-石英
英美文学选读简答题
英国部分
Ⅰ
The Renaissance Period
1. Edmund Spenser
(1)
What
are
the
five
characteristics
of
Spenser?s
poetry ?
a. a
perfect melody.
b. a rare
sense of beauty.
c. a
splendid imagination.
d.
a
lofty
moral
purity
and
seriousness.
e.
a dedicated idealism.
(2)
Please
list
two
works
as
examples
of allegory. What is the
implied
meaning
an
allegory
is
usually concerned with ?
a.
John
Bunyan’s
The
pilgrim’s
Progress
and
Spenser’s
The
Faerie
Queene, etc.
b.
It
is
usually
concerned
with
moral, religious, political, symbolic
or mythical ideas.
2.
Christopher Marlowe
(1) Explain the
Tamburlaine.
a. Tamburlaine
is
a play about an
ambitious
and
pitiless
Tartar
conqueror in the fourteenth century
whose
rose
from
a
shepherd
to
an
overpowering king.
b.
Tamburlaine
is
a
product
of
Marlowe’s
characteristically
Renaissance
imagination,
fascinated
by
the
earthly
magnificence
available
to
men
of
imaginative
power
who
ave
the
energy of their
convinctions.
(2)
Explain
two
greatest
achievements of Marlowe.
a. Marlowe’s
greatest
achievement
lies
in
that
the
perfected
the
blank
verse
and
made
it
the
principal
medium of English
drama.
b. Marlowe’s
second achievement
is
his
creation
of
the
Renaissance
hero
for
English
drama.
Such
a
hero
is
always
individualistic
and
full of ambition, facing bravely the
challenge from both gods and men.
He embodies Marlowe’s humanistic
ideal
of
human
dignity
and
capacity.
3.
Wlliam Shakespear
(1)Explain
the
theme
of
The
Merchant of Venice?
his
romantic
comedies,
Shakespear
takes
an
optimistic
attitude toward
love and youth, and
the
romantic
element
are
brought
into
full
play.
The
most
important
play
among
the
comedies
is
The
Merchant of Venice.
traditional theme of the play
is
to
praise
the
friendship
between
Anotonio
and
Bassanio,
to
idealie
Portia
as
a
heroin
of
great
beauty,
wit
and
loyalty,
and
to
expose
the
insatiable greed and brutality of the
after
centuries’
abusing
of
the
Jews,
especially
the
holocaust
committed
by
the
Nazi
Germany
during the Second World War, it is
very
difficult
to
see
Shylock
as
a
conventional
evil
many
people today tend to regard the play
as
a
satire
of
the
Christian’s
hypocrisy
and
their
false
standards
of
friendship
and
love,
their
cunning
ways
of
pursing
worldliness
and
their
unreasoning
prejudice
against Jews.
(2)Explain the
Shakespear?s great
tragedies?
pear
great
tragedies
are:Hamlet,Othello,King
Lear,and
Macbeth.
have something in common.
Each
protrays
some
noble
hero,
who
faces
the
injustice
of
human
life
and
is
caught
in
a
difficult
situation
and
whose
fate
is
closely
connected
with
the
fate
of
the
whole
nation.
hero
has
his
weakness
of
nature:,
the
melancholic
scholar-prince,
faces
the
dilemma
between
action
and
mind;
o’s
inner weakness is
made
use
of
by
the
outside
evil
force;
old
king
Lear
who
is
unwilling
to
totally
give
up
his
power
makes
himself
suffer
from
treachery
and
infidelity.
h’s
lust for power stirs up
his
ambition
and
leads
him
to
incessant crimes.
Milton
(1)Briefly dicuss John Milton?
In
his
life,
Milton shows
himself a
real
revolutionary,
a
master
poet
and a
great prose writer. He fought
for
freedom
in
all
aspects
as
a
Christian
humanist,
while
his
achievements
in
literature
make
him
over
all
the
other
English
writers of his time and exert a great
influence over later ones.
s
Bacon
(1)Novum
Organum,
along
with
other
works,
won
the
author
the
honor
“Father
of
modern
science”.
What is
the name of the author,
What is
the
main concern of this
work
and
why
is
the
work
so
important for the
development of
modern
science?
a.
Novum
Organum
is
a
treatise
on
methodology which was written
by
Francis Bacon.
b. The
argument
is
for
the
use
of
inductive
method
of
reasoning
in
scientific study.
c.
Bacon
expounds
the
four
great
false
conceivings
that
beset
men’s
mind
and
them
from
seeking
the
truth.
d. He
also advocates the inductive
method of
reasoning in place of the
deductive
reasoning.
e.
By
putting
forward
this
theory,
Bacon
shows
the
new
empirical
attitudes toward truth about nature.
f.
He
bravely
challenges
the
medieval scholasticists.
Ⅱ
The Neoclassical Period
(1)
List
at
least
two
leading
neoclassicists
in
did
Neoclassicists
celebrate
in
literary creation?
a.
Alexander
Pope,
John
Dryden, Samuel Johnson
b.
They
believed
that
the
artistic ideals should be order, logic,
restrained
emotion
and
accuracy
and
that
literature
should
be
judeged
in
terms
of
its
service
to
humanity.
