美国文学史复习纲要

1. The Colonial PeriodThe settlement of America in the early 17th century--- the end of the 18th century.The major topicThe major figures2. The Romantic PeriodCovering the first half of the19th century.•The major points:3. The Age of RealismThe Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. Covering the end of the 19th century and the first decade of 20th century.•It expresses the concern for the commonplace and the low, and offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.•4. American Naturalism•From the first decade of twentieth century to the First World War.•The major figures: Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and O. Henry5 American ModernismThe literature between the two world wars. This is the most important period in6. American Postmodernism•From the World War II up to now.•Postmodernist writers: John Barth, Philip Roth, Thomas Pinchon, Ishmael Reed and Don Delillo.•The flourishing of minoritarian literature: Jewish-American, African-American and Asian-American literatureis an account of a person’s life written by that person or a book written by oneself about one’s own life. It is characterized by the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression, lucidity of the narrative. Benjamin Franklin…s Autobiography is a good example.Puritanism:Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans, who became American‟s founding fathers. They advocated highly religious and moral principles.The American Puritans were idealists. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God.Puritanism has a profound influence on the early American mind and literaturePoor Richard’s Almanac Autobiography Romanticism1800-1865Characteristics of Romanticism (derivative independent)o an innate and intuitive perception of man, nature and society—reliance on the subconscious, the inner life, the abnormal psychologyo an emphasis on freedom, individualism and imagination—rebellion against neoclassicism which stressed formality, order and authority o a profound love for nature—nature as a source of knowledge, nature asa refuge from the present, nature as a revelation of the holy spirito the quest for beauty—pure beautyo the use of antique and fanciful subject matters—sense of terror, Gothic, grotesque, odd and queerMoby-Dick is regarded as the first American prose epic. His ideas:The world is at once Godless and purposelessMan cannot influence and overcome nature at its sourceThemes 1 alienation 2 Rejection and Quest3criticism against Emersonian self-reliant individualSymbolThe Pequod -------- of human society. The voyage ----- search and discovery. The whale Moby Dick------nature Queequeg's coffin ---- symbolizes life and death. The whiteness of Moby Dick --- death and corruption and purity, innocence and youth; final mystery of the universe.The ship on the ocean----- symbol of the whole world with people in quest of its瓦尔登湖A psalm of lifeSonnet—To science abab cdcd efef ggTo Helen ABABB CDCDC AEEAE五行诗节1. Free from the traditional iambic pentameter and writes free verse2. Parallelism3. Phonetic recurrence systematic repetition of words and phrases or sounds4. Long catalogs, giving free rein to poetic imaginationHer poetry is a clear illustration of her religious-ethical and political-social ideas.largest portion of Dickinson‟s poetry concerns andoriginal in art and famous for the economy of expression in diction and the frequent use of dashes.Her poems are short and implicit in meaning. She is regarded as the forerunner of modernism in American poetryThemes: death love natureFrequent use of dashesTranscendentalism.浪漫主义运动的表现形式-超验主义it‟s Romanticism on the Puritan soil Transcendentalism has been defined as the recognition in man of the capacity of acquiring knowledge transcending the reach of the five senses, or of knowing truth intuitively, or of reaching the divine without the need of an intercessor.placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over soul as the most important thing in the universe stressed the importance of the individualoffered a fresh perception of nature a symbolic of the Spirit or Godstressed the power of intuition.He firmly believes in the transcendence of the “Oversoul”.2. Emerson’s Idealism. He sees the world as phenomenal, and emphasizes theneed for idealism, for idealism sees the world in God3. Emerson’s View on Spirit. He sees spirit pervading everywhere4.Emerson’sView on Man. man is made in the image of God and is just a little less then Him.man is divine.5. Emerson’s View on Individuality and Self-Reliance. The individual is the mostimportant of all. E For him, if man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect.So men should and could be self-reliant.6. Emerson’s Nature. A natural implication of Emerson‟s view on nature is that the world around is symbolicRealismHis later works become darker and more obscure, showing his discontent and disappointment toward the social reality. His last works shows his acute pessimism, despair, skepticism determinism.Humor local color satireThe Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Gilded Age Life on the Mississippi A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug The Mysterious StrangerThe Innocents Abroad Roughing It Pudd'nhead WilsonAmerican ClaimantNaturalismIs a critical term applied to the method of literary composition that aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man•It is thus more inclusive and less selective than realism, and holds to the philosophy of determinism.•It conceives of man as controlled by his instincts or his passions, or by its social and economic environment and circumstances.•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments•Since in this view man has no free will, the naturalistic writer does not attempt to make moral judgments.