美国文学简史复习资料.docx

1、 美国文学简史复习资料美国文学简史复习资料 美国文学简史 复习资料 2016年 12 月 23日 殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学 美国浪漫主义早期 新英格兰超验主义 美国浪漫主义后期 美国现实主义文学 美国乡土文学 美国现代诗歌 美国现代小说 美国南方文学 美国现代戏剧 美国黑人文学 美国华裔文学 殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学 New England:Maine,New Hampshire,Vermont,Massachusetts,Rhode Island,and Connecticut,named by Captain John Smith Puritanism Doctrines of Pur

2、itanism:predestination(命运神定),original sin,total depravity(彻底的堕落),and limited atonement(有限的赎罪)from Gods grace Puritans left Europe for America in order to prove that they were Gods chosen people who would enjoy Gods blessings on earth and in Heaven、They felt that they were exiles under the special gr

3、ace of God to establish a theocracy in the New World、Style of writing:the style is fresh,simple and direct;the rhetoric is plain and honest;a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible Puritans way of Life:hard work,thrift,piety,and sobriety、In Hawthornes The Scarlet Lett

4、er there is a good description of the Puritans life、Main writers William Bradford Of Plymouth Plantation 普利茅斯垦殖记 Thomas Paine Common Sense 常识;American Crisis 美国危机;The Rights of Man 人权;The Age of Reason 理性时代 Philip Freneau The Rising Glory of America 蒸蒸日上的美洲;The Wild Honeysuckle 野金银花 Benjamin Frankli

5、n Autobiography富兰克林自传 Thomas Jefferson Draft the Declaration of Independence、美国浪漫主义早期 Romanticism Background of Romanticism:Economic boom and national optimism;Favorable literary milieu:increasing number of magazines;Foreign influences:the Romantic Movement in Europe、Characteristics of Romanticism:A

6、 rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism、Feelings,intuitions and emotions were more important for romantics than reason and common sense、An emphasis on individualism;placing the individual against the group,against authority、Stress on the close relationship between man and nature、Fascinatio

7、n with the wild,the irregular,the indefinite,the remote,the mysterious,and the strange Cherishing a strong interest in the past,especially the medieval、Features of American Romanticism:New experience in the American Romanticism、The exotic landscape,the frontier life,the westward expansion,the myth o

8、f a New Garden of Eden in America,and the Puritan heritage,etc、,these were all materials for an indigenous literature、A deep influence from the American Puritanism、Different from their European counterparts,American romantics tended to moralize,to edify rather than to entertain、The“newness”of the Am

9、ericans as a nation、The Americans are different from the Europeans、Their ideals of individualism and political equality,and their dream that America was to be a new Garden of eden for man were distinctly American、The New England Poets:Henry W、Longfellow-A Psalm of Life 人生礼赞 Main writers Washington I

10、rving The Sketch Book(1819-1820)见闻札记;The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 睡谷的传说 James Fenimore Cooper Leather-stocking Tales 皮裹腿故事集;The Pioneers 拓荒者;The Last of the Mohicans 最后一个莫希干人;The Prairie 大草原;The Pathfinder探路人;The Deerslayer 猎鹿人 新英格兰超验主义 Transcendentalism Transcendentalism as a way of knowing,believes

11、 that individuals can intuitively receive higher truths otherwise unavailable through common methods of knowing,thus transcending the limits of rationalism、Some of its major concepts are:It placed emphasis on spirit,or the Over-soul(超灵),as the most important thing in the universe、It emphasized the i

12、mportance of the individual and believed that the individual was the most important element in society and that the ideal kind of individual was self-reliant and unselfish、It offered a fresh view of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God、Significance A group of new writers apply transcendental idea

13、s in their works Weakness Transcendentalism tended to become mysticism、sometimes resulted in rampant individualism make moral indignation an irrelevant emotion、Main writers Ralph Waldo Emerson(超验主义领袖)Nature(标志性之作);The American Scholar论美国学者 Henry David Thoreau Walden:informal,spontaneous and so easy、

14、His sentences are concentrated and vigorous、美国浪漫主义后期 High Romantics in fiction Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet letter 红字;The House of Sever Gables 有七个尖角阁的房子 Herman Melville Moby-Dick 白鲸;Pierre 皮埃尔 High Romantics in poetry Edgar Allen Poe-the father of modern horror story and detective story Tales of

15、 the Grotesque and Arabesque 怪诞故事集;The Raven 乌鸦 Literary theories(on poetry)Poetical principles Length:there is a distinct limit to all works of literary artthe limit of a single sitting、Province:Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem、Tone:Sadness is the tone of Beautys highest manifesta

16、tion、Melancholy is the most legitimateof all the poetical tones、Death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world、The immediate object of poetry is pleasure,not truth、Poe defines true poetry as“the rhythmical creation of beauty”,and declares that music is the perfection of the soul,or idea,of poetry、Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass 草叶集 Emily Dickinson Features of Dickinsons poems Dickinsons style is characteristic of frequent use of dashes,sporadic capitalization of nouns,convoluted