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美国文学期末整理

美国文学期末整理
美国文学期末整理

美国文学史名词解释及五大流派分析

Native American oral literature is of three types: origin stories, trickster tales, and historical narratives.

Origin stories are those dramatizing tribal interpretations of how the earth originated or of how people established relationships with plants, animals and the cosmos Trickster tales are humorous tales featuring trickster characters. Trickster figures are people in the form of animals or half animal and half human. They often exist on the margins of the social world

Historical narratives are diverse in kind. Of this vast historical literature, many stories recount European colonization from the perspective of Native Americans. Puritanism A Puritan was any person who tried to become more pure through worship and doctrine. The Puritans' way of life and set of beliefs were called Puritanism. The most important parts of Puritanism were piety (obeying religious rules), dressing simply, and living a modest life. And “original sin(原罪)” and “grace” are two important premises in Puritanism.

Witchcraft trials in the 17th century were a deeply troubling yet significant phenomenon with the puritan community. In 1542, the English Parliament made a capital offense. Subsequently, several hundred people were accused and hanged. A witch was supposed to be someone who performed evil deeds in the service of Satan. They were believed to have familiars or animals that would do evil for them. Witchcraft trials-so it is argued- were perhaps a way to punish improper behavior or to restrict power.

Enlightenment, starting in the 17th century with the scientific revolution, was a momentous intellectual movement that gradually established a system of modern values that emphasize reason, science, knowledge and progress. In America, enlightenment ideas nurtured a greater participatory and interest in worldly affairs: Americans gained greater confidence that a more reasonable political and social order could be established. Under the influence of the Enlightenment, Americans also learned to take actions to resist oppressive power and to criticize and reform government. The Enlightenment developed quite rigorously in France and other

European countries in the 18th century. It was also in the 18th that influences of the Enlightenment reached the colonies of America.

Autobiography

Negative capability was first used by the British romantic poet John Keats. In the letter written in December 1817, Keats defined is as the capability in good poets of including uncertainties and other negative emotions without stretching for reason and without losing reason. The negative capability, by immersing us in ambiguities, doubts and other negative emotions, in fact strengthens us and improves our judgment by complicating our existing system of judgment. It is therefore a sign of the kind of aesthetic sophistication found only in good poets.

Free verse is the kind of poetry that does not follow a regular meter, does not rhyme and does not use regular line lengths. And it is known as Walt Whitman’s major technical innovation.

Local colorism is a unique variation of American literary realism. Generally, the works by local colorists are concerned with the life of a small region or province. This kind of fiction depicts the characters from a specific setting or of an era, which are marked by its customs, dialects, landscape, or other peculiarities that have escaped standardizing cultural influence. Tasks of local colorists: to write or present local characters of their region in truthful depiction distinguished from others, usually a very small part of the world.

local color writing, a kind of fiction that came to prominence in the USA in the late 19th century, and was devoted to capturing the unique customs, manners, speech, folklore, and other qualities of a particular regional community, usually in humorous short stories. Local color writings are just as dependent upon a specific geographical location, but they lend more emphasis to the local details by tapping into its folklore, history, mannerism, customs, beliefs and speech. Above all, dialect peculiarities are the defining characteristics of local color writings.

Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. Imagism called for a return to what were seen as more Classical values, such as directness of presentation and economy of

language, as well as a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms. Transcendentalism is a religious and philosophical movement that developed during the late 1820s and 1830s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest against the general state of spirituality. And Transcendentalism energized the Romantic Movement that had started earlier. Transcendentalists were strong believers in the power of the individual and divine messages. Their beliefs are closely linked with those of the Romantics.

Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people and nature. They believe that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—ultimately corrupt the purity of the individual. They have faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed.

As an intensified expression of romanticism, Transcendentalism shares the characteristics of romanticism and its doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

The publication of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay Nature is usually considered the moment at which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement.

Emerson pronounces the fundamental premise about Nature in Transcendentalism, that is, Nature is not simply the Not-Me but also the universal mind whose signs can be read by the individual with his eyes, heart, and mind.

