美国文学选读复习资料

1、American Puritanism 殖民地时期 ( roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th) 一、Benjamin Franklin 本杰明富兰克林 作品：1、Poor Richard's Almanac 格言历书- A Collection of maxims, or proverbs, on the value of work and savings for success.2、The Autobiography 自传-“美国梦”的根

2、源 3、参与起草独立宣言                                                

3、                                           浪漫主义American RomanticismThe Romantic Period str

4、etches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It is a period of the great flowering of American literature.The social and cultural background of RomanticismThe young Republic was flourishing into a politically, economically and culturally independent countr

5、y.The Romantic writings revealed unique characteristics of their own in their works and they grew on the native lands.The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature.The American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great in

6、fluences over American moral values.Romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the&

7、#160;natural world was a source of goodness and mans societies as a source of corruption.                       

8、60;                                                 

9、60;                 二、Edgar Allan Poe 埃德加·爱伦·坡-poet, short story writer and literary critic (48 poems,70 short stories)  He greatl

10、y influenced the devotees of “Art for arts sake.” He was father of psychoanalytic criticism (心理分析批评), and the detective story. 诗歌的精髓就是追求美 小说的主题常常是恐怖和死亡，其中还运用了象征手法。   The Poeti

11、c Principle : 1. The poem, should be short, readable at one sitting;                     2. Beauty (the rhythmical creat

12、ion of beauty);   3. Melancholy 忧伤(especially the death of a beautiful woman). 代表作：The Fall of the House of Usher 厄舍大厦的倒塌         Ligeia 莉盖亚 

13、;          Annabel Lee 安娜贝尔·李         The Raven 乌鸦          The Cask of Amontillado 阿芒提拉多的酒桶-gothic novel 人物：蒙

14、特利瑟Montresor, 弗图纳多Fortunato ，筵席上男人将喝醉的死对头哄骗至地窖并砌墙活埋的故事。 三爱默生Emerson = The chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism 超验主义He was a descendent（后裔） of a long line of New England clergymen牧师【pastor】.散文家、诗人、超验主义的哲学的主要倡导者。American Transcendentalism   

15、; As a philosophical and literary movement, American Transcendentalism (also known as “ American Renaissance”) flourshed in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War. It is the high tide of American romanticism and its doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in Emerson and

16、 Thoreau. Transcendentalists spoke for the cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society.Transcendentalism 超验主义(+ H. D. Thoreau; Nathaniel Hawthorne; )The major features of Transcendentalism: The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Ov

17、ersoul, as the most important thing in the universe. 思想 超灵 宇宙 The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual is the most important element of Society. 个体+社会 The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symboli

18、c of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with Gods overwhelming presence. 自然+上帝代表作：Nature论自然-the Bible of Transcendentalism by Emerson ；          Self-Reliance 论自助 -是表达他的超验主义观点的最重要作

19、品之一一      The American Scholar论美国学者 ；         The Over-soul  论超灵四、Nathaniel Hawthorne纳撒尼尔·霍桑 - effected by 超验主义  He was born into a pro

20、minent Puritan family.  One of the most ambivalent（矛盾的）writers in the American literary history.  主要成就： 美国心理分析小说的开创者            浪漫主义小说家    &

21、#160;       心理小说家    代表作：Mosses from an Old Manse 古宅青苔;         Twice-Told Tales 故事重述;         The Marble Faun

22、 玉石雕像;  The House of the Seven Gables 带有七个尖角阁的房子          The Scarlet Letter红字  Many of his earlier stories had treated themes that led to&#

23、160;The Scarlet Letter. Theme: Puritan severity toward sex and matrimony and its tendency to suppress bright color and true feelings.   The Scarlet Letter红字 ： Hester Pryn

24、ne-strong-willed, impetuous, a king of compassionate, maternal figure; Pearl-innocent, perceptive; Roger Chillingworth-a man deficient in human warmth, true evil in the story; Arthur Di

