美国文学整理

A general thread of American literature

• • • • • • •

I. American Literature of Colonial Period (1607—1765)

II. American Literature of Revolutionary Period (1765—1800) III. The Age of Romanticism (1800—1865) IV. The Age of Realism (1865—1918) V. American Modernism (1918—1945)

VI. Contemporary Literature (1945-- )

Ⅰ.Literature of colonial period (1607-1765)

• 1.Terms: •

Puritanism: origin, doctrines, relationship with American literature

Origin: grow out of religious controversy, out of an urge for religious freedom and determination, out of fleeing from religious and political oppression and persecution, out of human thirst for great economic opportunity, for land, and for adventure.

Doctrines: stress predestination, original sin, total depravity, and limited atonement from God‟s grace

Way of life: stress hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety

Relationship with American literature: expression of the puritan idealism, puritan optimism impact on American literature, a literature of discovery.

• 2. writers:

• Anne Bradstreet:安妮. 布拉德斯特里特

the first American woman writer; Puritanism

Works：The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in American

《最近在美国出现的第十位缪斯》

II Revolutionary Period (1765—1800)

• Terms:

• Enlightenment

They assumed that people were naturally good and that a harmonious universe proclaimed the beneficence of God. They are not interested in theology but in man‟s own nature.

• Important figures:

Jonathan Edwards: 乔纳森. 爱德华兹

神学家，leader of the Great Awakening, 美国哲学思想的开拓者 The Personal Narrative

Benjamin Franklin:

self-made, reflection of American dream, epitome of the Enlightment Founding father of the United States of America The Autobiography

III. The Age of Romanticism (1800—1865)

• Terms:

• Romanticism

Time: turn of the 18th and 19th

History background: Industrial Revolution, French Revolution

Romantics stress individual and creative function of imagination. It place individual at the very centre of all life and all experience and at the centre of art.

Characteristics:

(1) A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism,

(2) The feelings, intuitions, and emotions are more important than reason and common sense.

(3) Stress the relationship between man and nature.

(4) Emphasize individualism, placing the individual against the group, against authority, the very centre of all life and all experience and at the centre of art. (5) Affirm the inner life of the self, and want each person to be free to develop and

express his own inner thoughts.

(6) Cherish strong interest in the past, especially the medieval

(7) Attracted by the wild, the irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious, and the strange. (8) Interested in variety

• Transcendentalism

Time: appear after 1830, mid-19th

Meaning: marked the maturity of American Romanticism and the American

Renaissance and the first American intellectual movement. It laid emphasis on spirit and individual nature.

(Whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought, idealism as it appears )

---by Emerson

Major concepts:

(1) Stress the power of intuition

(2) Place spirit first and matter second

(3) Take nature as symbolic of spirit or God

(4) Emphasize the significance of the individual and believe that individual is the

most important element in the society and that the ideal kind of individual is self-reliant and unselfish.

(5) Envision religion as an emotional communication between an individual soul

and the universal Oversoul.

(6) Commerce is degrading and a life spent in business is a wasted of life.

Early period

Fireside poets (炉边诗人): William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and James Russell Lowell. First put American poetry on an equal footing with British poetry

Poets:

William Cullen Bryant 威廉.柯伦.布莱恩特

The first distinctive lyric poet. 第一位享有盛誉的抒情诗人 The American Wordsworth Works：To a waterfowl 《致水鸟》 Thanatopsis 《死亡观》

Song of Marion’s Men 《马里恩的 人类之歌》

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 亨利.沃兹沃斯.朗费罗

He was among the first of American writers to use native theme. Longfellow‟s works are highly spiritual. He emphasizes the mysteries of birth, death and love. His poems are filled with melody and charm of meter.

Works: A Psalm of Life 《人生赞礼》 ： most famous work The Song of Hiawatha 《海华沙之歌》

fiction writers:

Washington Irving 华盛顿.欧文

Irving has called the father of American literature(美国文学之父). He is the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. (美国第一位享誉国际的作家) . Irving‟s works are characterized by a strong sense of humor, which gives an impetus to the growth and popularity of American indigenous humor.

Works: A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty《纽约外传》 a great success and win him reputation The Sketch Book 《见闻札记》Win him an international fame

Mark the beginning of American Romanticism It‟s a collection of essays, including:

Rip Van winkle 《瑞普. 凡. 温克尔》 , most famous The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 《睡谷的传说》

James Fennimore Cooper 詹姆斯.费尼莫尔.库珀

He was the first author to write about western, of sea novel, border novel, and series novels, romantic writer with rationalism.

