1、One living in his native culture does not realize his shortcoming. Foreign literature makes us find our even our nations shortcomings.The influence of literature is subtle and pervasive not apparent; far-reaching not direct.,Literature is a mirror reflecting the process of society. In the short peri
2、od of 200 years, American literature has become an important part of literature world with its own unique characteristics and charm. Through the study of American literature, we can get well knowledge about American society and culture, which gives us examples and some lessons during social progress
3、, especially modern literature.,There exists some similarities of evolution of human history and society. (Modern literature: urbanization, money worship, impersonalization, alienation and ment111al crisis) Besides, literature can bring pleasure and philosophy of life. Taking some poems for example:
4、 Frost,从明天起，做一个幸福的人 喂马，劈柴，周游世界 从明天起，关心粮食和蔬菜 我有一所房子，面朝大海,春暖花开 从明天起，和每一个亲人通信 告诉他们我的幸福 那幸福的闪电告诉我的,我将告诉每一个人 给每一条河每一座山取一个温暖的名字 陌生人，我也为你祝福 愿你有一个灿烂的前程 愿你有情人终成眷属 愿你在尘世获得幸福 我只愿面朝大海，春暖花开,The Road Not Taken-Robert Frost,Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler,
5、 long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;,黄树林里分叉两条路， 只可惜我不能都踏行。 我，单独的旅人，伫立良久 极目眺望一条路的尽头， 看它隐没在从林深处。,Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that, the passing there H
6、ad worn them really about the same,于是我选择了另一条路， 一样平直，也许更值得， 因为青草茵茵，还未被踏过， 若有过往人踪踪， 路的状况会相差无几。,And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.,那天早晨，两条路都覆盖在枯叶下， 没有践踏的污
7、痕： 啊，原先那条路留给另一天吧！ 明知一条路会引出另一条路， 我怀疑我是否会回到原处。,I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.,在许多许多年以后，在某处， 我会轻轻叹息说： 黄树林里分叉两条路，而我， 我选择了较少人迹的一条， 使得一切多么地不同。,. Review of American
8、 Literature Before 1890s,1. The rising of American literature.During the period of independence of young country, the American literature expressed energy and passion to show strong national pride. Franklins success is the best example of American Dream which is the eternal motif of American literat
9、ure.,That is to say, a person can achieve his success, no matter whether he is rich or not, through personal struggle and self-improvement. Thriftiness, diligence, self-discipline and self-improvement are elements of realization of American Dream and also ethical standard of rising bourgeois.,2. The
10、 cultural independence of American literature.Entering the 19th century, with the rise of demanding the cultural independence and separation from the European literary tradition, American Romanticism had flourished. Romanticism put concern to nature, democracy of new nation, self-improvement and per
11、sonal values.,Whitmans poetry, which had free verse differing from traditional rhyme and strong optimistic attitude, gave us evidence of growing and development of new nation. His poetry brought a fresh inspiration into American literature. Otherwise, another outstanding poet, Dickenson, confined he
12、r view in her own world. Although her themes were about personal life, love, death and her poems were always short, Dickenson played an important part. She is often considered as one of the pioneers of imagism.,Another trend of American Romanticism: transcendentalism.In a sense, transcendentalism wa
13、s the American Romanticism. Transcendentalists, including Emerson, Hawthorne and Melville, had a re-thinking of the relationship between human and nature. According to their theory, everyone was born to have sin.,Its features: 1) Placing emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thi
14、ng in the universe-a new way of looking at the world. 2) Stressing the importance of the individualself-reliance-a new way of looking at man.,3) Offering fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit or God. (Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with Gods overwhelming presence.
15、It was the garment of the Oversoul.)“The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul.”“Spirit is present everywhere.”The individual soul communed with the Oversoul and was therefore divine.,3. The new start and flourishing of American literatureAfter the civil war, American literature went into a ne
16、w stage. Since the rapid development of industry and economy, the society underwent great changes.,While, the progress of society did not bring people into really free and equal democracy society. To the contrary, the gap between the rich and the poor got wider and wider. The pure and simple America
17、ns described by Cooper were gradually replaced by mammonists who pursued material and money. Franklins idea and living way had become the corrupt moral value.,People began to abandon unrealistic Romanticism theory and think over the social problems. Realism sprung up. Realism writers shift their att
18、ention to dark side of reality. Disillusion of American Dream, description of unequal society and decayed moral value became their topics. Mark Twain was the representative of this period. In some content, Naturalism is the extreme of Realism.,. Preview,The period of 1890s: the extension of Realism-
19、Naturalism. Its representatives: Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser and Jack London. Between the two world wars-1914-1939: a flourishing of new literary trend-Modernism. The First World War stands as a great dividing line between the 19th century and the contemporary American literature.
