美国文学史选读练习题

美国文学习题

1．In American literature, the eighteen century was the age of Enlightenment. _____________was the

dominant spirit.

A.Humanism

B. Rationalism

C. Revolution

D.

Evolution

2. “God helps them that help themselves.” is found in ____________work.

A. Paine?s

B. Franklin?s

C. Freneau?s

D. Jefferson?s

3. Which statement about Franklin is not true?

A. He instructed his countrymen as a printer.

B. He was a scientist.

C. He was a master of diplomacy.

D. He was a Puritan.

4. Which of the following stirred the world and helped form the American republic?

A. The American Crisis.

B. The Federalist.

C. Declaration of Independence.

D. The Age of Reason.

5. Which is connected with Thomas Paine?

A. Common Sense

B. American Crisis.

C. The Right of Man

D. The Autobiography.

6. “These are the times that try men?s souls”, these words were once read to Washington?s troops and did much to spur excitement to further action with hope and confidence. Who is the author of these words?

A. Benjamin Franklin

B. Thomas Paine

C. Thomas Jefferson

D. George Washington

7. Which statement about Freneau is true?

A. He was a scientist

B. He was a pamphleteer

C. He was a poet

D. He was a bitter polemicist

8. Which work is written by Freneau?

A. The Right of Man

B. The Wild honey Suckle

C. Poor Richard?s Almanac

D. The Day of Doom

9. Who was considered as the “Poet of American Revolution”?

A. Anne Bradstreet

B. Edward Taylor

C. Michael Wiggleworth

D. Philip Freneau

10. At the Reason and Revolution Period, American were influenced by the European movement called _____________.

A. Chartist Movement

B. Romanticist Movement

C. Enlightenment Movement

D. Modernist Movement

11.Stetement ____________ is wrong in describing Nathaniel Hawthorne.

A. Hawthorne is a realist writer.

B. Hawthorne is also a great allegorist.

C. Hawthorne is a master of symbolism.

D. One source of evil that Hawthorne is concerned most is over-reaching intellect.

12. In Walt Whitman?s “There was a Child Went Forth”, the child refers to ___________.

A. the poet himself as a child

B. any American child

C. the young America

D. one of the poet?s neighbor

13. In Moby Dick, the voyage symbolizes ___________.

A. the microcosm of human society

B. the search for truth

C. the unknown world

D. nature

14.Thoreau was often alone in the woods or by the pond, lost in spiritual communication with _________________. A. nature B. transcendentalist ideas C. human beings D. celestial beings

15. The Transcendentalist group includes two of the most significant writers America has produced so far, Emerson and ____________-.

A. Henry David Thoreau

B. Washington Irving

C. Nathanel Hawthorne

D. Walt Whitman

16. _____________tells a simple but very moving story in which four people living in a puritan community are involved in and affected by the sin of adultery in different ways.

A. Twice-Told Tales

B. The Scarlet Letter

C. The House of the Seven Gables

D. The Marble Faun

17. ___________is regarded as the first American prose epic.

A. Nature

B. The Scarlet letter

C. Walden

D. Moby Dick

18. The Romantic Period of American literature started with the publication of Washington Irving?s ___________ and ended with Whitman?s Leaves of Grass.

A. The Sketch Book

B. Tales of a Traveler

C. The Alhambra

D. A History of New York

19. Washington Irving?s social conservation and literary for the past is revealed to some extent, in his famous story_____________.

A. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

B. Rip Van Winckle

C. The Custom-House

D. The Birthmark

20. Which of the following comments on the writings by Herman Merville is not true?

A. Bartleby, the Scrivener is a short story.

B. Benito Cereno is a novella.

C. The Confidence-Man has something to do with the sea and sailors.

D. Moby Dick is regarded as the first American Prose epic.

21. The giant Moby Dick may symbolize all except______________.

A. mystery of the universe

B. sin of the whale

C. power of the Great Nature

D. evil of the world

22. The convention of the desire for an escape from society and a return to nature in American literature is particularly evident in ___________________.

