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 Period1. 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) influencedAmerican 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 instrumentalin 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 andhonest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.II. Overview of the literature1. types of writingdiaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons2. writers of colonial period(1) Anne Bradstreet(2) Edward TaylorIII. Benjamin Franklin1. life2. works(1) Poor Richard’s Almanac(2) Autobiography3. 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) fromheaven”.(3) Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thusdescribed him “master of each and mastered by none”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodI. American Romanticism1. Background(1) Political background and economic development(2) Romantic movement in European countriesDerivative – foreign influence2. features(1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience andcontained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radicallynew and alien.(2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authorstended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than theyentertained.(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 bothimitative and independent.II. Washington Irving: Father of American Literature1. 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 literature2. life3. 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 recognitionwith 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 Alhambra4. Literary career: two parts(1) 1809~1832a. Subjects are either English or Europeanb. Conservative love for the antique(2) 1832~1859: back to USIII. James Fenimore Cooper1. life2. works(1) Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2) The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3) Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3. point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4. literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – New England TranscendentalismI. Mark: 1836, “Nature” by EmersonII. Definition:As a philosophical and literary movement, Transcendentalism flourished in New England from 1830s to the outbreak of the civil war. Its representatives were Emerson and Thoreau.Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. The transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. The transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God.Ralph Waldo Emerson1. life2. works(1) Nature (The Bible of New England Transcendentalism)(2) Two essays: The American Scholar (America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence),The Poet3. aesthetic ideas(1) He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2) True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3) The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4) As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to hima lone poem in itself.III. Henry David Thoreau1. life2. works(1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2) Walden(3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3. point of view(1) He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehementlyoutspoken on the point.(2) He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3) Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthyinfluence on man’s spiritual well-being.(4) He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5) He was very critical of modern civilization.(6) “Simplicity…simplify!”(7) He was sorely disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellowsociety”.(8) He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI. Nathaniel Hawthorne1. life2. works(1) Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2) The Scarlet Letter(3) The House of the Seven Gables(4) The Marble Faun3. point of view(1) Evil is at the core of human life, “that blackness in Hawthorne”(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation togeneration (causality).(3) He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4) He has disgust in science.4. aesthetic ideas(1) He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which hismind grows to fruition.(2) He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell thetruth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5. style – typical romantic writer(1) the use of symbols(2) revelation of characters’ psychology(3) the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4) his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5) use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of viewII. Herman Melville1. life2. works(1) White Jacket(2) Moby Dick3. point of view(1) He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of “Everlasting Nay”(negative attitude towards life).(2) One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death),rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c ideaof progress4. style(1) Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing thetechnique of multiple view of his narratives.(2) He tends to write periodic chapters.(3) His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon andpraised.