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1.1
殖民时期
Major
stages of American
Literature
：
1.
The Colonial and Revolutionary Period: 1607 ---
1810
2. The Romantic Period: 1810 ---
1860
3. The Realistic Period: 1860 ---
1914
4. The Modern Period: 1914 ---
1945
5. The Period of
Pluralism: 1945 --- the present
The Colonial and Revolutionary Period
(1607 ---1810)
1. The Colonial Period :
1607 --- 1750
（启蒙运动，第一次工业革命）
2. The Revolutionary Period: 1750 ---
1810
（
Charles
Brown
去世，
The
Sketch Book, 1819
）
Historical Background: The
Colonization of North America
?
Indians of
North America
?
1492, Christopher Columbus
?
Migration from
Europe
?
1607,
more than 120 British men founded the first
English Colony, Jamestown in Virginia
?
1620, “May
Flower”, Puritans, Plymouth colony in New
England
?
1630, Massachusetts Bay colony
?
Thirteen
English colonies (1607-1733)
Colonial Literature
Early
American
writers:
Captain
John
Smith
(Jamestown)
；
William
Bradford
(Plymouth)
；
John Winthrop (Massachusetts
Bay)
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Early poets:
Anne Bradstreet
；
Edward T
aylor
Anne Bradstreet (1612
—
1672)
安妮·布雷兹特里特
?
First famous
poet in North America, known as the “Tenth
Muse”
?
Major works:
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in
America
(1650)
《最近在美洲出现的第十位缪斯》
-- the first collection of poems in
North America.
Contemplations
《沉思录》
Literature
in the Age of Reason and Revolution
(1750
—
1810)
Historical Background
?
1. War of
Independence
?
2.
Enlightenment
(science,
order,
reason;
deism
自然神论
;
Jean
Jaques
Rouseau,
Social
Contract
社会契约论
,)
Overview of the Literary Scene
Major Thinkers and
Writers
：
Thomas
Jefferson: “Declaration of
Independence”
Thomas Paine:
“Common Sense”, “The American Crisis”
Benjamin Franklin: “Poor Richard’s
Almanac”, “Autobiography”
Philip Freneau:
“The Wild Honeysuckle”
(金银花
p. 23), “The Indian Burying
Ground”
Jonathan Edwards:
religious, a minister
Major works of Tomas
Jefferson
1.
Declaration of
Independence
, 1776
2.
N
otes on the State of
Virginia
《
弗吉尼亚笔记》
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托马斯·潘恩
（
1737
—
1809
）
Most
influential thinker and writer in the War of
Independence
Major
works
：
Common
Sense
《常识》
；
The Rights
of Man
(1791
—
1792 )
《人的权利》
The American Crisis
《美洲危机》
（“The
Times that Try Men’s Souls”《考验人的灵魂的时代》
)
；
The Age of
Reason
《理性的时代》
back
Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790)
?
Statesman, essayist, orator,
philosopher, ambassador, scientist, inventor,
publisher
?
“master of each and mastered by
none”—
Herman Melville
?
One of the
Founding Fathers of America
?
Symbol of America in the Age of
Enlightenment
?
The only American to sign the four
documents that created the United
States:
the
Declaration of Independence
；
the treaty of
alliance with France
；
the treaty of peace with
England
；
The
constitution
?
The symbol of American Dream, a self-
made man
Major
Works
：
Poor
Richard’s Almanac
(1732)
《穷理查历书》
General
Characteristics: As an author, Franklin is best
known for his philosophy of the practical
and the useful. Franklin’s energies
were bent toward improving the conditions of this
mundane
existence.
Style:
Simple, easy, natural way
of relating events
；
Simplicity, practicality,
suggestiveness, common sense, was his leading
attributes.
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Colonial Prose Writers
John Smith
(1580 - 1631)
约翰·史密斯
, the first American
writer
A true Relation of
Virginia
(1608)
《关于弗吉尼亚的真实叙述》
A
Description of New England
（
1616)
《新英格兰概述》
William Bradford
(1590-1657),
威廉·布拉福德
，“Father
of American History”.
