美国文学1-5

十九世纪以前

概述

美国是一个年轻的国家。作为一个国家，它的历史只能从1776 年7 月4日算起。作为历史中一个不可分割的组成部分的美国文学史，严格地说，也是从这一天开始谱写的。哥伦布在1492 年发现新大陆之前，这块土地的主人是印第安人，他们的各个部落还处在原始公社制度各个不同的发展阶段，他们本身并没有发达的文学。遭到殖民主义者的野蛮屠杀和驱赶之后，这个种族已处于濒临灭绝的境地，仅有的口头创作也几乎完全中断。美国独立以前，北美大陆受欧洲人统治长达几个世纪。由于残酷的殖民经治以掠夺财富和剥削廉价劳力为目的，因此，北美大陆既没有发达的经济，更没有发达的文化。从这个意义上说，美利坚民族的文化，实际上是欧洲文化的移植，文学和艺术绝大数是欧洲的舶来品。殖民地时期美国仅有的几位诗人和民间作家，由于历史条件的局限和自身生活的局限，也没有能写出具有美洲特色的作品。

独立之后，美国的文学虽然还处于襁褓之中，但它已经开始摆脱殖民文化的桎梏。在民族独立的历史关头，美国人民，特别是作为当时站在革命斗争最前列的资产阶级左翼分子，已经认识到了建立民族文学的重要性。一批年轻的诗人就曾预言，美国文学必将有一个灿烂的未来；他们满腔热情地为这个未来的灿烂文学增砖添瓦，贡献自己的聪明才智。尽管如此，独立以后相当长的一段时间里，美国还不能很快摆脱在文化上依附英国的状况，不利于民族文学繁荣发展的条件依然存在。首先，在取得政治上的统一以后，各地区在经济、文化上的发展并不平衡。当时西部大部分还是处女地，那里除了民间故事外，一时还不可能出现反映西部开发业迹的成熟作品。在愚昧落后的南部，真正的民族文化无从谈起。

思想意识异常顽固的大不列颠王国的臣民，对这个新生国家总是抱着一种不可名状的仇恨和敌视。他们鄙视美国的一切，当然也包括美国年轻幼稚的文学。面对英国的一片嘲笑和挖苦声，已经获得了独立的美国人民决心使自己的国家在政治、经济、文化等各个领域都拥有充分的发言权，他们需要有自己的工业、农业、科学和文化。作为美国新兴文化重要组成部分的文学，在独立以后的美国土地上，萌芽、生长到发展、壮大，终于在半个多世纪以后，以它自己具有鲜明民族个性的崭新面貌，跻身于世界文学之林，成为世界文学不可忽视的有生力量。

独立战争与革命文学

1760 年至1790 年是美国历史上黑暗的时期之一。18 世纪60 年代，英国殖民当局同北美大陆人民之间的矛盾日益尖锐。从1763 年起，13 个殖民地先后爆发反英斗争，建立了许多秘密的革命组织。1770 年3 月，在波士顿发生了英军同当地居民的流血冲突事件，加剧了矛盾的发展。1773 年12 月16日，波士顿民众八千余人将价值一万八千英镑的茶叶投入大海；第二年年初，殖民当局下令封闭了波士顿港。1775 年4 月19 日，马萨诸塞的英国殖民军与当地“通讯委员会”的民兵又发生武装冲突，这场战斗揭开了美国独立战争的序幕。1776 年7 月4 日，13 个殖民地通过了由托马斯?杰弗逊起草的《独立宣言》，宣布人人生而平等，并且名正言顺地组织起了独立、自主的合众国。宣言本着资产阶级民主精神，开创了美洲资产阶级革命的先河。

革命文学在革命前是舆论的准备，在革命中是斗争的武器。帕特里克?亨利

（RATRICK HENRY，1736—1799）是美国独立革命中涌现出来的杰出演说家，也是北美新民族战斗精神的最早宣传者之一。“不自由、毋宁死”就是他的名言。1775 年春，当北美民兵自动拿起武器投入战斗的时候，保守派还在高唱“和平”的老调，亨利义正辞严地指出：“我们的兄弟们已经上战场了！为什么我们还要懒洋洋地呆在这里？..生命难道这么宝贵，和平难道这么甜蜜，值得用枷锁和苦役去换取？”亨利的演说气壮山河，字字宇铿锵有力，句句打动人心，在当时起到了很好的鼓动作用。

