i.
ii.
The Colonial Period
1. 关键词: America Puritanism
2. Calvinism特点: total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement,
Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the saints
3. Anne Bradstreet( P17 ): a Puritan poet be known as “The Muse”
4. Thomas Paine: one of continual, unswerving fight for the rights of man.
works: “Common Sense” “American Crisis” “The Rights of Man” “The Age of Reason”理性时代
5. Phillip Freneau(P22): 美国文学史上的重要人物
dawning nationalism 代表人物
Poems: The Wild Honeysuckle野生的金银花 first modern American & the last medieval man 6. Jonathan Edwards( Calvinism )
a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening
works: “The Freedom of the Will” 《自由意志论》 “The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended” 《伟哉原罪论辩》 “The Nature of True Virtue” “American Dream” “Self-made” 7. Benjamin Franklin(puritanism)
“Poor Richard’s Almance” “autobiography”新文学形式 “18th century enlightenment” Romanticism
1. Washington Irving（1783-1859）
①titles: “the father of American literature” “the American Goldsmith”
②works: The Sketch Book (marked the beginning of American Romanticism and the beginning of short stories as a genre in American literature)
Rip Van Winkle (P47—P48) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
2. James Fenimore Cooper（1789-1851）
①One of the first writer to write American Westward movement ②“The Leatherstocking Tales” (novel) first is “The Pioneers” ---Plot:
---theme conflict between Natty Bumppo and Judge Temple- ---character:
Natty Bumppo---innocent, simple, honest and generous, for freedom, against civilization, wilderness is good
Judge Temple---just, reasonable, for civilization and law ③Writing style:
intriguing plot
majestic landscape descriptions rich imagination
wooden characterization
iii.
not authentic dialect
New England Transcendentalism---the culmination of American Romanticism Beginning of the Transcendentalism---1836, Nature, Emerson (1830s –the Civil War)
Features：a:emphasizing on spirit or the Over-soul；b:stressing the importance of the individual；c:offering a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God.
1. Ralph Waldo Emerson：The founder of the Transcendentalist club and the
editor for a time of the journal the Dial Works:
Nature --- “the Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” “the Bible of New England”:
The Poet (from Nature)
The American Scholar --- “Intellectual Declaration of Independence” 2. Henry David Thoreau
Masterpiece: Walden (Failure first, success in the 20th century)
Content---a faithful record of his reflection in communicating with nature 3. Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Scarlet Letter” Plot(P74) Theme:
---(general theme) evil and sin exist in human heart and will be punished one day
moral, emotional and psychological effect of the sin on the people in general ---(specific theme) a hymn on the moral growth of the woman Hester when sinned against
symbolism象征主义: “A”—Adultery—able—angel “pearl”—treasure 4. Herman Melville
works: Moby Dick (1851)---little response, famous until the 20th century Content:
---(general content) an encyclopedia of everything
---(specific content) a tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming power in an indifferent even hostile world
5. Edgar Allan Poe
Theme: The death of beauty
Sense of loss Works:
Poem--- “The Raven” “To Helen” “Annabel Lee” Writing style:
Musical
Repetition of words Paralleled structure
Melancholy atmosphere(tone)
iv.
Short story---The Fall of the House of Usher Plot: (P112)
Theme: the fall of the house---the annihilation (disintegration) and of person 6. Emily Dickinson
Subject and theme:
① (almost one third) Death and immortality “My life closed twice before its close” “Because I could not stop for death”
theme: Everyone can’t live forever. Only after death can we get immortality (immortality of soul) “ I heard a Fly Buzz- When I died”
theme: skeptical & ambivalent about death reluctance to death ② Love
“Wild Nights-Wild nights” (P99) ③ nature (both benevolent and cruel) “I’ll tell you how the sun rose”
④ emphasis of free will and human responsibility “To fight aloud” “A triumph may be”
⑤ soul ( conviction of her sovereignty) “I know that He exists”
“The Brain is wider than the sky” Theme:
influence of Transcendentalism
Human being’s mind (soul) is as divine as God ⑥ beauty, truth and goodness are ultimately one “ I died for beauty-but was scare” “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” (P102)
Writing style: emotional, original, against tradition
Choice of words, verbal construction (capitalized and dash), spelling, full of fresh images, brief, direct, plain words but not easy to read Influence: precursor to the Imagist movement
7. Walt Whitman
Works: “Leaves of Grass”草叶集(9 editions from 1855 to 1892, Famous until the 5th edition)
Poems in Leaves of Grass:
“Song of Myself” (most famous one)
“Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” (1859)
“When Lilacs紫丁香 Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” (1865) “O Captain My Captain!”
