美國(guó)文學(xué)史及選讀考試資料

1、美國(guó)文學(xué)選讀復(fù)習(xí)資料浪漫主義American Romanticism The Romantic Period stretches 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, ec

2、onomically and culturally independent country. 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 Puritani

3、sm as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values. 愛默生Emerson = The chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism 超驗(yàn)主義He was a descendent of a long line of New England clergymen牧師【pastor】. American Transcendentalism As a philosophical and literary movement, American Tr

4、anscendentalism (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 Thoreau. Transcendentalists spoke for the cultural rejuvenation and a

5、gainst the materialism of American society.Transcendentalism 超驗(yàn)主義(+ H. D. Thoreau; Nathaniel Hawthorne; )The major features of Transcendentalism: The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. 思想 超靈 宇宙 The Transcendentalists stressed t

6、he importance of the individual. To them, the individual is the most important element of Society. 個(gè)體+社會(huì) The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with Gods overwhelming presence. 自然+上帝Emersons代表作：

7、Nature；Self-Reliance；The American Scholar；The Over-soul；H. D. Thoreau 梭羅and his workWalden 瓦爾登湖not only fully demonstrates Emersonian ideas of self-reliance but also develops and tests Thoreaus own transcendental philosophy. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 朗費(fèi)羅Features of Longfellows poetic worksChief rom

8、antic tendencies as humanitarian attitude, love of nature and love of beauty.The first American poet to write narrative poems.Conventional style and subjectsGenerally simple ideas expressed musically and powerfully.Simplicity and detachment from the deep problems of contemporary lifeDaybreak；The Bel

9、lsWilliam Faulkner(1897-1962 1949 Nobel price“Stream of Consciousness” 意識(shí)流or “interior monologue”,內(nèi)心獨(dú)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, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the ch

10、aracter experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. The Sound and the Fury (1929) 人物? As I Lay Dying (1930)Light in the August ( 1932)Absalom, Absalom (1936)Go Down Moses (1942) Ernest Hemingway Iceberg Principle (Theory):冰山法則The dignity of movement of the iceberg

11、is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. Code heroa noble but tragic hero; fighting with the overwhelming force; though he knows that he will be defeated at last, he decides to act like a hero. In one sense Hemingway wrote all his life about one theme, which is neatly summed up in the famo

12、us phrase “grace under pressure”Major Works:The Sun Also Rises 1926 (Jake Barnes)A Farewell to Arms 1928 (a tragic story about war and love) (Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley)For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940 (Spanish civil war) (Robert Jordan)The Old Man and the Sea 1952 (Santiago) Herman Melville代表

13、作：白鯨Moby Dick Other Works are: Billy Budd,Typee, Omoo, Mardi. Symbolism in Moby Dick：It is regarded as the first American prose epic. 散文史詩(shī)？It turns out to be a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth 尋找真理and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into mans deep reality and psyc

14、hology. Different people on board the ship are representations of different 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 voyage becomes a search for truth. The white whale, Moby Dick,

15、 symbolizes nature for Melville, for it is complex, unfathomable難以理解的, malignant惡性的, and beautiful as well. Realism 浪漫主義之后，現(xiàn)代主義之前As a literary movement, the Age of Realism came into existence after Romanticism with the Civil War It was a reaction against “the lie” of Romanticism and sentimentalism,

16、and paved the way to Modernism. This literary interest in the so-called “reality” of life started a new period in the American literary writing known as The Age of Realism. Psychological Realism It is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities of characters thoughts and motivatio

17、ns. And Henry James is considered the founder of psychological realism. He believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on 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 as

18、 he sees it.The three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells豪威爾斯, Mark Twain, and Henry James. Mark Twain and Howells seemed to have paid more attention to the “l(fā)ife” of the Americans, and Henry James had apparently laid greater emphasis on the “inner world” of man. William Dean How

19、ells：The Rise of Silas LaphamHenry James：The Portrait of a Lady (Isabel Archer; Madam Merle; Gilbert Osmond)Daisy Miller (Daisy; Mr. Winterbourne; Mr. Giovanelli)Mark Twain = Samuel Langhorne Clemens Missouri Writing: humor and local colorism 地方特色The characteristics of local colorismTwain preferred

20、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 as “l(fā)ocal colorism,” a unique variation of American literary realism. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” brought him recognition from a wider pu

