(0097)美国文学史复习思考题new

1、（0097）美国文学史复习思考题I. Write out the authors names of the following works. (15)1. Poor Richards Almanac2. The Wasteland3. The Pioneers4. The Leaves of Grass5. Go Tell it on the Mountain6. For Whom the Bell Tolls?7. Catch 228. Of Mice and Men9. The Sound and the Fury10.Huck Finn11. The Legend of Sleepy H

2、ollow12. The Old Man and the Sea13. Mending Walls14. Beloved15. Invisible Man 16. Beyond the Horizons17. Of Mice and Men 18. The Raven19. The Great Gatsby 20. The Streetcar Named Desire21. Rip van Winkle 22. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening23. The Scarlet Letter 24. Moby Dick25. Desire Under the

3、 Elms26. The Gilded Age27. The Sound and Fury 28. The Road Not Taken29. The Death of a Salesman30. The Pathfinder31. Walden32. Daisy Miller33. Song of Myself34. The Call of the Wild35. Martin Eden36. Long Days Journey into NightII. Define the following literary terms. (20)1. Beat Generation2. Protag

4、onist3. Biography4. Novel5. Anti-hero 6. Free Verse7. Drama8. Jazz Age9. Biography 10. Blank Verse11. Black Humor 12. Head Rhyme13. Surprise ending14. Transcendentalism15. Imagery16. Stream of Consciousness17. Lost Generation18. Short storyIII. Give brief answers to the following questions. (15)1. W

5、ho is the father of American literature? 2. Who is the father of American poetry? 3. What is Poes theory concerning poetry? 4. What is Poes theory concerning the short story? 5. What are the major characteristics of Twains writing style? 6. What are the major characteristics of Irvings writing style

6、? 7. What is “black humor? 8. What is the Harlem Renaissance? 9. What is the New England Renaissance? 10. What are the major characteristics of colonial American literature? 11. What is the Lost Generation? 12. What are Benjamin Franklins contributions to American culture? 13. Why is colonial Americ

7、an literature neither American nor literary? 14. What is the Jazz Age? 15. What is American transcendentalism? 16. What is imagism? 17. What is O. Henry Ending?18. What is free verse?IV. Read the following poem and try to understand and explain it. (30)FogTHE FOG comesOn little cat feet.It sits look

8、ingOver harbor and cityOn silent haunchesAnd then moves onIn a Station of the Metro(Ezra Pound)The Apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.(Consult your book)The Road Not Taken (By Robert Frost)TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be on

9、e traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,Though as for that, the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for

10、 another day!Yet knowing how way leads to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.(Consult your book)Dreams (by Langston Hughes)H

11、old fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.(Consult your book)（0097）美国文学史复习思考题答案I. Write out the authors names of the following works. (15)Benjamin FranklinT. S. EliotJames CooperWalt Whit

12、manJames BaldwellErnest HemingwayJoseph HellerJohn SteinbeckWilliam FaulknerMark TwainWashington IrvingErnest HemingwayRobert FrostToni MorrisonRalph EllisonEugene ONeillJohn SteinbeckAllan PoeF. Scott FitzgeraldTennessee WilliamsWashington IrvingRobert FrostNathaniel HawthorneHerman MelvilleEugene

13、ONeillMark TwainWilliam FaulknerRobert FrostArthur MillerJames CooperH. D. ThoreauHenry JamesWhitmanJack LondonJack LondonONeillII. Define the following literary terms. (20)Beat generation: The term was coined by Jack Kerouac in 1948 to refer to a group of disillusioned writers following World War T

14、wo. Later, this literary and cultural movement continued into the 1960s. The Beat Generation must not be confused with the Lost Generation of writers. Spokesmen and representatives of the Beat Generation were Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and others. They revolted against an America that was material

15、istic, belligerent and frustrating. Social, intellectual and sexual freedom was advocated. Traditional culture and normal social behavior were attacked and violated. Many of them were drug addicts wearing long hair and dirty clothes. They were fond of slangs and jazz. Masterpieces created by writers

