Commercial or material values vs. love: True love is much more worthwhile than money and material values. Antonio epitomizes true love in his friendship for Bassanio.2. The character analysis of ShylockShylock is a Jewish usurer, and he is a tragic-comic character.He is comic because he finally becomes the one punished by his own evil deed. He is avaricious. He accumulates as much wealth as he can and he even equates his lost daughter with his lost money. He is also cruel. In order to revenge, he would rather claim a pound of flesh from his enemy Antonio than get back his loan.He is tragic, because he is the victim of the society. As a Jew, he is not treated equally by the society. The law is harsh to him. He has to make as much money as he can in order to protect him. He is abused by Antonio, so he wants to get revenge.III. The character analysis of HamletHamlet is a scholar and a warrior. His father has been killed by his uncle, Claudius, who then take the throne and marries his mother. Hamlet is informed by the ghost of his father to take revenge, but the weakness of indecisiveness or indetermination in his character always delay his action, and finally leads to his tragic fall of death. Hamlet is not a man of action, but a man of thinking at first. He hesitates at some crucial moments. At last when he is forced to take some actions, he does kill Claudius gloriously, but he also sacrifices his own life.IV. Donne and his “The Sun Rising”1. Metaphysical poet: He wrote poems by using unconventional and surprising conceits and full of wit and humor, but sometimes the logic argument and conceits become pervasive. The language is colloquial but powerful, creating unorthodox images on the reader’s mind.2. His “The Sun Rising”: In this poem, the love’s wedding room has been intruded by sun and the man takes offence at the intrusion. He attack the sun as an unruly servant, and finally he allow the sun to enter their chamber and warm them. The poem’s true subject is the lady—his true emotional love. Every insult to the sun is a compliment to the lady.V. Milton’s Paradise Lost :1.Structure: The story is taken from the Old Testament. It extends chronologically from the exaltation of Christ before the creature of universe to the second coming of Christ. Geographically, it ranges over the entire world.2. The character analysis of Satan:He has the strength, the courage and the capacity for leadership, but he devotedall those qualities to evil. His defiance of God shows his egoistic pride, his falseconception of freedom, and his alienation from all good. His own evil anddamnation give him potentially tragic dimensions. Therefore, Satan is envelopedin dramatic irony because he fight in ignorance of the unshakable power of Godand goodness.3.Features: Parallel and contrastThe central conflict and contrast between good and evil are intensified by thecontrast between heaven and hell, light and darkness, love and hate, reason andpassion, etc.自烤成柴ﻫｅngBus清洁工ﻫﻫ会员等级: 超级版主ﻫ发帖数量:１，243精华数量：０所持现金: 3128英币ﻫ银行状态:正常用户积分: １0ﻫ来自: EnｇBｕｓ．cｏｍﻫ注册日# 420０6－02－16 １4:０4Chapter Two The Neo-classical PeriodI. The a llegorical meaning of “The Vanity Fair” in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’sProgressThe Vanity Fair refers to the real world where people have become sodegenerated that all they are concerned is to buy and sell everything they can. Itallegorically represent s vanity both in the society and in people’s heart, so peopleare spiritually lost. However, the pilgrims refuse to buy any of the things in theVanity Fair. Its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seeksalvation through constant struggle with their own weakness and social evils.Christians’ refusal shows that they are one step nearer the Celestial City.II. Pope’s point of view on poetry criticism and the characteristics of his ownpoetry期：２0０６-0２－06 1. Pope’s point of view on poetry critic ism is best shown in his An Essays onCriticism. He emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rulesof order, reason, logic, restrained emotion and good taste. He calls on people toturn to the old Greek and Roman writers for guidance. He advises the critics notto stress too much the artificial use of conceit or the external beauty of language,but to pay special attention to true wit which is best set in a plain style.2. Pope’s poem strictly follows his idea of neoclassicism. He deve loped a satiric,concise, smooth, graceful and well-balanced style, and finally brought to its lastperfection of the heroic couplet.III. The social satire