•In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author‟s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.CharacteristicsA literary trend that prevailed in 1890s in America.1) Emphasis on reality, objectivity, no exaggeration, give no comments andcriticizing;2) The naturalists would go to the slums and describe the poverty and crime;3) Be concerned about the influence of social environment. According to them,human beings are victims of the crushing forces of heredity and environment.Explain human activities and human society according to biological law, highlight the effect of animal instincts and heredity on human beings.5) Apply scientific experiment to writing, try to test human feelings in variouskinds of environment.6) The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile.7) Hold very pessimistic attitude towards human society, and this pessimism oftengoes to determinism.Representatives: CharacteristicFrank Norris（弗兰克·诺里斯）dehumanizedStephen Crane（斯蒂芬·克莱恩）- determinedTheodore Dreiser（西奥多·德莱塞）- moved by inner and outer forcesJack London（杰克·伦敦beyond conscious moral control McTeague Octopus the Pit Vandover and the BruteMaggie: A Girl of the Streets The red badge of courage Sister Carrie Modernism现代主义时期•During the first decades of the 20th century, modernism became an international tendency against positivism and representational art in art and literature. Modernism was the consequence of the transformation of society brought about by industrialism and technology. The essence of modernism wasa break with the past, and it also fostered a belief in art and literature as anavenue to self-fulfillment. The feature was its strong and conscious break with traditional forms, perceptions, and techniques of expressions, and its great concern with language and all aspects of its medium.•It was persistently experimental. Stream of consciousness, the use of myth as a structural principle, and the primary status given to the poetic image, all challenged traditional representation.•Generally speaking, this new desire in craftsmanship and skill was one of the hallmarks of the early decades of the 20th century.Imagism意象派（诞生于现代主义时期）It is a Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. It was initially led by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell.（no fuss, frill, or ornament）,（precision and economy of expression）,（free verse form and music）.Launch Imagism setting down the Imagist principlesThe Cantos 《诗章》威廉·卡洛·威廉斯avoided complexity andobscure华莱士·斯蒂文斯Simple lines: an emphasis on vocabulary and imagery rather than prosodyThe faith in poetry : when no one believes in God, it is necessary to believe in something else, such as poetry, a thing created by imaginationAnecdote of the Jar罗伯特The most popular 20th Century American Poet, A four-timeStyl e 1rejected the revolutionary poetic principles of his contemporaries, choosingthe old-fashioned way to be new.• 2 employ the plain speech of rural New Englanders.3 use the simple, short, traditional forms of lyrics and Narrative, can probemysteries of darkness and irrationality in the bleak and chaotic landscapes of an indifferent universe where man stand alone, unaided and perplexed.Fire and ice Fire - a symbol of desire, or love. Ice - a symbol of hatredtwo weaknesses of human beings that are as destructive as natural disasters The road not taken it does not moralize about choice, it simply says that choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived itStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening The poem is primarily oriented towards the pleasures of the scene and the responsibility of life. Metaphors:• Promises –Our own promises or duties that we must fulfill.Miles - experience we must travel through before deathThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black boughthe Great Gatsby 1926The Sun Also Rises 1926, A Farewell to Arms , 1929,the Wasteland.Main Street 1920an American TragedyAmerican Dream:The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of martial wealth, but a dream of social order. People try to get success no matter what kind of circumstances of birth or position they came from.The lost generationIt refers to the writers who were devoid of faith, values and ideals and who were alienated from the civilization the capitalist society advocated. It includes Ernst Hemingway, F. S.Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Louis Bromfield., and E.E.Cummings, Ezra Pound，who rebelled against former values and ideas, but replaced them only by despair or a cynical hedonism. They were frustrated by the WWI and returned from that “Great War”to their own country only to find the grim reality that the social values and civilization were hollow.Short storyIt is a fictional prose tale of no specified length, but too short to be published as a volume on its own. It concentrates on a single event with one or two characters. It flourished in the magazines of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the USA, which has a particularly strong tradition. Edgar Allen Poe was considered as the father of modern short story. His short stories like the cast of Amontillado and the Black cat are famous.Jazz Age⏹American industry developed fast. The nation is full of bouncingebullience, fearful of nothing, confident smug isolationism.⏹Socially, decline of idealism. Patriotism became cynical disillusionment.Unity of family weakened. There appeared the revolt of the Younger Generation. They escaped responsibility and assumed immorality.⏹After WWI, people found that the war which cost millions of lives failedto provide an abiding solutions to the world’s problems, that the war was just the traps of political leaders. Such a disillusionment about the value of war, accompanied by the booming of American economy drove people to cynical hedonism. People experiment with new amusements. They restlessly pursued stimulus and pleasures, wallow in heavy drinking, fast driving and casual sex. By these, they hoped to seek relief from serious problems.Hemingway heroThey live adventures-filled lives that were driven by courage and limited by fear. They hide a sensitive heart from tough exterior.” Grace under press” is their motto. Its heroes are hemmed in by forces beyond their control.AntiheroIt is a central character in a dramatic or narrative work who lacks the qualities ofnobility and magnanimity expected of traditional heroes in romances and epic.Like the character “Henry” in the work of a farewell to arms.SymbolTraditional FormsBallad(民谣)A ballad is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. “The Geste of Robin HoodHeroic CoupletIt refers to a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter and written in an elevated style. Sonnet 18Spenserian stanza•It is a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c. The Faerie QueeneBlank verse素体诗，无韵诗•Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.•It became widely used in dramatic poetry and narratives.Now that/ the gloo/my sha/dow of /the night,Longing/ to view/ Orion/’s drizz/ling look,Leaps from/ the an/tarc/tic world/ unto/ the skyAnd dims/ the wel/kin with/ her pi/tchy breath ----Doctor FaustusFree verseMeans the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without paying attention to conventional rules of meter. It can free the poets from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and recreate instead the free rhythms of natural speech.Beat GenerationTheatre of absurd. the 1950sBlack humor.the 1960s。