And The Over-Soul, the soul of all individuals commune with the great universal soul, presents the more mystical side of Emerson and the basis of Transcendentalism. It refers to the profound and all-encompassing spiritual nature to which each individual soul should lie open.

Thoreau, Emerson’s disciple, practiced the self-reflective and self-reliant Transcendentalism that Emerson preached. Today he is remembered by two of his work: Walden and the essay “Civil disobedience”.

Romanticism The romantic period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civi l War. It started with the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book .It is

also called the “American Renaissance”

Here is a summary of some general characteristics of romanticism.

First, romanticism celebrates the triumph of feeling and intuition over reason. A philosophical cornerstone for the romantic resistance to rationalism was laid down by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason. Since romantic writers placed a higher value on the free expression of emotion and on the power of imagination, they showed greater interests in the psychic states. As a result, characters in romantic stories sometimes showed extremes of sensitivity.

Second, Gothic styles, Oriental styles and other exotic styles were favored by romanticists.

Third, romanticism exalted the individual over society, thus showing a strong disliking for the bondage of convention and customs. As it is sometimes the contradiction, nostalgia for the past traditions is also a romantic strain.

Fourth, nature is believed to be the source of goodness and the antithesis of society as society tend to be corrupt. A related manifestation is the moral enthusiasm exhibited in some romantic writers.

Fifth, cultural nationalism- the proud belief in one’s own cultural genius and heritage- is also a striking characteristic of romanticism. Johnann Gottfried von Herder proposed the idea of V olk which had since become synonymous with cultural nationalism. With V olk, Herder argued for the unique characteristics of a people or nation. V olkgeist , a derivative, thus connotes the celebration of geniuses created by and for a nationalist culture.

American romanticism was influenced by European romanticism. While showing characteristics of European romanticism, American romantic writers differed from their European counterparts in that they did not show the kind of political racialism as seen in European romanticism.

Realism Following a conventional view, 1865 and 1914 are regarded as the beginning and ending dates for the age of American realism. In the 50-year period, realism was the prevalent literary mode. But realism, as a broader term, is also inclusive of naturalism, regionalism, and local color writing.

Realism reacts a gainst romanticism’s 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 has practical consequences.

Realism is embedded in a mimetic theory of art.

Realists try to describe a small portion of knowable world in order to maintain objectivity.

Local color and regional writings constituted the early stage of realism. Naturalism is another variation of realism in that it follows or implies a biological or socioeconomic determination.

The foremost American realists were William Dean Howells realism’s most vocal proponent.

Henry James,the greatest of the realists and often called “the father of the p sychological novel”. And his most three famous works are The Wing of Dove, The Ambassadors, and the Golden Bowl. The two best-known novellas are Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw.

Edith Wharton, Ellen Glasgow and Mark Twain (1835-1910) is usually counted among the realists, although his fidelity in capturing the essence of a region and its people often departs from realism by presenting exaggerated characters in lurid action and improbable melodrama.

Naturalism was a term created by Emile Zola, a French novelist. It refers to the idea that art and literature should show the world and people scientifically and exactly as they are. American literary naturalism developed out of literary realism and shares some o f its characteristics. Like realism, the naturalists in America strove for objectivity and were interested in the commonplace in contemporary life. But unlike the realists, they were more conscious of their philosophical foundations which draw upon scientific or socioeconomic determinations for its view of humanity. Applying these principles, naturalist writers tended to produce literature that is pessimistic, expressing their belief that humans react to thins they cannot control, such as the

biological need for sex and self-preservation, internal stresses, and environmental forces.

Modernism is the term applied to an international movement dominating the arts of Western culture from shortly after the turn of the century until around 1950.In general, Modernism discloses a rejection of tradition and a hostile attitude toward the immediate past.

Firstly, American modernism is the process of American literature merging into the mainstream of Western modern culture.

Secondly, literary modernists are just as concerned with reality as the realists are. However, the modernists have a more complex view of reality. Modernists believe that reality is experienced from different perspectives and at different levels. Thirdly, there is the question of paradigm from modernism. For a long time, it was not uncommon to assume that modernism is an obsessive stylistic experimentation informed by “waste land” view of existence.