Writing style: free verse( no regular rhyme, but musical) 过渡时期
Harriet Beecher Stowe
v.
work: Uncle Tom’s Cabin ---The greatest manifesto of American anti-slavery (最有名的反奴隶制作品)
Content: a faithful record of American black people's miserable life. Realism 镀金时代Gilded Age
1. William Dean Howells豪厄尔斯
①title: “champion of literary realism in US” “first president of American Academy of Arts and Letters” ②works:
essay--- Criticism and Fiction novel---The Rise of Silas Lapham Plot: P120-121
Character: Silas Lapham---common Bostonian of the late 19th century, average America happy with his family and proud of his success in the world Theme:
house---symbol of Lapham’s success (in material) and aspiration for the polite society
the burning of the house---financial fall and moral rise 2. Henry James
①themes: exchanges between Americans and Europeans美国和欧洲文化的冲突
②写作手法：a. eliminates the author and gives the reader the illusion of being present at the scene of action让读者置身于情境中
b. without comments or explanations: Dramatize, only dramatize, is his lesson作者只设定情境 ③Three distinctive periods: a. 1865-1882 novels
The American (1877) 美国人 The Europeans (1878) 欧洲人
The Portrait of a Lady (1881) 淑女本色 贵妇的肖像 Daisy Miller(1878) 短篇小说 b.1882-1895 plays c.1895-1990 novels
The Turn of the Screw(1898)短篇小说 碧庐冤孽（螺丝在旋紧） The Wings of the Dove (1902) 鸽之翼 The Ambassadors (1903) 大使（奉使记） The Golden Bowl (1904) 金碗 3. Mark Twain(Local Colorism)
①Works: The Adventure of Tom Sawyer
The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn 汤姆索亚历险记的续集，海明威称赞“all modern American literature comes” ②theme: racism& slavery
intellectual& moral education The hypocrisy of civilized” society ③real name: Samuel Langhorne Clemens
vi.
④背景: Mississippi River
Naturalism(是现实主义的高级阶段)
Time: at the end of the 19th century
Subject of naturalist: detailed description of lives of the low and the abnormal, frank description of human passion and sexuality, and portrayal of men overwhelmed by nature
Theme of naturalists: pessimistic, deterministic
自然主义的起源：Emile Zola “surrounding and heredity遗传 can decide one’s destiny”
写作手法：ironic讽刺, less sympathy, more serious than realism, deterministic决定论 1. Stephen Crane
①Works: (novels) Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) and The Red Badge of Courage (1895) (short stories) “The Open Boat”
②Writing style: psychological description, visual beauty with symbols 2. Frank Norris
①works: (Novel) McTeague麦克提格(1899)首部全面展示自然主义的作品
the Octopus章鱼 (best work) (1901) railway Writing style:
rich material fresh imagery
poetic mode of fiction precise and exact word
(Essay of literary criticism) The Responsibilities of the Novelists (1903) 3. O. Henry(a prolific American short-story writer)多产短篇小说家
① Real name: William Porter ② The Gift of the Magi
③ Writing style: short, interesting and clever plot, good-natured humor, surprising end, keen observation of details, slang and colloquial expressions
4. Theodore Dreiser西奥多·德莱塞
works: Sister Carrie(1990)《嘉丽妹妹》
Jennie Gerhardt (1911)《珍妮姑娘》（姐妹篇）
The Financier (1912) 《金融家》
“Trilogy of Desire” (欲望三部曲) The Titan (1914)《巨头》 The Stoic(1947)《斯多葛》 The \《天才》--autobiographical novel
An American Tragedy--greatest and most successful Political commentary set 5. Jack London
Works:
---Reflection of his Involvement in the socialist movement: The Iron Heel, The People of the Abyss ---Reflection of his belief in Darwinism:
美国文学简史-期末复习资料
