英美文学鉴赏--美国文学部分

1 Transcendentalism is a group of ideas in literature and philosophy that developed in the 1830s and 1840s as a protest against the general state of culture and society and in particular the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church They believe in an ideal spirituality that transcends the physical and empirical and is realized only through the individual s intuition rather than through the doctrines of established religions The major figures in the movement were Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Margaret Fuller 2 Modernism is a cultural movement that generally includes the progressive art of architecture design literature music dance painting and other visual arts which emerged in the beginning of the 20th century particularly in the years following World War I It was a movement of artists and designers who rebelled against late 19th century academic and historic tradition and embraced the new economic social and political aspects of the emerging modern world Among American writers the best known Modernists are T S Eliot Ezra Pound F Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway William Faulkner and so on 3 Imagism was a movement in early 20th century Anglo American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear sharp language The Imagists rejected the sentiment and artifice typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry This was in contrast to their contemporaries the Georgian poets who were by and large content to work within that tradition The most outstanding figures of the movement were Ezra Pound Amy Lowell and Hilda Doolittle 4 Puritanism refers to the movement arising within the Church of England in the latter part of the 16th century that sought to purify or reform that church and establish a middle course between Roman Catholicism and the ideas of the Protestant reformers It remained the dominant religious force in New England throughout the 17th and 18th centuries The term Puritanism is also used in a broader sense to refer to attitudes and values considered characteristic of the Puritans Its representative figures are Anna Bradstreet Franklin Thomas Paine 5 Naturalism refers to the theory that literary composition should aim at a detached scientific objectively in the treatment of natural man The movement is an outgrowth of 19th century scientific thought Artistically naturalistic writings are usually unpolished in language lacking in academic skills and unwieldy in structure Philosophically the naturalists believe that the real and true is always partially hidden from the eye of the individual Notable writers were Frank Norris Sherwood Anderson and Theodore Dreiser 6 Local colorism is a fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters dialect customs topography and other features particular to a specific region It put emphasis on physical setting and those distinctive qualities of landscape which condition human thought and behavior It started from1860s to the end of 19th century Bret Harte s The Luck of Roaring Camp marked a significant development in the brief history of local color fiction Another important figure was Mark Twain 7 The Lost Generation refers to a group of the disillusioned intellectuals and artists who lived in Paris and other parts of Europe from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression They rebelled against former ideals and values but could replace them only by despair or a cynical hedonism Significant members included Ernest Hemingway Ezra Pound and T S Eliot 8 The Jazz Age describes the period from 1918 1929 the years between the end of World War I and the start of the Roaring Twenties ending with the rise of the Great Depression the traditional values of this age saw great decline while the American stock market soared The age takes its name from F Scott Fitzgerald and jazz music which saw a tremendous surge in popularity among many segments of society The dominant figure of this period was F Scott Fitzgerald 9 The American Dream is the concept widely held in the United States of America that through hard work courage and determination one can achieve prosperity often associated with the protestant work ethic Today in America it generally refers to the idea that one s prosperity depends upon one s own abilities and hard work not on a rigid class structure though the meaning of the phrase has changed over America s history The course of Clinton was the classic example of The American Dream 10 Psychological realism is a kind of ideological trend of literature which appears in the traditional literature in the course from realism to modernism It recognizes that what is real to the individual is that which he or she perceives It is the ground for the use of the centered consciousness or the first person narrator since both of these present reality only as something perceived by the focal character Henry James was the founder whose works are The American The Portrait of a Lady 诗歌欣赏诗歌欣赏 I The Wild Honey Suckle 开头 开头 Fair flower that dost so comely grow hid in this silent dull retreat 1 Writer Philip Freneau 2 Theme 1 In this poem the poet expressed a keen awareness of the loveliness and transience of nature It implies that life and death are inevitable law of nature 2 In the author s opinion the origin land in America was filled with beauty and myth 3 Technique of this poem The central image is a native wild flower which makes a drastic difference from elite flower images typical of tradition English poems Exaggeration personification Alliteration assonance masculine rhyme used in the poem also produce musical or melodious and harmonious which matches the beauty of the flower The poem contains iambics trochaics