A. Cooper?s Leatherstocking Tales

B. Hawthorne?s The Scarlet Letter.

C. Whitman?s Leaves of Grass.

D. Irving?s Rip Van Winkle.

23. As a philosophical and literary movement, _________ flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.

A. modernism

B. rationalism

C. sentimentalism

D. transcendentalism

24. In Hawthorne?s The Scarlet Letter, “A” may stands for ______________.

A. Adultery

B. Angel

C. Amiable

D. All the above

25. ______is not the member of Transcendental Club.

A. Emerson

B. Thoreau

C. Whitman

D. Fuller

26. Poe?s first collection of short stories is _______________.

A. Tales of a Traveller

B. Leatherstocking Tales

C. Canterbury Tales

D. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque

27. For Melville, as well as for the reader and ____________, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe.

A. Starbuck

B. Stubb

C. Ishmael

D. Arab

28. Choose the characters which appear in the novel The Scarlet Letter?

A. Hester Prynne

B. Arthur Dimmesdale

C. Roger Chillingworth

D. Pearl

29. __________was a romanticized account of Melville?s stay among the Polynesians. The success of the book soon made Melville become known as the “man who lived among cannibals”.

A. Moby Dick

B. Typee

C. Omoo

D. Billy Budd

30. The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to as _________.

A. The naturalist Period

B. The Modern Period

C. The Romantic Period

D. the Realistic period

31. All of the following are works by Nathaniel Hawthorne except_____________.

A. The House of Seven Gables

B. White Jacket

C. The Marble Faun

D. The Blithdale Romance

32. In the following works, which signs the beginning of the American literature?

A. The Sketch Book

B. Leaves of Grass

C. Leatherstocking TAles..

D. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

33. The main theme of Emily Dickinson is the following except_______________.

A. religion

B. love and marriage

C. life and death

D. war and peace

34. Emily Dickinson?s poetic idiom is noted for the following except_____________.

A. brevity

B. directness

C. plainest

D. obscure

35. “There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, trough the whole life, but circumstances may rouse it to activity.” Which of the following writings is the thought reflected in?

A. Nathaniel Hawthorne?s Young Goodman Brown.

B. Mark Twain?s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

C. Walt Whitman?s Leaves of Grass.

D. Herman Melvil le?s Moby Dick.

36. It is his _________that Washington Irving?s fame mainly rested.

A. tales about America

B. early poetry

C. childhood recollections

D. sketches about his European tours

37. ________is the most ambivalent writer in the American literary history.

A. Nathaniel Hawthorne

B. Walt Whitman

C. Ralph Waldo Emerson

D. Mark Twain

38. In Hawthorne?s novels and short stories, intellectuals usually appear as __________________.

A. saviors

B. villains

C. commentators

D. observers

39. Washington Irv ing?s Rip Van Winckle is famous for__________________.

A. Rip?s escape into a mysterious place

B. The story?s German legendary source material

C. Rip?s seeking for happiness

D. Rip?s 20-year sleep

40. The publication of ____________established Emerson as the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism.

A. Nature

B. Self-Reliance

C. The American Scholar

D. The Over Soul

41. Which of the following is not a work of Emily Dickinson?s?

A. This is my letter to the world

B. I heard a Fly buzz-when I died

C. The Road Not Taken

D. I like to see it lap the Miles

42. In the history of literature, Romanticism is regarded as _________.

A. the thought that designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience

B. the orientation that emphasizes those features which men have in common

C. the modes of thinking

D. the thought that designates man as a social animal

43. Which three novels drew from Melville?s adventures among the people of the South Pacific island?

A. Typee

B. Omoo

C. Mardi

D. Redburn

44. In the poem “Song of Myself”, Whitman sets forth the principle beliefs of ______________.

A. the theory of universality

B. singularity and equality of all beings in value

C. both A and B

D. none above

45. Most of the poems in Whitman?s leaves of Grass sing of the “en-mass” and the ___________as well.

A. nature

B. life

C. self

D. self-reliance

46. Emily Dickinson?s poems(441) “This is my letter to the Wo rld” expresses the poet?s _____________about her communication with the outside world.

