Fi
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
II.
1.
2.
3.
4.
llintheblanks.
American achievements in the short story have demanded international respect and admiration for more than a century and a half. The first successful American short stories came from
Washington Irving in the early 19th
century.Edgar Allan Poe is generally thought of as the true beginner of the short stories because he was the first writer who formulated a poetics of the short stories.
In the 20th
century, there have been many who have won fame abroad as well as in the US for their short stories: Sherwood Anderson, Hemingway Faulkner, Anna Porter, and dozens of others.As you read from writer to writer, from Washington Irving’s ‘Rip Van Winkle’to O’Connner’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’, you will see the coming of a short story age, growing from an entertaining tale into a story which probes deep into human souls.
Modern literary fiction has been dominated by two forms: the short story and the novel.Washington Irving, the Father of American Literature, developed the short story as a genre in American literature.
Allan Poe is usually acknowledged as the originator of detective stories. He is also credited with developing many of the standard features of detective fiction.Edgar Allan Poe wrote poems which are marvels of beauty and craftsmanship, such as ____.
A. I Hear America Singing B. The RavenC. To a waterfowl D. The fall of the House of Usher
The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the___.
A. revolutionism B. reasonC. individualism D. rationalism
In American literature, the 18th
century was the Age of the Enlightenment, ___ was the dominant spirit.A. humanism B. rationalismC. revolution D. evolutionWho was considered the “Poet of American Revolution
”
Multiple choice5.
6.
A. Michael Wigglesworth B. Edward TaylorC. Anne Bradstreet D. Philip FreneauThomas Jefferson’s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness, is typical of the period we now call___.
A. Age of Evolution B. Age of ReasonC. Age of Romanticism D. Age of Regionalism
Mark Twain created, in _____, a masterpiece of American realism that is also one of the great books of world literature.A. Huckleberry Finn B. Tom SawyerC. The Man That Corrupted Hadleybury D. The Gilded AgeThe pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervaded the works of such American writers as___.A. Mark Twain B. Scott FitzgeraldC. Walt Whitman D. Stephen Crane
th
Although realism and naturalism were products of the 19century,
th
their final triumph came in the 20 century, with the popular and critical successes of such writers as Edwin Arlington, William Cather, Robert Frost, William Faulkner and_____.
A. Edgar Allan Poe B. Sherwood AndersonC. Washington Irving D. Ralph Ellison
th
American literature produced only one female poet during the 19century. She was___.
A. Anne Bradstreet B. Jane AustenC. Emily Dickinson D. Harried BeecherWith Howells, James and Mark Twain active on the scene, ____
th
became the major trend in the seventies and eighties of the 19century.
A. sentimentalism B. romanticism
C. realism D. naturalism
th
Choose from the following writers a staunch advocate of the 19century American realism.
A. Mark Twain B. Washington IrvingC. Stephen Crane D. Jack LondonWhich writer has naturalist tendency
A. Frank Norris B. William Dean HowellsC. Theodore Dreiser D. Both A and C
th
Early in the 20century, ____ published works that would change the nature of American poetry.
A. Ezra Pound B. . EliotC. Robert Frost
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
D. Both A and B
The Imagist writers followed three principles. They respectively are direct treatment, economy of expression and ____.
A. local color B. ironyC. clear rhythm D. blank verse
15.____, one of the essays in The Sacred Wood, is the earliest
statement of . Eliot’s aesthetics, which provided a useful instrument for modern criticism.A. ‘Sweeny Agonistes’B. ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’
14.
C. ‘A Primer of Modern Heresy’ D. ‘Gerention’16.Eliot used a form, that is, the orchestration of related themes
in successive movements, in such works as ____.
A. The Waste Land B. ‘A Rose for Emily’C. The Scarlet Letter D. The Egg17..Eliot’s first major poem (1917)____, has been called the first
masterpieces of modernism in English.
A. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ B. ‘The Waste Land’
18.
19.
20.
