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美国文学史复习资料

Part I The Literature of Colonial America

I．Historical Introduction

The colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the

early17th century through the end of the18th.The first permanent settlement

in America was established by English in1607.(A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold.They arrived at Virginia in1607.They named

the James River and build the James town.)

II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds:

1)Practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming,hunting,travel,etc.designed to inform people"at home"what life was like in the new world,and,often,to induce

their immigration

2)Highly theoretical,generally polemical,discussions of religious questions. III．The First American Writer

The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of

these settlements.They wrote about their voyage to the new land,their lives in the

new land,their dealings with Indians.

Captain John Smith is the first American writer.

A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened

in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony(1608)

A Map of Virginia:A Description of the Country(1612)

General History of Virgini a(1624):the Indian princess Pocahontas

Captain John Smith was one of the first early17th-century British settlers

in North America.He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown,Virginia.

His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers.

One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess,Pocahontas. IV．Early New England Literature

William Bradford and John Winthrop

John Cotton and Roger Williams

Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor

V．Puritan Thoughts

1.The origin of puritan

In the mediaeval Europe,there was widespread religious revolution.In the16th Century,the English King Henry VIII(At that time,the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission.Henry VIII wanted to divorce his

wife because she couldn't bear him a son.But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce,so

he)broke away from the Roman Catholic Church&established the Church of England.But there was no radical difference between the doctrines of the Church of England and the Catholic Church.A group of people thought the Church of England was too Catholic and wanted to purify the church.Then came the name Puritans.

2.Puritanism--based on Calvinism

(1)predestination:God's elect

Puritans believed they are predestined before they were born.

Nothing or no good work can change their fate.

They believed the success of one's business is the sign to show he is the God's elect.So the Puritans works very hard,spend very little and invest more for the future business.They lived a very frugal life.This is their ethics.

(2)Original sin and total depravity

Man is born sinful.This determines some puritans pessimistic attitude towards life.

(3)Limited atonement(the salvation of a selected few)

(4)theocracy

They combined state with religion.Their government is at least not a liberal one.

The Puritans established American tradition--intolerant moralism.They strictly punished drunks,adultery&heretics.

Puritans changed gradually due to the severity of frontier environment

3.Influence on American Literature

(1)Its optimism

American literature was from the outset conditioned by the Puritan heritage.It can be said American literature is based on the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. After that,man have an illusion to restore the paradise.The puritans,after arriving

at America,believing that God must have sent them to this new land to restore the lost paradise,to build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden.Fired with such a strong sense of mission,they treated life with a tremendous amount of optimism.The optimistic Puritan has exerted a great influence on American literature.

(2)Puritan's metaphorical mode of perception changed gradually into a literary symbolism.

Part II The Literature of Reason And Revolution I．Historical Introduction

With the growth,especially of industry,there appeared the intense strain

with England.The British government did not want colonial industries competing

with those in England.The British wanted the colonies to remain politically and economically dependent on the mother country.They took a series of measures to

insure this dependence.They prevented colonial economy by requiring Americans to ship raw materials abroad and to import finished goods at prices higher than the cost

of making them in this country.Politically,the British government forced dependence

by ruling the colonies from overseas and by taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament.

However,by the mid-eighteenth century,freedom was won as much by the fiery rhetoric of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the eloquence of the Declaration of Independence as by the weapons of Washington.In the seventies of the18th century,

the English colonies in North America rose in arms against their mother country.The

War for Independence lasted for8years(1776-1783)and ended in the formation of a federative bourgeois democratic republic--the United States of America. II．American Enlightenment

It was supported by all progressive forces of the country which opposed themselves to the old colonial order and religious obscurantism.

It dealt a decisive blow upon the puritan traditions and brought to life secular education and literature.The spiritual life during that period was to a great degree moulded by it.

The representatives set themselves the task of disseminating knowledge among

the people and advocating revolutionary ideas.

The writers injected an invigorating vein into the English language in America as they aimed at clarity and precision of their writings.

At the initial period the spread of the ideas of the Enlightenment was largely due

to journalism.Writings of Europe were widely read in America.The secular ideals of

the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of Benjamin Franklin.

III．Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)

The Autobiography

Poor Richard’s Almanac

Life

Benjamin Franklin came from a Calvinist background.

He was born into a poor candle-maker‘s family.He had very little education.He learned in school only for two years,but he was a voracious reader.

At12,he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother,a printer.

At16,he began to publish essays under the pseudonym―Silence Do good‖.

At17,he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune.

He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher.In1727he founded the Junto club.

Multiple identities:

a printer

a leading author

a politician

a scientist

a inventor

a diplomat

a civic activist

Franklin’s Contributions to Society

He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital.

He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania.

And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.

Franklin’s Contributions to Science

He was also remembered for volunteer fire departments,effective street lighting, the Franklin stove,bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices.

And for his lightning-rod,he was called―the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.‖

Franklin’s Contributions to the U.S.

