1、美国文学简史复习资料美国文学简史复习资料2016 年 12 月 23 日美国文学简史复习资料目录殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学美国浪漫主义早期新英格兰超验主义美国浪漫主义后期美国现实主义文学美国乡土文学美国现代诗歌美国现代小说美国南方文学美国现代戏剧美国黑人文学美国华裔文学美国文学简史复习资料- 0 -殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学New England：Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, named by Captain John Smith PuritanismDoctrines
2、of Puritanism：predestination（命运神定), original sin, total depravity (彻底的堕落), and limited atonement (有限的赎罪)from Gods gracePuritans left Europe for America in order to prove that they were Gods chosen people who would enjoy Gods blessings on earth and in Heaven. They felt that they were exiles under the
3、 special grace of God to establish a theocracy in the New World. Style of writing：the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest；a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the BiblePuritans way of Life：hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.In Hawthornes
4、The Scarlet Letter there is a good description of the Puritans life. Main writersWilliam BradfordOf Plymouth Plantation 普利茅斯垦殖记Thomas Paine Common Sense 常识；American Crisis 美国危机；The Rights of Man 人权；The Age of Reason 理性时代Philip Freneau The Rising Glory of America 蒸蒸日上的美洲；The Wild Honeysuckle 野金银花Benj
5、amin FranklinAutobiography 富兰克林自传Thomas JeffersonDraft the Declaration of Independence.美国文学简史复习资料- 1 -美国浪漫主义早期RomanticismBackground of Romanticism：Economic boom and national optimism ；Favorable literary milieu: increasing number of magazines ；Foreign influences: the Romantic Movement in Europe. Char
6、acteristics of Romanticism：A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. Feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important for romantics than reason and common sense. An emphasis on individualism; placing the individual against the group, against authority.Stress on the close relationship
7、between man and nature. Fascination with the wild, the irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious, and the strange Cherishing a strong interest in the past, especially the medieval. Features of American Romanticism：New experience in the American Romanticism. The exotic landscape, the fron
8、tier life, the westward expansion, the myth of a New Garden of Eden in America, and the Puritan heritage, etc., these were all materials for an indigenous literature. A deep influence from the American Puritanism. Different from their European counterparts, American romantics tended to moralize, to
9、edify rather than to entertain.The “newness” of the Americans as a nation. The Americans are different from the Europeans. Their ideals of individualism and political equality, and their dream that America was to be a new Garden of eden for man were distinctly American.The New England Poets:Henry W.
10、 Longfellow-A Psalm of Life 人生礼赞Main writersWashington IrvingThe Sketch Book (1819-1820)见闻札记;The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 睡谷的传说James Fenimore Cooper美国文学简史复习资料- 2 -Leather-stocking Tales 皮裹腿故事集 ;The Pioneers 拓荒者;The Last of the Mohicans 最后一个莫希干人;The Prairie 大草原;The Pathfinder 探路人;The Deerslayer 猎鹿人新英格
11、兰超验主义 TranscendentalismTranscendentalismas a way of knowing, believes that individuals can intuitively receive higher truths otherwise unavailable through common methods of knowing, thus transcending the limits of rationalism. Some of its major concepts are: It placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over
12、-soul（超灵）, as the most important thing in the universe. It emphasized the importance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish. It offered a fresh view of nature as symbolic of the
13、 Spirit or God.SignificanceA group of new writers apply transcendental ideas in their worksWeaknessTranscendentalism tended to become mysticism.sometimes resulted in rampant individualismmake moral indignation an irrelevant emotion. Main writersRalph Waldo Emerson(超验主义领袖）Nature（标志性之作）;The American S
14、cholar 论美国学者Henry David ThoreauWalden:informal,spontaneous and so easy. His sentences are concentrated and vigorous.美国浪漫主义后期High Romantics in fictionNathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet letter 红字；The House of Sever Gables 有七个尖角阁的房子Herman Melville Moby-Dick 白鲸；Pierre 皮埃尔High Romantics in poetry美国文学简史复习资料-
15、 3 - Edgar Allen Poe-the father of modern horror story and detective storyTales of the Grotesque and Arabesque 怪诞故事集；The Raven 乌鸦Literary theories (on poetry)Poetical principlesLength: there is a distinct limit to all works of literary artthe limit of a single sitting. Province: Beauty is the sole l
16、egitimate province of the poem.Tone: Sadness is the tone of Beautys highest manifestation. Melancholy is the most legitimateof all the poetical tones. Death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world.The immediate object of poetry is pleasure, not truth. Poe defines true poetry as