They
seek
proportion,
unity, harmony and grace in literary
expressions, in an
effort to
delight,
instruct
and
correct
human
a
polite, elegant , witty
and
intellectual art developed.
(2)
Discuss
the
difference
between
Romanticism
and
Neoclassicism.
a.
In
the
fields
of
literature,
the
Enlightment
Movement
brought
about a revival of
interest in the old
classical
works.
This
tendency
is
known
as neoclassicism.
b.
They
believed
that
artistic
ideals
should
be
order,
logic,
restrained
emotion
and
accuracy,
and
that literature should be judged
in
terms of its service to humanity.
c.
This
belief
led
them
to
seek
proportion,
unity,
harmony
and
grace
in
literary
expressions,
in
an
effort
to
delight,
instruct
and
correct
human
beings,
primarily
as
social animals. Thus a
polite, urban,
witty,
and
intellectual
art
developed.
1.
Daniel Defoe
(1)
What are the
features of
Daniel
Defoe
?
?
Defoe was
a very good story-teller.
He had a gift
for organizing minute
details in such a
vivid way that his
stories
could
be
both
credible
and
fascinating.
His
sentences
are
sometimes
short,
crisp
and
plain,
and
sometimes
long
and
rambling,
which
leave
on
the
reader
an
impression
of
casual
language
is
smooth,,
easy,
colloquial
and
mostly
vernacular.
There
is
nothing
artificia
in
his
language;
it
is
common
English
at
its best.
(2)
Discuss
Crusoe
as
an
embodiment
of
the
rising
middle-class
virtues
in
the
mid-
eighteenth century England.
Robinson
is
here
a
real
hero;
a
typical
eighteenth-century
English
middle-class
man,
with
a
great
capacity
for
work,
inexhaustible
energy,courage,patience
and
persistence
in
overwhelming
obstacles,
in
struggling
against
the
hostile
natural
enviroment.
He
is
the
very
prototype
of
the
empire
builder,
the
pioneer
colonist.
In
describing
Robinson’s
life
on
the
island,
Defoe
glorifies
human
labour
and
the
Puritan
fortitude,
which
save
Robinson
from
despair
and
are
a
source
of
pride
and
happiness.
He
toils
for
the
sake
of
subsistence,
and
the
fruits
of
his
labor are his own.
2. Henry Fielding
(1)
Briefly
dicuss
Henry
Fielding?s forms of plays ?
During
his
career
as
a
dramatist,
Fielding
had
attempted
a
considerable
number
of
forms
of
plays:
witty
comedies
of
manners
or
intrigues
in
the
Restoration
tradition,
farces
or
ballads
operas
wit
political
implications,
and
burlesques
and
satires
that
bear
heavily
upon
the
status-quo
of
English.
(2)
Explain
the
theme
of
Tom Jones
？
The
theme
of
Tom
Jones
:
Tom
is
an
honest,
kind-hearted,
high-spirited,
loyal
and
brave,
but
impulsive,
wanting
prudence
and
full of animal spirits.
In a way, the
young
man
stands
for
a
wayfaring
Everyman,
who
is
expelled
from
the paradise and
has
to go
through
hard
experience
to
gain
a
knowledge of himself and finally to
approach perfectness.
(3)
Briefly
dicuss
the
features
of
Fielding?s writings ?
Fielding’s
language
is
easy,
unlaboured
and
familiar,
but
extremely
vivid
and
vigorous.
His
sentences
are
always
distinguished
by
logic
and
rhythm,
and
his
structure carefully planned towards
an inevitable ending. His works are
also
noted
for
lively,
dramatic
dialogues
and
other
theatrical
devices
such
as
suspense,
coincidence and
unexpectedness.
Ⅲ
The
Romantic Period
(1)
Inspiration
for
the
romantic
approach
intially
ame
from
two
great
shapers
of
thought, who are they ?
a.
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau,
a
French philosopher, was one of the
leading
thinkers
th
in
the
second
half
of
the
18
century.
In
1762,
he
published two books that
electrified
Europe, that is
, Du Contrat Social
and
Emile,
in
which
he
explored
new
ideas
about
Nature,
Society
and Education.
b.
None
was
so
effective
as
Thomas
Paine’s
Declaration
of
Right of Man. Paine knew what he
was
talking
about;
he
had
been
in
France
during
the
Revolution,
and
demonstrated
conclusively
that
by
1789
France
was
so
enmeshed
in
oppression and misery that nothing
short
of
revolution
could
ser
him
free.
(2) What is the Gothic novel ?
Gothic
novel,
a
type
of
romantic
fiction
that
predominated
in
the
late eighteenth century,
was one of
the
Romantic
movement.
Its
principal
elements
are
violence,
horror, and the supernatural, which
strongly
appeal
to
the
reader’s
emotion.
With
its
descriptions
of
the
dark,
irrational
side
of
human
nature,
the
Gothic
form
has
exerted
a
great
influence
over
the
writers
of Romantic period. Works
like
The
Mysteries
of
Udolpo
by
Ann
Radcliffe and Frankenstein by
Mary
Shelley
are
typical
Gothic
romance.
