美国文学笔记1.doc

美文学美国部分浪漫主义时期Part two: American Literature Chapter 1 The Romantic Period浪漫主义时期1. From the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of he Civil War. It started with the publication of Washington Irvings The Sketch Book and ended with Whitmans Leaves of Grass. It is also called “the American Renaissance”.浪漫主义时期开始于十八世纪末，到内战爆发为止，华盛顿.欧文出版的见闻札记标志着美国文学的开端，惠特曼的草叶集是浪漫主义时期文学的压卷之作。（也可称为“美国德文艺复兴”）2. The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature.对逃离社会，回归自然的渴求成为美国文学的一个永恒的话题。3. The American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values.美国清教作为一种文化遗产，对美国人的道德观念产生了很大的影响。4. Besides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of original sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesser writers. 在霍桑，麦尔维尔以及其他一些小作家的作品种加尔文主义的原罪思想和罪恶的神秘性都得到了充分的表现。5. The most clearly defined Romantic literary movement in this period is New England Transcendentalism.美国浪漫主义文学运动足能标炳的是新英格兰的超验主义运动。6. This Transcendentalist group includes two of the most significant writers America has produced so far, Emerson and his young friend, Henry David Thoreau, whose writing has a strong impact on American literature.超验主义文学的主要代表是爱默生和梭罗，他们的作品对美国文学产生了很大的影响。7. Basically, Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as “the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses.”超验主义承认“人类具有本能了解或认识真理的能力，能够超过感官获取知识”。8. Emerson once proclaimed in a speech, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of you own mind.” Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant.爱默生曾说过：“只有人心灵的尊严才是最神圣的”。超验主义还认为自然是高尚的，个人是神圣的，因此人必须自助。9. It ranges from the comic fables of Washington Irving to the Gothic tales of Edgar Allen Poe, from the frontier adventures of James Fenimore Cooper to the narrative quests of Herman Melville, from the psychological romances of Nathaniel Hawthorne to the social realism of Rebecca Harding.美国浪漫主义时期的小说富有独创性，多样性，与华盛顿.欧文的喜剧性寓言体小说，有艾伦.坡的哥特式惊险故事，有库柏的边疆历险故事，有麦尔维尔的长篇叙事，有霍桑的心理罗曼史，有戴维斯的社会现实小说。10. To Hawthorne and Melyille, everybody is potentially a sinner, and great moral courage is therefore indispensable for the improvement of human nature.霍桑和麦尔维尔认为人们在内心上都是罪人，因此需要道德力量来改善人性。(I). Washington Irving华盛顿.欧文11. He is regarded as Father of the American short stories.他是美国浪漫主义文学代表作家之一,美国短篇小说之父。12. With the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Irving won a measure of international fame on both sides of the Atlantic.1819年至1820年，欧文出版了见闻札记，该书为欧文获得了欧美两大洲的文学荣誉。13. A History of New York-He parodies or imitates Homer.纽约史在多方面模仿了荷马。14. Like the two famous personae he created, Diedrich Knickerbocker and Geoffrey Crayon, Irving remained a conservative and always exalted a disappearing past.他所创造的两个人物Diedrich Knickerbocker和Geoffrey Crayon和他一样，都停留在对过去的事情的津津乐道上。15. We hear rather than read, for there is musicality in almost every line of his prose. We seldom learn a moral lesson because he wants us amused and relaxed.他的作品行文优美流畅，犹如音乐。他的作品寓教于乐，给人以轻松安逸之感，如入梦境。16. He is worth the honor of being “the American Goldsmith” for his literary craftsmanship.在创作艺术方面他堪称是“美国的近匠”。17. “rip van winkle”Here, Irvings pervasive theme of nostalgia for the unrecoverable past is at once made unforgettable.“瑞普.凡.温克尔”-欧文在此表达了对一去不复返的东西十分依恋，笔触生动，令人难忘。(II). Ralph Waldo Emerson拉尔夫.华尔多.爱默生18. New England Transcendentalism, which is unanimously agreed to be the summit of the Romantic period in the history of American literature.