He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:

The Declaration of Independence,

The Treaty of Alliance with France,

The Treaty of Peace with England,

The Constitution

The Autobiography

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was probably the first of its kind in literature.It is the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born,the faithful account of the colorful career of America‘s first self-made man.

The Autobiography is,first of all,a Puritan document.It is Puritan because it is a record of self-examination and self-improvement.The meticulous chart of13virtues he set for himself to cultivate to combat the tempting vices,the stupendous effort he made to improve his own person,the belief that God helps those who helps themselves and that every calling is a service to God–all these indicate that Franklin was intensely Puritan.Then,the book is also a convincing illustration of the Puritan ethic that,in order to get on in the world,one has to be industrious,frugal,and prudent.

The Autobiography is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenth-century enlightenment,and that he represented in America all its ideas,that man is basically good and free by nature,

endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A look at the style of The Autobiography will readily reveal that it is the pattern

of Puritan simplicity,directness and concision.The plainness of its style,the homeliness of imagery,the simplicity of diction,syntax and expression are some of

the salient features we cannot mistake.The lucidity of the narrative,the absence of ornaments in wording and of complex,involved structures in syntax,and the Puritan abhorrence of paradox are all graphically demonstrated in the whole of the book.

Taken as a whole,it is safe to say that the book is an exemplary illustration of the American style of writing.

IV．Thomas Paine(1737-1809)

Common Sense

American Crisis

V．Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826)

The Declaration of Independence

VI．Philip Freneau(1752-1832)

―Poet of the American Revolution‖

―Father of American Poetry‖

―Pioneer of the New Romanticism‖

―A gifted and versatile lyric poet‖

Works

―The Wild Honey Suckle‖

―The Indian Burying Ground‖

―To a Caty-Did‖

Freneau as Father of American Poetry:His major themes are death,nature, transition,and the human in nature.All of these themes become important in19th century writing.

Part III The Literature of Romanticism I．Historical Introduction

from early19th century through the outbreak of the Civil War

1.native factors

It is a period following American Independence.In this period,democracy and political equality became the ideals of the new nation.America was in an economic boom.There is a tremendous sense of optimism and hope among the people.The spirit of the time is,in some measure,responsible for the outburst of romantic feeling.

2.foreign influence

Romanticism emerged in England from1798to1832.It added impetus to the growth of Romanticism in America.In England the general features of the works of the romantics is a dissatisfaction with the bourgeois society.British Romanticism inspired the American imagination.Thus American Romanticism was in a way derivative.

II．American Romanticism:American Renaissance

Romanticism(appeared in England in the last years of the18th century and spread to continental Europe and then)came to America early in the19th century.It was pluralistic;its manifestations were as varied,as individualistic,and as conflicting as the cultures and the intellects from which it sprang.Yet romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics:moral enthusiasm,faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception,and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man's societies a source of corruption.

It exalted the individual,which suited the nation's revolutionary heritage and its frontier egalitarianism.It revolted against traditional art forms,which gratified those cramped by the strict limits of neoclassic literature,painting,and architecture.It rejected rationalism,which gladdened those who were opposed to cool,intellectual religious wrapped with the remnants of Calvinism.

Romantic writers placed increasing value on the free expression of emotion and display increasing attention to the spiritual states of their characters.Heroes and heroines exhibited extremes of sensitivity and excitement.The novel of terror became the profitable literary staple that it remains today.Writers of gothic novels sought to arouse in their readers a turbulent sense of the remote,the supernatural,and the terrifying by describing castles and landscapes illuminated by moonlight and haunted by ghosts.A preoccupation with the demonic and the mystery of evil marked by the works of Poe,Hawthorne,Melville,and a host of lesser writers.

Early American romanticism was best represented by New England poets William Cullen Bryant(1794-1878)and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807-1882) in poetry,and James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851)and Washington Irving

(1783-1859)in fiction.

The later/peak period is represented by Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)and Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862).

III．Washington Irving

1.Rip Van Winkle

The story,written while Irving was staying with his sister Sarah and her husband Henry van Wart in Birmingham,England,is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War.A villager of Dutch descent escapes his nagging wife

by wandering up Kaaterskill Clove near his home town of Palenville,New York in

the Catskill Mountains.After various adventures(in one version of the tale,he encounters the spirits of Henry Hudson and his crew playing ninepins at the top of Kaaterskill Falls),he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep.He wakes up20 years later and returns to his village.He finds out that his wife is dead and his close

friends have died in a war or gone somewhere else.He immediately gets into trouble when he hails himself a loyal subject of George III,not knowing that in the meantime

the American Revolution has taken place and he is not supposed to be a loyal subject

of any Hanoverian any longer.

The story has become a part of cultural mythology:even for those who have

never read the original story,"Rip Van Winkle"means either a person who sleeps for

a long period of time,or one who is inexplicably(perhaps even blissfully)unaware of current events.

Rip Van Winkle has been seen as a symbol of several aspects of America.Rip,

like America,is immature,self-centered,careless,anti-intellectual,imaginative,and jolly as the overgrown child.The town itself symbolizes America–forever and

rapidly changing.Washington Irving has Rip sleep through his own country‘s history, through what we might call the birth pangs of America,and return to the―busy, bustling,disputatious‖self-consciously adult United States of America.His conflicts and dreams are those of the nation–the conflict of innocence and experience,work

and leisure,the old and the new,the head and the heart.

