美国文学史结课论文
关于美国文学的论文
关于美国文学的论文美国梦作为美国文学中一个永恒的主题，始终贯穿于美国文学之中。
下文是店铺为大家搜集整理的关于美国文学的论文的内容，欢迎大家阅读参考!美国文学的论文篇1浅析美国文学中的旅行与美国梦摘要: 对于美国人而言，上路旅行不仅是自由和美国梦的隐喻，而且是实现“显明的命定”(Manifest Destiny)的物质手段和方式。
本文以惠特曼的《草叶集》和克鲁亚克的《在路上》等作品为例，说明旅行以及过路仪式表现了典型的美国经验，表达了对美国梦的追寻、实现和传播，成为美国文化传统的重要组成部分。
关键词: 旅行;美国梦;《草叶集》;《在路上》一道路将人们从一地引向另一地，它是不同地点彼此沟通的不可或缺的桥梁。
原本各自独立、互不关联的两地因而被连接起来，产生互动，拥有了更加丰盈的生命。
几乎所有的文化都赋予道路以特别的价值，对之倾注了连绵不断的情感。
在美国，道路四通八达，如同一张网把人们的日常生活联系起来，而由于美国人生性“不安分”，不愿久居一地，加上酷爱户外活动，上路旅行便成了美国生活的一种实现方式，同时也成为美国文化的一大隐喻。
这一隐喻对于美国有着特别的意义，因为美国毕竟是由旅行者创建的：当初，清教徒远离家国，跨越大西洋来到这片陌生的土地;后来，他们从偏居美利坚东北一隅的新英格兰逐步西进，扩展畛域，奠定今日美国之格局。
毫不夸张地说，道路在美国的建立和发展过程中建立了不朽的功勋。
此外，美国幅员辽阔、地域广袤，加上经济繁荣，汽车工业发达，美国成为举世闻名的车轮上的国家。
出于工作和生活的需要，美国人花费不少的时间“在路上”，驱车出行几乎成为他们的必需。
旅行不仅是指从出发地到目的地的跨越，而且常被视为对某种历程的经历，例如，它可以象征性地指代个人的成长，或者是对某种信仰(如宗教信仰)的追寻。
穿越全美、尤其是跨越大片未开发地区的旅行，是勇气和冒险精神的体现，这种对未知领域的探索伴随着美国向西部的扩张而被放大甚至神化。
美国文学结课毕业论文
结课论文专业英语课程名称美国文学课程起止日期2017-02-20—2017-06-16Symbolismin the Great GatsbyColor摘要象征手法是表现作品思想的一种主要的手法。
在了不起的盖茨比中，象征的意义不可忽视，尤其是作者在作品中用到的颜色的象征意义。
作者通过对颜色象征的表现，向我们揭露了他的真实意图，同时也向我们揭露了社会的真实面貌。
关键词：象征，颜色，了不起的盖茨比，美国梦AbstractSymbolism is the typical way of expressing the works’ main idea. The Great Gatsby is famous for its symbol, especially the symbol of color. The analysis of symbol of color will show that the author’s intention and what he want to reflect about the society.Key words: Symbolism, color, The Great Gatsby, American Dream.Table of ContentTitle: Symbolism inThe Great GatsbyThesis Statement: Symbols in The Great Gatsby represent Gatsby‘s d isillusions of the American Dream as well as the social moral loss.1.Introduction2. Symbolism of Colors2.1 White: Innocence and Beauty VS Evil and Horror2.2 Green: Dream and Hope2.3 Yellow: Power, Wealth and Status3.ConclusionⅠ.IntroductionThis novel of Fitzgerald is the most successful work of him. The author through the characters Gatsby and Daisy to show us the American Dream shattered. This work also was a kind of autobiography which reflected the author’s own life.Inthe novel,Gatsby‟s ideal about the society and Daisy went far beyond the real ones. We can find out that Daisy represented the embodiment of beauty, purity and nobility, and what Gatsby thinking about was being together with her is like the being at wonderland which represented all the beautiful things which actually went far beyond Daisy herself. In some way, Gatsby’sillusion had gone beyond Daisy, more seriously, he also believed that money could help him eliminate the diversity between the upper class and him and buy the past and the love of Daisy.But actually, he was wrong. Like anyone else in that period, as a reality mortal, Daisy wanted not only the life of spirit and love, but also the stability of material life and superiority and immobility of social status. Under the influence of harsh realities, Daisy became more pragmatic. She had refused to leave Tom for five years probably because she had realized some kind of truth from life. So, when Gatsby backed, she refused him, but she envy what Gatsby had which cause the novel has a tragic ending.Ⅱ. Symbolism of color2.1. Symbolism of whiteThe basic color of Daisy is white.When Daisy first came up, the author use the sentence: ‘…, as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire’. It is the main color of Daisy and also hinted us the hypocritical of the character.When Nick first met Daisy, Daisy wasin white dress lying on thecouch with Tom. When Gatsby and Nike were invited to Daisy's house, she was still wearing in white dress. When Daisy was invited to Gatsby's house she still in white and drives in a white car. The appearance of Daisy was always with the color white. The ornament with Daisy was also the color white, such as, ‘a low white-washed railroad fence, a long white cake of apartment houses….’.In regular, white means pure and holy. For Daisy it has different kind of meaning. Firstly white usually means holy and pure, Although five years passed, Daisy still is the true love for Gatsby, and he really loves her as the five years ago which he believedwhat Daisy have told him. Secondly, white means cold. For Daisy it means callous, hotheaded and stupid which caused the tragedy that finally Gatsby dead. In fact, the fiction reflect the whole society's shape that many people pursue the American dream like Gatsby who peruse the visional illusion which cause the tragedy make him devoted himself to the illusion.2.2Symbolism of greenGreen is the representative symbol of Gatsby, the author used the color green widely in the whole novel. Green represents the natural, it is the symbol of desire andhope, at the time, it also means the crushed dream.The green light have been show up in three times which is the essential symbol in the novel. When the green light first came up, the author use the describe as —he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. The green light stand for the miss to his lover—Daisy, it also stand for the belief of his American Dream. Secondly, the green light show up in the scene of Gatsby have a reunion with Daisy and Gatsby said to Daisy‘You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your do ck’. In some way, the light is dimly through the dock, it means the wish that restart with Daisy is impossible. Thirdly, the green light showed up was after the death of Gatsby.‘Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning——‘. Gatsby’s aspire to American dream is over, although he is persistent to his dream, he can’t avoid the ending of tragedy.But the author at last gave us a little bit hope that tell us no matter what happened tomorrow will be coming soon.2.3 Symbolism of yellowYellow has the same color with money. The color yellow is represented the money worship and became depraved. The shallow meaning of Daisy is a flower which have the yellow petals and the white pistil, is equal to the money worship and the empty soul.Gatsby wanted to gain back Daisy’s love, he showed his fortune anytime. From his house, car and feast, everywhere is full fill with the color yellow. Gatsby didn’t realize that in this way to gain back the heart of Daisy obeyed the regular.Ⅲ.ConclusionAs one of the greatest prose-novel writers in America in last century, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his novel, The Great Gatsby, is regarded as the core of his artistic achievement.In this novel, Fitzgerald is criticizing the American society of 1920s. It shows how this affluent society had a hollow core of pretense and emptiness and how many of the wealthy were cruel and heartless. Gatsby deadly accumulated great wealth in illegal way in order to get Daisy’s love. But he didn’t recognize people’s ugly inward – the greedy to money and mean of kindness, and finally he dead with everything lost. The plot is simple but the meaning is complex. The employment of symbolism is the most striking artistic feature, and the Symbolism that makes the novel and its author great.In this paper, the author discussed the symbols, the colors, green light and so on, more then that. The author analyzed how the F. Scott Fitzgerald used these symbols to express the symbolism meanings. For example, the color green was symbolized as hope and dream, then, the green light that stood at the dock of Daisy’s house was symbolized as Gatsby’s dream--- to win his everlove and to recall back their lost time.Just as above said, the most striking feature is color symbolism. There are lots of symbols in the novel, and it's excusable that some symbols were not mentioned.And the relationship betweenDr. T. J. Eckleburg's eyes and God is too deep and abstract for me to analyze, so it was analyzed by simple.However, from the paper we can see the point that it is the symbolism that makes the author and its work The Great Gatsby great and remarkable.。
美国文学史论文