A. indignation

B. joy

C. anxiety

D. indifference

47. Which of the following features cannot characterize poems by Walt Whitman?

A. lyrical and well-structured.

B. free-flowing.

C. simple and rather crude

D. conversational and casual

48. Which of the following writings is not finished by Ralph Waldo Emerson?

A. Nature

B. Essays

C. The Over-Soul

D. Of Studies

49. In “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died”, Emily Dicki nson describes the moment of death______________.

A. passionately

B. pessimistically

C. in despair

D. peacefully

50. Which book is not written by Emerson?

A. Representative Men

B. English Traits.

C. Nature

D. The Phodora.

51.The Age of Realism in the literary history of the America refers to the period from ____to ___________.

A. 1861-1914

B. 1863-1918

C. 1865-1914

D. 1865-1918

52. ___________is not the representative writer in the Age of Realism in the literary history of the United States.

A. Henry James

B. Emily Dickinson

C.William Dean Howells

D. Mark Twain

53. ___________explores the scrupulous individualism in a world of fantastic speculation and unstable values, and gives its name to the get-rich-quick years of the post Civil War era.

A. Innocents Abroad

B. The Gilded Age

C. Roughing It

D. The Middle Years

54. _________is considered to be Theodore Dreiser?s greatest work.

A. An American Tragedy

B. Sister Carrie

C. The Financier

D. The Titan

55. ___________is a novella about a young American girl who gets “killed” by the writer in Rome, and it brought Henry James international fame for the first time.

A. The American

B. The Europeans

C. Daisy Miller

D. The Portrait of a Lady

56. Stylistically, Henry James?s fiction is characterized by ___________--.

A. highly refined language

B. ordinary American speech

C. short, clear sentences

D. abundance of local images 57. _________- is described by Mark Twain as a boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience.”

A. Tom Sawyer

B. Huckleberry Finn

C. Jim

D. Tony

58. ___________-- is not a novel by Henry James dealing with the international theme.

A. What Maisie Knows

B. The Wings of the Dove

C. The Ambassadors

D. The Golden Bowl

59. The setting of __________is America, where some Europeans, who are actually expatriated Americans, learn with difficulty to adapt themselves to the American life. A. Middlemarch B. The Europeans C. Daisy Miller D. The Portrait of a Lady

60. Mark Twain?s ___________shows the disastrous effects of slavery on the victimizer and the victim alike.

A. The Mysterious Stranger

B. Tragedy of Puff?nhead Wilson

C. The Gilded Age

D. Roughing It

61. Who exerts the single most important influence on literary naturalism, of which Theodore Dreiser and Jack London are among the best representative writers?

A. Freud

B. Darwin

C. W.

D. Howells D. Emerson

62. Mark Twain, one of the greatest 19 th century American writers, is well known for his _________________.

A. international theme

B. wasteland imagery

C. local color

D. symbolism

63. In Henry James?s Daisy Miller, the author tries to portray the young woman as an ambodiment of __________.

A. the force of convention

B. the free spirit of the New World

C. the decline of aristocracy

D. the corruption of the newly rich

64. The literary characters of the American type in the early 19th century are generally characterized by all the following features except that they __________--.

A. speak local dialects

B. are polite and elegant gentlemen

C. are simple and crude farmers

D. are noble savages (red and white) untainted by society

65. With Howells, James and Mark Twain active on the literary scene,_________ became the major trend in American literature in the seventies and eighties of 19th century.

A. sentimentalism

B. romanticism

C. realism

D. naturalism

66. Generally speaking, all those writers with a naturalistic approach to human reality tend to be _________________. A. transcendentalists B. idealists C. pessimists D. impressionists

67.Mark Twain wrote most of his literary works with a ___________language.

A. grand

B. pompous

C. simple

D. vernacular

68. Henry James experimented with many different themes in his literary career, the most influential one being___________.

