美国文学提纲(2)

I. Multiple Choice (20 points in all, 1 for each)

1) Check the dictionary: pompous, vernacular

2) At the beginning of Faulkner’s A Rose For Emily, there is a detailed description of

Emily’s old house. The purpose of such description is to imply that the pe rson living in it C.

A. is a wealth lady

B. has good taste

C. is a prisoner of the past

D. is a

conservative aristocrat

3)Stylistically, Henry James’s fiction is characterized by D.

A. short clear sentences

B. abundance of local images

C. ordinary American speech

D.

highly refined language

1. The convention of the desire for an escape from society and a reture to nature in

American Literature is particularly evident in A

A. Cooper’s Leather-Stocking Takes

B. Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Le tter

C. Whitman’s Leaves of Grass

D. Irving’s Rip Van Winkle

2. In 1873, Ralph Waldo Emerson made a speech entitled at Harvard, which was hailed

by Oliver Wendell Homes as “our Intellectual Dedaration of I

A. Nature

B. Self-Reliance

C. Divinity Scholar Address

D. The American

Scholar

3. What’s the analogy that Emily Dickin son uses in her poem Because I could not stop

for death? A

A.Horse and carriage

B. stage and performance

C. Cloud and Shade

D. ship and

harbor

4. Most of the writers in the Modern Period were able to probe into the inner would of of

human reality on the base of D

A. Carl Jung’s “collective unconscious” and “archetypal symbol”

B. Sigmound Frend’s “interpretation of dreams”

C. William Jame’s “stream of consciousness”

D. all of the above.

II. Blank Filling (10 points in all, 1 for each)

1) Henry James is considered the founder of Psychological realism. He believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator.

2) Mark Twain’s first novel, The Gilded Age was an artistic failure, but it gave its

name to the America of the postbellum period which it attempts to satirize.

Blank Filling

Blank Filling

1. The best of puritan poets was Edward Taylor, whose complete edition of poems appeared in 1960, more than two hundred years after his death.

8. Edwin Arlington Robinson produced a large body of works and was honored with the Pulitzer Prize in 1522, 1925 and 1928.

10. Fitzgerald’s first novel This Side of Paradise, with its portrayal of casual dissipations of “f laming youth”, was an immediate commercial success.

3. In “Song of Myself”, Whitman’s own early experience may well be identified with the children of a young growing American.

4. The range of Dickinson’s poetry suggests not her limited experience but the power of her creativity and imagination.

5. Mark Twain, breaking out of the narrow limits of local color fiction, described the breadth of American experience as no one had ever done before, or since.

7. Many of O. Henry’s stones talk about the life of poor people in New York.

8. Henry James realism is characterized by his psychological approach to his subject matter.

9. The Financier, T he Tifan and The Stoic form Dreiser’s “Trilogy of Desire”

12. American writers of first postwar era self ——consciously acknowledged that they were a “Lost Generation” devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization.

13. At one time, Sandburg’s reputation mainly rested on a multi ——volume biography of Abraham Lincoln including “The Prairie Years” and “The War Years”14. For publication of his collected Poems, Wallace Stevens received the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize.

15. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded a Nobel Prize for his “mastery of the art of modern narration”.

16. In 1935, Steinbeck published Tortilla Flat. A collection of short story which vividly described the “life of poor Mexican——Americans with affection and humor.

17. The Yoknapatawpha Country is a legendary kingdom created by Faulkner.

18. The most significant American poem of the 20th century was The Waste Land.

19. Edwin Arlington Robinson produced a large body of works and was honored with the Pulitzer Prize in 1922, 1925 and 1928.

21. As Thomas Sterns Eliot’s declared, he followed strictly the advice of his doze friend Ezra Pound in cutting and concentrating The Waste Land

12.“Martin Eden”is the novel into which Jack London put most of himself。

8. Fitzgerable’s first novel This side of paradise, with its portrayal of casual dissipations of “flaming youth:, was an immediate commercial success.

12. Early in the 1920s, the most prominent of the new American playwrights, whose name is Eugene O’Neill established an international reputation.

13.In the novel The Old Man and Sea，Hemingway portrayed an old fisherman named Santiago，who shows triumphant even in defeat

14.Ezra Pound was the leader of a new movement in poetry which he called the Imagist movement.