2.The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The story is set circa1790in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town,in a secluded

glen called Sleepy Hollow.It tells the story of Ichabod Crane,a sycophantic,lean, lanky,and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut,who competes

with Abraham"Brom Bones"Van Brunt,the town rowdy,for the hand of18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel,the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer,Baltus Van

Tassel.As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn

night,he is pursued by the Headless Horseman,who is supposedly the ghost of a

Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during"some

nameless battle"of the American Revolutionary War,and who"rides forth to the

scene of battle in nightly quest of his head".Ichabod mysteriously disappears from town,leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones,who was"to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related".Although the nature of the Headless Horseman is left open to interpretation,the story implies that the Horseman was really Brom Bones in disguise.

The creation of archetypes is a particularly subtle feat of Irving‘s consummate craftsmanship.We may see in Ichabod Crane a precocious,effect New Englander,

shrewd,commercial,a city-slicker,who is rather an interloper,a somewhat destructive force,and who comes along to swindle the villagers.His book learning

turns on him,and he is driven away from where he does not belong,so that the serene village remains permanently good and happy.

Brom Bones,on the other hand,is of a Huck Finn-type of country bumpkin, rough,vigorous,boisterous but inwardly very good,a frontier type put out there to

shift for himself.

Thus,the rivalry in love between Ichabod and Brom,viewed in this way,

suddenly assumes the dimensions of two ethical groups locked in a kind of historic contest.As to the style of the piece,it represents Irving at his best.The association between a certain local and the inward movement of a character,the emotional

loading of almost every line of the story,their effect on the five sense of the reader whose attention is so fully engaged and who feels so much involved in what is happening–all these have placed this and other Irving stories among the best of American short stories.

3.Irving’s Style

(1)Irving avoids moralizing as much as possible.He writes simply to entertain rather

to enlighten.

(2)He is good at setting his stories in a magic and fantastic atmosphere.The richness

of the atmosphere compensates for the slimness of his plot.

(3)His characters are vivid and true to life.They tend to linger in the mind of the reader.

(4)His writing is full of humor and satire.

(5)two important themes,i.e.the themes of change and search for identify.These themes capture the spirit of Irving‘s times and reflect his philosophical thinking on contemporary American social life.

IV.James Fenimore Cooper詹姆斯?费尼莫尔?库珀(1789--1851)--launched

two kinds of immensely popular stories→the sea adventure tale and the frontier

saga

The Leatherstocking Tales皮袜子故事集》，regard as―the nearest approach yet to an American epic.‖（开创了美国文学的一个重要主题—文明的发展对大自然和它代表的崇高品德的摧残与破坏）Its central figure in the novels,Natty Bumppo (美国文学的一个重要的原型人物—独立不羁、逃避社会、在大自然中需求完美精神世界的班波).

Cooper’s Works

(1)Precaution(1820,his first novel,imitating Austen‘s Pride and Prejudice)

(2)The Spy(his second novel and great success)

(3)Leatherstocking Tales(his masterpiece,a series of five novels)

The Deerslayer,The Last of the Mohicans,The Pathfinder,The Pioneer,The Prairie

Cooper’s Style

(1)highly imaginative

(2)good at inventing tales

(3)good at landscape description

(4)conservative

(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability

(6)language and use of dialect not authentic

Literary Achievements

He created a myth about the formative period of the American nation.If the

history of the United States is,in a sense,the process of the American settlers

exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward,then Cooper‘s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West.He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he

helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.

V.William Cullen Bryant威廉?卡伦?布赖恩特(1794-1878)--the first American to gain the stature of a major poet.

To a Waterfowl《致水鸟》

The Yellow Violet《黄色的堇香花》

VI.Edgar Allen Poe(1809-1849)

American writer,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.The literary merits of Poe's writings have been debated since his death,but his works have

remained popular and many major American and European writers have professed

their artistic debt to him.

For a long time after his death Poe remained probably the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature.

Emerson dismissed him in three words,―the jingle man.‖

Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable.

Henry James made the ruthless statement that―an enthusiasm for Poe is the mark

of a decidedly primitive state of development.‖

Whitman,who was the only famous literary figure present at the Poe Memorial Ceremony in Baltimore in1875,had mixed feelings about him:he did admit Poe‘s genius,but it was―its narrow range and unhealthy,lurid quality‖that most impressed him.