A. nothingness

B. disillusionment

C. international theme

D. relationship between men and women

69. Theodore Dreiser is generally regarded as one of America?s_____________.

A. naturalists

B. realists

C. modernists

D. romanticists

70. Dreiser?s Trilogy of /Desire includes three novels. They are The Financier, The Titan and __________________.

A. The Stoic

B. The Giant

C. The Tycoon

D. The Genius

71. The book from which “all modern American literature comes” refers to __________.

A. The Great Gatsby

B. The Sun Also Rises

C. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

D. Moby Dick

72. The impact of Darwin?s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism: American ___________-. A. modernism B. naturalism C. vernacularism D. local colorism

73. Which of the following writings is by Hemingway described the novel the one book from which “all modern American literature comes”?

A. Tom Sawyer

B. Huckleberry Finn

C. The Gilded Age

D. Life on the Mississippi

74. Mark Twain had led an active life in the very center of the American experience. He had been a ____________.

A. printer, pilot, soldier

B. silver-minor, gold washer

C. lecturer, traveler, businessman

D. novelist, autobiographer

75. While embracing the socialism of Marx, London also believed in the triumph of the strongest individuals. This contradiction is most vividly projected in the patently autobiographical novel________________.

A.The Call of the Wild

B. The Sea Wolf

C. Martin Eden

D. The Iron Heel

76. In 1900, London published his first collection of short stories, named ____________-.

A. The Son of the Wolf

B. The Sea Wolf

C. The Law of life

D. White Fang

77. The main theme of ___________ The Art of Fiction reveals his literary credo that representation of life should be the main object of the novel.

A. Henry James?

B. William Dean Howells?

C. Mark Twain?s

D. Jack London?s

78. Stephen Crane?s best stories include __________, _________ and _______________________, all reinforcing the basic Crane motif environment and heredity over-whelming man.

A. Open Boat

B. An Experiment

C. The Blue Hotel

D. The Red Badge of Courage

79. Mark Twain stood on the side of China in its struggle against foreign invasions. His _______ and ________- are two notable examples of his vigorous attacks on the imperialist behaviour of the United States and other foreign countries in China.

A. The Treaty with China

B. To the Person Sitting in Darkness

C. Disgracefull Pers ecution of a Boy

D. Golddsmith?s Friend Abroad Again

80. Dreiser was left-oriented in his views. He visited Russia and wrote _______- and _____________to express his new faith, and shortly before his death, he joined the Communist Party.

A. Dreiser Look at Russia

B. Tragic America

C. An American Tragedy

D. The Titan

81.In which of the following works, Hemingway presents his philosophy about life and death through the depiction of the bull-fight as a kind of microcosmic tragedy?

A. The Green Hills of Africa

B. The Snows of Kilimanjaro

C. To Have and Have Not

D. Death in the Afternoon

82. ___________-is often acclaimed literary spokesman of the Jazz Age.

A. Ernest Hemingway

B. F.Scott Fitzgerald

C. William /Faulkner

D. Ezra Pound

83. _________is He mingway?s first true novel in which he depicts a vivid portrait of “The Lost Generation”.

A. The Sun Also Rises

B. A Farewell to Arms

C. In Our Time

D.For Whom the Bell Tolls

84.Fitzgerald?s fictional world is the best embodiment of the spirit of __________________.

A. the Jazz Age

B. the Romantic period

C. The Renaissance Period

D. the Neoclassical Period

85. Which of the following figures does not belong to “The Lost Generation”?

A. Ezra Pound

B. William Carlos Williams

C. Robert Frost

D. Theodore Dreiser

86. In a tragic sense, _________is a representation of life as a struggle against unconquerable forces in which only a partial victory is possible.

A. For Whom the Bell Tolls

B. In Our Time

C. The Farewell to Arms

D. The Old Man and the Sea

87. Faulkner once said that __________is a story of “lost innocence,” which proves itself to be an intensification of the theme of imprisonment in the past.

