美国文学简史复习资料

1、美国文学简史复习资料美国文学简史复习资料2016年12月23日目录殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学美国浪漫主义早期新英格兰超验主义美国浪漫主义后期美国现实主义文学美国乡土文学美国现代诗歌美国现代小说美国南方文学美国现代戏剧美国黑人文学美国华裔文学殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学New England：Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, named by Captain John Smith PuritanismDoctrines of Puritanism：predestination（命

2、运神定), original sin, total depravity (彻底的堕落), and limited atonement (有限的赎罪)from Gods gracePuritans left Europe for America in order to prove that they were Gods chosen people who would enjoy Gods blessings on earth and in Heaven. They felt that they were exiles under the special grace of God to estab

3、lish a theocracy in the New World. Style of writing：the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest；a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the BiblePuritans way of Life：hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.In Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter there is a

4、good description of the Puritans life. Main writersWilliam BradfordOf Plymouth Plantation普利茅斯垦殖记Thomas Paine Common Sense 常识；American Crisis美国危机；The Rights of Man人权；The Age of Reason理性时代Philip Freneau The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲；The Wild Honeysuckle野金银花Benjamin FranklinAutobiography富兰克林自传Thom

5、as JeffersonDraft the Declaration of Independence.美国浪漫主义早期RomanticismBackground of Romanticism：Economic boom and national optimism ；Favorable literary milieu: increasing number of magazines ；Foreign influences: the Romantic Movement in Europe. Characteristics of Romanticism：A rebellion against the o

6、bjectivity of rationalism. Feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important for romantics than reason and common sense. An emphasis on individualism; placing the individual against the group, against authority.Stress on the close relationship between man and nature. Fascination with the wild, t

7、he irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious, and the strange Cherishing a strong interest in the past, especially the medieval. Features of American Romanticism：New experience in the American Romanticism. The exotic landscape, the frontier life, the westward expansion, the myth of a New

8、 Garden of Eden in America, and the Puritan heritage, etc., these were all materials for an indigenous literature. A deep influence from the American Puritanism. Different from their European counterparts, American romantics tended to moralize, to edify rather than to entertain.The “newness” of the

9、Americans as a nation. The Americans are different from the Europeans. Their ideals of individualism and political equality, and their dream that America was to be a new Garden of eden for man were distinctly American.The New England Poets:Henry W. Longfellow-A Psalm of Life 人生礼赞Main writersWashingt

10、on IrvingThe Sketch Book (1819-1820)见闻札记;The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说James Fenimore CooperLeather-stocking Tales皮裹腿故事集;The Pioneers 拓荒者;The Last of the Mohicans 最后一个莫希干人;The Prairie 大草原;The Pathfinder探路人;The Deerslayer猎鹿人新英格兰超验主义TranscendentalismTranscendentalismas a way of knowing, believes tha

11、t individuals can intuitively receive higher truths otherwise unavailable through common methods of knowing, thus transcending the limits of rationalism. Some of its major concepts are: It placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over-soul（超灵）, as the most important thing in the universe. It emphasized the

12、 importance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish. It offered a fresh view of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God.SignificanceA group of new writers apply transcendental id

13、eas in their worksWeaknessTranscendentalism tended to become mysticism.sometimes resulted in rampant individualismmake moral indignation an irrelevant emotion. Main writersRalph Waldo Emerson(超验主义领袖）Nature（标志性之作）;The American Scholar论美国学者Henry David ThoreauWalden:informal,spontaneous and so easy. Hi

14、s sentences are concentrated and vigorous.美国浪漫主义后期High Romantics in fictionNathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet letter红字；The House of Sever Gables有七个尖角阁的房子Herman Melville Moby-Dick白鲸；Pierre皮埃尔High Romantics in poetry Edgar Allen Poe-the father of modern horror story and detective story Tales of the Grote

15、sque and Arabesque怪诞故事集；The Raven乌鸦 Literary theories (on poetry) Poetical principles Length: there is a distinct limit to all works of literary artthe limit of a single sitting. Province: Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.Tone: Sadness is the tone of Beautys highest manifestation.

