美国文学简史复习资料

美国文学简史复习资料
2016年12月23日
目录殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学美国浪漫主义早期
新英格兰超验主义
美国浪漫主义后期
美国现实主义文学
美国乡土文学
美国现代诗歌
美国现代小说
美国南方文学
美国现代戏剧
美国黑人文学
美国华裔文学
殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学
New England:Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, named by Captain John Smith
➢Puritanism
Doctrines of Puritanism:predestination(命运神定), original sin, total depravity (彻底的堕落), and limited atonement (有限的赎罪)from God’s grace
Puritans left Europe for America in order to prove that they were God’s chosen people who would enjoy God’s blessings on earth and in Heaven、They felt that they were exiles under the special grace of God to establish a theocracy in the New World、
Style of writing:the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest;a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible
Puritans’way of Life:hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety、
In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter there is a good description of the Puritans’life、
Main writers
William Bradford
Of Plymouth Plantation普利茅斯垦殖记
Thomas Paine
Common Sense 常识;American Crisis美国危机;The Rights of Man人权;The Age of Reason理性时代
Philip Freneau
The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲;The Wild Honeysuckle野金银花
Benjamin Franklin
Autobiography富兰克林自传
Thomas Jefferson
Draft the Declaration of Independence、
美国浪漫主义早期
Romanticism
Background of Romanticism:Economic boom and national optimism ;Favorable literary milieu: increasing number of magazines ;Foreign influences: the Romantic Movement in Europe、Characteristics of Romanticism:
A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism、
Feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important for romantics than reason and common sense、
An emphasis on individualism; placing the individual against the group, against authority、Stress on the close relationship between man and nature、
Fascination with the wild, the irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious, and the strange Cherishing a strong interest in the past, especially the medieval、
Features of American Romanticism:
New experience in the American Romanticism、
The exotic landscape, the frontier life, the westward expansion, the myth of a New Garden of Eden in America, and the Puritan heritage, etc、, these were all materials for an indigenous literature、
A deep influence from the American Puritanism、
Different from their European counterparts, American romantics tended to moralize, to edify rather than to entertain、
The “newness”of the Americans as a nation、
The Americans are different from the Europeans、Their ideals of individualism and political equality, and their dream that America was to be a new Garden of eden for man were distinctly American、
The New England Poets:Henry W、Longfellow-A Psalm of Life 人生礼赞
Main writers
Washington Irving
The Sketch Book (1819-1820)见闻札记;The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说
James Fenimore Cooper
Leather-stocking Tales皮裹腿故事集;The Pioneers 拓荒者;The Last of the Mohicans 最后一个
莫希干人;The Prairie 大草原;The Pathfinder探路人;The Deerslayer猎鹿人
新英格兰超验主义Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism
as a way of knowing, believes that individuals can intuitively receive higher truths otherwise unavailable through common methods of knowing, thus transcending the limits of rationalism、Some of its major concepts are:
It placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over-soul(超灵), as the most important thing in the universe、It emphasized the importance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish、It offered a fresh view of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God、
Significance
A group of new writers apply transcendental ideas in their works
Weakness
Transcendentalism tended to become mysticism、
sometimes resulted in rampant individualism
make moral indignation an irrelevant emotion、
Main writers
Ralph Waldo Emerson(超验主义领袖)
Nature(标志性之作);The American Scholar论美国学者
Henry David Thoreau
Walden:informal,spontaneous and so easy、His sentences are concentrated and vigorous、
美国浪漫主义后期
High Romantics in fiction
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet letter红字;The House of Sever Gables有七个尖角阁的房子
Herman Melville
