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美国文学史及选读考试整理

美国文学史及选读考试整理
美国文学史及选读考试整理

Washington Irving

Bracebridge Hall 布雷斯布里奇田庄

(1822) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Tales of a Traveller 旅客谈

(1824) Christopher Columbus (1828)

c. writing characteristics

(1) humorous: the function of his writing is to amuse,

to entertain instead of teaching or instruction

(2) vivid and true character portrayal

(3) finished (refined) and musical language, thus regarded as “the Amn. Goldsmith ”

d. analysis on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(选自the sketch book 见闻札记

)

1. the story:setting,character, plot

2. theme:conflicts and praise

conflict betw. Ichabod and Brom

conflict betw. the village and the outside world James Fenimore Cooper

The Spy

(1821): a historical novel The Pilot

(1824): a sea novel

Leatherstocking Tales 皮裹腿故事集(1823-1841):

frontier novels

The Last Mohicans (1826) (Colonial War betw. Britain and France)

e. writing features:

strong points: we can see a variety of incidents and tensions, complicated plot and structure and a

beautiful description of nature.

Weak points: characterization is weak. There is unsatisfactory description of characters (esp. female). He is not free from syntactical awkwardness, heavy-handed attempt at humor. “Where Irving excels Cooper is weak.” Dialect is not authentic.

Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House Usher

Feature:

i. brevity (15 pages) ii. Single effect

iii. originality in theme

To Helen

It was inspired by the beauty of the mother of a

schoolmate of Poe in Richmond, Virginia.

The poem is famous for a number of things:

1. its rhyme scheme: ababb

2. its varied line lengths

3. its metaphor of a travel on the sea

4. its oft-quoted lines:

"To the glory that was Greece,/And the grandeur that

was Rome."

theme: praise the ideal love and beauty and ancient Greek and Roman civilizations The Raven 乌鸦

theme: the lament over the death of a beautiful

woman

tone: melancholy

Transcendentalism (essayists, poets, novelists)

Their journal is “The Dial ”

.

Definition: Transcendentalism is idealism. (Emerson)

b. features

(1) stress on Oversoul, that is spirit.

(2) stress the importance of individual. (3) fresh conception of nature.

c. significance

(1) inspired a whole generation of writers such as

Whitman, Melville and Dickinson.

(2) dresses man ’s subjective initiative as opposed to

materialism.

(3) liberated people from Calvin ’s original sin

d. limitation

(1) shallow: cut off from real life or reality; initiated by the rich, they were limited in a certain circle. So, in some degree, they have been cut off from social life and can ’t understand the sufferings of the

common people.

(2) inward contradiction: gain knowledge by intuition, shows its idealistic aspect.

R.W. Emerson (Ralph Waldo)

Nature (1836): the Bible of New England transcendentalism The

American

Scholar

(1837):

"America's Declaration of Intellectual The Divinity School Address 神学院致辞

(1838)

Essays

(1841/1847) Representative Men

(1850) English Traits (1856)

Poems (1847)

d. significance

(1) He embodied a new nation ’s desire and struggle to assert its own identity in

its formative period.

(2) his stress on individualism

Limitation:self-centered, individual His ideas influence a lot of writers such as Dikinson, Hawthorne and Whitman.

Henry David Thoreau

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 康考德和梅里马克河上的一周

(1849) Walden, or Life in the Woods

(1854)

Civil Disobedience 不服从论(1849, an address) c.

Walden

main ideas:

(1)on self-cultivation and human perfectibility, elevated from Puritan original sin, believe in inner

virtue and inwardly grace

(2) criticism on civilization and capitalism

(3) only truth and knowledge can ’t be taken away, trust in future and in man

Style: pithy (colloquial sayings), vivid description, symbols and images Nathaniel Hawthorne

Twice-Told Tales

(1837): a collection of short stories Mosses from an Old Manse 古屋青苔(1846): another

collection of short stories

The House of the Seven Gables 七个尖角的阁楼(1851): on the effect of a curse The Scarlet Letter

(1850): masterpiece

It ’s not a love story, trying to show the moral, emotional and psychological effects of sin on his

characters.