1.
William Wordsworth
(1)
Why
is
Lyrical
Ballads
considered
te
milestone
to
mark
the
beginning
of
English
Romanticism ?
a.
In
this
book,
Wordsworth
and
Coleridge
explored
new
theories
and
innovated
new
techniques in poetry writing.
b.
The preface to
the Lyrical
Ballads
acts
as a
manifesto
for
the
new
the
preface,
Wordsworth
defines
poetry
and
poets.
c.
Wordsworth’s
poems
in
this
book
differ
in
marked
ways
from
his early poetry : simplicity of
the
language, sympathy for the poor,
and
expressions of inward states of
mind.
2.
George Gordon
Byron
(1)
Briefly
explain By
ron?s
work “The
Isles of Greece”
a.
The
speaker
is
a
Greek
singer
(or
Byron
in
a
Greek
Singer’s
disguise
or
Byron
speaks
through a Greek
singer).
b.
The
whole
poem
presents
a
strong
resentment
for
the
Turk’s
conquest
of
Greece
calls
on
the
Greek
people
to
rise
and
fight
for
freedom
.
c.
Thus,
the
last
lines
may
suggest
resolution
to
take
immediate
action
to
free
Greece
from enslavement.
3.
Percy Bysshe
Shelley
(1) What is the theme of “Ode
to
the West Wind” ?
In the poem, Shelley eulogized the
powerful west wind and expressed
his
eagerness
to
enjoy
the
boundless
freedom
from
the
reality.
Ⅳ
The Victorian
Period
(1)
Discuss
the
historical
background of Victorian period.
a. The early years
of the
V
octorian
England
was
a
time
of
rapid
economic
development
as
well
as
serious
social problems.
b. The middle years of
the Victorian
England
was
a
time
of
prosperity
and relative
stability.
c.
The
last
three
decades
of
the
century witnessed the decline of the
British empire and the decay of the
V
octorian values.
1.
Charles
Dickens
(1)
“
Let
it
not
be
supposed
by
the
enemies
of
“the
system”,
that,
during
the
period
of
his
solitary incarceration, Oliver was
denied
the
benefit
of
exercise,
te
pleasure
of
society,
or
the
advantages
of
religious
consolation.
”
What
do
you
think
Charles
Dickens intends to say ?
a.
The
sentence
is
a
typical
example
of
irony.
What
Dickens
intends to say is
just the opposite of
the sentence’s
literal meaning.
b.
For
the
“benefit”
of
exercise,
Oliver
whipped
every
morning
in
a
stone
yard;
for
the
“pleasure”
of
society,
he
was
carried
every
other
day
into
the
dining hall and flogged
as a public
warning
and
example
to
the
boys;
and
as
for
the
“advantages”
of
religious
consolation,
he
was
kicked
into
the
apartment
every
evening
at
prayer
time
and
listenedto
the
boys’
prayer
to
be
guard
against his sins and vices.
c.
The
ironic
statement
is
,
in
fact
,
a
bitter
denunciation
and
fierce attack at the
brutal , inhuman
treatment of the poor
orphan by the
workhouse authority.
(2)
“ ? My
boy
！
?
said the
old
gentleman, learning over the desk,
Oliver
started
at
the
sound .
He
might be excused for doing so, for
the words
were
kindly said , and
strange
sounds
frighten
one .
He
trembled
violently
,
and
burst
into
tears.”
(From
Charles
Dickens? Oliver
Twist)
How
do
you
understand
the
above passage ?
The
boy
started
at
the
words
because
kind
words
were
not
expected;
it
is
the
first
time
in
all
his
life
that
Oliver
Twist
had
ever
been
“kindly”
greeted;
strange
sounds
may
predict
another
suffering/misfortune/torture.
2.
The Bronte
Sisters
(1)
Try
to
tell
Emily
Bronte?s
way
of
narration
in
Wuthering Heights briefly ?
The
story
is
told
mainly
by
Nelly,
Catherine’s
old
nurse,
to
Mr.
Lockwood,
a
temporary
tenant
at
Grange.
The
latter
too
gives
an
account
of
what
he
sees
at
Wuthering Heights. And
part of the
stor
y
is
told
through
Isabella’s
letters
to
Nelly.
While
the
central
interest is maintained, the sequence
of
its
development
is
constantly
disordered
by
flashbacks.
This
makes the story all te
more enticing
and genuine.
(2)
What
reasons
does
Catherine?s
have
to
be
tray
Heathcliff and their love ?
a.
Heathcliff’s
accusation
can
be
justified.
b.
The
fancy
she
felt
for
Linton,
that
is
,
she
was
attracted
by
Linton’s
pleasant
personality,
his
rich
knowledge,
and
his
elegant
manners.
c.
Her
vainglory
made
her
desire
a kind of upper-class life and social
status.
d.
She
was
afraid
that
she
might
suffer
poverty
and
be
degraded
if
she had got married to
Heathcliff.
e.
She
fancied
if
she
got
married
to
Linton,
she
might
have
the
means
to
help
Heathcliff in getting
a
good
education
and
becoming
a
gentleman
so
that
they
could
be
united without being degraded.