25、mmesdale-intelligent and emotional.   Symbolism in his works Hawthorne is a master of symbolism, which he took from the Puritan tradition 清教徒传统and bequeathed to American 

26、literature in a revivified form. In his masterpiece, by using Pearl as a thematic symbol, Hawthorne emphasizes the consequence the sin of adultery has brought to the 

27、;community and people living in that community. With the scarlet A as the biggest symbol of all, which is ambiguous, he proves himself to be one of the best

28、0;symbolists.五、Herman Melville 赫尔曼·梅尔维尔   The early sailing experiences were rewarding. 代表作： White Jacket 白外衣           Billy Budd毕利·伯德,    

29、      Typee泰比,           Omoo欧穆,           Mardi玛地.           Moby Dick 1851 白鲸-百科全书式性质/海洋作品/动物

30、史诗（ 熊 福克纳、老人与海 海明威、白鲸梅尔维尔）  Moby Dick represents the sum total of Melvilles bleak view of the worldin which he lived. It is at once Godless and purposeless. Man

31、 in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life, meaningless because futile.Once he attempts to seek power over it he is doomed. The idea that man can mak

32、e the world for himself is nothing but a Transcendentalist folly. Moby Dick thus reveals the basic pattern of 19th century American life: loneliness and suicidal individu

33、alism in a self-styled democracy. (a negative reflection upon Transcendentalism)   Symbolism in Moby Dick： -It is regarded as the first American prose epic.  It is&#

34、160;not merely a whaling tale or sea adventure, considering that Melville is a great symbolist. It turns out to be a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of

35、0;the truth 寻找真理and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into mans deep reality and psychology. -Different people on board the ship are representations of differ

36、ent ideas and different social and ethnic groups; facts become symbols and incidents acquire universal meanings; the Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voya

37、ge becomes a search for truth. The white whale, Moby Dick, symbolizes nature for Melville, for it is complex, unfathomable难以理解的,malignant恶性的, and beautiful as well. 六H. D. Thoreau 

38、梭罗and his workWalden 瓦尔登湖not only fully demonstrates Emersonian ideas of self-reliance but also develops and tests Thoreaus own transcendental philosophy. 七Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 朗费罗Features of Longfellows poetic works1) lChief romantic tendencies as humanitarian attitude, love of

39、 nature and love of beauty.2) lThe first American poet to write narrative poems.3) lConventional style and subjects4) lGenerally simple ideas expressed musically and powerfully.5) lSimplicity and detachment from the deep problems of contemporary life19世纪美国最伟大的浪漫主义诗人之一。传统派，励志型。 诗集： 夜吟Voices of the Ni

40、ght 歌谣及其他Ballads and Other Poems 伊凡杰琳Evangeline 海依华沙之歌The Song of Hiawatha 诗歌： 我射出一支箭······ I Shot an Arrow. A Psalm of Life 生命颂/人生颂-第一首被完整地介绍到中国的美国诗歌八、Walt Whitman  沃尔特·惠特曼  美国著名诗人、人文主义者，他创造了诗歌的自由体（Free Verse-without a fixed

41、 beat or regular rhyme scheme.），The first edition of Leaves of Grass 草叶集 was published in 1855.  In this giant work, openness, freedom, and above all, individualism&

42、#160;are all that concerned him.  Writing features of Whitman -A singer for the ideals of equality, democracy and human dignity. -Songs for himself, for the labour o

43、f common American people, natural creation, the independence of the country, love and friendship, and for the memorizing of President Lincoln. -Free verse, rhythmical unit, ph

44、onetic recurrence.  诗歌： 我歌唱自我One's Self I Sing 噢，船长！ 我的船长！O Captain! My Captain!九、Emily Dickinson（19世纪唯一出名的女作家）-I Died for Beauty, because I could not stop for Death.  美国女

