美国文学史试题库
Fill in the blanks.
1.American achievements in the short story have demanded international respect and
admiration for more than a century and a half. The first successful American short stories came from Washington Irving in the early 19th century.
2.Edgar Allan Poe is generally thought of as the true beginner of the short stories because
he was the first writer who formulated a poetics of the short stories.
3.In the 20th century, there have been many who have won fame abroad as well as in the US
for their short stories: Sherwood Anderson, Hemingway Faulkner, Anna Porter,and dozens of others.
4.As you read from writer to writer, from Washington Irving‘s ?Rip Van Winkle‘to
O’Connner‘s ?A Good Man is Hard to Find‘, you will see the coming of a short story age, growing from an entertaining tale into a story which probes deep into human souls.
5.Modern literary fiction has been dominated by two forms: the short story and the novel.
6.Washington Irving, the Father of American Literature, developed the short story as a
genre in American literature.
7.Allan Poe is usually acknowledged as the originator of detective stories. He is also
credited with developing many of the standard features of detective fiction.
II.Multiple choice
1.Edgar Allan Poe wrote poems which are marvels of beauty and craftsmanship, such as
____.
A. I Hear America Singing
B. The Raven
C. To a waterfowl
D. The fall of the House of Usher
2.The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the___.
A. revolutionism
B. reason
C. individualism
D. rationalism
3.In American literature, the 18th century was the Age of the Enlightenment, ___ was the
dominant spirit.
A. humanism
B. rationalism
C. revolution
D. evolution
4.Who was considered the ―Poet of American Revolution‖?
A. Michael Wigglesworth
B. Edward Taylor
C. Anne Bradstreet
D. Philip Freneau
5.Thomas Jefferson‘s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness,
is typical of the period we now call___.
A. Age of Evolution
B. Age of Reason
C. Age of Romanticism
D. Age of Regionalism
6.Mark Twain created, in _____, a masterpiece of American realism that is also one of the
great books of world literature.
A. Huckleberry Finn
B. Tom Sawyer
C. The Man That Corrupted Hadleybury
D. The Gilded Age
7.The pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervaded the works of such
American writers as___.
A. Mark Twain
B. Scott Fitzgerald
C. Walt Whitman
D. Stephen Crane
8.Although realism and naturalism were products of the 19th century, their final triumph
came in the 20th century, with the popular and critical successes of such writers as Edwin Arlington, William Cather, Robert Frost, William Faulkner and_____.
A. Edgar Allan Poe
B. Sherwood Anderson
C. Washington Irving
D. Ralph Ellison
9.American literature produced only one female poet during the 19th century. She was___.
A. Anne Bradstreet
B. Jane Austen
C. Emily Dickinson
D. Harried Beecher
10.With Howells, James and Mark Twain active on the scene, ____ became the major trend in
the seventies and eighties of the 19th century.
A. sentimentalism
B. romanticism
C. realism
D. naturalism
11.Choose from the following writers a staunch advocate of the 19th century American
realism.
A. Mark Twain
B. Washington Irving
C. Stephen Crane
D. Jack London
12.Which writer has naturalist tendency?
A. Frank Norris
B. William Dean Howells
C. Theodore Dreiser
D. Both A and C
13.Early in the 20th century, ____ published works that would change the nature of American
poetry.
A. Ezra Pound
B. T.S. Eliot
C. Robert Frost
D. Both A and B
14.The Imagist writers followed three principles. They respectively are direct treatment,
economy of expression and ____.
A. local color
B. irony
C. clear rhythm
D. blank verse
15.____, one of the essays in The Sacred Wood, is the earliest statement of T.S. Eliot‘s
aesthetics, which provided a useful instrument for modern criticism.
A. ?Sweeny Agonistes‘
B. ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’
C. ?A Primer of Modern Heresy‘
D. ?Gerention‘
16.T.S Eliot used a form, that is, the orchestration of related themes in successive
movements, in such works as ____.
A. The Waste Land
B. ?A Rose for Emily‘
C. The Scarlet Letter
D. The Egg
17.T.S. Eliot‘s first major poem (1917)____, has been called the first masterpiece s of
modernism in English.
A. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’
B. ?The Waste Land‘
C. ?Four Quartets‘
D. Prelude
18.The three poets Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and ____ opened the way to modern poetry.
A. O. Henry
B. Henry David Thoreau
C. E.E. Cummings
D. Robert Frost
19.In 1954, ___ was awarded the Nobel prize for literature fro his ―mastery of the art of
modern narration‖.
A. T.S Eliot
B. Earnest Hemingway
C. John Steinbeck
D. William Faulkner
20.William Faulkner is one of the most important southern writers in the United States. ____,
As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! are works that ambitious critics tend to admire.
A. The Sound and the Fury
B. The Invisible Man
C. A Good Man is Hard to Find
D. The Wrath of the Grapes
IV. Questions and answers.
1.How do you understand Mark twain‘s use of local color in his writing?
Mark Twain‘s narratives are distinguished for his use of local color. This may be
defined as the careful attention to details of the physical scene and to those mannerisms
in speech, dress, or behavior peculiar to a geographical locality. He insisted that the job
of the native novelists was to depict each of the country‘s regions and people accurately.
Only in this way could the peculiarity of American experience, the polyglot tongues of
its people, and the vastness of the continent be captured. He mainly exploited the
possibilities of the local color in the Mississippi region.
2.Discuss the concept of wasteland in relation to the works of those writers in the 20th
century American literature.
?The Waste Land‘ is a poem written by T.S. Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos
of th3 contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair in the
postwar era has appeared over and over again in the works of those writers in the 2oth
century American literature. Faulkner exemplified T.S. Eliot‘s concept of modern
society as a wasteland is a dramatic way, he condemned the mechanized, industrialized
society that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decrease
those essential human values such as courage, fortitude, honesty and goodness.
Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the jazz age. Beneath the masks of
relaxation and joviality, there was only sterility, meaningless and futility amid the
grandeur and extravagance, there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway,
the leading spokesman of the Lost Generation, though disillusioned in the postwar
period, strove to bring about man‘s ―grace under pressure‖. He tried to bring out the
idea than man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually.