Abstract】On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was inspired by jazz, poetry, and drug experiences. While many of the names and details of Kerouac's experiences are changed for the novel, hundreds of references in On the Road have real-world counterparts.When the book was originally released, The New York Times hailed it as "the most beautifully executed, the clearest and most important utterance" of Kerouac's generation. The novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.【Introduction】A popular legend that On the Road was written in three weeks while Kerouac lived with Joan Haverty, his second wife, at 454 West 20th Street in Manhattan, New York, is apocryphal. It took nine years for the final copy to be published.The legend of how Kerouac wrote On The Road excludes the tedious organization and preparation preceding the creative explosion. Kerouac carried small notebooks, in which much of the text was written as the eventful seven-year span of road trips unfurled. He furthermore revised the scroll's text several times before Malcolm Cowley, of Viking Press, agreed to publish it. Besides the differences in formatting, the original scroll manuscript contained real names and was longer thanthe published novel. Kerouac deleted sections (including some sexual depictions deemed pornographic in 1957) and added smaller literary passages.Viking Pressreleased a slightly edited version of the original manuscript on 16 August 2007 titled On the Road: The Original Scroll corresponding with the 50th anniversary of original publication. This version has been transcribed and edited by English academic and novelist, Dr Howard Cunnell. As well as containing material that was excised from the original draft due to its explicit nature, the scroll version also uses the real names of the protagonists, so Dean Moriarty becomes Neal Cassady and Carlo Marx becomes Allen Ginsberg etc."On the Road" is a novel that makes the reader want to go out there, seize the day, and live, live, live! Jack Kerouac, creator of the "beat generation" best sums up his philosophy as "everything belongs to me because i am poor". The failure of ideology and of the American Dream in the 1960s gave young dreamers who were eager to live just one way out: the road.Kerouac presents Sal Paradise, a young and innocent writer, and Dean Moriarty, a crazy youth "tremendously excited with life" racing around America, and testing the limits of the American Dream. Their journeys consist of scenes of rural wilderness, sleepy small towns, urban jungles, endless deserts-all linked by the road, the outlet of a generation's desire and inner need to get out, break its confinement, and find freedom, liberated from any higher belief, notion, or ideology. The desperation and the lack of fulfillment made these youths feel that "the only thing to do was go", searching for their personal freedom, and finding pleasure in sex, drugs, and jazz.It seems that the "beat generation" had one and only ideology, and that was life. As Sal Paradise says: "life is holy and every moment is precious", which explains why Dean" seemed to be doing everything at the same time". The fear of death subconsciously followed the gang around America, as expressed by their visions of a spirit following them across the desert of life.Wasn't the "beat generation" a particularly wise and enlightened one then? Isn't it true that every human being's greatest fear is that death will come too soon, before he/she has time to do what he/she had always wanted to do? Isn't it always too soon?Even though the gang feared that "death will overtake us before Heaven" they did all in their power to experience as much of Heaven as they could while still alive. They were wise enough to see that there was no point in conforming with the materialism of the American Dream: "the mad dream-grabbing, taking, giving, sighing, dying just so they could be buried in those awful cemetery cities beyond Long Island City".It is for this reason that Kerouac presents the "beat generation" as a "holy" generation: because it was liberated from the peril of ambition, materialism andideology, and was in a constant search for some greater truth that life would teach them. Ed Dunkel, the tall, silent, lost boy is described as "an angel of a man". Dean Moriarty, the personification of the road was a "holy con-man" with a "holy lightning" gaze. By the end of the novel, Dean achieves so high a level of saintliness that "he couldn't talk any more"."On the Road" is a novel of experience; it tells tales of madness played out by all kinds of strange characters, in settings as diverse as a Virginia small-town diner, a New York jazz-joint, and a Mexican whore-house. What connects these adventures is the characters' refusal to miss out on life,and their determination to get the most out of now.。
美国文学史论文
美国文学史课程论文A Brief Summary of the Historyof American Literature From Romanticism to Postmodernism姓名：叶红立学号：2011212831班级：2011级3班分数：2013年12月21日IntroductionAmerican is a multi-national country because of its history. Just like a big container, it puts in various kinds of elements. When different cultures mixed together, that can not only be co-existed but also form a sharp contrast, which makes American literature has a flavor of distinct and various aesthetic feeling.The history of America literature began with the swarming in of immigrants with different background and cultures. After that, American literature had been greatly influenced by the European culture for a long period. It was not until America’s independence, did Americans realize that they need national literature strongly, and American literature began to develop. Romantics emphasized individualism and intuition. This was an exciting period in the history of American literature. Like the flowers of spring, there were suddenly many different kinds of writing at the same time. The Civil War was a watershed in the history, after which American literature entered a period of full blooming. Influenced by the Civil War, the American society was in a turbulent situation. The writings about local life, critical realism, unveiling the dark side of the society and yearning for nature were increased. After the First World War, Americans were at a loss postwar, and the Modern American literature and Postmodern American literature began.This passage will have a further discussion on this period by dividing them into several parts: Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism and Post-modernism.1.Romanticism PeriodRomanticism is a movement of the 18th and 19th centuries that marked the reaction in literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics against the neoclassicism and formal orthodoxy of the preceding period. And the American Romantic period stretched from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War.Romantic Period is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature. When Americans were constructing their country, they also began to realize their differences from their European counterparts. They began to hope to see an entirely different literature model which expressed American cultures. Great writers of that period captured on their pages the enthusiasm and the optimism of that dream.There were plenty of good historical reasons why literature was so prominent during that period. Politically the time was ripe. After the 1812 war against England, the United States was finally free. Economically America had never been wealthier, but the Industrial Revolution and the nation’s change in status from a small, agricultural country to a major commercial and industrial power led to a massive impulse towards rapid urbanization. Culturally American own value emerged. There were American publishers and copyright laws to protect the writers from having their works printed. And also there were readers eager to expand their minds.American Romanticism shares many characteristics with British Romanticism. It was greatly inspired by Wordsworth’s poetic encounter with nature in The Prelude. However, developing as it did, Romanticism in America exhibited features of its own. It was mainly in the American romantic writers’ works. For examp1e, the American national experience of "pioneering into the west" proved to be a rich source of material for American writers to draw upon. They celebrated America's landscape with its virgin forests, meadows, groves, endless prairies, streams, and vast oceans. The wilderness came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral 1aw. The desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature. Such a desire is particularly evident in Cooper’s Leather Stocking Tales, in Thoreau's Walden and, later, in Mark Twain’s Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn. With the growth of American national consciousness, American character types speaking local dialects appeared in poetry and fiction with increasing frequency. Then the American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values and American Romanticism. One of the performances is the fact that American romantic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts. Here are going to introduce two representative writers and their works:Washington Irving(1783-1859) was the first American storyteller to be internationally recognized as a man of letters and the first great prose stylist of American romanticism, and his familiar style was destined to provide a model for the prevailing prose narrative of the future. His first book A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (1809), written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker, was a great success and won him wide popularity. He is best known for his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon,Gent (1819-1820), especially in which two short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow have become American classics. Later he wrote works of history and biographies, such as The History of Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828), A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada and The Alhambra(1832). After that, he spent the rest of his life living a life of leisure and comfort, and writing