of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s TravelsThe account of Lilliputian life, especially the games for people at court, alludes tothe similar ridiculous practices or tricks in the English government. Thedescription of the competition in the games before the royal members leads to thefact that the success of those government officials such as the Prime Minister liesnot in their being any wiser or better but in their being more dexterous in thegame. This alludes to the practices in England. And the pompous words singingof the Lilliputian emperor ridicule the aristocratic arrogance and vanity.IV. Henry Fielding and his Tom JonesIt is a good example of “comic epic in prose”. Fielding describes the fightbetween Molly and the villagers and her fistfight with Goody Brown in the grandstyle of the Homeric epic. He first of all calls on the Muses to assist him inrecounting the fight as if it were of great historical importance. Like Homer whowould list names of gods involved in the battle, he lists the names of the villagers.He treats Molly as a great hero at battle, an “Amazonian heroine”. Besides, heuses a mock-epic tone and seems very solemn about what he is describing. Heuses formal words and refined language. Finally, he makes use of differentfigures of speech, particularly, irony and hyperbole.V. Thomas Gray and his “Elegy Written in a County Church”In the poem, Gray presents a picture of the quiet and solitary county at duskthrough the sounding of the curfew, the home-coming plowman, the tinkling ofbells under the necks of the cattle, the moping owl, the narrow cell (grave), etc..He bemoans the fate of those common laborers who are now buried in the graves,tries to imagine how they had lived as loving parents and hardworking people,and praise their homely joys. He then express his contempt for those noblemenwho once lived a pompous life, and despised the poor, but have ended up in away no better than the ordinary folk. We can see Gray’s sympathy for the poorand contempt for the rich.Chapter Three The Romantic Period I. Wordsworth and his “I wandered lonely as a cloud”The poem is crystal clear and lucid. Below the immediate surface, we find that all the realistic details of the flowers, the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the realistic details of the active joy, are absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor, the recurrent image of the dance. The flowers, the stars, the waves are units in this dancing pattern of order in diversity, of linked eternal harmony and vitality. Through the revelation and recognition of his kinship with nature, the poet himself becomes as it were a part of the whole cosmic dance.II. Shelley and his “Ode to the West Wind”In the poem, Shelley eulogizes the west wind as a powerful phenomenon of nature that is both destroyer and preserver. The wind enjoys boundless freedom and has the power to spread messages far and wide. The keynote in the poem is Shelley’s ever-present wish for himself and his fellow men to share the freedom of the west wind, remembering meanwhile his own and common human miseries. And the dominant mood is that of hope rather than despair, as the poet is hoping for the realization of the freedom and joy. The optimism expressed in the last two lines show the poet’s critical attitude toward the ugly social reality and his faith in a bright future for humanity.III. John Keats and his “Ode on a Grecian Urn”In the poem Keats shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human passion. The poet has absorbed himself into the timeless beautiful scenery on the Grecian urn: the lovers, musicians and worshippers carved on the urn, and their everlasting joys. They are unaffected by time, stilled in expectation. This is the glory and the limitation of the world conjured up by and object of art. The urn celebrates but simplifies intuitions of joy by defying our pain and suffering. But at last, the urn presents his ambivalence about time and the nature of beauty.IV. The character analysis of Elizabeth in Jane Austen’s Pride and PrejudiceElizabeth is a beautiful young lady in the Bennets. She is intelligent, contrasting her empty-minded, snobbish and vulgar mother. She is a women of distinct character. She is not passive, but pursue her true love bravely. She turns down Mr. Collin’s marriage proposal and seeking her happiness with Darcy, the one shepossesses true affectio n for her. She is also courageous. When Darcy’s aunt ladycomes to force her into a promise of never consenting to marry Darcy, she boldlychallenges her authority, contempt and arrogance. On the whole, Elizabeth is atypical image of the good, attractive lady in the 19th century.