英美文学选读历年主观题及答案

1 Give a brief discussion of Henry James’ literary achievement.

International theme: James‟s novels are always set against a larger international background, usually between America and Europe

Psychological realism: James‟s realism is characterized by his psychological approach to his subject matter. His fictional world is concerned with the inner world of human beings. He is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th century “stream-of-consciousness” novels and the founder of psychological realism

His language is highly refined and insightful; he is the most expert of stylist of his time

Narrative point of view: moving away from authorial omniscience, making the characters reveal themselves Literary criticism: “The Art of Fiction”. The theme of “The Art of Fiction” clearly indicates that the aim of the novel is to present life, also advocates the freedom of the artist to write about anything that concerns him. James‟s language is elaborate and refined with lengthy psychological analyses.

2. Hemingway Code heroes

It refers to some protagonists in Hemingway‟s works. In the general situation of Hemingway‟s novels, life is full of tension and battles; the world is in chaos and man is always fighting desperately a losing battle. Those who survive in the process of seeking to master the code with the honesty, the discipline, and the restraint are Hemingway code heroes.

2. Some of Hemingway‟s heroes are regarded as the Hemingway code heroes. Whatever the differences in experience and age, they all have something in common which Hemingway values. What are the characteristics of the Hemingway code hero?

They have seen the cold world and for one cause or another, they boldly and courageously face the reality, whatever the result is, they are ready to live with grace under pressure.

Almost all his heroes are “soldiers” either in a narrow or broad sense. They are out there against the nature or the world, or even themselves. But no matter where the battle-ground is and how tragic the ending is, they will never be defeated.

Hemingway himself is one of those code heroes, some critics say his protagonists are autobiographical, for they share something that is Hemingway.

2 Greatly and permanently affected by the war experiences, Hemingway formed his own writing style，together with his theme and hero. Please discuss Hemingway‟s writing style in relation to his novels you have read.

Hemingway himself once said, “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water”. Typical of this “iceberg” analogy is Hemingway‟s style. He deals with a limited range of characters in quite similar circumstances and measures them against unvarying code, known as “grace under pressure”.

The characters he depicted, with the honesty, the discipline, and the restraint, survive in the process of seeking to master the code

According to Hemingway, good literary writing should be able to make readers feel the emotion of the characters directly and the best way to produce the effect is to set down exactly every particular kind of feeling without any authorial comments, without conventionally emotive language, and with a bare minimum of adjectives and adverbs.

Besides, Hemingway develops the style of colloquialism initiated by Mark Twain

答案Greatly effected by war experience, Ernest Hemingway formed his own writing style, together with his theme and hero.

In Our time is the first book to present a Hemingway's hero-------Nick Adams.the great part of the book traces in separate, but thematically related, short stories the growth of a young man called Nick Adams from his childhood to his return as a war veteran.

The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway's first true novel. it casts light on a whole generation after the First War and the effects of the war by way of a vivid portrait of ' The lost generation' a group of young american who left their native land and fought in the war and later engaged themselves in writing in a new way about their own expericenc.

A Farewell to Arms tells us a story about the tragic love between a wounded American soldier with a British nurse.

For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and The Sea tell more about later Hemingway. For Whom the Bell Tolls clearly represent a new beginning in Hermingway's career as a writer, which concerns a volunteer American Robert