美国文学整理

29introductionThe periods of American literature1.The colonial period (约1607 - 1765)The main features Puritanism2.The period of Enlightenment and the Independence War (1765 -1800)Benjamin Franklin3.The romantic period (1800 - 1865)(1)The early romanticism -Washington Irving James Fenimore Cooper(2)“New England Transcendentalism” or “American Renaissance (1836 - 1855)”-Emerson Thoreau Whitman Dickinson Hawthorne Melville Allan Poe4.The realistic period (1865 - 1914)(1)Midwestern Realism -William Dean Howells(2)Cosmopolitan Novelist-Henry James(3)Local Colorism-Mark Twain(4)Naturalism-Stephen Crane Jack London Theodore Dreise5.The period of modernism (1914 - 1945)(1)Modern poetry: experiments in form (Imagism)-Ezra Pound T.S.Eliot Robert Frost(2)Prose Writing: modern realism (the Lost Generation)-F.Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway William Faulkner(3)Novels of Social Awareness-Sinclair Lewis John Steinbeck Richard Wright(4)The Harlem Renaissance-Langston Hughes Zora Neals Hurston(5)The 20th Century American Drama-Eugene ONeil Tennessee Williams Arthur Asher Mille6.The Contemporary Literature (1945 -) American Poetry Since 1945: the Anti-traditionAmerican Prose Since 1945: Realism and Experimentation.Nobel Prize winner1930 Scinclair Lewis Main Street1936 Eugene ONeill The Hairy Ape 1938 Pearl S. Buck The Good Earth1949 William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury1954 Earnest Hemingway The Sun Also Rises1962 John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath1976 Saul Bellow Herzog1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer Gimpel the Fool 1987 Joseph Brodsky Six Years Later1993 Toni Morrison Beloved Lecture 2 American Literature in the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods(1607 -1800)1.From 1607, American writing began with the work of English adventurers and colonists in the New World chiefly for the benefit of readers in the mother country. Some of these early works reached the level of literature, as William Bradford in New England. From the beginning, however, the literature of New England was also directed to the edification（教导） and instruction of the colonists themselves, intended to direct them in the ways of the godly. The writing in this period was essentially two kinds: (1) practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people “at home” what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration; (2) highly theoretical, generally polemical（好辩的）, discussions of religious questions.Furthermore, the influential Protestant work ethic, reinforced by the practical necessities of a hard pioneer life, inhibited（抑制） the development of any reading matter designed simply for leisure-time entertainment.(It is the belief that work itself is good in addition to what it achieves; that time saved by efficiency or good fortune should not be spent in leisure but in doing further work; that idleness is always immoral and likely to lead to even worse sin since “the devil finds work for idle hands to do”. This belief later developed into the American philosophic idea Puritanism.)2. The Main Features of this period(1)American literature gr ew out of humble origins. Diaries, histories, journals, letters, commonplace books, travel books, sermons, in short, personal literature in its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period. (2)In content these early writings served either God or colonial expansion or both. In form, if there was any form at all, English literary traditions were faithfully imitated and transplanted. (1)The Puritanism formed in this period was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature. Puritanism(1)Simply speaking, American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions. In content it means scrupulous moral rigor, especially hostility to social pleasures and indulgences, that is strictness, sternness and austerity in conduct and religion.