3.Analyze Walt Whitman‘s ?O Captain! My Captain‘ in terms of free verse.
In the poem, Whitman celebrates the heroic struggle of the American people for
democracy, freedom and justice and expresses his seething hatred of slavery.
Free verse is a kind of poetry that lacks regular meter or pattern and may not rhyme.
Depending on natural speech rhythms, its lines may be of different lengths and may
switch abruptly from one rhythm to another. Whitman was the first American poet to
use free verse extensively, because it is an appropriate form for his liberating view of
life and for his poetry that would allow every aspect of life to speak without restraint.
He tried to approximate the natural cadences of speech in his poetry, carefully varying
the length of his lines according to his intended emphasis.
Literature of Colonial America
I.Literary Terms
1.Separatists:In the colonial period, the Puritans who had gone to extreme were known as
―separatists‖. Unlike the majority of Puritans, they saw no hope of reforming the Church of England from within. They felt that the influences of politics and court had led to corruptions within the church. They wished to break free from the Church of England.
Among them was the Plymouth plantation group. They wished to follow Calvin‘s model, and to set up ―particular‖ churches.
2.Pilgrims and Puritans: A small group of Europeans sailed from England on the
Mayflower in 1620. The passengers were religious reformers--- Puritans who were critical of the Church of England. Having given up hope of ―purifying‖the Church from within, they chose instead to withdraw from the Church. This action earned them the name Separatists. We know them as the pilgrims.
II.Fill in the blanks
1.The term ―Puritan‖ was applied to those settlers who originally were devout members of
the Church of England.
2.Harvard College was established in 1636, with a printing press set up nearly in 1639.
3.Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety, these were the puritan values that dominated much
of the early American writing.
4.The American poets who emerged in the seventeenth century adapted the style of
established European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange, new environment. Anne Bradstreet was one of such poets.
5.Bradstreet used a word ―pilgrim‖ to describe the community of believers who sailed from
Southampton England, on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth,Massachusetts, in 1620.
6.The writer who best expressed the Puritan faith in the colonial period was John
Winthrop.
7.The Puritan philosophy known as Puritanism was important in New England during
colonial time, and had a profound influence on the early American mind for several generations.
III.Multiple choice
1.Early in the 17th century, the English settlements in ___ began the main stream of what we
recognize as the American national history.
A. Virginia and Pennsylvania
B. Massachusetts and New York
C. Virginia and Massachusetts
D. New York and Pennsylvania
2.The first writings that we call American were the narratives and ___ of the early
settlements.
A. journals
B. poetry
C. drama
D. folklores
3.Among the earliest settlers in North America were Frenchmen who settled in the Northern
Colonies and along the ____ River.
A. St. Louis
B. St. Lawrence
C. Mississippi
D. Hudson
4.In 1620 a number of Puritans came to settle in ___.
A. Virginia
B. Georgia
C. Maryland
D. Massachusetts
5.Whose reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been regarded as the
first distinct American literature written in English?
A. John Winthrop‘s
B. John Smith’s
C. William Bradford‘s
D. Christopher Columbus‘s
6.What style did the seventeenth century American poets adapt to the subject matter
confronted in a strangely new environment?
A.The style of their own.
B.The style mixed with English and American elements.
C.The style mixed with native-American and British tradition.
D.The style of established European poets.
7.____ was a civil covenant designed to allow the temporal state to serve the godly citizen.
A.The early history of Plymouth Colony.
B.The Magnalia Christi America.
C.Mayflower Compact.
D.Freedom of the Will
8.Who among the following translated the Bible into the Indian tongue?
A. Roger Williams
B. John Eliot
C. Cotton Mather
D. John Smith
9.The best of Puritan poets was____, whose complete edition of poets appeared in 1960,
more than two hundred years after his death.
A. Anne Bradstreet
B. Michael Wigglesworth
C. Thomas Hooker
D. Edward Taylo r
10.English literature in America is only about more than ___ years old.
A. 500
B. 600
C. 200
D. 100
11.The early history of ___ Colony was the history of Bradford‘s leadership.
A. Plymout h
B. Jamestown
C. New England
D. Mayflower
12.The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the ___.
A. revolutionism
B. reason
C. individualism
D. rationalism
13.Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such a stir in England that she
became known as the ―___‖ who appeared in America.
A. Ninth Muse
B. Tenth Muse
C. best Muse
D. First Muse
14.The ship ―___‖carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat its way
across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
A. Sunflower
B. Armada
C. Mayflower
D. Titanic
15.Which writer best expressed the Puritan sense of the self?
A. Jonathan Edwards
B. Cotton Mather
C. John Smith
D. Thomas Hooker
16.Before _____ the American newspapers were cultural and literary nature, but after this
time, they became more political.
A. 1620
B. 1700
C. 1775
D. 1750
IV.Question and answer.
Who was Anne Bradstreet? What were her literary achievements?
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) is one of the most important figures in the history of American literature. She is considered by many to be the first American poet and her
first collection of poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America, by a Gentlewoman of Those Parts, was the first book written by a woman to be published in
the United States. Mrs. Bradstreet‘s work also serves as document of the struggles of a
Puritan wife against the hardships of new England colonial life.
Literature of Reason and Revolution
I.Literary terms.
1.Autobiography:An autobiography is a person‘s account of his or her life. Generally
written in the first person, with the author speaking as ―I‖. Autobiographies present life events as the writer views them. In addition to providing inside details about the writer‘s life, autobiographies offer insights into the beliefs and perceptions of the author. They also offer glimpse of what it was like to live in the author‘s time period. They often provide a view of historical events that you won‘t find in history books. Benjamin Franklin‘s Autobiography set the standard for what was then a new genre.
2.Persuasion: Persuasion is writing meant to convince readers to think or act in a certain
way. A persuasive writer appeals to emotions or reason, offer opinions and urges action.
