美國文學(xué)簡史筆記常耀信

1、A C o n c i s e H i s t o r y o f A m e r i c a n L i t e r a t u r e What is literature? Literature is languageartistically used to achieveidentifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages. Chapter 1 Colonial Period I. Background: Puritanism 1. features of Puritanism (1) Predestinat

2、ion: God decided everything before things occurred. (2) Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation. (3) Total depravity (4) Limited atonement: Only the “ elect ” can be saved. 2. Influence (1) A group of good qualities hard

3、 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 msetaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary

4、 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, histor

5、ies, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons 2. writers of colonial period (1) Anne Bradstreet (2) Edward Taylor (3) Roger Williams (4) John Woolman (5) Thomas Paine (6) Philip Freneau III. Jonathan Edwards 1. life 2. works (1) The Freedom of the Will (2) The Great Doct

6、rine of Original Sin Defended (3) The Nature of True Virtue 3. ideas- pion eer of tran see nden talism (1) The spirit of revivalism (2) Regeneration of man (3) God s presece (4) Puritan idealism IV. Benjamin Fran kli n 1. life 2. works (1) Poor Richard Almanac (2) Autobiography 3. con tributi on (1)

7、 He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society. (2) He was called “ the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricityBet)nfsom heaven ”. (3) Everything seems to meet in this one man- “ Jack of all trades” . Herman Melville thus described him“ master of each and m

8、astered by none”. Chapter 2 America n Roma nticism Secti on 1 Early Roma ntic Period What is Roma nticism? An approach from an cie nt Greek: Plato A literary trend: 18c in Britai n (1798T832) Schlegel Bros. I. Preview: Characteristics of roma nticism 1. subjectivity (1) feeling and emotions, finding

9、 truth (2) emphasis on imagination (3) emphasis on individualism- personal freedom, no hero worship, natural goodness of human beings 2. back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature (1) unrestrained by classical rules (2) full of imagination (3) colloquial language (4) freedom of imagination (5) g

10、enuine in feelings: answer their call for classics 3. back to nature natureis “ breathing living thing” (Rousseau) II. American Romanticism 1. Background (1) Political background and economic development (2) Romantic movement in European countries Derivative - foreig n in flue nee 2. features (1) Am

11、eriean romantieism was in essenee the expression of al new experien“eeaarned contained “an alien qualitfyor the si”mple reason that“the spirit ofptlhacee ” was radically new and alien. (2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moral

12、ize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained. (3) The “ newness ”of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism. (4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent. III.

13、Washington Irving 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

14、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) 18091832 a. Subjects are either Englis

15、h or European b. Conservative love for the antique (2) 18321859: back to US 5. style - beautiful (1) gentility, urbanity, pleasantness (2) avoiding moralizing - amusing and entertaining (3) enveloping stories in an atmosphere (4) vivid and true characters (5) humour - smiling while reading (6) music

16、al language IV. James Fenimore Cooper 1. life 2. works (1) Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen Pride and Prejudic)e s (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 Pa

17、thfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie 3. point of view the theme of wildernessvs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change,aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights 4. style (1) highly imaginative (2) good at inventing tales (3) good at landscape description (4) conservative (5) c

18、haracterization wooden and lacking in probability (6) language and use of dialect not authentic 5. 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

19、 the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper sLeatherstocking 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. Secti on 2 Summit o

20、f Roma nticisn America n Transcenden talism I. Background: four sources 1. Unitarianism (1) Fatherhood of God (2) Brotherhood of men (3) Leadership of Jesus s character) (4) Salvation by character (perfection of one (5) Continued progress of mankind (6) Divinity of mankind (7) Depravity of mankind 2

21、. 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 II. Appearance 1836, “ Nature ” by Emerson III. Features 1. spirit/oversoul 2. importance of individualism 3. nat

22、ure - symbol of spirit/God garment of the oversoul 4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness) IV. 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 stressedreligious tolerance, called to throw of

23、f shacklesof 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 t necessity for rising to spi

24、ritual height. 3. It helped to create the first American renaissanee one of the most prolific period in American literature. V. Ralph Waldo Emerson 1. life 2. works (1) Nature (2) Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet 3. point of view (1) One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief i

25、n the transcendenceof 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 h

26、ope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by infinitude of man (4) Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by making himself. 4. aesthetic ideas (1) He is a complete man, an eternal man. (2) True poetry and true art sh

27、ould ennoble. (3) The poet should express his thought in symbols. (4) As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself. 5. his influence VI. Henry David Thoreau 1. life 2. works (1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River (2) Walden (3)

28、A Plea for John Brown (an essay) 3. point of view (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

29、restorative, healthy influence on man s spiritu-bael iwngel.l (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 disgustedwith “the inundations of the dirty institutions of mens odd-

30、fellow society ”. (8) He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men. Section 3 Late Romanticism I. Nathaniel Hawthorne 1. life 2. works (1) Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse (2) The Scarlet Letter (3) The House of the Sev

31、en Gables (4) The Marble Faun 3. point of view (1) Evil is at the core of human life,“that blackness in Hawthorne (2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality). (3) He is of the opinion that evil educates. (4) He has disgust in sc

32、ience. 4. aesthetic ideas (1) He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition. (2) He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Ha

33、wthorne had in mind to achieve. 5. style typical roma ntic writer (1) the use of symbols (2) revelation of characters psychology (3) the use of supernatural mixed with the actual (4) his stories are parable (parable in form- to teach a less on (5) use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of

34、uncertainty multiple point of view II. Herman Melville 1. life 2. works (1) Typee (2) Omio (3) Mardi (4) Redburn (5) White Jacket (6) Moby Dick (7) Pierre (8) Billy Budd 3. point of view (1) He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of “ Everlasting Nay” (negative at

35、titude towards life). (2) One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other). Other themes: loneliness,suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress 4.