(2)To some extent it is a state of mind, a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes, rather than a set of tenets Revolutionary Periods(1756-1800)Main features Puritanism: doctrines of predestination, original sin, total depravity and limited atonement.Social Awareness：Essays, pamphlets, and political documents for purposes of social reform, revolutionary agitation and philosophical declaration.Main figuresColonial period: William Bradford(1590-1657); Anne Bradstreet(1617-1672); Jonathon Edwards(1702-1758); Edward Taylor (1642-1729)Revolutionary period: Roger Williams(1603-1683) John Woolman(1720-1772); Thomas Paine(1737-1809); Philip Freneau(1752-1832); Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)本杰明富兰克林Evaluations from McMichael:He is a master of the periodical essay, of satires, political journalism, and letters.helped established a tradition in American writing of the simple, utilitarian（实用的） style.(McMichael et al. 272-273)Evaluation:(1) He was a rare genius in human history. Nature seemed particularly lavish and happy when he was shaped. Everything seems to meet in this one man, mind and will, talent and art, strength and ease, wit and grace, and he became almost everything: a printer, postmaster, citizen, almanac maker, essayist, scientist, inventor, orator, statesman, philosopher, political economist, ambassador, musician and parlor man. (2) .Politically he brought the colonial era to a close. For quite some time he was regarded as the father of all Yankees, even more than Washington was. He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States: the declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the treaty of peace with England, and the constitution. (3) Scientifically, as the symbol of America in the Age of Enlightenment, he invented a lot of useful implements. His research on electricity, his famous experiment with his kite line and many others made him the distinguished scientist of his day.(4) Literally, he really opened the story of American literature. D. H. Lawrance agreed that Franklin was everything but a poet. In the Scottish philosopher David Humes eyes he was Americas “first great man of letters”.His works: Poor Richards Almanack 穷理查年鉴The Way to Wealth ( also known as Father Abrahams Sermon) 致富之路 Autobiography 富兰克林自传Philip Freneau菲利普弗雷诺（1752-1832）Father of American Poetry The first American writer to idealize the native Indian civilization.Works:野金银花美丽的花儿 如此清秀的绽放 隐藏在这安宁幽静的所在 未经染指的花蕊盛开芬芳 未被注目的细枝问询摇摆 不会有那旅人践踏的脚步 不会有那好事者的采摘白色的花儿开得自在 将那凡尘俗眼躲避开来 四周有香林掩盖 一条弱水带着细语相伴 这夏日便如此消逝远去 你的花期也渐近凋敝暗香也终将销残 念及你之终期 我便哀恸不已 它们谢去也不减分毫妍丽 曾在天堂绽放的花朵 严霜与那秋日的肃杀 不会让花儿留下丝毫痕迹那娇蕊自朝霞与暮露里 来到这尘世 来时一无所有 去时了无牵挂 尘归尘 土归土 这相隔的时间 不过一晌 这便是一朵花儿憔悴的命运一场Lecture 3 The American RomanticismI. What is RomanticismSimply speaking, Romanticism is a literary movement associated with imagination and boundlessness, as contrasted with classicism, which is commonly associated with reason and restriction. The most clearly defined romantic literary movement in the U. S. was Transcendentalism. 1. Transcendentalism (超验主义)Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern region of the United States.The movement was a reaction to, or protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality.A core belief was in the inherent goodness of both people and nature. They believed that society and its institutions ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual, and had faith that people are at their best when truly self-reliant and independent.2. American Renaissance（美国文艺复兴）The literary scene of the period was dominated by a group of New England writers, the “Brahmins”. They advocated reforms in church, state, and society, contributing to the rise of free religion and the abolition movement and to the formation of various utopian communities.Washington Irving华盛顿欧文 (1783-1859 )1.His earliest work was a sparkling, satirical History of New York （纽约史）The Sketch Book (1819-20 as Geoffrey Crayon) - contains Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow （见闻札记）The Life of George Washington (1855-59, five volumes)（华盛顿传）2.Evaluation to him(1)American author, short story writer, essayist, poet, travel book writer, biographer, and columnist. Irving has been called the father of the American short story. (2)The first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. (3)It also marked the beginning of American Romanticism. Nathaniel Hawthorn纳撒尼尔霍桑(1804-1864)The Scarlet Letter (红字)The Interpretation and Semiosis(符指) of “A”A. Adultery (通奸)B. Alone/Alienate (孤独/异化)C. Art (多才)D. Able (能干)E. Admirable (可敬)F. Angel (天使)G. Advance (前进)Herman Melville哈曼. 