3.Aphorism:An aphorism is a short, concise statement expressing a wise or clever
observation or a general truth. A variety of devices make aphorisms easy to remember.
Some contain rhymes or repeated words or sounds. Others use parallel structure to present contrasting ideas. The aphorism ―no pains no gains‖uses rhyme, repetition and parallel structure.
II.Fill in the blanks.
1.At the initial period the spread of ideas of the American Enlightenme nt was largely due to
journalism.
2.Franklin edited the first colonial magazine, which he called the Great Magazine.
3.Franklin‘s beat writing is found in his masterpiece Autobiography.
4.Thomas Paine, with his natural gift for pamphleteering and rebellion, was appropriately
born into an age of revolution.
5.On January 10, 1776, Paine‘s famous pamphlet Common Sense appeared.
6.Paine‘s second most important work The Rights of Man was an impassioned plea against
hereditary monarchy.
7.The most outstanding poet in America of the 18th century was Philip Freneau.
8.Philip Freneau‘s famous poem ―The British Prison Ship”was written about his
imprisoned experience.
9.Philip Freneau was a close friend and political associate of President Thomas Jefferson.
10.Philip Freneau was considered as the ―poet of the American Revolution‖, because he
wrote impassioned verse in support of the American revolution.
11.Philip Freneau was noteworthy first because of the nature of his poems. They were truly
American and very patriotic. In this respect, he reflected the spirit of his age. Therefore, he has been called the ―father of American poetry‖.
12.In American literature, the eighteenth century was an Age of Reason and Revolution.
III.Multiple choice
1.In American literature, the eighteenth century was the age of the Enlightenment. ___ was
the dominant spirit.
A. Humanism
B. rationalism
C. Revolution
D. Evolution
2.In American literature, the Enlighteners were not opposed to___.
A. the colonial order
B. religious obscurantism
C. the Puritan tradition
D. the secular literature
3.The English colonies in North America rose in arms against their parent country and the
Continental Congress adopted ___ in 1776.
A. the Declaration of Independence
B. the Sugar Act
C. the Stamp Act
D. the Mayflower Compact
4.Which statement about Franklin is not true?
A.He instructed his countrymen as a printer.
B.He was a master of diplomacy.
C.He was a Puritan.
D.He was a scientist.
5.The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career
of ___.
A. Thomas Hood
B. Benjamin Franklin
C. Thomas Jefferson
D. George Washington
6.Which of the following does not belong to this literary period?
A. The American Crisis
B. The Federalist
C. Declaration of Independence
D. The Waste Land
7.Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the ___.
A. American Enlightenmen t
B. Sugar Act
C. Chartist movement
D. Romanticist
8.From 1732 to 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published his famous ___, an annual
collection of proverbs.
A. The Autobiography
B. Poor Richard’s Almanac
C. Common Sense
D. The General Magazine
9.The first pamphlet published in America to urge immediate independence from Britain is
___.
A. The Rights of Man
B. Common Sense
C. The American Crisis
D. Declaration of Independence
10.―These are the times that try men‘s souls‖, these words were once read to Washington‘s
troops and did much to shore up the spirits of the revolutionary soldiers. Who is the author of these words?
A. Benjamin Franklin
B. Thomas Jefferson
C. Thomas Paine
D. George Washington
11.Which statement about Philip Freneau?
A. He was a satirist
B. He was a pamphleteer.
C. He was a singer.
D. He was a bitter polemicist.
12.Who was considered as the ―poet of American Revolution‖?
A. Michael Wigglesworth
B. Edward Taylor
C. Anne Bradstreet
D. Philip Freneau
13.At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the European
movement called the___.
A. Chartist Movement
B. Romanticist Movement
C. Enlightenment Movement
D. Modernist Movement
14.Thomas Jefferson‘s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness,
is typical of the period we now call____.
A. Age of Evolution
B. Age of Reason
C. Age of Romanticism
D. Age of Regionalism
IV.Questions and Answers.
1.What are the characteristics of Benjamin Franklin‘s literary work?
The main quality in all Benjamin Franklin‘s writing is its genuine humanness. His literary work was typical of himself. Honest, plain, democratic, clear-headed, shrewd, worldly-wise, he was interested in the practical side of life. The absence of ideality is obvious in all his compositions. He never reached the high levels of imaginative art. But on this lower plane of material interest and every-day life he was, the works possess a universal charm
2.Give a brief account of American literature of this period.
Much work during the Revolutionary period was public writing. By the time of the War for Independence, nearly fifty newspapers had been established in the coastal cities. At the time of Washington‘s inauguration, there were nearly forty magazines. Almanacs were popular from Massachusetts to Georgia. The mind of the nation was on politics.
Journalists and printers provided a forum for the expression of ideas. The writing of permanent importance is mostly political writing. The best-known writing of the period outside the field of politics was done by Benjamin Franklin.
3.Write an analysis of The Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation, it also set forth a philosophy of human freedom which served as an important force in the western world. Its ideas inspired mass fervor for the American cause, for it instilled among the common people a sense of their own importance, and inspired struggle for personal freedom, self-government, and a dignified place in society.
Romantic Period of American Literature
I.Literary Terms.
1.Romanticism: The literature term was first applied to the writers of the 18th century in
Europe who broke away from the formal rules of classical writing. When it was used in American literature it referred to the writers of the middle of the 19th century who stimulated the sentimental emotions of their readers. They wrote the mysteries of life, love, birth and death. The romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all kinds of materials: poetry, essays, plays, fiction, history, works of travel, and biography.
2.Fireside poets:William Gullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russel
Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Greenleaf Whittier constituted a group called the Fireside Poets. They earned this nickname because they frequently used the hea rth as
an image of comfort and unity, a place where families gathered to learn and tell stories.
They were widely read around the hearthsides of 19th-century American families.
3.Transcendentalism:In New England, an intellectual movement known as
transcendentalism developed as an American version of Romanticism. The movement began among an influential set of authors based in Concord, Massachusetts and was led by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Like Romanticism, transcendentalism rejected both 18th century rationalism and established religion, which for the transcendentalists meant the Puritan tradition in particular. The transcendentalists celebrated the power of the human imagination to commune with the universe and transcend the limitations of the material world. They found their chief source of inspiration in nature. Emerson‘s essay nature was the major document of the transcendental school and stated the ideas that were to remain central to it.