16、 of this group include Kerouacs On the Road and Ginsbergs Howl and Other Poems, which were regarded as pocket Bibles of that generation. Other prominent Beats include William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, and Neal Cassady. The Beat Generation, had greatly influ

17、enced the countercultural movements of the 1960s and the adolescents and adults in other countries. In England, the “angry young men” made an echo and imitated the American “beatnik.”Protagonist: the principal character in a play or story; the central character who serves as a focus for the works th

18、emes and incidents and as the principal rationale for its development; and one who is opposed to the antagonist. In the beginning of ancient Greek drama, there were only a chorus and one actorthe leader of the chorus. Thespis invented the first actor. Then Aeschylus and Sophocles added the second an

19、d third actors to the tragedy respectively. The three actors were names Protagonist, Deuteragonist and Tritagonist. In discussions of modern literature, the protagonist is sometimes referred to as the hero or anti-hero.Biography: an account of a persons life written by somebody else, or biographical

20、 writing as a form of literature.Novel: Generally speaking, it is an imaginative prose narrative of extended length dealing with fictional characters and events. The constituent elements of a novel include plot, character, conflict, and setting. But there can be exceptions. Some novels are short. So

21、me novels are not fictional. Some novels are in verse. And some novels do not even tell a story. There have been many debates over the appropriate length of a novel. No established length for a novel has been agreed upon. It is generally held, however, that a full-length novel is longer than a novel

22、la or short novel, and a short novel is longer than a shot story. A novel should be long enough so as to appear in print in an independent volume. The great length of a novel makes it possible for the characters and themes in it to be developed more fully and subtly.Antihero: a main character in a s

23、tory, novel, play or film who behaves in a completely different way from what people expect a hero to do. A non-hero is without the qualities and features of a traditional or old-fashioned hero. He is doomed to fail. Antiheroes of early days were Don Quixote, Macbeth, Rip Van Winkle, and Tristram Sh

24、andy. Examples of antiheroes in modern literature include Leopold Bloom, Jim Dixon, Jimmy Porter, Herzog, and Yassarian.Free verse: a form of poetry without rhyme, meter, regular line length, and regular stanzaic structure. It depends on natural speech for rhythm. Robert Frost compared it to “playin

25、g tennis with the net down.” Though much simpler and less restrictive than conventional poetry and blank verse, free verse does no mean “formlessness.” T. S. Eliot once said that “no verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.” Though its origin is unknown, it was attempted by such early p

26、oets as Surrey, Milton, Blake, and Macpherson. It was Whitman who did the greatest contribution to the development and popularity of free verse. Whitman favored the simplicity and freedom of expression. According to him, “The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of light of letters i

27、s simplicity. Noting is better than simplicity.”Drama: a form of literature written for actors to perform. A drama is divided into acts. An act can be subdivided into scenes. The constituent elements of a drama include dialogue, plot, characters, setting, stage direction, and others. A drama can be

28、as long as three parts called trilogy, or as short as one act only. Greek drama originated in religious ceremonial in honor of Dionysus. Medieval drama developed out of rites celebrating the life events of Jesus Christ. Dramatists of great importance in literary history include Sophocles, Shakespear

29、e, Ibsen, and Shaw. In America, the firs important dramatist was Eugene ONeill who wrote the first serious plays. Before ONeill, America had theatre. Starting from ONeill, it began to have drama.Jazz age: Jazz is a form of dance music that is derived from early Afro-American folk music, ragtime, and

30、 Negro blues. It is marked with exciting rhythm, pronounced syncopation, and constant improvisation. The musical instruments used are mainly drums, trumpets, and saxophones. Major composers of Jazz music include Irvin Berlin and W. C. Handy. The term Jazz Age was specifically employed by Fitzgerald

31、to denote the 1920s, which was characterized by the loss of traditional moral standards, indulgence in romantic yearnings, and great social excitement. According to Malcolm Cowley, the Jazz Age was “a legend of glitter, of recklessness, and of talent in such profusion that it was sown broadcast like