21、blic. His best works were produced when he was in the prime of his life：Life on the Mississippi & The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Mark Twains most representative work：The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn His humor, a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice and satirize the deca

22、yed romanticism, is remarkable.Nathaniel Hawthorne effected by 超驗(yàn)主義One of the most ambivalent writers in the American literary history. The Scarlet Letter:紅字Other works: Mosses from an Old Manse; Twice-Told Tales; The Marble Faun; The House of the Seven GablesHe is a master of symbolism, which he to

23、ok from the Puritan tradition 清教徒傳統(tǒng)and bequeathed to American 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 community and people living in that community. With the scarlet A as the

24、biggest symbol of all, which is ambiguous, he proves himself to be one of the best symbolists. American Naturalism 自然主義The impact of Darwins evolutionary theory達(dá)爾文進(jìn)化論 on the American thought and the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to another school of realism:

25、 American naturalism. The naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral與道德無(wú)關(guān)的, that men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity遺傳 and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion湮沒 in death. Americas literary naturalists dismissed the validi

26、ty of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity. 代表作家Stephen Crane；Frank Norris；Theodore Dreiser；Edwin Arlington Robinson；Upton Sinclair；Jack Lon

27、don；O HenryStephen Crane：Maggie: A Girl of the Streets；The Red Badge of Courage；The Open Boat；The Black Riders and Other Lines；War Is KindEdwin Arlington Robinson：Richard CoryJack London：The Call of the Wild；The White Fang；The Sea Wolf；Martin EdenUpton Sinclair：The Jungle O.Henry (William Sydney Por

28、ter)：The Gift of the Magi；The Cop and the anthemTheodore Dreiser：Trilogy of Desire:1.The Financier2. The Titan3. The Stoic；Sister Carrie；Jennie Gerhardt；An American Tragedy The 20th Century American Poets：Two characteristic strains：introspection自省&social criticismT.S.Eliot：The Waste LandImagism

29、意象派A poetic movement of England and the U.S. that flourished from 1909 to 1917. The movement insists on the creation of images in poetry by “the direct treatment of the thing” and the economy of wording. “poetic techniques to record exactly the momentary impressions”Three main principles of the Imag

30、ist Movement (1912) : 1 direct treatment of poetic subjects 2 elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words, to use no word that does not contribute to the presentation. 3 rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence of a metronome. Ezra Pound：Idah

31、o愛達(dá)荷洲worked for the Italian government in WW II, engaged in some radio broadcasts of anti-Semitism and pro-Fascism. 代表作:Cantos; Hugh Selwyn Mauberley; In a Station of the Metro; CathayWilliam Carlos Williams: The Red WheelbarrowE.E.Cummings: L(a; r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r Wallace Stevens: Anecdote of th

32、e JarThe 20th Century American Poets:Major Features1. The relationship of art and life; reality and imagination; fact and miracle; chaos and order.2. References to painting, music, and color.3. Abstract, philosophical, and difficult. He saw poetry as a personal transaction between self and reality.4

33、. Meticulous language, though frequently exotic; coined words, and some are employed simply for sound effects.Robert Frost: Fire and Ice; Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening; The Road Not TakenMajor Features: 1. His verse was terrifying at first, showing the dark side of human life and society. Lat

34、er, filled with sunshine. 2.New England as the setting; The subjects come from daily life of ordinary life;Rural poetry in pastoral tradition. ( Wordsworth; Emerson)3.His themes include landscape and people of New England, loneliness and poverty of isolated farmers, beauty, terror and tragedy in nat

35、ure.Simple language, a graceful style and traditional forms of poetry. 詩(shī)歌鑒賞：In both "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "The Road Not Taken," the speaker hesitates on route. Compare the hesitations. Do they derive from the same impulse and misgiving or are they distinct?La

36、ngston Hughes: The first prominent black writer in American literary history.Poet Laureate of Harlem & O Henry of HarlemA poet, playwright, novelist, song writer, biographer, editor, newspaper columnist, translator, lecturer. 主要作品：The Weary Blues, The Dream keeper and Other Poems, Fine Clothes t

37、o the JewHarlem RenaissanceIn the 1920s in America, there was an upsurge of Black literature, popularly known as the “Harlem Renaissance”, out of which such eminent literary figures as Langston Hughes grew. So, “Harlem Renaissance” is a burst of literary achievement in the 1920s by Negro playwrights