梅尔维尔(1819 - 1891)His Masterpiece: Moby Dick白鲸 (1）It is an encyclopedia of everything, history, philosophy, religion, etc. (2)The main theme of it is about alienation between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Edgar Allen Poe埃德加爱伦坡(1809-1849)“Al Aaraaf”阿尔阿拉夫“The Bells”钟“The City in the Sea”海中之城“The Conqueror Worm”征服者爬虫“A Dream Within a Dream”梦中之梦“Eldorado”黄金国“Eulalie”尤拉丽歌“The Haunted Palace”闹鬼的宫殿“ToHelen”致海伦“Lenore”丽诺尔“Tamerlane”帖木儿“The Raven”乌鸦“Ulalume”尤娜路姆“Annabel Lee”安娜贝尔李那是很多年，很多年以前了， 在海滨的一个王国里， 有一个女孩，你也许会知道 她的名字叫安娜贝尔丽； 这女孩，她生前没有别的心事， 除了爱我，也接受我的爱意。 那时我是个孩子，她也是一个孩子，在这海滨的王国里； 但我们相爱，以深于爱情的爱情，我，和我的安娜贝尔丽以如此深的爱情，使双翼的天使 对我们都感到妒忌。就是因为如此，在很久以前， 在这海滨的王国里， 一阵狂飙起自云间，吹冻了 我美丽的安娜贝尔丽；于是她家里的贵族们前来， 自我的身边将她领去， 且将她幽禁于一个荒丘，在这海滨的王国里。天使们也没有我们一半的快乐，对我们竟感到妒忌。 是的！就是因此（谁都知道），在这海滨的王国里， 一阵狂飙起自云间，在黑夜， 冻毙了我的安娜贝尔丽 可是我们的爱情远胜于那些爱情，那属于年长于我们的人的， 那属于聪明于我们的人的； 无论是天使们飞翱于天顶， 或是魔鬼们潜游于海底， 都不能分割我的灵魂自她的灵魂，自我们的安娜贝尔丽。因为每夜月亮的光辉都为我带来了梦寐，梦见美丽的安娜贝尔丽； 而每夜星星的上升都使我感到那眼神，来自美丽的安娜贝尔丽。 于是，在整个夜间，我都躺下,在她的身边，在我的小情人，小情人，我生命，我新娘的身边，在临海的她的孤坟里 在骚响的海畔的小墓里。II. The PoetsWalt Whitman(1819-1892)沃尔特惠特曼free verse: a modern form of poetry which does not follow any specific rhyme or metrical scheme, although it does not completely abandon the basic poetic precepts of heightened language and sonics. 一种诗歌形式，不遵守任何明确的韵律或格律，当然也未完全抛弃基本的诗歌原则，如精炼的语言和声韵规律。the poems of male affection (男性情感的表达)青年，白天，老年和夜强大、健壮、可爱的青年哟，充满优美、活力和魅力的青年哟，你知道在你以后来到的老年，也有着同样的优美、活力和魅力么？光明灿烂的白天，硕大的太阳照耀着的充满行动、野心和欢笑的白天哟，在你后面紧跟着充满千千万万的太阳、安睡和使人精力恢复的幽暗的黑夜。我们两个小伙子厮缠在一起我们两个小伙子厮缠在一起彼此从来不分离天南海北，一路同行我们精力充沛，肩并着肩，手牵着手我们纵情吃喝玩乐，同眠共枕我们随意航行，当兵，偷窃，恫吓，不承认法律，觉得它还不如我们自己，我们自由呼吸，饮水，跳舞，在海滨草地，教训那些守财奴、卑鄙者、牧师。我们挣脱城市，谴责安逸，嘲弄法规，驱逐软骨头，实现我们的冒险。对各州对各州，对其中的任何一个，或各州中的任何一城，应该说，“要多抗拒，少顺从，”一旦无条件顺从，一旦完全受奴役，一旦完全受奴役，这大地上的任何国家，州，城市，就将永远不会重获自由。Emily Dickinson(1830-1886)艾米莉狄金森(女) 第一位黑人诺奖religious poet in the Puritan tradition 清教传统中的宗教诗人poet of the Romantic school 浪漫派诗人 proto-feminist poet 早期女权主义诗人first poet of modernism 第一位现代主义诗人precursor of postmodernism 后现代主义的先行者我为美而死我为美而死，对坟墓 几乎还不适应 一个殉真理的勇士 就成了我的近邻他轻声问我“为什么倒下”？我答他：“为了美” 他说：“我为真理，真与美 是一体，我们是兄弟”就这样，象亲人，黑夜相逢我们隔着房间谈心直到苍苔长上我们的嘴唇覆盖掉，我们的姓名我们有一份黑夜要忍受 我们有一份黑夜要忍受我们有一份黎明我们有一份欢乐的空白要填充我们有一份憎恨这里一颗星那里一颗星，有些，迷了方向！这里一团雾那里一团雾，然后，阳光！Lecture 4 The American RealismWhat is American realism?（1）As a literary movement realism came in the latter half of the nineteenth century as a reaction against “the lie” of romanticism. It expressed the concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, and for the low. （2）The American realists advocated “verisimilitude versmltju:d of detail derived from observation”.（源于观察的逼真细节）The schools of American Realism:（1）Midwestern Realism It just refers to William Dean Howellss realism because he came from the American Midwest and carefully interweaved the life and emotions of ordinary middle-class there in his works.（2）Cosmopolitan Novelist（3）Regionalism (local color) Simply it means The use of regional detail in a literary or artistic work. Local colorists were interested in realistically depicting life in different sections of the United States in order to promote understanding and unification. Fiction writers O. Henry, and Mark Twain have been identified within this tradition.（4）Naturalism The writers of naturalism tore the mask of gentility to pieces and wrote about the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world, and his lack of dignity in face of the forces of environment and heredity（遗传）. In their works there is a desire to assert ones human identity, to define oneself against the social and natural forces one confronts.The major representatives of American naturalists include Jack London, Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser and so on.