The Life of Goldsmith (1840) and a five-volume Life of Washington (1855-1859). He died in 1859.James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851) is respectfully remembered as a master of adventurous narrative and as the creator of an American hero-myth. According to a charming legend, Cooper’s first novel Precaution(1820) was a response to his wife’s challenge to improve on the current British society fiction, and the failure of this work turned him to historical novels. Later, The Spy, a tale of the Revolution he wrote, became a great success in America and Europe. In 1823, Cooper published The Pioneers (1823), which together with other 4 novels The Deer slayer (1841), The Last of the Mohicans(1826), The Pathfinder(1840) and The Prairie(1827) became his well-known Leather-stocking Tales. Cooper went on to write over thirty novels,including exciting adventures of the sea like The Pilot. Cooper created the American historical novel using authentic American subject.2.Realism PeriodAs the economy developed, the nation witnessed an incredible expansion, among which the most influential one was westward expansion. The conquest of the new territories opened new horizons, but the country was also torn by the risk of internal division, which led to American Civil War.By the end of the Civil War a new nation had been born, and it was to demand and receive a new literature less idealistic and more practical, less exalted and more earthy, less consciously artistic and more honest than produced in the age when the American dream had glowed with greatest intensity and American writers had created a great literary period by capturing on their pages the enthusiasm and the optimism of that dream. Gradually, the Romanticism era in the United States was surpassed by another entirely different age.At about 1900s, American literature came to another entirely different age—the age of Realism. Realists searched for the social and human nature more directly. In part, Realism was a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away. It has been mainly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes.American realism was the outcome of the Civil War from all the aspects of politics, economy and culture. Politically the Civil War affected both the social and the value system of the country. America had transformed itself into an industrialized and commercialized society. The war also brought some obvious changes to the American economy. It had stimulated the technological development, and new methods of organization and management were tested to adapt to industrial modernization on a large scale. As far as the culture was concerned, the harsh realities of life as well as the disillusion of heroism resulting from the dark memories of the Civil War had set the nation against the romance.As a new literature, Realism emerged for an age. Under the influence of the Civil War and industrialization, Realism surely formed its own features. Realism aims at the description of the actualities of the life and free from subjective prejudice,idealism or romantic color. The writings are about local life, critical realism and unveiling the dark side of the society, and focuses on commonness of the common people, settings and events. Mark Twain is one of the representatives.Mark Twain (1835-1910) was the true father of American literature. He was an American humorist, lecturer, essayist, and author. His primary works are The Innocents Abroad, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. He intentionally deviates from classical genteel and tends to use local dialects, colloquial language, even Black English, slang, clipped structures and ungrammatical sentences. He was a combination of realism with romanticism. His works combine American folk humor and serious literature, characterize a local culture, elements such as speech, customs, and more peculiar to one particular place. The physical settings, and people’s behavior and thoughts are different from the other places.There are many other great writers in this period, such as William Dean Howells, Henry James, O. Henry, and so on. They have made great contribution to the world’s literature.3.Naturalism PeriodAfter the Civil War, it seemed that overnight the rapid industrialization of American society changed an agrarian nation into an industrial giant. As the westward expansion continued to push the frontier nearer the Pacific coast, the settlers found themselves subject to the ruthless manipulation of forces including the railroad, as can been seen in Frank Norris’wheat novels. The rapid social changes caused by industrialization brought serious social problems. While the captains of industry piled up huge personal fortunes, the ordinary man became the victim of industrialization. The harsh reality of the industrialization period changed man’s understanding about himself and the world in which he lived in. Living in a cold, indifferent, and essentially godless world, man was completely thrown upon himself for survival. During this special period, the literary naturalism was transplanted from France to the United States and became a very important literary movement in America.Naturalism was a literary movement of the late 19th century that yielded influence on the twentieth. It was an extension of Realism, a reaction against the restrictions inherent in the realistic emphasis on the ordinary, as naturalists insisted that the extraordinary is real, too.Naturalism, with its new techniques and new ways of writing, appealed to the imagination of the younger generation like 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 an overwhelming accumulation of factual detail. They painted life as it was lived in the slums, and were accused of telling just the hideous side of it. In naturalistic literature, man is always subject to the law of nature, which may not only be indifferent but also hostile. Therefore, gloom and despair characterize American literature of this period.American literary naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme economic classes who were determined by theirenvironment and heredity. In presenting the extremes of life, the naturalists sometimes displayed an affinity to the sensationalism of early romanticism, but unlike their romantic predecessors, the naturalism emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death. The pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervaded the works of such American writers as Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London and Theodore Dreiser.Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is the first American naturalism work. Norris’s McTeague is the manifesto of American naturalism. Dreiser’s Sister Carrie is the work in which naturalism attained maturity. These writers’ detailed description of the lives of the downtrodden and the abnormal, their frank treatment of human passion and sexuality, and their portrayal of men and women overwhelmed by blind forces of nature still exert a powerful influence on modern writers.Without satisfying people’s needs and refl ecting social conditions, Naturalism the same as Realism no longer stood on the historical stage. Although naturalist literature described the world with sometimes brutal realism, it sometimes also aimed at bettering the world through social reform. This combination of grim reality and desire for improvements is typical of America as it moved into the twentieth century, and paved the way to modernism.4.Modernism PeriodIn the year of 1914, the World War I broke out. World War I produced great misfortune to all human beings, but brought big fortune to Americans. Since the war was not fought on the American soil, by the second decade of the 20th century, the United States had become the most powerful industrialized nation in the world, outstripping Britain and Germany in terms of industrial production. After the war there was an economic boom and a deceptive affluence. American entered the era of big industry and big technology, a mechanized age that deprived individuals of their sense of identity. Along with the changes in the material landscape came the changes in the non-material system of belief and behavior. The war destroyed not only the lives of many promising young men, but also the early innocent beliefs of a whole generation, casting them into an age of disorientation, alienation and dissent. At the beginning of the 1930s, the economic crisis in America left a mark in the literary creations of this period. In addition, in Europe, there had been a big flush of new theories and new ideas in both social and natural sciences, as well as in the field of art which played an indispensable role in the conversion of American ideologies. The era of 1914 to 1945, marked by tremendous social upheaval and economic and political transformation, gave gave rise to modernism.Modernism originated at the end of the 19th century. It was a complex and diverse international movement in all