美国文学复习提纲
美国文学复习大纲
• • • •
* Second stage: Transcedentalism (p.56-59) Raph Waldo Emerson: Nature Henry David Thoreau: Walden
• Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter • Herman Melville: Moby Dick • Edgar Allan Poe: Gothic novels • “Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque” • Poe’s position in the world literature (P.114-115)
The first peak of literature in US
• Two stages of Romanticism in the first half of 19th century of US: • * First stage: • Washing Irving: Father of American literature; the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame • A History of New York • The Sketch Book: “Rip Van Winkle” “Sleepy Hollow” • James F. Cooper: • Leather-stocking Tales: The Pioneer • The Last of the Mohicans • The Prairie • The Pathfinder • The Deerslayer
• American Movement of Enlightenment (P.27-28) Writers of enlightenment Benjamin Franklin: The Authobiography; Poor Richard’s Amanack The Importance of Benjamin Franklin’s “The Autobiography”. (P. 35-37) Thomas Paine: Common Sense; Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence
美国文学史考试复习资料
1）puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology. 3look upon themselves as chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged the ir way of life is opposing God's will and is not to be accepted.
poet and political journalist 诗人和政治方面的新闻记者
1）perhaps the most outstanding writer of the post-revolutionary period. 2)has been called the "Father of American Poetry" 美国诗歌之父
"Great Common of Mankind" 最平凡的人 1）famous pamphlet "Common Sense" 著名的政治小册子《常识》 it boldly advocated a
"Declaration for Independence", and brought the separatist agitation to a crisis. 拥护独立宣
ar.
6）As an author he had power of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor, sarcastic.
美国文学简史复习纲要
美国文学简史复习纲要Colonial Period殖民时期 (1600s-1790s)American Puritanism美国清教主义：self-examination/self-improvementI.JonathanEdwards (1703-1758)：Calvinist加尔文教徒II.BenjaminFranklin本杰明富兰克林 (1706-1790)(1)PoorRichard’s Almanac(2)The Autobiography自传Early AmericanRomanticism早期美国浪漫主义时期〔1800s-1840s〕1.features(1)As alogical result of the foreign and native factors at work, Americanromanticismwas both imitative and independent.II.WashingtonIrving华盛顿欧文 (1783-1859)1.several names attached to Irving(1)firstAmerican writer(2)themessenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father ofAmerican literature美国文学之父2.works(1)The Sketch Book见闻札记: Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of SleepyHollowIII.JamesFenimore Cooper库柏 (1789-1851)1.works(1)Leatherstocking Tales皮袜子故事集 : TheDeerslayer, The Last of theMohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie2.literary achievementsCooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the Americannational experience of adventure into theWest. He turned the west andfrontier as a useable past and he helped tointroduce western tradition toAmerican literature.Summitof Romanticism – NewEnglandTranscendentalism/AmericanRenaissance新英格兰超验主义---美国浪漫主义鼎盛时期(1840s-)I.Appearance提出1836,“Nature〞by Emerson爱默生、《论自然》II.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature –symbol of spirit/God4.focus in intuition (irrationalism andsubconsciousness)III.Influence1.It helped to create the first American renaissance美国文学复兴–one ofthemost prolific period in American literature、independent Americanculture. IV.RalphWaldo Emerson〔1802-1882〕1.works(1)Nature—the manifesto ofAmerican Transcendentalism.《论自然》的发表是美国超验主义出现的标志。
美国文学史复习大纲
美国文学史复习大纲一：作家作品1.Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio(小镇畸人，1919) The Triumph of the Egg(鸡蛋的胜利，1921)2.John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath(愤怒的葡萄，1939，strong sociological novel,1940年获普利策奖（Pulitzer Prize)),1962年获诺贝尔文学奖①the foremost novelist of the American Depression.美国大萧条时期最杰出的小说家。
②代表作：“Of Mice and Men”《人鼠之间》portrayed the tragic friendship between two migrant workers “The Grapes of Wrath”《愤怒的葡萄》regarded as masterpiece ,showed the migration of the Okies from the Dust Bowls to California ,a migration that ended in broken dreams and misery but at the same time affirmed the ability of the common people to endure and prevail. Theme : strength comes from unity i-we ;faith in life; struggle to live better2.John Dos Passos: 约翰多斯帕索斯His trilogy U.S.A(美利坚)---The 42nd Parallel(北纬42度，1930), 1919(1932), The Big Money(1936), Three Soldiers。
美国文学-文学诗歌期末考试复习大纲
英美文学（2）复习大纲1. Multiple Choices （30 points）基本的文学史实，包括不同时期文学的特点，主要作家的作品以及写作特点等。
2. Gap Filling (10 points)主要作家的代表作3. Definition of Terms (20 points)ImageryWords or phrases that create pictures, or images, in the reader’s mind.American TranscendentalismAme rican Transcendentalism or “New England Transcendentalism” or “American Renaissance” is more of a tendency, an attitude, than the philosophy of Transcendentalists. To “transcend” something is to rise above it, to pass beyond its limits. The major features of New England Transcendentalism can be summarized as the follows:Firstly, the Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirits, or the Over soul, as the most import thing in the Universe.Secondly, they stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society.Thirdly, they offered a fresh perception of nature as symbol of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Transcendentalism is based on the belie f that the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of senses.As a philosophical and literary movement, Transcendentalism flourished in New England from 1830s to the Civil War. Its doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in Emerson and Thoreau.Free VerseFree Verse is a verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern. Although most free verse belongs to the 19th and 20th centuries, it can be found in earlier literature, particularly in the Psalms of the Bible.NaturalismAn extreme form of realism. Naturalistic writers usually depict the sordid side of life and show characters who are severely, if not hopelessly, limited by their environment or heredity.ImagismIt is an influential literary movement that took place in Europe and America from about 1910 to 1920. The imagist poet creates a single sharp image that evokes an emotional response in the reader. Imagism was in a reaction to the “bad habits” of the 19th century poets who were too explicit in their commentary and too repetitious in their subjects, patterns, and meters.Local ColoristsA group of writers who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of specific regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, the other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on. The major local colorists are Hamlin Garland, Mark Twain.Lost GenerationThis term has been used again and again to describe the people of the postwar years. When the First World War broke out, many young men volunteered to take part in “the war to end all wars” only to find that modern warfare was not as glorious or heroic as they thought it to be. Disillusioned and disgusted by the frivolous, greedy, and heedless way of life in America, they began to write and they wrote from their own experience in the war. Among these young writers were the most prominent figures in American literature, especially in modern American literature, for example, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, etc. They were basically expatriates who left America and formed a community of writers and artists in Paris, involved with other European novelists and poets in their experimentation on new modes of thought and expression. They were later called by an American writer, Gertrude Stein, also expatriates, “The Lost Generation”.Hemingway HeroesThose protagonists in Hemingway’s fiction, who survive in the process if seeking to master the code known as “grace under pressure” with honesty, the discipline, and the restraint.American Puritanism1. The beliefs and practices characteristic of Puritans (most of whom were Calvinists who wished to purify the Church of England of its Catholic aspects)2. Strictness and austerity in conduct and religionAmerican Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature. It has become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, rather than a set of tenets, so much a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the Americans breathe. Without some understanding of Puritanism, there can be no real understanding of American culture and literature.The Jazz Agethe era that immediately followed World War I and lasted until the beginning of the Depression, during which jazz increased in popularity. It was a reaction to the austerity and hardship of the war and was characterized by extravagance and hedonism.4. Questions (22 points)Because I could not stop for DeathSong of MyselfThe Road Not TakenPactIn a Station of the Metro5. Topic Discussion(18 points)Summarize the story of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and comment on the theme of the novel。
（完整word版）美国文学史复习要点整理【手动】
（完整word版）美国文学史复习要点整理【手动】美国文学史整理一、Colonial America 殖民时期1、New England：Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, andConnecticut.2、Doctrines of Puritanism清教American Puritanism stressed predestination（命运神定), original sin（原罪）, total depravity (彻底的堕落), and limited atonement (有限的赎罪)from God’s grace.3、Writing style：fresh, simple and direct and with a touch of nobility；the rhetoric is plain andhonest.4、Life style：hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.5、Main writer:①Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩work：Common Sense (1776) 《常识》American Crisis (1776-1783)《美国危机》The Rights of Man《人权》The Age of Reason《理性时代》②Benjamin Franklin（本杰明·富兰克林）Poor Richard’s Almanac《穷查理历书》Autobiography 《富兰克林自传》③Thomas Jefferson 托马斯·杰弗逊Declaration of Independence (1776)《独立宣言》二、American Romanticism (early period) 浪漫主义前期1、Characteristics：①A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.反对理性主义的客观性。
美国文学史复习纲要
1. The Colonial PeriodThe settlement of America in the early 17th century--- the end of the 18th century.The major topicThe major figures2. The Romantic PeriodCovering the first half of the19th century.•The major points:3. The Age of RealismThe Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. Covering the end of the 19th century and the first decade of 20th century.•It expresses the concern for the commonplace and the low, and offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.•4. American Naturalism•From the first decade of twentieth century to the First World War.•The major figures: Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and O. Henry5 American ModernismThe literature between the two world wars. This is the most important period in6. American Postmodernism•From the World War II up to now.•Postmodernist writers: John Barth, Philip Roth, Thomas Pinchon, Ishmael Reed and Don Delillo.•The flourishing of minoritarian literature: Jewish-American, African-American and Asian-American literatureis an account of a person’s life written by that person or a book written by oneself about one’s own life. It is characterized by the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression, lucidity of the narrative. Benjamin Franklin…s Autobiography is a good example.Puritanism:Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans, who became American‟s founding fathers. They advocated highly religious and moral principles.The American Puritans were idealists. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God.Puritanism has a profound influence on the early American mind and literaturePoor Richard’s Almanac Autobiography Romanticism1800-1865Characteristics of Romanticism (derivative independent)o an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society—reliance on the subconscious, the inner life, the abnormal psychologyo an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination—rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed formality, order and authority o a profound love for nature—nature as a source of knowledge, nature asa refuge from the present, nature as a revelation of the holy spirito the quest for beauty—pure beautyo the use of antique and fanciful subject matters—sense of terror, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queerMoby-Dick is regarded as the first American prose epic. His ideas:The world is at once Godless and purposelessMan cannot influence and overcome nature at its sourceThemes 1 alienation 2 Rejection and Quest3criticism against Emersonian self-reliant individualSymbolThe Pequod -------- of human society. The voyage ----- search and discovery. The whale Moby Dick------nature Queequeg's coffin ---- symbolizes life and death. The whiteness of Moby Dick --- death and corruption and purity, innocence and youth; final mystery of the universe.The ship on the ocean----- symbol of the whole world with people in quest of its瓦尔登湖A psalm of lifeSonnet—To science abab cdcd efef ggTo Helen ABABB CDCDC AEEAE五行诗节1. Free from the traditional iambic pentameter and writes free verse2. Parallelism3. Phonetic recurrence systematic repetition of words and phrases or sounds4. Long catalogs, giving free rein to poetic imaginationHer poetry is a clear illustration of her religious-ethical and political-social ideas.largest portion of Dickinson‟s poetry concerns andoriginal in art and famous for the economy of expression in diction and the frequent use of dashes.Her poems are short and implicit in meaning. She is regarded as the forerunner of modernism in American poetryThemes: death love natureFrequent use of dashesTranscendentalism.浪漫主义运动的表现形式-超验主义it‟s Romanticism on the Puritan soil Transcendentalism has been defined as the recognition in man of the capacity of acquiring knowledge transcending the reach of the five senses, or of knowing truth intuitively, or of reaching the divine without the need of an intercessor.placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over soul as the most important thing in the universe stressed the importance of the individualoffered a fresh perception of nature a symbolic of the Spirit or Godstressed the power of intuition.He firmly believes in the transcendence of the “Oversoul”.2. Emerson’s Idealism. He sees the world as phenomenal, and emphasizes theneed for idealism, for idealism sees the world in God3. Emerson’s View on Spirit. He sees spirit pervading everywhere4.Emerson’sView on Man. man is made in the image of God and is just a little less then Him.man is divine.5. Emerson’s View on Individuality and Self-Reliance. The individual is the mostimportant of all. E For him, if man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect.So men should and could be self-reliant.6. Emerson’s Nature. A natural implication of Emerson‟s view on nature is that the world around is symbolicRealismHis later works become darker and more obscure, showing his discontent and disappointment toward the social reality. His last works shows his acute pessimism, despair, skepticism determinism.Humor local color satireThe Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Gilded Age Life on the Mississippi A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug The Mysterious StrangerThe Innocents Abroad Roughing It Pudd'nhead WilsonAmerican ClaimantNaturalismIs a critical term applied to the method of literary composition that aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man•It is thus more inclusive and less selective than realism, and holds to the philosophy of determinism.