17、“the rhythmical creation of beauty”, and declares that music is theperfection of the soul, or idea, of poetry.Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass 草叶集 Emily Dickinson Features of Dickinsons poemsDickinsons style is characteristic of frequent use of dashes, sporadic capitalization of nouns,convoluted and ung
18、rammatical phrasing, off-rhymes, broken meters, bold and unconventional and often startling metaphors, and aphoristic wit. Her poetry prepares for modern poetry in the 20th century. lyric. Her poems are remarkable for their variety, subtlety, and richness. brevity and intensity. unorthodox syntax an
19、d punctuation.innovation in rhyme. One the whole, her poetry is irregular in rhyme and rhythm. 美国现实主义文学 RealismHistorical backgroundImpact of the Civil War Changes in national economic life Concentration of wealth and power 美国文学简史复习资料- 4 -Polarization of the rich and the poor (This was the beginning
20、 of what Mark Twain called “The Gilded Age” an age of extremes: of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope.) Closing of the frontier Definitionbased on the accurate, unromanticized observation of human experiences. It insists on precise description, authentic
21、action and dialogue, moral honesty, and a democratic openness in subject matter and style. Realism as a literary movement refers to the approach of realist fiction occurred at the later part of the 19th century. Realism, as a broader term, is also inclusive of naturalism, regionalism and local color
22、 writing. Major features Realism reacts against Romanticisms emphasis on intuition, imagination, a dreamy sense of wonder, idealism, faith in nature, and general optimistic belief in the goodness of things. Realists claim that they seek truth that is verifiable by experience and have practical conse
23、quences; they do not seek abstract truth.Realists believe that literature imitates reality. They are attentive to such details as dialect, customs, and experiences that are commonplace and “real”. Realists try to describe a small portion of the knowable world in order to maintain “objectivity.”Main
24、WritersWilliam Dean HowellsThe Rise of Silas Lapham 塞拉斯拉帕姆发迹记Henry JamesThe Portrait of a Lady 贵妇画像Literary TheoryArt and life:Art must be related to life; it must be life transformed and changed so that the art form would give the truthful impression of actuality.Point of view美国文学简史复习资料- 5 -Psychol
25、ogical realism（心理现实主义）:by emphasizing the inner awareness and inward movements of his characters in face of outside occurrences became the first of the modern psychological analysts in the novelmodern stream-of-consciousness technique美国乡土文学 Local Color FictionFeaturesLocal color fiction presents a l
26、ocale which is distinguished from the outside world. describes the exotic and the picturesque.glorifies the past.attempts to show things as they are.stresses the influence of setting on character.Dialect peculiarities are the defining characteristic of local color writings. Representatives Mark Twai
27、nThe Gilded Age 镀金时代;The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 汤姆索亚历险记;The Prince and the Pauper 王子与贫儿;Life on Mississippi 密西西比河上 ;The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 哈克贝利 费恩历险记Style:Vernacular language; Local color. ContributionWilliam Deans Howells called Mark Twain “the Lincoln of literature.” . Combining Amer
28、ican frontier humor and serious storytelling conventions with his journalistic style, he produced a body of work of enduring value. His writing gives readers a clear sense of life in the prewar Mississippi Valley. Moreover, he initiated the vernacular tradition in American fiction.Francis Bret Harte
29、-the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularityThe Luck of Roaring Camp 咆哮营里的幸运儿Harriet Beecher StoweUncle Toms Cabin 汤姆大叔的小屋Kate ChopinThe Awakening 觉醒美国文学简史复习资料- 6 -Stephen CraneThe Red Badge of Courage 红色英勇勋章Theodore DresierSister Carrie 嘉莉妹妹;An American Tragedy 美国悲剧 Jack Lon
30、donThe Call of the Wild 野性的呼唤;Martin Eden 马丁 伊登美国现代诗歌 Modern American Poetry-the second flowering(1914-1945)Featurescommon theme:fragmentationstream-of-consciousnessIt also fostered a belief in art and literature as an avenue to self-fulfillment.It was characterized by a conscious rejection of estab
31、lished rules, traditions and conventions. The essence of modernism was a break with the pastIt strove to reflect 20th centurys social and political changesBackgroundthe consequence of the transformation of society brought about by industrialism and technology in the course of the 19th century. Imagi
32、st movement (1908-1917)Imagism 意象派Ezra Pound-Leader of the Imagist Movement.Two modernist poetsT.S.Eliothe Waste Land 荒原Robert Frost“The Road Not Taken” “没有走过的路 ”美国现代小说 Modern American FictionSocial backgrounds in the 1920sImpact of World War IThe 1920s: the Roaring 20s（咆哮二十年）Jazz Age（爵士时代）Dollar Ag
