美文學(xué)要點(diǎn).ppt

1、Introduction to American literature,1.The Colonial Period 2.The Romantic Period (the first half of 19th century) 3.The Age of Realism and Naturalism 4.The Period around WWI 5.The Modern Period,I. The Colonial Period (the early 17th and 18th century),1. Puritanism: idealism and opportunism 2. Benjami

2、n Franklin本杰明富蘭克林 : “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”自傳 Poor Richards Almanac窮查理歷書 (containing witty maxims for achieving wealth as a result of hard work and thrift) 3.Philip Freneau (poem)菲利普弗倫諾 The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲,American Puritanism Puritans The early settlers founding fathe

3、rs of the America nation To 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.,Chapter

4、Two American Romanticism and New England Literature,Logic Thread,Representative figures of the time:,Pre-romanticism: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper庫珀,Post-romanticism: Novelists: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville Poets: Henry Wadesworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman Emily D

5、ickinson Essayists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau,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 Gr

6、owth The Civil War The “newness” of Americans as a nation 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,American Romanticism,Romanticism was

7、 a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. 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.,Washington I

8、rving (1783-1859)華盛頓歐文,早期浪漫主義小說家 A History of New York紐約的歷史-美國人寫的第一部詼諧文學(xué)杰作； The Sketch Book見聞札記 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的傳說-使之成為美國第一個(gè)獲得國際聲譽(yù)的作家 Rip Van Winkle,James Fenimore Cooper 1789-1851詹姆斯費(fèi)尼莫爾庫珀,早期浪漫主義小說家 “Leatherstocking Tales”皮裹腿故事集 a series of five novels, that is the Pioneers拓荒者(I823) t

9、he Last of the Mohicans(1826)最后的莫希干人 The Prairie(1827)大草原 The Pathfinder(1840)探路者 The Deerslayer(1841)殺鹿者 adventure into the wilderness of the West/,2.The summit of Romanticism- New England Transcendentalism / 1. Emerson / “Nature” 2. Henry David Thoreau / “ Walden” 3.Whitman / “Leaves of Grass” 4.

10、Hawthorn / “ The Scarlet Letter” 5.Herman Meville “Moby Dick”,Post-romanticism (New England Transcendentalism),What is Transcendentalism? 1.Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)愛默生 The leading New England Transcendentalist “Nature”論自然-新英格蘭超驗(yàn)主義者的宣言書 ;The American Scholar論美國學(xué)者 2.Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862

11、) Transcendentalist Emersons friend Walden,The major features of Transcendentalism,1.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 mos

12、t important element 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.,The Development of Transcendentalism, Nature (in 1836) by Ralph Waldo Emerson

13、 Natures voice 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.Transcendentali

14、sts emphasis 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 inspi

15、red a whole new generation of famous authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman and Dickinson.,Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864), Novels: Scarlet Letter紅字 Hester Prynne; The House of Seven Gables七個(gè)尖角閣的房子; The Blithedale Romance福谷傳奇; The Marble Faun大理石神像 Short story collections: Twic

16、e-Told Tales 故事新編 Moses from an Old Manse古屋青苔,Herman Melville赫爾曼梅爾維爾1819-1891,Moby Dick/The White Whale 莫比迪克/白鯨,Edgar Allan Poe埃德加愛倫坡1809-1849,The first professional writer in America The first writer of detective story in the world -歌特風(fēng)格；首開近代偵探小說先河，又是法國象征主義運(yùn)動(dòng)的源頭 The Fall of the House of Usher厄舍古屋的倒

17、塌(novel); The Raven烏鴉(poem) Tamerlane and Other Poems帖木兒和其他詩; To Hellen致海倫（以詩為詩；永為世人共賞的偉大抒情詩人-葉芝）,Walt Whitman(1819-1892)沃爾特惠特曼,One of the great innovators in American Poetry Free verse Growing up in a working-class background, having little education Leaves of Grass草葉集 Song of Myself”自我之歌 reveals a

18、 world of equality, without rank and hierarchy.,poets,Emily Dickinson(1830-1886) The Poems of Emily Dickinson埃米莉迪金森詩集(love, death,nature,friendship, and immortality) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow亨利沃茲沃思朗費(fèi)羅1807-1882 A Psalm of Life生命禮贊（short poem） The Song of Hiawatha海華沙之歌-美國人寫的第一部印第安人史詩 ; William Cullen

19、 Bryant 1794-1878柯倫布萊恩特 To a Waterfowl致水鳥-英語中最完美的短詩,Harriet Beecher Stowe哈麗特比徹斯托1811-1896,Uncle Toms Cabin湯姆叔叔的小屋,Chapter 3,The Age of Realism and Naturalism,The three strong advocates of 19th century American realism William Dean Howells (critic)豪威爾斯 Henry James威廉詹姆斯 Mark Twain馬克吐溫,Henry James1842-