38、, poets and novelists who presented new insights into the American experience and prepared the way for the emergence of numerous Black writers after mid-twentieth century. The Harlem Renaissance began with a work entitled: New Negro: An Interpretation (by Alain Locke).Dialect, folklore, and Jazz. Th

39、e Modern PeriodPart I The 1920s-1930s ( the second renaissance of American literature)The Roaring Twenties (economically)The Jazz Age (socially) “l(fā)ost” and “waste land” (spiritually)There had been a big flush of new theories and new ideas in both social and natural sciences. Darwinism(Darwin), Socia

40、lism (Karl Marx), Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud)The Lost GenerationThe 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 a lost generatio

41、n.” 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 Pound, Sherwood An

42、derson, John Dos Passos, E.E. Cummings and some others.Winners of Nobel Prize for Literature during this periodSinclair Lewis (1930); Eugene ONeill (1936); Pearl S. Buck (1938); T.S. Eliot (1948); William Faulkner (1949); Ernest Hemingway (1954); John Steinbeck (1962)Sinclair Lewis Main Street (mast

43、erpiece) (a bitter satire on the life style of American small towns) Carol Milford / Will KennicottBabbitt Some other famous writers and poets:Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio; Hands; Paper PillsF. Scott. Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby; This Side of Paradise; Tender is the Night; The Beautiful and t

44、he DamnedThe Last Tycoon ( unfinished)John Dos Passos Ezra Pound Robert FrostAmerican DreamThe is the idea held by many in the United States that through hard work, courage and determination one could achieve prosperity繁榮. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed

45、on to subsequent generations. The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America. He states: "The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achieve

46、ment. .It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of b

47、irth or position." In the United States Declaration of Independence獨(dú)立宣言, our founding fathers: "held certain truths to be self-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

48、 of Happiness." .The Post-War Period 戰(zhàn)后Literature：This period is the rising period of post-modern literature. Many forms of post-modern fiction appeared. The same mood in this period is despair, but continuing to search absurdity荒謬 of modern life; lonely, but searching for the meaning of existe

49、nce; identity. The Beat Generation 行為怪癖的一代The Beat Generation is a group of American young writers and artists popular in the 1950s and early 1960s, known especially for their use of non-traditional forms and their rejection of conventional social values. The term "Beat" was reportedly coi

50、ned by Jack Kerouac in the late 1940s, quickly becoming a slang term in America after World War II, meaning "exhausted" or "beat down" and provided this generation with a definitive label for their personal and social positions and perspectives. The core group consisted of Jack K

51、erouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs。Jack Kerouac：On the Road (1957),Allen Ginsberg：Howl (1956)William S. Burrough：Naked Lunch (1959). Black HumorTo deal with tragic things in comic ways to make it more powerful and more tragic.It refers to the use of morbid病態(tài)的 and absurd荒謬的

52、 for darkly comic purpose. It carries the tone of anger, bitterness in the grotesque situation of suffering, anxiety, and death. It makes the reader laugh at the blackness of modern life. The writers usually do not laugh at the characters.代表人物：Thomas Pynchon + Joseph HelleJoseph Heller：Catch-22 第22條

53、軍規(guī)It is not only a war novel, but also a novel about peoples life in peaceful time. This novel attacked the dehumanization of all contemporary institutions and corruptions of individuals who gain power in institutions. Armed-forces are the most outrageous example of the two evils.Walt WhitmanThe fir

54、st edition of Leaves of Grass was published in 1855. In this giant work, openness, freedom, and above all, individualism are all that concerned him. What he prefers for his new subject and new poetic feelings is “free verse”自由詩(shī)體, that is , poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. The poe

55、ts essential purpose was to identify his ego with the world, and more specifically with the democratic “en-masse”同一地 of America, which is established in the opening lines of “Song of Myself”.Writing features of Whitman1. A singer for the ideals of equality , democracy and human dignity.2. Songs for

56、himself, for the labour of common American people, natural creation, the independence of the country, love and friendship, and for the memorizing of President Lincoln.3. Free verse, rhythmical unit, phonetic recurrence.Emily Dickinson：I Died for Beauty；Because I could not stop for DeathEmily was an energetic and outgoing woman while attending the Academy and Seminary. Most of her poems are about life and nature. They are short; many of them are based on a single image or symbol.Ps.The Colonial Period and the Revolution PeriodAmerican Purita