美国文学史整理

美国文学

简答题

-dick

is regarded as the Great American Novel,

the first American prose epic

(

散文史诗：

a long narrative poem telling of heroic deeds of reflecting the values of the society from which it

originated), though it is presented in the form of a novel.

①

its surface

meaning:

It

is

a whaling tale or sea adventure, dealing with Ahab, a man with an

overwhelming obsession to kill the whale which has crippled him, on board his ship Pequod in the

chase of the big whale. The dramatic description of the hazards of whaling makes the book a very

exciting

sea

narrative

and

builds

a

literary

monument

to

an

era

of

whaling

industry

in

the

nineteenth century.

②

The

deep

symbolic

theme

:

Moby-Dick

is

not

merely

a

whaling

tale

or

sea

adventure,

considering that Melville is a great symbolist. It turns out to be

a symbolic voyage of the mind in

quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into man's

deep reality

and

psychology

.

This

is

shown

in

Captain

Ahab's

rebellious

struggle

against

the

overwhelming

mysterious vastness of the universe and its awesome sometimes merciless forces.

The Peduod is the miscrocosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truth; Moby

Dick symbolizes

nature

for the author, evil for the character Ahab;

2.

《

the adventure of huckleberry finn

》

（

1

）

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Mark Twain’s masterpiece.

tells the story of a

teenaged misfit

，

H uck

，

who finds himself floating on a raft down the Mississippi

River with an escaping slave, Jim. In the course of their perilous journey, Huck and

Jim meet adventure, danger, and a cast of characters who are sometimes menacing

and often hilarious.

3. The Great Gatsby

（

1

）

The theme of the novel: The Great Gatsby, by summarizing the experiences and

attitudes

of

the

glamorous

and

wild

1920s,

deals

with

the

bankruptcy

of

the

American

Dream,

which

is

high1ighted

by

the

disillusionment

of

the

protagonist's

personal

dream

due

to

the

clashes

between

his

romantic

vision

of

life

and

the

relentless reality.

（

2

）

Chapter

Ⅲ

of the novel, a vivid description of one of Gatsby's fabulous parties,

presents a vivid atmosphere of paradox. Gatsby's party, characteristic of the roaring

twenties in the U.S. evokes both the romance and the sadness of the Jazz Age. On

the surface, the party is crowded, yet empty of warmth or friendship, with people

coming

to

the

party

eagerly

but

appearing

indifferent

and

contemptuous

of

their

host.

Gatsby

himself

as

the

host

is

a

paradox

--

exceedingly

courteous

but

keeps

himself detached from the noisy and confusing crowd, because he, though fascinated

with

the

wealth,

was

fully

aware

of

the

corruptive

nature

of

the

society

and

the

Vanity

Fair.

The

charm

and

sweetness

of

the

youth

is

spoiled

by

triviality

and

tawdriness; The splendid house and garden is purchased not for enjoyment but for

impression. There is every sign of merriment, with guests eating, drinking, laughing,

moving

about

and

dancing,

but

people

get

dead

drunk,

break

down

in

tears

or

quarrel

over

trivialities.

So

beneath

the

wealthy

people's

masks

of

relaxation

and

joviality there was only sterility, meaninglessness and futi1ity, and amid the grandeur

and

extravagance

a

spiritual

waste1and

and

a

hint

of

decadence

and

moral

decay.

This

undeniable

juxtaposition

of

appearance

with

reality,

of

the

pretense

of

gaiety

with the tension underneath, is easily recognizable in Fitzgerald's novels and stories.

Pound

赏析

The poem was first published in 1913 and is considered one of the leading poems of

the Imagist tradition. Pound's process of deletion from thirty lines to only fourteen

words

typifies

Imagism's

focus

on

economy

of

language,

precision

of

imagery

and

experimenting

with

non-

traditional

verse

forms.

The

poem

is

Pound’s

written

equivalent for the moment of revelation and intense emotion he felt at the Metro at

La Concorde, Paris.

By linking human faces, a synecdoche for people themselves, with petals on a damp

bough,

the

poet

calls

attention

to

both

the

elegance

and

beauty

of

human

life,

as

well as its transience. A dark, wet bough implies that it has just rained, and the petals

stuck to the bough were shortly before attached to flowers from the tree. They may

still

be

living,

but

they

will

not

be

for

long.

In

this

way,

Pound

calls

attention

to

human mortality as a whole - we are all dying.

The word

–

and thus transience as mentioned previously.

The plosive word

with the bleakness of the

m Wordsworth

赏析

to the West Wind

第一段

Stanza 1

Addressing the

west

wind

as

a

human,

the

poet

describes

its

activities:

It

drives dead leaves away as if they were ghosts fleeing a wizard. The leaves are yellow

and black, pale and red, as if they had died of an infectious disease. The west wind

carries seeds in its chariot and deposits them in the earth, where they lie until the

spring wind awakens them by blowing on a trumpet (clarion). When they form buds,

the

spring

wind

spreads

them

over

plains

and

on

hills.

In

a

paradox,

the

poet

addresses the west wind as a destroyer and a preserver, then asks it to listen to what

he says.

The Rhyme scheme- aba bcb cdc ded ff

Iambic metre

Twist

主要内容和思想主题

One of Charles Dickens most enduringly popular stories is Oliver Twist, an early work

published

1837-8.

Oliver

was

a

poor

orphan

orphan.

He

had

no

parents.

At

the

workhouse,

his

masters

were

very

stick.

So,

one

day,

he

escaped

to

London.

In

London,

he

met

a

thief

and

his

friends,

who

taught

him

to

steal

from

rich

people.