美国民族文学奠基人之一，第一位描述西进运动的作家，开创边疆传奇小说

Works：Leatherstocking Tales 《皮袜子故事集》 about the frontier life of American settlers

Including:

The Pioneers 《拓荒者》

The Last of the Mohicans 《最后的莫希干人》 , most excellent The Prairie 《草原》 The Pathfinder 《探路者》 The Deerslayer 《杀鹿者》

• Transcendentalists:

• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803--1882) 拉尔夫.沃尔多.爱默生

Nature 《论自然》 : It „s regarded as “ the manifesto of American Transcendentalism”. In this work, Emerson put forward that behind every phenomenon of the nature there was the spirit of the nature.

• Henry David Thoreau (1817--1862) P45 亨利.大卫. 梭罗

Walden 《瓦尔登湖》, a great transcendentalism work Civil Disobedience 《论公民之不服从》

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 《在康科德河和梅里麦克河上的一周》

• High romantics:

• Emily Dickinson 埃米莉.迪金森 女诗人 P63

Her poems are characterized by the abundant use of dashes(破折号) and other punctuations and capitalization and original imagery, precise diction and fragmentary pattern.

Theme: love, nature, friendship, death, and immortality

Works: I’m Nobody 《我是无名之辈》 To Make a prairie 《要描绘一片草原》

Success Is Counted Sweetest 《最美妙的胜利感觉》

• Edgar Allan Poe 埃德加.爱伦. 坡

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He has been held among the greatest poets; The first American professional writer; The first writer of detective story.

Works: The Raven 《乌鸦》

The Fall of the House of Usher 《厄舍古厦的倒塌》 The Cask of Amontillado 《阿芒提拉多的酒桶》

Annabel Lee 《安娜贝尔. 李》 The Poetic Principle 《诗歌原理》

Sonnet--- To Science 《致科学》

To Helen 《致海伦》诗歌：美丽女子的死亡

• Walt Whitman 沃尔特.惠特曼

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A great democratic poet; father of free verse

Thoughts: equality& democracy; dignity; the joy of common man; openness, freedom, individualism.

Works: Leave of Grass 《草叶集》 , mark the birth of truly American poetry Praised as “democratic Bible”(共和圣经)； “American Epic”(美国史诗) Including： One’s Self I Sing 《我歌唱自我》 Song of Myself 《自我之歌》

O Captain! My Captain! 《噢，船长! 我的船长！》

• Nathaniel Hawthorne 纳撒尼尔.霍桑

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First great American writer of fiction; a master of symbolism

Central subject: human soul

Works: The Scarlet Letter 《红字》, establish him as the leading American native novelist of 19th century.

The House of the Seven Gables 《带七个尖角阁的房子》 Twice- Told Tales 《路人皆知的故事》 Mosses from an Old Manse 《古宅青苔》 The Blithedale Romance 《福谷传奇》

• Herman Melville 赫尔曼.梅尔维尔

美国浪漫主义时期成就最高的小说家，擅长描写航海奇遇和异域风情

Works: Moby Dick 《白鲸》 , a Shakespeare tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming odds in an indifferent and even hostile universe.

IV. The Age of Realism (1865—1918)

• Terms:

• Realism

Time: the approach of realist fiction occurring at the latter part of 19th century

Realism came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. It turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It‟s based on the accurate, unromanticized

observation of human experiences. It insists on precise description, authentic action and dialogue, moral honesty, and a democratic openness in subject and style.

Major features:

(1) familiar aspects of contemporary life and everyday scenes are represented in a

straightforward or matter-of-fact manner

(2) in realist fiction characters from all society levels are examined in depth (3) open ending

(4) focus on commonness of the lives of the common peole

(5) emphasize objective and offer an objective view of human nature and human

experience

(6) presents moral vision

• Local colorism

Time: popular after civil war

Local colorism, namely, regionalism stresses fidelity to a particular geographical section and a faithful representation of its habits, speech, manners, history, folklore, or belief.

Basic features:

(1) Presents locale which is distinguished from the outside world (2) Describes the exotic and the pictureseque (3) Glorifies the past

(4) Attempts to show things as they are

(5) Stresses the influence of setting on character

• Naturalism

Time: in the late 19th

American Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author‟s tone on 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.

