美国文学选读下册重点内容总结

The 1920s (1) Modernism

a general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental and avant-garde trends in the literature (and other arts)of the early 20th century, including Symbolism, Futurism, Expressionism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surrealism, along with the innovations of unaffiliated writers. Modernist literature is characterized chiefly by a rejection of 19th-century traditions. Modernist writers disturbed their readers by adopting complex and difficult new forms and styles. In fiction, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf attempted new ways of tracing the flow of characters’ thoughts in their stream-of –consciousness style. In poetry, Ezra Pound and T.S.Eliot replaced the logical exposition of thoughts with collages of fragmentary images and complex allusions.

Modernist writing is predominantly cosmopolitan, and often expresses a sense of urban cultural dislocation, along with an awareness of new anthropological and psychological theories. Its favored techniques of juxtaposition and multiple point of view challenge the reader to reestablish a coherence of meaning from fragmentary forms. In English, its major landmarks are Joyce’s Ulysses and Eliot’s The Waste Land (both 1922).

The 1920s (2) Imagism

Imagism: the doctrine and poetic practice of a small but influential group of American and British poets calling themselves imagists between 1912 and 1917. Imagist Movement is a revolt against the sentimental and manneristic （格式化的）poetry at the turn of the century. Led at first by Ezra Pound, and the by Amy Lowell, the group rejected most 19th-century poetry as cloudy（含糊的）verbiage（啰嗦）, and aimed instead at a new clarity and exactness in the short lyric poem. The imagists cultivated concision and directness, building their short poems around single images; they also preferred looser cadences（节奏）to traditional regular rhythms. Apart from Pound and Lowell, the group also includes H.D., F.S.Flint, D.H. Lawrence and William Carlos Williams.

The three phrases

1908 – 1909. T. E. Hulme founded a club in London

Basic principles; more discussion, less writing

1912 – 1914. Ezra Pound

1912, the three imagist poetic principles came out

1914, the first anthology of Imagist poems---- Des Imagistes 诗选

1914 – 1917. Amy Lowell No great achievements

The three Imagist poetic principles

1.Direct treatment of the ―thing‖, whether subjective or objective.

要求诗歌直接呈现描写对象（以雕塑和绘画的手法，只展现而不加评论所用的语言尽可能相似于描写对象。

2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation ---Economy of expression. (There must be no explanations, no drawing of conclusions.)

不用没有意义的形容词、修饰语，意象具有跳跃性(fragmented)

3. Rhythm--- It concerns a breaking away from conventional prosody, the use of free verse and interrelationship between music and verse.

摒弃传统格律，注重诗歌形式的自由。主张按照语言的音乐性写诗，反对按固定音步写诗。