32、 wild oats.” F. Scott Fitzgeralds Tales of the Jazz Age, like Mark Twains The Gilded Age, was an epoch-making work.Autobiography: a story a writer writes about his or her own life experiences. It is narrated from the first-person point of view. The term was probably first used by Southey. But the fi

33、rst important autobiography was Confessions written by Augustine of Hippo. Other examples include Franklins Autobiography, Adamss The Education of Henry Adams, John Stuart Mills Autobiography, Carlyles Reminiscences, Henry David Thoreaus Walden, and so on. Sometimes, an autobiography can be fictiona

34、lized. An example of this kind is Rousseaus Confessions. Some novels and long poems are used for autobiography. Joyces A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Whitmans “Song of Myself” and Wordsworths The Prelude fall in this category. Dickenss David Copperfield, Lawrences Sons and Lovers and ONeil

35、ls Long Days Journey into Night have strong autobiographical elements in them.Blank verse: poetry that does not rhyme but has iambic pentameter lines. Though not originated in England or America, it has been the most important and most widely used English verse form. Blank verse is popular because i

36、t is closest to the rhythm of daily English speech. Thus most English poems which are dramatic, reflective or narrative are in the form of blank verse. This verse was probably first used in England by Surrey who translated Aeneid, by Sackville and Norton who composed Gorboduc. It was developed and p

37、erfected by Marlowe, Shakespeare and Milton. In the 18th century, most poets favored heroic couplets. But Young and Thomson were able to write in the tradition of blank verse. The 19th century saw a renewed interest in this poetic form. Masters of blank verse included Wordsworth, Coleridge and Bryan

38、t. The fact that blank verse is still practiced by writers like T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Frost and Stevens shows how influential and favorable it really is.Black humor: a term frequently used in modern literary criticism. It is sometimes called black comedy or tragic farce. It is humor or laughter resulti

39、ng from great pain, despair, horror and the absurdity of human existence. Black humor is a common quality of modern anti-novels and anti-dramas. Examples are Franz Kafkas stories like “Metamorphosis”, “The Castle” and “The Trial”, Joseph Hellers novel Catch-22 and Albees The Zoo Story. Other writers

40、 who did much contribution to the popularity of black humor were Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, Vonnegut, Pynchon and so on.Head rhyme: the use in verse or prose of several words close together which all begin with the same letter. It is done for special musical effect comparable to the effects of end rhy

41、me. In most cases, alliteration is the repetition of identical initial consonant sounds. Examples are Popes “For fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” Poes “The weary, wayworn wanderer bore,” and Coleridges “Five miles meandering with a mazy motion.” Alliteration of initial vowels is quite limi

42、ted in number. An example of vowel alliteration is “It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.”Surprise Ending: Also called “O. Henry ending,” it is a completely unexpected turn or revelation of events at the conclusion of a story or play. An example is “The Nec

43、klace” by Guy de Maupassant. Another instance is O. Henrys story “The Gift of the Magi.”III. Give brief answers to the following questions. (15)19. Who is the father of American literature? (Consult your book)20. Who is the father of American poetry? (Consult your book)21. What is Poes theory concer

44、ning poetry? (Consult your book)22. What is Poes theory concerning the short story? (Consult your book)23. What are the major characteristics of Twains writing style? (Consult your book)24. What are the major characteristics of Irvings writing style? (Consult your book)25. What is “black humor? (Con

45、sult your book)26. What is the Harlem Renaissance? (Consult your book)27. What is the New England Renaissance? (Consult your book)28. What are the major characteristics of colonial American literature? (See your book)29. What is the Lost Generation? (Consult your book)30. What are Benjamin Franklins contributions to American culture? (See your book)31. Why is colonial American literature neither American nor literary? (See your book)32. What is the Jazz Age? (Consult your book)33. What is American transcendentalism? (Consult your book)34