creative arts: painting, novel, poem and play. It spread worldwide, particularly in the years following World War I. Towards the 1920s, these trends converged into a mighty torrent of modernist movement, which swept across the whole Europe and America. Modernist literature in America reached its peak in the 1920s up to the 1940s when this period ended.Literature of this period struggled to understand the new and diverse responses to the advent of modernity. Some writers celebrated the changes; others lamented the loss of old ways of being. Some imagined future utopias; others searched for new forms to speak of the new realities.The most recognizable "modernist" figures i n fiction are “the Lost Generation.”They were permanent expatriates living in Europe such as Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. The Lost Generation writers all gained prominence in 20th century literature. Their innovations challenged assumptions about writing and expression, and paved the way for subsequent generations of writers. Ernest Hemingway once took part in the First Would War, so many of his works deal with war or injury, and nearly all of them examined the nature of courage. By suffering from the violent of war, he felt that he was cut off from all his old beliefs and assumptions about life. He thought “The War had broken America`s culture and traditions, and separated it from its toots”. The works he wrote—The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea—inferred the state of mind, and they became the representatives of the feeling of this generation.Along with the greatest figures in “the Lost Generation” are famous poets such as Ezra Pound, Thomas Stearns Eliot, William Carlos Williams, and Robert Frost. African Americans also made significant contributions to the American modernist movement. Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot and E. E. Cummings are three poets who opened the way to modern poetry. Ezra Pound started the “Imagist” movement, and his The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock has been called the first masterpiece of modernism. The Waste Land of T. S. Eliot particularly comments on the inhumanity and decadence of large modern cities.5.Postmodernism PeriodThe period after World War II has witnessed great changes of the United Stated of America in many aspects. The war, on the one hand, provided the base for the country to grow into a dominating superpower both in the western world and in international affairs on the global scale; on the other hand, it brought about tension and crisis within the country. Because the politics of America were influenced by two great fears. First, there was the fear of the Bomb; many Americans were sure there would be a war with the Soviet Union using atomic bombs. Also, in the late forties and early fifties, fear of Communism became a national sickness. Against such background emerges and develops the postmodernism in the 1970s.Postmodernism is regarded as a term encompassing all the new critical theories since the late 1960s. It is, accordingly, more reflective about what is subject, truth, metaphor, and human. Postmodernism is a literary experimentation focused mostly on fiction in the United States from the mid-1960s till about 1975. It became aligned with Post-structuralism and deconstruction between 1975 and 1985. Postmodernism became a general term for the cultural logic in post-industrialist society or the late stage of capitalism that is service-oriented and information-oriented.Post-modernism seems to grow or emerge from Modernism. Post-modernism involves not only a continuation, sometimes carried to an extreme, of the counter traditional experiments of modernism, but also diverse attempts to break away from modernist forms which had, inevitably, become in their turn conventional, as well as to overthrow the elitism of modernist “high art” by recourse to the models of “mass art”. In this regard, Postmodernism is a movement against Modernism.Postmodernism as a new development of literature was believed to be nothing, this group of postmodernists created some new rules for the game. For them, existentialist angst should not be what defines literature; instead literary imagination shows a virtual geography.The term of Post-modernism is in fact not an inclusive description of all literature since the 1950s or 1960s, but is applied selectively to those works in widereference to fiction. Firstly, war novels become an important genre after World War II, represented by Norman Mailer. Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead has been held as the masterpiece of its category. James Jones’ best novel From Here to Eternity is a powerful story of army life in Hawaii just before the attack on the Pearl Harbour. Secondly, metafiction as Chris Baldick puts it, is “more especially a kind of fiction that openly comments on its own fictional status.” A notable modern example i s John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Barth’s The Floating Opera, Barthelme’s Snow White, etc.EpilogueRomantic period stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. Then the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism and Naturalism came into existence, which were against the lie of romanticism. The period between World War I and World War II is referred to as the era of Modernism. During that period, a large number of artists and literary movements are totally different from those of the 19th-century’s in style, form and content. Since 1945, the United States of America experienced some successive social, political and racial upheavals. Against such background emerged and developed the postmodernism.American literature has gone though the progress of development over 200 years. It is characterized by the distinct individualism, which is optimistic, free and always creative. The living American literature has been providing potent thinking headsprings for the writers past and nowadays, and it will continue reanimating the talents to bequeath and enrich the tradition of American literature, of which deserved to be proud.Bibliography1.Malcolm Bradbury, Richard Ruland, Published in Penguin Books 1992, AmericanLiterature From Puritanism to Postmodernism2.李权文，王卓，华中师范大学出版社2010年8月第一版，《美国文学史》3.王守仁，《<新编美国文学史>简介》。
美国文学毕业论文
美国文学毕业论文美国文学记录了美国人民不断探索、向西拓展、追求幸福的历程,艺术地再现了美国200多年的发展历史,并在不同时期以不同的表现形式表现出来。
下文是店铺为大家搜集整理的关于美国文学毕业论文的内容，欢迎大家阅读参考!美国文学毕业论文篇1浅析美国文学中的美国梦摘要：美国梦是美国文学中贯穿始终的主题。
不同历史时期美国文学中的美国梦有着不同的表现，如殖民时期的开拓致富梦、建国后的自由民主梦、内战后的扩张发迷梦，而到一战后传统美国梦开始出现迷茫与失落、二战后则走向了绝望与反叛。
关键词：美国文学;美国梦;本质;资产阶级美国文学从诞生到现在虽然只有200多年的历史，却产生了一大批对世界文学有着巨大影响的作品，在这些作品当中美国梦是一个贯穿始终的主题。
美国梦是目前国内人文社会学科的一个研究热点。
本文试图从论述美国文学中美国梦的演变过程人手，研究其变化的原因及在文学中的表现，进而揭示其本质。
一、美国梦产生的历史背景美国梦的产生有其特定的历史背景。
自从哥伦布发现新大陆之后，欧洲人就梦想着到这块土地上去掠夺财富，开拓疆域。
英国清教徒更梦想着到这里来建立起新的耶路撒冷—上帝在人间的王国。
而当时的士著印第安人尚未建立国家，整个“新大陆”都是“无主土地”，无边无际、任人开垦和占有的无限土地带来了无限的机会，许多在旧世界中不可想象的事情在这里发生了。
如果说得天独厚的自然条件是美国梦形成的基础，那么《独立宣言》的发表便使美国梦有了思想依据。
《独立宣言》不仅宣布了人“生而平等”，还将追求幸福规定为不可剥夺的天赋人权。
在欧洲旧大陆的封建等级制度下，灰姑娘只是童话里的人物，而在美国，白手起家“从破衣烂衫到腰缠万贯”的大亨则比比皆是。
在一个尚未定型的国度中，尚未定型的年代里，只要抓住机会，梦想就会实理。
于是，在美国文学中，美国梦也就成了一个贯穿始终的主题。
二、不同历史时期的美国梦一部文学史也可以说是一部美国梦的历史，有着200多年历史的美国文学记录了不同时期美国人的梦想。
美国文学论文美国历史论文
从传统文化视角看美国自然主义文学内涵◎ 周 进〔作者简介〕周进，上海商学院副教授，上海 200000。
文学作品的内容与文化的关系无须赘言，“人类原始文化时期，有文学神话内容，以幻想的方式解释人与自然的关系；工业文明时期有工业文明的文学内容，文学的‘时代性’、‘民族性’，实际上是文学的‘文化性’的代码用语。
同是古代诗歌，为何古希腊和印度是鸿篇巨制，而希伯莱和中国却是短章小曲？所有这些都可以在文化中找到根源”〔1〕。
纵观中华文化的发展轨迹不难看出，中国文化与美国自然主义之间存在着诸交点，两者均讲求“己”与“物”的相互依存关系（“己”就是自己，也就是主体，“物”就是外物，也就是自然和社会客体），两者均推崇宿命、遗传、环境的主导作用。
所不同的是，中国文化更多融入和谐积极的元素，强调“天人合一”；而美国自然主义则更多着眼于命运的不可掌控性，渲染人类来自大自然的偶然，也必将灭亡于大自然的偶然的悲观思想，带有更多的宿命色彩。
在以往有关中华传统文化和美国自然主义的学术讨论中，其研究主体往往是单向的、割裂的，关注点更【摘 要】 文学作为文化系统中的子系统，其系统功能、特征均受到文化的影响和制约。
纵观中国文化的发展轨迹不难看出，中国文化与美国自然主义文学之间存在着诸多交点，两者均讲求“己”与“物”的相互依存关系，均推崇宿命论、遗传决定论和环境造人的理念。
在以往有关中华传统文化和美国自然主义的学术讨论中，其研究主体往往是单向的、割裂的，关注点更多集中在文学所折射出的文化之“异”，而非文化之“同”。
本文则力图去“异”存“同”，对美国自然主义文学创作的反思有助于我们消除文化隔阂，全方位地解读中华传统文化的纵深性和多元特征。
【关键词】 近朱者赤；罪感文化；人性论；环境决定论；宿命论；遗传论【中图分类号】 I0-03 【文献标识码】 A 【文章编号】1008-0139（2010）04－0126－4多集中在文学所折射出的文化之“异”，而非文化之“同”，本文则力图从中华传统文化的多维视角比对美国自然主义的文学创作，去“异”存“同”，拓宽文化和文学之间的“边界”，消除文化间的排斥和对抗。
高中英语教学论文美国文学总结归纳