Moby-Dick白鲸;Pierre皮埃尔
High Romantics in poetry
➢Edgar Allen Poe-the father of modern horror story and detective story
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque怪诞故事集;The Raven乌鸦
Literary theories (on poetry)
Poetical principles
Length: there is a distinct limit to all works of literary art—the limit of a single sitting、
Province: Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem、
Tone: Sadness is the tone of Beauty’s highest manifestation、Melancholy is the most legitimateof all the poetical tones、Death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world、
The immediate object of poetry is pleasure, not truth、
Poe defines true poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty”, and declares that music is the perfection of the soul, or idea, of poetry、
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass草叶集
➢Emily Dickinson
Features of Dickinson’s poems
Dickinson’s style is characteristic of frequent use of dashes, sporadic capitalization of nouns,convoluted and ungrammatical phrasing, off-rhymes, broken meters, bold and unconventional and often startling metaphors, and aphoristic wit、Her poetry prepares for modern poetry in the 20th century、
lyric、Her poems are remarkable for their variety, subtlety, and richness、
brevity and intensity、
unorthodox syntax and punctuation、
innovation in rhyme、One the whole, her poetry is irregular in rhyme and rhythm、
美国现实主义文学Realism
Historical background
Impact of the Civil War
Changes in national economic life
Concentration of wealth and power
Polarization of the rich and the poor
(This was the beginning of what Mark Twain called “The Gilded Age”—an age of extremes: of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope、)
Closing of the frontier
Definition
based on the accurate, unromanticized observation of human experiences、It insists on precise description, authentic action and dialogue, moral honesty, and a democratic openness in subject matter and style、
Realism as a literary movement refers to the approach of realist fiction occurred at the later part of the 19th century、
Realism, as a broader term, is also inclusive of naturalism, regionalism and local color writing、Major features
Realism reacts against Romanticism’s emphasis on intuition, imagination, a dreamy sense of wonder, idealism, faith in nature, and general optimistic belief in the goodness of things、Realists claim that they seek truth that is verifiable by experience and have practical consequences; they do not seek abstract truth、
Realists believe that literature imitates reality、They are attentive to such details as dialect, customs, and experiences that are commonplace and “real”、
Realists try to describe a small portion of the knowable world in order to maintain “objectivity、”Main Writers
William Dean Howells
The Rise of Silas Lapham塞拉斯·拉帕姆发迹记
Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady贵妇画像
Literary Theory
Art and life:Art must be related to life; it must be life transformed and changed so that the art form would give the truthful impression of actuality、
Point of view
Psychological realism(心理现实主义):by emphasizing the inner awareness and inward movements of his characters in face of outside occurrences
became the first of the modern psychological analysts in the novel
modern stream-of-consciousness technique
美国乡土文学Local Color Fiction
Features
Local color fiction presents a locale which is distinguished from the outside world、
describes the exotic and the picturesque、
glorifies the past、
attempts to show things as they are、
stresses the influence of setting on character、
Dialect peculiarities are the defining characteristic of local color writings、
Representatives
➢Mark Twain
The Gilded Age 镀金时代;The Adventures of Tom Sawyer汤姆·索亚历险记;The Prince and the Pauper 王子与贫儿;Life on Mississippi密西西比河上;The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 哈克贝利·费恩历险记
Style:Vernacular language; Local color、
Contribution
William Deans Howells called Mark Twain “the Lincoln of literature、”、Combining American frontier humor and serious storytelling conventions with his journalistic style, he produced a body of work of enduring value、His writing gives readers a clear sense of life in the prewar Mississippi Valley、Moreover, he initiated the vernacular tradition in American fiction、Francis Bret Harte-the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularity
The Luck of Roaring Camp咆哮营里的幸运儿
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom’s Cabin汤姆大叔的小屋
Kate Chopin
The Awakening觉醒
Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage红色英勇勋章
Theodore Dresier
Sister Carrie嘉莉妹妹;An American Tragedy美国悲剧
Jack London
The Call of the Wild野性的呼唤;Martin Eden 马丁·伊登
美国现代诗歌Modern American Poetry
-the second flowering(1914-1945)
Features
common theme:fragmentation
stream-of-consciousness
It also fostered a belief in art and literature as an avenue to self-fulfillment、It was characterized by a conscious rejection of established rules, traditions and conventions、The essence of modernism was a break with the pastIt strove to reflect 20th century’s social and political changes Background
the consequence of the transformation of society brought about by industrialism and technology in the course of the 19th century、
Imagist movement (1908-1917)
Imagism意象派
Ezra Pound-Leader of the Imagist Movement、
Two modernist poets
T、S、Eliot
he Waste Land 荒原
Robert Frost
“The Road Not Taken”“没有走过的路”
美国现代小说Modern American Fiction
Social backgrounds in the 1920s
Impact of World War I
The 1920s: the Roaring 20s(咆哮二十年)Jazz Age(爵士时代)Dollar Age
The Red Scare 恐共浪潮
The Prohibition (1919-1933) 禁酒令
Lost of faith
➢The Lost Generation
named applied to the disillusioned intellectuals and aesthetes of the years following World War I, who rebelled against former ideals and values but could replace 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 a preface to the latter’s novel The Sun Also Rises, which brilliantly describes an expatriate group typical of the “lost generation、”
Two major representatives
F、Scott Fitzgerald-the spokesman of the “roaring 20s”
The Great Gatsby 了不起的盖茨比
➢Ernest Hemingway-spokesman for the Lost Generation
iceberg theory:The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water、
The Sun Also Rises太阳照常升起;A Farewell to Arms 永别了,武器;For Whom the Bell Tolls 丧钟为谁而鸣;The Old Man and the Sea 老人与海
Hemingway’style
Hemingway’s style is noted for its simplicity、In diction, he focus on nouns and verbs and reduces the use of adjectives, especially complicated adjectives、In sentence structure, he uses coordinated clauses to avoid subordinated clauses that would imply vague judgments、This was especially obvious in his writings in the 1920s、
Some other writers
Sherwood Anderson
Winesburg, Ohio 小镇畸人
Willa Cather
My Antonia我的安东尼亚
Sinclair Lewis-The first American writer to win the Nobel Prize、
Main street 大街;Babbitt巴比特
John Steinbeck
he Grapes of Wrath愤怒的葡萄
Margaret Mitchell
Gone With the Wind飘
美国南方文学Southern American literature
The American South
The American South includes the southeastern states and the southern states along the Gulf of Mexico、
This is a unique region where people speak with strong southern accent、The southerners have their distinctive culture, viewpoint, and history、In the southern history, the South was guilty of slavery which began in 1621, the South failed in the Civil War, and the South is relatively poor in a nation of wealth even today、Guilt, failure, and poverty make the South dark side of American conscience、
Southern Renaissance
Here are six myths that southerner have cherished、They are not objectively true, but they are part of the culture and they make the South apart from other regions、
Chevalier heritage、骑士The southerners held that their ancestors were not Puritans but noble chevaliers who came from England to settle down in the New World、This myth created a pride in the region、
Agrarian virtue、农业美德
Plantation aristocracy、种植园农场的贵族生活
Lost cause、失去的事业
White supremacy、白人至上
Purity of Southern womanhood、
Representative Southern writers
➢William Faulkner
The Yoknapatawpha Saga约克纳帕塔法世系:The Sound and the Fury 喧嚣与骚动;As I Lay Dying我弥留之际;Absalom, Absalom!押沙龙,押沙龙！;Go Down, Moses去吧,摩西Major features of Faulkner’s writings
Faulkner used the South to talk about the violence and evil in all human beings、
Faulkner was a great avant-garde experimenter、He successfully advanced some modern literary techniques:
Stream of consciousness、(interior monologue)
Multiple point of view
