美國文學(xué)史及選讀期末復(fù)習(xí)題

1、1.Captain John Smith became the first American writer.5. The puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people.6. The first major intellectual spokesman of the Massachusetts Bay colony was John Cotton, sometimes called the Patriarch of New England.”7. Anne Bradstreet published The Tenth Muse Lately

2、 Sprung Up in America, and she was nicknamed the tenth Muse.8. Poor Richard's Almanac is an annual collection of proverbs written by Benjamin Franklin.9. Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet Common Sense boldly advocated a Declaration for Independence".10. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declara

3、tion of Independence with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.11. Philip Freneau developed a natural, simple, and concrete diction, best illustrated in such nature lyrics as “The Wild Honey Suckle and"The Indian Burying Ground :12. Philip Freneau has been called

4、the Father ofAmerican Poetry ".13. In Washington Irving 's Sketch Book appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.14. Cooper's enduring fame rests on his frontier stories, especially the five novels that comprise the Leatherstocking tales.15

5、. Toa Waterfowl" is perhaps the peak ofWilliam Cullen Bryant 's wok.16. Thanatopsis”, William Cullen Bryant 's best-known poem, consists of four stanzas in iambic tetrameter abab. The title means view of death ".17. Edgar Allan Poe is considered father of American detective stories

6、 and American gothic stories".18. Emerson believed above all in individualism, independence of mind, and self-reliance.19. In Walden. Thoreau thought it better for a man to work one day a week and rest six, and the rest of the time could be devoted to thought.20. Hawthorne's stories touch t

7、he deepest roots of man's moral nature.21. Moby Dick is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.22. After his death, Longfellow became the only American to be honored with a bust in the Poet2Corner of Westminster Abbey.23. Harriet Beecher Sto

8、we, the author of Uncle Tom s Cabin, had become an American institution and the most famous literary woman in the world.24. William Dean Howells found his subject matter in the experiences of the American middle class.25. William Dean Howells called for the treatment ofthe smiling aspects oflife &qu

9、ot; as being the more American."26. The naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that their lives were controlled by heredity and the environment.27. The poetic style Walt Whitman devised is now called free verse.28. O Henry' s stories are usual

10、ly short and interesting; Famous for their surprising end.29. Henry James is famous for his international theme ofthe traditionless American confronting the complexity of European life.30. Jack London believed in the inevitable triumph of the strongest individuals.31. Dreiser's greatest and most

11、 successful novel, An American Tragedy, is about a young man who acts as if the only way he can be truly fulfilled is by acquiring wealth through marriage if necessary.32. Writers of the first postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that they were a Lost Generation,“ devoid of faith and alienated

12、from a civilization.33. Wallace Stevens' work is primarily motivated by the belief that ideas of order".34. With the publication of The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway became the spokesman for what Gertrude Stein had called a lost generation."Terms1. TranscendentalismTranscendentalism refers

13、 to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800 's, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and Nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature

14、is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant. New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism.2. NaturalismNaturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human bein

15、gs as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at scientific" status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary

16、defects. Natural fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreiser 's Sister Carrie .3. American DreamThe American Dream is the faith hel

17、d by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations.4. The Lost Ge

18、nerationThe term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra

19、Pound, Sherwood Anderson, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein ( You are all a lost generation ") as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during World

20、War I. They were lost" because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to more into a settled life5. ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create th

21、e world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious.6. RomanticismRomanticism as a literary movement came into

22、 being in England in the later half of the 18 th century. It first made its appearance in England as a renewed interest in medieval literature. William Blake and Robert Burns represented the spirit of what is usually called Pre-Romanticism. With the publication of William Wordsworth Lsyrical Ballads

23、 in collaboration with S. T. Coleridge, romanticism began to bloom and found a firm place in history of English literature. In fact, the first half the 19 th century recorded the triumph of Romanticism.7. PuritanismThe principles and practices of puritans were popularly known as Puritanism. Puritani

24、sm accepted the doctrines of Calvinism: the sovereignty of God; the supreme authority of the Bible; the irresistibility of God s will for man in every act of life froemtocrgardalve. These doctrinesled the Puritans to examine their souls to find whether they were of the elect and to search the Bible

25、to determine God s will.8. Hemingway Heroes / Code Hero“Hemingway Heroes ” refer to some protagonists in Hemingway s works. Such a hero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. And usually he is a man of action and of a few words. He is such an individualis

26、t, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happiness. The Hemingway heroes stand for a whole generation. In a world which is essentially chaotic and meaningless, a Hemingway hero fig

27、hts a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The awareness that it must end in defeat, no matter how hard he strives, engenders a sense of despair. But Hemingway heroes possess a kind of “despairing courage” as Bertrand Russell terms. It is this courage that enables a man to

28、behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. Surely Hemingway heroes differ, one from another, in their view of the world. The difference which comes gradually in view is an index to the subtle change which Hemingway s outlook had undergone.Identify the fragments.1. These are the t

29、imes that try men s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the

30、harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly This dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods.(1)Which book is this passage take from?(2)Who is the author of this book?(3)Whom is the autho

31、r praising? Whom is the author criticizing?(4)What do you think of the language?Answer:(1) The American Crisis.(2) Thomas Paine(3) Paine is praising those who stand “it”, it referring to “the service of their country ”. In the meantime, Paine is criticizing those who shrink from the service of their