4.Symbolism: It is a movement in literature and the visual arts that originated in France in
the poetry of Charles Baudelaire in the late 19th century. In literature, symbolism was an aesthetic movement that encouraged writers to express their ideas, feelings, and values by means of symbols or suggestions rather than by direct statements. Hawthorne and Melville are masters of symbolism in America in the 19th century.
5.Free verse: free verse is the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without attention to
conventional rules of meter. Free verse was first written and labeled by a grou p of French poets of the late 19th century. Their purpose was to deliver poetry from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to recreate the free rhythms of natural speech. Walt Whitman was the precursor who wrote lines of varying length and cadence, usually not rhymed.
The emotional content or meaning of the work was expressed through its rhythm. Free verse has been characteristic of the work of many modern American poets, including Ezra Pound and Carl Sandburg.
6.Puritanism:The word is originally used to refer to the theory advocated by a party
within the Church of England. It is also used to refer to attitudes and values considered characteristics of the Puritans. It denotes a rigid moral, or the condemnation of innocent pleasure, or religious narrowness adhered by the early New England Puritans. It exerted great influence over American Romanticism. The preoccupation with the Calvinist view of original sin and the mystery of evil marked the works by such famous writers as Hawthorne and Melville.
II.Fill in the blanks
1.In the early 19th century Rip Van Winkle established Washington Irving‘s reputation at
home and abroad, and designed the beginning of American Romanticism.
2.Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s first book in 1836 Nature brought American Romanticism into a
new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism.
3.In the early 19th century, Washington Irving wrote The Sketch Book which became the
first work by an American writer to win financial success on both sides of the Atlantic.
4.Allan Poe‘s poems have the musical quality and romantic beauty. The Raven is his
best-known poem.
5.The Civil War of 1861-1865 ended in the defeat of the Southerners and the abolition of
slavery.
6.Leaves of Grass, either in content or form, is an epoch-making work in American
literature; its democratic content marked the shift from Romanticism to Realism, and its free verse form broke from old poetic conventions to open a new road for American poetry.
7.Washington Irving was regarded as the first great prose stylist of American
Romanticism.
8.In 1823 James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Pioneers, the first of the five novels that make
up The Leatherstocking Tales. The remaining four books: The Last of the Mohicans, the Prairie, the Pathfinder and the Deerslayer, contimue the story of Natty Bumppo, one of the most famous characters in American fiction.
9.The short story ―The Legend of Sleepy Hollow‖ is taken from Washington Irving‘s work
named The Sketch Book.
10.Washington Irving was the first American to achieve an international literary reputation
after the Revolutionary War.
11.Melville is famous for writing about the sea and the islands of the Southern Pacific. In his
master piece Moby Dick, he tells a story of whaling voyage which sets a symbolic account of the conflict between man and his fate.
12.The first important American novelist was James Fennimore Cooper.
13.The central figure in the Leatherstocking Tales is Natty Bumppo, who goes by the
various names of Leatherstocking, Deerlayer, Pathfinder and Hawkeye.
14.―To a Waterfowl‖is perhaps the peak of William Cullen Bryant‘s work. It has been
called by an eminent English critic ―the most perfect brief poem in the language‖.
15.Among William Cullen Bryant‘s most important later works are his translations of the
Iliad and the Odyssey into English blank verse.
16.Edgar Allan Poe‘s poem ―The Raven‖ is perhaps the best example of onomatopoeia in the
English language.
17.Most of Allan Poe‘s stories can be roughly divided into two kinds: tales of Gothic horror
or grotesque like The Black Cat, an incisive enquiry into the capacity of the human mind to originate its destruction and The Fall of the House of Usher.
18.A superb book Walden came out of Thoreau‘s two-year experience at Walden Pond.
19.From Thoreau‘s Concord jail experience, came his famous essay ―Civil Disobedience”.
20.In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne brought out his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter, the story
of a triangle love affair in colonial America.
21.Herman Melville‘s novel Moby Dick is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in
pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.
22.In ―I Hear America Singing‖, Walt Whitman depicts the beauty of labor and laborers.
23.For the whole 19th century Emily Dickinson was the only woman poet who enjoys high
academic esteem today. She has been acclaimed as a poet of philosophical and tragi c dimensions, a poet who was responsive to the challenging questions of man, nature and human consciousness.
24.The American Romantic period stretches from the end of the 18th century through the
outburst of the Civil War.
25.In The Pioneers, Natty Bumppo represents the ideal American, living a virtuous and free
life in God‘s world.
26.The way in which Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter suggests that American
Romanticism adapted itself to American Puritan morality.
III.Multiple Choice.
1.In 1837, the first college-level institution for women, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary,
opened in ___ to serve the ―Muslin sex‖.
A. New England
B. Virginia
C. Massachusetts
D. New York
2.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
3.The appearance of the Scarlet Letter marked the maturity of Hawthorne as a novelist.
Soon he composed the other three important novel including___, The B lithedale Romance and The Marble Faun.
A. The House of the Seven Gables
B. The Prairie
C. The Fall of the House of Usher
D. Walden
4.Transcendentalism recognized ___ as the ―highest power of the soul‖.
A. intuition
B. logic
C. data of the senses
D. thinking
5. A new ___ had appeared in England in the last years of the 18th century. It spread to
continental Europe and then came to America early in the 19th century.
A. Realism
B. Critical realism
C. Romanticism
D. Naturalism
6.The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent
convention of American literature, evident in___.
A.Jame s Fenimore Cooper‘s Leatherstocking Tales.
B.Henry David Thoreau‘s Walden
C.Mark Twain‘s Huckleberry Finn
D.All of the above
7.Herman Melville‘s ___ is not only an adventure story, but also a significant philosophical
work on spiritual exploration.
