大学美国文学史及作品选读PPT8

● There was the loss of faith (Nietzsche’s ―death of God‖). People lived a purposeless, futile and chaotic life. Social breakdown and individual powerlessness and hopelessness became part of the American experience as a result of the First World War, with resulting feelings of fear, loss, disorientation and disllusionment.
● Imagist poems, which are typically written in free verse, are generally short since Imagists seek above all else to write concentrated poetry. They seek to render the poet’s response to a visual impression as concisely and precisely as possible. Those taking part in the Imagist movement included Hilda Doolittle, Carl Sandburg, William Carlos Williams, D. H. Lawrence and others.
● With all these wars the whole world had undergone a dramatic social change, a transformation from order to disorder. And so had the United States.
● The First World War had made a big impact on the life of the American people. After the war, there was a booming industry and material prosperity (radio, automobile, movie). ● At the same time there was a sense of unease and restlessness (strikes, unemployment, political corruptions, organized crimes, radical labour force).
● Connections with Chinese poems ◆ Picture-like characters, using of images, short and concise, abundant connotation ◆ The imagists translated lots of Chinese poems into English. ● Sample (P161)
Teaching Objectives and Requirements：
1 Make the students know clearly about Modernism. 2 Help the students to know about the characteristics of the American 1920’s and Imagism. 3 Help the students to know Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. 4 Help the students know clearly about Robert Frost.
1 The 1920s
(The 1920s can be termed as the second renaissance in the history of American literature and as the ―Jazze Age‖. It was a chaotic age and also a transitional age. After 1920s, US society stepped into its modern times. The works of T. S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway and their generations constituted an adequate expression of the spirit of their times.)
1.2 Literary scenes
● A large group of writers began to make all kinds of literary experiments because they felt old literary form can’t express the new spirits. (Impressionism, Dadaism, expressionism, symbolism, surrealism)
Lecture 8
The Age of Modernism: Literature in the 1920s (Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot and Robert Frost )
Content
The 1920s Imagism Ezra Pound
T. S. Eliot
Robert Frost
―In a Station of the Metro‖ by Ezra Pound
2.2 Imagism ● Imagism is a school of poetry that flourished in North America and England, but especially in the United States, at the beginning of the Twentieth century. ● Imagists rejected the sentimentalism of late 19th century verse in favor of a poetry that relied on concrete imagery.
● Limitation ◆ A single dominate image is hardly capable of sustaining longer poetic effort. ◆ It’s own aesthetics stunted its growth into something more ambitious and eternal.
● Since the 1920s, US literature stepped into the modern age. (Imagism, ―The Lost Generation‖, First Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis, several great writers, Southern Renaissance, Harlem Renaissance)
● Ezra Pound originally led the movement, which drew upon T. E. Hulme’s poetic theory, but Amy Lowell soon became Байду номын сангаасts most famous proponent; ―Amygism‖ was first used by the displaced Pound to refer derogatorily to the movement. ● In a collection of imagist poems that Lowell edited called Some Imagist Poets, she formally outlined the major objectives of criteria of the Imagists, who believed that poetry should: a. regularly use everyday speech, but avoid cliché b. create new s; rhythms; c. address any subject matter the poet desired; d. depict its subject through precise, clear images.
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2 Imagism
2.1 Imagist Movement
● Three phrases ◆ 1908 – 1909. London. T. E. Hulme Insisting on ―absolutely accurate presentation and no verbiage‖; more discussion, less writing ◆ 1912 – 1914. Ezra Pound Manifesto— three Imagist poetic principles (P159-160); first anthology Des Imagism ◆ 1914 – 1917. Amy Lowell ―Amygism‖ No great achievements
● There was a decline in moral standard and this period was best described as a spiritual wasteland. ◆ People became less certain about accepted standards of honesty and morality. ◆ The idea of ―seize the day‖ or ―enjoy the present‖ was pervasive, as opposed to placing all hope in the future. ◆ Attitude toward sex had changed. Instead of thinking of sex as something obscene or wrong, people especially youngsters, gave loose to their sexual desire. ◆ Girls wore short skirts, smoked, drank, and went about with men.