C. ‘Four Quartets’ D. PreludeThe three poets Ezra Pound, . Eliot and ____ opened the way to modern poetry.
A. O. Henry B. Henry David ThoreauC. . Cummings D. Robert Frost
In 1954, ___ was awarded the Nobel prize for literature fro his “mastery of the art of modern narration”.
A. Eliot B. Earnest HemingwayC. John Steinbeck D. William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner is one of the most important southern writers
in the United States. ____, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! are works that ambitious critics tend to admire.
A. The Sound and the Fury B. The Invisible ManC. A Good Man is Hard to Find D. The Wrath of the Grapes
IV. Questions and answers.
1.How do you understand Mark twain’s use of local color in his
writing
Mark Twain’s narratives are distinguished for his use of local
color. This may be defined as the careful attention to details
of the physical scene and to those mannerisms in speech, dress, or behavior peculiar to a geographical locality. He insisted
2.
that the job of the native novelists was to depict each of the country’s regions and people accurately. Only in this way could the peculiarity of American experience, the polyglot tongues of its people, and the vastness of the continent be captured. He mainly exploited the possibilities of the local color in the Mississippi region.
Discuss the concept of wasteland in relation to the works of
th
those writers in the 20 century American literature.
‘The Waste Land’ is a poem written by . Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of th3 contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair in the postwar era has appeared over and over again in the works of those writers in the 2oth century American literature. Faulkner exemplified .
Eliot’s concept of modern society as a wasteland is a dramatic way, he condemned the mechanized, industrialized society that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decrease those essential human values such as courage, fortitude, honesty and goodness. Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the jazz age. Beneath the masks of
relaxation and joviality, there was only sterility, meaningless and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance, there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway, the
leading spokesman of the Lost Generation, though disillusioned in the postwar period, strove to bring about man’s “grace under pressure”. He tried to bring out the idea than man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually.Analyze Walt Whitman’s ‘O Captain! My Captain’ in terms of free verse.In the poem, Whitman celebrates the heroic struggle of the American people for democracy, freedom and justice and expresses his seething hatred of slavery.Free verse is a kind of poetry that lacks regular meter or pattern and may not rhyme. Depending on natural speech rhythms, its lines may be of different lengths and may switch abruptly
from one rhythm to another. Whitman was the first American poet to use free verse extensively, because it is an appropriate form for his liberating view of life and for his poetry that would
allow every aspect of life to speak without restraint. He tried to approximate the natural cadences of speech in his poetry, carefully varying the length of his lines according to his intended emphasis.
3.
I.
Literature of Colonial America
Literary Terms
:In the colonial period, the Puritans who had gone to extreme were
known as “separatists”. Unlike the majority of Puritans, they saw no hope of reforming the Church of England from within. They felt that the influences of politics and court had led to corruptions within the church. They wished to break free from the Church of England. Among them was the Plymouth plantation group. They wished to follow Calvin’s model, and to set up “particular” churches. and Puritans: A small group of Europeans sailed from England on the Mayflower in 1620. The passengers were religious reformers--- Puritans who were critical of the Church of England. Having given up hope of “purifying” the Church from within, they chose instead to withdraw from the Church. This action earned them the name Separatists. We know them as the pilgrims.Fill in the blanks1.The term “Puritan”was applied to those settlers who
originally were devout members of the Church of England.
2.
II.
3.
4.
5.
Harvard College was established in 1636, with a printing press set up nearly in 1639.
Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety, these were the puritanvalues that dominated much of the early American writing.
The American poets who emerged in the seventeenth century adapted the style of established European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange, new environment. AnneBradstreet was one of such poets.Bradstreet used a word “pilgrim” to describe the community of
believers who sailed from Southampton England, on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.
The writer who best expressed the Puritan faith in the colonial period was John Winthrop.The Puritan philosophy known as Puritanism was important in New England during colonial time, and had a profound influence on the early American mind for several generations.Multiple choice
th
Early in the 17 century, the English settlements in ___ began the main stream of what we recognize as the American national history.
A. Virginia and Pennsylvania B. Massachusetts and New York
6.
7.
III.
1.
美国文学史试题库