and spondee II Annabel Lee 开头 开头 It was many and many years ago in a kingdom by the sea Annabel Lee 1 Writer Allen Poe 2 Theme Eternal love The love between the narrator and Annabel Lee is so strong and beautiful and pure that even the seraphs the highest order of angels in heaven envy it The love remains alive eternal because the souls of the lovers remain united 3 Techiques of the poem 1 Melancholy is the most legitimate of all the poetic tones 2 Use of Alliteration to create pleasing sound patterns 3 Imagery and figurative language Imagery Darkness and Light Implied and explicit images of darkness and light occur throughout the poem Poe implies that the kingdom by the sea is a bright cheerful place where the sun shine s on two young lovers the narrator and Annabel Lee III Because I could not stop for death 开头开头 Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me 结尾结尾 were toward eternity 1 Writer Emily Dickinson 2 Theme Religion petals on a wet black bough 1 Writer Ezra Pound 2 Theme Although the society is depressed and helpless there is still hope in everybody s heart The lovely face meant a promising future The poem is just like a mirror which reflects the hopeful song in the soul of human beings 3 Techniques of the poem Metaphor the petals obviously indicate the lovely faces Contrast the first line and the second line are using the contrast V Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 开头 开头 whose woods these are I think I know his house is in the village though 结尾结尾 and miles to go before I sleep 1 Writer Robert Frost 2 Theme this poem stresses a central conflict between man s enjoyment of natural beauty and his responsibility in society This shows a man s despairing courage to seek out the meaning of life 3 Writing Skills 1 Rhythm and Rhyme 2 Rhetorical Device Alliteration 头韵头韵 sound dark however it is also a struggle man can demonstrate in such a way that loss becomes dignity man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually Hemingway once said The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one eighty of it being above water Typical of this iceberg analogy is Hemingway s style Hemingway s economical writing style often seems simple but his method is calculated In his writing Hemingway provided detached descriptions of action using simple nouns and verbs to capture scenes precisely By doing so he avoided describing his characters emotions and thoughts directly Hemingway was deeply concerned with authenticity in writing Besides Hemingway develops the style of colloquialism initiated by Mark Twain The accents and mannerisms of human speech are well presented and the use of short simple words and sentences has an effect of clearness terseness and great care 2 Discuss the symbolism in Melville s novel Moby Dick 简述麦尔维尔长篇小说简述麦尔维尔长篇小说 白鲸白鲸 的的 象象 Published in 1851 Moby Dick is considered a masterpiece by Melville Holding the thesis that All visible objects are but as pasteboard mask Melville strikes through the surface of his adventurous narrative to formulate concepts of good and evil imbedded as allegory in its events Under Melville s pen Moby Dick turns out to be a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe a spiritual exploration into man s deep reality and psychology Melville uses symbols as representations of different ideas and through facts and incidents to acquire universal meanings the Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truths The white whale Moby Dick symbolized nature for it is complex unfathomable malignant and beautiful as well For the character Ahab however the whale represents only evil for the author as well as for the reader and Ishmael the narrator Moby Dick is an ultimate mystery of the universe and the voyage of the mind will forever remain a search of the truth 3 What is the theme and the major character in F S Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby 菲兹杰拉德的小说伟大的盖茨比的主题和主要人物是什么 菲兹杰拉德的小说伟大的盖茨比的主题和主要人物是什么 Considered as Fitzgerald s finest work The Great Gatsby written in crisp concise prose and told by Nick Carraway a satiric yet sympatheric narrator it is the story of Jay Gatsby a young American from the Midwest Gatsby becomes a bootlegger in order to attain the wealth and lavish way of life he feels are necessary to win the love of Daisy Buchanan a married upper class woman who had once rejected him The story ends tragically with Gatsby s destruction The book deals the bankruptcy of the protagonist s personal dreams due to the clashes between their romantic vision of life and the sordid reality The hero of the novel Gatsby is the last of romantic heroes whose energy and sense of commitment takes him in search of his personal grail Gatsby s failure magnifies to a great extent the end of the American dream The protagonist s pursuit of his dream only proves to be nothing but an illusion Nevertheless the affirmation of hope and expectation is self asserted in the characters 4 What is the theme stylistic features and the major character in Dreiser s Sister Carrie 德来塞的德来塞的 嘉丽妹妹嘉丽妹妹 的主要人物主题结构 语言风格和艺术特点 的主要人物主题结构 语言风格和艺术特点 Published in 1900 Sister Carrie is one of the masterpieces by Dreiser The novel tells the story of a small town girl who moves to Chicago and eventually becomes a Broadway star in New York City It also traces the decline and eventual suicide of her lover The novel best embodies Dreiser s naturalistic belief that while men are controlled and conditioned by heredity instinct and chance a few extraordinary and unsophisticated human beings refuse to accept their fate and instead strive unsuccessfully to find meaning and purpose in their existence Some critics regarded Dreiser s style as clumsy and plodding lack of concision Though the time sequence is