美国文学史及选读考试整理

Washington Irving 华盛顿 欧文 Bracebridge Hall布雷斯布里奇田庄(1822) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Tales of a Traveller旅客谈(1824) Christopher Columbus (1828)c. writing characteristics (1) humorous: the function of his writing is to amuse, to entertain instead of teaching or instruction (2) vivid and true character portrayal (3) finished (refined) and musical language, thus regarded as “the Amn. Goldsmith” d. analysis on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(选自the sketch book见闻札记) 1. the story:setting,character, plot 2. theme:conflicts and praise conflict betw. Ichabod and Brom conflict betw. the village and the outside worldJames Fenimore Cooper 库珀 The Spy (1821): a historical novel The Pilot (1824): a sea novel Leatherstocking Tales皮裹腿故事集(1823-1841): frontier novels The Last Mohicans (1826) (Colonial War betw. Britain and France)e. writing features: strong points: we can see a variety of incidents and tensions, complicated plot and structure and a beautiful description of nature. Weak points: characterization is weak. There is unsatisfactory description of characters (esp. female). He is not free from syntactical awkwardness, heavy-handed attempt at humor. “Where Irving excels Cooper is weak.” Dialect is not authentic.Edgar Allan Poe 爱伦坡 The Fall of the House Usher Feature: i. brevity (15 pages) ii. Single effect iii. originality in theme To Helen It was inspired by the beauty of the mother of a schoolmate of Poe in Richmond, Virginia. The poem is famous for a number of things: 1. its rhyme scheme: ababb 2. its varied line lengths 3. its metaphor of a travel on the sea 4. its oft-quoted lines: To the glory that was Greece,/And the grandeur that was Rome. theme: praise the ideal love and beauty and ancient Greek and Roman civilizationsThe Raven乌鸦 theme: the lament over the death of a beautiful woman tone: melancholyTranscendentalism (essayists, poets, novelists) Their journal is “The Dial”. Definition: Transcendentalism is idealism. (Emerson) b. features (1) stress on Oversoul, that is spirit. (2) stress the importance of individual. (3) fresh conception of nature. c. significance (1) inspired a whole generation of writers such as Whitman, Melville and Dickinson. (2) dresses mans subjective initiative as opposed to materialism. (3) liberated people from Calvins original sind. limitation (1) shallow: cut off from real life or reality; initiated by the rich, they were limited in a certain circle. So, in some degree, they have been cut off from social life and cant understand the sufferings of the common people. (2) inward contradiction: gain knowledge by intuition, shows its idealistic aspect.R.W. Emerson (Ralph Waldo)艾默生Nature (1836): the Bible of New England transcendentalismThe American Scholar (1837): Americas Declaration of Intellectual The Divinity School Address神学院致辞(1838) Essays (1841/1847) Representative Men (1850) English Traits (1856) Poems (1847)d. significance (1) He embodied a new nations desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period. (2) his stress on individualism Limitation:self-centered, individual His ideas influence a lot of writers such as Dikinson, ct brief poem in the language. (Matthew Arnold) It is a poem of nature in quatrains rhyming Hawthorne and Whitman.Henry David Thoreau 亨利戴维梭罗 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers康考德和梅里马克河上的一周(1849) Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854) Civil Disobedience 不服从论(1849, an address)c. Walden main ideas: (1)on self-cultivation and human perfectibility, elevated from Puritan original sin, believe in inner virtue and inwardly grace (2) criticism on civilization and capitalism (3) only truth and knowledge cant be taken away, trust in future and in manStyle: pithy (colloquial sayings), vivid description, symbols and imagesNathaniel Hawthorne 纳撒尼尔霍桑 Twice-Told Tales (1837): a collection of short stories Mosses from an Old Manse古屋青苔(1846): another collection of short stories The House of the Seven Gables七个尖角的阁楼(1851): on the effect of a curseThe Scarlet Letter (1850): masterpiece Its not a love story, trying to show the moral, emotional and psychological effects of sin on his characters. “A”: Adultery-Able-Angel “A” on chest: sinner, confessed, died, shows an honest man Moral: man should be true and honest and ready to show ones worst to the world（批评与自我批评）Herman Melville 赫尔曼梅尔维尔 Typee (泰比1846) Omoo (奥穆1847) Mardi (马尔迪1847) 这三部作品描写塔希提群岛和马吉萨斯群岛以及他在岛上的奇遇。 