III. Works and Authors (10 points in all, 1 for each)

1. The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung in America Anne Bradstreet

2. The British Prison Ship Philip Freneau

3. Autobiography Benjamin Franklin

4. Common Sense Thomas Paine

5. Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau

6. The Awakening Kate Chopin

7. The Call of the Wild Jack London

8. Daisy Miller Henry James

9. A Hazard of New Fortunes William Dean Howells

10. Magic: A Girl of the Streets Stephen Crane

11. Babbit Sinclair Lewis

12. Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson

13. The Waste Land Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot

14. The Hairy Ape Eugene Gladstone O'Neill

15. Harmonium Wallace Stevens

16. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

17. A Farewell to Arms Ernest Miller Hemingway

18. The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner

IV. Explanation of Literary Terms (10 points in all, 5 for each)

1.American Romanticism

s one of the most important periodds in the history of American literature. I was a rebellion againstr the objectivity of rationalism. For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and commen sense. They emphazed individualism, placing the individual against the group. The afirmed the inner life of the sels,and cherished strong interest in the past, the wild ,the remote, thw mysterious and the stange. They stressed the element “Americaness” in their works. It started with the pulication of Washington Irving’The stretch Book and ened with Walt Whiteman’s Leaves of Grass. It is also called “American Renaissance”American Romantists include

such literary figures as Washinton Irving,Emerson,Thoreau,Hawthrone,Mellville Whiteman and some others.

;

2. American Transcendentalism

3. American Naturalism

naturalists

naturalism

accepted the more negative interpretation of Darwin’s evolutionary theory and used it to account for the behavior of those charaters in the literary works wh were regarded as more or less complex combination of inheritted attibutes, their habits condition by social and economic forces. American Naturalism is evoled from realism hen the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a gloomy philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence. Dreiser is a leading figure of this school

4. American Realism

5.Imagist Movement.

A. The Imagist Movement flourished in the U.S. and England between 1909-1917 and involved quite a number of British and American writers and poets.

B. This is a movement that advanced modernism in arts which concentrated on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed to Romanticism. As one of the leaders of the Imagists, Ezra Pound laid down three main principles: direct treatment of poetic subjects, elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words, and the rhythmical composition in the consequence of the musical phrase rather than in the consequence of a metronome. “The point of Imagism,” Pound wrote in 1914, “is that it does not use images as ornaments. The image itself is the speech. The image is the world beyond formula ted language.”

C. Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" is a typical work of the Imagist Movement.

V. Identification of Fragments

1. “These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”The American Crisis——Thomas Paine

2. “In vain did Uncas dart around the cloud, with a wish to strike his knife into the heart of his father's foe; the threatening rifle of Hawkeye was raised and suspended in vain, while Duncan endeavored to seize the limbs of the Huron with hands that appeared to have lost their power. Covered as they were with dust and blood, the swift evolutions of the combatants seemed to incorporate their bodies into one. The death-like looking figure of the Mohican, and the dark form of the Huron, gleamed

before their eyes in such quick and confused succession, that the friends of the former knew not where to plant the succoring blow.”最后的莫西干人The Last of the Mohicans——James Fennimore Cooper

3. Pearl, without responding in any manner to these honey-sweet expressions, remained on the other side of the brook. Now she fixed her bright, wild eyes on her mother, now on the minister, and now included them both in the same glance; as if to detect and explain to herself the relation which they bore to one another. For some unaccountable reason, as Arthur Dimmesdale felt the child’s eyes upon himself, his hand-with that gesture so habitual as to have become involuntary-stole over his heart. At length, assuming a singular air of authority, Pearl stretched out her hand, with the small forefinger extended, and pointing evidently towards her mother’s breast. And beneath, in the mirror of the brook, there was the flower-girdled and sunny image of little Pearl, pointing her small forefinger too. The Scarlet Letter——Nathaniel Hawthorne

4. To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society.

I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these preachers of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. Nature——Ralph aldo Emerson

5. “Our club, the Junto, was found so useful, and afforded such satisfaction to the

members, that several were desirous of introducing their friends, which could not well be done without exceeding what we had settled as a convenient number, viz., twelve. We had from the beginning made it a rule to keep our institution a secret, which was pretty well observ'd; the intention was to avoid applications of improper persons for admittance, some of whom, perhaps, we might find it difficult to refuse. I was one of those who were against any addition to our number, but, instead of it, made in writing a proposal, that every member separately should endeavor to form a subordinate club, with the same rules respecting queries, etc., and without informing them of the connection with the Junto.”The Autobiography——Benjamin Franklin