在美国浪漫主义时期的文学中，新英格兰的超验主义是不可或缺的。19. Emersonian Transcendentalism is actually a philosophical school which absorbed some ideological concerns of American Puritanism and European Romanticism, with its focus on the intuitive knowledge of human beings to grasp the absolute in the universe and the divinity of man.爱默生的超验主义实际上是在吸收美国清教思想，强调人类具有本能的掌握宇宙绝对真理和人的神性而形成的一个哲学流派。20. In his essays, Emerson put forward his philosophy of the over-soul, the importance of the individual, and Nature. 爱默生的文章提出了超灵哲学,个人及自然的重要性。21. Emerson id affirmative about mans intuitive knowledge, with which a man can trust himself to decide what is right and to act accordingly.爱默生相信人的直觉知识。人类可以利用自己的直觉决定是非并采取相应得行动。22. The ideal individual should be a self-reliant man.一个理想的个人应是自助自立的人。23. “Go back to nature, sink yourself back into its influence and youll become spiritually whole again.”“回到自然中去吧，沉浸在自然的影响中吧，你将重新获得精神的完整。”24. In 1845, a great transcendentalist work Walden was born.1845年，写成了超验主义的伟大作品沃尔登。25. In general, Emerson was showing to the world a distinctive American style, as he called for in The American Scholar in 1837.总的说来，爱默生的散文表现出明显的美国风格，堪称“美国学者”。26. “Nature”-the essay discuss the love of nature, the uses of nature, the idealist philosophy in relation to nature evidences of spirit in the material universe, and the potential expansion of human souls and works that will result from a general return to direct, immediate contact with the natural environment. In the essay Emerson clearly expresses the main principles of his Transcendentalist pursuit and his love for nature.“论自然”-全书讨论对自然的爱，对自然的利用，对自然的理性主义哲学，物质宇宙里的精神证据，人类灵魂的潜在扩展。在文章中爱默生表达了超验主义的思想原则及对自然的热爱。(III) Nathaniel Hawthorne 纳萨尼尔。霍桑27. The Scarlet Letter(1850), always regarded as the best of his works, tells a simple but very moving story in which four people living in a Puritan community.红字是霍桑的代表作，讲述的是四个生活在清教社区以不同方式犯有通奸罪的故事，情节简单，但内容感人。28. According to Hawthorne, “There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity. ”霍桑认为，人人内心都有邪恶，这种邪恶也许一生都潜藏在内心，但在一定的条件下就表现出来。29. “The Birthmark” drives home symbolically Hawthornes point that evil is mans birthmark, something he is born with.在胎记中他一针见血地指出邪恶就是人类与生俱来的胎记。30. One source of evil that Hawthorne is concerned most is overreaching intellect, which usually refers to someone who is too proud, too sure of himself.霍桑最关注的一个罪恶之源是一个人过于自尊自负。31. Calvinistic belief that human beings are basically depraved and corrupted, hence, they should obey God to atone for their sins.加尔文思想认为人类本质是邪恶的，必然向上帝赎罪。32. Hawthorne is also a great allegorist and almost every story can be read allegorically, as is the case in “Young Goodman Brown.”霍桑擅长隐喻，像小伙子布朗一样，他几乎每个故事都可以当作隐喻来读。33. The scarlet letter A is ambiguous. And the ambiguity is one of the Salient characteristics of Hawthornes art.人们对A字究竟是什么意思搞不清楚。这种多重含义和象征意义的模糊性正是霍桑小说的艺术所在。(IV) Walt Whitman华尔特.惠特曼34. His aim was nothing less than to express some new poetical feelings and to initiate a poetic tradition in which difference should be recognized.他的目的就是要表达新的诗情，开创一种新的诗歌传统，抒发独特的自我。35. the poets essential purpose was to identify his ego with the world, and more specifically with the democratic “en-masse” of America, which is established in the opening lines of “Song of Myself.”诗人的主要目的就是在世界上确定自我，更具体的说就是要在整个美国确定自我。自我之歌的开头几行就表现了这种思想。36. As Whitman saw it, poetry could play a vital part in the process of creating a new nation.惠特曼认为，诗歌可以塑造一个新的民族精神。