英语专业四八级美文学要点课件

1、Introduction to American literature1.The Colonial Period2.The Romantic Period (the first half of 19th century) 3.The Age of Realism and Naturalism4.The Period around WWI5.The Modern Period第1页，共64页。I. The Colonial Period (the early 17th and 18th century) 1. Puritanism: idealism and opportunism2. Benj

2、amin Franklin本杰明富兰克林 : “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”自传 Poor Richards Almanac穷查理历书 (containing witty maxims for achieving wealth as a result of hard work and thrift)3.Philip Freneau (poem)菲利普弗伦诺 The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲 第2页，共64页。American PuritanismPuritans The early settlers foun

3、ding fathers of the America nationTo purify the rituals and lessen the authority of bishops escaped to the new world, create a new paradise advocate highly religious and moral principles. American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature.

4、第3页，共64页。Chapter Two American Romanticism and New England Literature第4页，共64页。Logic ThreadAmerican RomanticismPre-romanticism1770s-1830sPost-romanticism (New EnglandTranscendentalism)Flowering time before American Civil War 1830-1860 Declining time after American Civil War 1865-1875 第5页，共64页。Represen

5、tative figures of the time: Pre-romanticism: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper库珀 Post-romanticism: Novelists: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville Poets: Henry Wadesworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Essayists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, -Nature Henry David Thoreau第6页，共

6、64页。American Romanticism The romantic period stretches from the end of the eighteenth century through the outbreak of the Civil War (1790-1865).1. Background (1) Political background and economic development Territorial Expansion Industrial Growth The Civil War The “newness” of Americans as a nation

7、 is in connection with American Romanticism. optimism and hope among the people There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. (2) foreign influence Romantic movement in European countries 第7页，共64页。American RomanticismRomanticism was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationali

8、sm. For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense. They stressed the close relationship between man and nature;They emphasized individualism and affirmed the inner life of the self. 第8页，共64页。Washington Irving (1783-1859)华盛顿欧文早期浪漫主义小说家A History

9、of New York纽约的历史-美国人写的第一部诙谐文学杰作； The Sketch Book见闻札记 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说-使之成为美国第一个获得国际声誉的作家 Rip Van Winkle 第9页，共64页。James Fenimore Cooper 1789-1851詹姆斯费尼莫尔库珀早期浪漫主义小说家 “Leatherstocking Tales”皮裹腿故事集a series of five novels, that is the Pioneers拓荒者(I823) the Last of the Mohicans(1826)最后的莫希干人

10、 The Prairie(1827)大草原 The Pathfinder(1840)探路者 The Deerslayer(1841)杀鹿者 adventure into the wilderness of the West/第10页，共64页。2.The summit of Romanticism- New England Transcendentalism / 1. Emerson / “Nature”2. Henry David Thoreau / “ Walden”3.Whitman / “Leaves of Grass”4. Hawthorn / “ The Scarlet Lette

11、r” 5.Herman Meville “Moby Dick”第11页，共64页。Post-romanticism (New England Transcendentalism)What is Transcendentalism?1.Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)爱默生 The leading New England Transcendentalist “Nature”论自然-新英格兰超验主义者的宣言书 ;The American Scholar论美国学者2.Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862) Transcendentalist Emer

12、sons friend Walden第12页，共64页。The major features of Transcendentalism1.The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe.2. The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important eleme

13、nt of society.3. The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, not purely matter. It was alive, filled with Gods overwhelming presence.第13页，共64页。The Development of Transcendentalism Nature (in 1836) by Ralph Waldo EmersonNatures vo

14、ice pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, the summit of American Romanticism.Transcendentalist Club Transcendentalism was indebted to the dual heritage of American Puritanism, the religious idealism of their Puritan past.Transcendentalists emphasis

15、 on the individual was directly traceable to the Puritan principle of self-culture and self-improvement. Thus there is good reason to state that New England Transcendentalism was Romanticism on the Puritan soil. New England Transcendentalism was important to American literature. It inspired a whole

16、new generation of famous authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman and Dickinson. 第14页，共64页。Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864) Novels: Scarlet Letter红字 Hester Prynne; The House of Seven Gables七个尖角阁的房子; The Blithedale Romance福谷传奇; The Marble Faun大理石神像 Short story collections: Twice-T