20、1920s: a new idea of poem-Imagism. Its representatives: Ezra Pound.,This first period of Modernism (1920s and 1930s) Novel: F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Age of Jazz ), Ernest Hemingway (The Lost Generation), William Faulkner (the Southern Literature), John Dos Passos (1930s writer) and John Steinbeck. P
21、oem: T.S. Eliot, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, Hart Crane, e. e. cummings. Drama in Modernism: Eugene O Neill.,The period of modernism (1914 - 1945) Modern poetry: experiments in form (Imagism),Ezra Pound,T.S.Eliot,Wallace Stevens,Robert Frost,Carlos Williams
22、,Prose Writing: modern realism (the Lost Generation),F.Scott Fitzgerald,Ernest Hemingway,William Faulkner,Novels of Social Awareness,Sinclair Lewis,Dos Passos,John Steinbeck,Richard Wright,The Harlem Renaissance,Langston Hughes,Zora Neals Hurston,5) The 20th Century American Drama,Eugene O Neil,The
23、second period of Modernism (post-war till now) The Post-War poetry: The Beat Generation-Allen Ginsberg. The novel after 1950s: The Black Humor- Vladimir Nabokov, Norman Mailer, J. D. Salinger, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, Bernard Malamud and Ken Kesey and Joyce Carol Oa
24、tes. Drama: Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller.,Writers in Southern: Eudora Welty, Margaret Mithell, Allen Tate and Flannery O Connor. Black American Literature: Langston Hughes (the poet), Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and James Baldwin. Chinese American Literature: M
25、axine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan.,. Mark Twain,1. Mark Twains life2. His works3. Contribution,Mark Twains life,Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 April 21, 1910), better known by the pen name “Mark Twain”, was an American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer. Twain enjoyed immense public
26、 popularity. His keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. American author William Faulkner called Twain “the father of American literature.“ “Mark Twain“ (meaning “Mark number two“) was a Mississippi River term.,He was brought up in the small town on the Mississipp
27、i River. He was twelve when his father died and he had to leave school. He was successively a printers apprentice, a tramp printer, a silver miner, a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, and a frontier journalist in Nevada and California. His colorful experience gave his resource of his writing and a
28、 wide knowledge of humanity.,He first won fame with the comic masterpiece “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” which described a frontier tale. His first novel, The Gilded Age (1873), was a artistic failure, but it gave its name to the America of the post-bellum period.,PS: In American
29、 history, the Gilded Age refers to major growth in population in the United States and extravagant displays of wealth and excess of Americas upper-class during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, in the late 19th century (1870-1890).,His boyhood experience furnished him with ample materi
30、al for fiction. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) was an immediate success as “a boys book”. Its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) became his masterwork. This book was first considered adult fiction, which painted a picture of Mississippi frontier life. Ernest Hemingway had such a
31、remark-“all modern American literature comes”.,He set out world tour, traveling in France and Italy. His experiences were recorded in 1869 in The Innocents Abroad, which gained him wide popularity, and poked fun at both American and European prejudices and manners. He criticized the hypocrisy and co
32、rruption as well as the Americans shallowness and innocence using humorous and wit tone.,His tragic life: The death of his wife in 1904 in Florence and his second daughter darkened the authors later years. Because of Twains personal tragedy and bankruptcy of finance, his writing shift from the humor
33、ous style into satirical one. Twain used his utmost effort to criticize the injustice of society, the absurdness of human. His later work-The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900) was filled with pessimistic and cynical tone.,His works,Short story: The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865
34、) 卡城名蛙 First novel: The Gilded Age (with Charles Dudley waenner,1873) 镀金时代Innocents Abroad (1869) 傻子出国记 Roughing It (1872) 艰苦岁月 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) 汤姆索亚历险记 The Prince and the Pauper (1882)王子与贫儿Life on the Mississippi (1883) 密西西比河上 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) 哈克贝利费恩历险记,T