自烤成柴ﻫenｇBｕs清洁工ﻫ会员等级: 超级版主发帖数量: 1,243ﻫ精华数量: 0ﻫ所持现金：3１２8英币银行状态:正常ﻫ用户积分: １0来自: ＥngBus.cｏmﻫ注册日期: ２006－02-06# 52006－02-1６1４:０4Chapter Two The Neo-classical PeriodI. The allegorical meaning of “The Vanity Fair” in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’sProgressThe Vanity Fair refers to the real world where people have become so degeneratedthat all they are concerned is to buy and sell everything they can. It allegoricallyrepresents vanity both in the society and in people’s heart, so people are spirituallylost. However, the pilgrims refuse to buy any of the things in the Vanity Fair. Itspurpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation throughconstant struggle with their own weakness and social evils. Christians’ refusalshows that they are one step nearer the Celestial City.II. Pope’s point of view on poetry criticism and the characteristics of his ownpoetry1. Pope’s point of view on poetry criticism is best shown in his An Essays onCriticism. He emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules oforder, reason, logic, restrained emotion and good taste. He calls on people to turn tothe old Greek and Roman writers for guidance. He advises the critics not to stresstoo much the artificial use of conceit or the external beauty of language, but to payspecial attention to true wit which is best set in a plain style.2. Pope’s poem strictly follows his idea of neoclassicism. He developed a satiric,concise, smooth, graceful and well-balanced style, and finally brought to its lastperfection of the heroic couplet.III. The social satire of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s TravelsThe account of Lilliputian life, especially the games for people at court, alludes to the similar ridiculous practices or tricks in the English government. The description of the competition in the games before the royal members leads to the fact that the success of those government officials such as the Prime Minister lies not in their being any wiser or better but in their being more dexterous in the game. This alludes to the practices in England. And the pompous words singing of the Lilliputian emperor ridicule the aristocratic arrogance and vanity.IV. Henry Fielding and his Tom JonesIt is a good example of “comic epic in prose”. Fielding descri bes the fight between Molly and the villagers and her fistfight with Goody Brown in the grand style of the Homeric epic. He first of all calls on the Muses to assist him in recounting the fight as if it were of great historical importance. Like Homer who would list names of gods involved in the battle, he lists the names of the villagers. He treats Molly as a great hero at battle, an “Amazonian heroine”. Besides, he uses a mock-epic tone and seems very solemn about what he is describing. He uses formal words and refined language. Finally, he makes use of different figures of speech, particularly, irony and hyperbole.V. Thomas Gray and his “Elegy Written in a County Church”In the poem, Gray presents a picture of the quiet and solitary county at dusk through the sounding of the curfew, the home-coming plowman, the tinkling of bells under the necks of the cattle, the moping owl, the narrow cell (grave), etc.. He bemoans the fate of those common laborers who are now buried in the graves, tries to imagine how they had lived as loving parents and hardworking people, and praise their homely joys. He then express his contempt for those noblemen who once lived a pompous life, and despised the poor, but have ended up in a way no better than the ordinary folk. We can see Gray’s sympathy for the poor and contempt for the rich.Chapter Three The Romantic Period I. Wordsworth and his “I wandered lonely as a cloud”The poem is crystal clear and lucid. Below the immediate surface, we find that all the realistic details of the flowers, the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the realistic details of the active joy, are absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor,。
自考英语本科《英美文学选读》梳理----美国文学
⾃考英语本科《英美⽂学选读》梳理----美国⽂学梳理----美国⽂学1.特⾊美国⽂学的历史不长，它⼏乎是和美国⾃由资本主义同时出现，较少受到封建贵族⽂化的束缚。
美国早期⼈⼝稀少，有⼤⽚未开发的⼟地，为个⼈理想的实现提供了很⼤的可能性。
美国⼈民富于民主⾃由精神，个⼈主义、个性解放的观念较为强烈，这在⽂学中有突出的反映。
美国⼜是⼀个多民族的国家，移民不断涌⼊，各⾃带来了本民族的⽂化，这决定了美国⽂学风格的多样性和庞杂性。
美国⽂学发展的过程就是不断吸取、融化各民族⽂学特点的过程。
许多美国作家来⾃社会下层，这使得美国⽂学⽣活⽓息和平民⾊彩都⽐较浓厚，总的特点是开朗、豪放。
内容庞杂与⾊彩鲜明是美国⽂学的另⼀特点。
个性⾃由与⾃我克制、清教主义与实⽤主义、激进与反动、反叛和顺从、⾼雅与庸俗积极进取与玩世不恭、明快与晦涩、犀利的讽刺与阴郁的幽默、对⼈类命运的思考和探索与对性爱的病态追求等倾向，不仅可以同时并存，⽽且形成强烈的对照。
从来没有⼀种潮流或倾向能够在⼀个时期内⼀统美国⽂学的天下。