Redburn (莱德勃恩1849)：描写了他的第一次航海经验以及在利物浦港贫民窟的见闻。 White Jacket (白外套1850)：根据他在美国海军军舰上服役时期的生活体验写成。 Pierre (皮埃尔1852) Israel Potter (伊斯莱尔波特1855): historical novel Piazza Tales (广场故事1856): a collection of short story Moby Dick (白鲸1851): masterpiece (1) a whaling book: an encyclopedia of whaling/description of a whalers life (2) a tragedy about man fighting against universe (hostile) Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life, meaningless because futile. Man can observe and even manipulate in a prudent way, but he cannot influence and overcome nature at its source. (3) alienation异化: between man and man between man and society (ship) between man and natureAhab is the best representative. To him the world exists for his sake. His selfhood must be asserted at the expense of all else: lives may be sacrificed, and nature may have to be vanquished in order that he may do what he wills. Richard Chase says: the idea Melville conveys in it is death-spiritual, emotional, physical.(5) theme: quest (6) symbolism the voyage: a metaphor for search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience. the Pequod皮阔德: the ship of the American soul the endeavor of the crews: the maniacal fanaticism of our white mental consciousness Moby Dick: (many interpretations) the symbol of natureW. C. Bryant 布莱恩特 the analysis on To a Waterfowl致水鸟 It is the most perfein abab. theme: from a bird and its flight to an ordinary person and his course of life, this poem conveys that everything in nature is under the beneficence and protection of the Power.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 朗费罗 Theme: idealized love, children, family and friendship A Psalm of Life The poem is divided into 9 stanzas, each composed of two iambic tetrameter lines and two trochaic trimeter lines rhyming abab. The first two stanzas refute the pessimism that life is but a dream, affirming the contrary that life is real. The following stanzas urge the reader to act in the present and to leave footprints as great people did in order to inspire the followers. The last stanza ends with a resounding note while admonishing people to learn to wait as well as to labor.Realism（the 19th-century literary movement that reacted to romanticism by insisting on a faithful, objective presentation of the details of everyday life.）features:o i.objective description (concern for the commonplace/the low)o ii. criticism of society and reality, exposing and criticizing the society; the writers dissatisfaction; no longer eulogize human glorityo iii. verisimilitude逼真性(true to details)o iv. influenced by bourgeois 中产阶级democratic ideas (not overthrow but reform, changes)o v. reformative: to reform the society, not to change completelyo features: Naturalism（A post-Darwinian movement of the late 19th century that tried to apply the laws of scientific determinism to fiction.）is a theory which applied scientific concepts and methods to such problems as plot development and characterisation.o Comparison between Realism and Naturalism:o Realism. o i. objectiveo ii. creation of typeso iii. influenced by British Rom. works with hope o Naturalismo i. scientific accuracyo ii. collect material from their liveso iii.against this, hopeless/gloomy picture of the societyWalt Whitman 惠特曼Leaves of Grass草叶集,(1) themeso i. unity of all man and of man within universeo ii. equality of all mano iii. cycle of life and deatho iv. enthusiastic idea toward Westward Expansiono v. brotherhoodd. Song of Myself自我之歌o (1) influence of Transcendentalism: praise of individualismo (2) cycle of life and deatho (3) ideal of democracy: equality between different races and brotherhoodEmily Dickinson 艾米莉 狄更斯A Bird came down the walkI died for Beauty-but was ScarceI Heard a Fly buzz-when I died-Because I could not stop for Death-H.B. Stowe 斯托夫人 Uncle Toms Cabin (1851): masterpiecesignificance:o 1.intensified and strengthened abolitionist sentiment;o 2. gave a better balanced, more specific picture of plantation life;o 3. praised the merits of slaves and showed great sympathy for themHenry James 詹姆斯 o The American (1877): begins with international themeo Daisy Miller (1878): brings the author first international fameo The Wings of the Dove (1902)o The