Based on the afore-mentioned observations, American modernism is less nationalistic but more European and modernists are more aware of how language constitutes and shapes reality

In literature prominent Modernists were T. S. Eliot the waste land, Ezra Pound the cantos.

美国文学史期末参考复习资料

仅作参考,最主要还是要自己消化,整理 Chapter 1 Colonial Period 1. Puritanism: American puritans accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. 2. Influence (1) A group of good qualities – hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature. (2) It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden. (3) Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chi efly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American. (4) With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible. II. Overview of the literature 1. types of writing diaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons 2. writers of colonial period (1) Anne Bradstreet (2) Edward Taylor III. Benjamin Franklin 1. life 2. works (1) Poor Richard’s Almanac (2) Autobiography 3. contribution (1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society. (2) He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven”. (3) Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”. Chapter 2 American Romanticism Section 1 Early Romantic Period I. American Romanticism 1. Background (1) Political background and economic development (2) Romantic movement in European countries Derivative – foreign influence 2. features (1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien. (2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained. (3) The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with Am erican Romanticism. (4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent. II. Washington Irving: Father of American Literature 1. several names attached to Irving (1) first American writer (2) the messenger sent from the new world to the old world (3) father of American literature 2. life 3. works (1) A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (2) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication of this.) (3) The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (5) The Alhambra 4. Literary career: two parts (1) 1809~1832

美国文学考试资料整理

一.The Literature of Colonial America(Puritanism) 1.The first English colony: Jamestown in Virginia in 1607 2.The first American writer: John Smith 3.Anne Bradstreet: first American woman poet; a Puritan poet; once called “Tenth Muse”; 二.Literature of Reason and Revolution War of Independence (1775-1783);The French and Indian War / the Seven Y ears’War(1756-1763) 1..Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography; Richard’s Almanac Maxims from Poor Richard’s Almanac (proverbs that give practical wisdom) 2..Thomas Paine (1737-1809): Common Sense: a strong push for the Revolution W ar; four parts (British enslavement of the colonies; praising democratic election; America’s economic and military potential to protect the rights of people) 3..Philip Freneau (1752-1832) The first American-born poet;“Poet of the American Revolution”, “Father of American Poetry”, the most significant poet of 18th century America W orks:The Wild Honey Suckle《野忍冬花》on mortality, The Indian Burying Ground 《印第安人殡葬地》on the imagined afterlife, The British Prison Ship《英国囚船》about his imprisoned experience. 三.Romanticism The American Romantic period is considered one of the most important periods, the first literary Renaissance, in the history of American literature. It stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil W ar. It started with the publication of W ashington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. 1.Washington Irving (1783-1859) Literary status: the first American to earn an international reputation; Father of the American short stories The Sketch Book: winning him international popularity,the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature. Major works: A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty under the name of “Diedrich Knickerbocker

