美国文学选读复习提纲

Proses:Nathan Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter-Chapter 2Hawthorne: 心理分析小说，以宗教罪恶观sin评价社会。-Why are women especially the elder ones so harsh and intolerant to Hester?1. Startled or astonished by the beauty, elegant and dignity of Hester.2. The patriarchal society let women have eternalized patriarchal ideas, unfavorable for women adulterers.-How does the author portray Hester Prynne?1. Core impressive image: the artistically and fantastically made letter A.2. Appearance-What does the scarlet letter with gold thread and elaborate embroidery(刺绣) suggests?1. Clue of Hesters attitude: she makes a mockery of her punishment by making this plain symbol of adultery into a gorgeous decoration.2. To negate the awful meaning of the letter.3. as punishment, 血红色的A字象征这人们反对human nature ,lush, 有devilish意味，而Hester wants to change her human reality, to make it prettier than it really is.-What does “A” stand for?Adultery/Angel (appearing in the sky when governor dies)/Able (Hester gains influence)-What kind of person is Chillingworth?1. Devil or devils emissary or Satan: cold intellect and old age, without hominine feelings from heart and soul.2. In Hesters recalling, he is “pale.”Sharp ContrastHesterChillingworthYoung, beautiful, perfect in figureOld(in his decaying age), ugly, deformed, cold and indifferentHerman Melville: Moby Dick-Chapter 41Character Captain AhabImage of American: an idealist and an egonist.Willa Cather: Miss JewettSarah Orne Jewetts poetic principlesJewett both as a writer and a personCathers poetic principlesAs a writer, Jewett has her own writing style.She focuses on the places where she lives and loves, and makes them subject-matters of her stories. (Wherever she might be, She carried the Maine shore-country with her. She loved it by instinct, and in the light of wide experience, from near and from afar. Every day, in every season of the year, she enjoyed the beautiful country in which she had the good fortune to be born. Her love of the Maine country was the supreme happiness of her life. Her stories were but reflections, quite incidental, of that peculiar and intensely personal pleasure. Take ,for instance, that dear, daybreak paragraph which begins “By the Morning Boat”: “On the coast of Maine”P127 paragraph 3)She writes with delightful humor that comes from her delicate and tactful handling of her native language.(Her personal opinions she voiced lightly, half-humorously; any expression was spontaneous, the outgrowth of the immediate conversation.)And, the distinctive thing about Miss Jewett is that she has her own individual voice.(her comment on the story of a mule)Sherwood Anderson: The Triumph of the EggF. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great GatsbyErnest Hemingway: A Clean, Well-Lighted PlaceExistentialism and the “Lost Generation”: Although Hemingway was writing years before existentialism became a prominent culture idea, his questioning of life and his experiences as a searching member of the lost generation gave his work existentialist overtones.Nothingness: (nada) an existential angst about his place in the universe and an uncertainty about the meaning of life.The struggle to deal with despair: the older waiter cannot actually stave off despair: ineffective methods including: money (bar)/mocking prayers (religion)The Older Waiter：Lonely, recognizes himself in the old man and sees his own future.The Younger Waiter: nave and insensitive, immature, demonstrates a dismissive attitude toward human life in general.Symbols: The caf- the opposite of nothingnessCleanliness and good lightingOrder and clarityNothingnessChaotic, confusing and darkStyle: minimalist/”iceberg principle”Deceptive pacing: 写作风格从简，导致故事节奏忽快忽慢。Conveys only the most essential information in the scene.Saul Bellow: Looking for Mr. GreenCharacter analysis: Raynor and FieldPoets:19th Century: Walt Whitman: Ones Self I SingEmily Dickinson: Im Nobody!/ Success Is Counted Sweetest20th Century: Wallace Steve