Of Plymouth
Plantation
《
普利茅斯种植园史》
John Winthrop (1588-1649),
约
翰
·
温斯罗普
The History of New
England
《新英格兰史》
1.2
本杰明
富兰克林
Major
Works
：
Poor
Richard’s Almanac: household book
Collection
of
poems,
essays,
common
sense
；
witticisms
；
Instruction
to
people
in
their
development of character, career and
relationship with people
；
Franklin’s devotion to better
the world as he believes a practical
idea reflects an aspect of truth
The
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Account of a man rising from obscurity
and poverty to fame and wealth
Features
：
Puritan
document, a record of self-examination and self-
improvement
；
A
book that places Franklin as the spokesman of
American Enlightenment
Style: plain,
direct, concrete, easy, leisurely and morally
conscious
2.1
浪漫主义
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Historical Background
Time Range: From the end of the 17th
century through the outbreak of the Civil War.
National independence, democracy
Rising materialism and business
--leisure and wealth
Religious dogma,
rationalism --spiritual
void
精神空虚
Features
：
American Romanticism was both imitative
and independent.
Imitative:
English and European Romanticists, about home,
family, nature, children and idealized
love, etc.
Independent:
Emerson
and
Whitman,
on
major
problems
of
American
life,
like
the
westward
expansion and democracy and equality,
etc.
Authors
in
Romanticism
：
Washington Irving: Father of the
American literature --
The Sketch
Book
James Fenimore Cooper:
Father of the
American
novel --
“
Leather stocking
Tales”
Nathaniel
Hawthorne --
The Scarlet Letter
Herman Melville --
Moby
Dick
Edgar Ellen Poe --
The Fall of the House of Usher; The
Tell-Tale Heart
Ralph Waldo Emerson --
Nature, The American Scholar
Henry David Thoreau
–
Walden
瓦尔登湖
Poets:
Walt
Whitman:
Leaves of Grass
;
Emily Dickinson: “My life closed twice
before its close”
2.2
先验主义
(
浪漫主义
)
Transcendentalism: Proposes a belief in
a higher reality than that found in sense
experience
or in a higher kind of
knowledge than that achieved by human reason.
Suggests that every
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individual is capable of
discovering this higher truth on his or her own,
through intuition
?
Movement began
with Emerson
’
s informal club
in mid 18th C.
Major Tenets and
Features:
宗旨和特色
Spirituality in the universe:
“
Oversoul
”
(All people, animals, things are
connected and share the
same soul. )
Importance of the individual: to
explain the world in terms of an individual (All
knowledge began
with self-knowledge)
Nature as symbolic of God (Oversoul): a
living mystery, full of signs
New
England
Transcendentalists:
Magazine:
The Dial
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“
Nature
”
;
“
Divinity School
Address
”
;
“
Self-
Reliance
”
;
“
The American
Scholar
Margaret Fuller;
Bronson Alcott
Henry David
Thoreau:
Walden
;
“
Civil
Disobedience
”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882):
Major Works:
1.
Nature:
Emerson
’
s
best known work
2.
“The
American Scholar”
: America’s
declaration of
Intellectual
Independence
Important views in
Emerson
’
s Philosophy
?
Oversoul:
ultimate source of the universe, its transcendence
connecting all in one
?
Individual: unique and infinite in his
power as a part of the Oversoul
?
Nature:
emblematic
象征性的
of the
spiritual world, spiritual guide
Henry
David Thoreau
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Close friend of Emerson
Tried out the Transcendentalist ideas
by recording his experiment of essential living in
Walden
explained his
rejection to pay the tax in
“
Civil
Disobedience
”
3.1
梅尔维尔
(1819
—
1891)
Herman
Melvill
Received recognition
until the 1920s; “He has a very high and noble
nature”
Three
important
things
in
his
life:
1)Going
out
to
sea;
2)
His
marriage;
3)
His
friendship
with
Hawthorne
Moby-
Dick
?白鲸?，
?莫比?狄克?:
An
encyclopedia
百科全书
of everything -- history, philosophy,
religion, the whaling industry; a
Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against
fates
Symbols in
Moby Dick:
1. The
Pequod: a symbol of doom
2. Moby Dick:
a metaphor for the human relationship with the
Christain God: God is unkown and
cannot
be pinned down
Themes of
Moby Dick
Themes
--
the
sense
of
futility
and
meaninglessness;
alienation;
loneliness
and
suicidal
individualism;
rejection and quest
1) Melville's bleak
view (negative attitude): the sense of futility
and meaninglessness of the world.
