美国现代时期.doc

美国现代时期1. Ezra Pound: The Cantos; In a Station of the Metro.2. Robert Lee Frost: The Road Not Taken; Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening3. Eugene ONeill: Beyond the Horizon; The Emperor Jones; The Hairy Ape; All Gods Chillun Got Wings; Desire under the Elms; Anna Christie; The Great God Brown; Lazarus Laughed; Strange Interlude; The Iceman Cometh; Long Days Journey Into Night.4. F Scott Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise; The Beautiful and Damned; The Great Gatsby; Tender is the Night;Flappers and Philosophers; Tales of the Jazz Age; All the Sad Young Men; Taps at Reveille; Babylon Revisited.5. Ernest Hemingway: In Our Time; The Sun Also Rises;A farewell to Arms; For Whom the Bell Tolls; The Old Man and the Sea; Men Without Women.6. William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury; Light in August;Absalom, Absalom; Go Down, Moses; A Rose for Emily.1） The Imagist Movement and the artistic characteristics of imagist poems：Led by the American poet Ezra Pound， Imagist Movement is a poetic movement that flourished in the U.S. and England between 1909-1917. It advances modernism in arts which concentrates on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed to Romanticism， especially Tennysons worldliness and high-flown language in poetry. Pound endorsed three main principles as guidelines for Imagism， including direct treatment of poetic subjects， elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words， and rhythmical composition should be composed with the phrasing of music， not a metronome. The primary Imagist objective is to avoid rhetoric and moralizing， to stick closely to the object or experience being described， and to move from explicit generalization. The leading poets are Ezra Pound， Wallace Stevens， D.H.Lawrence， etc.The characteristic products of the movement are more easily recognized than its theories defined； they tend to be short， composed of short lines of musical cadence rather than metrical regularity， to avoid abstraction， and to treat the image with a hard， clear precision rather than with overt symbolic intent. The influence of Japanese forms， tanka and haiku， is obvious in many. Most of the imagist poets wrote in free verse and they like to emply common speech. They stressed the freedom in the choice of subject matter and form.2） The Lost GenerationIt refers to， in general， the post-World Wargeneration， but specifically a group of expatriate disillusioned intellectuals and artists， who experimented on new modes of thought and expression by rebelling against former ideals and values and replacing them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. The remark of Gertrude Stein， You are all a lost generation， addressed to Hemingway， was used as an epigraph to the latters novel The Sun Also Rises， which brilliantly describes those expatriates who had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing. The generation was lost in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U.S. that seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial， materialistic， and emotional barren. The term embraces Hemingway， F. Scott Fitzgerald， Ezra Pound， E.E.Cummings， and many other writers who made Paris the center of their literary activities in the 1920s.3） What is Expressionism？Expressionism is used to describe the works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision， transforming nature rather than imitating it. In literature it is often considered a revolt against realism and naturalism， a seeking to achieve a psychological or spiritual reality rather than to record external events.In drama， the expressionist work was characterized by a bizarre distortion of reality. Expressionist writerss concern was with general truths rather than with particular situations， hence they explored in their plays the predicaments of representative symbolic types rather than of fully developed individualized characters. Emphasis was laid not on the outer world， which is merely sketched in and barely defined in place or time， but on the internal， on an individuals mental state； hence the imitation of life is replaced in Expressionist drama by the ecstatic evocation of states of mind. In America， Eugene ONeilles Emperor Jones， The Hairy Ape， etc. are typical plays that employ Expressionism4） The concept of wasteland in relation to the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literatureThe Waste Land is a poem written by T.S.Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of the contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair of the post-War era has appeared over and again in the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literature. Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the Jazz Age. Beneath the masks of relaxation and joviality， there was only sterility， meaninglessness and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance， there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway， the leading spokesman of the Lost Generation， dramatized in his novels the sense of loss and despair among the post-war generation who are physically and psychologically scarred. Though disillusioned in the post-war period， he strove to bring about mans grace under pressure and tried to bring out the idea that man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually. William Faulkner exemplified T.S. Eliots concept of modern society as a wasteland in a dramatic way. He created his own mythical kingdom that mirrored not only the decline of the Southern society but also the spiritual wasteland of the whole American society. He condemned the mechanized， industrialized society that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decrease those essential human values such as courage， fortitude， honesty and goodness.