Ambassadors (1903)o The Golden Bowl (1904)o The Portrait of A Lady贵妇画像:masterpieceo It tells about the fate of one of those splendid Jamesian American girls, Isabel Archer, arriving in Europe, full of hope, and with a will to live a free and noble life, only to fail prey to the sinister designs of two vulgar and unscrupulous expatriates, Madam Merle and Gilbert OsmondInternational theme国际主题:o the meeting of America and Europe; American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence and the moral and psychological complications arising therefrom; for the American it was a process of progression from inexperience to experience, from innocence to knowledge and maturity. Those American heroes or heroins who confronting European sophistication, either triumphed over it or were overwhelmed.Mark Twain 马克 吐温o The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Count卡拉维拉斯县有名的跳蛙(1865):a short storyo The Innocents Abroad国外的无辜者(1869): letters on his travelling in Europe and Near Easto Roughing It苦行记(1872): on his experience in the western Americao The Gilded Age (1873): his first novel, collaborated with Charles Dudley Warnero The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)o The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利费恩历险记(1884): masterpieceo Life on the Mississippi (1883)o A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court误闯亚瑟王宫(1889)o The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg败坏了哈德莱堡的人(1900)o The Mysterious Stranger (1916)e. The Adventures of Tom Sawyero 1. It is a boys book which sets 20 years before Civil War.o 2. themes:o 1)picaresque以流浪汉和无赖为题材的(adventure story)o 2) moral growth of Tomo 3. techniques: verisimilitude, humor, colloquial styleDeadpan（铁面幽默）: oral humor/the teller has a strict face but the listeners are laughing.Language: dialects as forms of artJack London 杰克伦敦 o The People of the Abyss深渊居民(1903): about Londons slumo The Iron Heel 铁蹄(1908): the first proletarian criterion novel which envisages the development of fascismo The Call of the Wild 野性的呼唤(1903): the most widely read booko The Sea Wolf 海狼(1904)o These two novels reflect the ideas of the law of survival and the will to powero Martin Eden马丁伊登 (1909): a reflection of the contradiction between these competeing beliefsc. Martin Eden-theme:the failure of American Dream. After he realized his dream of getting into the upper class, he also realized the emptiness of it and committed suicide.o This is a book that missed fire with a majority of the critics. Written as an indictment of individualism, it was accepted as an indictment of socialism; written to show that man cannot live for himself alone, it was accepted as a demonstration that success made for death. Had Martin Eden been a socialist he would not have died.o Consciously London meant the novel to show that only a belief in the people, only the devotion of ones life to a cause greater than onself, could give life any real meaning.T. Dreisser西奥多德莱塞o Sister Carrie 嘉莉妹妹(1900): the first novel, masterworko Jannie Gerhardt (1911)o The Fanancier (1912)o The Titan (1914)o The Stoic (1947)o The Genius (1915)o An American Tragedy美国悲剧 (1925)o Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928)c. Sister Carrieo theme:the emptiness of Ameircan Dreamo i. jungle lawo Famous actress bank manager(the unfit is bound to die) o Country girl (able to follow her instinct) commit suicideo ii. chance and lucko iii. criticism of American values: money and sex the standards to see if a person is successfulo iv. concern for the poorJazz Age: the Jazz Age lasted from 1919-1929, the decade enjoyed economic prosperity. The war and economic boom encouraged a breaking with the tradition (Puritanism). People upheld the value of money-making and pleasure-seeking.Ezra Pound埃兹拉庞德Imagism意象派 n Pound became the most important figure. Imagist poetry reached the peak of literature for three things appeared:n i. a manifeston ii. three principlesn iii. a lot of writingsn Pound said, an image is that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.In a Station of the Metro在地铁车站 n 1. This is the much-quoted masterpiece of Pound and a representative of the Imagist poetry.n 2. In form, the poem is similar to the Japanese haiku, a two-line couplet with rhymes. Pounds poem reminds the Chinese of two lines by a Tang poet, Bai Juyi. When describing