His attitude to life is “Everlasting
Nay”
Man
in
this
universe
lives
a
meaningless
and
futile
life,
meaningless
because
futile.
Man
cannot overcome nature. Once he
attempts to seek power over it he is doomed.
2) Alienation (far away
from each other) -- exists between man and man,
man and society, and
man and nature.
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Ahab cuts himself off from
his family, stays away from his crew, hates Moby
Dick and becomes a
devil rushing to his
doom.
3) Loneliness and
suicidal individualism (individualism causing
disaster and death)
-- The basic
pattern of nineteenth-century American life
Ahab: too much of a self-reliant
individual to be a good human being -- a victim
of
extreme
individualism
→
Moby Dick
is a
negative reflection upon Transcendentalism
The price of self-reliance
is death.
4
）
rejection and
quest:
Voyaging for Ishmael has become
a journey in quest of knowledge and values.
starts out feeling b
ad →
hopes to find an ideal life → comes to see the
folly of Ahab seeking to
conquer
nature
→
feels
the
significance
of
love
and
companionship
→
learns
to
accept,
n
attitude which ensures his survival
3.2
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Major Works:
Twice-Told
Tales: collection of short stories
“
Young Goodman
Brown
”
“
The
Minister
’
s Black
Veil
”
“
Dr.
Rappacini
’
s
Daughter
”
Mosses
from an Old Manse
红字
The Scarlet
Letter
The House of the
Seven Gables
The Blithedale
Romance
The Marble Faun
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Major Characters
?
Hester
Prynne:
proud,
strong-willed,
a
character
of
maternal
love,
transcends
her
sin
through her acts of
mercy
?
Arthur
Dimmesdale: indecisive, a tortured soul, saved
finally through public confession
?
Roger
Chillingworth:
unsympathetic,
revengeful,
“leech”
that
suck
life
out,
a
worse
sinner
Artistic
features
：
?
Puritan
severity towards sex and
matrimony
结婚
?
Concern with
effect of sin and goodness, redemption: Hester,
Dimmesdale, Chillingworth
?
Three Scaffold scenes
?
Hawthorne's use
of psychological analysis
?
Symbolism
“
A
”
4.1Walt Whitman
(1819-1891)
Life
Born into a
working class background
Worked as
printer
’
s apprentice,
teacher, editor and journalist
Wrote
short stories before he worked at
Leaves of Grass
Travels in
New Orlends : experience with nature and slavery
Leaves of Grass
: eight
editions
Leaves of Grass
Some best known :
“
Song of
Myself
”
,
“
I Sing the Body
Electric
”
,
Forth
“When Lilacs
Last in the Dooryard Bloom
’<
/p>
d
”
,
”
O Captain! My
Captain!
”
,
“Out
of the
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Cradle Endlessly
Rocking”
Writers like
Longfellow, Holmes were shocked by his book:
a.
unconventional rhyme, meter (free
verse)
b.
erotic
imagery and themes:
“
I Sing
the Body Electric.
”
Whitman’s status
Whitman stands as one of two giants of
American poetry in 19th C.
a.
Found new
subjects for typical American type of poetry.
b.
rejected
conventional themes, traditional rhyme
He influenced Harlem Renaissance
writers as Langston Hughes and James Weldon
Johnson.
Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot
(Modernist poets) were also influenced by Whitman.
From “Song of Myself”
4.2
艾米丽·迪金森
Emily
Dickinson (1830-1886)
Life
and Literary Career
Born
into a Calvinist family in Massachusetts, attended
Amherst Academy and Holyoke Seminary
Confined to household life, she spent
most of her leisure time writing poetry
Over 1700 poems, only a few published
in her lifetime
Posthumous publication
Features of Writing
?
Illustration of her religious-ethical
and political-social ideas
?
Basic tone: tragic (Predestination,
pessimism)
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?
Yearning for religious certitude
(
“
At last to pray is
left
”
)
?
Perplexities in
search of love and help
?
Not always believe in
God
’
s plan
This is my letter
This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,--
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
Her message is
committed
To hands I cannot
see;
For love of her, sweet
countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me!
