美国文学考试整理.doc

人物头衔&作品Anne Bradstreet: the first American woman writerBenjamin Franklin the first person to pick out American dream and the 1st writer to write autobiography, the first self-made American)Washington Irving ( Father of American literature)Ralph Waldo Emerson (the founder of transcendentalism) Walt Whitman (the pioneer of American poem revolution)Ezra Pound (the founder of imagism movement) T.S. Eliot (Nobel Prize winner)F. Scott Fitzgerald (spokesman of Jazz Age)Ernest Hemingway (Nobel Prize winner, typical writer of lost generation) William Faulkner (Nobel Prize winner) Henry Wadsworth LongfellowWilliam Cullen BryantThomas Paine :Common sense Thomas Jefferson :Declaration of Independence Washington Irving ：The Sketch Book , “Rip Van Winkle”, “The Legend of sleepy Hollow” James Fenimore Cooper :The Leather-stocking TalesRalph Waldo Emerson: Nature, Self Reliance , The Poet, The American scholar Henry David Thoreau :WaldenWalt Whitman: Leaves of Grass, Song of myself ,O Captain, My Captain!Emily Dickinson : Im Nobody Edgar Allan Poe: :The Raven, Annabel Lee, To Helen Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter Herman Melville :Moby Dick Henry James(p64): Daisy Miller, The Portrait of A LadyMark Twain(p75) :The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ;The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Hemingway once said that all modern American literature comes from the book written by Mark Twain )Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, OhioStephen Crane: The Red Badge of Courage.Theodore Dreiser :Sister Carrie An American Tragedy The Trilogy of Desire Frank Norris: The OctopusJack London: The Call of the WildEzra Pound: The cantos In a Station of the MetroT.S. Eliot :The Waste Land (William said that the publish of The Waste Land like an atom, destroy our world.) The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock“Wallace Stevens: Anecdote of the JarRobert Frost: The road not taken Stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening F. Scott Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise:The Great Gatsby；Tender is the Night ；The Last tycoonErnest Hemingway:The Old Man and the Sea;The sun also rises;A farewell to arms ; For Whom the Bell Tolls Short story : A Clean Well-lighted PlaceWilliam Faulkner:(Yoknapatawhpa County) The Sound and the Fury; Light in August; Abslom, Abslom；Go down, MosesJohn Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath; Of Mice and Men Puritanism清教主义: origin, doctrines, relationship with American literaturePuritanism is the practices and beliefs of the puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the protestant church who wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrines of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. American literature in the 17th century mostly consisted of Puritan literature. Puritanism had an enduring influence on American literature. It had become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so much a part of national cultural atmosphere, rather than a set of tenets.Romanticism浪漫主义An approach from ancient Greek: Plato A literary trend: Germany&England& France Fields: literature, philosophy, art, religion etc.（背景）A.The spread of industrialismB.The sudden influx of immigrationC.The pioneers pushing the frontier further west/Economic boom D.A promising new land with prevailed optimistic moods （原因）A. Fast development of the new nation (flood of immigrants; pioneers pushing the frontier further west; industrialization; economic boom; a promising new land with prevailed optimistic moods) B. Development of journalism (Some influential periodicals appeared, such as The Atlantic Monthly. They need more literary productions.) C. Foreign influence (Review history of English literature.) (from the 18th century classicism to sentimentalism to Pre-Romanticism to Romanticism which can be divided into passive group and active group) (most influential British writers to American Romanticists-Walter Scott) （特征）A. subjectivity: stressing emotion rather than reason B. Stressing freedom, individuality, humanity C. Idealism rather than materialism D. close relationship with nature, belief in supernatural elements Transcendentalism先验主义A broad, philosophical movement in New England during the Romantic era (peaking between 1835 and 1845). It stressed the role of divinity in nature and the individual s intuition, and exalted feeling over reason. （原因）foreign influences: 1) introduction of idealistic philosophy from Germany and France;2) Oriental mysticism such as Hinduism and philosophy of the Chinese Confucius and Mencius;native influence: American Puritan tradition（特征） of New England Transcendentalism （key point）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.3 The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God.（文学代表） of New England Transcendentalism - （key point）Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)拉尔夫.瓦尔多.爱默生founderHenry David Thoreau (1817-1862)亨利.大卫.