Major features:

(1) Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment

(2) The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires

(3) They look at the violent, sensational, sordid, unpleasant, and ugly aspects of life

• writers:

• William Dean Howell 威廉.迪恩. 霍威尔斯

The champion of realism，描写美国中产阶级生活 Centre and circumference of realism in America Works: Criticism and Fiction 《批评与小说》

Venetian life 《威尼斯生活》

The Rise of Silas Lapham 《塞拉斯.拉帕姆的发迹》

• Henry James 亨利.詹姆斯

• 美国与欧洲文化的比较，新与旧、逝去年代与即将来临的新时代的连贯性。讲述美

国社会上层阶级，以心理活动描写闻名。

Works：

The Art of Fiction 《小说的艺术》 , the aim of novel is to represent life First stage：Daisy Miller 《黛西. 米勒》 The American 《美国人》

The Portrait of a Lady 《贵妇人的画像》 Second stage: The Turn of the Screw 《步步加紧》

Third stage: The Ambassadors《大使们》 , comedy of American and European manners

The Wings of the Dove 《鸽翼》 The Golden Bowl 《金碗》

• O. Henry 欧.亨利

The father of modern short story, “美国生活的幽默百科全书” Works：The Cop and the Anthem 《警察与赞美诗》 The Last Leaf 《最后一篇叶子》 The Gift of Magi 《麦琪的礼物》

• Mark Twain 马克.吐温

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The Lincoln of our literature, 以口语化的风格（colloquial style）和地方主义色彩

（localism）闻名

Works：The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County 《跳蛙》 The Gilded Age 《镀金时代》

The Adventure of Tom Sawyer 《汤姆. 索亚历险记》

The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn 《哈克贝里. 费恩历险记》 , one of greatest books of western literature and western civilization, colloquial style口语化风格, humanitarianism ultimately triumphs 人性战胜邪恶 Life on the Mississippi 《在密西西比河上》

• Theodore Dreiser 西奥多.德莱赛

美国最伟大的写实主义和自然主义作家之一。 小说角色，没有能力摆脱命运 安排，善于恶的混合体 Works：Sister Carrie 《嘉莉妹妹》 Jennie Gerhardt 《珍妮姑娘》

Trilogy of Desire 《欲望三部曲》 ：The Titan 《巨头》 ，The Stoic 《斯

多葛》 and The Financier 《金融家》 An American Tragedy 《美国悲剧》

Jack London 杰克.伦敦

心理现实文学（Psychological Realism）的创始人 The Call of the Wild 《野性的呼唤》

V. American Modernism (1918—1945)

• Terms:

• Imagism

It began with Thomas Ernest Hulme in 1908. He Called on poets to express their momentary impressions through the use of a dominant image. Time: started in American in 1912

A Magazine of Verse: marked a poetic renaissance in the USA and the beginning of Modern American poetry in rebellion against Victorian poetry and against the conventional technique of the time.

Main feature:

(1) Against conventions, anti-romantic and anti-Victorian (2) Free verse without imposing rhythmical pattern (3) Equivalent to naturalism in fiction

(4) Record objective observation of an object or situation without interpretation or comment

• Modernism

Time： During the first decade of 20th century

Essence: break with the past

Including: symbolism, impressionism, post-impressionism, futurism, constructivism, imagism, vorticism, expressionism, dada, and surrealism.

Definition: It is used to show that the literary art possessing outstanding characteristics in conception, feeling, form and style after the WW I. It means cutting off history and a sense of despair and loss. It refused to accept the traditional concept of value and all ideological influences.

• Poets:

 Ezra Pound (1885- 1972) 艾兹拉.庞德

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The father of modern American poetry, the father of imagist poetry Poetry was based on images rather than ideas Works : In a Station of Metro 《在地铁站里》

 T.S.Eliot (1888 - 1965): The Waste Land  Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)  New England setting, subjects from daily ordinary people

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Works： Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 《学业林边驻脚》

The Road of Not Taken 《未选之路》

Fire and Ice 《火与冰》

Modern fiction writers:

 Ernest Hemingway

Spokesman of the Lost Generation

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Works: A Farewell to Arms 《永别了，武器》 The Sun Also Rises 《太阳照常升起》

For Whom the Bell Tolls 《丧钟为谁而鸣》 ， depicts the Spanish Civil War The Old Man and the Sea 《老人与海》

 F. Scott Fitzgerald 弗朗西斯. 司各特. 菲茨杰拉尔德

Tender Is the night 《夜色温柔》

The Great Gatsby 《了不起的盖茨比》 ， disillusionment of the American dream  John Steinbeck 约翰.斯坦贝克 ，诺贝尔奖得主

The Grapes of Wrath 《愤怒的葡萄》 Tortilla Flat 《煎饼坪》 Of Mice and Men 《人与鼠》

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