(3)
What
is
the
theme
of
“Jane
Eyre”
?
a.
The
work
is
one
of
the
most
popular and important
novels of the
Victorian
Age.
It
is
noted
for
its
sharp
criticism
of
the
existing
society, e.g. the
religious hypocrisy
of
charity
institution
such
as
Lowood
school
where
poor
girls
are
trained,
through
constant
starvation
and
humiliation,
to
be
humble
slaves,
the
social
discrimination
Jane
experiences
first
as
a
dependent
at
her
aunt’s
house
and
later
as
a
governess
at
Thornfield,
and
the
false
social
convention love and marriage.
b.
At
the
same
time,
it
is
an
intense
moral
fable.
Jane,
like
Mr.
Rochester,
has
to
undergo
a
series
of
physical and moral tests to grow
up and
achieve her final happiness.
(4)
Analyze
the
character
of
Jane
Eyre ?
a.
Jane
Eyre, an orphan child with
a
fiery
spirit
and
a
longing
to
love
and
be
loved,
a
poor,
plain,
little
governess
who
dare
to
love
her
master.
b.
In
Chapter
Ⅹ
Ⅹ
Ⅲ
,
Jane
finds
herself hopelessly in love
with Mr.
Rochester but she
is aware that her
love
is
out
of
question.
When
forced
to
confront
Mr.
Rochester,
she desperately
and openly declares
her equality with
him and
her love
for him.
(5)
Jane
Eyre
is
one
of
most
popular
and
important
novels
of
the
Victorian
Age.
Why
is
Jane
Eyre such a successful nove ?
a.
It
is
noted
for
its
sharp
criticism of the existing society.
b.
It is an intense moral fable.
c.
The
success
of
the
novel
is
also
due
to
its
introduction
to
the
English
novel
the
first
governess
heroine.
3.
Alfred
Tennyson
(1)
Tennyson is a real artist.
What
are
the
major
artistic
features of his poetry ?
a.
His
poetry
is
rich
in
poetic
images
and
melodious
language.
It
is
noted
for
its
lyrical
beauty and metrical
charm.
b.
His
poetry
is
also
famous
for
the
perfect
blending
of
visual
pictures,
musical
expressions
and
human feelings.
c.
His
works
are
traditional
in
style.
The
not
only
the
products
of
the
creative
imagination
of
a
poetic
genius,
but
also
those
of
a
long
,
rich
English
poets
,
such
as
the
dreaminess
of
Spenser,
the
majesty
of
Milton,
the
natural
simplicity,
of
Wordsworth,
the
fantasy of Blake and
Coleridge, the
melody
of
Keats
and
Shelley,
and
narrative vigor of Scott and Byron.
4.
Robert
Browning
(1)
“Though
his
fair
daughter?s
self, as I avowed
At
starting,
is
my
object.
Nay,
we?ll go
Together
down,
sir.
Notice
Neptune, though
Taming
a
sea
horse,
though
a
rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in
bronze for me!”
Take his poem in to consideration,
what kind of person do you think
the Duck is ?
a.
His
apparent
intelligence,
excellent
taste
for
art
superiority
and
aristocratic
manners
are
paradoxical.
b.
He
is
obviously
a
hispried,
jealous and brutal person.
5.
Thomas Hardy
(1)
Thomas
Hardy
is
often
regarded as
a transitional writer.
Some
critics
believe
that
he
is
emotionally
traditional
and
intellectually
advanced.
How
do
you understand this idea?
a.
In
his
Wessex
novels,
there
is
an
apparent
nostalgic
touch
in
his
description
of
the
simple
and
beautiful though primitive rural life,
which
was
gradually
declining
and
disappearing
as
England
marched
into an indusrial
country. And with
those
traditonal
characters
he
is
always
sympathetic.
b.
On
the
other
hand,
the
immense
impact
of
scientific
discoveries and
modern philosophic
thoughts
upon
the
man
is
quite
obvious,
too.
c.
In
his
works,
man
is
shown
inevitably
bound
by
his
own
inherent nature and hereditary traits
which prompt him to go and search
for
some
specific
happiness
or
success and set him in conflict with
the enviroment.
Ⅴ
The Modern Period
(1) What
are the
major theme of
modernist literature ?
The
major
theme
of
the
modernist
lierature are the distorted, alienated
and
ill
relationships
between
man
and
nature,
man
and
society,
man
and man, and man had
himself.
1.
George Bernard Shaw
(1)
Try
to
summarize
the
theme
of
Mrs.
Warren?s
Profession ?
a.
As
one
of
the
influential
members
of
the
Fabian
Society,
Shaw regarded the
establishment of
socialism
by
the
emancipation
of
land
and
industrial
capital
from
individual
and
class
ownership
as
the
final goal.
b.
In
the
play,
Shaw
shows
clearly
that
all
humans
sufferings
are
consequences
of
the
cruel
economic
exploitation,
which
is
pursued
shamelessly
by
the
so-called
respectable
members
of
the
society
through
the
lowest
and
the
dirtiest means.
c.