17、old Tales 故事新编 Moses from an Old Manse古屋青苔第15页，共64页。Herman Melville赫尔曼梅尔维尔1819-1891Moby Dick/The White Whale莫比迪克/白鲸 第16页，共64页。Edgar Allan Poe埃德加爱伦坡1809-1849The first professional writer in America The first writer of detective story in the world-歌特风格；首开近代侦探小说先河，又是法国象征主义运动的源头The Fall of the House of

18、Usher厄舍古屋的倒塌(novel); The Raven乌鸦(poem) Tamerlane and Other Poems帖木儿和其他诗; To Hellen致海伦（以诗为诗；永为世人共赏的伟大抒情诗人-叶芝） 第17页，共64页。Walt Whitman(1819-1892)沃尔特惠特曼 One of the great innovators in American PoetryFree verseGrowing up in a working-class background, having little educationLeaves of Grass草叶集 Song of Mys

19、elf”自我之歌 reveals a world of equality, without rank and hierarchy.第18页，共64页。poetsEmily Dickinson(1830-1886) The Poems of Emily Dickinson埃米莉迪金森诗集(love, death,nature,friendship, and immortality) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow亨利沃兹沃思朗费罗1807-1882 A Psalm of Life生命礼赞（short poem） The Song of Hiawatha海华沙之歌-美国人写的

20、第一部印第安人史诗; William Cullen Bryant 1794-1878柯伦布莱恩特 To a Waterfowl致水鸟-英语中最完美的短诗 第19页，共64页。Harriet Beecher Stowe哈丽特比彻斯托1811-1896 Uncle Toms Cabin汤姆叔叔的小屋 第20页，共64页。Chapter 3The Age of Realism and Naturalism第21页，共64页。The three strong advocates of 19th century American realismWilliam Dean Howells (critic)豪

21、威尔斯 Henry James亨利詹姆斯Mark Twain马克吐温 第22页，共64页。Henry James1842-1910 James novels “international situation” are set against a background between America and EuropeJames contribution to literary criticism is immense. To him, “art without life is a poor affair”. “the aim of the novel is to represent life

22、”. His realism was called as Psychological realism. He was esp. an observer of the mind rather than a recorder of the times. The American, Daisy MillerThe Portrait of a Lady贵妇人画像 The Wings of the Dove鸽翼The Ambassadors大使 第23页，共64页。Mark Twain马克吐温1. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”汤姆索耶历险记 2. “The Adventu

23、res of Huckleberry Finn” -his masterpiece/哈克贝利费恩历险记 The Gilded Age镀金时代 3. Famous for his localism, colloquial style, humor and bitter attacks 第24页，共64页。American Naturalism : pessimistic realism1. Naturalism came from France.2. Reasons: civil war, social upheavalsDarwins theory of evolution : the sur

24、vival of the fittest” Men were conditioned dominated by social and economic forces, by heredity and environment.3. Features of naturalist writing: A. naturalist writers turned literary creation into a mechanical record of society, in a way of attempting to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness.

25、They never made comments on the characters and their behaviors. B. The characters were often figures of low social and economic classesC. They stressed men had no free will, their lives were controlled by heredity and environment. 第25页，共64页。American Naturalism4. American Naturalist writers: Stephen

26、Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London, Henry Adams, Theodore Dreiser.第26页，共64页。Stephen Crane(1871-1900)斯蒂芬克莱恩 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets街头女郎梅姬（美国文学史上首次站在同情立场上描写受辱妇女的悲惨命运） The Red Badge of Courage红色英勇勋章 The Black Riders (his first book of poems)第27页，共64页。Theodore Dreiser(1871-1945)Dreisers worksSister

27、Carrie 1900(A feather in wind, she is totally at the mercy of forces she cannot comprehend and control. She does not seem to possess what may be called a moral fibre in her.)Jennie Gerhardt 1911Trilogy of Desire欲望三部曲(Financer金融家1912,The Titan巨人1914,The Stoic斯多葛1915)An American Tragedy美国的悲剧1925（被称为美国

28、最伟大的小说）第28页，共64页。Frank Norris (1870-1902)弗兰克诺里斯 The Octopus 1901章鱼 第29页，共64页。Jack London(1876 - 1916)杰克伦敦 Martin Edenmasterwork马丁伊登 The Call of the Wild野性的呼唤 The Sea-Wolf海狼White Fang白獠牙 第30页，共64页。O Henry (1862-1910)欧享利 1. “The Gift of Magi”2. “The Cop and the Anthem” 3. Famous for his fascinating pl

