童明《美国文学史》课后习题详解(现实主义时期)【圣才出品】

第10章现实主义时期

Questions for Discussion and Writing Assignments

1. The age of realism is divided into two more periods. What are the two periods called?

Key: American Realism can be divided into two periods: the period of an expanding continental nation from1865 till the 1890s and the so-called “progressive period” from the 1890s till1914.

2. What was Thomas Jefferson’s vision of America? Was that vision still viable after the Civil War? What were the distinct changes that had taken place?

Key: Thomas Jefferson once had an idyllic vision of America in which the majority of Americans, as he hoped, would never have to be “occupied at a work bench, for those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.” Some embraced Jefferson’s vision.

But in reality, the agrarian democracy as envisioned by Jefferson was no longer viable after 1865.

The United States changed from a nation of distinct regions into a nation dominated by Northern industrialization, business and finance.

3. Mark Twain coined the phrase the “Glided Age.” What are some of the social

and cultural phenomena that characterized the Gilded Age?

Key: (1) The development of railroads enabled the United States to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. With transportation being more affordable, people became more mobile; the promise of free or cheaper land translated quickly into Westward settlements and settlements in the Great Plains and mountainous regions.

(2) The spread of industrialism led to a series of significant changes. Machines displaced most of the hand labor required in manufacturing industries. Skilled craftsmen gradually became obsolete. Factory owners and managers came to see machines as being more valuable than workers who ran them. Labor relationships grew impersonal.

(3) In the cities, inexperienced voters voted to power some corrupt city bosses. In the 1860s and 1870s William Tweed and the “Tweed Ring” of municipal crooks cost New York City some two hundred million dollars, estimated to be equivalent to two billion dollars in the 1990s. In the 1880s the flattering term “Captain of Industry” was coined when business tycoons were celebrated as national heroes, as misleading models for the, young to follow. Yet, in the shadow of such success and prosperity was the exacerbation of poverty. This, to use Mark Twain’s phrase, was“The Gilded Age,” the age of wealth and poverty, of decline and progress, and age of gaudy excesses.

4. What is the “progressive era?”

Key: From the 1890s on, there was a great deal of enthusiasm for various social and economic reforms, hence the term “the progressive era.”

5. Why is realism the product for America’s age of adolescence?

Key: Because at that time, America lost its innocence and entered into adolescence. And like an adolescent, the country experienced restlessness and moments of violence. A new literature, that of realism, emerged for this age.

6. How does realism react to romanticism?

Key: (1) Realists claim that they seek truth that is verifiable by experience and has practical consequences; they do not seek abstract truth. With such a claim, realist writers are philosophically allied with pragmatism which, in the United States, is represented by William James (Henry James’s brother) and John Dewey. The pragmatists also place high value on ethical consequences and conducts.

(2) Realists try to describe a small portion of the knowable world in order to maintain “objectivity.” Yet, ironically, any attempt at “objectivity” has to proceed from a totalized vision of the world.

7. Explain the perception of truth, knowledge, objectivity according to realism. Key: Realism reacts against romanticism’s emphasis on intuition, imagination, a dreamy (or innocent) sense of wonder, idealism, faith in nature, and general optimistic belief in the goodness of things.

8. Explain realism in terms of mimesis.

Key: Realism is embedded in a mimetic theory of art.“Mimesis” means “imitation.” Realists believe that literature imitates reality. But the modernists and postmodernists will later recognize a flaw in the mimetic theory, namely: the mimetic theory sees language as a transparent medium and language, consequently, does not play a significant role in the shaping and defining of “reality.” Regarding language, realists are also attentive to such details as dialect, customs, and experiences that are commonplace and “real.”

9. What constitutes the early phase of realism?

Key: Local color and regional writings constituted the early phase of realism.