As
a
realistic
dramatist,
he took the
modern social issues as
his
subjects.
Most
of
his
plays
are
concerned
with
economic
oppression of
women.
(2)
Analyze
the
features
of
George
Bernard
Shaw?s
characters.
a.
One
feature
of
Shaw’s
characterization
is
that
he
makes
the
trick
of
showing
up
one
character
vividly
at
the
expense
of
another.
b.
Another
feature
is
that
Shaw’s
characters are the representatives of
ideas, points of view.
c.
Inversion
is
also
used
in
character
portrayal
to
achieve
comic
effects.
2.
(1)
Please
analyze
The
Waste
Land by
?
a.
With
bold
technical
innovations
in
versification
and
style, the poem not only presents a
panorrama of physical disorder and
spiritual
desolation
in
the
modern
Western world, but also reflects the
prevalent
mood
of
disillusionment
and
despair
of
a
whole
post-war
generation.
b.
The
Waste
Land
is
a
poem
concerned
with
the
spiritual
breakup of a modern civilization in
which
human
life
has
lost
its
meaning, significance and purpose.
The
poem
has
developed
a
whole
set
of
historical,
cultural
and
religious
themes;
but
it
is
often
regarded
as
being
primarily
a
reflection
of
the
20
th
-century
people’s
disillusionment
and
frustration
in
a
sterile
and
futile
society.
3.
ce
(1)
Analyze
the
characteristics
of ce?s
novels.
a.
The
writer
expresses
a
strong
reaction
against
the
dehumanizing
effect of
mechanical civilization on
the
sensual
tendermess
of
human
nature,
and
it
is
agonized
concern
that haunts his writing.
b.
Lawrence,
introducing
psychological
elements
into
his
works,
holds
that
human
sexuality
is the dominating “Life Force”, and
definitely
and
frankly
describes
scenes of sex.
c.
As
far
as
artistic
tendency
is
concerned,
the
writer
is
mainly
realistic, though not without the use
of
poetic
imagination,
symbolism
and psychological description in his
writing.
美国部分
Ⅰ
The Romantic Period
1. Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1)
Emerson
gives
an
explicit
discussion
on
his
idea
of
the
Over-soul
in
Nature.
What
is
your
understanding
of
Emersonian
“Over
-
soul”?
In
this
essays,
Emerson
put
forward
his
philosophy
of
the
over-soul,
the
importance
of
the
Individual,
and
Nature.
Emerson
rejected both the formal religion of
the
churches
and
the
Deistic
philosophy;
instead
he
based
his
religion on an intuitive belief in an
ultimate
unity,
which
he
called
the
“over
-
soul.”
Emerson
and
ot
her
Transcendentalists
believed
that
there
should
believed
that
there
should
be
an
emotional
communication
between
an
individual
soul
and
the
universal
“over
-
soul,”
since
the
over
-soul
is
an all-pervading power from which
all things
come from and
of
which
all are
a part.
2. Nathaniel Hawthorne
(1)
?My
Faith
is
gone!?
cried
he,
after
one
stupefied
moment.
?There
is
no
good
on
earth;
and
sin is but a name. Come,
devil!for
to thee is this world
given.?
Please comment on
this passage.
a.
Goodman
Brown
utters
this
cry
when
he
finds
his
wife
Faith,
together
with
lots
of
prominent
people of the
village and the church,
attending a
witches’ Sabbath in the
woods.
b. His
cry shows
his
great surprise
and
disillusionment.
Thereafter,
he
becomes
distrustful
and
doubtful.
He
lives
a
dismal
and
gloomy
life
because he is
never able to
believe
in goodness or faith in
religious and
life,
but
also
his
faith
in
his
wife,
for his wife’s name is
Faith.
c. From this
story, we also can see
that
Hawthorne is a great allegorist
and
a
master
of
symbolism.
The
story itself is an allegory and is full
of
symbols
such
as
the
forest,
the
night,
the
snake,
and
the
pink
ribbon.
3. Walt Whitman
(1)
What
are
the
features
of
Whitman?s poetry?
a. His poetic style is marked by the
use of the poetic
“I”.
b.
He
adopted
“free
verse”,
poetry
witout
a
fixed
beat
or
regular
rhyme scheme
c.
The
image
in
his
poems
are
unconventional.
d. He uses
oral English.
e. His vocabulary is
amazing.
f.
Parallelism
and
phonetic
recurrence
are
used
at
the
begginning of te lines.
(2)
What
are
the
characteristics
of Whitman?s
free verse?
a.
Poetry
without
a
fixed
beat
or
regular rhyme scheme.
b.
The
poetic
lines
are
simple
and
prose like, varying in length, which
allows
him
to
express
his
ideas
freely..
c.
Whitman
also
applies
oral
English in his free verse to make it
an
effective
way
to
express
freely
the feelings of common people.
4. Washitington Irving
(1)
What
is
generally
the
view
Washington
Irving
expresses
in
his
Rip
Van
Winkle
about
the
radical
changes that happened to
the American
society in his time ?
a.