45、诗人，狄金森一生都没有离开过自己的家乡，对她的诗歌风格产生直接影响的是爱默生的诗歌，她的诗歌预示了20世纪诗歌的诞生。 宅女，想象力，诗歌（死亡、爱情、失败、无标点）  Whitman: society Dickinson: inner life of the individual  Most of her poems are about death and immortality. N

46、ature is to her both benevolent and cruel.  Emily was an energetic and outgoing woman while attending the Academy and Seminary.  Most of her poems are about

47、0;life and nature. They are short; many of them are based on a single image or symbol. 作品：要描绘一片草原······ To Make a Prairie       最美妙的胜利感

48、觉 Success Is Counted Sweetest       我是无名之辈 I'm Nobody!                              &#

49、160;                                                  &

50、#160;         The Age of Realism The war led many to question the assumptions shared by the transcendentalists - natural goodness, the optimistic view

51、 of nature and man, benevolent God. It taught men that life was not good, man was not and God was not. As a literary movement, the Age of Realism came

52、 into existence after Romanticism with the Civil War It was a reaction against “the lie” of Romanticism and sentimentalism, and paved the way to Modernism. This lite

53、rary interest in the so-called “reality” of life started a new period in the American literary writing known as The Age of Realism.  The three dominant figures 

54、of the period:William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, Henry James  James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society.  Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle&#

55、160;class life.   Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society.   Mark Twain and Howells seemed to have paid more attention to the “life” of the

56、60;Americans, and Henry James had apparently laid greater emphasis on the “inner world” of man.                      

57、60;                                                 

58、60;                    十、Mark Twain 马克·吐温   Writing: humor and local colorism   The characteristics of local colorism:&#

59、160; -Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories. This particular concern about the local character of a region came about

60、0;as “local colorism” a unique variation of American literary realism. -Local Colorism or Regionalism first appeared in the late 1860s and early seventies in America. Hamlin&#

61、160;Garland defined local colorism as having “such quality of texture and background that it could not have been written in any other place or by anyone else than

62、60;a native.” The ultimate aim of the local colorists is to create the illusion of an indigenous土产的 little world with qualities that tell it apart from the world

63、0;outside. -Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They tended to idealize and glorify, but they never forgot&#

64、160;to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life.代表作：  Life on the Mississippi 密西西比河上            The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 汤姆·

65、索亚历险记            The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 哈克贝里·费恩历险记 -(Mark Twains most representative work)    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -The 

66、;novel is written in a language that is totally different from the rhetorical language used by Emerson, Poe, and Melville. -His characters, confined to a particular regio

67、n and to a particular historical moment, speak with a strong accent, which is true of his local colorism. -The rich material of his boyhood experience on the Mi

68、ssissippi became the endless resources for his fiction, and the Mississippi valley and the West became his major theme. -His humor, a kind of artistic style used to&

69、#160;criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism, is remarkable.  人物：Huckleberry Finn、Jim、Tom Sawyer、Widow Douglas and Miss Watson、Pap The Duke and Dauphin (公爵和法

70、国皇太子） Henry James 亨利·詹姆斯 作品：The Portrait of a Lady 一个女士的画像    Daisy Miller 黛西·密勒  The international theme: the meeting of America and Europe, American innocence

71、 in contact and contrast with European decadence and the moral and psychological complications arising therefrom. Like Hawthorne, James regarded evil as essentially of inward 

72、cause and repeatedly emphasized magnanimity and the beauty of goodness.  Psychological Realism 心理现实主义 It is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities of&#

73、160;characters thoughts and motivations. And Henry James is considered the founder of psychological realism. He believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on&#

74、160;the spectator, and not in any facts of which the spectator is unaware. Such realism is therefore merely the obligation that the artist assumes to represent life 

75、as he sees it. American Naturalism 自然主义The impact of Darwins evolutionary theory达尔文进化论 on the American thought and the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to another school of realism: American naturalism.The natur

76、alists emphasized that the world was amoral与道德无关的, that men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity遗传 and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion湮没 in death.代表作家 Stephen Crane；Frank Norris；Theodore Dreise