Authorial transcendence instead of authorial intrusion、
His prose varies from colloquial口语的, regional, to formal diction and cadences节奏of American speech、
Stream of consciousness
The continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind; or a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue、It is an important device of modernist fiction、
In English literature, novels of stream-of-consciousness are represented by James Joyce and Virginia Wolf、The modern American writer William Faulkner successfully advanced this technique, for example, in his novel, The Sound and the Fury (1929)、
Thomas Wolf
Look Homeward, Angel天使,望乡
美国现代戏剧Modern American Dramas
American drama renaissance in the 1920s
Eugene O’Neil-Founder of modern American drama/regarded as the “American Shakespeare”Bound East for Cardiff 东航卡迪夫(an one-act play, which ushered in the modern era of the American theatre)
Beyond the Horizon天边外;The Emperor Jones 琼斯皇;The Hairy Ape毛猿;Desire under the Elms榆树下的欲望Long Day’s Journey into Night日长路远夜深沉
Expressionism 表现主义
Expressionism, artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him、He accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements、
In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the late 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements、
The Little Theater Movement in the 1920s and 1930s
Tennessee Williams
The Streetcar Named Desire欲望号街车
Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman推销员之死
Theater of the Absurd
often applied to the modern sense of human purposelessness in a universe without meaning or value、
The classic work of absurdist theater is Beckett’s En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot, 1952)、Edward Albee is most closely connected with the Theater of the Absurd、(Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 谁害怕弗吉尼亚沃尔夫？)
美国黑人文学African American Literature
Early African American literature
Frederick Douglass;
Booker T、Washington;
W、E、B、DuBois-The Souls of Black Folks: Essays and Sketches 黑人的灵魂;
Jean Toomer
Harlem Renaissance
Term used to describe a flowering of African-American literature and art in the 1920s, mainly in the Harlem district of New York City、During the mass migration of African Americans from the rural agricultural South to the urban industrial North (1914-18), many who came to New York settled in Harlem, as did a good number of black New Yorkers moved from other areas of the city、Meanwhile, Southern black musicians brought jazz with them to the North and to Harlem、The area soon became a sophisticated literary and artistic center、
Responding to the heady intellectual atmosphere of the time and place, writers and artists, many of whom lived in Harlem, began to produce a wide variety of fine and highly original works dealing with African-American life、
Countee Cullen;
Zora Neale Hurston;
Langston Hughes-“The Negro Speaks of River”“黑人说河”
African American literature in the 1940s and 1950s
Richard Wright;
Ralph Ellison-Invisible Man瞧不见的人
James Baldwin-Go Tell it on the Mountains向苍天呼吁Contemporary African American literature
Alex Palmer Haley-Roots根;
Alice Walker-The Color Purple紫色
Tony Morrison-The Bluest Eye最蓝的眼睛;Beloved宠儿
美国华裔文学Chinese American Literature Edith Maud Eaton水仙花
Mrs、Spring Fragrance春香夫人-美国华裔文学的开山之作
Louis Chu雷庭招
Eat a Bowl of Tea吃一碗茶-第一部以美国华埠为背景的华裔小说Frank Chin赵健秀-第一位引起美国主流批评注意的华裔剧作家Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Prose and Poetry哎呀！美国亚裔作家文集Maxine Hong Kingston汤婷婷
The Woman Warrior女勇士
China Man中国佬
Amy Tan谭恩美
The Joy Luck Club喜福会
David Henry Hwang黄哲伦
M、Butterfly蝴蝶君-第一部在百老汇上演的华裔戏剧作品
附:
American Nobel Prize Winners in Literature
Sinclair Lewis
(1930, the first American writer to win Nobel Prize)
The Main Street (1920)《大街》
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Eugene O’Neil (1936)
Desire under the Elms (1924)《榆树下的欲望》
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T、S、Eliot (1948)
The Waste Land(1922)《荒原》
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William Faulkner (1950)
The Sound and the Fury(1929)《喧嚣与骚动》
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Ernest Hemingway (1954)
The Old Man and the Sea(1952)《老人与海》
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John Steinbeck (1962)
The Grapes of Wrath (1939《愤怒的葡萄》)。