16、Melancholy is the most legitimateof all the poetical tones. Death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world.The immediate object of poetry is pleasure, not truth. Poe defines true poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty”, and declares that music is the perfection of the soul,

17、 or idea, of poetry.Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass草叶集 Emily Dickinson Features of Dickinsons poemsDickinsons style is characteristic of frequent use of dashes, sporadic capitalization of nouns,convoluted and ungrammatical phrasing, off-rhymes, broken meters, bold and unconventional and often startling

18、 metaphors, and aphoristic wit. Her poetry prepares for modern poetry in the 20th century. lyric. Her poems are remarkable for their variety, subtlety, and richness. brevity and intensity. unorthodox syntax and punctuation.innovation in rhyme. One the whole, her poetry is irregular in rhyme and rhyt

19、hm. 美国现实主义文学RealismHistorical backgroundImpact of the Civil War Changes in national economic life Concentration of wealth and power Polarization of the rich and the poor (This was the beginning of what Mark Twain called “The Gilded Age” an age of extremes: of decline and progress, of poverty and daz

20、zling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope.) Closing of the frontier Definitionbased on the accurate, unromanticized observation of human experiences. It insists on precise description, authentic action and dialogue, moral honesty, and a democratic openness in subject matter and style. Realism as a lit

21、erary movement refers to the approach of realist fiction occurred at the later part of the 19th century. Realism, as a broader term, is also inclusive of naturalism, regionalism and local color writing. Major features Realism reacts against Romanticisms emphasis on intuition, imagination, a dreamy s

22、ense of wonder, idealism, faith in nature, and general optimistic belief in the goodness of things. Realists claim that they seek truth that is verifiable by experience and have practical consequences; they do not seek abstract truth.Realists believe that literature imitates reality. They are attent

23、ive to such details as dialect, customs, and experiences that are commonplace and “real”. Realists try to describe a small portion of the knowable world in order to maintain “objectivity.”Main WritersWilliam Dean HowellsThe Rise of Silas Lapham塞拉斯拉帕姆发迹记Henry JamesThe Portrait of a Lady贵妇画像Literary T

24、heory Art and life:Art must be related to life; it must be life transformed and changed so that the art form would give the truthful impression of actuality. Point of view Psychological realism（心理现实主义）:by emphasizing the inner awareness and inward movements of his characters in face of outside occur

25、rences became the first of the modern psychological analysts in the novel modern stream-of-consciousness technique美国乡土文学Local Color FictionFeaturesLocal color fiction presents a locale which is distinguished from the outside world. describes the exotic and the picturesque. glorifies the past. attemp

26、ts to show things as they are. stresses the influence of setting on character.Dialect peculiarities are the defining characteristic of local color writings. Representatives Mark TwainThe Gilded Age 镀金时代;The Adventures of Tom Sawyer汤姆索亚历险记;The Prince and the Pauper 王子与贫儿;Life on Mississippi密西西比河上;The

27、 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 哈克贝利费恩历险记Style:Vernacular language; Local color. ContributionWilliam Deans Howells called Mark Twain “the Lincoln of literature.” . Combining American frontier humor and serious storytelling conventions with his journalistic style, he produced a body of work of enduri

28、ng value. His writing gives readers a clear sense of life in the prewar Mississippi Valley. Moreover, he initiated the vernacular tradition in American fiction.Francis Bret Harte-the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularityThe Luck of Roaring Camp咆哮营里的幸运儿Harriet Beecher StoweU

29、ncle Toms Cabin汤姆大叔的小屋Kate ChopinThe Awakening觉醒Stephen CraneThe Red Badge of Courage红色英勇勋章Theodore DresierSister Carrie嘉莉妹妹;An American Tragedy美国悲剧 Jack LondonThe Call of the Wild野性的呼唤;Martin Eden 马丁 伊登美国现代诗歌Modern American Poetry-the second flowering(1914-1945)Featurescommon theme:fragmentationstr

30、eam-of-consciousnessIt also fostered a belief in art and literature as an avenue to self-fulfillment.It was characterized by a conscious rejection of established rules, traditions and conventions. The essence of modernism was a break with the pastIt strove to reflect 20th centurys social and politic

31、al changesBackgroundthe consequence of the transformation of society brought about by industrialism and technology in the course of the 19th century. Imagist movement (1908-1917)Imagism意象派Ezra Pound-Leader of the Imagist Movement.Two modernist poetsT.S.Eliothe Waste Land 荒原Robert Frost“The Road Not

32、Taken” “没有走过的路”美国现代小说Modern American FictionSocial backgrounds in the 1920sImpact of World War IThe 1920s: the Roaring 20s（咆哮二十年）Jazz Age（爵士时代）Dollar AgeThe Red Scare 恐共浪潮 The Prohibition (1919-1933) 禁酒令 Lost of faith The Lost Generation named applied to the disillusioned intellectuals and aesthetes

33、 of the years following World War I, who rebelled against former ideals and values but could replace them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. The remark of Gertrude Stein, “You are all a lost generation,” addressed to Hemingway, was used as a preface to the latters novel The Sun Also Rises, which

