americanliterature美国文学简史

americanliterature美国文学简史内容摘要：

uenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson＊ s individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism. Major themes in his poems （ almost everything） : lequality of things and beings ldivinity of everything limmanence of God ldemocracy levolution of cosmos lmultiplicity of nature lselfreliant spirit ldeath, beauty of death lexpansion of America lbrotherhood and social solidarity （ unity of nations in the world） lpursuit of love and happiness : ※ free verse167。 （ 1） no fixed rhyme or scheme （ 2） parallelism, a rhythm of thought （ 3） phoic recurrence （ 4） the habit of using snapshots （ 5） the use of a certain pronoun ※ I167。 （ 6） a looser and more openended syntactic structure （ 7） use of conventional image （ 8） strong tendency to use oral English （ 9） vocabulary powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong （ 10） sentences catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines （ 1） His best work has bee part of the mon property of Western culture. （ 2） He took over Whitman＊ s vision of the poetprophet and poetteacher and recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood. （ 3） He has been pared to a mountain in American literary history. （ 4） Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence. II. Emily Dickenson （ 1） My Life Closed Twice before Its Close （ 2） Because I Can＊ t Stop for Death （ 3） I Heard a Fly Buzz 每 When I died （ 4） Mine 每 by the Right of the White Election （ 5） Wild Nights 每 Wild Nights : based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows （ 1） religion 每 doubt and belief about religious subjects （ 2） death and immortality （ 3） love 每 suffering and frustration caused by love （ 4） physical aspect of desire （ 5） nature 每 kind and cruel （ 6） free will and human responsibility （ 1） poems without titles （ 2） severe economy of expression （ 3） directness, brevity （ 4） musical device to create cadence （ rhythm） （ 5） capital letters 每 emphasis （ 6） short poems, mainly two stanzas （ 7） rhetoric techniques: personification 每 make some of abstract ideas vivid III. Comparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson : （ 1） Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of ※ American Renaissance167。 . （ 2） Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry. : （ 1） Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large。 Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. （ 2） Whereas Whitman is ※ national167。 in his outlook, Dickinson is ※ regional167。 . （ 3） Dickinson has the ※ catalogue technique167。 （ direct, simple style） which Whitman doesn＊ t have. Edgar Allen Poe I. Life II. Works stories （ 1） ratiocinative stories a. Ms Found in a Bottle b. The Murders in the Rue Mue c. The Purloined Letter （ 2） Revenge, death and rebirth a. The Fall of the House of Usher b. Ligeia c. The Masque of the Red Death （ 3） Literary theory a. The Philosophy of Composition b. The Poetic Principle c. Review of Hawthorne＊ s Twicetold Tales III. Themes 每 predominant theme in Poe＊ s writing ※ Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe＊ s writings is dead.167。 （ separation） of life thoughts of science IV. Aesthetic ideas short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, pression and finality. poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm. V. Style 每 traditional, but not easy to read VI. Reputation: ※ the jingle man167。 （ Emerson） VII. His influences Chapter 3 The Age of Realism I. Background: From Romanticism to Realism three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period （ 1） industrialism vs. agrarian （ 2） culturelymeasured east vs. newlydeveloped west （ 3） plantation gentility vs. mercial gentility ＊ s urbanization: from free petition to monopoly capitalism closing of American frontier II. Characteristics description of life character under typical circumstance rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life ※ Realistic writers are like scientists.167。 : Life is plex and cannot be fully understood. It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves. with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustrations of characters in an environment of sordidness and depravity III. Three Giants in Realistic Period Dean Howells 每 ※ Dean of American Realism167。 （ 1） Realistic principles a. Realism is ※ fidelity to experience and probability of motive167。 . b. The aim is ※ talk of some ordinary traits of American life167。 . c. Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells＊ s fictional representation. d. Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals but includes a central concern with ※ motives167。 and psychological conflicts. e. He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid selfsacrifice, and avoids such themes as illicit love. f. Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense of something ※ desultory, unfinished, imperfect167。 . g. Characters should have solidity of specification and be real. h. Interpreting sympathetically the ※ mon feel。