美国文学选读期末考试重点

1、The Colonial Period(1607-1765) American Puritanism ( in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th) 北美第一位女诗人Anne Bradstreet(宗教气息,夫妻恩爱) Edward Taylor 都受英国玄学派影响(metaphysical) 2、The Enlightenment and Revolution Period Benjamin Franklin:Poor Richard's Almanac The Autobiography---“美国梦”的根源 3、American Romanticism(end of 18th to the civil war) American writers emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature. 早期浪漫主义Washington Irving father of American Literature 短篇小说 James Fenimore Cooper 历史,冒险,边疆小说《The Leather-stocking Tales>文明发展对大 自然的摧残与破坏 William Cullen Bryant 美国第一个浪漫主义诗人《To a Waterfowl>美国 山水,讴歌大自然,歌颂美国生活现实 Edgar Allan Poe ---(48 poems,70 short stories) He greatly influenced the devotees of “Art for art’s sake.” He was father of psychoanalytic criticism , and the detective story. Ralph Waldo Emerson---The chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism American Transcendentalism (also known as “American Renaissance”) It is the high tide of American romanticism Transcendentalists spoke for the cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society. 《Nature》---the Bible of Transcendentalism by Emerson 《Self-Reliance》表达他的超验主义观点Henry David Thoreau------ Walden he regarded nature as a symbol of spirit.Thoreau was very critical of modern civilization. 小说家:Hawthorne-赞成超验He is a master of symbolism The Scarlet Letter《红字》 Melville 怀疑,悲观,sailing experiences Moby Dick百科全书式性质/海洋作品/动物史诗 诗人Longfellow《I Shot an Arrow...》《A Psalm of Life》第一首被完整地介绍到中国的美国诗歌Whitman (Free Verse---without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme ) 《Leaves of Grass》《One's Self I Sing》《O Captain! My Captain!》song Dickinson inner life of the individual ---died for beauty 4、The Age of Realism James upper reaches of American society. <一位女士的肖像》inner world of man Howells, concerned himself chiefly with middle class life. Twain the lower strata of society. humor and local colorism American Naturalism 自然主义(新型现实) Stephen Crane;《Maggie: A Girl of the Streets》《The Red Badge of Courage》pessimistic Theodore Dreiser;Sister Carrie;Jennie Gerhardt;An American Tragedy(Trilogy of Desire) O.Henry (William Sydney Porter):The Gift of the Magi;The Cop and the anthem Jack London:The Call of the Wild;Martin Eden 5、The Modern Period The 1920s-1930s ( the second renaissance of American literature) The Roaring Twenties ,The Jazz Age ,“lost”(Gertrude Stein) and “waste land”(T.S.Eliot) 现代主义小说家 F. Scott Fitzgerald:《The Great Gatsby》被视为美国文学“爵士时代”的象征,以美国梦American Dream 为主线。

美国文学史-知识点梳理

Part I The Literature of Colonial America I.Historical Introduction The colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.) II.The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of 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, discussions of religious questions. III.The First American Writer The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians. Captain John Smith is the first American writer. A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608) A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612) General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess Pocahontas Captain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers. One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV.Early New England Literature William Bradford and John Winthrop John Cotton and Roger Williams Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor V.Puritan Thoughts 1. The origin of puritan In the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church of

美国文学期末考试复习必备(精)

美国文学期末考试复习必备(精) 1. What’s Puritanism? A religious and political movement which appeals to the right of the individual to political & religious independence. It includes three parts: a code of values, a point of view & a philosophy of life 2. What are the basic Puritan beliefs? 1). Total Depravity 2). Unconditional Election 3). Limited Atonement 4). Irresistible Grace 5). Perseverance of the "saints" 3. What are American Puritan values? Sobriety thrift, Self-reliance Diligence, Struggle, simple tastes 4. What are the features of American literature in the Colonial Period? A. Humble origins: diaries, journals, histories, letters. Its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period. B. in content: serving either god or colonial expansion or both C. in form: imitating English literary traditions. D. in style: tight and logic structure, precise and compact expression, avoidance of rhetorical decoration, adoption of homely imagery and simplicity of diction. E. Symbolism formed in this period ------To the pious Puritan, the physical, phenomenal world was nothing but a symbol of God. F. Simple, fresh and direct style

美国文学史及选读复习重点

Captain John Smith (first American writer). Anne Bradstreet;The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (colonists living) Edward Taylor(the best puritan poet) John Cotton ”the Patriarch of New England” teacher spiritual leader Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography Poor Richard’s Almanack Thomas Jefferson: Political Career Thoughts The Declaration of Independence we hold truth to be self-evidence Philip Freneau“Father of American Poetry” The Wild Honey Suckle American Romanticism optimism and hope Nationalism Washington Irving“Father of American Literature short story”The first “Pure Writer” A History of New York The Sketch Book marked the beginning of American Romanticism! “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”Rip Van Winkle James Fenimore Cooper Father of American sea and frontier novels Leather stocking Tales The Last of the Mohicans The Pioneers The Prairie The Pathfinder The Deerslayer Edgar Allan Poe father of detective story and horror fiction Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque “MS. Found in a Bottle” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” “The Fall of the House of Usher”“The Masque of the Red Death”“The