Irving
laments
the
radical
changes
in
his
time,
thinking
that
the changes
have taken away some
of
the
most
endeared
values
in
American life.
b.
Irving’s
pervasive
theme
of
nostalgia
for
te
unrecoverable
past
is unforgettable.
Ⅱ
The Realistic Period
(1)
Mark
Twain
and
Henry
James
are
two
reprsentatives
of
the
realistic
writers
in
American
literature. How is
Twain?s realism
different from James?s
realism ?
a.
Mark Twain’s realism is tainted
with
local color, preferring to have
his
own
region
and
people
at
the
forefront of his
stories.
b.
James’s
realism
is
concerned
with
the “inner world” of man.
c.
James’s
realism
is
also
concerned
with
the
international
theme.
d.
Twain’s language is simple and
colloquial.
e.
J
ames’s
language
is
elaborate
and
refined
with
lengthy
psychological
analysis.
(2)
What
are
the
major
characteristics of naturalism ?
a.
Strongly
influenced
by
social
Darwinism,
naturalism
emphasizes
te
determining
power
of
the
crushing forces of environment and
heredity.
b.
Being
devoid
of
the
freedom
of choice and incapable
of
shaping
their
own
destinies,
men
and
women
are
helpless
and
insignificant
in
a
cold
and
indifferent world.
c.
The
naturalistic
writers
reported
truthfully
and
objectively,
with a passion for science accuracy
and overwhelming accumulation of
factual details.
(3)
Why
are
naturalistists
inevitably
pessimistic
in
their
views ?
a.
Naturalism
was
greatly
influenced
by
Darwin’s
evolutionary theory
and the French
literature.
accept
the
negative
implication of Darwin’s theory, and
believe
that
society
is
a
“jungle”
where survival
struggles go on.
c.
They
believe
that
man’s
instinct,
te
enviroment
and
other
social and economic
forces play an
overwhelming
role
and
man’s
fate
is
“determined”
by
such
forces
beyond his control.
d.
Naturalism
is
evolved
from
realism
when
the
author’s
tone
in
writing
becomes
less
serious
and
less
sympathetic
but
more
ironic
and more pessimistic.
(4) Who are the three dominant
figures
of
the
American
Age
of
Realism
and
what
are
the
differences
in
their
understanding of
“truth”?
a. The three dominant figures are
William
Dean
Howells,
Mark
Twain and Henry James.
b.
Mark
Twain
and
Howells
seemed to have paid more attention
to
the
“life”
of
the
Amer
icans.
Howells
focused
his
discussion
on
the rising middle class and the way
they lived; Mark Twain preferred to
have
his
own
region
and
people
at
the
forefront
of
his
stories;
Henry
James had apparently
laid a greater
emphasis
on
the
“inner
world”
of
man.
1. Henry
James
(1)
What
is
generally
the
most
famous
theme
in
Henry
James?s
fiction
？
And
what
is
his
favourite
approach
in
chacterization
?
Please
illustrate
with examples.
Henry
James’s
most
famous
theme
is
what
is
generally
called
“the
international
theme”.
His
novels or short stories of the theme
are
always
set
against
a
larger
international
background,
usually
between Europe and
America. They
center
around
the
conflict
of
the
two
cultures,
represented
by
regarded
as
the
founder
of
psychological
realism
for
his
psychoanalytical
approach
to
his
chatacters.
Daisy
Miller,
The
Portrait
of
A
Lady,
The
American,
The
Ambassadors
are
his
representative works of
this kind.
(2)
“The
only
thing
I
don?t
like,
she
proceeded,
is
the
society”(Daisy
Miller
by
Henry
James)
What
kind
of
society
does
Daisy
not like ? Why ?
a.
Here
Daisy
is
saying
that
she
doesn’t
like
the
corrupted
and
hypocritical
society
of
the
Old
World,
that
is,
Europe.
She
is
actually
saying
that
European
society
doesn’t
have
real
parties
like dothe American ones.
b.
Like
her
countrymen,
Daisy
admires
the
social
life
the
parties
can
provide.
Furthermore,
she
enjoys men’s company,
which does
not
necessarily
mean
that
she
is
loose
and
flirtatious.
She
acts
just
as
she
likes
it
to
be,
daring
and
independent,
and
pays
no
attention
to what other
people would think of
her.
1.
Theodore
Dreiser
(1)
What
literary
group
does
Theodore
Dreiser
belong
to
?
What
are
the
characteristics
of
this
group?
Name
two
more
American
reprsentatives
that
belong to this group.
a.
Dreiser
belongs
to
the
Naturalism.
Naturalism
is
strongly
influenced by social Darwinism, so
this group adopts the idea that man
is
devoid
of
free
will
and
is
absolutely
shaped
by
heredity
and
enviroment.
The
writers
of
this
group
believe
in
the
theory
of
“
survival
of
the
fittest
”
.
They
tear
the
mask
of
gentility
to pieces
and
write about
the helplessness of man
and his
insignificance in a cold and
indifferent
world.
Stephen
Crane
and
Jack
London
as
well
as
Frank
Norris also belong to this group.