“A”: Adultery

-Able-Angel

“A” on chest: sinner, confessed, d ied, shows an

honest man

Moral: man should be true and honest and ready to show one ’s worst to the world (批评与自我批评)

Herman Melville

Typee (《泰比》

1846) Omoo (《奥穆》

1847) Mardi (《马尔迪》

1847)

这三部作品描写塔希提群岛和马吉萨斯群岛以及他在岛上的奇遇。

Redburn (《莱德勃恩》1849):描写了他的第一次航海经验以及在利物浦港贫民窟的见闻。

White Jacket (《白外套》1850):根据他在美国海军军舰上服役时期的生活体验写成。

Pierre (《皮埃尔》

1852) Israel Potter (《伊斯莱尔·波特》1855): historical

novel

Piazza Tales (《广场故事》1856): a collection of short

story

Moby Dick (《白鲸》

1851): masterpiece

(1) a whaling book: an encyclopedia of whaling/description of a whaler ’

s life

(2) a tragedy about man fighting against universe (hostile)

Man in this universe lives a meaningless

and futile life, meaningless because futile.

Man can observe and even manipulate in a prudent way, but he cannot influence and overcome nature at

its source.

(3) alienation 异化:

between man and man

between man and society (ship) between man and nature

Ahab is the best representative.

To him the world exists for his sake. His selfhood must be asserted at the expense of all else: lives may be sacrificed, and nature may have to be vanquished

in order that he may do what he wills.

Richard Chase says: the idea Melville conveys in it is "death---spiritual, emotional, physical". (5) theme: quest

(6) symbolism

the voyage: a metaphor for "search and discovery,

the search for the ultimate truth of experience". the Pequod 皮阔德

: the ship of the American soul the endeavor of the crews: "the maniacal fanaticism

of our white mental consciousness"

Moby Dick: (many interpretations) the symbol of nature

W. C. Bryant

the analysis on To a Waterfowl 致水鸟

It is the "most perfect brief poem in the language". (Matthew Arnold)

It is a poem of nature in quatrains rhyming in abab.

theme: from a bird and its flight to an ordinary

person and his course of life, this poem conveys that

everything in nature is under the beneficence and

protection of the Power.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Theme: idealized love, children, family and friendship

A Psalm of Life

The poem is divided into 9 stanzas, each composed

of two iambic tetrameter lines and two trochaic

trimeter lines rhyming abab.

The first two stanzas refute the pessimism that life is

but a dream, affirming the contrary that life is real.

The following stanzas urge the reader to act in the

present and to leave "footprints" as great people did

in order to inspire the followers.

The last stanza ends with a resounding note while

admonishing people to learn to wait as well as to

labor.

Realism(the 19th-century literary movement that reacted

to romanticism by insisting on a faithful, objective

presentation of the details of everyday life.)

features:

?i.objective description (concern for the

commonplace/the low)

?ii. criticism of society and reality, exposing and

criticizing the society; the writers’ dissatisfaction; no

longer eulogize human glority

?iii. verisimilitude逼真性(true to details)

?iv. influenced by bourgeois’ 中产阶级democratic

ideas (not overthrow but reform, changes)

?v. reformative: to reform the society, not to change

completely

?features: Naturalism(A post-Darwinian movement

of the late 19th century that tried to apply the

"laws" of scientific determinism to fiction.)is a

theory which applied scientific concepts and

methods to such problems as plot development and

characterisation.

?Comparison between Realism and Naturalism:

?Realism.

?i. objective

?ii. creation of types

?iii. influenced by British Rom. works with hope

?Naturalism

?i. scientific accuracy

?ii. collect material from their lives

?iii.against this, hopeless/gloomy picture of the

society

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass《草叶集》,

(1) themes

?i. unity of all man and of man within universe

?ii. equality of all man

?iii. cycle of life and death

?iv. enthusiastic idea toward Westward Expansion

?v. brotherhood

d. Song of Myself自我之歌

?(1) influence of Transcendentalism: praise of

individualism

?(2) cycle of life and death

?(3) ideal of democracy: equality between different

races and brotherhood

Emily Dickinson

A Bird came down the walk

I died for Beauty---but was Scarce

I Heard a Fly buzz---when I died---

Because I could not stop for Death-

H.B. Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851): masterpiece

significance:

? 1.intensified and strengthened abolitionist sentiment;

? 2. gave a better balanced, more specific picture of

plantation life;

? 3. praised the merits of slaves and showed great

sympathy for them

Henry James

?The American(1877): begins with international

theme

?Daisy Miller(1878): brings the author first

international fame

?The Wings of the Dove (1902)

?The Ambassadors (1903)

?The Golden Bowl (1904)

?The Portrait of A Lady贵妇画像:masterpiece

?It tells about the fate of one of those splendid

Jamesian American girls, Isabel Archer, arriving in

Europe, full of hope, and with a will to live a free

and noble life, only to fail prey to the sinister designs

of two vulgar and unscrupulous expatriates, Madam

Merle and Gilbert Osmond

International theme国际主题:

?the meeting of America and Europe; American

innocence in contact and contrast with European

decadence and the moral and psychological

complications arising therefrom; for the American it

was a process of progression from inexperience to

experience, from innocence to knowledge and

maturity. Those American heroes or heroins who

confronting European sophistication, either

triumphed over it or were overwhelmed.