T.S.Eliot proclaimed him a critic of the first rank,but charged him with

―slipshod writing.‖

Poe’s Works

Poetry:The Raven《乌鸦》

Horror Fiction:The Fall of the House of Usher《厄舍大厦的倒塌》

Whodunit:Murders in the Rue Morgue《莫格街谋杀案》

致海伦

海伦，你的美在我的眼里，

有如往日尼西亚的三桅船

船行在飘香的海上，悠悠地

把已倦于漂泊的困乏船员

送回他故乡的海岸。

早已习惯于在怒海上飘荡，

你典雅的脸庞，你的鬈发，

你水神般的风姿带我返航，

返回那往时的希腊和罗马，

返回那往时的壮丽和辉煌。

看哪！壁龛似的明亮窗户里，

我看见你站着，多像尊雕像，

一盏玛瑙的灯你拿在手上！

塞姬女神哪，神圣的土地

才是你家乡！

In the first stanza,Helen‘s beauty is soothing.It provides security and safety. Perhaps the reader is expected to associate Marlowe‘s famous line:―Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?‖to Helen‘s beauty,for her beauty is as hypnotic for the speaker as were the ships that transported another wanderer–Ulysses-home from Troy.

Throughout the poem,Poe uses allusions to classical names and places,as well as certain kinds of images to create the impression of a far-off idealized,unreal woman,like a Greek statue.Words that support the image of an ideal woman are

―hyacinth‖and―classic‖(line7),―Naiad airs‖(line8),and―statue-like‖(line12). Helen stands,not like a real woman,but like a saint in a―window-niche‖(line11). She becomes a symbol both of beauty and of frustration,a romantically idealized,yet inaccessible image of the heart‘s desire.