Dickinson
’
s
choice of
subjects
Love:
“With a Flower”, “Proof”
Nature:
“A Service of
Song”
,
“
Summer
Shower
”
Faith and
Doubt
Death and immortality:
“I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died”,
“
Because I Could Not Stop for
Death
”
,
“
My Life Closed Twice Before
Its Close
”
,
“
I Died for
Beauty
”
Miscellaneous:
“
Tell all the Truth but tell
It Slant
”, “Wild
Nights
”
On death
At the
centre of her poetry
她的信息已交到
我无法看见的人手里；
出于对她的爱，亲爱的同胞，
请给予我轻柔的裁判！
这是我给这个世界的信件，
它则从不写给我，―
自然告知的简单消息，
用温柔的庄严。
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Reveals Emily ever ready
for death
Shows her mostly at a
tranquil, meditative state of mind
Concerned about death as an entry into
immortality
Dickinson
’
s
techniques
Regular meter:
Quatrains;
Tetrameter
四音步
,
trimeter
三音步
;
second and
fourth
lines
rhyme
(ABCB)
in
iambic
pentameter
Her originality:
Capitalizations and dashes; Metaphors; symbolism
A 9-line stanza in which the first 8
lines are in iambic
pentameter
抑扬格五音步诗行
while the 9th line in
iambic hexameter
抑扬格六音步诗行
.
Dickinson
’
s
status
Her unconventionality
influenced modern poets like Adrienne Rich,
Richard Wilbur, Ezra Pound
and William
Stafford.
Along with Walt Whitman,
Dickinson is considered a true genius of American
poetry of the
19th
“Tell all t
he Truth but tell
it slant-
Because I could not
…
With A Flower
Proof
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Love:
Though she
was lonely and
isolated,
Emily
appears
to
have
loved
deeply,
perhaps only
those
who
have
and
lost
can
love,
with
an
intensity
and
desire
which
can
never
be
fulfilled in the reality of the lovers'
touch.
A Service of Song
Nature:
A fascination with nature consumed
Emily. She summed all her lyrics as
news that nature
told,
hummingbird, the bee, the
butterfly, the rat .Only the serpent gave her a
chill.
5.1
现实主义
American
Realism (1865
—
1900)/(from
the 1870s to the
1880s)
By
the 1870s New England Renaissance had waned. In
the latter half of the nineteenth century,
the age of realism arrived. Realism
became a major trend in the 70s and 80s of the
19th century.
Historical Background
?
Industrialization and expansion west of
the Mississippi River
The
Industrialization moved the country from a rural
economy to an urban one. With this shift
came the accompanying social ills,
which began to appear in American literature.
?
American
was
becoming
the
“melting
-
pot”
society
with
the
influx
of
mill
ions
of
immigrants.
During the
thirty-year period of 1870-1900, the population
almost doubled, from 39 million to
76
million. The increase is largely due to the influx
of European immigrants.
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Social &cultural
context
1. Aftermath of the
Civil War
The
Civil
War
broke
out
in
1861,
which
marked
a
change
in
America.
After
the
Civil
War,
the
United States was
transformed into an industrial and urban nation.
On the surface there were
elegance,
security and comfort; but underneath there were
all disconcert and disappointment.
2 .Question on the
Transcendentalists’
assumptions
.
Great wealth
and economic power became more and more
concentrated in the hands of the few.
So
the
nation
became
a
land
of
contrasting
wealth
and
poverty;
political
and
commercial
corruption grew widespread.
All these made its people begin to
question the assumptions shared by the
Transcendentalists
—
natural goodness, the optimistic view
of nature and man, benevolent God.
3. A
great
interest in the realities of life.
The people of the United States began
to tire of the sentimental feelings of the
Romanticism
after the Civil War, just
as they turned away from Puritanism at the close
of the 18th century. A
new
inspiration
came
over
them.
Instead
of
thinking
about
the
mysteries
of
life
and
death,
people
’
s
attention was now directed to the interesting
features of everyday existence. Therefore
a
new
spirit
—
realistic
attitude
—
entered
American
literature,
which
started
a
new
period
in
American writing known as the rise of
Realism.
4. The close of the Frontier.
Now
that
the
frontier
was
about
to
close,
a
re-examination
of
life
began.
The
worth
of
the
American dream, the
idealized, romantic view of man and his life in
the New World, began to loss
its hold
on the imagination of the people. Beneath the
glittering surface of prosperity there lay
suffering and unhappiness.
Disillusionment and frustration were widely felt.
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Realistic Literature
1. Propose of art :
produce reality.
2.