•It conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by its social and economic environment and circumstances.•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments.•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.CharacteristicsA literary trend that prevailed in 1890s in America.1) Emphasis on reality, objectivity, no exaggeration, give no comments andcriticizing;2) The naturalists would go to the slums and describe the poverty and crime;3) Be concerned about the influence of social environment. According to them,human beings are victims of the crushing forces of heredity and environment.Explain human activities and human society according to biological law, highlight the effect of animal instincts and heredity on human beings.5) Apply scientific experiment to writing, try to test human feelings in variouskinds of environment.6) The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile.7) Hold very pessimistic attitude towards human society, and this pessimism oftengoes to determinism.Representatives: CharacteristicFrank Norris（弗兰克·诺里斯）dehumanizedStephen Crane（斯蒂芬·克莱恩）- determinedTheodore Dreiser（西奥多·德莱塞）- moved by inner and outer forcesJack London（杰克·伦敦beyond conscious moral control McTeague Octopus the Pit Vandover and the BruteMaggie: A Girl of the Streets The red badge of courage Sister Carrie Modernism现代主义时期•During the first decades of the 20th century, modernism became an international tendency against positivism and representational art in art and literature. Modernism was the consequence of the transformation of society brought about by industrialism and technology. The essence of modernism wasa break with the past, and it also fostered a belief in art and literature as anavenue to self-fulfillment. The feature was its strong and conscious break with traditional forms, perceptions, and techniques of expressions, and its great concern with language and all aspects of its medium.•It was persistently experimental. Stream of consciousness, the use of myth as a structural principle, and the primary status given to the poetic image, all challenged traditional representation.•Generally speaking, this new desire in craftsmanship and skill was one of the hallmarks of the early decades of the 20th century.Imagism意象派（诞生于现代主义时期）It is a Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. It was initially led by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell.（no fuss, frill, or ornament）,（precision and economy of expression）,（free verse form and music）.Launch Imagism setting down the Imagist principlesThe Cantos 《诗章》威廉·卡洛·威廉斯avoided complexity andobscure华莱士·斯蒂文斯Simple lines: an emphasis on vocabulary and imagery rather than prosodyThe faith in poetry : when no one believes in God, it is necessary to believe in something else, such as poetry, a thing created by imaginationAnecdote of the Jar罗伯特The most popular 20th Century American Poet, A four-timeStyl e 1rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries, choosingthe old-fashioned way to be new.• 2 employ the plain speech of rural New Englanders.3 use the simple, short, traditional forms of lyrics and Narrative, can probemysteries of darkness and irrationality in the bleak and chaotic landscapes of an indifferent universe where man stand alone, unaided and perplexed.Fire and ice Fire - a symbol of desire, or love. Ice - a symbol of hatredtwo weaknesses of human beings that are as destructive as natural disasters The road not taken it does not moralize about choice, it simply says that choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived itStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening The poem is primarily oriented towards the pleasures of the scene and the responsibility of life. Metaphors:• Promises –Our own promises or duties that we must fulfill.Miles - experience we must travel through before deathThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black boughthe Great Gatsby 1926The Sun Also Rises 1926, A Farewell to Arms , 1929,the Wasteland.Main Street 1920an American TragedyAmerican Dream:The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of martial wealth, but a dream of social order. People try to get success no matter what kind of circumstances of birth or position they came from.The lost generationIt refers to the writers who were devoid of faith, values and ideals and who were alienated from the civilization the capitalist society advocated. It includes Ernst Hemingway, F. S.Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Louis Bromfield., and E.E.Cummings, Ezra Pound，who rebelled against former values and ideas, but replaced them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. They were frustrated by the WWI and returned from that “Great War”to their own country only to find the grim reality that the social values and civilization were hollow.Short storyIt is a fictional prose tale of no specified length, but too short to be published as a volume on its own. It concentrates on a single event with one or two characters. It flourished in the magazines of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the USA, which has a particularly strong tradition. Edgar Allen Poe was considered as the father of modern short story. His short stories like the cast of Amontillado and the Black cat are famous.Jazz Age⏹American industry developed fast. The nation is full of bouncingebullience, fearful of nothing, confident smug isolationism.⏹Socially, decline of idealism. Patriotism became cynical disillusionment.Unity of family weakened. There appeared the revolt of the Younger Generation. They escaped responsibility and assumed immorality.⏹After WWI, people found that the war which cost millions of lives failedto provide an abiding solutions to the world’s problems, that the war was just the traps of political leaders. Such a disillusionment about the value of war, accompanied by the booming of American economy drove people to cynical hedonism. People experiment with new amusements. They restlessly pursued stimulus and pleasures, wallow in heavy drinking, fast driving and casual sex. By these, they hoped to seek relief from serious problems.Hemingway heroThey live adventures-filled lives that were driven by courage and limited by fear. They hide a sensitive heart from tough exterior.” Grace under press” is their motto. Its heroes are hemmed in by forces beyond their control.AntiheroIt is a central character in a dramatic or narrative work who lacks the qualities ofnobility and magnanimity expected of traditional heroes in romances and epic.Like the character “Henry” in the work of a farewell to arms.SymbolTraditional FormsBallad(民谣)A ballad is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. “The Geste of Robin HoodHeroic CoupletIt refers to a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter and written in an elevated style. Sonnet 18Spenserian stanza•It is a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c. The Faerie QueeneBlank verse素体诗，无韵诗•Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.•It became widely used in dramatic poetry and narratives.Now that/ the gloo/my sha/dow of /the night,Longing/ to view/ Orion/’s drizz/ling look,Leaps from/ the an/tarc/tic world/ unto/ the skyAnd dims/ the wel/kin with/ her pi/tchy breath ----Doctor FaustusFree verseMeans the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without paying attention to conventional rules of meter. It can free the poets from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and recreate instead the free rhythms of natural speech.Beat GenerationTheatre of absurd. the 1950sBlack humor.the 1960s。
美国文学复习大纲
美国文学部分(American Literature)一．殖民时期文学（The Literature of the Colonial Period）1．本章考核知识点和考核要求：1) 早期殖民地时期的文学的特点2) 十八世纪美国文学的特点（重点是独立革命前后时期文学）3) 主要的作家、其概况及其代表作品4) 术语：the colonial period, American Puritanism, Puritans, Enlightenment in American, the Great Awakening2．主要作家作品John Smith第一个美国作家A True Relation of Virginia and General History of Virginia.Anne Bradstreet 殖民地时期女诗人The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650)Jonathan Edwards十八世纪上半叶大觉醒时代的代表人物“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林，散文家、科学家、社会活动家，曾参与起草《独立宣言》。
十八世纪美国启蒙思想代言人。
《穷查理历书》Poor Richard’s Almanac（收录格言警句）《致富之道》The Way to Wealth《自传》The Autobiography （富兰克林原意为写给儿子的家书）Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩，散文家、政治家、报刊撰稿人。
《常识》Common Sense ( Paine 最知名的政论文：It was inspired by the first battle of the Revolutionary War—the Battle of Lexington in Concord.)《美国危机》American Crisis《人的权利》Rights of Man《专制体制的崩溃》Downfall of Despotism《理性时代》The Age of ReasonPhilip Freneau 菲利普·弗伦诺，著名的“革命诗人”。
美国文学复习提纲
第一部分殖民时期一、时期综述（关于清教的应该都是重点）1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：A、narratives日记B、journals游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：①their voyage to the new land②adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops③about dealing with Indians④guide to the new land,endless bounty,invitation to bold spirit★3、清教徒的想法：①Puritans want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices.净化信仰和行为方式②wish to restoresimplicity to church services and the authority of the Bible totheology.重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位③look uponthemselves as a chosen people,and it follow logically thatanyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God’s willand is not to be accepted.认为自己是上帝选民，对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝。
④Puritan opposition to pleasure and the artssometimes has been exaggerated.反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步。
⑤religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.强调上帝严厉的一面，忽视上帝仁慈的一面。
美国文学史复习要点手动
美国文学史复习要点手动1.早期美国文学（17世纪-18世纪）-早期美国文学的发展受到清教徒移民和殖民地环境的影响。
-早期作品主题包括宗教信仰、苦难和恐惧。
-著名作家有威廉·布拉德福和乔纳森·爱德华兹。
2.启蒙时期文学（18世纪）-美国启蒙时期的文学受到欧洲启蒙思想的影响。
-作品主题包括理性、自由和平等。
-著名作家有本杰明·富兰克林和汤玛斯·潘恩。
3.罗曼主义时期文学（19世纪早期）-罗曼主义时期美国文学反对启蒙时期的理性主义。
-作品主题包括个人感情、自然和超自然。
-著名作家有华盛顿·欧文和爱默生。
4.特拉华文学（19世纪中期）-特拉华文学是19世纪中期美国文学的重要流派。
-作品主题包括农民和工人的生活以及美国西部探险精神。
-著名作家有赫尔曼·梅尔维尔和华尔特·惠特曼。
5.现实主义和自然主义时期文学（19世纪末-20世纪初）-现实主义和自然主义时期的文学关注社会问题和个人命运。
-作品主题包括工业化、城市化和阶级冲突。
-著名作家有马克·吐温和斯蒂芬·克莱恩。
6.现代主义时期文学（20世纪初-中期）-现代主义时期的文学反对传统形式和价值观。
-作品表现迷失、不安和心理困惑。
-著名作家有欧内斯特·海明威和F·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德。
7.后现代主义时期文学（20世纪中期-现在）-后现代主义时期的文学拒绝一切形式的正统和稳定性。
-作品表现多样化的语言和视觉实验。
-著名作家有托尼·莫里森和大卫·福斯特·华莱士。
美国文学复习大纲
㈠The Significant Differences between British Literature and American Literature⒈non-existence of folk literature⒉ the subject of American dream⒊ strong concept of democracy, freedom, individualism, liberation of personality⒋diversity and complexity⒌ rich flavor of life and civilian color㈡Periodization of American Literature⒈Early American Literature (17th century and 18th century)①The Literary Scene in Colonial America (ab.1607-1765)②Literature of Enlightenment and Revolution (1765-1790s)⒉19th_century American Literature (1st golden time)1) Romanticism;2)Realism; 3)Naturalism⒊American Literature of the 20th century and the present1)modernism (2nd golden time); 2)postmodernism (3rd)㈢Outline of American Literature⒈Colonial Period (1607—1765)⒉Revolutionary Period (1765—1790s)⒊The Age of Romanticism (1800—1865)⒋The Age of Realism (1865—1918)⒌American Modernism (1918—1945)⒍Contemporary Literature (1945-- )█Colonial Period (1607-1765)㈠American Puritanism: one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature.㈡Major writers①Captain John Smith （约翰·史密斯the first American writer②Anne Bradstreet (安妮·布拉德斯特里特) the first American woman poet a Puritan poet, once called“Tenth Muse”●General features of Colonial Literature(p15-p16)a. Humble origins: diaries, histories, letters etc.b. In content: serving either God or colonial expansion or bothc. In form: imitating English literary traditions█Literature of Reason and Revolution㈠Background （从标题就可看出）The Enlightenment MovementThe War of Independence㈡Major Writers and Works①Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)Poor Richard's AlmanackThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin②Thomas Paine (1737-1809）Common SenseThe American Crisis③Philip Freneau(1752-1832)“Father of American Poetry”“Pioneer of the New Romanticism”㈢ Nature lyrics:The Wild Honey SuckleThe Indian Burying Ground█Romantism 1800---1861/1865㈠The phase of New England Transcendentalism is the summit of American Romanticism.㈡ Classification of the Romantic Writers⒈Early Romantic writers/ pioneersWashington IrvingJames Fenimore Cooper⒉Edgar Allan Poe⒊TranscendentalistsRalph Waldo EmersonHenry David Thoreau⒋NovelistsNathaniel HawthorneHerman MelvilleHarrite Beecher Stowe⒌PoetsHenry Wadsworth LongfellowWalt WhitmanEmily Dickinson●Washington Irving⒈the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame⒉the father of American short stories⒊Major Works①A History of New York《纽约外史》②The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon《见闻札记》a collection of essays and short stories③“Rip Van Winkle” 《瑞普·凡·温克尔》④“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《睡谷的传说》●James Fenimore Cooper⒈Frontier Novel⒉the first authors to write about the Frontier Novelone of American Westward movement and introduced the “Western” tradition into American literature⒊Works:Leatherstocking Tales《皮袜子故事集》The PioneersThe Last of The MohicansThe PrairieThe PathfinderThe Deerslayer●Edgar Allan Poe⒈the first author in American literature to make the neurotic the hero and the protagnist⒉Father of psychoanalytic criticism(精神分析) and detective story⒊Poetic Theory①chief aim -- beauty②the most beautiful thing described by a poem is the death of a beautiful woman;③the desirable tone of a poem is melancholy●Ralph Waldo Emerson⒈Ralph Waldo Emerson is the chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism.⒉Major Works:①Naturethe manifesto or the Bible of New England Transcendentalism②The American ScholarAmerica’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence●Nathaniel Hawthorne⒈Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter ---- A⒉The scarlet letter "A" changes its meaning many times.