A. Moby Dick
B. The Egg
C. Nature
D. The Over-Soul
8.In James Fenimore Cooper‘s novels, close after Natty Bumppo in romantic appeals, come
the two noble red men. Choose them from the following items.
A. The Mohican Chief Chingachgook
B. Uncass
C. Tom Jones
D. Both A and B
9.Poe‘s first collection of short stories is ____.
A. Tales of a Travele r
B. Leatherstocking Tales
C. Canterbury Tales
D. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
10.The first example of Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s symbolism is the recreation of Puritan
Boston in ___.
A. The Scarlet Letter
B. Young Goodman Brown
C. The Marble Faun
D. The Ambitious Guest
11.Herman Melville called his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne ____ in American literature.
A.The largest brain with the largest heart
B.Father of American poetry
C. The Transcendentalist
D. The American scholar
12.Which is the character who appears in the novel Moby Dick?
A. Hester Prynne
B. Mr. Hooper
C. Ahab
D. Pearl
13.___ was a romanticized account of Melville‘s stay among the Polynesians. The success of
the book soon made Melville known as the ―man who lived among cannibals‖.
A. Moby Dick
B. Typee
C. Omoo
D. Billy Budd
14.With the appearance of ___ in 1855, which is about American Indian, Longfellow‘s
poetical reputation was established.
A. Evangeline
B. The Courtship of Miles Stanndish
C.Song of Hiawatha
D. Michael Angelo
15.In the early 19th century American moral values were essentially Puritan. Nothing has left
a deeper imprint on the character of the people as a whole than did___.
A. Puritanism
B. Romanticism
C. Rationalism
D. Sentimentalism
16.―The universe is composed of nature and the Soul… Spirit is present everywhere‖. This is
the voice of the book Nature written by Emerson, which pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England___.
A. Romanticism
B. Transcendentalism
C. Naturalism
D. Symbolism
17.Which is generally regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism?
A. Nature
B. Walden
C. ―On Beauty‖
D. ―Self-Reliance‖
18.Which is regarded as the ―Declaration of Intellectual Independence‖?
A. The American Scholar
B. English Traits
C. The Conduct of Life
D. Representative Men
19.___ is an appalling fictional version of Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s belief that ―the wrong
doing of one generation lives into the successive ones‖ and that evilwill come out of evil though it may take generations to happen.
A. The Marble Faun
B. The House of Sven Gables
C. TheBlithedale Romance
D. ?Young Goodman Brown‘
20.In addition to his novels,____ wrote about 120 short stories and sketches. Among them
are ?Young Goodman Brown‘ and ?The Minister of Black Veil‘.
A. Henry David Thoreau
B. Nathaniel Hawthorne
C. Ralph Waldo Emerson
D. Herman Melville
IV.Questions and answers
1.What are the artistic achievements of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow‘s poetry?
He was the best known of the Fireside Poets. American poetry began its emergence from the shadow of its British parentage. His poetic narrative helped crea te a national historical myth, transforming colorful aspects of the American past into memorable romance. The works include Evangeline (1847), the Song of Hiawatha (1855). No American poet before or since was as widely celebrated during his or her lifetime as Longfellow. He became the first and the only American poet to be honored with a bust in the Poet s‘ Corner.
2.How to define the Romantic period in American history?
The period stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. it started with the publication of Washington Irving‘s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman‘s Leaves of Grass. Being a period of the great flowing of American literature, it is also called ―the American Renaissance‖.
3.What are the literary characteristics in the works of American romantic period?
The characteristics are moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that natural world was a source of goodness and man‘s society a source of corruption.
4.What is the relationship between American romanticism and European Romanticism?
They share much in common: in reaction to the enlightenment and its emphasis on reason, Romanticism stressed emotion, the imagination, and subjectivity of approach. European literary masters, especially the English counterparts exerted a stimulating impact on the writers of the new World. American romanticism is to some extent derivative after their English predecessors. But the great American Romantic works were typically American.
The writers developed some new forms of fiction or poetry. They placed an increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions and displayed an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters. The strong tendency to exalt the individual and common man was another focus of the movement.
5.What is Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s transcendental idea and his view of nature?
His transcendental idea has some ideological concerns of American Puritanism and European Romanticism, with its focus on the intuitive knowledge of human beings to grasp the absolute in the universe and the divinity of man. Emerson rejected the formal religion of the churches. He based his religion on an intuitive belief in an ultimate unity, which he called the ―over-soul‖. The over-soul is an all-pervading power from which all things come from and of which all are a part. In Emerson‘s view, nature is emblematic of
the spiritual world, alive with God‘s overwhelming presence. It exercises a healthy and restorative influence on human mind. By employing nature as a big symbol of the spirit, or God, or the Over-soul, Emerson has brought the Puritan legacy of symboalism to its perfection.
6.What is the main idea of Henry David Thoreau‘s Walden?
Thoreau‘s work demonstrates how the abstract ideals of libertarianism and individualism can be effectively instilled in a person‘s life. In Walden (1854) Thoreau explains his motives for living apart from society and devoting himself to a simple lifestyle and to the observation of nature. The book not only displays Emersonian ideas of self-reliance but also develops Thoreau‘s own transcendental idea. For Thoreau, nature is not merely symbolic, but divine in itself and human beings can receive precise communication from the natural world by way of pure sense. To achieve personal spiritual perfection he thinks the most important thing for man is to be self-sufficient.
7.What are the artistic achievements of Edgar Allan Poe?
Poe is known as a poet and critic but most famous as the first master of the short story form, especially tales of the mysterious and macabre. He originated the novel of detection.
The best known tale in this genre is The Murders in the Morgue(1841). Many of Poe‘s tales are distinguished by the author‘s unique grotesque inventiveness in addition to his superb plot construction. Such stories include The Fall of the House of Usher (1983), in which the penetrating gloominess of the atmosphere is accented equally with plot and characterization. Poe‘s poems are remarkable for their flawless literary construction and for their haunting themes and meters as in the poems ?The Raven‘ and ? Annabel Lee‘. 8.What are the artistic characteristics of the Scarlet Letter?