35、he Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,The plot: The narrator of this picturesque tale of a voyage by raft on the Mississippi is Huck Finn, who uses the unliterary speech of Mark Twains youth. When Hucks drunken father tried to get possession of his sons share of the buried treasure, the boy escaped to J
36、acksons Island, where he found Jim, Miss Watsons escaped Negro slave. The two headed downstream on a raft.,During the runaway of cultivated society, Hucks thought about slavery and moral value had greatly change. The journey achieved his maturation. Jim taught Huck how to be an honest and sympatheti
37、c man. While the dark and corrupt adult society made him know how to make a clear distinction between right and wrong. At the end of the story, Huck didnt emerge into the dark reality and went to the Western frontier, just as Coopers hero. Huckleberry Finn is another image to escape from the civiliz
38、ed society.,Contribution,Mark Twain is a great literary artist. His contribution to the development of realism and the American literature as a whole was through his humor, his theories of localism in American fiction, and his use of colloquial speech. Colloquial style aiming at expression, not deco
39、ration, conforms to the nature of a subject. The style has swept American literature and its influence on the twentieth-century American writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, and T.S. Eliot is clearly visible.,. Naturalism (1890s),1. The historical background of Naturalism2.
40、 The definition and philosophic idea of Naturalism3. The Characteristics of Naturalism4. The representatives of Naturalism,1. The historical background of Naturalisma. the spread of industrialization created extremes of wealth and poverty. slumb. farmers were still going westward, but frontiers ere
41、about the close. They had to depend on the transcontinental railway to transport their products.c. the spread of Darwins theory of evolution changed peoples ideology.,2. The definitionThe term naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and d
42、etachment to its study of human beings. Naturalism began in France. Under the influence of Darwin Evolution Theory, Zola believes the surroundings and heredity can decide ones destiny.,左拉的自然主义，归纳起来大致有如下特点：第一，左拉认为作家就像解剖室里的医生，对客观存在的事物，要作科学的分析，并且如实地加以描写；他要求作家大规模地搜集资料，尊重客观现实，敢于把血淋淋的现实放到读者眼前；他把作家从故事的叙述者，
43、变成事实的科学调查者把纯粹虚构的文学变成探索研究的文学。第二、左拉认为作家应该利用实验医学、生理学以及遗传学、环境学等先进科学知识，去解剖人和观察人,Unlike realism, which focuses on literary technique, naturalism implies a philosophical position: for naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zolas phrase, “human beasts”, characters can be studied through thei
44、r relationships to their surroundings. A naturalistic novel is thus an extension of realism. The naturalists have the extraordinary and excessive description in human nature.,The philosophic ideasA. Charles Darwin (1809-1882), English naturalist: Darwin, in On the Origin of Species. The Darwinist be
45、lief that humans are highly evolved animals becomes a refutation of the religious (Christian creationist) view that humans exist below angels. Under Darwinists great influence, literature, philosophy and some other fields broke away the fake world and found a new way to study human nature.,B. Herber
46、t Spencer (1820-1903), English philosopher: contrary to popular belief, it was Herbert Spencer, not Charles Darwin, that first coined the phrase “survival of the fittest”. Spencer adapted the theory of evolution into a social system in which those individuals, species, or races with the best acquire
47、d characteristics would survive.,The existence of a human person is limited by where and when he/ she is born and the socioeconomic forces he/ she has to wrestle with.destiny determined by environment and heredity desire for money and sex,3. The characteristics of Naturalism a. thematic aspect -wrot
48、e detailed descriptions of the lives of the downtrodden and of the abnormal -had frank treatment of human passion and sexuality -were concerned about how men and women were overwhelmed by the forces of environment and by the forces of heredity.,b. technical aspect -made detailed documentation of lif
49、e: nothing but the truth, more naked and wicked than realism. -created gloomy and pessimistic atmosphere,The contribution of Naturalisma. naturalistic writers cleared the way for the next generation, “the lost generation” of the 1920s. b. in theme they represented the life of the lower classes truthfully and broke into such forbidden regions as violence, death, and sex. c. in technique their works exhibit honest skills and artistry.,