the sad yet beautiful face of Yang Huifei, a Tang emperess, the poet wrote,n The beautiful face, lonesome with tears;n A pear branch, radiant with rain.n 3. The poem is a representative of Imagist poems in that the image of petals on a wet, black bough best represents the picture of those lovely faces in the crowd and that the image is dominant in the poem-the image itself is the poem.T.S. Eliot 艾略特poetry:n Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)n Poems (1920)n The Waste Land (1922)n The Hollow Men (1925)n Ash Wednesday (1930)n Four Quartets (1943)plays:n Sweeney Agonistes (1932)n Murder in the Cathedral (1935)n The Cocktail Party (1950)n The Confidential Clerk (1954)critical essays:n The Sacred Wood (1920)n For Lancelot Andrews (1928)n The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933)n After Strange Gods (1934)n On Poetry and Poets (1957)c. The Waste Land荒原n 5 parts: The Burial of Dead, The Game of Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death by Water, What the Thunder Saidn chief characteristics n 1. quotations and allusions暗示n 2. objective correlativen 3. juxtaposition并列: mingle brand image with common imagen 4. use of antiquity古风The Love Songn Prufrock is not the image of one unlucky modern man; instead, he represents many other modern westerners who are divided between passion and timidity, between desire and impotence.4. themen This poem reflects the decadent modern civilization and the nightmarish inferno in which modern Westerners are living in.5. techiniquesn 1) ironyn 2) striking imagesn 3) the form of dramatic monologuen The poem is written in irregular lines, with but a few rhymes.Robert Frost罗伯特弗罗斯特 b. Characteristicsn 1. not in the main stream of modern poetry, but with conventional form and plain language. Thats why hes the most popular poet in the 20th century.n 2. a kind of a regionalist-New England, but not local colorism. He used New England as a metaphor for the whole world and universe.n 3. a plain poet using symbols from everyday country life. Simple symbols but express deep meanings.The Road Not Takenn 1. The poem was written in very regular lines with iambic pentametre and rhyme scheme of abaab.n 2. The symbolic meaning of the two divergent roads is rather clear. They represent any important decisions in ones life. n 3. details:Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eveningn 1. It is a lyric poem with iambic tetrametre and interlocking enclosed rhyme.n 2. It represents a moment of relaxation from the onerous journey of life, an almost aesthetic enjoyment and appreciation of natural beauty which is wholesome and retorative against the chaotic existence of modern man.The Lost Generationn 1. term: It is a term in frequent use after WWI in reference to the young men who survived physically but were afterwards spiritually and morally adrift. So the lost generation refers to disillusioned writers who wrote after WWI. Many of them went to the battle. After the war, they rebelled against former ideals and values and cant find new ones to replace.n 2. It first coined by Gertrude Stein. In Paris, she opens the door to American expatriates. She once said to Hemingway, “Youre all a lost generation.”n 3. It was used as preface to The Sun Also Rises. Then it became popular. Fitzgerald once said they are “a generation grown up to find all gods died, all wars fought, all faith in men shaken”.Ernest Hemingway 海明威 n 1.Hemingway theme/hero/situation. Theme: “grace under pressure”2.nihilism: negative attitude towards the world. There is only one thing man is certain-deathn 3. devotion to truth. He believes the writers job is to tell truth. c. stylen 1.iceberg principle. The meaning here is that the writer should say only one eighth, in such a way that the remaining seven eighths be discerned and provided by the reader.n 2.language: short, common, fundamental words, simple sentence, structure.The effect of the language: clearness, cleanness and great care.n 3.dialogue: plays a very important part in his writings. Hemingways dialogue can show setting, development of plot, characters, even theme. n 4.cinematic way: he uses showing instead of telling. He likes to describes actions (kiss, withdraw hand) vividly instead of mental description.n 5.symbolismn 6.use of stream of consciousnessd. A Farewell to Armsn 1. If we say