梭罗Realism 现实主义it is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities of characters thoughts and motivations. It places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization and on the motives, and internal action which springs from and develops external action. In Psychological Realism, character and characterization are more than usually important. Henry James is considered a great master of psychological realism.Local colorism乡土文学1）Generally speaking, the writings of local colorists are concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town.2) Local colorists were consciously nostalgic historians of a vanishing way of life, recorders of a present that faded before their eyes. Yet for all their sentimentality, they dedicated themselves to minutely accurate descriptions of the life of their regions, they worked from personal experience to record the facts of a local environment and suggested that the native life was shaped by the curious conditions of the local.3) major local colorists is Mark Twain. Naturalism 自然主义American Naturalism自然主义: American naturalism was a new and harsher realism. The naturalists attempt to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by environment and heredity. It emphasized that the world was amoral, the men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death. The pessimism and deterministic ideas naturalism pervaded the works of such American writers as Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser.American Naturalism(美国自然主义文学)：The American naturalists accepted the more negative interpretation of Darwins evolutionary theory and used it to account for the behavior of those characters in literary works who were regarded as more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.2) naturalism is evolved from realism when the authors tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a gloomy philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence.3Dreiser is a leading figure of his school.Modernism 现代主义During the first decades of the 20th century,modernism became an international tendency against positivism and representational art and literature .It began in Germany in the 1890s, spread worldwide,and ended in the early 1940s.The essence of modernism: was a break with the past, and also fostered a belief in art and literature as a avenue to self-fulfillment. Ways of expression: symbolism,impressionism,post-impressionism,futurism, constructivism, imagism, vorticism, expressionism, dadaism, and surrealism.（特征）1.Modernism dramatized discontinuity中断 and imminent severance分离 from the past, its values and artistics forms by incorporating them in new literary production.2.Modernism had a sence of fragmentation分裂感 in social communities and the fragmentation within the individual himself.3.The distinctive feature of literary modernism was its strong and conscious break with traditional forms,perceptions and techniques of expression, and its great concern with language and all aspects of medium. It was persistently experimental。Imagism 意象主义Three influences:French symbolism, ancient Chinese poetry and Japanese literature “haiku”(特征)1.With a spirit of revolt against conventions,imagism was anti-romantic and anti-Victorian.2.Imagism produced free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern.3.In a sense,imagism was equivalent to naturalism in fiction.4.Imagism tired to record objective observations of an object or a situation without interpretaion or comment by the poet.The Lost Generation 迷惘的一代A group of expatriate American writers residing primarily in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. The group never formed a cohesive literary movement, but it consisted of many influential American writers, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams, Thornton Wilder, Archibald MacLeish, and Hart Crane. The group was given its name by the American writer Gertrude Stein, who, in a conversation with Hemingway, used an expression she had heard from a garage manager, une gneration perdue (a lost generation), to refer to expatriate Americans bitter about their World War I (1914-1918) experiences and disillusioned with American society. Hemingway later used the phrase as an epigraph for his novel The Sun Also Rises (1926)the jazz age 爵士乐时代The Jazz Age, also known as the American High, describes the period of the 1920s and 1930s, the years between World War I and World War II, particularly in North America, largely coinciding with the Roaring Twenties; with the rise of the Great Depression, the values of this age saw much decline. The focus of the elements of this age, in some contrast with the Roaring 20s, in historical and cultural studies, are somewhat different, with a greater emphasis on Modernism perse. American dream 美国梦American dream means the belief that everyone can succeed as long as he/she works hard enough. It usually implies a successful and satisfying life. It usually framed in terms of American capitalism（资本主义）, its associated purported meritocracy,（知识界精华） and the freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Bill of Rights.Free verse自由诗体 Poetry without a fixed beat or regulat rhyme scheme .Original sin原罪Oversoul 超灵It is called by Emerson was an all-pervading unitary spiritual power of goodness, omnipotent, from which all things came and of which everyone was a part. It existed in nature and in humanity alike and constituted the chief element of the universe. Generally, the Ovesoul referred to spirit or God as the most important thing in the universe.The Scarlet Letter 红字 Nathaniel Hawthorne (霍桑) Questions :1.Why is the prison the setting of Chapter 1 ? No matter how optimistic the founders of new colonies may be, they are quick to establish a prison and a cemetery in their “Utopia,” for they know that misbehavior, evil, and death are unavoidable. This belief fits into the larger Puritan doctrine, which puts heavy emphasis on the idea of original sinthe notion that all people are born sinners because of the initial transgressions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. he is therefore using the prison building to represent the crime and the punishment which are aspect of civilized lifeWhat is the implication of the description of the roses?The rosebush symbolizes the ability of nature to endure and outlast mans activities. The narrator suggests that roses offer a reminder of Natures kindness to the condemned; for his tale, he says, it will provide either a “sweet moral blossom” or else some relief in the face of unrelenting sorrow and gloom.2.Describe the appearance of Hester Prynne and the attitude of the people towards her.The second paragraph on page 30.The crowd in front of the jail is a mixture of men and women, all maintaining severe looks of disapproval. Several of the women begin to discuss Hester Prynne, and they soon vow that Hester would not have received such a light sentence for her crime if they had been the judges. One woman, the ugliest of the group, goes so far as to advocate death for Hester. 