The novel, a story of rebellion within an emotionally constricted Puritan society, is an undisputed masterpiece written by Hawthorne. It reveals both Hawthorne‘s super craftsmanship and the powerful psychological insight with which he probed guilt and anxiety in the human soul. Hawthorne‘s remarkable sense of the Puritan past, his understanding of the colonial history in England, his apparent preoccupation with the moral issue of sin and guilt, and his keen psychological analysis of people are brought to full display in the novel. With modern psychological insight, Hawthorne probed the secret motivations in human behavior and the guilt and anxiety that he believed resulted from all sins against humanity, especially those of pride. Hawthorne is a master of symbolism. The structure and the form of the novel are carefully worked out to cater for the th ematic concern. By using Pearl as a thematic symbol, Hawthorne emphasizes the consequence of the sin of adultery has brought to the community and people living in that community.
The letter A takes on different layers of symbolic meanings.
9.Discuss the symbolism in Melville‘s Moby Dick?
Moby Dick was published in 1851. Holding the theme that ―all visible objects are but as pasteboard mask‖, Melville strikes through the surface of his adventurous narrative to formulate concepts of good and evil embedded as allegory in its events. Moby Dick is a
symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into man‘s deep reality and psychology. The Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truths. The white whale, Moby Dick, symbolizes nature, for it is complex unfathomable, malignant and beautiful as well. For Ahab, the whale represents only evil. For the author, the narrator Ishmael and the readers, Moby Dick is an ultimate mystery of the universe. The voyage of the mind will forever remain a search of the truth.
10.Why is Leaves of Grass considered a milestone in American literature?
The work has always been considered a monumental work because of its uniquely poetic embodiment of American democratic ideal. It has nine editions and the first edition was published in 1855.In the giant work, Whitman shows concern for the whole hardworking people and the burgeoning life of the cities. The realization of the individual value also found a tough position in his poems in a particular way. In celebrating the self, Whitman emphasizes the physical dimension of the self and openly celebrates sexuality. Some of his poems are politically committed. Stylistically, Whitman experiments with a mixture of the colloquial diction and prose rhythm of journalism. The direct address is another salient feature of his poetry. He constructs a democratic ―I‖, a voice that sets out to celebrate itself and the rapture of its sense experiencing the world. He initiated the form of free verse in America that endows his poems with a flow of musicality a sense of rhythm.
11.What are the thematic concerns and the artistic characteristics of Emily Dickinson‘s
poetry?
Her poetry covers the issues vital to humanity, which include religion, death, immortality, love and nature. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines. In her poetry, there is a particular stress pattern, in which dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis. Most of her poems borrow the repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns, with two lines of four-beat meter alternating with two lines of three-beat meter. A master of imaginary that makes the spiritual materialize in surprising ways, Dickinson managed manifold variations within her simple form. She uses imperfect rhythms, subtle breaks of rhythm, and idiosyncratic syntax and punctuation to create fascinating world puzzles, which have produced greatly divergent interpretations over the years. Due to her deliberate seclusion, her poems tend to vivify some abstract ideas. Her poetry, despite its ostensible formal simplicity, is remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness. Her limited private world have never confined the limitless power of her creativity and imagination.
Period of Realism
I.Literary terms.
1.Realism: A mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully
an actual way of life.
2.Naturalism: A more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories and plays, usually
involving a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment.
3.Local color: It may be defined as the careful attention to details of the physical scene and
to those mannerisms in speech, dress, or behavior peculiar to a geographical locality.
4.Psychological realism: It is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities
of characters‘thoughts and motivation. Henry James‘novel The Ambassadors is considered to be a masterpiece of psychological realism.
II.Fill in the blanks
1.By 1875, American writers were moving toward realism in literature. We can see this in
the true-to-life descriptions of Bret Harte, Willim Dean Howells and Hamlin Garland.
2.The most straightforward definition of realism is probably the one given by the American
realist William Dean Howells. That is: ―nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.‖
3.Realism first appeared in the United States in the literature of local color, an amalgam of
romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the dialects, customs, sights and sounds of regional.
4.As one of America‘s first and foremost realists and humorists, Mark Twain, the pen name
of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experiences.
5.At the heart of Mark Twain‘s achievement is his creation of two characters: Tom Sawyer
and Huckleberry Finn.
6.Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835, in the village of Florida, Missouri, and
grew up in the larger river town of Hannibal. The steamboats which passed daily were the fascination of the town and became the subject matter of Twain‘s Life on the Mississippi.
7.Ernest Hemingway, whose own style is based on Twain‘s, once said, ―All modern
American literature comes from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.‖
8.Stephen Crane, the first American naturalist, was not much influenced by the scientific
approach. He was a genius with amazing sympathy and imagination.
9.In The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane‘s greatest novel, the accident of war makes
a young man seem to be a hero. War changes men into animals. In the view of the author,
good or bad, hero or coward, are merely matters of chance, of fate.
10.Hamlin Garland developed a writing method which he called ―veritism‖ (meaning truth).
He described people, places and events in a careful and factual manner.
11.Henry James was a realist, but not a naturalist. He was an observer of the mind rather
than a recorder of time. His realism was a special kind of psychological realism.
12.Henry James first achieved recognition as a writer of the ―International‖ novel--- a story
which brings together persons of various nationalists who represent certain charactistics.
13.The Portrait of a Lady is the best novel of Henry James‘―middle period‖. It is a story
about a young, bright American girl who goes to Europe to explore life.
14.Dreiser‘s greatest novel An American Tragedy, reveals a last stage in his thinking of
social consciousness.
15.Darwinism had an evident influence on naturalism. It seemed to stress the animality of
man, to suggest that man was dominated by the forces of evolution.
16.The Art of Fiction was Henry James‘ most famous and influential critical essay written in
response to a lecture on fiction delivered by an English novelist.
III.Multiple choice
1.___, who became the editor of Harper‘s Monthly in 1891,created the first theory for
American realism.