⒊This change is significant. It shows the moral growth of Prynn.⒋The letter “A” begins as a symbol of sin--adultery. It then becomes a symbol of alone and alienation, and finally it becomes a symbol of able, angel and admirable●Herman Melville⒈Symbolism in Moby Dick (p86)⒉The voyage--search for the ultimate truth⒊The white whale-- mixture of evil and goodness⒋Its whiteness--paradoxical color, death and corruption as well as purity, innocence, and youth⒌To Ahab: A symbol of evil⒍To Ishmael: Moby-dick is the embodiment of the mysterious nature or universe.●Walt Whitman⒈Leaves of GrassIn terms of poetic form, he advocated a completely new and completely American form of poetic expression—free verse(it is a kind of poetry that does not conform to any regular meter: the length of its lines is irregular, as is its use of rhyme--- if any.)●Emily Dickinson⒈Themes in Dickinson’s poetryDeath and immortalityNatureBeauty, truth and goodnesslove█Three Giants in Realistic Period⒈William Dean Howells“Dean of American Realism”The Rise of Silas Lapham⒉Henry James①Psychological realism②The Portrait of a Lady – forerunner of the stream-of-consciousness and psychological realism③Daisy Miller --first of international theme⒊Mark Twain--local colorism⒋Major Works of Mark Twain①The Gilded Age (1873)②The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876)③Life on the Mississippi(1883)④The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884)●American Naturalism⒈Stephen Crane (1871-1900)Novels: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893)⒉The Red Badge of Courage (1895)⒊Frank Norris (1870 -- 1902)Mcteague 《麦克提格》●Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)《嘉莉妹妹》Sister Carrie《珍妮姑娘》Jennie Gerhardt《美国悲剧》An American TragedyHis autobiographical work --- The Genius 《天才》The trilogy of desire (欲望三部曲):The Financier 《金融家》The Titan 《巨头》The Stoic 《斯多葛》█Modernist Poetry⒈Ezra Pound -- Imagism"In a Station of the Metro"⒉Robert Frost"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening""The Road Not Taken"⒊T. S. EliotThe Waste Land, Four Quartets⒋Carl Sandburg“Fog”“The Harbor”⒌Wallace Stevens"Anecdote of the Jar"⒍William Carlos Williams"The Red Wheelbarrow"⒎E. E. Cummings●the Lost Generation⒈It describes young American artists who, in the 1920s, rejected American ideals and moved to Paris to live in the bohemian lifestyle.⒉F. Scott Fitzgerald -- spokesman of the Jazz AgeThe Great Gatsby -- disillusionment of American Dream⒊部分Ernest HemingwayThe Sun Also RisesA Farewell to ArmsFor Whom the Bell TollsThe Old Man and the Sea●Harlem Renaissance⒈It refers to a great development of writing about the African Americans’ place during the 1920s and 1930s. It exalted the unique culture of African-Americans.●William FaulknerThe Sound and the FuryA Rose for EmilyThe 1930s●Representative Writers⒈John Dos Passos U.S.A. TrilogyJohn Steinbeck The Grapes of Wraththe finest working-class novel of the 1930s█American Drama⒈Eugene O’NeillBeyond the HorizonThe Hairy ApeDesire Under the ElmsLong Day's Journey into Night⒉Tennessee WilliamsThe Glass MenagerieA Streetcar Named Desire⒊Arthur Miller①Death of a Salesman②the tragic story of an ordinary man (Willy Loman)③Willy is the victim of the American dream.●What is postmodernism? p312 para2⒈Poetry: against NC and Modernism⒉Theme: formless and unpredictable world⒊Topics and subjects: personal nature⒋Form: freedom⒌Novel: metafiction, black humor, avantgardism●American Postmodernism Poetry1 Poets of the 1940s generation2. The End of the 1950s and after①Poets of Confessional School②Poets of the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance①The Black Mountain poets②Poets of the New York School③The Meditative poetry3. The beginning of the 1970s and after●The Confessional SchoolThe term is usually used to certain poets of the United States from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. In a broad way, the poetry of this group of poets share common features such as a ruthless,excruciating self-analysis of one’s own background and heritage, one’s own most private desires and fantasies etc., and the urgent “I’ll-tell-it-all-to-you” impulse. (p343 para1)●Robert Lowell⒈Life Studies (1959) -- masterpiece of Confessional poetry⒉"Skunk Hour"●Allen Ginsberg HowlA spokesman of The Beat Generation●Representatives of postwar novels(1) Saul BellowHerzog 《赫尔佐格》Dangling Man 《晃来晃去的人》(2) Norman MailerThe Naked and the Dead 《裸者与死者》(3) J. D. SalingerThe Catcher in the Rye 《麦田里的守望者》(4) John Updike Rabbits 《兔子五部曲》(5) Joseph HellerCatch-22 《第二十二条军规》 (absurdity, black humor and anti-war novel)(6) Kurt VonnegutSlaughterhouse-Five 《第五屠场》(7) Thomas PynchonGravity’s Rainbow 《万有引力之虹》(8) Jack KerouacOn the Road 《在路上》(spontaneous prose)(9) Vladimir Nabokof Lolita 《洛丽塔》●Black Humor⒈It is a kind of writing that places grotesque elements side by side with humorous ones in an attempt to shock the readers, forcing them to laugh at the horrifying reality of a disordered world, It is humor out of despair and laughter out of tears.⒉Features: comic way to express tragic situations; illogical narrative structure.⒊Major Postwar Black Writers1.拉尔夫．埃利森(Ralph Ellison)，《看不见的人》（Invisible Man, 1952）2.詹姆斯．鲍德温(James Baldwin)，《向苍天呼吁》（Go Tell It on the Mountain, 1953）3.托尼．莫里森(Toni Morrison)，《所罗门之歌》（Song of Solomon, 1977）/《宠儿》（Beloved, 1987）4.艾丽丝．沃克(Alice Walker)，《紫色》（Color Purple, 1982。
美国文学复习提纲(呕心沥血完全版)
美国文学复习提纲平时35。
期末65。
1．Match the literary work in column B with the author in the column A. (20 points)2. Decide the following statements true or false. (10 points)3. Define the following literary terms (20 points)一、时间（1分）；二、代表人物（1分）；三；主要特征（2分）；四、文学文化意义（1分）Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” and “the code hero”Iceberg theory:It was firstly proposed by Ernest Hemingway, the representative writer of the Lost Generation, in Death In the Afternoon (1932) which has such a description “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.”The theory suggests that the writer include in the text only a small portion of what he knows, leaving about ninety percent of the content a mystery that grows beneath the surface of the writing. It‟s influence as a stylist was nearly expressed in the praise of the Nobel Prize Committee about “his powerful style-forming mastery of the art” of writing modern fiction.The code hero: Term Coined by Philip Young in 1952 to refer to Hemingway characters that have learned to control the chaos in their lives, chaos in the form of physical or mental stress, sometimes both. As Bertrand Russell comments, Hemingway‟s heroes have such kind of courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert this dignity in face of diversity. A code hero could be destroyed but not defeated.Modernism:Modernism is an omnibus term for a number of tendencies in the arts which were prominent in the first half of the 20th c.; In English literature it includes symbolism, futurism, expressionism, imagism, dada, and surrealism. It is particularly associated with the writings of T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce etc. Broadly, Modernism reflects the impact upon literature of the psychology of Freud and the anthropology of Sir J. Frazer, as expressed in The Golden Bough (1890-1915). A sense of cultural relativism is pervasive in much modernist writing, as is an awareness of the irrational and the workings of the unconscious mind. Modernist literature is a literature of discontinuity, both historically, being based upon a sharp rejection of the procedures and values of the immediate past, to which it adopts an adversary stance; and aesthetically.The Lost Generation:The "Lost Generation" is a term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway in his novel, "The Sun Also Rises" used to refer to his generation; those who experienced alienation and the loss of ideals yet unable to come to terms with the new era when civilization had gone mad resulting from World War I .This generation included distinguished artists such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. EliotThe beat generation:The Beat Generation is a term for a group of American writers who came into prominence during the 1950s and offered a radical critique of middle class American values. The beats celebrated individual freedom, Zen Buddhism, and the free use of drugs;they attacked the conformity, complacency, and commercialism of the “tranquilized fifties.” The most prominent members of the group were the poet Allen Ginsberg and the novelist Jack Kerouac.New Criticism:The New Criticism is a movement in American literary criticism from the 1930s to the 1960s, which name comes from John Crowe Ransom‟s book The New Criticism (1941).The basic principle of New Criticism was to locate the meaning of a literary work not in the intention of the author nor in the experience of the reader, but in “the text itself,”the internal relations of language that constitute a “poem.”Also to be avoided, or at least subordinated to close reading, were “extrinsic” (that is, not dealing exclusively with the language of the text) approaches to the study of literature: social, psychological, economic, political, or historical.When it was at its peak, New Criticism greatly influenced both literary critics in their evaluation of literary works and poets in their writing of poems.Postmodernism:In literature, Postmodernism is a term used to describe characteristics of some contemporary literature that distinguish it from the literature of modernism. Where modernist literature was characterized by its commitment to the value of a unified, coherent work of art employing symbol and myth, exhibiting alienation from ordinary life, postmodernism celebrates incoherence, discontinuity, parody, popular culture, and the principle of metafiction. Postmodernism has combined formal experimentalism with powerful social and cultural criticism.Stream of Consciousness:The term was originally a psychological term to refer to the continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind. In literature it refers to a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. As an important device of modernist fiction and its later imitators, the technique was pioneered by Dorothy Richardson in Pilgrimage (1915-35) and by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922), and further developed by Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway (1925) and William Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury (1928).4. text analysis: 6选3 (30 points)In a Station of the Metro:1. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians “apparition”?Pound contrasts the factual, mundane image that he actually witnessed with a metaphor from nature and thus infuses this “apparition” with visual beauty. There is a quick transition from the statement of the first line to the second line‟s vivid metaphor; this …super-pository‟ technique exemplifies the Japanese haiku style. The word “apparition” is considered crucial as it evokes a mystical and supernatural sense of imprecision which is then reinforced by the metaphor of the second line.2. What do “petals” and “bough” stand for?The plosive word …Petals‟ conjures ideas of delicate, feminine beauty which contrasts with the bleakness of the …wet, black bough‟.The Red Wheelbarrow:1. How does the first two lines differ from the other pairs of lines?There is no exact thing presented in the 1st two lines. But, by adding those first four words the meanings of the poem just explode into a million different possible meanings.2. What is the meaning of “depends upon” in the 1st pair of lines?“Hardness and aesthetics of life.”One’s-self I singThe 1855 "Song of Myself" had announced that the "word of the modern" was "a word en masse," and eventually Whitman would revise this 1867 Inscription to affirm that "En-Masse" was also "the word Democratic." In a modern, democratic society, as Tocqueville had said, no intermediate allegiances stand between the individual citizen and the entire body politic. The Self is indeed separate, isolated; it has renounced party and creed and local custom, all mediating bodies that provide a system of preference or exclusion."One‟s-Self I sing, a simple separate person," run the opening lines of Leaves of Grass from 1871 on, "Yet utter the word Democratic." A poetic universe of productive tension is hinted by that "Yet"; the tense equipoise between individualism and democracy, this poem suggests, is the foundational theme of Whitman‟s book. The poem then goes on to introduce the site and symbol for this reconciliation of individual to mass: the body, "physiology from top to toe." We receive individual identity through our body, . . . yet at the same time, physicality, and especially physical affection, are universal, binding us together in common humanity. Much of the boldly progressive politics of Whitman‟s poetry will follow from this emphasis on the body; thus his introduction of the theme of "physiology" is followed by his (then quite radical) insistence on the political equality of male and female.The poet he imagines in the 1855 preface is, like his ideal republic, balanced between self and other: "The soul has that measureless pride which consists in never acknowledging any lessons but its own. But it has sympathy as measureless as its pride and the one balances the other and neither can stretch too far while it stretches in company with the other. The inmost secrets of art sleep with the twain. The greatest poet has lain close betwixt both and they are vital to his style and thoughts."This vision of a poet stretching within a universe bounded by pride and sympathy had as its political analogue the paradox of an American republic poised between self-interest and public virtue, liberty and union, the interests of the many and the good of the one. The secretof Whitman's art and the American Union, the paradox of many in one, eventually became the opening inscription and balancing frame of Leaves of Grass:One's-Self I sing, a simple separate person,Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.Balanced between the separate person and the en masse, the politics of Leaves of Grass is neither liberal nor bourgeois in the classical sense of the terms; rather, the poems represent the republican ideals of early-nineteenth-century artisan radicalism, emphasizing the interlinked values of independence and community, personal wealth and commonwealth.The open boatNature’s Indifference to ManDespite the narrator‟s profusion of animistic (animal-like), humanistic (manlike), and deistic (godlike) characterizations of nature, Crane makes clear that nature is ultimately indifferent to the plight of man, possessing no consciousness that we can understand. As the stranded men progress through the story, the reality of nature‟s lack of concern for them becomes increasingly clear. The narrator highlights this development by changing the way he describes the sea. Early in the story, the sea snarls, hisses, and bucks like a bronco; later, it merely “paces to and fro,” no longer an actor in the men‟s drama. In reality, the sea does not change at all; onl y the men‟s perception of the sea changes. The unaltered activity of the gulls, clouds, and tides illustrates that nature does not behave any differently in light of the men‟s struggle to survive.Crane strengthens the idea that nature is indifferent to man by showing that it is as randomly helpful as it is hurtful. For every malevolent whim that the men suffer, they experience an unexpected good turn in the form of a favorable wind or calm night. The fact that the men almost seem to get assistance from nature destroys the notion of nature as an entirely hostile force. Nothing highlights this point so much as the correspondent‟s final rescue. Plowed to shore and saved by a freak wave, the correspondent must embrace the fact that the very thing that has put him in harm‟s way has saved him. This freak wave, however, may also be responsible for killing the much hardier oiler, a turn of events that demonstrates two ideas: nature is as much a harsh punisher as it is a benefactor, and nature does not act out of any motivation that can be understood in human terms.Man’s Insignificance in the Universe“The Open Boat” conveys a feeling of loneliness that comes from man‟s understanding that he is alone in the universe and insignificant in its workings. Underneath the men‟s and narrator‟s collective rants at fate and the universe is the fear of nothingness. They have an egotistical belief that they should have a role in the universe, that their existence should mean something. When the correspondent realizes by section VI that fate will not answer his pleas, he settles into despair. His subsequent recollection of the poem about the soldier who lies dying in Algiers reflects his feelings of alienation at being displaced from his position in the universe. Like the soldier who dies in alien territory, the correspondent fears that he too will perish without a connection to whatever gives him his sense of self.Throughout “The Open Boat,” the correspondent understands pain to be the necessary byproduct of his efforts to overcome nature, the willful enemy. He comes to value hissuffering because it is nobly derived; in the earlier sections, the correspondent, whom the narrator says is cynical, is often cheerful and talkative in his descriptions of the physical pain he experien ces. By the end of the story, however, the correspondent‟s new awareness that the universe is unconcerned with the situation‟s outcome makes him physically and spiritually weary. He decides that there is no higher purpose to surviving other than prolonging a life that is meaningless. His comment in section VII that the coldness of the water is simply “sad” underscores this despair. At this point, all sensations of pain and pleasure are merely physical and have no spiritual meaning.A clean well-lighted placeLife as NothingnessIn “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway suggests that life has no meaning and that man is an insignificant speck in a great sea of nothingness. The older waiter makes this idea as clear as he can when he says, “It was all a nothing and man was a no thing too.” When he substitutes the Spanish word nada (nothing) into the prayers he recites, he indicates that religion, to which many people turn to find meaning and purpose, is also just nothingness. Rather than pray with the actual words, “Our Father wh o art in heaven,” the older waiter says, “Our nada who art in nada”—effectively wiping out both God and the idea of heaven in one breath. Not everyone is aware of the nothingness, however. For example, the younger waiter hurtles through his life hastily and happily, unaware of any reason why he should lament. For the old man, the older waiter, and the other people who need late-night cafés, however, the idea of nothingness is overwhelming and leads to despair.The Struggle to Deal with DespairThe old man and older waiter in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” struggle to find a way to deal with their despair, but even their best method simply subdues the despair rather than cures it. The old man has tried to stave off despair in several unsuccessful ways. We learn that he has money, but money has not helped. We learn that he was once married, but he no longer has a wife. We also learn that he has unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide in a desperate attempt to quell the despair for good. The only way the old man can deal with his despair now is to sit for hours in a clean, well-lit café. Deaf, he can feel the quietness of the nighttime and the café, and although he is essentially in his own private world, sitting by himself in the café is not the same as being alone.The older waiter, in his mocking prayers filled with the word nada, shows that religion is not a viable method of dealing with despair, and his solution is the same as the old man‟s: he waits out the nighttime in cafés. He is particular about the type of café he likes: the café must be well lit and clean. Bars and bodegas, although many are open all night, do not lessen despair because they are not clean, and patrons often must stand at the bar rather than sit at a table. The old man and the older waiter also glean solace from routine. The ritualistic café-sitting and drinking help them deal with despair because it makes life predictable. Routine is something they can control and manage, unlike the vast nothingness that surrounds them.A rose for EmilyTradition versus ChangeThrough the mysterious figure of Emily Grierson, Faulkner conveys the struggle that comes from trying to maintain tradition in the face of widespread, radical change. Jefferson is at a crossroads, embracing a modern, more commercial future while still perched on the edge of the past, from the faded glory of the Grierson home to the town cemetery where anonymous Civil War soldiers have been laid to rest. Emily herself is a tradition, steadfastly staying the same over the years despite many changes in her community. She is in many ways a mixed blessing. As a living monument to the past, she represents the traditions that people wish to respect and honor; however, she is also a burden and entirely cut off from the outside world, nursing eccentricities that others cannot understand.Emily lives in a timeless vacuum and world of her own making. Refusing to have metallic numbers affixed to the side of her house when the town receives modern mail service, she is out of touch with the reality that constantly threatens to break through her carefully sealed perimeters. Garages and cotton gins have replaced the grand antebellum homes. The aldermen try to break with the unofficial agreement about taxes once forged between Colonel Sartoris and Emily. This new and younger generation of leaders brings in Homer‟s company to pave the sidewalks. Although Jefferson still highly regards traditional notions of honor and reputation, the narrator is critical of the old men in their Confederate uniforms who ga ther for Emily‟s funeral. For them as for her, time is relative. The past is not a faint glimmer but an ever-present, idealized realm. Emily‟s macabre bridal chamber is an extreme attempt to stop time and prevent change, although doing so comes at the expense of human life.The Power of DeathDeath hangs over “A Rose for Emily,” from the narrator‟s mention of Emily‟s death at the beginning of the story through the description of Emily‟s death-haunted life to the foundering of tradition in the face of modern changes. In every case, death prevails over every attempt to master it. Emily, a fixture in the community, gives in to death slowly. The narrator compares her to a drowned woman, a bloated and pale figure left too long in the water. In the same description, he refers to her small, spare skeleton—she is practically dead on her feet. Emily stands as an emblem of the Old South, a grand lady whose respectability and charm rapidly decline through the years, much like the outdated sensibilities the Griersons represent. The death of the old social order will prevail, despite many townspeople‟s attempts to stay true to the old ways.Emily attempts to exert power over death by denying the fact of death itself. Her bizarre relationship to the dead bodies of the men she has loved—her necrophilia—is revealed first when her father dies. Unable to admit that he has died, Emily clings to the controlling paternal figure whose denial and control became the only—yet extreme—form of love she knew. She gives up his body only reluctantly. When Homer dies, Emily refuses to acknowledge it once again—although this time, she herself was responsible for bringing about the death. In killing Homer, she was able to keep him near her. However, Homer‟s lifelessness rendered him permanently distant. Emily and Homer‟s grotesque marriage reveals Emily‟s disturbing attempt to fuse life and death. However, death ultimately triumphs.5. Writing: focus on the main characters in the following texts. 5选2。
美国文学期末考试复习大纲
美国文学期末考试复习大纲Ⅰ. 文学史1.American Puritanism (美国请教主义):Puritanism was a religious reform movement that arose within the Church of England in the late 16th century.I.Background: Puritanism1.features of Puritanism(1)Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.(2)Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.(3)Total depravity(4)Limited atonement: Only the ―elect‖ can be saved.2.Influence(1)A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.(2)It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.(3)Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calli ng into beinga literary symbolism which is distinctly American.(4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.II.Overview of the literature1.types of writing: diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons2.writers of colonial period(1)Anne Bradstreet(2)Edward Taylor(3)Roger Williams(4)John Woolman(5)Thomas Paine(6)Philip Freneau(7)Jonathan Edwards(8)Benjamin Franklin2.American Enlightenment (美国启蒙运动):Enlightenment is a philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to scrutinize previously accepted doctrines and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms.The American Enlightenment is a term sometimes employed to describe the intellectual culture of the British North American colonies and the early United States (as they became following the American Revolution).It is commonly dated from 1750—1820.Among the leading intellectual figures of this period are Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776—18201.Background: American Revolution——historicalEuropean Enlightenment2.Basic Assumptions:(1)Reg ard ―enlightenment‖ or ―education‖ as the principle means for development of society(2)Show concern for civil rights, democracy in government and tolerance rather than earlier religious mysticism(3)Reconsider the relationship between man & God. Brief-Deism (natural religion)3.Transcendentalism (超验主义):Transcendentalism is literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about1836 to 1860.It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church, developing instead their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world.The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in such essays as Nature (1836) and Self-reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden (1854).I.Background: four sources1.Unitarianism(1)Fatherhood of God(2)Brotherhood of men(3)Leadership of Jesus(4)Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character)(5)Continued progress of mankind(6)Divinity of mankind(7)Depravity of mankind2.Romantic Idealism: Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticism: Center of the world is ―oversoul‖4.Puritanism: Eloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, ―Nature‖ by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/God; garment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature.It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often becameopportunism, and the desire to ―get on‖ obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period in American literature.4.Dark Romanticism1.Dark Romanticism & Gothic FictionSimilarities: darkness, supernatural, featuring charactersDifferences: sheer horror——Gothic Fiction’s purposedark mystery & skepticism of man——Dark Romance’s purpose2.Dark Romanticism——reaction against transcendentalismDark Romanticism is a literary subgenre that emerged from the transcendental philosophical movement popular in 19th century America. Some writers, including Poe, Hawthorne and Melville, found transcendental belief far too optimistic and egotistical and reacted by modifying.3.Dark Romanticism & Transcendentalism:Dark Romantics are much less confident about the notion that perfection is an innate equality of mankind, as believed by transcendentalists. Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom.While both groups believe nature is a deep spiritual force, Dark Romanticism views it in a much more sinister light than does transcendentalism, which sees nature as a divine & universal organic mediator. For Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious, when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil.Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals, falling in their attempts to make changes for the better.4.Fiction:⑪ General term for invented storiesNovel, short story, novellas, romance, fable etc.《堂吉诃德》——the first novel of European⑫ Types of novel:①.Kunstlerroman 成长小说Bildungroman——《麦田守望者》②.Spy novel③.Historical novel④.Campus novel 校园小说⑤.Gothic novel⑥.Epistolary novel⑦.Picaresque novel⑧.Detective novel⑨.Sociological novel⑩.Psychological novel⑬ Elements of fiction:①.Setting (time, place, environment)②.Plot (selected events, cause & effect, structure)——conflict (exposition, rising action/complication, climax, falling action, resolution)③.Character (animal, inanimate things)④.Point of view (first person, third person, multiple)⑤.Theme (different from ―subject‖)⑥.Style (diction, syntax, figure of speech)⑦.Symbol & IronyⅡ. 