高中英语教学论文美国文学总结归纳The first lecture1.A general look at the American literaturePhases of the history of American literature:1) Colonial America ---- the 17th century from the settlement of North America in the early seventeenth century through the end of it.2) Reason and revolution ---- the 18th century3) Romanticism ---- the first half of the nineteenth century, till the Civil War (1861-1865)4) Realism ---- from the civil war till the early period of 19th century (1861—1918)5) Modernism ---- from 1918-19456) Contemporary literature ---- starting with 19452.Historical introduction of the literature of Colonial America1) Indians were migrants form eastern Siberia and might belong to the Mongoloid peoples. They traveled into the New World more than 20,000 years ago.2) About A.D. 1000, Norsemen from northern Europe happened on American, but their contact did not exert a tremendous influence in the world at that time. In 1492, the date of the discovery of America, Columbus sailed here.3) The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in May 14, 1607.4) In 1620, Mayflower with 102 passengers sailed to Massachusetts. They were the first group of puritans5) A large number of the settlers themselves left home in the first years of the 17th century in earnest quest of an ideal of their own. It is true that they wished to escape religious persecution ---- and the English government regarded its American colony as an ideal dumping ground for the undesirables, but they were also determined to find a place where they could worship in the way they thought true Christians should. When they arrived and saw the virgin forests, the virgin land, and the vast expanse of wilderness that stretched miles around before them, they became aware that God must have sent them there for a definite purpose to reestablish a commonwealth based on the teachings of the Bible, restore the lost paradise, and build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden.3.Puritan thoughts1) American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature It has become so much a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the Americans breathe, that, without some understanding of Puritanism, there can be no real understanding of American culture and literature.2) They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God.3) The Puritans dreamed of living under a perfect order and worked with courage and confident hope toward building a new Garden of Eden in America, where man could at long last live the way he should.Fired with such a sense of mission, the Puritans looked even the worst of life in the face with a tremendous amount of optimism. And this went to the making of American literature.4. The first American writer -- John Smith (1580-1631)1) LifeHe was England adventurer and one of the chief founders ofthe first permanent settlement in North America, the colony of Jamestown.In 1604, he came to know a group of people who were ready to go to northern America to establish colonies there after returning to England from Russia. They landed on May 14, 1607, and soon he became the leader of the newly-established colony, and one year later he became the governor.He was once captured by Indians, whose chief was Powhatan (波瓦坦), but was rescued by the famous Indian princess, Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief. And this story becomes a legend.2) WritingsA True Relation of Such Occurances and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony( in 1608) (《殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亚开拓以来发生的各种事件的真实介绍》A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country( in 1612) (《弗吉尼亚地图: 一个乡村的描述》)General History of Virginia(1624) (《弗吉尼亚通史》)His writings about America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers. And his narratives reveal the early settlers’ vision of the new land as something capable of being built into a new Garden of Eden.The second lecture1. Reason and RevolutionHistorical IntroductionPeople are industrious, natural resources are rich and economy developed. Fast developing economy will influence politics. Economy asked for political rights.English ruling class made huge profits out of American colonies. Laboring people suffered. Even the merchants and manufacturers did suffer because buying and selling were monopolized. South slave-owners were dissatisfied with the British as the price of tobacco and cotton they produced was fixed.1764, Sugar Act. 1765, Stamp Act. T o levy tax on everything.Clashes were unavoidable. In April, 1775, some British troops were sent to Lexington and Concord, small towns 30 miles from Boston, to disarm the militiamen. The first shot.In 1783, colonies won independence.In 1787, the Constitution passed.2. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)1) LifeBorn in 1760 into a poor candle-maker’s family –―poor and obscure‖. He had little education but he was a voracious reader.When still very young, he apprenticed to his older half-brother, a printer, and began at 16, to publish essays under the pseudonym, Silence Dogood.At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune and set himself up as an independent printer and publisher.As a scientist. His many inventions, besides the lightning rod, included the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, a miniature printing press and even a strange musical instrument called ―armonica.‖ He contributed to the theories of electricity and first applied the terms ―positive‖ and ―negative‖ to electrical charges.As a statesman. He was the only American to sigh the four documents that created the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the treaty of peace with England, and the constitution.2) Bourgeois EnlightenmentThe spiritual life in the colonies during this period was to a great degree molded by the bourgeois Enlightenment –a movement supported by all progressive forces of the country which opposed themselves to the old colonial order and religious obscurantism. The representatives of the Enlightenment set themselves the task of disseminating knowledge among the people and advocating revolutionary ideas.American Enlightenment dealt a decisive blow upon the puritan traditions and brought to life secular education and literature. The writers of the Enlightenment injected an invigorating vein into the English language in Americans as they aimed at clarity and precision of their writings.3) WritingsPoor Richard’s Almanac (《格言历书》《穷理查德的警句》) The Autobiography (《自传》)4)Poor Richard’s AlmanacHe kept writing it for almost a quarter of a century. Apart from poems and essays, he managed to put in a good many axioms and commonsense witticisms which became, very quickly, household words and mottoes of the most practical kind.―Lost time is never found again.‖―A penny saved is a penny earned.‖―God help them that help themselves.‖―Early to bed, and earl y to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.‖Those and many other similar statements filled the almanac, and taught as much as amused.5) The Autobiography of Benjamin FranklinA fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame froma state of poverty into which he was born, a faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man.A Puritan document. It is Puritan because it is a record of self-examination and self-improvement, and a convincing illustration of the Puritan ethic that, in order to get on in the world one has to be industrious, frugal, and prudent. Franklin told himself and his fellowmen that for that century moderation and temperance were among the best virtues of man.It is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was a spokesman for the new order of eighteenth-century enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free by nature endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.The third lectureThe Literature of Romanticism1. Historical introduction1) Political reviewGeorge WashingtonThomas Jefferson (1800-1808)During the two administrations of Jefferson, the relations between U. S. and Britain were becoming worse.The British were not reconciled to the loss of their thirteen colonies. Jefferson had to take some actions, but he had to try to avoid war as he knew the U.S. was ill-prepared.MadisonIn1812, Madison asked Congress to declare war on Britain, and the war broke out. The war lasted for three years and ended in another American victory over the British.This war has one important result –the strengthening ofnational unity and patriotism. And it was only after this that the United States was able to effect the change of a semi-colonial economy into a really independent national economy.James Monroe (1816-1824)In 1823, President Monroe announced his foreign policy which has come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. The main idea of the doctrine was that European nations should not establish new colonies in the Western Hemisphere; European nations should not intervene in the affairs of independent nations of the New World; and the United States would not interfere in the affairs of European nations.2)Territorial expansionIn 1780s, the American government passed some laws to encourage people to move to the frontier region between the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers.May 2, 1803, the acquisition of Louisiana (New Orleans)1845, annexed Texas1846, the Oregon territory settlement between Britain and the U.S.1846, war on Mexico. The states of California, New Mexico and Arizona became part of the United States.3) Economic changesIn the south, slavery was the foundation of the economic system. After 1812, cotton played a critical role in the developing market economy of the entire nation. Consequently, slaves, who worked in the cotton field, became rooted in the South.In the North, commerce and industry were the main character for its economy. Some northerner expected to get the blacks from the south.4) The Civil WarFebruary 4, 1861, representatives from the seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama. And they organized the Confederate States of America. Also a constitution was passed.On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office.In April 1861, the Confederates took Fort Sumter in the South Carolina and the Civil War began. The War lasted for 4 years from 1861 to 1865.The outcome of the war placed the northern capitalists in solid control of the federal government. It swept away the last obstacle to the development of U.S. capitalism.5) In this period we see a rising America fast burgeoning intoa political, economic, and culturalindependence it had never known before.2. Romanticism: Romantics share certain general characteristic: moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man’s societiesa source of corruption.3. Characteristics of American romanticism1) Foreign influences added incentive to the growth of romanticism in America. The Romantic Movement, which had flourished earlier in the century both in England and Europe, proved to be a decisive influence without which the upsurge of American romanticism would hardly have been possible. Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Byron, Robert Burns and many other English and European masters of poetry and prose all made a stimulating impact on the different departmen ts of the country’s literature.2) Although foreign influences were strong, American Romanticism exhibited from the very outset distinct features ofits own. It was different from its English and European counterpart because it originated from factors that were altogether American rather than anything else. American romanticism wa s in essence the expression of ―a real new experience‖ and contained ―an alien quality‖ for the simple reason that ―the spirit of the place‖ was radically new and alien.3) Then there is American Puritanism as cultural heritage to consider. American moral values were essentially Puritan. Public opinion was overwhelmingly Puritan; the Puritan atmosphere of the nation predominantly conditioned social life and cultural taste. Puritan influence over American Romanticism was conspicuously noticeable. American romantic authors tended more to moralize than their English and European brother. Many American writings intended to edify more than they entertained. Sex and love, for instance, were subjects American authors were particularly careful in approaching.The fourth lectureWashington Irving (1783-1859)1. LifeGently born and well-educated, the youngest of eleven children of a prosperous New York merchant, he began a genteel reading for the law at sixteen, but preferred a literary Bohemianism. At nineteen he published in his brother’s newspaper his ―Jonathan Oldstyle, a satire of New York life". By the age of twenty-three, when he was admitted to the New York bar, he had roamed the Hudson valley and been a literary vagabond in England, Holland, France, and Italy, reading and studying what pleased him.From 1826 to 1829 he was in Spain on diplomatic business. And he served as secretary of the American legation in Londonfrom 1829 to 1831. In 1832 he was on the way back to United States. In 1836, he made his home at Sunnyside, near Tarrytown. From 1842 to 1845 he served as minister to Spain, then settled at Sunnyside. He died in 1859.2. Two important phases of his writing career1) From the first book in 1809 to 1832.The first period was predominantly ―English,‖ in which he was drawn to the ruins and relics of Europe and writing, most of the time, about subjects either English or European. He seemed to be endowed with a love for the antique that amounted to an obsession. He found value in the past and in the tradition of the Old World. America, being young, didn’t have what Europe had to offer for a man of imagination.A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (1809) (《纽约外史》)Sketch Book (1819-1820) (《见闻札记》)Bracebridge Hall (1820) (《布雷斯布里奇田庄》)Tales of a Traveler (1824) (《旅行者的故事》)Charles the Second, or The Merry Monarch (《查尔斯二世》, 或《快乐君主》)A History of the Life and Voyage of Christopher Columbus (1828) (《哥伦布生平及航海史》)A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (1829) (《格林纳达征服史》)Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus (1831) (《哥伦布同伴的生平及航海》) Alhambra (1832) (《阿尔罕伯拉》)2) Stretching over the remaining years of his life from 1832-1859.Back in America, Irving found a whole new spirit ofnationalism in American feeling and art and letters and awoke to the fact that there was beauty in America.A Tour on the Prairies (1835) (《草原游记》)Astoria (1836) (《阿斯托里亚》)The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (1837) (《伯纳维尔船长历险记》)Life of Oliver Goldsmith (1840) (《奥利弗·戈尔德史密斯传》) Life of George Washington (published 1855-1859) (《华盛顿传》)3. Features of his writing1) Irving avoids moralizing as much as possible; he wrote to amuse and entertain.2) He is good at enveloping his stories in an atmosphere, the richness of which is often more than compensation for the slimness of plot.3) The finished and musical language has been the critical attention for a long time.4. Irving’s contribution to American literature is unique in more ways than one.He was first great belletrist, writing always for pleasure, and to produce pleasure. In The Sketch Book appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature.He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. Americans took this as a sign that American literature was emerging as an independent entity.To say that he was father of American literature is not much exaggeration. The short story genre in American literature p robably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book.5. Rip Van WinkleRip Van Winkle, ―one of those happy mortals, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment.‖The story reveals, to some extent, the conservative attitude of its author. Rip goes to sleep before the War of Independence and wakes up after it. The change that has occurred in the twenty years he slept is to him not always for the better. The story might be taken as an illustration of Irving’s argument that change –revolution –upset the natural order of things, and of the fact that Irving never seemed to accept a modern democratic America.6. The Legend of Sleep HollowIchabod Crane, a memorable character with the mixture of shrewdness, credulity, self-assertiveness, and cowardice.Brom Bones, his rival in love, a Huck Fine –type of country bumpkin, rough, vigorous, boisterous but inwardly very good, a frontier type put out there to shift for himself, headless horseman throwing his head at his rival in love.KatrinaThe fifth lectureEdgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)1. LifePoe's parents, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins, were touring actors; both died before he was 3 years old, and he was taken into the home of John Allan, a prosperous merchant in Richmond, Va., and baptized Edgar Allan Poe. The remaining children were cared for by others. Poe's brother William died young and sister Rosalie become later insane. At the age of five Poe could recite passages of English poetry. Later one of histeachers in Richmond said: "While the other boys wrote mere mechanical verses, Poe wrote genuine poetry; the boy was a born poet." His childhood was uneventful, although he studied (1815-20) for 5 years in England. In 1826 he entered the University of Virginia but stayed for only a year. Although a good student, he ran up large gambling debts that Allan refused to pay. Allan prevented his return to the university and broke off Poe's engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster, his Richmond sweetheart. Lacking any means of support, Poe enlisted in the army. He had, however, already written and printed (at his own expense) his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), verses written in the manner of Byron.Temporarily reconciled, Allan secured Poe's release from the army and his appointment to West Point but refused to provide financial support. After 6 months Poe apparently contrived to be dismissed from West Point for disobedience of orders. His fellow cadets, however, contributed the funds for the publication of Poems by Edgar A. Poe ... Second Edition (1831), actually a third edition. This volume contained the famous To Helen and Israfel, poems that show the restraint and thecalculated musical effects of language that were to characterize his poetry.Poe next took up residence in Baltimore with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, and turned to fiction as a way to support himself. In 1832 the Philadelphia Saturday Courier published five of his stories -- all comic or satiric -- and in 1833, MS. Found in a Bottle won a $50 prize given by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor.Poe, his aunt, and Virginia moved to Richmond in 1835, and he became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger and in1836, he married Virginia.Poe