美国文学essayquestions最新

1、word1.Give a brief discussion of Henry James literary achievement.1) International theme: Jamess novels are always set against a larger international background, usually between America and Europe2) Psychological realism: Jamess realism is characterized by his psychological approach to his subject m

2、atter. His fictional world is concerned with the inner world of human beings. He is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th century “stream-of-consciousness novels and the founder of psychological realism.3) His language is highly refined and insightful; he is the most expert of stylist of

3、his time4) Narrative point of view: moving away from authorial omniscience, making the characters reveal themselves5) Literary criticism: “The Art of Fiction. The theme of “The Art of Fiction clearly indicates that the aim of the novel is to present life, also advocates the freedom of the artist to

4、write about anything that concerns him. Jamess language is elaborate and refined with lengthy psychological analyses.2. Analyze the artistic features of Earnest Hemingways novels.Hemingways artistic features can be concluded into 3 parts:a. colloquialb. understatementc. ice-berg analogyTypical of th

5、is “iceberg analogy is Hemingways style. He deals with a limited range of characters in quite similar circumstances and measures them against unvarying code, known as “grace under pressure. Besides, Hemingway develops the style of colloquialism initiated by Mark Twain. According to Hemingway, good l

6、iterary writing should be able to make reader feel the emotion of the characters directly and the best way to produce the effect is to set down exactly every particular kind of feeling without any authorial comment Hemingway develops the style of colloquialism initiated by Mark Twain. The accents an

7、d mannerisms of human speech are so well presented that the characters are full of flesh and blood and the use of short, simple and conventional words and sentence have an effect of clearness, terseness and great care. Through seemingly simple and natural, his style is polished and controlled, sugge

8、stive and connotative.3. Give a brief discussion of Whitmans style and language.Style: Whitman is one of the representative poets in America. He employed brand-new means in his poetry and has made radical changes in the form of poetry by choosing free verse as his medium of expression, which is a ki

9、nd of poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. Whitmans poetic style is marked by the use of the poetic “I and the images in his poems are unconventional.Language: He uses oral English and the words he uses are relatively simple and crude, which formed many honest and undistorted images

10、of different aspects of America of the day. Usually, parallelism and phonetic recurrence are used at the beginning of the lines. The poetic lines are simple and prose-like, varying in length, which allows him to express his ideas freely. He also applies oral English in his free verse to make it an e

11、ffective way to express freely the feelings of common people.4. Why is Fitzgerald regarded as spokesman of the “Jazz AgeFitzgerald was a representative figure of the 1920s. He never failed to remain detached and foresee the tragedy of the “Dollar Decade. His works mirror the exciting age in almost e

12、very way and his fictional world is the best embodiment of the spirit of the Jazz Age.Through the glittering world of his fiction run the themes of moral waste and decay and necessity of personal responsibility. The Great Gatsby, a book about the Jazz Age, is a case study in peoples pursuit of an el

13、usive American Dream. It is also a powerful criticism of American society. Thus he is often acclaimed literary spokesman of the Jazz Age.5. Comment on the writing style of William Faulkner.1) William Faulkner is one of the greatest American novelists. As a Nobel Prize winner, he has an important pos

14、ition in American literature. The range of narrative techniques used by Faulkner is what makes his writing style remarkable. He would never step between the characters and the reader to explain, but let the characters explain themselves and hinder as little as possible the readers direct experience

15、of the work of art.2) The most characteristic way of structuring his stories is to fragment the chronological time. He deliberately broke up the chronology of his narrative by juxtaposing the past with the present, in the way the montage does in a movie.3) The modern stream-of-consciousness techniqu

16、e was frequently and skillfully exploited by Faulkner to emphasize the reactions and inner musings of the narrator4) Moreover, Faulkner was good at presenting multiple points of view5) The other narrative techniques Faulkner used to construct his stories include symbolism and mythological and biblic

17、al allusion.6. Comment on Mark Twain.Mark Twain is known as a great literary artist and a great social critic, who prefers to present social life though portraits of local characters of his region. He is the first truly American writer and Lincoln of our literature, who has a great influence on the

18、following generations.Another factor that made him unique is his magic power with language, his use of vernacular. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structure is simple, even ungrammatical, which is a typical of spoken language.Whats more, his characters confi

19、ned to a particular region and historical moment, speak with strong accent, which is true of his local colorism. Besides, different characters from different literary or different culture backgrounds talk differently. Twain has made colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the l

20、iterary history of the country. His humor is also remarkable.7. Discuss the concept of “wasteland in relation to the works of those writers in the twentieth-century American literature.“The Waste Land is a poem written by T.S. Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of the 3rd contemporary wor

21、ld. This most widely known expression of the despair in the postwar era has appeared over and over again in the works of those writers in the 20th century American literature. Faulkner exemplified T.S. Eliots concept of modern society as a wasteland is a dramatic way, he condemned the mechanized, in

22、dustrialized society that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decrease those essential human values such as courage, fortitude, honesty and goodness. Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the jazz age. Beneath the masks of relaxation and joviality, there

23、was only sterility, meaningless and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance, there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway, the leading spokesman of the Lost Generation, though disillusioned in the postwar period, strove to bring about mans “grace under pressure. He tried to bring out

24、 the idea than man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually.8. Please explain Transcendentalism in the following aspects: growth and development, major concepts, significance, weaknesses, and authors.Growth and Development1) In essence, romantic idealism on Puritan soil2) A system

25、of thought from three sources:A. UnitarianismB. the idealistic philosophy from France and GermanyC. oriental mysticism as revealed in Hindu and Chinese classicsAuthorsRalph Waldo Emerson and Henry David ThoreauMajor ConceptsA. The power of intuitionB. Spirit first, matter secondC. Nature as a symbol

26、 of spirit or godD. Individual as the most important element in societyE. Religion as an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal “Over soulF. Commerce as degrading and pay less attention to the material worldSignificance1) An ethical guide to life for America2) Inspired English poets and German idealist philosophers3) Great impact on American writers4) A clarion call to actionWeakness1) Never a systematic phi