(2)
“In
y
our
rocking-
chair,
by
your window
dreaming, shall you
long, along. In
your rocking-chair,
by your window,
shall you dream
such happiness as you
may never
feel”
（
From
Theodore
Dreiser?s
Sister Carrie
）
What does
“rocking
-
chair” refers
to
and
what
does
the
passage
imply ?
a. The
“rocking
-
chair”
is
a
symbol
standing for fate. It is like a cradle
that
makes
one
feel
peaceful.
It
is
also
like
a
tide
that
ever
goes
on
with
life,
the
destiny
of
which
is
uncertain.
b.
At
the
end
of
the
novel,
Carrie
sits
in
the
rocking-chair,
which
implies
that
her
future
is
still
uncertain and hard to foresee.
(3) What
is
Dreiser?s
naturalistic
belief
？
Please
discuss
the
question with Carrie, a character
in Sister Carrie as an example.
a.
Dreiser
believes
that
while
men
are
controlled
and
conditioned
by
heredity, instinct and chance, a few
extraordinary
and
unsophisicated
human beings
refuse to accept their
fate
wordlessly
and
instead
strive,
unsuccessfully, to find meaning and
purpose for their existence.
b.
Carrie,
as
one
of
such,
senses
that
she
is
merely
a
cipher
in
an
uncaring
world
yet
seeks
to
grasp
the
mysteries
of
life
and
thereby
satisfies her desires for social status
and material comfort, but in spite of
her
success,
she
is
lonely
and
dissatisfied.
Ⅲ
.
The Modern Period
1. Ernest Hemingway
(1) What are the characteristic of
the Hemingway code hero ?
a.
Hemingway
code
heroes
have
seen
the
cold
world
for
one
cause
or
another,
they
boldly
and
courageously
face
the
reality;
whatever
the
result
is,
they
are
ready
to
live
with
grace
under
pressure.
b.
Almost
all
his
heroes
are
“soldiers”
either
in
a
narrow
or
broad
sense.
They
are
out
there
to
fight
against nature or the world, or
even
themselves.
But
no
matter
where
the
battleground
is
and
how
tragic the ending is, they will never
be defeated.
c.
Hemingway himself is one of
those Code
heroes; some critics say
his
protagonists
are
autobiographical,
for
they
share
something that is Hemingway.
(2)
How
do
you
understand
Hemingway?s
“Ieceberg
principle”
according
to
his
works ?
a.
Hemingway
one
said,
“The
dignity
of
movement
of an iceberg
is due to only one-eight of it being
above water.”
b.
According
to
Hemingway,
good
literary
writing
should
be
able
to
make
readers
feel
the
emotion
of
the
character
directly
and
the
best
way
to
produce
the
effect
is
to
set
down
exactly
every
paricular
kind
of
feeling
without
any
authorial
comments,
without
conventionally
emotive
language,
and
with
a
bare
minimum
of
adjectives
and
adverbs.
2. William Faulkner
(1)
Please
try
to
analyze
Faulkner?s
narrative
techniques ?
a.
He would never step between
te
characters
and
the
reader
to
explain,
but
let
the
characters
explain
themselves
and
hinder
as
little as
poss
ible the reader’s
direct
experience
of
the
work
of
art. The
most
characteristic
way
of
structuring his stories
is to fragment
the
narrative
by
juxtaposing
the
past with the present,
in the way the
montage does in a movie.
b.
The
interior
monologue
Faulkner
used
helps
him
achieve
the
most
desirable
effect
of
exploring
the
nature
of
human
consciousness.
c.
Faulkner
was
good
at
presenting
multiple
points
of
view,
which
gave
the
story
a
circular
form, wherein one event is centered,
with
various
points
of
view
radiating
from
it,
or
different
people responding to the same story.
Thus
a
high
degree
of
truth
could
be
reached.
The
other
narrative
techniques
Faulkner
used
to
construct
his
stories
included
symbolism
and
mythological
and
biblical allusions.
英美文选论述题
y
discuss
William
Shakespeare?s
artistic
achievement
in
characterizations,plot
construction and language.
A.
Shakespeare’s
major
characters
are
neither
merely
individuals
nor
type
ones;
they
represent
certain
types;they
are
individuals
representing
certain
types. Each character has his or her
own personalities; meanwhile, they
may share features
with
others. By
applying
a
psycho-analytical
approach,
Shakespeare
succeeds
in
exploring
the
characters
inner
world.
The
soliloquies
in
his
plays
fully
reveal the inner conflict of his
characters.
Shakespeare
also
portrays
his
characters
in
pairs.
Contrasts
are
frequently
used
to
bring
vividness to his characters.
B.
Shakespeareir
seldom
invents
his
own
plot;
instead,
he
borrows them from some old plays
or
storybooks,
or
from
ancient
Greek and Roman sources. In order
to
make
the
play
more
lively
and
compact, he would
shorten the time
and
intensify
the
story.
There
are
usually
several
threads
running
through the play, thus providing the
story
with
suspense
and
apprehension
C.
Shakespeare
can
write
skillfully
in
different
poetic
forms,
such as the sonnet, the blank verse,
and
the
rhymed
couplet.
His
blank
verse
is
especially
beautiful
and
mighty.