37. In celebrating the self, Whitman gives emphasis to the physical dimension of the self and openly and joyously celebrates sexuality.在歌颂自我的同时，惠特曼强调自我的物理存在和性爱。38. Whitmans poetic style is marked, first of all, by the use of the poetic “I”.他的诗总用第一人称。39. “Song of Myself”-In this poem Whitman sets forth two principal belief: the theory of universality, and the belief in the singularity and equality of all beings in value.自我之歌-诗中表明了两大信仰：一是普遍性信仰，二是人类个别性和平等性。(V) Herman Melville赫尔曼.麦尔维尔40. Moby-Dick was published in 1851.白鲸在1851年出版。41. Of all these sea adventure stories, Moby-Dick proves to be the best.这些有关航海历险的书中，白鲸最好，达到了麦尔维尔创作的高峰。42. Moby-Dick is regarded as the first American prose epic. 白鲸是美国第一部散文体史诗。43. It turns out to be a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into mans deep reality and psychology. 白鲸不仅仅是海上生活的生动描述，而且也象征追求宇宙真理的心路历程。44. The Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage become a search for truth. The 45. Melvilles great gifts of language, invention, psychological analysis, speculative agility, and narrative power are fused to make Moby-Dick a world classic.麦尔维尔的语言才华，创造才华，心理分析能力，观察的敏捷及生动地描述都使该书成为世界名著。英美文学美国部分现实主义时期Chapter 2 The Realistic Period现实主义时期1. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life.由于对现实生活产生了浓厚的兴趣，产生了新的创作灵感。2. The three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James.这一时期的三个代表作家是豪威尔斯，亨利.詹姆斯和马克.吐温。3. In short, they set the example and charted the future course for the subjects, themes, techniques and styles of fiction we still call modern.总之，他们为后来的现实文学在题材，技巧和风格上都树立了典范。4. Howells focused his discussion on the rising middle class and the way they lived, while Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories.豪威尔斯讨论上升的中产阶级及其生活方式，而马克.吐温则喜欢把他自己家乡的人放在故事的最前沿。5. In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the authors tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.总之，自然主义产生现实主义，只是在创作上更富讽刺，更加悲观。自然主义只有另一种哲学途径的现实主义。(I) Mark Twain马克.吐温6. Mark Twain is considered as “the true father of American national literature.”马克.吐温被认为是“我们真正的民族文学之父”。7. Two of the best books during this period are The adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The former is usually regarded as a classic book written for boys about their particular horrors and joys, while the latter, being a boys book specially written for the adults, is Twains most representative work, describing a journey down the Mississippi undertaken by two fugitives, Huck and Jim.这一期间他最伟大的作品是汤姆.索亚历险记和哈克贝里.芬历险记。前者是就儿童的恐惧和高兴的事儿写的一部儿童经典。而后者虽然是儿童故事，却为大人而写。这是马克.吐温最有代表性的小说，描写两个流浪儿童哈克和吉姆沿密西西比河而下历险的旅程。8. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and, especially, its sequence Adventures of Huckleberry Finn proved themselves to be the mile stone in American literature. 汤姆.索亚历险记，尤其是哈克贝里.芬历险记是美国文学的里程碑。10. Hemingway once described the novel the one book from which “all modern American literature comes.” The profound portrait of Huckleberry Finn is another great contribution of the book to the legacy of American literature. 哈克贝里.芬历险记-海明威曾把该书看作是”所有现代美国文学之源”.。哈克贝里的深刻形象是该书给美国文学做出的又一贡献。12. Hucks final decision- to follow his own good-hearted moral impulse rather than conventional village morality.哈克最后决定：遵循自己内心的良知，而非世俗的道德。13. Twain is also known as a local colorist, who preferred to present social life through portraits of local characters of his regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, and other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on.