77、r；Edwin Arlington Robinson；Upton Sinclair；Jack London；O HenryStephen Crane：Maggie: A Girl of the Streets街头女郎麦姬；The Red Badge of Courage；红色英勇勋章The Open Boat；海上扁舟Theodore Dreiser：Trilogy of Desire:1.The

78、 Financier2. The Titan3. The Stoic；  Sister Carrie；Jennie Gerhardt；An American TragedyO.Henry (William Sydney Porter)：The Gift of the Magi；The Cop and the anthem              

79、                                                  

80、                          The Modern Period The Modern Period ：The 1920s-1930s ( the second renaissance of American literature) 又称：-The Roaring Twenties (economically) -T

81、he Jazz Age (socially) -“lost” and “waste land” (spiritually)，其中，“lost”来源：Gertrude Stein “waste land”来源T.S.EliotThe historic and cultural background -The USAs participation in World Warmarked a crucial stage in the nations evolution to a world power. -By the second decade of the 20th century, the US

82、A had become the most powerful industrialized nation in the world. -There was a decline in moral standard and the first few decades of the 20th century was best described as a spiritual wasteland. There had been a big flush of new theories and new ideas in both social and natural sciences. Darwinism

83、 (Darwin), Socialism (Karl Marx), Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud)The Lost Generation The term “Lost Generation” came from Gertrude Stein, who had a salon in her house for English and American expatriates in Paris. The Phrase was a remark she made to a mechanic in Hemingways presence that “You are all

84、 a lost generation.” Gertrude Stein used the term to describe the post-World War I generation of American writers: men and women haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness brought about by the destructiveness of the war. The term is commonly applied to Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra P

85、ound, Sherwood Anderson, John Dos Passos, E.E. Cummings and some others. Winners of Nobel Prize for Literature during this period : Sinclair Lewis (1930) 第一个获奖的美国人(特点：Main Street, Babbitt); Eugene ONeill (1936); Pearl S. Buck (1938); T.S. Eliot (1948); William Faulkner (1949); Ernest Hemingway (1954

86、); John Steinbeck (1962)十一、F. Scott Fitzgerald 弗·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德 American Dream In the United States Declaration of Independence独立宣言, our founding fathers: "held certain truths to be sel

87、f-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit 

88、;of Happiness." .  作品 ：The Side of Paradise 人间天堂        The Beautiful and the Damned 漂亮的冤家        Flappers and Philosophers 姑娘们与哲学家们 &#

89、160;      Tales of the Jazz Age 爵士乐时代的故事        Tender is the Night 夜色温柔        The Crack-up 崩溃        The Las

90、t Tycoon (unfinished)  The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby is a man driven by greed, ambition and, most of all, an unwavering desire for a woman he met before the&

91、#160;Great War, when he was poor and she was unobtainable. As Gatsby reinvents himself in an attempt to buy his way into the social elite of Long Island's G

92、old Coast, he yearns to rekindle his romance with the woman who stole his heart years before. But when the chance finally arrives, a shadow of tragedy is cast&#

93、160;over what Gatsby long imagined would be his triumphant moment.The Great Gatsby 了不起的盖茨比被视为美国文学“爵士时代”的象征，以美国梦American Dream为主线。“迷惘的一代”人物: Gatsby盖茨比，Daisy黛西，Tom汤姆，Nick尼克，Myrtle（汤姆的情妇），Wilson（汤姆情妇的丈夫）十二.William Faulkner(1897-1962  1949 Nobel price:“f

94、or his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.”“Stream of Consciousness” 意识流or “interior monologue”,内心独白 is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a characters thoughts, feeling

95、s, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce.He often employs stream of consciousness narrative, discards and notion of chronological order, uses multiple narrations, shifts between the present and past tense, and tends toward impossibly long and complex sentences.写作特点、内容：ü Yokn