Mark Twain

?The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Count卡拉维拉斯县有名的跳蛙(1865):a short story ?The Innocents Abroad国外的无辜者(1869): letters on his travelling in Europe and Near East

?Roughing It苦行记(1872): on his experience in the western America

?The Gilded Age (1873): his first novel, collaborated with Charles Dudley Warner

?The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)

?The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利·费恩历险记(1884): masterpiece

?Life on the Mississippi (1883)

? A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court误闯亚瑟王宫(1889)

?The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg败坏了哈德莱堡的人(1900)

?The Mysterious Stranger (1916)

e. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

? 1. It is "a boy's book" which sets 20 years before Civil War.

? 2. themes:

?1)picaresque以流浪汉和无赖为题材的(adventure story)

?2) moral growth of Tom

? 3. techniques: verisimilitude, humor, colloquial style Deadpan(铁面幽默): oral humor/the teller has a strict face but the listeners are laughing.

Language: dialects as forms of art

Jack London

?The People of the Abyss深渊居民(1903): about London's slum

?The Iron Heel铁蹄(1908): the first proletarian criterion novel which envisages the development of

fascism

?The Call of the Wild野性的呼唤(1903): the most widely read book

?The Sea Wolf 海狼(1904)

?These two novels reflect the ideas of the law of survival and the will to power

?Martin Eden马丁伊登(1909): a reflection of the contradiction between these competeing beliefs

c. Martin Eden--theme:the failure of American Dream.

After he realized his dream of getting into the upper class, he also realized the emptiness of it and committed suicide.

?"This is a book that missed fire with a majority of the critics. Written as an indictment of individualism, it

was accepted as an indictment of socialism; written

to show that man cannot live for himself alone, it

was accepted as a demonstration that success made

for death. Had Martin Eden been a socialist he would

not have died."

?Consciously London meant the novel to show that only a belief in the people, only the devotion of one's

life to a cause greater than onself, could give life any

real meaning.

T. Dreisser西奥多·德莱塞

?Sister Carrie 嘉莉妹妹(1900): the first novel, masterwork

?Jannie Gerhardt (1911)

?The Fanancier (1912)

?The Titan (1914)

?The Stoic (1947)

?The Genius (1915)

?An American Tragedy美国悲剧(1925)

?Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928)

c. Sister Carrie

?theme:the emptiness of Ameircan Dream

?i. jungle law

?Famous actress bank manager(the unfit is bound to die) <——

?Country girl (able to follow her instinct) commit suicide

?ii. chance and luck

?iii. criticism of American values: money and sex —the standards to see if a person is successful ?iv. concern for the poor

Jazz Age:the Jazz Age lasted from 1919-1929, the decade enjoyed economic prosperity. The war and economic boom encouraged a breaking with the tradition (Puritanism). People upheld the value of money-making and pleasure-seeking.

Ezra Pound埃兹拉·庞德

Imagism意象派

?Pound became the most important figure. Imagist

poetry reached the peak of literature for three things

appeared:

?i. a manifesto

?ii. three principles

?iii. a lot of writings

?Pound said, an image is "that which presents an

intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of

time."

In a Station of the Metro在地铁车站

? 1. This is the much-quoted masterpiece of Pound and

a representative of the Imagist poetry.

? 2. In form, the poem is similar to the Japanese haiku,

a two-line couplet with rhymes. Pound's poem

reminds the Chinese of two lines by a Tang poet, Bai

Juyi. When describing the sad yet beautiful face of

Yang Huifei, a Tang emperess, the poet wrote,

?The beautiful face, lonesome with tears;

? A pear branch, radiant with rain.

? 3. The poem is a representative of Imagist poems in

that the image of petals on a wet, black bough best

represents the picture of those lovely faces in the

crowd and that the image is dominant in the

poem---the image itself is the poem.