马克.吐温善于描绘地方风物，包括地方任务，风光，风俗，方言和服饰等等。15. Mark Twains humor is remarkable.马克.吐温的幽默是突出的。16. Twains works, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks, etc., and some of them are actually tall tales.他的作品生动有趣，充盈着实用的笑话，喜剧情节，智慧的语言以及动听的故事。17. His humor is a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism.他的幽默是对社会不公正和沦丧的浪漫主义的讽刺和批判。（II） Henry James亨利.詹姆斯20. In the first period of his, James took great interest in international themes. James treated with great care the clashes between two different cultures and the emotional and moral problems of Americans in Europe, or Europeans in America. The works include “The American”, “Daisy miller”, “The Europeans”, “The Portrait of Lady”.在詹姆斯的早期作品中，他对国际主题很感兴趣。这一时期几乎他的每一部小说都有关欧美在文化，情感和道德方面的冲突，每篇作品都处理了重要的问题。著作有美国人，黛西.米勒，欧洲人，贵妇人的画像。21. In his middle period, the works contain “The Bostonians”, “The Princess Casamassima”, and so on.中期创作包括波士顿人，卡撒玛西玛公主等等。22. In his last and major period, James returned to his “international theme”.后期他又回到了“国际主题”。24. The theme of his essay “The Art of Fiction” clearly indicates that the aim of the novel is to present life.小说的艺术一文明确指出，小说的目的是现实生活。25. The artist should be able to “feel” the life, to understand human nature, and then to record them in his own art form.艺术家应能够“感受”生活，理解人性，然后忠实地将这些录入作品。29. “Daisy Miller”: Miller has ever since become the American Girl in Europe, a celebrated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the New World.黛西.米勒-黛西.米勒从此成为在欧洲的美国姑娘的形象，是美国精神的代表。(III). Emily Dickinson艾米莉.狄金森30. Dickinsons poems are usually based on her own experience, her sorrows and joys.狄金森的诗都是根据自己的经历和悲欢而创作的。32. Although she believed in God, she sometimes doubted His benevolence. Closely related to Dickinsons religious poetry are her poems concerning death and immortality, ranging over the physical as well as the psychological and emotional aspects of death.虽然她相信上帝但有时却怀疑它的善。狄金森与宗教有关的诗是关于死亡和不朽，包括身体，心理和情感三个方面。33. One group of her love poems are clearly the reflection of her own unhappy experience.她的一组爱情诗明确地反映了她自己不幸的经历。34. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general skepticism about the relationship between man and nature is well-expressed.狄金森有500多首诗是关于自然的，诗中表达了作者对人与自然关系得怀疑。35. her acute observations, her concern for precise details and her interest in nature are pervasive.她对自然的观察敏锐，描写细致，兴趣丰饶。37. Her poetic idiom is noted for its laconic brevity, directness and plainness. 她用词简洁，直率，平易。38. Dickinsons poetry, despite its ostensible formal simplicity, is remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness.狄金森的诗虽然表面浅显，但内容多样化，微妙而又深刻。(IV) Theodore Dreiser西奥多.德莱塞39. In 1911, Jennie Gerhardt came out, followed by two volumes of his “Trilogy of Desire”, The Financier and The Titan, the third, The Stoic, being published posthumously in 1947.1911年，Jennie Gerhardt出版，随后他的欲望三部曲头两部金融家，巨头相继出版，第三部斯多葛是死后出版。40. In his words, man is a “victim of forces over which he has no control”.用他的话来说，人类是“各种力量交织在一起得受害者，这些力量人类是无法控制的”。41. From the first novel Sister Carrie on, Dreiser set himself to project the American values for what he had found them to be -materialistic to the core.在第一部小说嘉莉妹妹出版过后，德莱塞一直把美国的价值观推向彻底的物质享受主义。42. For lack of concision, his writings appear more inclusive and less selective, and the readers are sometimes burdened with massive detailed descriptions of characters and events.