A. Emile Zola
B. Hamlin Garland
C. Stephen Crane
D. William Dean Howells
2.___ in the 1860s was the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularity.
A. Mark Twain
B. William Dean Howells
C. Bret Harte
D. Harriet Beecher Stowe
3.Stephen Crane‘s novel: Maggie: A Girl of the Street, is the story of a girl ___.
A.who is brought up in a poor area of Chicago
B.who is loved by her family but betrayed by her friends.
C.who experienced the violence and cruelty of the society almost every day
D.who is evil by nature.
4.In his short story, ___, Stephen Crane shows how even life and death are determined by
fate.
A. ‘The Open Boat‘
B. ?The Open Window‘
C. ?War Is Kind‘
D. ?War is Slaughterhouse‘
5.The naturalism of ___ was filled with deep sympathy for the common people. His
literature was a form of protests against the conditions which made the lives of Mid-western farmers so painful and unhappy.
A. Harold Frederic
B. Ambrose Bierce
C. Henry James
D. Hamlin Garland
6.The novel which was described by an American critic as ―an outrage to American
girlhood‖ is Henry James‘ ___.
A. Daisy Miller
B. The Portrait of a Lady
C. Woman in Love
D. Awakening
7.Mark Twain‘s first novel, ___, was an artistic failure, but it gave its name to the America
of the period which it attempts to satirize.
A. The Gilded Age
B. Life on the Mississippi
C. The Innocents Abroad
D. The Mysterious Stranger
8.Jack London was at his height of his powers when he wrote ___, which is deeply
influenced by Darwinism.
A. The Sea Wolf
B. To Build a Fire
C. The Call of the Wild
D. Martin Eton
9.With the publication of ___ in 1900, Theodore Dreiser committed his literary force to
opening the new ground of American naturalism.
A. An American Tragedy
B. Sister Carrie
C. The Bulwark
D. The Stoic
10.In his works, Theodore Dreiser‘s tone is always ___.
A. sad
B. satirical
C. comic
D. serious
IV.Questions and answers
1.In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn is a thirteen-year-old boy. Why does
Mark twain use a child as the center of consciousness in this book?
In using a child protagonist, Twain is able to imply a comparison between the powerlessness and vulnerability of a child and the powerlessness and vulnerability of a black man in pre-Civil War America. Huck and Jim frequently find themselves in the same predicaments: each is abused, each faces the threat of losing his freedom, and each is constantly at the mercy of adult white men. In Huck‘s moral dilemmas, Jim is also vulnerable to Huck who is white. Twain also uses his child protagonist to dramatize the conflict between societal or received morality. As a boy, Huck is a character who can develop morally, whose mind is still open and being formed, who does not take his principles and values for granted. By tracing the education and experiences of a boy, Twain shows that conclusions about right and wrong that are based on logic and experience. The society‘s rules and morals are often hypocritical rather than logical.
2.Discuss the influence of Charles Darwin‘s theories on The Call of the Wild.
In writing his novel, Jack London was profoundly influenced by the writings of Charles Darwin. Darwin, the founding father of evolution theory, thought that life in the national world consists of a constant struggle for survival, in which only the strong could thrive and produce offspring. This ―survival of the fittest‖ was the engine that drove evolution.
The world that London creates in The Call of the Wild operates strictly according to Darwinist principles in its brutality and amorality, only the fit survives in the cruel landscape of the Klondike.
3.What is special about Mark Twain‘s realism?
Mark Twain‘s contribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole was partly through his theories of local color in American fiction, and partly through his colloquial style. Mark Twain drew heavily from his own rich fund of knowledge of people and places. He confined himself to the life with which he was familiar. By quoting from his own experience, he managed to transform into art the freedom and humor, in short, the finest elements of western culture.
20th Century American Poetry
I.Literary terms
1.Imagism: Imagism is a school of poetry that flourished in North America and England at
the beginning of the 20th century. Imagists rejected the sentimentalism of late 19th century verse in favor of the poetry that relied on concrete imagery. Ezra Pound originally led the movement. Amy Lowell soon became its proponent. The major criteria are : a) regularly use everyday speech but avoids clichés; b) create new rhythms; c) address any subject matter the poet desired; d)depict its subjects through precise, clear images. Th e poets include H.D., Carl Sandburg; William Carlos William, D. H. Lawrence etc.
2.Confessional poetry: An autobiographical mode of verse that reveals the poet‘s personal
problems with unusual frankness. The term is usually applied to certain poets of the US.
From the late 1950s to the late 1960s, notably Robert Lowell, whose Life Studies and For the Union Dead deal with his divorce and mental breakdowns. Other examples are Anne Sexton‘s To Bedlam and Part Way Back, including poems on abortion and life in mental hospitals. John Berryman‘s Dream Songs on alcoholism and insanity; Sylvia Plath‘s poems on suicide in Ariel and W.D. Snodgrass‘Heart’s Needle on divorce.
3.Black Mountain poets: A loosely associated group of poets that formed an important part
of the avant-garde of American poetry in the 1950s, publishing innovative yet disciplined verse in the Black Mountain Review(1954-57), which became a leading forum of experimental verse. Their experimental yet disciplined style took its impetus from the essay ―Projective Verse‖ (1950) by Charles Olson. The Black Mountain School is linked with Charles Olson‘s theory of ―projective verse‖, which insists on an open from based on the spontaneity of the breath pause in speech and the typewriter line in writing. The gro up grew up around the poets Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan and Charles Olson while they were teaching at Black Mountain.
4.The Beat Generation:The term Beat Generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in
approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to a novelist who published an early novel about the generation. The members of the beat generation were engaged in a spontaneous, messy creativity. The beat writers produced a body of written work controversial both for its advocacy of non-conformity and for its non-conforming style.
The major beat writings are Jack Herouac‘s On the Road, Allan Ginsberg‘s Howl and William Burrough s‘Naked Lunch.
5.The New York School: Unlike the Beat poets, the poets of the New York School are not
interested in overtly moral questions and in general, they steer clear of political issues.