文学概念1. Allegory (寓言)：Allegory is a story with a symbolic meaning used to teach a moral principle.Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy.Thus, an allegory is a story with two meanings: a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.Many of Hawthorne’s stories are allegories dealing with pride, isolation, love and betray. For example, Y oung Goodman Brown tells Brown’s journey in the forest. After the journey, Brown changed a lot. In fact the story shows Brown’s struggle between goodness and evil and re veals the processes of losing one’s innocence.2. Romance:―Romance‖ is now frequently used as s term to designate a kind of fiction that differs from the novel in being more freely. It is the product of the author’s imagination than the product of an effo rt to represent the actual world with verisimilitude.Romance is a heightened, emotional, and symbolic form of the novel. Romances are not love stories, but serious novels that use special techniques to communicate complex and subtle meanings.Nathaniel Hawthorne is a representative of dark romance, most of his works reveals the dark side of human beings.3. Lyric(抒情诗)：In the modern sense, it is any fairly short poem expressing the personal mood, feeling, or meditation of a single speaker. Lyric poetry is the most extensive category of verse. Lyrics may be composed in almost any meter and on almost every subject, although the most usual emotions presented are those of love and grief. Among the common lyric forms are the sonnet, ode, elegy, and the more personal kinds of hymn.Lyric poetry is genre that does not attempt to tell a story but instead of a more personal nature. It portrays the poet’s own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions.While the genre’s name derived from ―lyre‖, implies that it is intended to be sung, much lyric poetry is meant purely for reading.The most popular form for western lyric poetry to take may be the 14-line sonnet, as practiced by Petrarch and Shakespeare. Lyric poetry shows a bewildering variety of forms, including, increasingly in the 20th century, unrhymed ones.Lyric poetry is the most common type of poetry.5.Allusion:It is one of the figures of speech.An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication.For example, in literature, the snake often represents the evil. It’s an allusion of Bible. In Bible, the snake allured Eve to eat the apple. Thus, they were punished by God.5. T rickster:Trickster always appears in mythology, it’s a kind of literary character.In mythology, and in the study of folklore and relig ion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior.Trickster is the ―rebellion‖ that challenges authority.The trickster is a very important archetype in the history of human kind.H e is the ―wise fool‖.It is he, through his creations that destroy the authority.He exists to question and to cause us to question.He is the Destroyer of the world and at the same time the Savior of us all.For example, Robin Hood, he is a thief, who steals the rich to help the poor. On one hand, a thief is supposed to be punished, but on another hand, he steals the money not for himself but to help others. Thus, we call him a trickster.6.Gothic Fiction:Gothic fiction rises in the late of 18th century.The Gothic relates the individual to the infinite universe.Gothic literature pictures the human condition as an ambiguous mixture of good and evil power that cannot be understood completely by human reason.The Gothic novel or short story is any story which can be describe as dark, mysterious, and grotesque. A Gothic story often has supernatural elements that give it a hint of horror/ terror.Gothic fiction is often psychological (from the villain’s perspective)It has romantic elements: the damsel in distress, the ghost of a loverCreates suspense: never sure what is going to happenIt adopts the use of doppelganger theme.The most familiar Gothic fiction to me is The V ampire Diaries. Similar to the Twilight, it tells a love story between the V ampire and a human being. There are many terror scenes with suspense and a doppelganger in the story. Now The V ampire Diaries is made into TV series. In the TV series, a vampire called Damon is my favorite one.7. Kunstlerroman8. Quest:―quest‖ means search, pursue, go on adventure. The Quest myth/ Quest story, similar to Romance is a genre of literature.The background, such as an imbalanced society, is often challenging.The hero leaves the society. His goals are always noble. He is always on the side of goodness, and his enemies are always evil.The hero must undergoes trials: physical tests—slaying a dragon, battling powerful opponents, rescuing maidens in distress etc.Having completed his quest, the hero returns to society to bring about spiritual transformation and restore the perfect human community.The Captain Ahab in Moby Dick is a hero of quest but not a traditional one, he is a villain hero who tries to conquer the nature.9. Iambic Pentameter:10. Point of View(视角)：It is the relationship of the storyteller or narrator, to the story.A story has a first-person point of view if one of the characters, referred to as ―I‖, tells the story.A story has a limited third-person point of view if the narrator reveals the thoughts of only one character but refers to that character as ―he‖ or ―she‖.A narrator who tells the thoughts of all the characters and who tells things that no one character could know uses the omniscient (all-knowing), or third-person, point of view.For example, in Moby Dick, Melville adopted the first-person narrator, Ishmael was the observer who saw the events of the story and played s minor role in the action.Ⅲ. 重要作家及作品Nathanial Hawthorne (纳撒尼尔·霍桑)1.life2.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun3.point of view(1)Evil is at the core of human life, ―that blackness in Hawthorne‖(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.4.aesthetic美学的ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yetnot to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5.style – typical romantic writer(1)the use of symbols(2)revelation of characters’ psychology(3)the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of viewThe Scarlet Letter, （adultery）1.About the story:(1)The story of Hester Prynne Set: the 17th century(2)What is situated immediately outside the door of the prison in which Hester is kept: A rosebush(3)How does Hester support herself financially: as a seamstress(4)She always wears: black(5)―A‖ represents: adultery2.Major characters in the story:(1)Hester Prynne: wears ―A‖; ―A‖ defines her identity(2)Arthur Dimmesdale: wears ―A‖ in his heart; his soul never in peace (invisible wearer)(3)Roger Chillingworth: the maker of scarlet letter(4)Pearl: the p roduct/result of ―A‖3.Symbolism: (special movement in literature; the use of symbols)In ―The Scarlet Letter‖:(1)The rosebush: passion(2)The forest: an ungovernable place(3)The scarlet letter: adultery; sin(4)Pearl: wildness; passion(5)The meteor: community4.Refuse to take off ―A‖:(1)For Hester, to remove scarlet letter would be to acknowledge the power it has in determining who she is(2)She is determined to transform its meaning and her identity(3)She wants to be the one who controls its meaning(4)She stands as a self-appointed reminder of the evils society can commitYoung Goodman Brown1. Psychological interpretation——Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychology):(1)superego——consciousness——the principle of morality 超我(2)ego——subconsciousness——the principle of reality 自我(3)id——unconsciousness——the principle of pleasure 本我Brown’s journey is psychological as well as physical:Village, a place of light and order——Forest, a place of darkness and wildnessconsciousness——unconsciousnessvillage——superego——FaithBrown——egoforest——id——SatanHawthorne saw the dangers of an overactive suppression of libido and the consequent development of tyrannous superego.2. Men, Women, and the loss of Faith:Despite the literary sexism of his day, Hawthorne portrays women as powerful moral agents.Although Faith is not a three-dimensional character, the story centers on her husband’s rejection of her. Women are victimized.Women——angle in the house——do not have desires, rights and needsFallen women——prostitutes, witches, and mad womenFaith to Brown is female sexuality; Satan to Brown is patriarchal authority3. Female images:Innocents vs. Temptresses:(1)Governor’s wife, Goody Cloyse, prostitutes, maidens, witches, Quaker women, Faith(2)Sex is seen as alluring and dangerous(3)Brown is an empty and failed husband and fatherHerman Melville (赫尔曼·麦尔维尔)1.life(1)Typee 《泰皮》(2)Omio 《殴穆》(3)Mardi 《玛地》(4)Redburn 《雷德本》(5)White Jacket 《白外衣》(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre 《皮埃尔》(8)Billy Budd 《比利·巴德》3.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of ―Everlasting Nay‖ (negative attitudetowards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multipleview of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or onthe route (Moby Dick)Moby Dick《白鲸》：Moby-Dick, often considered the greatest American novel, is a masterpiece with many layers. It is a sea adventure, an exciting chase after a destructive and mysterious creature. The enormous white whale Moby-Dick torments Captain Ahab, who is obsessed with finding and killing Moby-Dick, having lost a leg in a previous encounter with the whale, and Ahab’s burning desire for revenge really is the center of the story. At the novel’s end, Ahab finds and attacks Moby-Dick, but the terrible whale takes Ahab, his ship Pequod, and nearly all its crew down to a watery grave with him.1. An encyclopedia of everythingA Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fates (extreme individualism)2. Image of ship: ship on the sea is the human soul search the meaning in the universe.3. Purpose——noble: he think Moby Dick as an evilHero: he is a hero but not a traditional hero (he does not stand for goodness); a villain hero4. Byronic hero (create by Byron): mad, bad, dangerous to know, obsessive——rebellions: challenge the authority; unconventional; right the wrongSatanic: revengeful; rebellious; the fight between God & Satan5. The Pequod——a symbol of doom(named after a native American tribe in Massachusetts; did not long survived of white men(extincted); is painted gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones)The sailors are of different ethics——all people in American (individual)Queequeg’s Coffin——life boat; life6. Theme of Moby Dick:(1)Melville’s bleak view (negative attitude) the sense of futility and meaninglessness of the w orld. His attitude to life is―Everlasting Nay‖. Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futility.The adventure of killing Moby Dick is meaningless. Ahab tries to control it, which leads to his doom.Modern life——the loss of faith, the sense of futility——well expressed in Moby Dick(2)Alienation (far away from each other): exists between man & man, man & society, and man & nature.(3)Loneliness and suicidal individualism——the basic pattern of 19th century American life(individualism causing disaster and death)——Moby Dick is a negative reflection upon Transcendentalism.(4)Rejection and quest:V oyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and valuesHenry David Thoreau1.life(1)A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3)A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw natur e as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritualwell-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.(6)―Simplicity…simplify!‖(7)He was sorely disgusted with ―the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society‖.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.WaldenEdgar Allen PoeI.LifeII.Works1.short stories(1)ratiocinative storiesa.Ms Found in a Bottleb.The Murders in the Rue Morguec.The Purloined Letter(2)Revenge, death and rebirtha.The Fall of the House of Usherb.Ligeiac.The Masque of the Red Death(3)Literary theorya.The Philosophy of Compositionb.The Poetic Principlec.Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told TalesIII.Themes1.death – predominant t heme in Poe’s writing―Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.‖2.disintegration (separation) of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIV.A esthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. Hecalls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V.Style – traditional, but not easy to readVI.R eputation: ―the jingle man‖ (Emerson)VII.His influencesWalt Whitman1.life2.work: Leaves of Grass (9 editions)(1)Song of Myself(2)There Was a Child Went Forth(3)Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4)Democratic V istas(5)Passage to India(6)Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking3.themes –―Catalogue of American and European thought‖He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson’s individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything):●equality of things and beings●divinity of everything●immanence of God●democracy●evolution of cosmos●multiplicity of nature●self-reliant spirit●death, beauty of death●expansion of America●brotherhood and social solidarity (unity of nations in the world)●pursuit of love and happiness4.style: ―free verse‖(1)no fixed rhyme or scheme(2)parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3)phonetic recurrence(4)the habit of using snapshots(5)the use of a certain pronoun ―I‖(6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(10)sentences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines5.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated andEuropeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.Ralph Waldo Emerson (拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生)1.life (American philosopher, poet and essayist; the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism)2.works(1)Nature——his first book expressing the main principle of Transcendentalism. It is regarded as ―American’sDeclaration of Intellec tual Independence‖(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet3.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the ―oversoul‖.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of aspiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become betterand even perfect. This is what Emerson means by ―the infinitude of man‖.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by makinghimself.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2)True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3)The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself.5.his influenceWashington Irving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father of American literature2.life3.works(1)A History of New Y ork from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication ofthis.)(3)The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4)A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra4.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US5.style – beautiful(1)gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4)vivid and true characters(5)humour – smiling while reading(6)musical languageJames Fenimore Cooper1.life (―father of American novelists‖; the creation of the west frontier and its heroes)2.works(1)Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3.point of viewThe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape description(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic5.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Benjamin Franklin1.life (printer, enlightener, inventor, scientist, statesman, diplomat)2.works(9)Poor Richard’s Almanac(10)Autobiography——form: the first autobiography of Americanmeaning: American dream & individualismself-improvement; business (contents); prototype of American success (significance); Puritanism and enlightenment spirits 3.contribution(11)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.(12)He was called ―the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven‖.(13)Everything seems to meet in this one man –―Jack of all trades‖. Herman Melville thus described him ―master of each and mas tered by none‖.(14)Aid Jefferson in writing The Declaration of IndependenceThomas Paine1.father of the American Revolution2.propagandist, pamphleteer, a master of persuasion who understands the power of language to move a man to action3.main works:(1)The American Crisis(2)Common Sense(3)The Right of Man(4)The Age of Reason。