T.S. Eliot

poetry:

?Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)

?Poems (1920)

?The Waste Land (1922)

?The Hollow Men (1925)

?Ash Wednesday (1930)

?Four Quartets (1943)

plays:

?Sweeney Agonistes (1932)

?Murder in the Cathedral (1935)

?The Cocktail Party (1950)

?The Confidential Clerk (1954)

critical essays:

?The Sacred Wood (1920)

?For Lancelot Andrews (1928)

?The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933)

?After Strange Gods (1934)

?On Poetry and Poets (1957)

c. The Waste Land荒原

? 5 parts: The Burial of Dead, The Game of Chess, The

Fire Sermon, Death by Water, What the Thunder

Said

?chief characteristics

? 1. quotations and allusions暗示

? 2. objective correlative

? 3. juxtaposition并列: mingle brand image with

common image

? 4. use of antiquity古风

The Love Song

?"Prufrock" is not the image of one unlucky modern

man; instead, he represents many other modern

westerners who are "divided between passion and

timidity, between desire and impotence".

4. theme

?This poem reflects the decadent modern civilization

and the nightmarish inferno in which modern

Westerners are living in.

5. techiniques

?1) irony

?2) striking images

?3) the form of dramatic monologue

?The poem is written in irregular lines, with but a few

rhymes.

Robert Frost

b. Characteristics

? 1. not in the main stream of modern poetry, but with

conventional form and plain language. That’s why

he’s the most popular poet in the 20th century.

? 2. a kind of a regionalist----New England, but not

local colorism. He used New England as a metaphor

for the whole world and universe.

? 3. a plain poet using symbols from everyday country

life. Simple symbols but express deep meanings.

The Road Not Taken

? 1. The poem was written in very regular lines with

iambic pentametre and rhyme scheme of abaab.

? 2. The symbolic meaning of the two divergent roads

is rather clear. They represent any important

decisions in one's life.

? 3. details:

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

? 1. It is a lyric poem with iambic tetrametre and

interlocking enclosed rhyme.

? 2. It represents a moment of relaxation from the

onerous journey of life, an almost aesthetic

enjoyment and appreciation of natural beauty which

is wholesome and retorative against the chaotic

existence of modern man.

The Lost Generation

? 1. term: It is a term in frequent use after WWI in

reference to the young men who survived physically

but were afterwards spiritually and morally adrift. So

the lost generation refers to disillusioned writers who

wrote after WWI. Many of them went to the battle.

After the war, they rebelled against former ideals and

values and can’t find new ones to replace.

? 2. It first coined by Gertrude Stein. In Paris, she

opens the door to American expatriates. She once

said to Hemingway, “You’re all a lost generation.”

? 3. It was used as preface to The Sun Also Rises. Then

it became popular. Fitzgerald once said they are “a

generation grown up to find all gods died, all wars

fought, all faith in men shaken”.

Ernest Hemingway

? 1.Hemingway theme/hero/situation. Theme: “grace

under pressure”

2.nihilism: negative attitude towards the world. There is only one thing man is certain---death

? 3. devotion to truth. He believes the writer's job is to

tell truth.

c. style

? 1.iceberg principle. The meaning here is that the

writer should say only one eighth, in such a way that

the remaining seven eighths be discerned and

provided by the reader.

? https://www.wendangku.net/doc/112638941.html,nguage: short, common, fundamental words,

simple sentence, structure.The effect of the language:

clearness, cleanness and great care.

? 3.dialogue: plays a very important part in his

writings. Hemingway’s dialogue can show setting,

development of plot, characters, even theme.

? 4.cinematic way: he uses showing instead of telling.

He likes to describes actions (kiss, withdraw hand)

vividly instead of mental description.

? 5.symbolism

? https://www.wendangku.net/doc/112638941.html,e of stream of consciousness

d. A Farewell to Arms

? 1. If we say The Sun Also Rises tells why they lost,

this novel describes how they lost. Thus it can be

read as a footnote to the former.

? 2. the double meanings of the title

? 3. the hero Henry: Hemingway's hero

? 4. theme: war and love. It shows a world of complete

unreason and reflects the mood of the post-war

generation.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

b. The Great Gatsby

?Theme:

? 1. about reality and atmosphere of 1920s

? 2. failure of American Dream

c. attitude towards the rich: paradoxical

?He is charmed by the rich.