3.What has happened to Hester? As a young woman, Hester married an elderly scholar, Chillingworth, who sent her ahead to America to live. While waiting for him, she had an affair with a Puritan minister named Dimmesdale, after which she gave birth to Pearl. The scarlet letter is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. Why does she make the embroidery of the letter A so elaborate?It seems to declare that she is proud, rather than ashamed, of her sin. In reality, however, Hester simply accepts the “sin” and its symbol as part of herself, just as she accepts her child. And although she can hardly believe her present “realities,” she takes them as they are rather than resisting them or trying to atone for them.How does this tell us about her character?Throughout The Scarlet Letter Hester is portrayed as an intelligent, capable. It is the extraordinary circumstances shaping her that make her such an important figure.Walden沃尔登湖 Henry David Thoreau 亨利 大卫 梭罗Questions :1.Where indeed did Thoreau live, both at a physical level and at a spiritual level?One refers to the concrete place he lives in the real world. In this sense, he lived the shore of the Walden pond. Another is in spiritual sense, he lived nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted him. He lived a life far from noise and disturbance, from the life which he had left behind.2.Had Thoreau ever bought a farm? Why did he enjoy the act of buying?No, he hadnt. He avoided purchasing a farm because it would inevitably tie him down financially and complicate his life. Thoreau didnt see the acquisition of wealth as the goal for human existence, he saw the goal of life to be an exploration of the mind and of the magnificent world around us. He regarded the places as an existence free of obligations and full of leisure.3.Is it significant that Thoreau mentioned the Fourth of July as the day on which he began to stay in the woods? Why?Yes, it is.Because The Fourth of July is known as Independence Day,the birthday ot the United States.Here Thoreau uses the day to express his beginning ofregeneration at Walden.It also means a symbol of his conquest of being. 4.How could you answer the question Thoreau asked at the end of this selection? Why did he move onto Walden Pond on July 4, the Independence Day? It illustrates his desire to be independent and find truth for himself. What did he live for? Simply, he lived for freedom, enjoyment, spiritual perfection. whats the tone？ It exhibits his calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men. The book concludes on a clear note of optimism and hope.The Great Gatsby伟大的盖茨比 FScott Fitzgerald弗 斯科特 菲茨杰拉德 1)Do you think Gatsby deserved to be called “the Great”? Why? 2)Does the “green light” Gatsby believed in exist in reality? Why or why not? situated at the end of Daisys East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsbys West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsbys hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter I he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsbys quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. Gatsbys dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream is ruined in the 1920s by the unworthiness of its object money and pleasure, because the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure has surpassed more noble goals. 3)What does Gatsbys Schedule reveal about him and how does it relate to the American Dream? 4)When you read this line “He(the man with owl-eyed glasses) took off his glasses and wiped them again, outside and in,” what image does it create in your mind, given the novels numerous references to the strikingly strange scene of the spectacled eyes? 5)Is Nick Carraway a reliable narrator? Why? He is related to everyone in the novel and is calm and detected observer who is never quick to make judgments. Selected omniscient point of viewErnest Hemingway厄内斯特 海明威 A Clean Well-Lighted Place 1.How do you interpret the irony of the title after reading the story?“Clean” symbolizes “order,”, “well-lighted” symbolizes “light and hope.” ,Therefore, this clean, well-lighted place is an insulation(隔离，孤立地) surrounded by darkness, filth（污物） and disorder, a haven of peace, a refuge for the old man and the older waiter and all the people who are lonely, isolated, void, lost and despaired. However, what is sarcastic is that, in this dark, confusing and void world, even a temporary refuge cannot exist for long. The younger waiter does not understand the old man. He even laughs at him. He thinks that the old man is “lonely” and “nasty”, and tries to drive the old man away. 2.Do you think youth and confidence can help one withstand the metaphysical dark? Why or why not?3.The older waiter said to the younger one: “We are of two different kinds.” In what sense do you think they are different?4.What is the meanin