08-09(2)美国文学名词解释
Features in Hemingway’s works:
Hemingway style: 1) colloquial style;
economic structure, short sentences and paragraphs, vigorous and positive language.
2) He preferred words that are concrete, specific, simple more commonly found, casual and conversational, and avoided gorgeous adjectives.
3) primary(grade) school-like grammar
Hemingway Hero－Code Hero (准则英雄) They show something in common: 1) desperate courage and grace under pressure.
2)His heroes maintain dignity, honor, courage and
grace in face of danger, violence and death.
3)They are wounded but strong, enjoys the
pleasure of life in face of ruin and death.
4)They hold such a concept of life: always ready to
defeat and destroy you, but that, if you keep
calm and stand on your set of principles, you
may win on your own terms.
Iceberg Principle
1) iceberg style: 1/8 is above the water, 7/8 is
under the water. "The dignity of movement of an
iceberg is due to only one eighth of it being
above water.
2) Hemingway's theory of omission is widely
referred to as the "iceberg principle."
By omitting certain parts of a story, he actually
strengthens that story. The writer must be
conscious of these omissions and be writing true
enough in order for the reader to sense the
omitted parts. When the reader senses the
omitted parts, a greater perception and
understanding for the story can be achieved.
The Lost Generation:
1)The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a
group of American intellectuals, poets, artists
and writers fled to France in the post WWI years to reject the values of American materialism and to seek the bohemian生活方式不合习俗的
lifestyle in Paris.
2)Disillusioned by the War and disgusted about the
society. Full of youthful idealism, these
individuals sought the meaning of life, drank
excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date.
Naturalism
naturalism:pessimistic realism.
During the 1890s, a younger generation of American writers attempted to
1) achieve extreme objectivity and frankness,
2) presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were dominated by their environment and heredity.
These writers (the “naturalists) formed a new literary school known as “naturalism”.
Time: arose in the 1890s and continued well into the twentieth century.
The term “Naturalism”was created by the influential
French novelist Emile Zola (1840-1902).
Influence on naturalism
influenced by Darwinism and French realism
1) French novelist Emile Zola.scientific way of study
human life He believed that people were not really
"free”. how the influences of heredity and
environment destroy the characters, or to watch them overcome heredity and environment
2) Charles Darwin’s theory: the struggle for existence,
survival of the fittest, and natural selection.
3) Herbert Spencer’s social Darwinism ---the weak and
stupid would fall victim in the natural course of events to economic forces.
?
Features of American Naturalism: Thematically, naturalistic writers
--wrote 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
American Naturalism:
Technically, naturalistic writers
--made detailed documentation of life: nothing but the truth, more naked and wicked than realism --created gloomy and pessimistic atmosphere
Representatives of American Naturalism: Stephen Crane (1871—1900)
Maggie, A Girl of the Streets(1893)(the first naturalist novel)
The Red Badge of Courage(1895)
Frank Norris (1870—1902)
McTeague(1899)
Theodore Dreiser (1871—1945)
Sister Carrie(1900)
An American Tragedy(1925)
Jack London(1876-1916)
The Call of the Wild(1903)
Martin Eden(1909)
Local Color
?First appeared in the end of 1860s and the beginning of the 1870. 1868 The Luck of Roaring Camp by Brat Heart布雷特哈特
?1870s Howells The Rise of Silas Lapham 《塞拉斯拉帕姆的发迹》
?1880s developed rapidly such as in Kate Chopin's works The Awakening
American Realism: Local Color
It is a type of writing that was popular in the late 19th century, particularly among authors in the American South of the particular region in which the story took place.
Local color fiction “exploits the speech, dress, mannerisms, habits of thought which are peculiar to a certain region.
Too many critics paid emphasis on the external reality. Henry James then emphasizes on psychological realism, complex workings of the mind
Henry James (1843—1916), Daisy Miller(1878), The Ambassadors(1903), The Wings of the Dove (1902) and The Art of Fiction.
Mark Twain (1835—1910), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884), Life on the Mississippi(1883).
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Old Town Folks,Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Free Verse
?Definition:
?Free verse is a kind of poetry that lacks regular meter or pattern and may not rhyme. Depending on natural speech rhythms, its lines may be of different lengths and may switch abruptly from one rhythm to another.
The mark of the appearance of Transcendentalism
1)In 1836, "Nature" by Ralph Emerson
2) In Nature, Emerson said " The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul", "Spirit is present everywhere."
The Transcendentalists" ,
is :
idealism as appears in 1842."
S ome New Englanders not happy with the
materalistic-oriented life of their time, formed the Transcendentalist Club
some thirty men and a couple of women
included Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, against the faith of Boston businessmen and the rationalism of the Unitarianism
journal "The Dial"
a. Foreign influences: concepts of Schelling, Fichte, Kant's
"critique of Pure Reason"
and Thomas Carlyle's "Sartor
Resartus";
Coleridge's "Aids to Reflection" and "The Friend"
;
French eclecticism( Cousin, Collard, Gerando, Jouffroy)
Oriental mysticism( Hindu work "Upanishads" and "Bhagavad-gita", Chinese Confucius and Mencius) b. American Puritanism, represented by Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin
4. Significance: New England
Transcendentalism is the summit of
American Romanticism.
5. Representatives: Emerson, Thoreau
Lecture 2
four parts written at four different times
?Part one : 1771; seemingly a letter to his son; about 80 pages; his life before the age of 25.?Part two : 1784; his life between the age of 25 and 42;
?Part three: 1788; his social and scientific life;?Part four : 1790; his life between his retirement and death;
Lecture 2
The Dual-role of The Autobiography ?1. a record of self-examination and self-improvement (self-betterment)
?2. a practical guide to the young people who wish to be successful in America –--an inspiring account of a poor boy ’s rise on the social ladder through luck, pluck(courage) and decency
–--a celebration of the fulfillment of the
American Dream (rising from rags to riches, poverty to prosperity)
Lecture 2
Prose Style and Language
?--Franklin advices that we should “write with the learned. Pronounce with the vulgar.”and use “a close, naked, natural way of speaking; positive expression, clear senses, a native easiness, bring all things as near as mathematical plainness as they can.”
?--a simple, direct and concise prose style with a formal language （too many modifiers and he preferred to use long sentences) 简单、直接、明朗的清教写作风格