(4) His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5) He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goeson board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)Romantic PoetsI. Walt Whitman1. life2. work: Leaves of Grass (9 editions)(1) Song of Myself(2) There Was a Child Went Forth(3) Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4) Democratic Vistas(5) Passage to India(6) Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking3. themes –“Catalog of American and European thought”4. style:One of the major principles of Whitman’s technique is parallelism or a rhythm of thought in which, the line is the rhythmical unit. Another main principle of Whitman’s versification is ph onetic recurrence, i. e., the systematic repetition of words and phrases at the beginning of the line, in the middle or at the end. Whitman wrote free verse.5. influence(1) His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2) He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in a moresophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3) He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4) Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his greatinfluence.II. Emily Dickenson1. life2. works(1) My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2) Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3) I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4) Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5) Wild Nights – Wild Nights3. themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1) religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2) death and immortality(3) love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4) physical aspect of desire(5) nature – kind and cruel(6) free will and human responsibilityIII. Comparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1. Similarities:(1) Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion,its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance”.(2) Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking freeof the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before:they were pioneers in American poetry.2. differences:(1) Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of theindividual.(2) Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3) Whitman has the “catalogue technique” which Dickinson doesn’t have. (direct, simple style) Edgar Allen PoeI. LifeII. Works1. short stories(1) ratiocinative storiesa. Ms Found in a Bottleb. The Murders in the Rue Morguec. The Purloined Letter(2) Revenge, death and rebirtha. The Fall of the House of Usherb. Ligeiac. The Masque of the Red Death(3) Literary theorya. The Philosophy of Compositionb. The Poetic Principlec. Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told TalesIII. Themes1. death –predominant theme in Poe’s writing“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.”2. disintegration (separation) of life3. horror4. negative thoughts of scienceIV. Aesthetic ideas1. The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality.2. The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems shouldnot be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V. Style – traditional, but not easy to readVI. Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)VII. His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI. Background: From Romanticism to Realism1. the three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period(1) industrialism vs. agrarian(2) culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west(3) plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility2. 1880’s urbanization: from free competition to monopoly capitalism3. the closing of American frontierII. Definition:With Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the scene, realism became a major trend in the seventies and eighties of the nineteenth century. It expressed the concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, and for the familiar and the low. In matters of style, there was contrast between the genteel and graceful prose on the one hand, and vernacular diction and rough and ready frontier humor on the other.Three Giants in Realistic Period1. William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”(1) Worksa. The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(2) Features of His Worksa. Optimistic toneb. Moral development/ethicsc. Lacking of psychological depth2. Henry James(1) Life(2) Literary career: three stagesa. 1865~1882: international theme●The American●Daisy Miller●The Portrait of a Ladyb. 1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays●Daisy Miller (play)c. 1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence, then back tointernational theme●The Turn of the Screw●When Maisie Knew●The Ambassadors●The Wings of the Dove●The Golden Bowl(3) International Theme:Most of Hen ry Jame’s novels deal with the international theme. That is the meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadende, and its moral and psychological complications. For American it was a process of progression from inexperience to experience, from innocence to knowledge and maturity.Local Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sI. Appearance1. uneven development in economy in America2. culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3. magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII. What is “Local Colour”?Local Colorism as a trend first made its presence felt in the late 1860s and early seventies. The appearance of Bret Harte’s “The Luck of Roaring Camp” in 1868 marked a significant development in the brief history of local color fiction. Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They tended to idealize and glorify, but they neverforgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life.III. Mark Twain – Mississippi1. life2. works(1) The Gilded Age(2) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn(3) Life on the MississippiIV. Comparison of the three “giants” of American RealismIn thematic terms, James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life, whereas Mark Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society. Technically, Howells wrote in the vein of genteel realism, James pursued the psychological realism, but Mark Twain’s contributi on to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole was partly through his theories of local colorism in American fiction, and partly through his colloquial style.Chapter 4 American NaturalismI. Background1. Darwin’s theory: “natural selection”2. Spenser’s idea: “social Darwinism”3. French Naturalism: ZoraII. Definition: American Naturalism appeared in the 1890s with the representatives of Crane, Norris and Theodore Dreiser. They tore the mask of gentility to pieces and wrote about the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world, and his lack of dignity in face of the crushing forces of environment and heredity. They reported truthfully and objectively, with a passion for scientific accuracy and a lot of details. The whole picture is somber and dark; and the general tone one of hopelessness and even despair.III. Theodore Dreiser1. life2. works(1) Sister Carrie3. point of view(1) He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned to regard man as merelyan animal driven by greed and lust i n a struggle for existence in which only the “fittest”, themost ruthless, survive.