在独立战争期间，出现了更多的革命诗歌。其中最有代表性的作品是资产阶级革命诗人菲利普?莫林?弗瑞诺（PHILIP MORIN FRENEAU，1752—1832）的早期诗作。他和他的大学同班同学休?亨利?布雷肯里奇合写的长诗《美洲光荣的升起》，由布雷肯里奇在霍普全斯大学毕业典礼上朗诵后（1771），听众掌声雷动，博得一致好评。这首诗公开揭露了英国在北美实行的各种暴行。1781 年，弗瑞诺发表了《英国囚船》这首诗，愤怒控诉并讽刺了英军虐待俘虏的罪行。此后他又发表了许多政治讽刺诗，对英国统治者进行无情的揭露和抨击，故尔被誉为“美国独立革命的诗人”。弗朗西斯?霍普金生（FRANCIS HOPKINSON，1737—1791）描写北美军民用装了炸药的木桶放在河里炸毁英军战船的诗歌《木桶战》和民间创作的《杨基小调》，也是在反抗美军斗争中产生的名作，为广大人民广泛传颂。

由富兰克林、潘恩和杰弗逊等卓越的启蒙主义者创作的散文和论政文章，如《格言历书》、《常识》和《美国危机》以及《独立宣言》，几乎成为独立战争爆发前后最重要的指导性作品，在美国文学史上都占有很重要的位置。它们即是对英国殖民主义者愤怒的谴责，又是对美国人民革命斗志的热烈鼓舞，而且树起了美国散文创作的一代新风。《常识》是托马斯?潘恩（THOMAS PAINE，1737—1809）的成名作。1775 年4 月来克星敦战斗打响后，英国大量向北美增兵，许多地方的民兵自动拿起武器，战争全面展开。但是“大陆会议”上还在进行“战，还是和”的马拉松式讨论；保守派动摇不定，亲英派活动猖狂；广大军民心急如焚，迫切纲要明确的纲领、战斗的口号和统一的指挥。在这重要时刻，潘恩的《常识》阐明了“人类生而平等”的思想，彻底批判了世代相传的群主政体，论述了彻底脱离英国、争取独立的必要性。《美国危机》是潘恩以战报形式写成的。他在《危机》中号召北美军民“视死如归、勇往直前”，对鼓励士气作用甚大。

在独立战争期间产生的文学作品，在美利坚文学尚处在襁褓之中的时候，具有开创性的意义。美国真正的民族文学起源于伟大的独立战争之中。没有独立战争，就没有美国；没有独立战争，也就没有美国的民族文学。

早期小说

美利坚合众国独立以后，急风暴雨式的战争时代已经过去，以鼓动人民起来进行斗争为目的的革命散文也逐渐在社会上减少了影响。1790 年，富兰克林去世，潘恩出走欧洲，杰弗逊就任内阁大员，这似乎意味着他们过去所写的革命散文已不再成为社会和人们注目的中心；另一方面，1787 年制订了三权分立的联邦宪法，1789 年华盛顿就任第一届总统，两党制政权的确立和资本主义经济的发展，使城市数量不断增加，市民阶层的人数骤然膨胀。新的形势要求有能够与之适应的新的文学作品，这就形成了美国早期小说产生的社会基础。

大约在1785 年到1800 年这十几年里，以传说中的神怪、豪侠为主角，以因果报应、劝人为善或神怪奇事为主要题材的作品开始出现。这些作品往往是先有口头传说，而后出现文字脚本，并带有很大的模仿性。北美远离欧洲的世故与腐败，未遭受破坏的大自然在等待描述；获得新生的人们急于表达自己的思想，新文明与新文学的素材近在咫尺。然而艺

术是形式，新形式不会突然出现。殖民地人民一直习惯于从英国诗歌、小说、戏剧及散文中去寻找他们文学表达的标准。18 世纪虽是形式艺术的时代，但新酒还得先装进旧瓶。英国14 世纪小说家乔叟的《坎特伯雷故事集》、17 世纪小说家斯威夫特的《格利佛游记》等作品都成了仿效的范本。随着市镇经济的繁荣而不断扩展市场的神怪故事，不管是否成本，都以一种虚幻的、夸张的手法去迎合读者的口味，因而也杂糅着不少糟粕。尽管如此，它们毕竟是美国早期小说的雏形，是19 世纪初期浪漫主义小说高潮产生的源泉。而且，美国终于开始了一个既舶来小说同时又输出小说的时代。