During this time, he met a kind man, w. But the thief forced Oliver to steal

from w. If Oliver refused, they would kill him. But one day ,the police found

the

thief

and

they

arrested

him

and

sent

him

to

prison.

Finally

,

adopted

Oliver.

w adopted.

In

Oliver

Twist,

Dickens

mixes

grim

realism

and

merciless

satire

as

a

way

to

describe

the

effects

of

industrialism

on

19th-century

England

and

to

criticize

the

harsh new Poor Laws. Oliver, an innocent child, is trapped in a world where his only

options seem to be the workhouse.

?

industrial/institutional setting, however, a fairy tale also emerges. In the midst

of corruption and degradation, the essentially passive Oliver remains pure-hearted;

he steers away from evil when those around him give in to it, and in proper fairy-tale

fashion, he eventually receives his reward

—

leaving for a peaceful life in the country,

surrounded by kind friends. On the way to this happy ending, Dickens explores the

kind of life an orphan, outcast boy could expect to lead in 1830s London.

Last Duchess

最后十行赏析

The poem is written as a dramatic monologue: one speaker relates the entire poem

as

if

to

another

person

present

with

him.

It

uses

iambic

pentameter

of

AABB

speaker (presumably the Duke of Ferrara) is giving the emissary of his

prospective

second

wife

a

tour

of

the

artworks

in

his

home.

He

stops

before

a

portrait

of

the

late

Duchess,

apparently

a

young

and

lovely

girl.

The

Duke

begins

reminiscing

about

the

portrait

sessions,

then

about

the

Duchess

herself.

The

Duke

describes her happy,

cheerful

and flirtatious

nature,

which

had

displeased

him.

He

wants to show himself off and show his wife’s disloyalty to him but on the contrary,

the readers find out he is a savage, small-minded man. The Duke then resumes an

earlier

conversation

regarding

wedding

arrangements,

and

in

passing

points

out

another work of art, a bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea- horse

，

as he wants to

tame duchess.

名词解释

1.

Transcendentalism

was

a

religious

and

philosophical

movement

that

developed

during the late 1820s and '30s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest

against the general state of spirituality and, in particular, the state of intellectualism

at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church as taught at Harvard

Divinity School.

Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people

and

nature.

They

believe

that

society

and

its < /p>

institutions

—

parti cularly

organized

religion

and

political

par ties

—

ultimately

corrupt

the

purity

of

the

individual.

They

have faith that people are at their best when truly

is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed.

2.

Free verse

is an open form of poetry. It does not use consistent meter patterns,

rhyme,

or

any

other

musical

pattern.

It

thus

tends

to follow

the

rhythm

of

natural

speech.

3.

The term

Stream of Consciousness

William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890),

and in 1918 May Sinclair first

applied the term stream of consciousness, in a literary context.

Stream

of

consciousness

is

a

narrative

device

that

attempts

to

give

the

written

equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue ,

or

in

connection

to

his

or

her

actions.

In

stream

of

consciousness

the

speaker's

thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind it is primarily

a fictional device.

作家

joyce

《

Ulysses

》

Virginia Wolf

《

Mrs Dalloway

》

作家及诗歌

ysical poetry

The

term

“metaphysical

poetry”

is

commonly

used

to

designate

the

works

of

the

17th-century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne.

With

a

rebellious

spirit,

the

metaphysical

poets

tried

to

break

away

from

the

conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry.

The

diction

is

simple

as

compared

with

that

of

the

Elizabethan

or

the

Neoclassic

periods,

and

echoes

the

words

and

cadences

of

common

speech.

The

imagery

is

drawn

from

the

actual

life.

The

form

is

frequently

that

of

an

argument

with

the

poet's beloved, with God, or with himself.

verse

Blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme.

In

English,

the

meter

most

commonly

used

with

blank

verse

has

been

iambic

pentameter

(like

that

which

is

used

in

Shakespearean

plays) .This

term

was

first

brought

into

England

by

Surrey.

Christopher Marlowe was the first English author to make full use of the potential of

blank

verse.

Couplet

Heroic

couplet

is

a

rhyming

couplet

of

iambic

pentameter,

often

containing

a

complete though. There is a fairly heavy at the end of the first line and a still heavier

one at the end of the second. Commonly there is a parallel or an antithesis within a

line, or between the two lines. It is called heroic because in England, especially in the

eighteenth century, it was much used for heroic (epic) poems.

Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Legend of Good

Women

and

the

Canterbury

Tales,

and

was

perfected

by

John

Dryden

in

the

Restoration Age.

7. Romanticism VS Neoclasssisim

1)a movement in literature, philosophy, music and art from late 18th century to early

19th

century in Europe.

2) imagination, emotion and freedom are certainly the focal points of romanticism.

The

particular

characteristics

of

the

literature

of

romanticism

include:

subjectivity

and an emphasis on individualism; freedom from rules; solitary life rather then life in

society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason; and love of and worship of

nature.

3)Representative

writers(

代表作家）

:

France:Hugo,

Lamartine,

George

Sand

Germany:

Geothe,

Schiller

Russia:Pushkin,

Lemontove

America

(30

years

later): Irving, Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau

(2)

Neoclassicism:

the Enlightenment brought about a revival of interest in Greek and

Roman

works.

The

Enlightenment

brought

about

a

revival

of

interest

in

Greek

and

Roman works. A revival in literature in the late 17th and 18th centuries, characterized

by a regard for the classical ideals of reason, form, and restraint.

ic Monologue:

a kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to

one or more listeners whose replies are not given in the poem.

作家与作品连线

Edgar Allan Poe

：

To Helen

致海轮，

Tamerlane and Other Poems

贴木耳，

Tales of The

Grotesque and Arabesque

，