弗洛斯特的自然诗2. Robert Lee Frost ，His nature poems：Robert Frost is mainly known for his poems concerning New England life. He learned from the tradition， especially the familiar conventions of nature poetry and of classical pastoral poetry， and made the colloquial New England speech into a poetic expression. A poem so conceived thus becomes a symbo1 or metaphor， a careful， loving exploration of reality， in Frosts version， a momentary stay against confusion. Many of his poems are fragrant with natural quality. Images and metaphors in his poems are drawn from the rural world， the simple country 1ife and the pastoral 1andscape. However， profound ideas are delivered under the disguise of the p1ain language and the simple form， for what Frost did is to take symbols from the limited human world and the pastoral landscape to refer to the great world beyond the rustic scene. These thematic concerns include the terror and tragedy in nature， as well as its beauty， and the 1oneliness and poverty of the isolated human being. But first and foremost Frost is concerned with his love of life and his belief in a serenity that only came from working usefully， which he practiced himself throughout his life.l. After Apple-PickingThis poem is so vivid a memory of experience on the farm in which the end of labor leaves the speaker with a sense of completion and fulfilment yet finds him blocked from success by winters approach and physical wearinessStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening（1） The theme： This is a deceptively simple poem in which the speaker literally stops his horse in the winter twilight to observe the beauty of the forest scene， and then is moved to continue his journey.The Road Not TakenIn this meditative poem, the speaker tells us how the course of his life was determined when he came upon two roads that diverged in a wood. Forced to choose, he :took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”This poem suggests deep thought about death and about life. The strange attraction of death to man is symbolized by the dark woods silently filled up with the coldness of snow. Frost frequently uses the technique of symbolism in his poetry.了不起盖茨的主题意义和主要人物的性格分析An Excerpt from Chapter IlI of The Great Gatsby（1） The theme of the novel： The Great Gatsby， by summarizing the experiences and attitudes of the glamorous and wild 1920s， deals with the bankruptcy of the American Dream， which is high1ighted by the disillusionment of the protagonists personal dream due to the clashes between his romantic vision of life and the relentless reality. American Dream is a popular belief that people can achieve success， whether it is wealth， fame or love through honest hard working in a new world of liberty， equality， chances and promises. Yet in the 1920s， the American Dream was bankrupt in the sense that the wealthy people were spiritually disorientated and morally corrupted. The fact that the rich people turned to be more indifferent and careless brought forth the disillusionment of American Dream.The story of The Great Gatsby is a good illustration. At the beginning of the story， Gatsby， a poor young man from the Midwest， is in love with but rejected by an upper-class woman， Daisy. He later attains the wealth by bootlegging and other criminal activities. Yet his fascination with and pursuit of money is but the means of recapturing the past and regaining his lost love. And for him， Daisy is the representation of a kind of idealized happiness. So Gatsbys real dream is that of achieving a new status and a new essence， of rising to a loftier place in the mysterious hierarchy of human worth. That is why Daisy Buchanan seems so charming to Gatsby and that is why Gatsby has directed his who1e life to winning back her love. Yet his dream ended up with Daisys indifference and carelessness. Under this thematic design， the novel displays some modern motifs like the Waste-land theme as symbolized by the Valley of Ashes and boredom as reflected in Daisy and Tom.（2） Chapter of the novel， a vivid description of one of Gatsbys fabulous parties， presents a vivid atmosphere of paradox. Gatsbys party， characteristic of the roaring twenties in the U.S. evokes both the romance and the sadness of the Jazz Age. On the surface， the party is crowded， yet empty of warmth or friendship， with people coming to the party eagerly but appearing indifferent and contemptuous of their host. Gatsby himself as the host is a paradox exceedingly courteous but keeps himself detached from the noisy and confusing crowd， because he， though fascinated with the wealth， was fully aware of the corruptive nature of the society and the vanity fair.The charm and sweetness of the youth is spoiled by triviality and tawdriness； The splendid house and garden is purchased not for enjoyment but for impression. There is every sign of merriment， with guests eating， drinking， laughing， moving about and dancing， but people get dead drunk， break down in tears or quarrel over trivialities. So beneath the wealthy peoples masks of relaxation and joviality there was only sterility， meaninglessness and futi1ity， and amid the grandeur and extravagance a spiritual waste1and and a hint of decadence and moral decay. This undeniable juxtaposition of appearance with reality， of the pretense of gaiety with the tension underneath， is easily recognizable in Fitzgeralds novels and stories.海明威小说的艺术特点According to Hemingway， good literary writing should be ab1e to make readers feel the emotion of the characters directly and the best way to produce the effect is to set down exact1y every particular kind of feeling without any authoria1 comments， without conventionally emotive language， and with a bare minimum of adjectives and adverbs. Seemingly simple and natural， Hemingways style is actually polished and tightly contro1led， but highly suggestive and connotative. While rendering vividly the outward physical events and sensations Hemingway expresses the meaning of the story and conveys the complex emotions of his characters with a considerable range and astonishing intensity of feeling. Besides， Hemingway develops the style of co1loquia1ism initiated by Mark Twain. The accents and mannerisms of human speech are so well presented that the characters are fu11 of flesh and blood and the use of short， simple and conventional words and sentences has an effect of clearness， terseness and great care. This ruthless economy in his writing stands as a striking app1ication of Mies van der Rohes architectural maxim： Less is more. No wonder Hemingway was highly praised by the Nobel Prize Committee for his powerful style-forming mastery of the art of creating modern fiction.艾米莉的性格分析Jones， The Hairy Ape， etc. are typical plays that employ Expressionism.4） The concept of wasteland in relation to the works of those writers in the twentieth-centu