29、ot, humorous touch, interesting puns, localism, and unexpected endings.第31页，共64页。American literature in the 1920s and 1930s1. Poets: T. S. Eliot / “the Waste Land” Robert Frost2. Novelists: Fitzgerald / “the Great Gatsby” Hemingway / “Farewell to Arms” Faulkner / wrote about the South 第32页，共64页。Amer

30、ican literature in the 1920sPoetry: T. S. Eliot The Wasteland. Novel: Sinclair Lewis Main Street 1920 Theodore Dreiser An American Tragedy 1925, sister carrieF. S. Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby 1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises 1926, A Farewell to Arms, 1929, William Faulkner The Sound and th

31、e Fury, 1929, Drama: Eurgene ONeill, The Emperor Jones, 1920, Anna Christie, 1921, The Hairy Ape 1922, Harlem Renaissance. 第33页，共64页。Jazz AgeHistorical Background: WWI, peace-making period/boom time. After WWI, people found that the war which cost millions of lives failed to provide an abiding solut

32、ions to the worlds problems, that the war was just the traps of political leaders. Such a disillusionment about the value of war, accompanied by the booming of American economy drove people to cynical hedonism. People experiment with new amusements. They restlessly pursued stimulus and pleasures, wa

33、llow in heavy drinking, fast driving and casual sex. By these, they hoped to seek relief from serious problems.第34页，共64页。The Lost Generation迷惘的一代 a disillusionment about the value of war disgusted by the new frivolous, greedy way of life in AmericaWhen the First World War broke out, many idealistic

34、young Americans volunteered to take part in the war and test their own bravery. They discovered that modern warfare was not glorious or heroic. Disillusioned by slogans of patriotism and glory, disgusted by the new frivolous, greedy way of life in America, many of these young Americas began to write

35、. Some writers left America and formed a community of writers and artists in Paris. They stood aside, as onlookers, and wrote about they saw. They wrote from their own experiences in the war, and their own observations.他们不再相信虚伪的道德说教，而以玩世不恭的生活态度来表示自己的消极抗议。“迷惘的一代”的代表作是海明威的太阳照样升起（1926）。 第35页，共64页。The L

36、ost Generation迷惘的一代 An American woman writer named Gertrude Stein(1874-1946), who had lived in Paris since 1903, welcomed the young American writers to her apartment which was already famous as a literary salon. Gertrude Stein was the advisor, friend of some of the American artists and writers of th

37、e time. Ezra Pound joined her group for a few years in the early 1920s. Together, they encouraged and helped such young writers as the novelist Ernest Hemingway and E.E.Cummings, and F.Scott Fitzgerald. Many other writers were drawn to Gertrude Steins home. She called them “The Lost Generation”, a n

38、ame which stuck to them, because they had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing which had never been tried before.第36页，共64页。Ernest Hemingway(1899-1961)his stories of courage in the face of tragedy Iceberg TheoryThe Sun Also Rises 1926A Farewell to Arms

39、 1929永别了，武器 For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940以西班牙内战为背景的反法西斯主义的长篇小说丧钟为谁而鸣 The Old Man and the Sea 1952老人与海塑造了以桑提亚哥为代表的“可以把他消灭，但就是打不败他”的“硬汉形象”一个人并不是生来要被打败的，你尽可以把他消灭掉，可就是打不败他。 第37页，共64页。Hemingway heroHe is sensitive, intelligent. He is a man of action and of few words. He is alone even when with other peopl

40、e. He is somewhat an outsider, keeping emotion under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place when one can not get happiness. In a world which is essentially chaotic and meaningless, a Hemingway hero fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The awareness

41、 that it must end in defeat, no matter how hard he strives, engenders a sense of despair, but Hemingway hero possesses a kind of despairing courage. It is this courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. This is the essence of a code of honor in which

42、 all of Hemingways heroes believe. 第38页，共64页。F.Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)The literary spokesman of Jazz Age This Side of Paradise 1920人间天堂 The Beautiful and Damned 1921漂亮冤家 The Great Gatsby 1925了不起的盖茨比(The American Dream is dead) Tender Is The Night 1934夜色温柔 The Last Tycoon 1941最后的巨头第39页，共64页。Will

43、iam Faulkner(1897-1962)get Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930stream-of-consciousness and multiple point of view.约克纳帕塔法世系小说 （Yoknapatawpha County）The Sound and the Fury 喧嚣与骚动 As I Lay Dying 我弥留之际Sanctuary圣堂 Light in August八月之光 Absalom, Absalom! 押沙龙，押沙龙 Go Down, Moses去吧，摩西 第40页，共64页。Sherwood Anderson(