由于不够简洁，他的作品包容有余，选择不足。读者深受他冗繁的描写之累。43. His style is not polished but very serious and well calculated to achieve the thematic ends he sough.他的写作风格虽显粗糙，但内容严肃，与表现主题十分相符。英美文学美国部分现代时期Chapter 3 The Modern Period现代时期1. The idea of “seize the day” or “enjoy the present ” was pervasive, as opposed to placing all hope in the future.“及时行乐”的思想十分横行，他们不把希望寄托在将来。2. The most recognizable literary movement that gave rise to the twentieth century American literature, or we may say, the second American Renaissance, is the expatriate movement.美国20世纪的文学运动，也可说是美国第二次文艺复兴，就是移居国外的运动。3. These writers were later named by an American writer, Gertrude Stein, also an expatriate, “The Lost Generation”. (why)-Disillusioned and disgusted by the frivolous greedy, and heedless way of life in America, they began to write and they wrote from their own experiences in the war.这些作家后来被美国作家斯坦恩称为“迷惘的一代”（原因）-由于他们已厌倦美国那种轻浮，贪婪的生活，于是开始动手写下他们的战争经历。4. Ezra Pounds role as a leading spokesman of famous Imagist Movement in the history of American literatu庞德在美国文学史上意象派运动中是个重要的人物。5. F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner are considered to be the masters in the field of American fiction.费兹杰拉德，海明威和福克纳被认为是美国小说大师。6. ONeill is remembered for his tragic view of life and most of his plays are about the root, the truth of human desires and human frustrations.奥尼尔以对生活的悲剧性观点而著称。他的大多数剧本都是有关人类欲望和挫折根本原因的。7. J.D.Salingers The Catcher in the Rye is regarded as a students classic.塞林杰的麦田里的守望者被认为是学生的经典作品。8. In general terms, much serious literature written from 1912 onwards attempted to convey a vision of social breakdown and moral decay and the writers task was to develop techniques that could represent a break with the past. Thus, the defining formal characteristics of the modernistic works are discontinuity and fragmentation.总之，1912年以后许多严肃文学都力图表达社会崩溃，道德沦丧的观点，作家也使用新技巧，告别老传统。9. A typical modern work will seem to begin arbitrarily, to advance without explanation, and to end without resolution.现代文学的典型特征是开端任意，发展不做解释以及没有结果的收场。10. There are shifts in perspective, voice, and tone, but the biggest shift is from the external to internal, from the public to the private, from the chronological to the psychic, from the objective description to the subjective projection.作品在现实，语气上较前有变化，其中最大的变化是从描写外部世界转到内部世界，从公众生活转到私生活描写，从时间线索转到以心理感觉为线索，从客观描述转到主观渲染。11. Traditional fiction featured an authoritative narrator in telling a story, while modern fiction tended to employ the first person narration or limit the reader to the “central consciousness” or one characters point of view.传统小说强调叙述的人物的权威性和可信性，而现代小说叙述的总是用第一人称，或者把读者限制到“中心的意识”上或以一个人物的视线进行叙述。(I) Ezra Pound埃兹拉.庞德12. Before graduating from university, he had mastered nine language.大学毕业前已掌握了九门语言。13. Pounds poetic works include twelve volumes of verse which were later collected and published in Collected Early Poems of Ezra Pound, and Personae.庞德的诗作包括十二卷诗集，后以埃兹拉.庞德早期诗集，人物的书名出版。14. Pounds earlier poetry is saturated with the familiar poetic subjects that characterize the 19th century Romanticism: songs in praise of a lady, songs concerning the poets craft, love and friendship, death, the transience of beauty and the permanence of art. 庞德的早期诗歌充满表现19世纪浪漫主义特色的为人熟知的诗题：歌颂女性，有关诗人自己的诗，爱情与友谊，死亡，美丽的易逝和艺术的常青。15. Later he is more concerned about the problems of the modern culture: the contemporary cultural decay and the possible sources of c