（5）The Chicago School of poets（6）The rise of black American literatureMark Twain马克吐温 (1835 - 1910)The Innocents Abroad (1869)傻子旅行Roughing It (1872)苦行记The Gilded Age (1873镀金时代The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)汤姆索耶历险记The Prince and the Pauper (1882)变形记 Life on the Mississippi (1883)密西西比河上的生涯The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)哈克贝利费恩历险记 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court (1889) 康州美国佬在亚瑟王朝The Tragedy of Puddnhead Wilson (1893)傻瓜威尔逊One of his significant contributions to American literature lies in the fact that he made colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of the country.Theodore Dreiser西奥多德莱赛( 18711945)Sister Carrie（1900）, the story of a kept woman whose behavior goes unpunished.Jennie Gerhardt（1911）珍妮姑娘 His Cowperwood trilogy based on the life of the transportation magnate Charles T. Yerkes. The Financier（1912）The Titan（1914）The Stoic（posthumously 1947） 斯多葛The Genius (1915), a sprawling semi-autobiographical chronicle of Dreisers numerous love affairs, was censured by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Its sequel, The Bulwark,壁垒 appeared posthumously in 1946.An American Tragedy（1925） Evaluation on him:He embraced social Darwinism. He learned to regard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the fittest, the most ruthless, survive. Human tragedy comes as a result of the collision between mans biological needs and societys ruthless manipulationJack London杰克伦敦(1876-1916)The Son of the Wolf (1900)狼子The People of the Abyss (1903)深渊里的人们The Call of the Wild (1903)野性的呼唤The Sea Wolf (1904)海狼White Fang (1906)白牙/狼/芳The Iron Heel (1908)铁蹄Martin Eden (1909)马丁伊登Burning Daylight (1910)毒日子/天大亮The Valley of the Moon (1913)月亮谷Credo信条宁为飞灰灭，不作逐尘浮， 宁燃星星火，身化熊熊焰， 宁与枯木为俦，岂可默然同腐。 此身愿化流星灿，不羡天河行星体， 君看昙花一现人生没，绝胜平凡尘世苦勾留。莫费一生求苟活，只求献尽每一刻。Love of Life:热爱生命一切，总算剩下了这一点他们经历了生活的困苦颠连；能做到这种地步也就是胜利，尽管他们输掉了赌博的本钱。Lecture 5 The American Modernism(1914 - 1945)What is Modernism? Modernism is a cultural movement that generally includes the progressive literature which emerged in the beginning of the 20th century , particularly in the years following World War I. It embraced the new economic, social and political aspects of the emerging modern world. 1) Modernism in literature is not easily summarized, but the key elements are experimentation, anti-realism, individualism and a stress on the cerebral（理性） rather than emotive（情感） aspects.2) The work of Modernist writers is characterized by showing the disenchantment（觉醒）, dislocation（错位）, and alienation（疏离） of men in the world, and by the emphasis on experimentation and formalism and objectivism.Among American writers, the best-known Modernists are T.S.Eliot, Ezra Pound, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and so on.I. Imagism:（1）It is a Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical（韵律） freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images.（2）Pound defined an image as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time, a vortex or cluster of fus ed ideas, endowed with energy.（意象是在一瞬间呈现出的理性和感情的复合体）Ezra Pound伊兹拉庞德(1885 - 1972)While in prison, he was awarded a prestigious poetry prize in 1949 for his last Cantos.1.His poetic features:Throughout the 1920s, he was much involved in most of the major artistic movements. He was the leader of the Imagist school in poetry. He believed that good poetry was based on images rather than ideas. 2.Introduction to “One image poem”：“a form of super-position, that is to say, it is one idea set on top of another. ”Pound“一种意象重叠的形式，即，一个思想放在另一个思想上。”It is essentially a metaphor, a metaphorical relation between two images in two separate sentences/clauses.其本质是隐喻的一种，其两个句子或分句上孤立的意象是比喻关系。3.In a Station of the Metro 人群中幽然浮现的一张张脸庞， 黝黑的湿树枝上的一片片花瓣。 Modern Realism (the Lost Generation)P153（1）The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group of American intellectuals, poets, artists and writers fled to France in the post WWI years to reject the values of American materialism and to seek the bohemian（波西米亚） lifestyle in Paris.（2）Full of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs . （3）American poet Gertrude Stein（格特鲁德斯泰因） actually coined the expression lost generation. Speaking to Ernest Hemingway, she said, you are all a lost generation. The term stuck the mystique（神秘性） surrounding t