published fiction, notably his most horrifying tale, Berenice in the Messenger, but most of his contributions were serious, analytical, and critical reviews that earned him respect as a critic. His contributions undoubtedly increased the magazine's circulation, but they offended its owner, who also took exception to Poe's drinking. The January 1837 issue of the Messenger announced Poe's withdrawal as editor but also included the first installment of his long prose tale, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, five of his reviews, and two of his poems. This was to be the paradoxical pattern for Poe's career: success as an artist and editor but failure to satisfy his employers and to secure a livelihood.First in New York City (1837), then in Philadelphia (1838-44), and again in New York (1844-49), Poe sought to establish himself as a force in literary journalism, but with only moderate success.In 1842, Virginia bust a blood vessel and remained a virtual invalid until her death from tuberculosis five years later. After the death of his wife, Poe began to lose his struggle with drinking and drugs. He had several romances, including an affair with the poet Sarah Helen Whitman, who said: "His proud reserve, his profound melancholy, his unworldliness - may we not say his unearthliness of nature - made his character one very difficult of comprehension to the casual observer." Though Virginia's death, Poe continued to write and lecture. In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured, and was accepted anew by the fiancee he had lost in 1826. After his return north he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street. In a brief obituary the Baltimore Clipper reported that Poe had died of "congestion of the brain."2. WritingsA dozen poems and seventy short stories.Poe’s literary output is small, but it is immensely interesting and influential as a literary inheritance. Tamerlane and Other Poems(1827) (《帖木尔》)Poems by Edgar A. Poe ... Second Edition(1831)Ms. Found in a bottle (in 1833) (《瓶中的房德小姐》)The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (in 1838)Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque (in 1839) (《怪诞奇异故事集》)The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) (which is sometimes considered the first detective story.)3. Unfavorable criticism on PoeFor a long time after Poe’s death Poe remained probably the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature.As a critic Poe was perceptive, but the fact that he wrote some scathing criticisms on the works of such distinguished New England literary celebrities as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow incurred the wrath of quite a few of his contemporaries .And his executor, Rufus Griswold, spared no pains, after his death, to sully his reputation. He painted him as a Bohemian, depraved, and demonic, a villain with no virtue at all.Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable.Henry James made the ruthless statement that ―an enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive state of development.‖And Whitman, who was the only famous literary figure present at the Poe Memorial Ceremony in Baltimore in 1875, had mixed feelings about him: he did admit Poe’s genius, but itwas ―its narrow range and unhealthy, lurid quality‖ that most impressed him.4.Poe’s poemsHis poetic theories are remarkable in their clarity.The poems, he says, should be short, readable at one sitting. Its chief aim is beauty, namely, to produce a feeling of beauty in the reader.The RavenIn this poem, one of the most famous American poems ever, Poe uses several symbols to take the poem to a higher level.The most obvious symbol is, of course, the raven itself. When Poe had decided to use a refrainthat repeated the word "nevermore," he found that it would be most effective if he used a non-reasoning creature to utter the word. It would make little sense to use a human, since the human could reason to answer the questions. In "The Raven" it is important that the answers to the questions are already known, to illustrate the self-torture to which the narrator exposes himself. This way of interpreting signs that do not bear a real meaning, is "one of the most profound impulses of human nature." Poe also considered a parrot as the bird instead of the raven; however, because of the melancholy tone, and the symbolism of ravens as birds of ill-omen, he found the raven more suitable for the mood in the poem.Another obvious symbol is the bust of Pallas. Why did the raven decide to perch on the goddess of wisdom? One reason could be, because it would lead the narrator to believe that the raven spoke from wisdom, and was not just repeating its only "stock and store," and to signify the scholarship of the narrator. Another reason for using "Pallas" in the poem was, according toPoe himself, simply because of the "sonorousness of the word, Pallas, itself."A less obvious symbol, might be the use of "midnight" in the first verse, and "December" in the second verse. Both midnight and December symbolize an end of something, and also the anticipation of something new, a change, to happen. The midnight in December might very well be New Year’s eve, a date most of us connect with change. This also seems that the last night of the year had arrived. Kenneth Silverman connected the use of December with the death of Edgar’s mother, who died in that month; whether this is true or not is, however, not significant to its meaning in the poem.The chamber, in which the narrator is positioned, is used to signify the loneliness of the man, and the sorrow he feels for the loss of Lenore. The room is richly furnished, and reminds the narrator of his lost love, which helps to create an effect of beauty in the poem. The tempest outside is used to even more signify the isolation of this man, to show a sharp contrast between the calmness in the chamber and the tempestuous night.The phrase "from out my heart," Poe claims, is used, in combination with the answer "Nevermore," to let the narrator realize that he should not try to seek a moral in what has been previously narrated.To Helen5.Poe’s short storiesIn his theory of novel, he says novel should take stress to reveal people's inside world, especially the morbid or dark side of human nature that has been often ignored.The Fall of the House of UsherRoderick Usher, the brotherThe sister, MadelineRoderick’s school friend, the narratorThe narrator is a boyhood friend of Roderick Usher. He has not seen Roderick since they were children; however, because of an urgent letter that he receives from Roderick which requested his aid, the nameless narrator decides to make the long journey.Roderick and Madeline Usher are the sole, remaining members of the long, time-honored Usher race. When Madeline supposedly "dies" and is placed in her coffin, the narrator notices "a striking similitude between brother and sister...." It is at this point that Roderick informs his friend that he and the Lady Madeline had been twins, and that "sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them." Due to limited medical knowledge or to suit his purposes here, Poe treats Madeline and Roderick as if they were identical twins (two parts of one personality) instead of fraternal twins. He implies that Roderick and Madeline are so close that they can sense what is happening to each other. This becomes an important aspect in the unity of effect of this particular story.The sixth lectureNathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)1. LifeNathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. Some of his ancestors were men of prominence in the Puritan theocracy in seventeenth-century New England. One of them was a colonial magistrate notorious for his part in the persecution of the Quakers, and another, John Hathorne, Hawthorne’s gr andfather, was a judge at the Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692. Young Hawthorne was intensely aware of the misdeeds of his Puritan ancestors, and this awareness led to。
李念念 1201200165 英教一班 美国文学选读