A. The Sound and the Fury

B. Light in August

C. Go Down, Moses

D. Absalom, Absalom

88. Robert Frost combined traditional verse form---the sonnet, rhyming couplets, blank verse---with a clear American local speech rhyme, the speech of ____________farmers with its idiosyncratic diction and syntax.

A. southern

B. western

C. New Hampshire

D. New England

89. In which of the following poem by Ezra pound did you find the allusion to Vishang?

A. In a Station of the Metro.

B. The River-merchant?s Wife: A Letter

C. A Pact

D. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley

90. Who, one of the most important poets in his time, is a leading spokesman of the “Imagist Movement”?

A. J.D. Salinger

B. Ezra Pound

C. Righard Wright

D. Ralph Ellison

91. Sinclair Lewis? Babbit presents a documentary picture of the narrow and limited ___________-.

A. up-class mind

B. middle-class mind

C. proletarian

D. ordinary people

92. Yank?s sense of belonging nowhere, hence homeless and rootless. The Hairy Ape is thus a play that concerns the problem of modern man?s ___________.

A. love

B. homey relations

C. identity

D. development

93. In A Rose For Emily, Faulkner makes best use of ___________devices in narration.

A. romantic

B. realistic

C. gothic

D. modernist

94. American diction in the 1960s and 1970s proves to be different fro its predecessors. It is always referred to as “_____________”.

A. Imagism

B. black humour

C. new fiction

D. the beat Generation

95. As an autobiographical play, O?Neill?s ______________(1915) has gained its status as a world classic and simultaneously marks the climax of his literary career and the coming of age of American drama.

A. Long Day?s Journey Into Night

B. The Hairy Ape

C. Desire Under the Elms

D. The Iceman Cometh

96. Tender is the Night is a _____________by Fitzgerald.

A. short story

B. novella

C. poem

D. novel

97. The leading playwright of the modern period in American literature, if not the most successful in all his experiments, is _____________.

A. Arthur Miller

B. Tennessee William

C. Robert Frost

D. Eugene O?Neill

98. From Eugene O?Neill?s works, we can see he is _____________.

A. a man of optimism

B. a man of pessimism

C. a man of apathy

D. a man of inactivity

99. ____________-is Hemingway?s first true novel, which portrays “The Lost Generation”.

A. For Whom the Bell Tolls

B. The Old Man and the Sea

C. The Sun Also /Rises

D. A Farewell to Arms 100. _______________is a dramatist who holds the central position in American drama the modernistic period.

A. Sinclair Lewis

B. Eugene O?Neille

C. Arthur Miller

D. Tennessee Williams

101. ___________is said t o be a “historical novel” by Faulkner.

A. Go Down, Moses

B. Light in August

C. The Sound and the Fury D Absalom, Absalom

102. _____________stems from the ambiguity of the speaker?s choice between safety and the unknown.

A. Mending the Wall

B. Home …B urial

C. The Road Not Taken

D. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

103. Hemingway?s writing style, together with his theme and the hero, is greatly and permanently influenced by his experiences_________________-.

A. in his childhood

B. in the war

C. in America

D. in Africa

104. The following writers were awarded Nobel Prize for literature except________________.

A. William Faulkner

B. F. Scott Fitzgerald

C. John Steinbeck

D. Ernest Hemingway

105. __________fuses symbolism, poetry, and the affirmation of a pagan idealism to show how materialistic civilization denies the life---giving impulses and destroys the genuine artist.

A.Desire Under the Elms

B. the Emperor Jones

C. Lazarus Laughed

D. The Great God Brown 106. Most of Eugnen O?Neille?s pla ys are tragedies, dealing with ______________-.

A. class conflicts

B. human existence and predicament

C. racial discrimination

D. domestic affairs

107. __________is not considered to be one of the masters in the field of American fiction in the modernistic period.

A. F.Scott Fitzgerald

B. Ernest Hemingway

C. Arthur Miller

D. William Faulkner

108. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both…” In the above two lines of Robert Frost?s The Road Not Taken, the poet, by implication, was referring to ______________.