clear and the plot straightforward he has been always accused of being awkward in sentence structure mixed and disorganized in voice and well calculated to achieve the thematic ends he sought For him language is a means of communication rather than art form He broke away from the general tradition of literature and dramatized the life in a very realistic way There is no comment no judgment but facts of life in the stories 5 What is Robert Frost s nature poem 什么是罗伯特弗洛斯特的自然诗什么是罗伯特弗洛斯特的自然诗 Robert Frost American poet known for his verse concerning New England life He learned the familiar conventions of nature poetry from his predecessors and made the colloquial New England speech into a poetic expression A poem so conceived thus becomes a symbol or metaphor a careful loving exploration of reality Images and metaphors in his poems are drawn from the simple country life However profound ideas are delivered under the disguise of the plain language and the simple form for what Frost did is to take symbols from the limited human world beyond the rustic scene These thematic concerns include the terror and tragedy in nature as well as its beauty and the loneliness and poverty of the isolated human being In short the nature poems demonstrate Frost s love of life and his belief in a serenity that comes from the common experience 6 What are the thematic concerns and the artistic characteristics of Emily Dickinson s poetry 艾米丽狄金森诗歌的艺术特色和主题是什么艾米丽狄金森诗歌的艺术特色和主题是什么 Emily Dickinson is American s best known female poet Her poetry covers the issues vital to humanity which include religion death immortality love and nature Her poem have no titles hence are always quoted by their first lines In her poetry there is a particular stress pattern in which dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis Most of her poems borrow the repeated four line rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns with two lines of four beat meter s alternating with two lines of three beat meter A master of imagery that makes the spiritual materialize in surprising ways Dickson managed manifold variations within her simple form She used imperfect rhymes subtle breaks of rhythm and idiosyncratic syntax and punctuation to create fascinating word puzzles which have produced greatly divergent interpretations over the years Due to her deliberate seclusion her poems tend to be very personal and meditative She frequently personification to vivify some abstract ideas Dickinson s poetry despite its ostensible formal simplicity is remarkable for its variety subtlety and richness and her limited private world have never confined the limitless power of her creativity and imagination 二 理性和革命时期文学二 理性和革命时期文学 The Literature of Reason and Revolution 1 Benjamin Franklin 1706 1790 The Autobiography Poor Richard s Almanac 2 Thomas Paine 1737 1809 The American Crisis Common Sense Great Commoner of Mankind pamphleteer 3 Thomas Jefferson 1743 1826 The Declaration of Independence 4 Philip Freneau 1752 1832 The Wild Honey Suckle The Indian Burying Ground To a Caty Did the poet of the Revolution Father of American Poetry the first distinctly romantic note heard in American and the beauties of Santa Cruz 三 浪漫主义文学三 浪漫主义文学 The Literature of Romanticism 1 Washington Irving 1783 1859 the first romanticism familiar style writer father of American literature The Author s Account of Himself The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Sketch Book 2 James Fenimore Cooper 1789 1851 The Last of the Mohicans Leather Stocking Tales The Deerslayer The Pathfinder The Last of the Mohicans The Pioneers The Praire two kinds of immensely popular stories the sea adventure tale and the frontier saga 3 William Cullen Bryant 1794 1878 Thanatopsis To a Waterfowl 美国美国 的华兹华斯的华兹华斯 致水鸟是用美国英语写作的最美的短诗致水鸟是用美国英语写作的最美的短诗 4 Edgar Allan Poe 1809 1849 侦探小说侦探小说 鼻祖鼻祖 To Helen The Raven Annabel Lee The Fall of the House of Usher 5 Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature Self Reliance The American Scholar our intellectual Declaration of Independence 6 Henry David Thoreau 1817 1862 Walden Where I Lived and What I Lived For Civil Disobedience 7 Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804 1864 The House of the Seven Gables The Scarlet Letter 第一个象征主义小说第一个象征主义小说 The House of the Seven Gables 8 Herman Melville 1819 1891 Moby Dick 象征主义高峰象征主义高峰 9 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 1882 A Psalm of Life The Slave s Dream My Lost Youth The Song of Hiawatha Hiawatha s Fasting Poet s corner of Westminster Abbey 四 现实主义文学四 现实主义文学 The Literature of Realism 1 Walt Whitman 1819 1892 Song of Myself I Sit and Look Out DRUM TAPS Beat Beat Drums Leaves of Grass free verse 2 Emily Dickinson 1830 1886 I taste a liquor never brewed I felt a Funeral in my Brain A Bird came down the Walk I died for Beauty but was scarce I heard a Fly buzz when I died Because I could not stop for Death 3 Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811 1896 废奴主义者废奴主义者 Uncle Tom s Cabin 南北战争南北战争 导火索 导火索 Dred A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp the mother s struggle 4 Mark Twain 1835 1910 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Gilded Age the True Father of American literature Adventures of Hucklebrry Finn 现代美国文学之源现代美国文学之源 5 O Henry 1862 1910 The Cop and the Anthem The Gift of the Magi father of Modern American Short Story 6 Henry James 1843 1916 the Portrait of A Lady The American Daisy Miller 心理现实主义心理现实主义 7 Jack London 1876 1916 The Sea Wolf Martin Eden 工人阶级代言人工人阶级代言人 The Call of the Wild Martin Eden 8 Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie The Financier The Titan The Stoic 五 二十世纪文学五 二十世纪文学 Twentieth Century Literature 1 Ezra Pound 1885 1972 A Virginal Salutation the Second f