美国文学选读课程论文A summary in the history of American literature美国文学历史总结院（系）名称外国语学院专业名称英语学生姓名李念念学生学号1201200165课程教师张玮艳Author：liniannianAuthor：zhangweiyanAbstractRomantic Period is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature. When Americans were constructing their country, they also began to realize their differences from their European counterparts. They began to hope to see an entirely different literature model which expressed American cultures. Great writers of that period captured on their pages the enthusiasm and the optimism of that dream. Later，American literature came to Transcendentalism Period which emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of tradition authority. It was actually greatly influenced by romanticism.However, the country’s confidence was waved by the Civi l War. After the war, Americans got lost. At about 1900s, American literature came to another entirely different age—the age of Realism. Realists searched for the social and human nature more directly. In part, Realism was a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away. It has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications.The period between 1910 and 1930 is referred to as the era of Modernism. As modern machinery had changed the pace, atmosphere, and appearance of daily life in the early 20th century, so many artists and writers, with varying degrees of success, reinvented traditional artistic forms and tried to find radically new ones—an aesthetic echo of what people had come to call ―the machine age.‖ During that period, a large number of artists and literary movements are totally different from those of the19th-century’s, in style, form and content. Modern psychology has a profound impact on the early 20th-century’s literature.Key words: American literature，Romanticism，New England Transcendentalism，Realism，Modernism论文摘要浪漫主义时期是美国文学史上最重要的时期之一。
- 1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性，平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
- 2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
- 3、如文档侵犯您的权益，请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间：9:00-18:30)。
A Stylistic Analysis of “A Clean,Well-lighted Place”王琼Student number: 20074180704Course: A Survey of American Literature Tutor: Huang HuihuiDecember 30, 2010The main focus of ―A Clean, Well-Lighted Place‖ is on the pain of old age suffered by a man that we meet in a cafe late one night.Hemingway considers loneliness the principle tragedy of modern human life. Faced with ―nothing" in the modern society now and then, man should seek light in order to establish dignity in life. This kind of courage needed by man to fight against intolerable loneliness is exactly what Hemingway wanted to display in the story.1. Symbols in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”1.1 Light and ShadowsThe story is filled with light and shadows, as an old man sits through another sleepless night--in the quiet of a well-lighted cafe. The older waiter explains to the younger, more impatient waiter, "You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now there are shadows of the leaves." For a lonely, old man, the clean, well-lighted cafe is a slight respite from the darkness. He drinks himself into a drunken state, hoping that sleep will come--taking him from the quiet desperation that has already caused him to attempt suicide once (as the waiters discuss). The veteran waiter, like Hemingway, understands the deeper things in life, believing strongly that he must keep the café open in order to let others stay in the light, as he wishes also to remain in the light. Unable to bear the darkness of his world, the waiter walks the streets late in the night, not being able to sleep until morning. In the end, Hemingway leaves us in this: "Many must have it", by which he means not only that many people have the insomnia and sleeplessness, but also that many experience loneliness and the need for a clean, well-lighted place in which to feel safe, or perhaps insulated. Some have argued that Hemingway contrasts light and shadow differentiate the old man and the young people around him, and uses the deafness of the old man as a symbol for his separation from the rest of the world. To Hemingway, it was much more than the physical darkness that frightened him—it was the symbolic darkness of reality. Hemingway was a modernist, a realist, and aphilosopher. He believed the ultimate purpose of life was to discover such a clean, well-lighted place to escape from the darkness of the world—the dark truth that life is without truth or meaning. So light represents any device man uses to distract himself from the darkness.1.2 The CaféThe clean, well-lighted café of the story's title is its central image. This kind of caféis a kind of idealized space; in it, even the loneliest, most despairing of men can find some kind of comfort. The clean, well-lighted caféis a refuge that can provide comfort and company. The caférepresents a space in which one can escape from troubles –in this case, from the despair of everyday life. The older waiter explains why these specific elements are necessary in his ideal space: he needs the café to be clean and quiet (music is absolutely out), and most importantly, he requires a lot of light. Light chases away the dark. These characters are feeling insecurity and dread that can creep in at night; the older waiter expresses it best when he describes the awful nothingness of life –"nada y pues nada y pues nada‖. Nothing can offer him comfort, and this vast spiritual emptiness is overwhelming. Hemingway suggests that only the light of a pleasant café, and the numbing effect of drunkenness, can push away the dark realization that we are all nothing.2. Contrasts in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"2.1 Man and TimeThe real conflict of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is not between two characters, but, rather, in a more abstract sense, between man and time. The story deals with characters that all have different visions of the meaning of time – the youngest man values it, but the older characters don't. The oldest character, a man near the end of his life, is simply passing the time until he dies (in fact, we learn that he even tries to commit suicide to hurry along the process). The point is, the older you get, the moretime wears upon you, and the more you feel your mortality – Hemingway wants us to recognize the fact that all of us will grow old and die someday, no matter how young or confident we are now. If you were looking for an uplifting story, you may have figured out by now that this is probably not it.2.2 Success and LonelinessIn this short story, the process of aging makes the characters feel their mortality; the Old Man's attempted suicide demonstrates his willingness to escape the loneliness that, according to Hemingway, comes with age. A progression of age is seen among the characters demonstrating the transition from being young and social to aging and feeling lonely. In "A Clean Well Lighted Place," Hemingway portrays a difference in age, experience, and opinion of drinking through the unique characters that could represent a progression of alcoholism. Hemingway implies that, no matter how much money we have, or how successful we have been in life, we are all ultimately end up as lonely individuals. In this loneliness, what matters above all is simply to have some means of escape from this loneliness, whether that's suicide, drunkenness, or simply a clean, well-lighted place to sit and still feel like part of the world.3. The Style of“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"3.1 Language FeaturesThis super-short short story is a terrific example of Hemingway's famous prose style. His writing is journalistic and no-nonsense; he reports dialogue cleanly and directly, without any floury adjectives or fancy-pants descriptions. This sparse, tight economy of words is one of the things that made Hemingway so very, very famous in the 1920s, and his distinctive style is still much admired to this day.Hemingway's Hemingwayness contributes to the bleak outlook of this story –instead of hearing about the despair of the old man, phrased eloquently and poetically over a span of pages; we simply get a kind of punch to the gut in this story. Itsextreme shortness makes its point all the more powerful, and the direct reportage of dialogue and inner monologue are far more effective here than any amount of descriptive language could ever be. The most descriptive line we get, in fact, is the opening of the story, which, in fact, barely tells us anything at all: "It was late and every one had left the cafe except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against th e electric light‖. We don't see the café, nor do we know where it is or anything else about it – however, Hemingway manages to sketch out just enough of the scene for us to create a feeling of the setting for us.3.2 The “Iceberg Principle” under This Short StoryIn "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," Hemingway offers a fairly pessimistic view of the world, suggesting that even people who are young, happy, and totally content will someday end up lonely, drunk, and dissatisfied. By showing us three characters in different stages of life (young, middle aged, and elderly), Hemingway depicts the way in which life grows increasingly unsatisfactory, until the only viable options are suicide or drunkenness. From that, we also understand the youth and self-confidence can not help one withstand the metaphorical dark and nothing, Only use right way to look at other people that can understand life. In addition, Hemingway presents him as a representative of all people nearing the end of life, weary and hopeless, but still dignified. The key here is dignity – Hemingway wants us to see that even when life gets you down, you should accept it and try to keep it real.。