(2) Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man,being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a merepawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3) No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internal chemisms and bythe forces of social pressure.Chapter 5 The Modern PeriodSection 1 The 1920sI. IntroductionThe 1920s is a flowering period of American literature. It is considered “the second renaissance” of American literature.The nicknames for this period:(1) Roaring 20s – comfort(2) Dollar Decade – rich(3) Jazz Age – Jazz musicII. Backgrounda) First World War –“a war to end all wars”(1) Economically: became rich from WWI. Economic boom: new inventions. Highly-consumingsociety.(2) Spiritually: dislocation, fragmentation.b) wide-spread contempt for law (looking down upon law)1. Freud’s theoryImagismI. Development: three stages2. 1908~1909: London, Hulme3. 1912~1914: England -> America, Pound4. 1914~1917: Amy LowellII. Principles1. 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 ametronome.Imagism: Imagism was a poetic movement that flourished in America and England, at the beginning of the 20th century. Ezra Pound raised three principles for the movement: direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective; to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation; as regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome.III. Ezra Pound1. life2. literary career3. works(1) Cathay(2) Cantos(3) Hugh Selwyn Mauberley4. style: very difficult to read5. Cantos –“the intellectual diary since 1915”VII. T. S. Eliot1. life2. works(1) poems●The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock●The Waste Land (epic): spiritual crisis of the postwar Europe.3. point of view(1) The modern society is futile and chaotic.(2) Only poets can create some order out of chaos.(3) The method to use is to compare the past and the present.4. The Waste Land: five parts(1) The Burial of the Dead(2) A Game of Chess(3) The Fire Sermon(4) Death by Water(5) What the Thunder SaidVIII. Robert Frost1. life2. works(1) The Road Not Taken(2) Mending Wall(3) Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningNovels in the 1920sI. F. Scott Fitzgerald1. works(1) The Great Gatsby(2) Tender is the Night2. point of view(1) He expressed what the young people believed in the 1920s, the so-called “American Dream”is false in nature.(2) He had always been critical of the rich and tried to show the integrating effects of money onthe emotional make-up of his character. He found that wealth altered people’s characters,making them mean and distrusted. He thinks money brought only tragedy and remorse.(3) His novels follow a pattern: dream – lack of attraction – failure and despair.3. His ideas of “American Dream”It is false to most young people. Only those who were dishonest could become rich.II. Ernest Hemingway1. life2. works(1) The Sun Also Rises(2) A Farewell to Arms(3) For Whom the Bell Tolls(4) The Old Man and the Sea3. themes –“grace under pressure”(1) war and influence of war on people, with scenes connected with hunting, bull fighting whichdemand stamina and courage, and with the question “how to live with pain”, “how humanbeing live gracefully under pressure”.(2) “code hero”/Hemingway HeroThe Hemingway hero is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive andintelligent, a man of action, and one of few words. That is an individualist keeping emotionsunder control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place. These people are usually spiritualstrong, people of certain skills, and most of them encounter death many times.III. Sinclair Lewis –“the worst important writer in American literature”. He was the first American author to win the Nobel Prize for literature, which he did in 1930.Southern LiteratureI. HeritageAmerican southern literature can date back to Edgar Allen Poe, and reach its summit with the appearance of the two “giants” – Faulkner and Wolfe. There are southern women writers – Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor.II. Southern Myths – guilt, failure, poverty1. Chevalier heritage2. Agrarian virtue3. Plantation aristocracy4. Lost cause5. White supremacy6. Purity of womanhoodSouthern literature: twisted, pessimistic, violent, distortedGothic novel: PoeIII. William Faulkner1. life2. literary career: three stages●Sartoris●The Sound and the Fury●As I Lay Dying●Light in August●Absalom, Absalom●Go Down, Moses3. themes(1) history and raceHe explains the present by examining the past, by telling the stories of several generations offamily to show how history changes life. He was interested in the relationship between blacksand whites, especially concerned about the problems of the people who were of the mixedrace of black and white, unacceptable to both races.