乌鸦

从前一个阴郁的子夜，我独自沉思，慵懒疲竭，

沉思许多古怪而离奇、早已被人遗忘的传闻——

当我开始打盹，几乎入睡，突然传来一阵轻擂，

仿佛有人在轻轻叩击，轻轻叩击我的房门。

―有人来了，‖我轻声嘟喃，―正在叩击我的房门——

唯此而已，别无他般。‖

哦，我清楚地记得那是在萧瑟的十二月；

每一团奄奄一息的余烬都形成阴影伏在地板。

我当时真盼望翌日；——因为我已经枉费心机

想用书来消除悲哀——消除因失去丽诺尔的悲叹——

因那被天使叫作丽诺尔的少女，她美丽娇艳——

在这儿却默默无闻，直至永远。

那柔软、暗淡、飒飒飘动的每一块紫色窗布

使我心中充满前所未有的恐怖——我毛骨惊然；

为平息我心儿停跳．我站起身反复叨念

―这是有人想进屋，在叩我的房门——。

更深夜半有人想进屋，在叩我的房门；——

唯此而已，别无他般。‖

很快我的心变得坚强；不再犹疑，不再彷徨，

―先生，‖我说，―或夫人，我求你多多包涵；

刚才我正睡意昏昏，而你来敲门又那么轻，

你来敲门又那么轻，轻轻叩击我的房门，

我差点以为没听见你‖——说着我拉开门扇；——

唯有黑夜，别无他般。

凝视着夜色幽幽，我站在门边惊惧良久，

疑惑中似乎梦见从前没人敢梦见的梦幻；

可那未被打破的寂静，没显示任何迹象。

―丽诺尔？‖便是我嗫嚅念叨的唯一字眼，

我念叨―丽诺尔！‖，回声把这名字轻轻送还，

唯此而已，别无他般。

我转身回到房中，我的整个心烧灼般疼痛，

很快我又听到叩击声，比刚才听起来明显。

―肯定，‖我说，―肯定有什么在我的窗棂；

让我瞧瞧是什么在那里，去把那秘密发现——

让我的心先镇静一会儿，去把那秘密发现；——

那不过是风，别无他般！‖

我猛然推开窗户，。心儿扑扑直跳就像打鼓，

一只神圣往昔的健壮乌鸦慢慢走进我房间；

它既没向我致意问候；也没有片刻的停留；

而以绅士淑女的风度，栖在我房门的上面——

栖在我房门上方一尊帕拉斯半身雕像上面——

栖坐在那儿，仅如此这般。

于是这只黑鸟把我悲伤的幻觉哄骗成微笑，

以它那老成持重一本正经温文尔雅的容颜，

―虽然冠毛被剪除，‖我说，―但你肯定不是懦夫，

你这幽灵般可怕的古鸦，漂泊夜的彼岸——

请告诉我你尊姓大名，在黑沉沉的冥府阴间！‖

乌鸦答日―永不复述。‖

听见如此直率的回答，我惊叹这丑陋的乌鸦，

虽说它的回答不着边际——与提问几乎无关；

因为我们不得不承认，从来没有活着的世人

曾如此有幸地看见一只鸟栖在他房门的面——

鸟或兽栖在他房间门上方的半身雕像上面，

有这种名字―永不复还。‖

但那只独栖于肃穆的半身雕像上的乌鸦只说了

这一句话，仿佛它倾泻灵魂就用那一个字眼。

然后它便一声不吭——也不把它的羽毛拍动——

直到我几乎是哺哺自语―其他朋友早已消散——

明晨它也将离我而去——如同我的希望已消散。‖

这时那鸟说―永不复还。‖

惊异于那死寂漠漠被如此恰当的回话打破，

―肯定，‖我说，―这句话是它唯一的本钱，

从它不幸动主人那儿学未。一连串无情飞灾

曾接踵而至，直到它主人的歌中有了这字眼——

直到他希望的挽歌中有了这个忧伤的字眼

?永不复还，永不复还。‘‖

但那只乌鸦仍然把我悲伤的幻觉哄骗成微笑，

我即刻拖了张软椅到门旁雕像下那只鸟跟前；

然后坐在天鹅绒椅垫上，我开始冥思苦想，

浮想连着浮想，猜度这不祥的古鸟何出此言——

这只狰狞丑陋可怕不吉不祥的古鸟何出此言，

为何聒噪?永不复还。‖

我坐着猜想那意见但没对那鸟说片语只言。

此时，它炯炯发光的眼睛已燃烧进我的心坎；

我依然坐在那儿猜度，把我的头靠得很舒服，

舒舒服服地靠在那被灯光凝视的天鹅绒衬垫，

但被灯光爱慕地凝视着的紫色的天鹅绒衬垫，

她将显出，啊，永不复还！

接着我想，空气变得稠密，被无形香炉熏香，

提香炉的撒拉弗的脚步声响在有簇饰的地板。

―可怜的人，‖我呼叫，―是上帝派天使为你送药，

这忘忧药能中止你对失去的丽诺尔的思念；

喝吧如吧，忘掉对失去的丽诺尔的思念！‖

乌鸦说―永不复还。‖

―先知！我说凶兆！‖―——仍是先知，不管是鸟还是魔！

是不是魔鬼送你，或是暴风雨抛你来到此岸，

孤独但毫不气馁，在这片妖惑鬼崇的荒原——

在这恐怖萦绕之家——告诉我真话，求你可怜——

基列有香膏吗？——告诉我——告诉我，求你可怜！‖

乌鸦说永不复还。―‖

―先知！‖我说，―凶兆！——仍是先知、不管是鸟是魔！

凭我们头顶的苍天起誓——凭我们都崇拜的上帝起誓——

告诉这充满悲伤的灵魂。它能否在遥远的仙境

拥抱被天使叫作丽诺尔的少女，她纤尘不染——

拥抱被天使叫作丽诺尔的少女，她美丽娇艳。‖

乌鸦说―永不复还。‖

―让这话做我们的道别之辞，鸟或魔！‖我突然叫道——

―回你的暴风雨中去吧，回你黑沉沉的冥府阴间！

别留下黑色羽毛作为你的灵魂谎言的象征！

留给我完整的孤独！——快从我门上的雕像滚蛋！

从我心中带走你的嘴；从我房门带走你的外观！‖

乌鸦说―永不复还。‖

那乌鸦并没飞去，它仍然栖息，仍然栖息

在房门上方那苍白的帕拉斯半身雕像上面；

而它的眼光与正在做梦的魔鬼眼光一模一样，

照在它身上的灯光把它的阴影投射在地板；

而我的灵魂，会从那团在地板上漂浮的阴暗

被擢升么——永不复还！

The Raven is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe,first published in January1845.It is often noted for its musicality,stylized language,and supernatural atmosphere.It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover,tracing the man's slow descent into madness.The lover,often identified as

being a student,is lamenting the loss of his love,Lenore.The raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word"Nevermore".The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references.

安娜贝尔.李

很久很久以前，

在一个滨海的国度里，

住着一位少女你或许认得，

她的芳名叫安娜贝尔.李；

这少女活着没有别的愿望，

只为和我俩情相许。

那会儿我还是个孩子，她也未脱稚气，

在这个滨海的国度里；

可我们的爱超越一切，无人能及——

我和我的安娜贝尔.李；

我们爱得那样深，连天上的六翼天使

也把我和她妒嫉。

这就是那不幸的根源，很久以前

在这个滨海的国度里，

夜里一阵寒风从白云端吹起，冻僵了

我的安娜贝尔李；.

于是她那些高贵的亲戚来到凡间

把她从我的身边夺去，

将她关进一座坟墓

在这个滨海的国度里。

这些天使们在天上，不及我们一半快活，

于是他们把我和她妒嫉——

对——就是这个缘故（谁不晓得呢，在这个滨海的国度里）

云端刮起了寒风，

冻僵并带走了我的安娜贝尔.李。

可我们的爱情远远地胜利

那些年纪长于我们的人——

那些智慧胜于我们的人——

无论是天上的天使，

还是海底的恶魔，

都不能将我们的灵魂分离，

我和我美丽的安娜贝尔.李。

因为月亮的每一丝清辉都勾起我的回忆

梦里那美丽的安娜贝尔.李

群星的每一次升空都令我觉得秋波在闪动

那是我美丽的安娜贝尔.李

就这样，伴着潮水，我整夜躺在她身旁

我亲爱的——我亲爱的——我的生命，我的新娘，

在海边那座坟茔里，

在大海边她的墓穴里。

"Annabel Lee"is the last complete poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe.Like many of Poe's poems,it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman.The narrator,who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young,has a love for her so strong that even angels are jealous.He retains his love for her even after her death. There has been debate over who,if anyone,was the inspiration for"Annabel Lee". Though many women have been suggested,Poe's wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe is one of the more credible candidates.Written in1849,it was not published until shortly after Poe's death that same year.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

The story surrounds the baffling double murder of Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter in the Rue Morgue,a fictional street in Paris.Newspaper accounts of the murder reveal that the mother's throat is so badly cut that her head is barely attached and the daughter,after being strangled,has been stuffed into the chimney.The murder 14

occurs in an inaccessible room on the fourth floor locked from the inside.Neighbors

who hear the murder give contradictory accounts,claiming they hear the murderer speaking a different language.The speech is unclear,they say,and they admit to not knowing the language they are claiming to have heard.