He
has
an
amazing
wealth
of
vocabulary
and
idiom.
He
is
known
to
have
used
16,000
different words. His coinage of new
words
and
distortion
of
the
meaning of the old ones also create
striking effects on the reader.
t on Hamlet?s inaction
(1).
Hamlet
has
none
of
the
single-minded
blood
lust
of
the
earlier
revengers.
It
is
not
because
he
is
incapable
of
action,
but
because
the
cast
of
his
mind
is
so
speculative,
so
questioning,
and
so
contemplative
that
action,
when
it
finally
comes,
seems
almost
like
defeat,
diminishing
rather
than
adding to the stature of the hero.
(2).Trapped in a nightmare
world of
spying,
testing
and
plotting,
and
apparently
bearing
the
intolerable
burden
of
the
duty
to
revenge
his
father's death, Hamlet
is
obliged to
inhabit
a
shadow
world,
to
live
suspended
between fact and fiction,
language and
action. His life is one
of constant
role-playing, examining
the nature of
action only to deny its
possibility,
for
he
is
too
sophisticated
to
degrade
his
nature
to
the
conventional
role
of
a
stage
revenger.
(3).For such a figure, soliloquy is a
natural medium, a necessary release
of
his
anguish;
and
some
of
his
questioning
monologues
possess
surpassing
power
and
insight.
Which
have
survived
centuries
of
being torn from their
context.
analyze
Hamlet
by
Shakespeare.
peare depicts
the image of
Hamlet
as
a
Renaissance
humanist
to
embody
the
dramatist’s
own
ideals,personal ideal,and social and
political one.
Hamlet’s
case,first
and
foremost
is
his
own
personal
ideal,that of filial piety and a strong
sense
of
justice
that
demands
revenge,But
he
has
his
social
and
political
ideals
the
one
hand,he
eulogizes
the
infinite
capabilities of
man:”what a piece of
work
is
man;how
noble
in
reason!How
infinite
in faculty!”On
the other
hand he sees and hopes to
get
rid
of
social
evils
besetting
human
beings,as
he
speaks
of
a
“sea of
troubles”.
Hamlet
engages
himself
in
personal
revenge
but
at
the
same
time intends
to set right the “time”
that
is “out of joints”.The burden of
these
duties
makes
Hamlet
a
man
of
contemplation
rather
than
of
action
,which
leads
to
the
soliloquies
revealing
the
inner
working
of
his
,the
struggle
between
good
and
evil
dominatively
controls
the
scene
of
Hamlet’s
tragedy,
a
tragedy
of
a
humanist who is
always
to see and
construct a better world.
s
the
difference
between
Romanticism and
Neoclassicism
Where
the
Neoclassicists
saw
man
as
a
social
animal,the
Romantics
saw him
essentially as an individual
in
the
solitary
the
Neoclassicists
emphasized
those
features
that
men
have
in
common,the
Romantics
emphasized
the
special
qualities
of
each individual’s ,we can
say
Romanticism
actually
constitutes
a
change
of
direction
from attention to
the outer world of
social
civilization
to
the
inner
world
of
the
human
spirit
.In
essence
it
designates
a
literary
and
philosophical theory which tends to
see the individual as the very center
of all life and all also
places
the
individual
at
the
center
of
art,making
literature
most
valuable as
an expression
of his
or
her
unique
feelings
and
particular
attitudes,and
valuing its accuracy in
portraying
the
individual’s
experiences
(1)
In
the
field
of
literature,
the
Enlightenment
Movement
brought
about a revival of interest in the old
classical
works.
This
tendency
is
known as neoclassicism.
(2).
They
believed
that
the
artistic
ideals
should
be
order,
logic,
restrained
emotion
and
accuracy,
and
that literature should be judged
in
terms of its service to humanity.
(3)
This
belief
led
them
to
seek
proportion,
unity,
harmony
and
grace
in
literary
expressions,
in
an
effort
to
delight,
instruct
and
correct
human
beings,
primarily
as
social
animals.
Thus
a
polite,
urbane,
witty,
and
intellectual
art
developed.
5 Make comments
on AUSTEN?s
attitude
towards
motivation
of
marriage
They
are
usually
categorized
into
three
types
according
to
their
different attitudes:
those who would
marry
for
material
wealth
and
social
position,
those
who
would
marry
just
for
beauty
and
passion,
and
those who would marry for ture
love
with
a
consideration
of
the
partner's
personal
merit
as
well
as
his
economical and social status. In
another
word,
Jane
Austen
tries
to
say that it is wrong to
marry just for
money
or
for
beauty,
but
it
is
also
wrong to marry without it.
e
the
Character
of
Jane
Eyre based on the
selection
a.
Jane
Eyre, an orphan child with a
fiery
spirit
and
a
longing
to
love
and
be
loved,
a
poor,
plain,
little
governess
who
dares
to
love
her
master,
a
man
superior
to
her
in
many
ways,
and
even
is
brave
enough
to
declare
to
the
man
her
love for him, cuts a
completely new
woman image. She
represents those
middle-class
working
women
who
are
struggling
for
recognition
of
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