They have the best formal education of any group. The major figures of the New York School—John Ashberry, Frank O‘Harra and Kenneth Koch—met while they were undergraduates at Harvard University. They are quintessentially urban, cool, nonreligious, witty with a poignant, pastel sophistication. Their poems are fast moving, full of urban
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
美国文学史习题 (1)
I. Multiple choice. Please choose the best answer among the four items. (10 x 1’= 10’) 1. In American literature, the 18th century was the age of Enlightenment. ____ was the dominant. 2. The short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is taken from Irving’s work named ____. 3. Which of the following is not the characteristic of American Romanticism? 4. The short story “Rip Van Winkle” reveals the __ attitude of its author.
5.Stylistically, Henry James’ fiction is characterized by ___. 6.Transcendentalist doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in ___ and Thoreau. 7.Which is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”? 8.____ is considered Mark Twain’s greatest achievement.
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
美国文学史期末考试复习题
美国文学史期末考试复习题(使用书本为童明的《美国文学史修订版》) 一、名词解释（交代背景、内容/特点、代表人物/作品） 1. American Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience. (the representative writers and its features should be also added.) 2. Black Humor : 1）In the 1960s, in literature, drama, and film, black humor refers to grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. 2）Black humor often uses low comedy farce and low comedy to make clear that individuals are helpless victims of fate and character. 3）Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is an example of this school 3. Henry James’s international theme: 书p159 4. Beat Generation： 1) American poets, 1950s-1960s, a rebellion ,counterculture, romantic, drugs and uninhibited sex. 2)Best and most influential poem: “Howl”:denounces the life-denying effects of American culture. 5.American Puritanism：it comes from the American puritans, who were the first immigrants moved to American continent in the 17th century. Original sin, predestination and salvation were the basic ideas of American Puritanism. And, hard-working, piousness，thrift and sobriety were praised.书p17 6. Transcendentalism: is a philosophic and literary movement that flourished in New England, particular at Concord, as a reaction against Rationalism and Calvinism. Mainly it stressed intuitive understanding of God, without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind. The representative writers are Emerson and Thoreau.
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》考试题型及复习要点2017
2017年英语双学位《美国文学史及选读》期末考试题型及复习要点 期末考试题型及分值： 1．作家、作品配对题（10*1分= 10分） 2．作品选读题（填空题、简答题5*5分= 25分） 3. 文学术语、文学人物解释题（4*5分= 20分） 4. 论述题（3*15分= 45分） ●认真阅读教材的中文版的《序言》 ●熟悉教材中以下复习要点中各位作家的选文 Benjamin Franklin: ?Remember Benjamin Franklin as inventor, statesman and writer. ?Remember him as ‘father of the United States’. ?Writing features The Autobiography: It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision. The narrative is lucid, the structure is simple, the imagery is homely. ?本杰明·富兰克林： ?本杰明·富兰克林是发明家、政治家和作家。 ?他是“美国之父”。 ?写作特点自传：这是清教徒的简单、直接和简洁的方式。叙事清晰，结构简单，意象朴实。 Edgar Allan Poe ●Remember Poe as father of modern short story and father of detective story. ●Remember his important works. ●Remember his critical works: The Poetic Principle and The Philosophy of Composition. ●Be able to list some of his famous short stories and some of his famous poems such as The Raven, Annabel Lee, To Helen. ?Tell the story The Cask of Amontillado in your own words. What is the theme of this short story? Be familiar with his poem To Helen. 埃德加爱伦坡 Poe是现代短篇小说之父和侦探小说之父。 他的重要著作。 他的批评作品：诗歌原则和写作哲学。 能够列出一些他著名的短篇小说和一些著名的诗歌，如《乌鸦》、《Annabel Lee》、《海伦》等。 ?讲述一桶白葡萄酒用你自己的话。 这个短篇小说的主题是什么？ 对海伦熟悉他的诗。 Ralph Waldo Emerson Know something about transcendentalism. Remember Emerson as the leader of this philosophy: Transcendentalism refers to a kind of attitude that believes in the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses.Major concepts
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.
美国文学史试题3
I. Complete each of the following statements with proper words or phrases and put your answers on the Answer Sheet. (20%, 1 point for each) 1. The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in . 2. became the first American writer. 3. Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety were the values that dominated much of the early American writing. 4. In American literature, the 18th century was an age of and Revolution. 5. Franklin’s best writing is found in his masterpiece . 6. On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine’s famous pamphlet appeared. 7. The signing of symbolized the birth of an independent American nation. 8. The most outstanding poet in America of the 18th century was . 9. Washington Irving’s became the first work by an American writer to win international fame. 10. is the summit of American Romanticism. 11. With the publication of Emerson’s in 1836,American R omanticism reached its summit. 12. Hester Prynne is the heroine in Hawthorne’s novel . 13.Henry James’ major fictional theme is . 14. brought the Romantic period to an end. So the age of Realism came into existence. 15. The Poetic style invented by Whitman is now called . 16. “Because I could not stop for Death---” is written by . 17. The term The Gilded Age is given by to describe the post-civil war years. 18. Theodore Dreiser’s first novel is . 19. The leader of the literary movement Imagism is . 20. is the spokesman for Lost Generation. 答案: 1. 1607 2. John Smith 3. Puritan 4. Reason 5. The Autobiography 6. Common Sense 7. The Declaration of Independence 8. Philip Freneau 9. Sketch Book 10. Transcendentalism 11. Nature 12. The Scarlet Letter 13. international theme 14. The civil war 15. free verse 16. Emily Dickinson 17. Mark Twain 18. Sister Carrie 19. Ezra Pound 20. Ernest Hemingway II. Each of the following statements below is followed by four alternative answers or completions. Choose the one that is the best in each case and put your answers on the Answer Sheet. (30%, 1 point for each) 1. The first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularity was . A. Bret Harte B. Mark Twain C. Henry James D. William Dean Howells 2. Which of the following is the masterpiece of Mark Twain? A. The Gilded Age B. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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