美国作家敏感、好奇，往往是⼀个浪潮未落，另⼀浪潮⼜起。
作家们永远处在探索和试验的过程之中。
20世纪以来，许多⽂学潮流起源于美国，给世界⽂学同时带来积极的与消极的影响。
.2.美国⽂学美国⽂学的诞⽣美国第⼀位在⼩说和诗歌创作领域取得显著成就的作家是艾德加·爱伦·坡（1809－1849），他于1835年开始短篇⼩说的创作，其作品包括《红死病》、《陷坑与钟摆》、《颓败之屋》和《莫尔格街凶杀案》。
他的创作触及了前⼈很少涉及的⼼理学领域，并且将神秘、幻想等元素融⼊⼩说创作之中。
1837年，年轻的作家纳撒尼尔·霍桑(Hawthorne)（1804－1864）将他的⼀些短篇⼩说集结成册出版，名为《重讲⼀遍的故事》。
这是⼀部包含了丰富的象征主义及神秘主義元素的作品。
后来，霍桑⼜开始写作长篇的传奇⼩说、类寓⾔⼩说，他的本⼟⼩说《新英格蘭》以⼈类的内疚、荣耀和情感上的压抑为主题。
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【美国】Chapter 2 The Realistic Period现实主义时期1. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life.由于对现实生活产生了浓厚的兴趣，产生了新的创作灵感。
2. The three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James.这一时期的三个代表作家是豪威尔斯，亨利.詹姆斯和马克.吐温。
3. In short, they set the example and charted the future course for the subjects, themes, techniques and styles of fiction we still call modern.总之，他们为后来的现实文学在题材，技巧和风格上都树立了典范。
4. Howells focused his discussion on the rising middle class and the way they lived, while Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories.豪威尔斯讨论上升的中产阶级及其生活方式，而马克.吐温则喜欢把他自己家乡的人放在故事的最前沿。
5. In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.总之，自然主义产生现实主义，只是在创作上更富讽刺，更加悲观。
自然主义只有另一种哲学途径的现实主义。
(I) Mark Twain马克.吐温6. Mark Twain is considered as“the true father of American national literature.”马克.吐温被认为是“我们真正的民族文学之父”。
7. Two of the best books during this period are The adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The former is usually regarded as a classicbook written for boys about their particular horrors and joys, while the latter, b eing a boy’s b ook specially written for the adults, is Twain’s most representative work, describing a journey down the Mississippi undertaken by two fugitives, Huck and Jim.这一期间他最伟大的作品是《汤姆.索亚历险记》和《哈克贝里.芬历险记》。
前者是就儿童的恐惧和高兴的事儿写的一部儿童经典。
而后者虽然是儿童故事，却为大人而写。
这是马克.吐温最有代表性的小说，描写两个流浪儿童哈克和吉姆沿密西西比河而下历险的旅程。
8. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and, especially, its sequence Adventures of Huckleberry Finn proved themselves to be the mile stone in American literature.《汤姆.索亚历险记》，尤其是《哈克贝里.芬历险记》是美国文学的里程碑。
9. The childhood of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in the Mississippi is a record of a vanished way of life in the pre-Civil War Mississippi valley and it has moved millions of people of different ages and conditions all over the world; and the books are noted for their unpretentious, colloquial yet poetic style, their wide-ranging humor, and their universally shared dream of perfect innocence and freedom.汤姆.索亚和哈克.芬在密西西比河上度过的童年是内战前该条河谷生活方式的实录，感动了数以万计的各种年龄的人。
书中的率直，口语化而又不失诗意的语言风格，广泛的幽默，天真和自由的梦想都是令人难忘的。
10. Hemingway once described the novel the one book from which“all modern American literature comes.”The profound portrait of Huckleberry Finn is another great contribution of the book to the legacy of American literature.《哈克贝里.芬历险记》----海明威曾把该书看作是”所有现代美国文学之源”.。
哈克贝里的深刻形象是该书给美国文学做出的又一贡献。
11. The climax arises with Huck’s inner struggle on the Mississippi, when Huck is polarized by the two opposing and the laws of the society against those who help slaves escapes哈克在密西西比河的内心争斗室小说的高潮。
哈克在理想与现实，对吉姆的感情与社会反对奴隶逃跑的法律之间被抛到了巅峰。
12. Huck’s final decision--- to follow his own good-hearted moral impulse rather thanconventional village morality.哈克最后决定：遵循自己内心的良知，而非世俗的道德。
13. Twain is also known as a local colorist, who preferred to present social life through portraits of local characters of his regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, and other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on.马克.吐温善于描绘地方风物，包括地方任务，风光，风俗，方言和服饰等等。
14. Another fact that made Twain unique is his magic power with king1970uage, his use of vernacular. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simple, even ungrammatical, which is typical of the spoken king1970uage.马克.吐温独特的另一个方面是他乡土气息的语言风格。
他的用词口语化，具体可感，直率有力。
句子结构简单，不合语法。
15. Mark Twain’s humor is remarkable.马克.吐温的幽默是突出的。
16. Twain’s works, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks, etc., and some of them are actually tall tales.他的作品生动有趣，充盈着实用的笑话，喜剧情节，智慧的语言以及动听的故事。
17. His humor is a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism.他的幽默是对社会不公正和沦丧的浪漫主义的讽刺和批判。
18. Adventures of Huckleberry: “Huck”, a typical American can Boy whom its creator described as a boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”. Through the eyes of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed and at the same time we are deeply impressed by Mark Twain’s thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization.《哈克贝里.芬历险记》---该小说最精彩的形象是哈克，他是被作者称为一个“有正常心理和畸形良知”的美国男孩。
通过天真又叛逆的哈克的眼睛，我们看到内战的美国社会的真正面目，同时，通过马克.吐温对比性的描写，我们还看到了率真与世故，自然与文化，野蛮与文明的对立。