33、eThe Red Scare 恐共浪潮 美国文学简史复习资料- 7 -The Prohibition (1919-1933) 禁酒令 Lost of faith The Lost Generation named applied to the disillusioned intellectuals and aesthetes of the years following World War I, who rebelled against former ideals and values but could replace them only by despair or a cynical he
34、donism. The remark of Gertrude Stein, “You are all a lost generation,” addressed to Hemingway, was used as a preface to the latters novel The Sun Also Rises, which brilliantly describes an expatriate group typical of the “lost generation.”Two major representativesF. Scott Fitzgerald-the spokesman of
35、 the “roaring 20s”The Great Gatsby 了不起的盖茨比 Ernest Hemingway-spokesman for the Lost Generationiceberg theory：The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.The Sun Also Rises 太阳照常升起；A Farewell to Arms 永别了，武器；For Whom the Bell Tolls 丧钟为谁而鸣；The Old Man and the S
36、ea 老人与海Hemingway styleHemingways style is noted for its simplicity. In diction, he focus on nouns and verbs and reduces the use of adjectives, especially complicated adjectives. In sentence structure, he uses coordinated clauses to avoid subordinated clauses that would imply vague judgments. This wa
37、s especially obvious in his writings in the 1920s.Some other writersSherwood AndersonWinesburg, Ohio 小镇畸人Willa CatherMy Antonia 我的安东尼亚Sinclair Lewis-The first American writer to win the Nobel Prize. Main street 大街；Babbitt 巴比特John Steinbeckhe Grapes of Wrath 愤怒的葡萄美国文学简史复习资料- 8 -Margaret MitchellGone
38、With the Wind 飘 美国南方文学 Southern American literatureThe American SouthThe American South includes the southeastern states and the southern states along the Gulf of Mexico.This is a unique region where people speak with strong southern accent. The southerners have their distinctive culture, viewpoint,
39、 and history. In the southern history, the South was guilty of slavery which began in 1621, the South failed in the Civil War, and the South is relatively poor in a nation of wealth even today. Guilt, failure, and poverty make the South dark side of American conscience. Southern Renaissance Here are
40、 six myths that southerner have cherished. They are not objectively true, but they are part of the culture and they make the South apart from other regions.Chevalier heritage.骑士 The southerners held that their ancestors were not Puritans but noble chevaliers who came from England to settle down in t
41、he New World. This myth created a pride in the region.Agrarian virtue. 农业美德Plantation aristocracy.种植园农场的贵族生活Lost cause. 失去的事业White supremacy. 白人至上Purity of Southern womanhood. Representative Southern writers William Faulkner The Yoknapatawpha Saga 约克纳帕塔法世系： The Sound and the Fury 喧嚣与骚动；As I Lay Dyin
42、g 我弥留之际；Absalom, Absalom!押沙龙，押沙龙！； Go Down, Moses 去吧，摩西美国文学简史复习资料- 9 -Major features of Faulkners writingsFaulkner used the South to talk about the violence and evil in all human beings.Faulkner was a great avant-garde experimenter. He successfully advanced some modernliterary techniques: Stream of
43、consciousness. (interior monologue)Multiple point of viewAuthorial transcendence instead of authorial intrusion. His prose varies from colloquial 口语的, regional, to formal diction and cadences 节奏 of American speech. Stream of consciousnessThe continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings,
44、and memories in the human mind; or a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. It is an important device of modernist fiction. In English literature, novels of stream-of-consciousn
45、ess are represented by James Joyce and Virginia Wolf. The modern American writer William Faulkner successfully advanced this technique, for example, in his novel, The Sound and the Fury (1929). Thomas WolfLook Homeward, Angel 天使，望乡美国现代戏剧 Modern American DramasAmerican drama renaissance in the 1920sE
46、ugene ONeil-Founder of modern American drama/regarded as the “American Shakespeare”Bound East for Cardiff 东航卡迪夫(an one-act play, which ushered in the modern era of the American theatre)Beyond the Horizon 天边外；The Emperor Jones 琼斯皇；The Hairy Ape 毛猿；Desire under the Elms 榆树下的欲望 Long Days Journey into N
47、ight 日长路远夜深沉Expressionism 表现主义Expressionism, artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him. He accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through
48、 the vivid, jarring, violent, 美国文学简史复习资料- 10 -or dynamic application of formal elements.In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the late 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide ran
49、ge of modern artists and art movements. The Little Theater Movement in the 1920s and 1930s Tennessee WilliamsThe Streetcar Named Desire 欲望号街车Arthur MillerDeath of a Salesman 推销员之死Theater of the Absurd often applied to the modern sense of human purposelessness in a universe without meaning or value.The classic work of absurdist theater is Becketts En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot, 1952).Edward Albee is most closely connected with the Theater of the Absurd.(Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 谁害怕弗吉尼亚沃尔夫？)美国黑人文学 African America