20、1910, James novels “international situation” are set against a background between America and Europe James contribution to literary criticism is immense. To him, “art without life is a poor affair”. “the aim of the novel is to represent life”. His realism was called as Psychological realism. He was

21、esp. an observer of the mind rather than a recorder of the times. The American, Daisy Miller The Portrait of a Lady貴婦人畫像 The Wings of the Dove鴿翼 The Ambassadors大使,Mark Twain馬克吐溫 1. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”湯姆索耶歷險(xiǎn)記 2. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” -his masterpiece/哈克貝利費(fèi)恩歷險(xiǎn)記 The Gilded Age

22、鍍金時(shí)代 3. Famous for his localism, colloquial style, humor and bitter attacks,American Naturalism : pessimistic realism,1. Naturalism came from France. 2. Reasons: civil war, social upheavals Darwins theory of evolution : the survival of the fittest” Men were conditioned dominated by social and econom

23、ic 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. They never made comments on the characters and their behaviors. B. The c

24、haracters were often figures of low social and economic classes C. They stressed men had no free will, their lives were controlled by heredity and environment.,American Naturalism,4. American Naturalist writers: Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London, Henry Adams, Theodore Dreiser.,Stephen Crane(1

25、871-1900)斯蒂芬克萊恩,Maggie: A Girl of the Streets街頭女郎梅姬（美國文學(xué)史上首次站在同情立場上描寫受辱婦女的悲慘命運(yùn)） The Red Badge of Courage紅色英勇勛章 The Black Riders (his first book of poems),Theodore Dreiser(1871-1945),Dreisers works Sister Carrie 1900 (A feather in wind, she is totally at the mercy of forces she cannot comprehend and

26、control. She does not seem to possess what may be called a moral fibre in her.) Jennie Gerhardt 1911 Trilogy 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美國的悲劇1925 （被稱為美國最偉大的小說）,Frank Norris (1870-1902)弗蘭克諾里斯,The Octopus 1901 章魚,Jack London(1876 - 1916)杰克倫敦,Mar

27、tin Edenmasterwork馬丁伊登 The Call of the Wild野性的呼喚 The Sea-Wolf海狼 White Fang白獠牙,O Henry (1862-1910)歐享利,1. “The Gift of Magi” 2. “The Cop and the Anthem” 3. Famous for his fascinating plot, humorous touch, interesting puns, localism, and unexpected endings.,American literature in the 1920s and 1930s,1.

28、 Poets: T. S. Eliot / “the Waste Land” Robert Frost 2. Novelists: Fitzgerald / “the Great Gatsby” Hemingway / “Farewell to Arms” Faulkner / wrote about the South,American literature in the 1920s,Poetry: T. S. Eliot The Wasteland. Novel: Sinclair Lewis Main Street 1920 Theodore Dreiser An American Tr

29、agedy 1925, sister carrie F. S. Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby 1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises 1926, A Farewell to Arms, 1929, William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury, 1929, Drama: Eurgene ONeill, The Emperor Jones, 1920, Anna Christie, 1921, The Hairy Ape 1922, Harlem Renaissance.,Jazz Age,

30、Historical Background: WWI, peace-making period/boom time. After WWI, people found that the war which cost millions of lives failed to provide an abiding solutions to the worlds problems, that the war was just the traps of political leaders. Such a disillusionment about the value of war, accompanied

31、 by the booming of American economy drove people to cynical hedonism. People experiment with new amusements. They restlessly pursued stimulus and pleasures, wallow in heavy drinking, fast driving and casual sex. By these, they hoped to seek relief from serious problems.,The Lost Generation迷惘的一代,a di

32、sillusionment about the value of war disgusted by the new frivolous, greedy way of life in America When the First World War broke out, many idealistic young Americans volunteered to take part in the war and test their own bravery. They discovered that modern warfare was not glorious or heroic. Disil

33、lusioned 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. 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 wr

34、ote from their own experiences in the war, and their own observations.他們不再相信虛偽的道德說教，而以玩世不恭的生活態(tài)度來表示自己的消極抗議。“迷惘的一代”的代表作是海明威的太陽照樣升起（1926）。,The Lost 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 apa

35、rtment which was already famous as a literary salon. Gertrude Stein was the advisor, friend of some of the American artists and writers of the 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 Hemingwa

36、y and E.E.Cummings, and F.Scott Fitzgerald. Many other writers were drawn to Gertrude Steins home. She called them “The Lost Generation”, a name 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 befo