美国文学作家专题复习提纲
P 159 the definition of imagismP 161 “In a Station of the Metro”The apparition of these faces in the crowd,Petals on a wet, black bough.P 175 objective correlativeP 179 T. S. Eliot the waste landThe title is drawn from the fisher king legend. The detail of the fisher king legend.The title of the five parts of The Waste Land (p 180)P 183 Wallace StevensBasic theme of his workThe analysis of the poem of “Anecdote of the Jar ”I placed a jar in Tennessee，And round it was，upon a hill.It made the slovenly wildernessSurround that hill.The wilderness rose up to it，And sprawled around，no longer wild. The jar was round upon the ground And tall and of a port in air.It took dominion everywhere.The jar was gray and bare.It did not give of bird or bush，Like nothing else in Tennessee.William Carlos Williams p 192 PatersonRobert Frost P 195 “The Road not Taken”, “Mending Wall”,P 228 the southern RenaissanceWilliam Faulkner the Sound and the Fury Go down, Moses Absalom, Absalom, Light in the AugustP 232 the characters in the Sound and the Fury,“a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. ” (Shakespeare, Macbeth) What's the theme of the novel signified by this quotation?Sherwood Anderson p 241 Winesburg, Ohio, the thematic concern of Sherwood AndersonSinclair Lewis p248 Babbitt, Main StreetP269 Katherine Anne Porter Ships of Fools, Jilting of Granny Weatherall.P 276/277 the principle the new criticism advocatesP 344 the definition of the confessional schoolRobert Lowell Life StudiesP 362 the definition of the Beat GenerationAllen Ginsburg HowlP 412 Saul BellowThe Adventure of Augie March Herzog Henderson the Rain KingHis basic themeHis metaphor of the Jewish conditionP 419 Norman Mailer The Naked and the DeadNew Journalism p 423 以及代表作品P 424 J D Salinger the Cather in the Rye protagonist understanding of the themeP 431 John Updike Rabbit pentalogy main characterP 456 categories of the postwar novelP 459 Joseph Heller Catch – 22 protagonistP 462 black humor the arrangement of the chapters in Catch 22Kurt Vonnegut Slaughter house five protagonistP 469 the characters in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s NestJohn Bath p 474 the literature of Exhaustion the sot-weed Factor lost in the Funhouse Donald Barthelme Snow WhiteNabokov LolitaPale Fire。
美国文学史及作品选读提纲
美国文学史及作品选读提纲第一部分：The Literature of Colonial American考核知识点：a. The first distinctly America literatureb. The first American writer and his first workc. Kinds of literary writings in this periodd. The dominant influence of the Puritan values on the early American writingse. The most important poets in this period: Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor考核要求：1．一般识记：The beginnings of American national history and literary history2．识记：Kinds of literary writings in this period；the important writers, literary works and their main ideas3 领会：The dominant influence of the Puritan values on the early American writings第二部分:The Literature of Reason and Revolution考核知识点：a. The historical background about American Revolutionb. The general feature of the 18th-century American literaturec. The most important poet in this period: Philip Freneau考核要求：1．一般识记：The historical background about American Revolution；the life and literary creation of Philip Freneau2识记：The general feature of the 18th-century American literature; the most important poet in this period: Philip Freneau3. 领会：The influence of English literature on American writers4. 应用：The subject matter, themes and poetic style of Philip Freneau’s poetry;第三部分：The literature of Romanticism考核知识点：a. The importance of Washington Irving’s literary creation;b. The general characteristics shared by the Romantic writers;c. The influence of the Transcendentalist Movement on American literature;d. The principal literary forms of this periode. The permanent convention of American literature考核要求：1. 一般识记：historical background of this period; life and literary creation of important writers in this period2. 识记：The importance of Washington Irving’s literary creation; the general characteristics shared by the Romantic writers; the principal literary forms of this period;3. 领会：The influence of the Transcendentalist Movement on American literature; the permanent convention of American literature4. 应用：The subject matter and themes of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; the characterization and narrative skill displayed in the The Last of the Mohicans; the subject matter, charaterization and symbolic method of The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick第四部分：The Literature of Realism考核知识点：a. The influence of the westward expansion of American territory on American literature;b. The important women writers and their works in this period;c. The philosophy and method adopted by American realistic writers;d. Mark Twain’s contribution to American literature;e. The characteristic features of the American naturalists;f. The representative writers of American realism:g. The representative writers of American naturalism;h. The most important writers in this period:a) Walt Whitman and his free verse;b) Emily Dickinson and the characteristic features of her poetry;c) Mark Twain and the subject matter and humorous style of his works;考核要求：1.一般识记：The life and literary career of the important writers2.识记：The definition of realism and naturalism; the historical background; important works of the time and their main ideas3.领会：The significance and influence of American realism and American naturalism; the characteristic features of important writers and their works; the characteristics of free verse;4.应用：The subject matter, themes and style of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”; the theme and poetic imagery of Emily Dickinson’s poetry; the themes and humorous style of The Adventure of Tom Sawyer; the subject matter, themes and characterization of Sister Carrie第五部分：The Twentieth-Century Literature考核知识点：a. The historical background of the early 20th centuryb. The variety of avant-garde doctrines and literary schools emerging in early 20th centuryc. The leading writers of the modernist literature: Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot;d. Henry James and his masterpieces;e. Robert Frost and the characteristics of his poetry;f. The writers of “the lost generation” in the 1920s and their great achievements;g. Ernest Hemingway;h. The thriving of American drama in the 1920s and the representative dramatist of the time;i. The Harlem Renaissance in 1920s;j. The characteristic feature of the artists and writers in the Great Depression of the 1930s;k. John Steinbeck and his important works考核要求：1.一般识记：The historical background of the early 20th century ; the life and literary career of the important writers and their literary contributions2.识记: The variety of avant-garde doctrines and literary schools emerging in early 20th century; the great achievements of the writers of “the lost generation”; the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s; the thriving of American drama in the 1920s and the representative dramatist of the time; the important works and their main ideas; the characteristic feature of the artists and writers in the Great Depression of the 1930s;3.领会：The charateristic features of the modernist literature; the characteristic features of the writers of “the lost generation” in the 1920s; the most important writers of the time and their characteristic features; the themes, styles, techniques and significance or influence of the representative works in this period4.应用：The subject matter, themes and style of Robert Frost’s poetry;the themes and technique of T. S. Eliot’s poetry; the themes, characterization and style of Hemingway’s masterpiece For Whom the Bell Tolls。
美国文学复习题
美国文学复习题美国文学复习提纲第一部分连线题（1*10=10’）1. Thomas Jefferson The Declaration of Independence2. Walt Whitman O’ Captain, My Captain3. Mark Twain Jumping Frog4. Robert Frost Mending Wall5. Ezra Pound In a Station of the Metro6. Carl Sandburg Chicago7. Saul Bellow The Adventure of Augie March8. Ernest Hemingway Men without Women9. John Steinbeck The Grape of Wrath10. Jack London The Call of the Wild11. Sinclair Lewis Babbit12. Flannery O’ Connor A Good Man Is Hard to Find13. O. Henry The Last Leaf14. Jerome David Salinger The Catcher in the Rye15. William Falkner The Sound and the Fury第二部分单项选择*20=30’)1. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made sucha stir in Englandthat she became known as the “________” who appeared in America.A. Tenth MuseB. Ninth MuseC. Best MuseD.First Muse2. In American literature, the 18th century was the age of theEnlightenment.________ was the dominant spirit.A. HumanismB. RationalismC. RevolutionD.Evolution3. Which of the following stirred the world and helped form the American republic?A. The American CrisisB. The FederalistC. Declaration of IndependenceD. The Age of Reason4. At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by theEuropean movement called the ________.A. Chartist MovementB. Romanticist MovementC. Enlightenment MovementD. Modernist Movement5. Thoreau was often alone in the woods or by the pond, lost in spiritualcommunication with ________.A. natureB. transcendentalist ideasC. human beingsD. celestial beings6. ________tells a simple but very moving story in which four people livingin a puritan community are involved in and affected by thesin of adultery in different ways.A. Twice-Told TalesB. The Scarlet LetterC. The House of the Seven GablesD. The Marble Faun7. Washington Irving’s social conservation and literary for the past isrevealed, to some extent, in his famous story, ________.A. The Legend of Sleepy HollowB. Rip Van WinkleC. The Custom-houseD. The Birthmark8. The convention of the desire for an escape from society and a return to naturein American literature is particularly evident in ________.A. Coo per’s Leatherstocking TalesB. Hawthorne’s The ScarletLetterC. Whitm an’s Leaves of GrassD. Irving’s Rip Van Winkle9. As a philosophical and literary movement, ________ flourished in New Englandfrom 1830s to the Civil War.A. modernismB. rationalismC. sentimentalismD. transcendentalism10. Edgar Allan Poe mainly writes __________.A. poemsB. literary critic theoriesC. short storiesD. dramas11. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, “A” may stand for ________.A. AdulteryB. AngelC. AmiableD. All theabove12. The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to as ________ .A. the Naturalist PeriodB. the Modern PeriodC. the Romantic PeriodD. the Realistic Period13. In the following works, which signs the beginning of the American literature?A. The Sketch BookB. Leaves of GrassC. Leatherstocking TalesD. Adventures of HuckleberryFinn14. The main theme of Emily Dickinson is the following except ________.A. war and peaceB. love and marriageC. life and deathD.religion15. Emily Dickinson’s poetic idiom is noted for the followingexcept ________.A. brevityB. directnessC. plainest wordsD.obscure16. The publication of ________ established Emerson as the most eloquentspokesman of New England Transcendentalism.A. NatureB. Self-RelianceC. The American ScholarD. The Over-Soul17. The Age of Realism in the literary history of the United States refers tothe period from ________ to ________.A. 1861...1914B. 1863...1918C. 1865...1914D. 1865 (1918)18. ________ is considered to be Theodore Dreiser’s greatest work.A. An American TragedyB. Sister CarrieC. The FinancierD.The Titan19. ________ is a novella about a young American girl who gets “killed” bythe winter in Rome, and it brought Henry James international fame for the first time.A. The AmericanB. The EuropeansC. Daisy MillerD. The Portrait of a Lady20. ________ is described by Mark twain as a boy with “a sound heart and adeformed conscience”.A. Tom SawyerB. Huckleberry FinnC. JimD. Tony21. Mark Twain wrote most of his literary works with a ________ language.A. grandB. pompousC. simpleD. vernacular22. The book from which “all modern American literature comes” refers to ________.A. The Great GatsbyB. The Sun Also RisesC. The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnD. Moby-Dick23. In which of the following works Hemingway presents his philosophy aboutlife and death through the depiction of the bull-fight as a kind of microcosmic tragedy?A. Death in the AfternoonB. The Snows of KilimanjaroC. To Have and Have NotD. The Green Hills of Africa24. ________ is Heming way’s first true novel in which hedepicts a vividportrait of “The Lost Generation”.A. The Sun Also RisesB. A Farewell to ArmsC. In Our TimeD. For Whom the Bell Tolls25. Robert Frost combined traditional verse forms—the sonnet, rhymingcouplets, blank verse—with a clear American local speech rhythm, the speech of ________ farmers with its idiosyncratic diction and syntax.A. SouthernB. WesternC. New HampshireD. New England26. ________, one of the most important poets in his time, is a leading spokesmanof the “Imagist Movement”.A. J. D. SalingerB. Ezra PoundC. Richard WrightD. Ralph Ellison27. “Tender Is the Night” is a ________ by Fitzgerald.A. short storyB. novellaC. poemD. novel28. ________ is said to be a “historical novel” by Fau lkner.A. Go Down, MosesB. Light in AugustC. The Sound and the FuryD. Absalom29. ________ stems from the ambiguity of the speaker’s choice between safetyand the unknown.A. Mending the wall B Home BurialC. The Road not TakenD. Stopping by Woods on a SnowyEvening30. Hemingway’s writing style, together with his theme and the hero, is greatlyand permanently influenced by his experiences ________.A. in his childhoodB. in the warC. in AmericaD. in Africa31. The following writers were awarded Nobel Prize for literature except ________.A. William FaulknerB. F. Scott FitzgeraldC. John SteinbeckD. Ernest Hemingway32. ________ is not considered to be one of the masters in the field of Americanfiction in the modernistic period.A. F. Scott FitzgeraldB. Ernest HemingwayC. Arthur MillerD. William Faulkner33. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I couldnot travelboth…” In the above two lines of Robert Frost’s “The Road not Taken”, the poet, by implication, was referring to ________.A. one’s course of lifeB. a marriage decisionC. a middle-age crisisD. a travel experience34. Most of the writers in the modern period were able to probe into the innerworld of human reality on the base of ________.A. William James’ “stream of consciousness”B. Carl Jung’s “collective unconscious” and “archetypal symbol”C. Sigmund Freud’s “interpretation of dreams”D. All of the above35. Writers of the second postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that theywere ____________.A. a Lost GenerationB. a Beat GenerationC. a Jazz GenerationD. none of the above36. In 1862, President Lincoln exclaimed: “So you are the little woman whowrote the book that started this great war!” The book refers to ________.A. Uncle To m’s CabinB. BelovedC. Pride andPrejudiceD.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn37. In Leaves of Grass, _______ is all that concerned Whitman.A. individualismB.freedomC. democracyD. all the above38. It is not surprising to find in _______’s fiction a world of jungle, where“kill or to be killed” was the law.A. Mark TwainB. Emily DickinsonC. Theodore DreiserD. Henry James39. Which one of the following statements is NOT true of William Faulkner?A. He is master of stream-of-consciousness narrative.B. His writing is often complex and difficult to understand.C. He often depicts slum life in New York and Chicago.D. He represents a new group of Southern writers40. The setting of the novel The Scarlet Letter is in ________.A. England during World War IB. Paris during the French RevolutionC. Puritan AmericaD. America after the Revolutionary War第三部分判断对错(1*15=15’)(T)1. The Calvinist doctrine of “original sin” exerted great influence upon Hawthorne.(T)2. To Hawthorne sin will get punished, one way or another.(T)3. Roger Chillingworth, the scholar, the embodiment of pure intellect, committed the “Unpardonable Sin”.(F)4. Emily Dickinson didn’t like using capital letters where small ones are needed.(T)5. Walt Whitman used parallelism and refrain in his poems.(T)6. Walt Whitman was regarded as the Zenith in American romantic poetry. (T)7. Dickinson was original. She never imitates others.(T)8. Allan Poe defined poetry as the rhythmical creation of beauty. (F)9. O. Henry seldom wrote about poor people.(T)10. According to Poe, art serves for pleasure. The chief aim of poetry is beauty, namely, to produce a feeling of beauty in the reader.(T)11. According to Dickinson, death means immortality.(F)12. According to Poe, truth is beauty, beauty truth.(T)13. According to Henry James, the aim of the novel is to reflect life reality.(T)14. James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life whereas Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society.(F)15. American writers, especially novelists were rather experimental after the World Wars.(T)16. O. Henry’s short stories are famous for their surprising endings. (T)17. Allen Ginsberg was the representative of the Beat Generation. (T)18. Allan Poe exerted great influence upon many southern American writers, especially William Faulkner.(F)19. Emily Dickinson was regarded as the forerunner of symbolism. (F)20. Mark Twain never touched upon the problem of slavery system in his novels.(F)21. Allan Poe was regarded as the forerunner of American Imagism. (T)22. Mark Twain was the father of American language.(T)23. Allan Poe advocated “pure” poetry.(F)24. Mark Twain’s contribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole was partly through his theories of localism in American fiction and partly through his themes.(T)25. T oni Morrison is one of the most famous contemporary women writers. (T)26. O. Henry was the pen name of William Sidney Porter.(T)27. Thomas Jefferson was the major writer of The Declaration of Independence(T)28. Henry James discovered the trick of making his characters reveal themselves with minimal intervention of the author.(T)29. N. Hawthorne was a symbolic writer in some sense.(T)30. Whitman’s poetry suggests rather than tells.第四部分术语解释(4*5=20’)1. TranscendentalismTranscendentalism refers to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800’s, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant.2. NaturalismNaturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement,naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at “scientific” status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects.3. American DreamThe American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations.4. The Lost GenerationThe term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of WWI to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, . Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein (“You are all a lost generation”) as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during WWI. They were “lost” because after the war many of them were disillusio ned with the world in general and unwilling to move into settled life.5. ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being oversocial man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious.6. PuritanismThe principles and practices of puritans were popularly known as Puritanism. Puritanism accepted the doctrines of Calvinism: the sovereignty of God; the supreme authority of the Bible; the irresistibility of God’s w ill for man in ever act of life from cradle to grave. These doctrines led the Puritans to examine their souls to find whether they were of the elect and to search the Bible to determine God’s will.7. Hemingway Heroes (Code Hero)“Hemingway Heroes” refer to some protagonists in Hemingway’s works. Such a hero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. And usually he is a man of action and of a few words. He is such an individualist, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happiness.8. Jazz Age“The Jazz Age” describes the period of the 1920s and 1930s, the years between WWI and WWII, particularly in North America; with the rise of the Great Depression, the values of this age saw much decline. Perhaps the most representative literary work of the age is American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, a highlighting what some describe as the decadence and hedonism, as well as the growth of individualism.第五部分选读分析25’Text1.From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from[he original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long beenknown by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. Drowsy and dreamy influence seems to hang over the land，and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson.Questions:(1) Who is the writer of this short story from which the passage is taken?(2) What is the title of this short story?(3) Give a definition of “short story”.Answer:(1) Washington Irving(2) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(3) A short story is a brief prose fiction, usually one that can be read in a single sitting. It generally contains the six major elements of fiction—characterization, setting, theme, plot, point of view and style.Text 2.Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.Questions:(1) Please examine the poetic form (rhyme and meter) (2’)(2) Describe the similarities and differences of these two road s. Which one does the speaker take? (3’)(3) How do you un derstand the word “sigh”? (4’)(4) What might the two roads stand for in the speaker’s mind? (2’)(5) What is the theme of this poem? (2’)Answer:(1) It is written in iambic tetrameter and rhymed abaab.(2) Similarities: both of the roads are beautiful;Differences: one is quiet and grassy, less-traveled, the other is trodden by many people and flatHe took the less-traveled road.(3) The word “sigh” is a tricky word. Because sigh can be interpreted into nostalgic relief or regret. If it is the relief sigh, then the difference means the speaker feels glad with the road he took. If it is the regret sigh, then the difference would not be good, and the speaker would be signing in regret. Hence, sigh isambiguous here for the speaker is not showing whether his choice is right or wrong.(4) The real road, the life road and the road in career.(5) Choices is inevitable but you never know what you choice will mean until you have lived it. This is also the theme of the poem.Text 3.Tell me not, in mournful numbers,Life is but an empty dream!For the soul is dead that slumbers,And things are not what they seem.Life is real-life is earnest-And the grave is not its goal;Dust thou art, to dust returnest,Was not spoken of the soul.Questions:(1). Who is the writer of the lines?(2). What is the title of the whole poem from which the two stanzas are taken?(3). Summarize the poet’s advice for living.Answers:(1). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(2). A Psalm of Life(3). His optimism which has characterized much of his poetry, also endeared many critics to him. He seemed to have persevered despite tragedy. This poem is the cry of his heart, “rallying from depression”, ready to affirm life, to regroup from losses, to push on despite momentary defeat.Text 4.Because I could not stop for Death —He kindly stopped for me —The Carriage held but just Ourselves —And Immortality.We slowly drove — He knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility —We passed the School, where Children stroveAt Recess — in the Ring —We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain —We passed the Setting Sun —Or rather — He passed Us —The Dews drew quivering and Chill —For only Gossamer, my Gown —My Tippet — only Tulle —We paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the Ground —The Roof was scarcely visible —The Cornice — in the Ground —Since then —’tis Centuries — and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses’ HeadsWere toward Eternity —Questions:(1) Who wrote this poem? In the poem, what is he/she watching and recording? (3%)(2) What is death compared to in the poem? (2%)(3) What does the poet think of eternity? (2%)(4) What is the attitude of the poet towards death? (2%)Answer:(1) Emily Dickinson. She is watching and recording her own funeral.(2) Death is compared to a polite gentleman or polite wooer.(3) The speaker is not quite sure whether there will be eternity after death since she just s urmises that “the Horses’ Heads were toward Eternity —”.(4) She treats death light-heartedly for she believes that death is a necessary step towards eternity or immortality.。
美国文学复习提纲
Part 1 Literature of Colonial America1. What is the 1st permanent English settlement in NorthAmerica? When was it established? Jamestown, 16072.Who is the first American writer: Captain John Smith3.Puritanism and its influence on and reflection inAmerican literature.4.poetess Anne Bradstreet: The Tenth Muse Lately SprungUp in AmericaPart II The Literature of Reason and Revolution1.Benjamin Franklin’s major literary works:Poor Richard's Almanac，The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin2.Thomas Paine: Common Sense3.Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence：Structure, main idea, analysis4.Philip Freneau:"The Poet of the American Revolution” , Father ofAmerican Poetry"The Wild Honey Suckle", “The Indian Burying Ground”Part 3 The Literature of Romanticism1. Literary terms: American Romanticism,Transcendentalism2.Washington Irving: Father of American LiteratureSketch Book3.James Fenimore Cooper:the Leatherstocking Tales (1832-1841)：The Pioneers ( 1823 ). 《拓荒者》The Last of the Mohicans ( 1826 )《最后的莫希干人》The Prairie ( 1827 ). 《大草原》The Pathfinder ( 1840 ). 《探路者》The Deerslayer ( 1841 ). 《猎鹿人》Central figure: Natty BumppoUncas: “The Last of the Mohicans”4. William Cullen Brant：Thanatopsis 《死之思考》"To a Waterfowl" 《致水鸟》:Matthew Arnold, the eminent English critic and poet, called it the “most perfect brief poem in the language”.5.Edgar Allan Poe:Poems: The Raven, To Helen, Annabel LeeShort stories: The Fall of the House of Usher6.Ralph Waldo EmersonNature：Henry David Thoreau: Walden Dial7.Nathaniel HawthorneHow do you interpret the symbol “A ” in The Scarlet Letter?8.Herman MelvilleMoby-DickWhat is/are the symbolic meaning/meanings of the white whale, Moby Dick?What are themes of the novel Moby Dick?9.Henry Wadsworth LongfellowA Psalm of Life: What the Heart of the Young Man Said to thePsalmistPart 4 The Literature of Realism1.Literary terms: American Realism, free verse, LocalColor （ism）/Regionalism2.Henry James: International themes, PsychologicalRealismAmerican versus European Character (innocence Vs.sophistication), Social and Emotional Maturation3.Theodore Dreiser:Trilogy of Desire -The Financier, The Titan, and The Stoic. His best known work is An American TragedyThemes of Sister Carrie: Materialism/consumerism, Money and Morality, American Dream, Change and Transformation, Choices and Consequences, Class Conflict, IdentityPart 5 20th Century Literature/ Modernism1.Literary term: American Modernism, Imagism, the LostGeneration2.Robert Frost:How do you understand Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”?3.F. Scot Fitzgeraldthemes of The Great Gatsby: The Decline/disillusionment of the American Dream in the 1920s, The Hollowness of the Upper Class, Honesty，Decay，Gender Roles，Violence，Class, World War I4.Ernest HemingwayMasterpiece: The Old Man and the SeaThe Iceberg Theory5.William Faulkner:An important interpreter of the universal theme of "the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself." Experiments in the use of stream-of-consciousness technique and in the dislocation of narrative timeThemes: sex, class, race relations, and relations with nature the Yoknaptawpha saga, southern literatureMajor works：As I Lay Dying，Sanctuary，Light in August，A bsalom，Absalom! The Sound and the FuryGo Down，Moses。