32、 country in this crisis.(4) The language is plain, impressive and forceful. Paine himself once said that his purpose as a writer was to use plain language to make those who can scarcely read understand and to fit the powers of thinking and the turn of language to the subject, so as to bring out a cl

33、ear conclusion that shall hit the point in question and nothing else.2. From morning suns and evening dewsAt first thy little being came;If nothing once, you nothing lose,For when you die you are the same;The space between, is but an hour, The frail duration of a flower.(1) Who is the writer of thes

34、e verses?(2) What is the title of this poem?(3) Give a brief comment on this poems.Answer:(1) Philip Freneau(2) The Wild Honeysuckle(3) Here Freneau offers a version of an abundant America with potential for providing a good life for all. The poem is also an indication of his dedication to American

35、subject matter as he examined peculiarly American characteristics of the countryside.(4) From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW,

36、 and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. Drowsy and dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others,

37、that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson.Question:(1) Who is the writer of this short story from which the passage is taken?(2) What is the title of this short story?(3) Give a definition of “shor

38、t story” ?Answer:(1) Washington Irving(2) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(3) A short story is a brief prose fiction, usually one that can be read in a single sitting. It generally contains the six major elements of fiction characterization, setting, theme, plot, point of view and style.(4) It was not ve

39、ry long after speaking the Goney that another homeward-bound whaleman, the Town-Ho, was encountered. She was manned almost wholly by Polynesians. In the short gam that ensued she gave us strong news of Moby Dick. To some the general interest in the White Whale was now widly heightened by circumstanc

40、e of the Town-Hos story, which seemed obscurely toinvolve with the whale a certain wondrous, inverted visitation of one of those so called judgments of God which at times are said to overtake some men. This latter circumstance, with its own particular accompaniments, forming what may be called the s

41、ecret part of the tragedy about to be narrated, never reached the ears of Captain Ahab or his matesNevertheless, so potent and influence did this thing have on those seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of it, and by such a strange delicacy, to call it so, were they governed in this m

42、atter, that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never transpired abaft the Pequod s main-mast. Interweaving in its proper place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship, the whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on lasting record.Question:(1)From wh

43、ich novel is this paragraph taken?(2) What is the name of the novelist?(3) Who is Ahab?(4) What is Pequod?(5) What is the theme of the novel?Answer:(1) Moby Dick(2) Herman Melville(3) The captain of the whaling ship(4) The name of the whaling ship(5) The rebellious struggle of Captain Ahab against t

44、he overwhelming, mysterious vastness of the universe and its awesome sometimes merciless forces.5. To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at th

45、e stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If

46、 the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generation the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these preachers of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.Question:(1)This

47、paragraph is taken from a famous essay. What is the of the essay?(2)Who is the author?(3)What does the author say would happen if the stars appeared one night in a thousand years? (4)Give a peculiar term to cover the author s belief.Answer:(1) Nature(2) Ralph Waldo Emerson(3)Then, the men cannot bel

48、ieve and adore the God, cannot preserve the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown.(4)Transcendentalism6. Isabel always felt an impulse to pull out the pins; not that she imagined they inflicted any damage on the tough old parchment, but because it seemed to her her aunt might make bett

49、er use of her sharpness. She was very critical herself-it was incidental to her sex, and her nationality but she was very sentimental as well, and there was something in Mrs. Touchett s dryness that set her own moral fountains flowing.Questions:(1) This passage is taken from a well-known novel. What

50、 is the name of the novel?(2) Who is the author of this novel?(3) Make a brief comment on the heroine of this novel?(4) What is theme of the author? Tell something about it. Answer:(1) The Portrait of a Lady(2) Henry James(3) She is one of the Jamesian American girls. She arrives in Europe, full of

51、hope, and with a will to live a free and noble life, but in fact, she only falls prey to the sinister designs of two vulgar and unscrupulous expatriates, Madam Merle and Gilbert Osmond.(4) Jamesian theme refers to Henry James s handling of his major fictional theme, “the international theme” : the m

52、eeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence and the moral and Psychological complications arising there from.7. When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapi

53、dly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human temper. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of

54、expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast

55、 array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counselor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens t

56、hen perverts the simpler human perceptions.Questions:(1) From which novel is this paragraph taken?(2) Who is the author of this novel?(3) How do you understand “the cosmopolitan standard of virtue ”?(4) Is there any naturalist tendency in this passage?Answer:(1)Sister Carrie(2) Theodore Dreiser(3) “

57、The cosmopolitan standard of virtue ” is something that makes a person become low in virtue and become worse.(4) Yes.Give brief answers to the following questions.1. What are the characteristics of the Colonial Literature?In a real sense, there were no literal works in the early colonial period. The

58、y were just personal literature in the form of diaries, travel books, letters, journals, sermons, histories and prose.(1) In content, they wrote about the voyage to the new land, about adopting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops, about dealing with Indian, and especially about religion.(2)

59、In form, English traditions were imitated.2. Comment briefly on Emily Dickinson s themes?(1) By far the largest portion of Dickinson s poetry concerns death and immortality, theme which lie at the centre of Dickinson s world.(2) Dickinson s nature poems are also great in number and rich in matter. Natural phenomena, changes of seasons, heavenly bodies, animals, birds and insects, flowers of various kinds