37、re.,Ernest Hemingway(1899-1961),his stories of courage in the face of tragedy Iceberg Theory The Sun Also Rises 1926 A Farewell to Arms 1929永別了，武器 For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940 以西班牙內(nèi)戰(zhàn)為背景的反法西斯主義的長篇小說喪鐘為誰而鳴 The Old Man and the Sea 1952 老人與海塑造了以桑提亞哥為代表的“可以把他消滅，但就是打不敗他”的“硬漢形象” 一個(gè)人并不是生來要被打敗的，你盡可以把他消滅掉，可就是

38、打不敗他。,Hemingway hero,He is sensitive, intelligent. He is a man of action and of few words. He is alone even when with other people. 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 essentiall

39、y chaotic and meaningless, a Hemingway hero fights 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 hero possesses a kind of despairing courage. It is this courage tha

40、t 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 all of Hemingways heroes believe.,F.Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940),The literary spokesman of Jazz Age This Side of Paradise 1920 人間天堂 The Beautiful and Damned 1921 漂亮冤家 The

41、 Great Gatsby 1925 了不起的蓋茨比(The American Dream is dead) Tender Is The Night 1934 夜色溫柔 The Last Tycoon 1941最后的巨頭,William Faulkner(1897-1962),get Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930 stream-of-consciousness and multiple point of view. 約克納帕塔法世系小說 （Yoknapatawpha County） The Sound and the Fury 喧囂與騷動(dòng) As I La

42、y Dying 我彌留之際 Sanctuary圣堂 Light in August八月之光 Absalom, Absalom! 押沙龍，押沙龍 Go Down, Moses去吧，摩西,Sherwood Anderson(1876-1941) 舍伍德安德森,Winesburg, Ohio 1919 俄亥俄州的溫斯堡 Poor White 1920窮白人 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過他很大影響，海明威曾說：“他是我們所有人的老師”。,Sinclair Lewis辛劉易斯(1885-1951),Main Street 1

43、920 Babbitt 1922 The first American writer to get Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930(美國第一個(gè)獲諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)) Babbitt: presents a documentary picture of the narrow and limited middle-class mind 辛劉易斯的大街（1920）粉碎了“村鎮(zhèn)是美好的世外桃源”的神話。他后來的作品對商業(yè)、科技、宗教界的問題都作了揭露，他所塑造的巴比特成了庸俗、浮夸、講求實(shí)利的中產(chǎn)階級的典型人物,Imagism意像派,Background： Imagism

44、came as a reaction to the traditional English poetics to meet the need of expressing the temper of 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 t

45、hat does not contribute to the presentation: (3) Rhythm As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome.,Ezra Pound (1885-1972)艾茲拉龐德,Cantos 詩章 In a Station of the Metro在巴黎地鐵站,Robert Frost(1874-1963),The most popular American poet of the 20th

46、century The Road Not Taken沒有走過的道路 雪夜林畔小駐 Mending Wall修墻,20th century Little Theatre movement and George Pierce Baker (47 Workshop at Harvard) experimental plays by such students as Eugene ONeill and Sidney Howard the Theatre of the Absurd(荒誕派戲劇),Eugene ONeill(1888-1953)尤金奧尼爾,The Americas greatest pl

47、aywright, and the only one to receive the Nobel Prize The Emperor Jones瓊斯皇 The Hairy Ape 1922毛猿 Beyond the Horizon天邊外 Desire under the elms(1923) The iceman cometh(1946) Long Days Journey into night(1955);送冰的人來了;,Arthur Miller (1915-),Playwright Death Of A Salesman 1949,American literature in the 19

48、30s,Background: a dark decadeThe Great Depression Left-wing writing become the main stream of 1930s American literature John Dos Passos John Steibeck,John Steinbeck(1902-1968),Awarded Nobel Prize in 1962 The Grape of Wrath 1939 Of Mice and Men(1937) Tortilla Flat煎餅坪1935 In Dubious Battle 1936勝負(fù)未決,Jo

49、hn Dos Passos1896-1970,Manhattan Transfer (1925). 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最好的歲月 The Grand Design偉大的設(shè)想,VI. Modern times,1. A great variety of literary trends 2. Black liter

50、ature / Alex Haley / “Roots” 3. Jewish writer / Saul Bellow,American literature after World War II,The 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

51、poet Allen Ginsberg and novelist Jack Kerouac. Kerouac杰克凱魯亞克 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 agains

52、t the literary formalism of American writing after the Second World War.,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

53、writers, the Beats instead 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杰克凱魯亞克在路上(On the Road, 1957)， ；艾倫金斯堡,The year 1960 “black humor”,The liberation from official standards of correctness gave rise