Paris natives Dupin and his friend,the unnamed narrator of the story,read these newspaper accounts with interest.The two live in seclusion and allow no visitors.

They have cut off contact with"former associates"and venture outside only at night. "We existed within ourselves alone",the narrator explains.When a man named

Adolphe Le Bon has been imprisoned though no evidence exists pointing to his guilt, Dupin is so intrigued that he offers his services to"G–",the prefect of police.

Because none of the witnesses can agree on the language the murderer spoke,

Dupin concludes they were not hearing a human voice at all.He finds a hair at the

scene of the murder that is quite unusual;"this is no human hair",he concludes.

Dupin puts an advertisement in the newspaper asking if anyone has lost an

"Ourang-Outang".The ad is answered by a sailor who comes to Dupin at his home.

The sailor offers a reward for the orangutan's return;Dupin asks for all the

information the sailor has about the murders in the Rue Morgue.The sailor reveals

that he had been keeping a captive orangutan obtained while ashore in Borneo.The animal escaped with the sailor's shaving straight razor.When he pursued the orangutan,it escaped by scaling a wall and climbing up a lightning rod,entering the apartment in the Rue Morgue through a window.

Once in the room,the surprised Madame L'Espanaye could not defend herself as

the orangutan attempted to shave her in imitation of the sailor's daily routine.The

bloody deed incited it to fury and it squeezed the daughter's throat until she died.The orangutan then became aware of its master's whip,which it feared,and it attempted to hide the body by stuffing it into the chimney.The sailor,aware of the"murder",

panicked and fled,allowing the orangutan to escape.The prefect of police,upon

hearing this story,mentions that people should mind their own business.Dupin responds that G–is"too cunning to be profound."

Ligeia

The unnamed narrator describes the qualities of Ligeia,a beautiful,passionate

and intellectual woman,raven-haired and dark-eyed,that he thinks he remembers meeting"in some large,old decaying city near the Rhine."He is unable to recall

anything about the history of Ligeia,including her family's name,but remembers her beautiful appearance.Her beauty,however,is not conventional.He describes her as emaciated,with some"strangeness."He describes her face in detail,from her "faultless"forehead to the"divine orbs"of her eyes.They marry,and Ligeia

impresses her husband with her immense knowledge of physical and mathematical science,and her proficiency in classical languages.She begins to show her husband

her knowledge of metaphysical and"forbidden"wisdom.

After an unspecified length of time Ligeia becomes ill,struggles internally with human mortality,and ultimately dies.The narrator,grief-stricken,buys and refurbishes an abbey in England.He soon enters into a loveless marriage with"the

fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion,of Tremaine."

In the second month of the marriage,Rowena begins to suffer from worsening fever and anxiety.One night,when she is about to faint,the narrator pours her a

goblet of wine.Drugged with opium,he sees(or thinks he sees)drops of"a brilliant and ruby colored fluid"fall into the goblet.Her condition rapidly worsens,and a few days later she dies and her body is wrapped for burial.

As the narrator keeps vigil overnight,he notices a brief return of color to Rowena's cheeks.She repeatedly shows signs of reviving,before relapsing into apparent death.As he attempts resuscitation,the revivals become progressively stronger,but the relapses more final.As dawn breaks,and the narrator is sitting emotionally exhausted from the night's struggle,the shrouded body revives once more, stands and walks into the middle of the room.When he touches the figure,its head bandages fall away to reveal masses of raven hair and dark eyes:Rowena has transformed into Ligeia.

The Tell-Tale Heart

"The Tell-Tale Heart"is a first-person narrative of an unnamed narrator who insists he is sane but suffering from a disease(nervousness)which causes

"over-acuteness of the senses".The old man with whom he lives has a clouded,pale, blue"vulture-like"eye which so distresses the narrator that he plots to murder the old man,though the narrator states that he loves the old man,and hates only the eye.The narrator insists that his careful precision in committing the murder shows that he cannot possibly be insane.For seven nights,the narrator opens the door of the old man's room,a process which takes him a full hour.However,the old man's vulture

eye is always closed,making it impossible to"do the work".

On the eighth night,the old man awakens and sits up in his own bed while the narrator performs his nightly ritual.The narrator does not draw back and,after some time,decides to open his lantern.A single ray of light shines out and lands precisely

on the old man's eye,revealing that it is wide open.Hearing the old man's heart beating unusually and dangerously quick from terror,the narrator decides to strike, jumping out with a loud yell and smothering the old man with his own bed.The narrator dismembers the body and conceals the pieces under the floorboards,making certain to hide all signs of the crime.Even so,the old man's scream during the night causes a neighbor to report to the police.The narrator invites the three arriving officers in to look around.He claims that the screams heard were his own in a nightmare and that the man is absent in the country.Confident that they will not find any evidence of the murder,the narrator brings chairs for them and they sit in the old man's room,right on the very spot where the body is concealed,yet they suspect nothing,as the narrator has a pleasant and easy manner about him.