6. “Nevertheless, so potent an influence did this thing have on those seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of it, and by such a strange delicacy, to call it so, were they governed in this matter, that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never transpired abaft the Pequod's main-mast. Interweaving in its proper place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship, the whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on lasting record.”Moby Dick——Herman Melville

7. “Isabel always felt an impulse to pull out the pins; not that she imagined they inflicted any damage on the tough old parchment, but because it seemed to her aunt might make better use of her sharpness. She was very critical herself- it was incidental to her age, her sex and her nationality; but she was very sentimental as well, and there was something in Mrs. Touchett's dryness that set her own moral fountains flowing.”The Portrait of a Lady——Henry James

8. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep,/ But I have promises to keep,

/ And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep.”

Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening——Robert Frost

9. “Once in camp I put a log on top of the fire and it was full of ants. As it commenced to burn, the ants swarmed out and went first toward the centre where the fire was; then turned back and ran toward that end. When there were enough on the end they fell off into the fire. Some got out, their bodies burnt and flattened, end went off not knowing where they were going. But most of them went toward the fire and finally they fell off into the fire. I remember thinking at the time that it was the end of the world and a splendid chance to be a messiah and lift the log off the fire and throw it out where the ants could get off onto the ground. But I did not do anything but throw a tin cup of water on the log, so that I would have the cup empty to put whiskey in before I added water to it. I think the cup of water on the burning log only steamed the ants.”

A Farewell To Arms——Ernest Hemingway

10. “He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the disk and he loved them as he loved the boy.

The Old Man and The Sea——Ernst Hemingway

VI. Questions and Answers (21 points in all, 7 for each)

1. Make a brief comment on Hester Prynne and symbolic meaning of “A”in The Scarlet Letter.

A. Hawthorne is a master of Symbolism. The symbol can be found everywhere in his writing, and his writing, and his masterpiece. The Scarlet Letter provides he most convincing proof.

B. by using Pearl as a thematic symbol, Hawthorne emphasizes the consequence the sin

of adultery has brought to the community and people living in the community. The scarlet letter A is the biggest symbol of all. As a key to the whole novel, the letter A takes on different layers of symbolic meanings as the plot develops. At first it is a token of shame “Adultery”, then it has been changed into “Able”, and finally it signifies “Angel”

C. People come up with different interpretations and they do not know which one is definite. The scarlet letter A is ambiguous and the ambiguity is one of the prominent characteristics of Hawthorne’s art.

2. Whitman & Dickinson are the representative poets. What are the unique features of their poetry?

3. The white whale, Moby Dick, is the most important symbol in Melville’s novel. What symbolic meaning can you draw from it?

one of the major themes in Melville is alienation, which he sensed existing in the life of his time on different levels, between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Captain Ahab seems to be the best illustration of it all. The voyage itself is a metaphor for “search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience.” He h ad Ahab topmost in his mind. In a sense Ahab embodies all of the evil he once consigned to Moby Dick.

In what way are Dickinson’s poems unique and unconventional?

1-5. titles first line particular stress clashes capital letters

6-10. form hymns inverted idiom a single image

11-15. personal abstract ideas ostensible subtlety and richness limitless

4. What are the artistic features of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost’s poetry? (1) The subject matter of Eliot’s poetr y is to expose the sterility and futility of the Western culture, to reveal the breakdown of communication between human beings, to show man’s disillusionment and frustration caught between his sense of meaning and his sense of meaning lessens, and to quest for a spiritual regeneration by finding salvation in religion.

(2) Major device used in Eliot’s poetry is juxtaposition in which one of the elements ironically undercuts the other so as to produce striking effect.

(3)Complex literary allusion is characte ristic of Eliot’s poetry.

(4) Eliot regards myth as an effective means of reaching beneath the level of present and conscious experience

(5) The image of music plays an important part of Eliot’s poems.

VII. Topic Discussion (15points)

1. Mark Twain presented the 19th century America in his own unique way. Discuss Twain’s art of fiction: the setting, the language, and the characters, etc.

2. What is the type of heroes in Hemingway’s novels?

3. What is the main concept of The Great Gatsby? Pls comment Fitzgerald’s stylistic writing and techniques.

1. Jazz Age

2. Jazz Age