美国文学史复习资料

美国文学史复习(colonialism) 第一部分殖民主义时期的文学 一、时期综述 1、清教徒采用的文学体裁:a、narratives 日记b、journals 游记 2、清教徒在美国的写作内容: 1)their voyage to the new land 2) Adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops 3) About dealing with Indians 4) Guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation to bold spirit 3、清教徒的思想: 1)puritan want to make up pure their religious beliefs and practices 净化信仰和行为方式 2) Wish to restore simplicity to church and the authority of the Bible to the theology. 重建教堂,提供简单服务,建立神圣地位 3)look upon themselves as chosen people, and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing God's will and is not to be accepted. 认为自己是上帝选民,对他们的生活有异议就是反对上帝 4)puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exaggerated. 反对对快乐和艺术的追求到了十分荒唐的地步5)religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.强调上帝严厉的一面,忽视上帝仁慈的一面。 4、典型的清教徒:John Cotton & Roger William 他们的不同:John Cotton was much more concerned with authority than with democracy; William begins the history of religious toleration in America. 5、William的宗教观点:Toleration did not stem from a lack of religious convictions. Instead, it sprang from the idea that simply to be virtuous in conduct and devout in belief did not give anyone the right to force belief on others. He also felt that no political order or church system could identify itself directly with God. 行为上的德,信仰上的诚,并没有给任何人强迫别人该如何行事的权利。没有任何政治秩序和教会体制能够直接体现神本身的意旨。 6、英国最早移民到美国的诗人:Anne Bradstreet 7、在殖民时期最好的清教徒诗人:the best of Puritan poets is Edward Tayor. 学习指南: 1、Could you give a description of American Puritans? 关于美国清教徒的描绘 Like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to the "purity" of the first-century church as established by Jesus Christ himself. To them religion was a matter of primary importance. They made it their chief business to see that man lived and thought and acted in a way which tended to the glory of God. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God, all that John Calvin, the great French theologian who lived in Geneva had preached. It was this kind of religious belief that they brought with them into the wildness. There they meaant to prove that were God's chosen people enjoying his blessings on this earth as in Heaven. 2、Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety were the Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing. 3、The work of two writers, Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor, rose to the level of real poetry.