(2) Deterioration(3) Conflicts between generations, classes, races, man and environment(4) Horror, violence and the abnormalSection 2 The 1930sI. John Steinbeck1. life2. works(1) Of Mice and Men(2) The Grapes of WrathChapter 6 The Post-War Period: 50s & 60sI. Historical Background – multi-faceted1. Cold War2. McCarthyism (persecution of communists)3. Korean War4. Civil Rights Movement5. Counter-culture Movement – political, economical and military achievementSection 1 PoetryI. Schools of Poetry (time, representatives, major features)1. Confessional Poets: Robert LowellThe greatness of Lowell lies in the fact that, in talking candidly about himself, he is examining the culture of his nation. The identification of personal experience with that of an age has always ensured greatness and even immortality as it did.2. Black Mountain Poets: Charles OlsonThere is an emphasis on the importance of the moments of awareness. It portrays a world of “awakened, contemplative awareness”, one in which civilization appears alien, cold, and almost unreal.3. Beat Generation:In the 1950s there was a widespread discontentment among the postwar generation, whose voice was one of protest against all the mainstream culture that America had come to represent. This has come to be known as the Beat Generation. The representatives included Allan Ginsberg’s Howl and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.Section 2 Fiction1. J. D. Salinger(1) Life(2) Point of viewOne of his frequent themes is young people longing for simplicity and truth instead ofcomplexity and hypocrisy of the life they observed around them. In his novels, he questionsthe moral foundations of society and often places innocent idealist characters in settingwhere a vicious, corrupt society could destroy them. Although his stories are often pessimistic,the characters represent hope rather than despair. They want to affirm truth. They deplore thelies with which the society conceals its own corruption. They withdraw the society, becomedrop-outs rather than participants in the society.(3) Catcher in the Rye2. Joseph Heller(1) Life(2) Catch-22It is not only a war novel, but also a novel about people’s life in peaceful time. This novelattacked the dehumanization of all contemporary institutions and corruptions of individualswho gain power in institutions. Armed-forces are the most outrageous example of the twoevils.Language: circular conversation, wrenched clichéJewish LiteratureI. DefinitionJewish literature refers to published creative writings by American Jews about their American experiences. This kind of writings is shown in Jewish perspective.II. Jewish Point of View1. Jews believe that God has sent perpetual sufferings to his chosen people to strengthen and purifythem, and they are the “chosen people”.2. Humour is a prominent aspect of Jewish point of view. It is often a twisted kind of comedy to keepthem from despair. Jews are able to laugh at themselves, so some of their best humour is self-mocking.3. Jews lay emphasis upon the power of intellects. The power to understand their own experience tojudge their own life rationally to think well is considered a high virtue.4. Self-teaching is at the heart of almost all Jewish novels. The Jewish heroes often try to seek arational interpretation of the world through their own experience in it.III. Saul Bellow1. life2. works(1) The Adventures of Augie March(2) Henderson the Rain King(3) Herzog(4) Mr. Sammler’s Planet3. Themes: Saul B ellow’s basic themes are essentially three-folded: First, he views contemporarysociety as a threat to human life and human integrity. Then living in such an environment, people tend to become paranoid, high-strung, and impotent, and so lose their sanity. Bellovian characterssuffer most from a kind of psychosis. They go through a phase before they regain their mental balance and serenity. Finally, there is the quest motif, a quest for truth and values, difficult, excruciating, but successful in a way.Chapter 7 American DramaI. Eugene O’Neil1. life2. works(1) The Emperor Jones(2) The Hairy Ape(3) Desire under the Elms(4) The Iceman Cometh(5) Long Day’s Journey into Night3. The Hairy Ape: Yank4. style(1) O’Neil was a tireless experimentalist in dramatic art. He paid little attention t o the division ofscenes. He introduced the realistic or even the naturalistic into the American theatre.(2) He borrowed freely from the best traditions of European drama, especially the stream ofconsciousness.(3) He made use of setting and stage property to help in his dramatic representation.(4) He wrote long introduction and directions for all the scenes, explaining the mood andatmosphere.(5) He sometimes wrote the actors’ lines in dialect.II. Tennessee Williams1. life2. point of view and themesHe writes about violence, sex, homosexuality (taboos in drama). Some of his plays rooted in southern social scene. The characters are often unhappy wanderers; lonely, vulnerable women indulged in memory of the past or illusion of the future. He was attracted to bizarre characters and their predicament. He looked deeply into the psychology of the outcasts of society. He saw life a game which cannot be won. Almost all his characters are defeated.3. his plays(1) The Glass Menagerie(2) A Streetcar Named Desire(3) Summer and Smoke(4) Cat on a Hot Tin RoofIII. Arthur Miller1. life2. theme: dilemma of modern man in relation to family and work3. his plays(1) Death of a SalesmanIV. Theatre of the AbsurdDefinition: The theatre of absurd came to vogue in the 1950s and 1960s. It refers to some plays the theme of which centers on the meaninglessness of life with its pain and suffering that seems funny, even ridiculous. The representatives are Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot, and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Chapter 8 Black American LiteratureI. OverviewNegro – coloured (legally free) – black (after civil rights movement)1. oral tradition2. written literature (from 1760s)II. Richard Wright1. life2. works(1) Native Son3. themes and subjectsHis common theme is to condemn racism, urge reform, criticize evils of society. His books focus on racial conflict and physical violence. They review the devastating effect of institutionalized hatred (hatred brought by social system) and humiliation on black males’ psyche. They affirmed。