早期小说

美利坚合众国独立以后，急风暴雨式的战争时代已经过去，以鼓动人民起来进行斗争为目的的革命散文也逐渐在社会上减少了影响。1790 年，富兰克林去世，潘恩出走欧洲，杰弗逊就任内阁大员，这似乎意味着他们过去所写的革命散文已不再成为社会和人们注目的中心；另一方面，1787 年制订了三权分立的联邦宪法，1789 年华盛顿就任第一届总统，两党制政权的确立和资本主义经济的发展，使城市数量不断增加，市民阶层的人数骤然膨胀。新的形势要求有能够与之适应的新的文学作品，这就形成了美国早期小说产生的社会基础。

大约在1785 年到1800 年这十几年里，以传说中的神怪、豪侠为主角，以因果报应、劝人为善或神怪奇事为主要题材的作品开始出现。这些作品往往是先有口头传说，而后出现文字脚本，并带有很大的模仿性。北美远离欧洲的世故与腐败，未遭受破坏的大自然在等待描述；获得新生的人们急于表达自己的思想，新文明与新文学的素材近在咫尺。然而艺术是形式，新形式不会突然出现。殖民地人民一直习惯于从英国诗歌、小说、戏剧及散文中去寻找他们文学表达的标准。18 世纪虽是形式艺术的时代，但新酒还得先装进旧瓶。英国14 世纪小说家乔叟的《坎特伯雷故事集》、17 世纪小说家斯威夫特的《格利佛游记》等作品都成了仿效的范本。随着市镇经济的繁荣而不断扩展市场的神怪故事，不管是否成本，都以一种虚幻的、夸张的手法去迎合读者的口味，因而也杂糅着不少糟粕。尽管如此，它们毕竟是美国早期小说的雏形，是19 世纪初期浪漫主义小说高潮产生的源泉。而且，美国终于开始了一个既舶来小说同时又输出小说的时代。

练习题：

1．Ernest Hemingway is _____.

A．Englishman

B．American

C.Dutch

D．Denmark

2．John Fitzgerald Kennedy is _____ president.

A．35th

B．34th

C．33rd

D．32nd

3．In 1837, the first college-level institution for women , Mount Holyoke Female Seminary , opened in _____ to serve the “ Muslim sex”.

A．New England

B．Virginia

C．Massachusetts

D．New York

4．The capital of Massachusetts is _____.

A．Providence

B．Boston

C．Montpelier

D．Augusta

5．_____ is the dividing line between the South and North.

A．The Hudson River

B．The Potomac River

C．The Ohio River

D．The Missouri River

6．_____ is Washington’s largest city.

A．Boise

B．Denver

C．Tacoma

D．Seattle

7．Washington D.C., the capital of U.S．is situated on the _____River banks. A．St．Lawrence

B．Hudson

C．Potomac

D．Missouri

8．When did the American Civil War break out?

A．1775

B．1812

C．1861

D．1863

9．Who prepared the draft of the Declaration of Independence?

A．John Adams

B．Thomas Jefferson

C．Benjamin Franklin

D．John Hancock

10．In which day is Halloween celebrated?

A．5 November

B．31 October

C．17 March

D．25 December

练习题答案及题解:

1．B,文坛巨匠海明威是美国人。

2．A,肯尼迪是美国的第35任总统。

3．C,美国的第一所女子学院开设于马萨诸塞州。

4．B,麻省的首府是波士顿。

5．D,美国南北的分界线是密苏里河，东西的分界线是密西西比河。6．D,华盛顿州的最大城市是西雅图。

7．C,华盛顿特区位于波托马克河上。

8．C,美国内战爆发于1861年，结束于1865年。

9．B,为美国起草独立宣言的是托马斯?杰弗逊。

10．B,万圣节前夕是10月的最后一天即10月31号。

美国文学练习题

5. Hawthorne’s unique gift was for the creation of ________ which touch the deepest roots of man’s moral nature. A. romantic stories B. symbolic stories C. gothic stories D. humorous stories 7. Romanticism appeared as a literary trend against _____. A. rationality B. imagination C. intuition D. individualism 12. _____ held a “black”vision of life and human beings. A. Ralph Waldo Emerson B. Nathaniel Hawthorne C. Edgar Allan Poe D. James Fenimore Cooper 16. Born of one common cultural heritage, the American Romanticists shared some common features..._______, with the English Romanticists. A. an increasing emphasis on the free expression of emotions B. an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters C. an increasing emphasis on the desire to return to nature D. both A and B 17. _______ was the first great American writer to earn international fame. A. Irving B. Cooper C. Emerson D. Whitman 21. Pearl is the heroine in Hawthorne’s novel _________ . A. Moses from an Old Manse B. Twice-Told Tales C. The Scarlet Letter D. The Blithedale Romance 7. Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, ang Pearl are most likely the names of the characters in __________. A.The Scarlet Letter B. The House of the Seven Gables C. The Portrait of a Lady D. The Pioneers 24. Being a period of the flowering of American literature, the Romantic period is also called “_____”. A. the American Renaissance B. the English Renaissance C. the Harlem Renaissance D. the Second Renaissance 5. According to Hawthorne, the scarlet letter “A”which originally stood for “_______” f inally obtained the meaning of “able”or “angel”through Hester’s efforts. A. adultery B. arrogance C. accomplishment D. agony 13. F. Scott Fitzgerald is often acclaimed literary spokesman of the ____________.

美国文学选读名词解释

1.Puritanism（清教主义）: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. 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. 2.)In content it means scrupulous ,moral rigor ,eapecially hostility to social pleasure and religion . 3.)with time passing it became a dominant factor in American life , one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and literature .to some extentit is a state of mind , a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes ,rather than a set of tenets. 4.）Actually it is a code of values , a philosophy of life and a point of view in American minds , also a two-faceted tradition of religious idealism and level -headed in common sense . 5）Major topic:American Puritanism Introduction There were no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and tribal cultures，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. Therefore 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. 2.The American Romanticism(浪漫主义) I. What is Romanticism a literary movement flourished as a cultural force the early period and the late period.

(完整版)美国文学课后答案

1.Why did Franklin write his Autobiography? Franklin says that because his son may wish to know about his life, he is taking his one week vacation in the English countryside to record his past. He also says that he has enjoyed his life and would like to repeat it 2.What made Franklin decide to leave the brother to whom he had been apprenticed? His brother was passionate, and had often beaten him. The aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to him through his whole life .After a brush with the law, Franklin left his brother. 3.How did he arrive in Philadephia? First he set out in a boat for Amboy, the boat dropped him off about 50 miles from Burlington, the next day he reached Burlington on foot, in Burlington he found a boat which was going towards Philadelphia, he arrived there about eight or nine o’clock, on the Sunday morning and landed at the Market Street wharf. 4.What features do you find in the style of the above selection? It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision(言简意赅). The narrative is lucid(易懂的), the structure is simple, the imagery is homely(朴素的). 二、Questions 1.How many characters does Poe include in The Cask of Amontillado? What are these names? Montresor, Fortunato and Luchesi 2. What drink are the French most famous for? Wine 3.Does Montresor have something of great value to him which we might consider to be his treasure? His pride and the pride of his French family heritage. Perhaps his devious plot of revenge. 4.Does Montresor seem to have much respect for Italians? Montresor does not have much respect for Italians. He feels the French are superior, especially with respect to wine. 5.What was Fortunato's insult? Poe does not tell us directly, but only implies it in the third paragraph 6.Which wine does Montresor use to lure Fortunato into the catacombs? "Amontillado" (the Spanish wine; Montresor's ruse to lead Fortunato down into the catacombs. 7.Why does Montresor entertain Fortunato with wines from his collection? Montresor wants to get Fortunato drunk enough to be able to trap him in his plan of vengeance. 8.In what two ways does Montresor imprison Fortunato? He fetters (chains and locks) Fortunato to the wall of the catacombs. He builds a wall to close Fortunato off in a small corner of the catacombs, where Montresor will leave him to die. 9.In what ways is The Cask of Amontillado grotesque? First, which of Montresor's actions are abnormal? The whole obsessive plot of vengeance. The fettering and entombment of Fortunato. Montresor's sick sense of humor. 10.Is there anything grotesque about Fortunato? His obsession with alcohol. His drunkenness. His tendency to berate Luchesi (he may have been drunk and may have insulted Montresor in a similar

现代与后现代文学比较

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