伴侣英文美国文学简史

《美国文学简史》考试要点：

三、诗歌鉴赏

2

个

P23

作者：

Philip Freneau

诗歌名：

The Wild Honey Suckle

主题：

词的象征意义：

P98

作者：

Emily Dickinson

诗歌名：

My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close

主题：

词的象征意义：

P99

作者：

Emily Dickinson

诗歌名：

Wild Nights

主题：

词的象征意义：

P191

作者：

William Carlos Williams

诗歌名：

The Red Wheelbarrow

主题：

词的象征意义：

P205

作者：

E. E. Cummings

诗歌名：

a leaf falls loneliness

主题：

词的象征意义

作者、诗歌名、主题、词的象征意义

四、名词解释

1

清教主义

is a dominant factor in American life ,it takes a code of values, a philosophy of life, and a point of

view, and was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature.

2

意象主义

it

as

reaction

to

the

traditional

English

poetics

with

its

iambic

pentameter

,its

verbosity,

and

extra-poetic padding, but it served ,first and foremost, to meet the need of expressing the temper of the age . the

sense of fragmentation and dislocation.

3

自然主义

evolved from realism when the author

’

s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but

more ironic and more than a gloomy philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence.

4

乡土文学

as a trend first made its presence felt in the late 1860s and early seventies. Local colorist concerned

themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They tended to idealize and glorify,

but they never forgot to keep an age on the truthful color of local life

the ultimate aim of the local colorists is to

create the illusion of an indigenous little world with qualities that tell it apart from the world outside.

5

现实主义

as a literary movement realism came in the late half of the nineteenth century as a reaction against the

lie of romanticism and sentimentalism it expressed the concern for the world of experience of the commonplace

and for the familiar and the low.

超验主义

(Transcendentalis m):

New

England

Transcendentalism

is

very

important

to

American

literature,

pushing

American

Romanticism

into

a

summit.

Transcendentalists

are

not

quite

happy

about

the

materialistic-oriented life of their time and they reacted against the faith of Boston businessmen and the cold, rigid

rationalism of Unitarianism. In essence, transcendentalism is idealism.

7

冰山理论

(Iceberg Theory): If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he

knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those as strongly as though the

writer had said them. The dignity of the movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.

8

迷茫的一代

(The Lost Generation): The lost generation is a term coined by Gertrude Stein. It is a label for the

group of American young expatriate writers born at the turn 20

th

century and reached maturity after World War

Ⅰ

.

These writers felt profound cut off from tradition, disillusioned and alienated with society and cynical idealism. To

them, life is meaningless and futile. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and T. S. Eliot are the most important

representatives.

9

海明威式主人公

(The Typical Hemingway): The typical Hemingway hero is one who, wounded but strong, more

sensitive and wounded because stronger, enjoys the pleasures of life (sex, alcohol, sport) in face of ruin and death

and maintains, through some notion of a code, an ideal of himself.

10

福克纳

(William Faulkner): 1. Father of American southern literature.

2. Poineer of American stream

11

约克纳帕塔法

(Y oknapatawpha): The Yoknapatawpha County Series have an overall pattern in which the fate of

a ruined homeland always focus on the collision of Faulkner

’

s intelligent, sensitive and idealistic protagonist with

the society of the 20

th

century. Most of the major themes are the confrontation.

五、简答

3

个

浪漫主 义特征（

3

）

Features: iveness. Thus American Romanticism was in a way derivative: American romantic writing was

some of them modeled on English and European works.

2. Uniqueness. It was different from its English and European counterpart because it originated from an amalgam

of

factors

that

were

altogether

American

rather

than

anything

else.

American

romanticism

was

in

essence

the

expression of

“

a real new experience

”

and contained

“

an alien quality

”

for the simple reason that

“

the spirit of the

place

”

was radically new and alien.

Then there is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American moral values were essentially

Puritan.

Public

opinion

was

overwhelmingly

Puritan;

the

Puritan

atmosphere

of

the

nation

predominantly

conditioned social life and cultural tastes. American Romantic authors tended more to moralize than their English

and European brothers.

3. Newness. Self- reliant

individualism (realization of individual values).

Idealism

(American dream).

In

summary,

as

a

logical

result

of

the

foreign

and

native

factors

at

work,

American

Romanticism

was

both

imitative and independent.

惠特曼、狄金森诗歌异同

Similarities

：

1.

Thematically,

both

extolled,

in

their

different

ways,

an

emergent

America,

its

expansion,

its

individualism, and its Americanness.

2. In technical terms, 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.

Differences: 1. Dickinson differs from Whitman in a variety of ways. For one thing, Whitman

seems to keep his

eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. (Point of view: Whitman: outer world,

society; Dickinson: inner life)

2. In formal terms the two poets are vastly different: Whitman

’

s endless, all- inclusive catalogs contrast with the

concise, direct, and simple diction and syntax which characterize Dickinson

’

s poetry. (Tone: Whitman: passionate;

Dickinson: subtle)

超验主义特征（内容）