美国文学期末考试重点

名词解释: Imagism: It’s a poetic movement of England and the U.S. flourished from 1909 to 1917.The movement insists on the creation of images in poetry by “the direct treatment of the thing” and the economy of wording. The leaders of this movement were Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell. Beat generation: The term was coined by Jack Kerouac in 1948 to refer to a group of disillusioned writers following World War Two. Later, this literary and cultural movement continued into the 1960s. The Beat Generation must not be confused with the Lost Generation of writers. Spokesmen and representatives of the Beat Generation were Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and others. They revolted against an America that was materialistic, belligerent and frustrating. Social, intellectual and sexual freedom was advocated. Traditional culture and normal social behavior were attacked and violated. Many of them were drug addicts wearing long hair and dirty clothes. They were fond of slangs and jazz. Masterpieces created by writers of this g roup include Kerouac’s On the Road and Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, which were regarded as pocket Bibles of that generation. Other prominent Beats include William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, and Neal Cassady. The Beat Generation, had greatly influenced the countercultural movements of the 1960s and the adolescents and adults in other countries. In England, the “angry young men” made an echo and imitated the American “beatnik.” 二、1. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature: it is generally regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism. The American Scholar:it has been regarded as “America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence”. 2. Henry David Thoreau: Walden 3. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter: 主题:Hawthorne focuses his attention on the moral, emotional, and psychological effects or consequences of the sin on the people in general and those main characters in particular, so as to show us the tension between society and individuals. To Hawthorne, everybody is potentially a sinner, and great moral courage is therefore indispensable for the improvement of human nature. 4. Herman Melville: Moby Dick A. 作品分析: (1)Moby Dick represents the sum total of Melville’s bleak view of the world in which he lived. It is at once godless and purposeless. The loss of faith and the sense of futility and meaningless which characterize modern life of the West were expresse d in Melville’s work so well that the twentieth century has found it both fascinating and great. (2) One of the major themes of this novel is alienation, which exists in the life of Melville on different levels, between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Melville also criticizes New England Transcendentalism of its emphasis on individualism and Oversoul. Another theme of this novel is “rejection and quest.” (3) The novel is highly symbolic. The voyage itself is a metaphor for “search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience.” Moby Dick is the most conspicuous symbol in the book and it is capable of many interpretations. It is a symbol of evil to some, one of goodness to others, and both to still others. Its whiteness is a paradoxical color, signifying as it does death and corruption as well as purity, innocence, and youth. It represents the final mystery of the universe which man will do well to desist from pursuing. (4) Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple views of his narratives. He tends to write periodic sentences. His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised. B. what does the white whale in Moby Dick symbolize? Why do you think so? For Captain Ahab, the white whale represents evil. After the loss of his leg in his encounter with the white whale, Ahab begins to hate Moby Dick and tries his best to kill the whale. It seems that he embodies all of the evil he once consigned to the white whale. For other members on the whaling ship, the white whale symbolizes the unknown, mysterious natural force of the universe. For the readers, the white whale is capable of many interpretations, for it is “paradoxically benign an d malevolent, nourishing and destructive,” “massive, brutal, monolithic, but at the same time protean, erotically beautiful, infinitely variable.” C. Major themes: obsession, religion, and idealism versus pragmatism, revenge, racism, sanity, hierarchical relationships, and politics. D. the Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truth. Moby Dick is a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe, and the voyage of the mind will forever remain a search, not a discovery, of the truth. The whole story turns out to be a symbolic voyage of the mind quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into man’s deep reality and psychology. 5. Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass.It has been praised as “Democ ratic Bible”, and as American Epic. 主题:(1)he shows concern for the whole hard-working people and the burgeoning life of cities. (2) realization of the individual value. (3) pursuit of love and happiness. (4) Before and during the Civil War, Whitman expressed much mourning for the sufferings of the young lives in the battlefield and showed a determination to carry on the fighting dauntlessly until the final victory. 写作风格:(1) Whitman wrote “free verse”, that is, poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. (2) There is a strong sense of the poems being rhythmical. Parallelism and phonetic recurrence at the beginning of the lines contribute to the musicality of his poems. (3) Most of the pictures he painted with words are honest, undistorted images of different aspects of America of the day. (4) Whitman’s language is relatively simple and even rather crude. Another characteristic in Whitman’s language is his strong tendency to use oral English. Whitman’s vocabulary is amazing. He would use powerful, colorful, as well as rarely-used words. Leaves of Grass的分析: (1). Grass, the most common thing with the greatest vitality, is an image of the poet himself, a symbol of the then rising American nation and an embodiment of his ideals about democracy and freedom. (2). In this giant work, openness, freedom, and above all, individualism are all that concerned him. (3). In this book he also praises nature, democracy, labor and creation, and sings of man’s dignity and equality, and of th e brightest future of mankind. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass sing of the “en-masse” and self as well. 6. Emily Dickinson: 诗歌的主要内容:love, nature, death and immortality. 