The narrator,however,begins to hear a faint noise.As the noise grows louder,

the narrator comes to the conclusion that it is the heartbeat of the old man coming

from under the floorboards.The sound increases steadily,though the officers seem to pay no attention to it.Shocked by the constant beating of the heart and a feeling that

not only are the officers aware of the sound,but that they also suspect him,the

narrator confesses to killing the old man and tells them to tear up the floorboards to

reveal the body.

The Fall of the House of Usher

The tale opens with the unnamed narrator arriving at the house of his boyhood friend,Roderick Usher,having received a letter from him in a distant part of the

country complaining of an illness and asking for his help.Although Poe wrote this

short story before the invention of modern psychological science,Roderick's symptoms can be described according to its terminology.

They include hyperesthesia(hypersensitivity to light,sounds,smells,and tastes), hypochondria(an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness),

and acute anxiety.It is revealed that Roderick's twin sister,Madeline,is also ill and

falls into cataleptic,death-like trances.The narrator is impressed with Roderick's paintings,and attempts to cheer him by reading with him and listening to his

improvised musical compositions on the guitar.Roderick sings"The Haunted Palace", then tells the narrator that he believes the house he lives in to be sentient,and that this sentience arises from the arrangement of the masonry and vegetation surrounding it.

Roderick later informs the narrator that his sister has died and insists that she be entombed for two weeks in a vault(family tomb)in the house before being permanently buried.The narrator helps Roderick put the body in the tomb,and he

notes that Madeline has rosy cheeks,as some do after death.They inter her,but over

the next week both Roderick and the narrator find themselves becoming increasingly agitated for no apparent reason.A storm begins.Roderick comes to the narrator's bedroom,which is situated directly above the vault,and throws open his window to

the storm.He notices that the tarn surrounding the house seems to glow in the dark,as

it glowed in Roderick Usher's paintings,although there is no lightning.

The narrator attempts to calm Roderick by reading aloud The Mad Trist,a novel involving a knight named Ethelred who breaks into a hermit's dwelling in an attempt

to escape an approaching storm,only to find a palace of gold guarded by a dragon.He

also finds hanging on the wall a shield of shining brass of which is written a legend:

that the one who slays the dragon wins the shield.With a stroke of his mace,Ethelred

kills the dragon,who dies with a piercing shriek,and proceeds to take the shield,

which falls to the floor with an unnerving clatter.

As the narrator reads of the knight's forcible entry into the dwelling,cracking

and ripping sounds are heard somewhere in the house.When the dragon is described

as shrieking as it dies,a shriek is heard,again within the house.As he relates the

shield falling from off the wall,a reverberation,metallic and hollow,can be heard. Roderick becomes increasingly hysterical,and eventually exclaims that these sounds

are being made by his sister,who was in fact alive when she was entombed and that Roderick knew that she was alive.The bedroom door is then blown open to reveal Madeline standing there.She falls on her brother,and both land on the floor as corpses.The narrator then flees the house,and,as he does so,notices a flash of light causing him to look back upon the House of Usher,in time to watch it break in two,

the fragments sinking into the tarn.

Analysis

The Fall of the House of Usher shows Poe's ability to create an emotional tone in his work,specifically feelings of fear,doom,and guilt.These emotions center on Roderick Usher who,like many Poe characters,suffers from an unnamed disease.The illness manifests physically but is based in Roderick's mental or even moral state.He is sick,it is suggested,because he expects to be sick based on his family's history of illness and is,therefore,essentially a hypochondriac.Similarly,he buries his sister alive because he expects to bury her alive,creating his own self-fulfilling prophecy.

The House of Usher,itself doubly referring both to the actual structure and the family,plays a significant role in the story.It is the first"character"that the narrator introduces to the reader,presented with a humanized description:its windows are described as"eye-like"twice in the first paragraph.The fissure that develops in its side is symbolic of the decay of the Usher family and the house"dies"along with the two Usher siblings.This connection was emphasized in Roderick's poem The Haunted Palace which seems to be a direct reference to the house that foreshadows doom.

The Collapsing Mansion:Decline of the Usher family.

The―Vacant eye-like‖Windows of the Mansion:(1)Hollow,cadaverous eyes of Roderick Usher;(2)Madeline Usher‘s cataleptic gaze;(3)the vacuity of life in the Usher mansion.

The Tarn,a Small Lake Encircling the Mansion and Reflecting Its Image:(1) Madeline as the twin of Roderick,reflecting his image and personality;(2)the image of reality which Roderick and the narrator perceive;though the water of the tarn reflects details exactly,the image is upside down,leaving open the possibility that Roderick and the narrator see a false reality;(3)the desire of the Ushers to isolate themselves from the outside world.