A. a travel experience

B. a marriage decision

C. a middle-age crisis

D. one?s course of life

109. The American “Thirties”, lasted from the Crash, through the ensuing Great Depression, until the outbreak of the Second World War 1939. This was a period _____________-.

A. poverty

B. bleakness

C. important social movements

D.

a new social consciousness

110. ____________showed great interest in Chinese literature and translated the poetry of Li Po into English, and was influenced by Confucian ideas.

A. Ezra Pound

B. Robert Frost

C. T.S. Eliot

D.

E.E. Cummings

111. Ezra Pound?s long poem ________-contained more than one hundred poems loosely connected.

A. The Waste Land

B. The Cantos

C. Don Juan

D. Queen Mab

112. Wal lace Steven?s “poetry is primarily motivated by the belief that true ideas correspond with an innate order in nature. Many of his good poems derive their emotional power from reasoned revelation. This philosophical intention is supported by the titles Stevens gave to his volumes such as ______________.

A. Harmonium

B. Ideas of Order

C. Parts of a World

D. All of the above

113. The Fitzgeralds lived so extravagantly that they frequently spent more money than Fitzgerald earned for parties, liquor, entertaining their friends and traveling. It was this living style that nicknamed the decade of the 1920s as ______________.

A. The Roaring Twenties

B. The Jazz Age

C. The Dollar Decade

D. All of the above

114. In 1954, ____________was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his “mastery of the art of modern narration”.

A. T.S. Eliot

B. Ernest Hemingway

C. John Steinbeck

D. William Faulkner

115. ____________wrote about the society in the South by inventing families which represented different social forces: the old decaying upper class; the rising ambitious, unscrupulous class of the “poor Whites”; and the Negroes who labourned for both of them.

A. Faulkner

B. Fitzgerald

C. Hemingway

D. Steinbeck 116.In Faulkner?s The Sound and the Fury, he used a technique called ______________, in which the whole story was told through the thoughts of one character.

A. stream of consciousness

B. imagism

C. symbolism

D. naturalism

117. Most of the writers in the modern period were able to probe into the inner world 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 above

118. Writers of the first postwar era self-consciously acknowledged than they were ______________.

A. a Lost Generation

B. a Beat Generation

C. a Jazz Generation

D. none of the above

119. Who is the author of the work: “The Grapes of Wrath”?

A.John Steibeck

B. Eugene O?Neill

C. F. Scott

Fitzgerald D. Theodore Dreiser

120. In 1920 Sinclair Lewis published his memorable denunciation of American small-town provincialism in _____________.

A. Main Street

B. An American Tragedy

C. Winesburg. Ohio

D. Sister Carrie

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

美国文学史复习1（colonialism) 第一部分殖民主义时期的文学 一、时期综述 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： 1）their voyage to the new land 2) Adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops 3) About dealing with Indians 4) Guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit 3、清教徒的思想： 1）puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 净化信仰和行为方式 2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology. 重建教堂，提供简单服务，建立神圣地位 3）look upon themselves as 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 4）puritan 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 5）religious 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 & Roger William 他们的不同：John Cotton was much more concerned with authority than with democracy; William begins the history of religious toleration in America. 5、William的宗教观点：Toleration did not stem from a lack of religious convictions. 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 Bradstreet 7、在殖民时期最好的清教徒诗人：the best of Puritan poets is Edward Tayor. 学习指南： 1、Could you give a description of American Puritans? 关于美国清教徒的描绘 Like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to the "purity" of the first-century church as established by Jesus Christ himself. To them religion was a matter of primary importance. They made it their chief business to see that man lived and thought and acted in a way which tended to the glory of God. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God, all that John Calvin, the great French theologian who lived in Geneva had preached. It was this kind of religious belief that they brought with them into the wildness. There they meaant to prove that were God's chosen people enjoying his blessings on this earth as in Heaven. 2、Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety were the Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing. 3、The work of two writers, Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor, rose to the level of real poetry. 4、The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards Italian, and Portuguese. 美国文学史复习2（reason and revolution) (2009-01-17 15:54:25) 一、美国的性质： The war for Independence ended in the formation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republic - the United 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·富兰克林 1706-1790 1）"Poor Richard's Almanac" 穷人查理德的年鉴 annual collection of proverbs 流行谚语集