36、style (1) Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives. (2) He tends to write periodic chapters. (3) His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised. (4) His works

37、are symbolic and metaphorical. (5) He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or on the rout(eMoby Dick) Romantic Poets I. Walt Whitman 1. life 2. work: Leaves of Grass (9 editi ons) (1) Song of Myself (2) There Was a Child Went Forth

38、(3) Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (4) Democratic Vistas (5) Passage to India (6) Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking 3. themes - “ Catalogue of American and European thought” He had bee n in flue need by many America n and Europea n thoughts: en lighte nment, idealism, tran sce nden talism, scie nee, evol

39、utio n ideas, western fron tier spirits, Jeffers on in dividualism, Civil War Un io nism, Orie ntalism. Major themes in his poems (almost everyth in g): equality of thi ngs and beings divin ity of everyth ing imma nence of God democracy evoluti on of cosmos multiplicity of n ature self-relia nt spir

40、it death, beauty of death expa nsion of America brotherhood and social solidarity (un ity of n ati ons in the world) pursuit of love and happ in ess 4. style:“ free verse ” (1) no fixed rhyme or scheme (2) parallelism, a rhythm of thought (3) phonetic recurrenee (4) the habit of using snapshots (5)

41、the use of a certain pronoun“I ” (6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure (7) use of conventional image (8) strong tendency to use oral English (9) vocabulary powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong (10) sentences- catalogue technique: long list of name

42、s, long poem lines 5. in flue nee (1) His best work has become part of the com mon property of Western culture. (2) He took over Whitman s vision of thpippefet and poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated and Europea ni zed mood. (3) He has been compared to a mountain in American literary

43、history. (4) Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bearswitness to his great influence. II. Emily Dickenson 1. life 2. works (1) My Life Closed Twice before Its Close (2) Because I Can t Stop for Death (3) I Heard a Fly Buzz- When I died (4) Mine - by the Right of the White Election

44、 (5) Wild Nights - Wild Nights 3. themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows (1) religion - doubt and belief about religious subjects (2) death and immortality (3) love - suffering and frustration caused by love (4) physical aspect of desire (5) nature- kind and cruel (6) free will and human

45、responsibility 4. style (1) poems without titles (2) severe economy of expression (3) directness, brevity (4) musical device to create cadence (rhythm) (5) capital letters- emphasis (6) short poems, mainly two stanzas (7) rhetoric techniques: personification- make some of abstract ideas vivid III. C

46、omparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson 1. Similarities: (1) Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance ”. (2) Technically, they both added to the literary independen

47、ceof the new nation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry. 2. differences: (1) Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. (2) Wher

48、eas Whitman is “ national ” in his outlook, Dickinson is“region (3) Dickinson has the “cataloguetechnique ”(direct, simple style) which Whitman doesn t have. Edgar Allen Poe I. Life II. Works 1. short stories (1) ratiocinative stories a. Ms Found in a Bottle b. The Murders in the Rue Morgue c. The P

49、urloined Letter (2) Revenge, death and rebirth a. The Fall of the House of Usher b. Ligeia c. The Masque of the Red Death (3) Literary theory a. The Philosophy of Composition b. The Poetic Principle c. Review of Hawthorne Twices-told Tales III. Themes 1. death - predominant theme in Poe s writing s

50、writings is “ Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe 2. disintegration (separation) of life 3. horror 4. negative thoughts of science IV. Aesthetic ideas 1. The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality. 2. The poems should be short, an

51、d the aim should be beauty,the tone melancholy.Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm. V. Style - traditi on al, but not easy to read VI. Reputation: the jingle man ” (Emerson) VII. His influences Chapter 3 The Age of Realism I. Background: From Romanticism t

52、o Realism 1. the three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period (1) industrialism vs. agrarian (2) culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west (3) plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility 2. 1880 s urbanization: from freceompetition to monopoly capitalism 3. the closing of Amer

53、ican frontier II. Characteristics 1. truthful description of life 2. typical character under typical circumstance 3. objective rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life “ Realistic writers are like scientists. ” 4. open-ending: Life is complex and cannot be fully understood.

54、 It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves. 5. concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustrations of characters in an environment of sordidness and depravity III. Three Giants in Realistic Period 1. William Dean Howells - “ Dean of American Realism ” (1) Realis

55、tic principles a. Realism is “fidelity to experience and probability of motive” b. The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of American life”. c. Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells fsictional representation. d. Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of ex

56、ternals but includes a central concern with “motives ” and psychological conflicts. e. He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, and avoids such themes as illicit love. f. Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense of something “desultory, unfinished,

57、 imperfect”. g. Characters should have solidity of specification and be real. h. Interpreting sympatheticallythe “common feelings of commonplace people ”was best suited as a technique to express the spirit of America. i. He urged writers to winnow traditi on and write in keep ing with curre nt huma

58、nitaria n ideals. j. Truth is the highest beauty, but it in eludes the view that morality pen etrates all things. k. With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjectiveevaluati onson books but should follow the detached scie ntist

59、 in accurate descripti on, in terpretatio n, and classificati on. Works a. The Rise of Silas Lapham b. A Chance Acquaintance c. A Modern Instanee (3) Features of His Works a. Optimistic tone b. Moral development/ethics c. Lacking of psychological depth 2. Henry James (1) Life (2) Literary career: th

60、ree stages a. 1865T882: in ternatio nal theme The America n Daisy Miller The Portrait of a Lady b. 18821895: in ter-pers onal relatio nships and some plays Daisy Miller (play) c. 18951900:no vellas and tales deali ng with childhood and adolesce ncethe n back to intern ati onal theme The Turn of the