?He is critical of the rich who are corrupted

themselves and meanwhile corrupting others.

d. attitude towards the Jazz Age: insider and outsider John Steinbeck

b. The Grapes of Wrath愤怒的葡萄

1. significance

?1) it’s a great social document in 1930s.

?2) A protest novel. In the novel, the author attacks

the decadence, wickedness and cruelty of banks and

land owners and the current social system as a

whole.

?3) themes: unity and faith

unity: Steinbeck believes that strength lies in the unity of people and he also stresses on individualism.

faith: The Great Depression was the most miserable period in the 20th century. Even though people suffered a lot, they still held on their hope and will live on.

2. characters:

?Ma Joad (the mother): embodiment of the theme. She

asked Rose to save the stranger.

?1) she realized unity would bring people strength.

?2) the faith in future

?Tom: shows the change from I (individualism) to we

(unity)

?Jim Casy: a preacher he developed himself from a

labor to an organizer and set up the guiding principle

and after his death, Tom took over his role. The

initial of his name: J.C.---Jesus Christ

William Faulkner

Sound and Fury: divided into 4 parts

? 1. themes:

?a) downfall of the South. The south was in

deterioration. It’s going from bad to worse. The

present and the past form a contrast from Benjy’s

eyes. He’s an idiot so his reactions were distinctive

feeling. He felt strongly the loss of love. The

downfall of Mr. Campson was not only a personal

one but also a universal one---the society was in

disorder.

?b) conflict between the old/young generations

A Rose For Emily

美国文学史及选读试卷 (1)

美国文学史及选读试卷 Ⅰ.Each of the following statements below is followed by four alternatives. Choose the one that would best complete the statement. (60points in all, 2 for each) 1. Which of following can be said of the common features which are shared by the English and American Romanticists ? A. An increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions. B. An increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters. C. An increasing emphasis on the desire to return to nature. D. both A and B. 2. Which of the following statements about the Romantic period in the history of American literature is NOT true? () A. In most of the American writings of this period there was a new emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature. B. The writers of this period placed an increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions and displayed an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters. C. There was a strong tendency to exalt the individual and the common man. D. Most heroes and heroines in the writings of this period exhibited extremes of reason and nationality. 3.______ is unanimously agreed to be the summit of the American Romanticism in the history of American literature. A. New England Transcendentalism B. England Transcendentalism C. the Harlem Renaissance D. New Transcendentalism 4.Hawthorn e’s unique gift was for the creation of ______ which touch the deepest roots of man’s moral nature. A. symbolic stories B. romantic stories

美国文学史期末参考复习资料

仅作参考,最主要还是要自己消化,整理 Chapter 1 Colonial Period 1. Puritanism: American puritans accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. 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 chi efly instrumental in calling into being a 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 literature 1. types of writing diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons 2. writers of colonial period (1) Anne Bradstreet (2) Edward Taylor III. Benjamin Franklin 1. life 2. works (1) Poor Richard’s Almanac (2) Autobiography 3. contribution (1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society. (2) He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven”. (3) Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”. Chapter 2 American Romanticism Section 1 Early Romantic Period I. American Romanticism 1. Background (1) Political background and economic development (2) Romantic movement in European countries Derivative – foreign influence 2. features (1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien. (2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained. (3) The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with Am erican Romanticism. (4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent. II. Washington Irving: Father of American Literature 1. 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 literature 2. life 3. works (1) A History of New York 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 of this.) (3) The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (5) The Alhambra 4. Literary career: two parts (1) 1809~1832

美国文学史及选读期末复习题

1.Captain John Smith became the first American writer. 2.The puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people. is an annual collection of proverbs written by Benjamin Franklin. 4.Thomas Paine’s famous pamphlet Common Sense boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence”. 5.Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.

has been called the “Father of American Poetry”. 7.In Washington I rving’s appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature. 8.Cooper’s enduring fame rests on his William Cullen Bryant’s wok. is considered “father of American detective stories and American gothic stories”. 10.Emerson believed above all in

美国文学史及选读期末复习

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1.C aptain John Smith became the first American writer. 2.T he puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people. collection of proverbs written by Benjamin Franklin. 4.T homas Paine’s famous pamphlet Common Sense boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence”.

5.T homas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. has been called the “Father of American Poetry”. 7.I n Washington Irving’s appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.

8.C ooper’s enduring fame rests on his frontier stories, especially the five novels that comprise the is perhaps the peak of William Cullen Bryant’s wok. “father of American detective stories and American gothic stories”.

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