34、 brilliantly describes an expatriate group typical of the “lost generation.”Two major representativesF. Scott Fitzgerald-the spokesman of the “roaring 20s”The Great Gatsby 了不起的盖茨比 Ernest Hemingway-spokesman for the Lost Generationiceberg theory：The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only on

35、e-eighth of it being above water.The Sun Also Rises太阳照常升起；A Farewell to Arms 永别了，武器；For Whom the Bell Tolls 丧钟为谁而鸣；The Old Man and the Sea 老人与海Hemingway styleHemingways style is noted for its simplicity. In diction, he focus on nouns and verbs and reduces the use of adjectives, especially complicate

36、d adjectives. In sentence structure, he uses coordinated clauses to avoid subordinated clauses that would imply vague judgments. This was especially obvious in his writings in the 1920s.Some other writersSherwood AndersonWinesburg, Ohio 小镇畸人Willa CatherMy Antonia我的安东尼亚Sinclair Lewis-The first Americ

37、an writer to win the Nobel Prize. Main street 大街；Babbitt巴比特John Steinbeckhe Grapes of Wrath愤怒的葡萄Margaret MitchellGone With the Wind飘 美国南方文学Southern American literatureThe American SouthThe American South includes the southeastern states and the southern states along the Gulf of Mexico.This is a uniq

38、ue region where people speak with strong southern accent. The southerners have their distinctive culture, viewpoint, and history. In the southern history, the South was guilty of slavery which began in 1621, the South failed in the Civil War, and the South is relatively poor in a nation of wealth ev

39、en today. Guilt, failure, and poverty make the South dark side of American conscience. Southern Renaissance Here are six myths that southerner have cherished. They are not objectively true, but they are part of the culture and they make the South apart from other regions.Chevalier heritage.骑士 The so

40、utherners held that their ancestors were not Puritans but noble chevaliers who came from England to settle down in the New World. This myth created a pride in the region.Agrarian virtue. 农业美德Plantation aristocracy.种植园农场的贵族生活Lost cause. 失去的事业White supremacy. 白人至上Purity of Southern womanhood. Represen

41、tative Southern writers William Faulkner The Yoknapatawpha Saga约克纳帕塔法世系：The Sound and the Fury 喧嚣与骚动；As I Lay Dying我弥留之际；Absalom, Absalom!押沙龙，押沙龙！；Go Down, Moses去吧，摩西Major features of Faulkners writingsFaulkner used the South to talk about the violence and evil in all human beings.Faulkner was a gre

42、at avant-garde experimenter. He successfully advanced some modernliterary techniques: Stream of consciousness. (interior monologue)Multiple point of viewAuthorial transcendence instead of authorial intrusion. His prose varies from colloquial口语的, regional, to formal diction and cadences节奏 of American

43、 speech. Stream of consciousnessThe continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind; or a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. It is a

44、n important device of modernist fiction. In English literature, novels of stream-of-consciousness are represented by James Joyce and Virginia Wolf. The modern American writer William Faulkner successfully advanced this technique, for example, in his novel, The Sound and the Fury (1929). Thomas WolfL

45、ook Homeward, Angel天使，望乡美国现代戏剧Modern American DramasAmerican drama renaissance in the 1920sEugene ONeil-Founder of modern American drama/regarded as the “American Shakespeare”Bound East for Cardiff 东航卡迪夫(an one-act play, which ushered in the modern era of the American theatre)Beyond the Horizon天边外；T

46、he Emperor Jones 琼斯皇；The Hairy Ape毛猿；Desire under the Elms榆树下的欲望Long Days Journey into Night日长路远夜深沉Expressionism 表现主义Expressionism, artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him. He acco

47、mplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements.In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the late 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subj

48、ective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements. The Little Theater Movement in the 1920s and 1930s Tennessee WilliamsThe Streetcar Named Desire欲望号街车Arthur MillerDeath of a Salesman推销员之死Theater of the Absurd often applied to the modern se

49、nse of human purposelessness in a universe without meaning or value.The classic work of absurdist theater is Becketts En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot, 1952).Edward Albee is most closely connected with the Theater of the Absurd.(Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 谁害怕弗吉尼亚沃尔夫？)美国黑人文学African American

50、LiteratureEarly African American literatureFrederick Douglass; Booker T. Washington;W. E. B. DuBois-The Souls of Black Folks: Essays and Sketches 黑人的灵魂;Jean Toomer Harlem Renaissance Term used to describe a flowering of African-American literature and art in the 1920s, mainly in the Harlem district of New York City. During the mass migration of African Americans from the rural agricultural So