7. Edgar Allen Poe: 短篇小说家和诗人。 Poe is the father of psychoanalytic criticism and the father of detective story. 主题:death of one’s beloved lover of great intelligence and beauty. He also writes about horror (Gothic) stories, murder, and insanity. 8. Henry James: The turn of the screw The founder of psychological realism. He was the first American writer to conceive his artistic work in international themes. 9. Mark Twain:The adventures of Huckleberry Finn Hemingway described it as the book from which “all modern American literature comes”. The style of this book is quite simple. The book is written in the colloquial style. Though a local book, it touches upon the human situation in a general, indeed universal way: humanitarianism ultimately triumphs. It tells a story about the United States before the Civil War, around 1850, when the great Mississippi Valley was still being settled. Here lies an America, wit its great national faults, full of violence and even cruelty, yet still retaining the virtues of “some simplicity, some innocence, some peace.” 10. Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser: 自然主义的代表人物。 11. F. Scott Fitzgerald:The Great Gatsby 迷惘一代的代表人物 12. Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms; For Whom the Bell Tolls; The Old Man and the Sea The title of For Whom the Bell Tolls comes from John Donne’s Meditation. 13. William Faulkner: stream of consciousness的写作手法 14. Ezra Pound: 意象派代表人物。 意象派基本主张: (1) Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective. (2) To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation (3) As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome. 15. Robert Frost: natural poet. 16. Eugene Glastone O’Neill: Desire Under the Elms Long Days Journey into Night: Mark Twain H. L. Mencken considered "the true father of our national literatu re” Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884) and Life on the Mississippi(1883) Twain shaped the world's view of American and made a more extensive combination of American folk humor and serious literature than previous writers had ever done. Mark Twain’s sty le 1) Twain is also known as a local colorist, who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions 2) Another fact that made Twain unique is his magic power with language, his use of vernacular. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simple, even ungrammatical, which is typical of the spoken language 3) Mark Twain's humor is remarkable, too. Most of his works tend to be funny, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks. 4) Paid more attention to the "life" of the Americans, Concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region and the lower-class people 5) Nostalgic in a vanishing way of life and recorders of a present that faded before their eyes Adventures of Huckleberry Fin The character analysis and social meaning of Huck Finn Huck is a typical American boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”. He appears to be vulgar in language and in manner, but he is honest and decent in es sence. His remarkable raft’s journey down on the Mississippi river can be regarded as his process of education and his way to grow up. Huck is the son of nature and a symbol for freedom and earthly pragmatism. Through the eye of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed. Twain contrasts the life on the river and the life on the banks, the innocence and the experience, the nature and the culture, the wilderness and the civilization. Ernest Hemingway A Nobel Prize winner for literature His style, the particular type of hero in his novels, and his life attitudes have been widely recognized, not only in English-speaking countries but all over the world Hemingway shot himself with a hunting gun In Our Time (1925)is the first book to present a Hemingway hero--Nick Adams The Sun Also Rises(1926) is Hemingway's first true novel. A vivid portrait of "The Lost Generation," -- a group of young Americans who left their native land and fought in the war and later engaged themselves in writing in a new way about their own experiences. Hemingway's second big success is A Farewell to Arms, telling us a story about the tragic love affair of a wounded American soldier with a British nurse -- emphasizes his belief that man is trapped both physically and mentally, but goes to some lengths to refute the idea of nature, man is doomed to be entrapped For Whom the Bell Tolls clearly represents a new beginning in Hemingway's career as a writer, which concerns a volunteer American guerrilla Robert Jordan fighting in the Spanish Civil War, this work Caps his career and leads to his receipt of the Nobel Prize The Old Man and the Sea, Men Without Women(1927), Death in the Afternoon(1932), The Snows of Kilimanjaro, To Have and Have Not (1937) Hemingway develops the style of colloquialism initiated by Mark Twain Hemingway was highly praised by the Nobel Prize Committee for "his powerful style-forming mastery of the art" of creating modern fiction. Indian Camp The title indicates that the material is contemporary and to some extent, representative of the early twentieth-century experience A reference to the well-know phrase from the Book of Common Prayer:" Give us peace in our time, O Lord," the title is very ironic because there is no peace at all in the stories In a chronological order, introduces Nick Adams to readers from his childhood to adolescence and manhood Nick watches his father deliver an Indian woman of a baby by Caesarian section, with a Jack-knife and without anesthesia. This incident brings the boy into contact with something that is perplexing and unpleasant, and is actually Nick's initiation into the pain and violence of birth and death. Most of Hemingway's later works are merely variations of the Nick Adams stories in In Our Time The Hemingway code heroes and grace under pressure They have seen the cold world, and for one cause, they boldly and courageously face the reality. They have an indestructible spirit for his optimistic view of life. Whatever the result is, they are ready to live with grace under pressure. No matter how tragic the ending is, they will never be defeated. Finally, they will be prevailing because of their indestructible spirit and courage. The iceberg technique Hemingway believes that a good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or action. The one-eighth is presented will suggest all other meaningful dimensions of the story. Thus, Hemingway’s language is symbolic and suggestive.

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