Individuals confronted by hardship and moral
dilemma
3. The world of the
commonplace, values of common humanity
4. Present
characters
’
action directly
Features
of
American Realism
As a
literary movement realism came in the latter half
of the nineteenth century as a reaction
against
“the lie” of
romanticism and sentimentalis
m. It
expressed the concern for the world of
experience, of commonplace, and for the
familiar and the low.
Realism
is
the
theory
of
writing
in
which
familiar
aspects
of
contemporary
life
and
everyday
scenes
are
represented
in
a
straightforward
or
matter-of-fact
manner.
It
stresses
truthful
treatment of
material. It is anti-romantic, anti-sentimental,
and without interest in nature, death,
etc. Writers would describe the charm
of human character reacting under various
circumstances
or authors picture the
pioneers of the Far West, the new immigrants, and
the struggles of the
working classes.
?
1. Anti-
romantic, anti-sentimental truthful description
of life
真实性
?
2. typical
character and plot under typical
setting
人物、情节与背景的典型性、代表性
?
3.
Objective rather than idealized view of human
nature and experience
客观性
?
4.
Concern for social and psychological
problems
关注社会与个人心理问题
Principles
of
Realism
?
1. Insistence upon and defense of
?
2.
Character more important than plot.
?
3. Attack upon
romanticism and romantic writers.
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?
4.
Emphasis upon morality often self-realized and
upon an examination of idealism.
?
5. Concept of
realism as a realization of democracy.
Characteristics of Realistic
Writing
(1).
the
philosophy
of
Realism
is
known
as
non-transcendental.
The
purpose
of
writing
is
to
instruct and to entertain. Realists
were pragmatic, relativistic, democratic, and
experimental.
(2). the
subject matter of Realism is drawn from
average, the non-extreme, the
representative, the probable.
(3). The morality of Realism is
intrinsic, integral, relativistic - relations
between people and society
are
explored.
(4).
The
style
of
Realism
is
the
vehicle
which
carries
realistic
philosophy,
subject
matter,
and
morality. Emphasis is placed upon
scenic presentation, de-emphasizing authorial
comment and
evaluation. There is an
objection towards the omniscient point of view.
无所不知的
American
Literature in Realistic Period
?
Main Writers
William Dean Howells:
威廉
·
狄思
·
豪威尔斯
the founder of American
realism and the most prominent critic of the
entire realistic period.
The
main
exponent
of
American
realism,
he
vigorously
defend
ed
realism
as
“the
truthful
treatment of material.”
Henry James: One of the fathers of the
psychological novel. His short stories have had
much
influence on modern American
writers.
Mark Twain: make contribution
to the development of realism. He made colloquial
speech
an accepted, respectable
literary medium in the literary history.
Bret Harte: his region was the Far
West.
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The three dominant figures
of the realistic period in American literature are
Mark Twains,
Henry James, and William
Dean Howells.
5.2
Howells and Henry James
William Dean
Howells
He was the most influential.
The champion of the new school, felt that he must
write what he
observed and knew (“He
…can only write of what his fleshly eyes have
seen,” as Henry James
says of him.)
Life and
experience
Born
in
Ohio,
began
at
the
age
of
nine
to
work
in
his
father’s
printing
office.
His
formal
education was very
slight and he had to educate himself in
th
e pressroom and from his father’s
bookcase.
?
Autobiography:
A Boy’s Town
(1890)
Criticism:
In his life, he
spread the credo
信条
of
realism. Most of his literary-aesthetic ideas are
best elucidated in his
Criticism and Fiction.
《批评与小说》
Career
and ideas
1. editor of
Atlantic Monthly
(1871-1881)
2. Howells’ definition of realism:
a. “fidelity to experience
and probability of motive”
;
b. “common feelings of commonplace
people”
Other
works
?
A
Modern Instance
（
1881
）
《现代婚姻》
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?
Indian Summer
（
1886
）
《晚秋之暧》
?
Annie
Kilburn
（
1888
）
《安妮·吉尔伯恩》
?
A Hazard of New
Fortunes
（
1890
）
《时来运转》
?
A Chance
Acquaintance
Features
of His
Works:
1) Optimistic tone; 2) Moral
development/ethics; 3) Lacking of psychological
depth
A Brief
Assessment
A
prolific
多产的
writer, Howells
is regarded as
exciting writer, he
broke new grounds which led to the achievements of
Mark Twain and Henry
James. In Howells'
view, writing should be
into
exaggeration.