美国文学史及选读复习重点

Captain John Smith (first American writer). Anne Bradstreet；The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America （colonists living） Edward Taylor(the best puritan poet) John Cotton ”the Patriarch of New England” teacher spiritual leader Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography Poor Richard’s Almanack Thomas Jefferson： Political Career Thoughts The Declaration of Independence we hold truth to be self-evidence Philip Freneau“Father of American Poetry” The Wild Honey Suckle American Romanticism optimism and hope Nationalism Washington Irving“Father of American Literature short story”The first “Pure Writer” A History of New York The Sketch Book marked the beginning of American Romanticism! “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”Rip Van Winkle James Fenimore Cooper Father of American sea and frontier novels Leather stocking Tales The Last of the Mohicans The Pioneers The Prairie The Pathfinder The Deerslayer Edgar Allan Poe father of detective story and horror fiction Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque “MS. Found in a Bottle” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” “The Fall of the House of Usher”“The Masque of the Red Death”“The

华师自考美国文学史及选读试题

美国文学史及选读试题 I. Multiple Choice 10’ 1. Who is different from others according to the division of writing period? A. Washington Irving B.William Cullen Bryant C. Captain John Smith D. James Fenimore Cooper 2. The American Romantic Period lasted roughly from ____ to ____. A. 1798-1832 B. 1810-1860 C. 1860-1864 D. 1776-1783 3. How many syllables are there in this first line of Raven? (“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,”) A. 11 B. 12 C. 13 D. 16 4. What dominated the Puritan phase of American writing? A. theology B. literature C. esthetics D. revolution 5. At the initial period of the spread of ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due to ____. A. typography B. journalism C. revolution D. the development of paper-making industry 6. Who has been called the “Father of American Literature”? A. Walt Scott B. Geoffrey Chaucer

美国文学史及选读期末复习题

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”.

美国文学史及选读考研复习笔记6.