The Bridge Over the Tarn:The narrator as Roderick Usher‘s only link to the outside world.

The name Usher:An usher is a doorkeeper.In this sense,Roderick Usher opens the door to a frightening world for the narrator.

The Storm:The turbulent emotions experienced by the characters.

VII.American Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about1836to1860.It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church,developing instead their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world.Transcendentalism derived some of its basic idealistic concepts from romantic German philosophy,and from such English authors as Carlyle,Coleridge,and Wordsworth.Its mystical aspects were partly influenced by Indian and Chinese religious teachings.Although transcendentalism was never a rigorously systematic philosophy,it had some basic tenets that were generally shared by its adherents.

The belief that god is immanent in each person and in nature and that individual 18

intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism,self-reliance,and rejection of traditional authority.The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in such essays as Nature(1836),and Self-Reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden(1854).

―The universe is composed of Nature and the Soul.‖

―spirit is present everywhere.‖

Background:four sources

1.Unitarianism

(1)Fatherhood of God

(2)Brotherhood of men

(3)Leadership of Jesus

(4)Salvation by character(perfection of one‘s character)

(5)Continued progress of mankind

(6)Divinity of mankind

(7)Depravity of mankind

2.Romantic Idealism

Center of the world is spirit,absolute spirit(Kant)

3.Oriental mysticism

Center of the world is―oversoul‖

4.Puritanism

Eloquent expression in transcendentalism

Features

1.spirit/oversoul(The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent,from which all things came and of which all were a part.

It existed in nature and man alike and constituted the chief element of the universe.)

2.importance of individualism(Individual was the most important element of society.)

3.nature–symbol of spirit/God(Nature was not purely matter.It was alive,

filled with God‘s overwhelming presence.It was garment of the Oversoul Therefore

it could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind.―Go back to nature,sink yourself into its influence,and you‘ll become spiritually whole again.‖)

4.focus in intuition(irrationalism and subconsciousness)

Influence

1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the

idea that human can be perfected by nature.It stressed religious tolerance,called to

throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a

new and distinctly American culture.

2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism,and the desire to―get on‖obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.

3.It helped to create the first American renaissance–one of the most prolific

period in American literature.

VIII.Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)

His Works:

Nature

The American Scholar

The Divinity School Address

Essays

Representative Men

English Traits

Poems

point of view

(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the―oversoul‖.

(2)He regards nature as the purest,and the most sanctifying moral influence on man,and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.

(3)If man depends upon himself,cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself,he can hope to become better and even perfect.This is what Emerson means by―the infinitude of man‖.

(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world,and that he makes the world by making himself.

IX.Henry David Thoreau（1817-1862）

Walden

(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.

(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.

(3)Like Emerson,but more than him,Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative,healthy influence on man‘s spiritual well-being.

(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward,spiritual grace of man.

(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.

(6)―Simplicity…simplify!‖

(7)He was sorely disgusted with―the inundations of the dirty institutions of men‘s odd-fellow society‖.

(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.

X.Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)

Much of Hawthorne's writing centers on New England,many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration.His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and,more specifically,dark romanticism.His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity,and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity.His published works include novels, short stories,and a biography of his friend Franklin Pierce.

Hawthorne’s Works

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

美国文学史复习提纲

I. Explain the following literary terms. 1. Romanticism The most profound and comprehensive idea of romanticism is the vision of a greater personal freedom for the individual. Appeals to imagination; Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, geniality. Subjectivity: in form and meaning. 2 American transcendentalism American transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy and literature that flourished during the early to middle years of the nineteenth century (about 1836-1860). For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains. 3 Realism: ―nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.‖ the Civil war a. verisimilitude of details derived from observation b. representative in plot, setting and character c. an objective rather than an idealized view of human experience 4. Modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. The general term covers many political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in Western society at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at the turn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century. II. Questions and Answers. Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English. 1. What is local color？ an amalgam of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the dialects, customs, sights, and sounds of regional America‖ 2. What is American Puritanism 1). Total Depravity - the concept of Original Si 2). Unconditional Election - the concept of predestination 3). Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone. 4). Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied. 5). Perseverance of the "saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God. 3. Analyze Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. themes in autobiography: Self- Improvement Mind: Self-education Body: Physical Activity Behavior: Moral Perfection Religion: The best service to God is to be good to man Benjamin Franklin and aspects of The American Dream Rags to Riches: Impotence to Importance: A Philosophy of Individualism: Freewill vs. Determinism: Hope and Optimism:

美国文学史-知识点梳理

Part I The Literature of Colonial America I．Historical Introduction The colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.) II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds: 1) Practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people "at home" what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration 2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. III．The First American Writer The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians. Captain John Smith is the first American writer. A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608) A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612) General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess Pocahontas Captain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers. One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV．Early New England Literature William Bradford and John Winthrop John Cotton and Roger Williams Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor V．Puritan Thoughts 1. The origin of puritan In the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church of

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

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美国文学史复习（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.

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

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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)

美国文学史复习资料

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

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