美国文学复习大纲
美国文学复习大纲美国文学1THE LITERATURE OF COLONIAL AMERICA1.1 The first permanent English settlement in North America wasestablished at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.1.2 The first writing that we call American were the narratives andjournals of these settlements.1.3The first American writer is Captain John Smith,settled inJamestown.1.4 The first American poet is1.5 Puritan Thoughts:the puritans establish their own moral andreligious principles known as American Puritanism, which became one of the enduring influences in American literature. American Puritanism stressed on predestination, depravity, original sin, and salvation of selected few from God's grace. With such doctrines in their minds, Puritans left Europe for America in order to establish a theocracy in the new world. over the years in new homeland they establish a new way of life stressed on hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety( 其中也包括个人主义再现)1.6Anne Bradstreet-------the first poet in America by crisis-------the first woman poet in America-------she settled in Massachusetts------ The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America2THE LITERATURE OF REASON AND REVOLUTION2.1主要文体------ politics essay2.2 The War for Independence-----1776-1783---ended in the formation ofa Federative bourgeois democratic republic- the United States ofAmerica2.3 Benjamin Franklin-----思想：自助者天助（God helps those who help themselves）2.4 Thomas Paine----- Great Commoner of Mankind----- Rights of Man; The Age of Reason; Agrarian JusticeAmerican Crisis (a series of 16 pamphlets)2.5 P32 ①for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine,the coal can never expire.------ spirit / enthusiasm of struggle② but if a thief breaks into my house---- British government2.6★Philip Freneau-----美国前期浪漫主义的代表诗人/ the mostoutstanding writer of the post-Revolutionary period----- “The Poet of Revolution”----- “Father of American Poetry”(连线)----- he settled in Mount Pleasant, near Freehold, NewJersey---- The Wild-Honey Suckle(If nothing once, you nothing lose)3THE LITERATURE OF ROMANTICISM3.1起止时间：Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book(1819-1820)---Whitman’s Leaves of Grass(1858)3.2浪漫主义的一般特点：moral enthusiasm, faith in the value ofindividualism and intuitive perception, a presumption thatthe naturalworld was a source of goodness and man’s societies a source ofcorruption.3.3Oversoul: an all-pervading power for goodness from which all thingscome and of which all thing are a part.3.4美国国歌：Star-Spangled Banner3.5Literature from: novels, short stories, poems.3.6The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature becamea permanent convention of American literature.3.7★Washington Irving---- Father of American short stories(连线)-----the messenger sent from the new world to theold world----- the first great prose stylist of Americanromanticism----- Sketch Book (33篇文章+ 1篇自传)----- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow3.8James Fenimore Cooper--------The founder of the frontier stories-------- two kinds of immensely popular stories:the sea adventure tale; the frontier saga.The best of his many sea romances was ThePilot---------★连线Leatherstocking Tales(TheDeerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, ThePathfinder, The Pioneers, The Prairie)------“The nearest approach yet to anAmerican epic”3.9William Cullen Bryant-----Thanatopsis（意为view of death）To a Waterfowl3.10★Edgar Allan Poe------ the founder of detective stories-------T o Helen: perfumed sea(one’s home land)of yore (cherish the ancient time/ancient beauty) bore to (brought to);wont to (be accustomed to)classic face (face of classic beauty) To the glory that was Greece, And the grandeur thatwas Rome (the great achievement in Greece and Rome) --------Annabel Lee (①倒数第二个stanza 运用comparison 的手法表现了对LEE 的爱。
美国文学史复习提纲
美国文学史复习提纲I. Explain the following literary terms.1. RomanticismThe most profound and comprehensive idea of romanticism is the vision of a greater personal freedom for the individual. Appeals to imagination; Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, geniality. Subjectivity: in form and meaning.2 American transcendentalismAmerican transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy and literature that flourished during the early to middle years of the nineteenth century (about 1836-1860). For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains.3 Realism: ―nothing more and nothing less than the tru thful treatment of material.‖ theCivil wara. verisimilitude of details derived from observationb. representative in plot, setting and characterc. an objective rather than an idealized view of human experience4. Modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. The general term covers many political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in Western society at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at theturn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century.II. Questions and Answers. Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English.1. What is local color？an amalgam of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the dialects, customs, sights, and sounds of regional America‖2. What is American Puritanism1). Total Depravity - the concept of Original Si2). Unconditional Election - the concept of predestination3). Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone.4). Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied.5). Perseverance of the "saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God.3. Analyze Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography.themes in autobiography: Self- Improvement Mind: Self-education Body: Physical ActivityBehavior: Moral Perfection Religion: The best service to God is to be good to man Benjamin Franklin and aspects of The American DreamRags to Riches: Impotence to Importance: A Philosophy of Individualism:Freewill vs. Determinism: Hope and Optimism:The Autobiography is a record of self-examination and self-improvement.Benjamin Franklin was a spokesman for the new order of the 18th century enlightenment The Autobiography is a how-to-do-it book, a book on the art of self-improvement. (for example, Franklin’s 13 virtues)Through telling a success story of self-reliance, the book celebrates, in fact, the fulfillment of the American dream.The Autobiography is in the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision4. What is Imagism?It is a movement of English and American poets in revolt from Romanticism, which flourish 1910-1917. The characteristic products of the movement are more easily recognized than its theories defined: they tend to be short ,composed of short lines of musical cadence rather than metrical regularity, to avoid abstraction, and to treat the image with a hard, clear precision rather than with overt symbolic intent.As part of the modernist movement, away from the sentimentality and moralizing tone of nineteenth-century Victorian poetry, imagist poets looked to many sources to help them create a new poetic expression, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. III. Topic discussion.1. Discuss Allen Poe’s literar y achievements with his works.famous American poet, short-story writer and critic father of detective storymaster of gothic novel forerunner of symbolisma father of detective storyPoe introduced of a new form of short fiction--- the detective story.Th e word ―detective‖ did not exist in English at the time thatPoe was writing, but the genre has become a fundamental mode of twentieth-century literature and film.b) master of gothic novelGothic novel, a genre that rose with Romanticism in Britain in the late eighteenth century, explores the dark side of human experience—death, alienation, nightmares, ghosts, and haunted landscapes. Poe brought the Gothic to America.Gothic novels originated from The Castle of Otranto, written by Horace Walpole in Britain at the end of the 18th century, which created the early classical Gothic novel mode.It leads habitually with darkness and horror. Gothic elements include horror, mystery, supernatural phenomenon, misfortune, death, haunted houses, and family curses.C Literary criticPoe is one of the few American writers who not only wrote poetry, but also wrote about how to write poetry. His critical essays on poetry include The Poetic Principle, and The Philosophy of Composition.Poe remained the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature.2. Analyze Freneau’s The Wild Honeysuckle.野金银花Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, 美好的花呀，你长得：这么秀丽，Hid in this silent, dull retreat, 却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方——Untouched thy honey'd blossoms blow, 甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，Unseen thy little branches greet; 招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；No roving foot shall crush thee here, 没游来荡去的脚来把你踩碎，No busy hand provoke a tear. 没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。
文学考试复习提纲
美国文学期末复习提纲一、考试题型1.作家作品名称匹配2.名词解释3.根据作品内容写出作家、作品及作品简短评价4.诗歌赏析（两首诗歌，选择一首进行作答）二、作家与作品总结1）.需要记住作家和作品名字，并能准确书写出来的十六位作家，同时要求记得这些作品的评价，一两句话即可。
Washington Irving 《Rip Van Winkle》Henry David Thoreau 《Walden》Nathaniel Hawthorne 《The Scarlet Letter》Walt Whitman 《Song of Myself》Emily Dickinson《I’m Nobody! Who Are You?》、《Success Is Counted Sweetest》、《This Is My Letter to The World》、《Because I Could Not Stop for Death》(她的诗歌标题一般是诗歌的第一句话)Mark Twain 《Adventures of Huckleberry Finn》O’Henry 《The Cop and the Anthem》Robert Frost 《Nothing Gold Can Stay》、《The Road Not Taken》、《Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening》、《Mending Wall》Sherwood Anderson 《The Triumph of the Egg》Katherine Anne Porter 《The Jilting of Granny Weatherall》Ezra Pound 《In a Station of the Metro》、《A Pact》Langston Hughes 《Cross》、《Dream》Ernest Hemingway 《Indian Camp》Arthur Miller 《The Death of a Salesman》Allen Ginsberg 《Howl》2）.下列作家只需要记得作品和作者能够配对即可，不需要知道具体书写。
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第一部分殖民时期一、时期综述（关于清教的应该都是重点）1、清教徒采用的文学体裁：A、narratives 日记B、journals 游记2、清教徒在美国的写作内容：①their voyage to the new land ②adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops③about dealing with Indians ④guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit★3、清教徒的想法：①Puritans want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices.净化信仰和行为方式②wish to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of the Bible to theology.重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位③look upon themselves as a chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God’s will and is not to be accepted.认为自己是上帝选民，对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝。
④Puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exaggerated.反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步。
⑤religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.强调上帝严厉的一面，忽视上帝仁慈的一面。
4、典型的清教徒：John Cotton and Roger Williams他们的不同：John Cotton was much more concerned with authority than with democracy.Williams begins the history of religious toleration in America.5、Williams的宗教观点：Toleration did not stem from a lack of religiousconvictions. Instead, it sprang from the idea that simply to be virtuous in conduct and devout in belief did not give anyone the right to force belief on others. He also felt that no political order or church system could identify itself directly with God.行为上的德，信仰上的诚，并没有给任何人强迫别人该如何行事的权利。
没有任何政治秩序和教会体制能够直接体现神本身的意旨。
6、英国最早移民到美国的诗人：Anne Bradstreet7、在殖民时期最好的清教徒诗人：the best of Puritan poets is Edward Taylor.第二部分理性和革命时期一、时期综述1、美国的性质：The war for Independence ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republic – theUnited States of America.联邦的资产阶级民主共和国——美利坚合众国。
二、代表作家：1、Benjamin Franklin 本杰明.弗兰克林①代表作：“Poor Richard’s Almanac”穷人理查德的年鉴annual collection of proverbs 流行谚语集It soon became the most popular book of its kind, largely because of Franklin’s shrewd humor, and firstspread his reputation. 机智、幽默、风趣成为最畅销的书籍，弗兰克林的成名作。
②Found the Junto, a club for informal discussion of scientific, economic and political ideas.建立了一个秘密俱乐部，讨论的主题是政治、经济和科学等时事方面的问题。
③established America’s first circulating library, founded the college —University of Pennsylvania.建立了美国第一个可租借的图书馆，还创办了一所大学—就是现在的宾夕法尼亚大学。
④first applied the terms “positive” and “negative” to electrical charges.在电子运动中，首次使用了电流中的“正电”和“负电”的专业术语。
⑤As a representative of the Colonies, he tried in vain to counsel theBritish toward policies that would let America grow and flourish in association with England. He conducted the difficult negotiations with France that brought financial and military support forAmerica in the war. 作为殖民地的代表，他不断建议英国改变政策，使美国可以和英国一起发展、繁荣。
他说服法国支持美国的独立战争。
⑥As an author he had power of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor, sarcastic. 作为作家具有非凡的才能，表达简洁明了，幽默，讽刺天才。
⑦“Autobiography”自传18世纪美国唯一流传至今的自传2、Thomas Paine 托马斯.佩因“Great Commoner of Mankind” 最平凡的人①famous pamphlet “Common Sense”著名的政治小册子《常识》，itboldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence”, and brought the separatist agitation to a crisis. 拥护“独立宣言”，使分裂活动发展成最后危机。
②“American Crisis”《美国危机》, si gned “Common Sense”.署名为“常识”。
（P31，第一段看一下）3、Thomas Jefferson 托马斯.杰弗逊①drafted the Declaration of Independence. 起草了独立宣言。
②与清教不一样，主张追求幸福。
All Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.人人生而平等，他们都从他们的“造物主”那边被赋予了某些不可转让的权利，其中包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。
4、Philip Freneau 菲利浦.弗瑞诺poet and political journalist 诗人和政治方面的新闻记者。
①perhaps the most outstanding writer of the post-Revolutionary period.可能是革命战争后期最杰出的作家。
②has been called the “Father of American Poetry” 美国诗歌之父第三部分浪漫主义时期一、文学特征：1、environment：①shaped by their New World environment美洲大陆新环境②array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe.欧洲早期浪漫主义思潮2、美国文学特点:pluralistic多元化，manifestations表现形式: Varied多样, Individualistic个人主义,Conflicting矛盾3、romanticism的特点：frequently shared certain general characteristics; moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source o f goodness and man’s societies a source of corruption.浪漫主义之间大部分是相通的，都注重道德，强调个人主义价值观和直觉感受，并且认为自然是美的源头，人类社会是腐败之源。
★4、transcendentalism超验主义：①as a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical norsystematized. It exalted feeling over reason, individualexpression over the restraints of law and custom. 不讲逻辑，不讲系统，只强调超越理性的感受，超越法律和世俗束缚的个人表达。
②they spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism ofAmerican society.呼吁文化复兴，反对美国社会的拜金主义。