History And Anthology of American Literature （6） 附：作者及作品 一、殖民主义时期The Literature of Colonial America 1．船长约翰·史密斯Captain John Smith 《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚垦荒以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》 “A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony” 《弗吉尼亚地图，附：一个乡村的描述》 “A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country” 《弗吉尼亚通史》“General History of Virginia” 2．威廉·布拉德福德William Bradford 《普利茅斯开发历史》“The History of Plymouth Plantation”3．约翰·温思罗普John Winthrop 《新英格兰历史》“The History of New England” 4．罗杰·威廉姆斯Roger Williams 《开启美国语言的钥匙》”A Key into the Language of America” 或叫《美洲新英格兰部分土著居民语言指南》 Or “A Help to the Language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England ” 5．安妮·布莱德斯特Anne Bradstreet 《在美洲诞生的第十个谬斯》 ”The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America” 二、理性和革命时期文学The Literature of Reason and Revolution 1。本杰明·富兰克林Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) ※《自传》“ The Autobiography ” 《穷人理查德的年鉴》“Poor Richard’s Almanac” 2。托马斯·佩因Thomas Paine (1737-1809) ※《美国危机》“The American Crisis” 《收税官的案子》“The Case of the Officers of the Excise”《常识》“Common Sense” 《人权》“Rights of Man” 《理性的时代》“The Age of Reason” 《土地公平》“Agrarian Justice” 3。托马斯·杰弗逊Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) ※《独立宣言》“The Declaration of I ndependence” 4。菲利浦·弗瑞诺Philip Freneau (1752-1832) ※《野忍冬花》“The Wild Honey Suckle” ※《印第安人的坟地》“The Indian Burying Ground” ※《致凯提·迪德》“To a Caty-Did” 《想象的力量》“The Power of Fancy” 《夜屋》“The House of Night” 《英国囚船》“The British Prison Ship” 《战争后期弗瑞诺主要诗歌集》 “The Poems of Philip Freneau Written Chiefly During the Late War” 《札记》“Miscellaneous Works” 三、浪漫主义文学The Literature of Romanticism 1。华盛顿·欧文Washington Irving (1783-1859) ※《作者自叙》“The Author’s Account of Himself” ※《睡谷传奇》“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《见闻札记》“Sketch Book” 《乔纳森·欧尔德斯泰尔》“Jonathan Oldstyle” 《纽约外史》“A History of New York” 《布雷斯布里奇庄园》“Bracebridge Hall” 《旅行者故事》“Tales of Traveller” 《查理二世》或《快乐君主》“Charles the Second” Or “The Merry Monarch” 《克里斯托弗·哥伦布生平及航海历史》 “A History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus” 《格拉纳达征服编年史》”A Chronicle of the Conquest of Grandada” 《哥伦布同伴航海及发现》 ”V oyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus” 《阿尔罕布拉》“Alhambra” 《西班牙征服传说》“Legends of the Conquest of Spain” 《草原游记》“A Tour on the Prairies” 《阿斯托里亚》“Astoria” 《博纳维尔船长历险记》“The Adventures of Captain Bonneville” 《奥立弗·戈尔德史密斯》”Life of Oliver Goldsmith” 《乔治·华盛顿传》“Life of George Washington” 2．詹姆斯·芬尼莫·库珀James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) ※《最后的莫希干人》“The Last of the Mohicans” 《间谍》“The Spy” 《领航者》“The Pilot” 《美国海军》“U.S. Navy” 《皮袜子故事集》“Leather Stocking Tales” 包括《杀鹿者》、《探路人》”The Deerslayer”, ”The Pathfinder” 《最后的莫希干人》“The Last of the Mohicans” 《拓荒者》、《大草原》“The Pioneers”, “The Praire” 3。威廉·卡伦·布莱恩特William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) ※《死之思考》“Thanatopsis” ※《致水鸟》“To a Waterfowl” 4。埃德加·阿伦·坡Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) ※《给海伦》“To Helen” ※《乌鸦》“The Raven” ※《安娜贝尔·李》“Annabel Lee” ※《鄂榭府崩溃记》“The Fall of the House of Usher” 《金瓶子城的方德先生》“Ms. Found in a Bottle” 《述异集》“Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque” 5。拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) ※《论自然》“Nature” ※《论自助》“Self-Reliance” 《美国学者》“The American Scholar” 《神学院致辞》“The Divinity School Address” 《随笔集》“Essays” 《代表》“Representative Men” 《英国人》“English Traits” 《诗集》“Poems” 6。亨利·戴维·梭罗Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) ※《沃尔登我生活的地方我为何生活》 1

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)

美国文学史及选读试卷 (4)

美国文学史及选读试卷 Ⅰ. Multiple choices. (60 points in total, 2 for each) 1. The Romantic Period in American literature started from the publication of Washington Irving's ______ and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass. A. The Sketch Book B. Tales of a Traveller C. A History of New York D. The Scarlet Letter 2. At the middle of 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering which is called “_____”. A. the English Renaissance B. the Second Renaissance C. the American Renaissance D. the Salem Renaissance 3. As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally concerning ______. A. nature , man and the universe B. the relationship between man and woman C. the development of Romanticism in American literature D. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism 14. In the following statements, _________ is NOT true about Washington Irving’s famous story “Rip Van Winkle.” A. The story is not only well-kno wn for Rip’s 20-year sleep but also considered a model of perfect English in American literature. B. The story is set against the background of the inevitably changing America. C. The social conservatism and literary preference for the past is revealed, to some extent, in the story. D. Irving describes Rip’s response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both the narrator and Irving agree on the preferability of the present to the past. 15. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Experience is a serous discussion about the conflict between _________ and ordinary life.