44、1876-1941) 舍伍德安德森 Winesburg, Ohio 1919俄亥俄州的温斯堡Poor White 1920穷白人 Death in the Woods 1933最后一本重要短篇集林中之死及其它（海明威和菲茨杰拉德都受过他很大影响，海明威曾说：“他是我们所有人的老师”。 第41页，共64页。Sinclair Lewis辛刘易斯(1885-1951)Main Street 1920Babbitt 1922The first American writer to get Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930(美国第一个获诺贝尔奖) Babbitt: p

45、resents a documentary picture of the narrow and limited middle-class mind辛刘易斯的大街（1920）粉碎了“村镇是美好的世外桃源”的神话。他后来的作品对商业、科技、宗教界的问题都作了揭露，他所塑造的巴比特成了庸俗、浮夸、讲求实利的中产阶级的典型人物 第42页，共64页。Imagism意像派 Background：Imagism came as a reaction to the traditional English poetics to meet the need of expressing the temper of

46、the age. (the rapid change of society)the leader: Ezra Pound (1) Direct treatment Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective(2) Economy of Expression To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation: (3) Rhythm As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequen

47、ce of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome. 第43页，共64页。Ezra Pound (1885-1972)艾兹拉庞德 Cantos 诗章In a Station of the Metro在巴黎地铁站第44页，共64页。Robert Frost(1874-1963)The most popular American poet of the 20th centuryThe Road Not Taken没有走过的道路雪夜林畔小驻Mending Wall修墙 第45页，共64页。20th centuryLittle Th

48、eatre movement andGeorge Pierce Baker (47 Workshop at Harvard) experimental plays by such students as Eugene ONeill and Sidney Howardthe Theatre of the Absurd(荒诞派戏剧)第46页，共64页。Eugene ONeill(1888-1953)尤金奥尼尔 The Americas greatest playwright, and the only one to receive the Nobel PrizeThe Emperor Jones琼

49、斯皇The Hairy Ape 1922毛猿 Beyond the Horizon天边外 Desire under the elms(1923)The iceman cometh(1946)Long Days Journey into night(1955);送冰的人来了; 第47页，共64页。Arthur Miller (1915-)PlaywrightDeath Of A Salesman 1949第48页，共64页。American literature in the 1930sBackground: a dark decadeThe Great DepressionLeft-wing

50、writing become the main stream of 1930s American literatureJohn Dos Passos John Steibeck第49页，共64页。John Steinbeck(1902-1968)Awarded Nobel Prize in 1962The Grape of Wrath 1939Of Mice and Men(1937)Tortilla Flat煎饼坪1935In Dubious Battle 1936胜负未决第50页，共64页。John Dos Passos1896-1970Manhattan Transfer (1925).

51、 His USA trilogy: The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932) The Big Money (1936). （The USA trilogy also included what became known as newsreels ）The big Time最好的岁月The Grand Design伟大的设想第51页，共64页。VI. Modern times 1. A great variety of literary trends2. Black literature / Alex Haley / “Roots”3. Jewish write

52、r / Saul Bellow 第52页，共64页。American literature after World War IIThe Beat Generation垮掉的一代 In the middle of the 1950s, a group of writers in San Francisco put on a concerted and well-publicized rebellion against “official” American life and culture. The leaders were poet Allen Ginsberg and novelist Ja

53、ck Kerouac. Kerouac杰克凯鲁亚克 named the group Beat. The Beat Movement was a revolt against the frightened, conservative political mood created by Senator McCarthy, against the greedy, money-seeking “respectable” life of the dominant middle class but particularly against the literary formalism of America

54、n writing after the Second World War.第53页，共64页。The Beat Generation垮掉的一代In literature, they took Walt Whitman as their model, who had broken all the literary rules of his time and lived an exuberant, free life. In rejecting the carefully written works of their contemporary writers, the Beats instead

55、wanted to write with complete spontaneity and honesty. They wanted to express emotion “raw”, exactly as it was felt, rather than “cooked” through memory and translation into art. Jack Kerouac杰克凯鲁亚克在路上(On the Road, 1957)， ；艾伦金斯堡 第54页，共64页。The year 1960 “black humor” The liberation from official standards of correctness gav