His
famous
definition
of
the
function
of
a
writer
indicates
his
limitations
as
a
Realist
writer
and
of
Realism
as
he
conceived
of
it:
novelists,
therefore,
concern
themselves with the more smiling aspects of life,
which are the more American, and seek
the universal in the individual rather
than the social interests.
Henry James
Literary Creation
1. Period
I (1862-1882): Innocence in a Corrupted World --
The Portrait of a Lady
2. Period II (1882-1895): Inter-
personal relationship
3. Period III
(1895- 1916):
The
Ambassadors
,
The Wings of
the Dove
,
The Golden
Bowl
Literary views
Revealed in his famous essay “The Art
of Fiction”
The aim of
novel: represent life
Common, even ugly
side of life
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Social function of art
Avoiding omniscient
无所不知的
point of view (minimal
intervention of the author; consciousness
of characters )
Works:
A voluminous
大量的
writer (novels, travel papers, critical
essays, literary portraits, play,
autobiographies, letters)
Three periods of his writing:
1.
(1865
—1882),
“international
theme”
(American
innocence
in
face
of
European
sophistication):
The American
（
1877
）
《美国人》
;
Daisy
Miller
（
1879
）
《苔瑟·密勒》
;
The Portrait of a Lady
（
1881
）
《贵妇人的画像》
2. (1882
–
1895), studies of inter-
personal relationship and play-writing, poorly
received
The Bostonians
（
1886
）
《波士顿人》
The
Princess Casamassima
（
1886
）
《卡萨玛西玛公主》
3.
(1895 --
1916), “the major phase”, the
summit of his art, a return to “international
theme”
1) Novellas about
childhood and adolescence:
What Maisie
Knew
（
1897
）
《梅吉的见闻》
;
The Turn
of the Screw
《拧螺丝》
2) Three
great novels:
The Wings of the
Dove
（
1902
）
《鸽翼》
;
The
Ambassadors
（
1903
）
《专
使》
;
The Golden Bow
l
（
1904
）
《金碗》
Theme and
Style
?
The
international
theme:
American
innocence
in
face
of
European
sophistication,
Am.
Simplicity confronted
with the complex European world of art and affairs
?
The genteel
society as his main characters
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?
Psychological realism
?
The detached-
narrator point of view
?
Refined and polished prose style, large
vocabulary
James and psychological
analysis:
James, by
emphasizing the inner awareness and inward
movements of his characters in face of
outside occurrences rather than merely
delineating
描写
their environment in any detail, became
probably
the
first
of
the
modern
psychological
analysts
in
the
novel
and
anticipated
in
his
works the modern stream-
of-consciousness technique so widely employed in
the first decades of
the century.
Henry James - A Brief
Assessment
He
is a
master
of
character
portrayal
and
has extensively
used the
of
consciousness
method in his
fictional writing.
6.1
乡土文学
Local
Colorism
Time
period
: 1860s
to
the end of 19th cent.
Definition
:
Local
color
is
fiction
and
poetry
that
focuses
on
the
characters,
dialect,
customs,
topography, and
other features particular to a specific region.
Chief Characteristics
:
(p.130)
Emphasis
of
elements which
characterize
a
local
culture,
such as
speech,
customs, and
mores
peculiar to one particular place.
Emphasis of physical setting and those
distinctive qualities of landscape which condition
human
thought and behavior.
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Major principles of Local
Colorism
(1). A specific
locus
, whether it be
geographical or temporal.
(2). Emphasis on the setting and the
character of a district or of an era, as marked by
its customs,
dialect,
costumes,
landscape,
or
other
peculiarities
that
have
escaped
standardizing
cultural
influences.
(3).
Using words, phrases, and slang that were native
to the particular region in which the story
took place.
Difference
between local color and realism
Eric
Sundquist:
or
political
power
can
itself
be
seen
to
be
definitive
of
a
realist
aesthetic, in that those in power (say,
white urban males) have been more often judged
'realists,'
while those removed from
the seats of power (say, Midwesterners, blacks,
immigrants, or women)
have been
categorized as regionalists.
Main
form
: the sketch, the short story
Representative writers
:
(p.132)
Bret Harte (1836
—
1902)
布雷特
·
哈特
?
Peculiar to the
west
?
Short
story: “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
（
1868
）
《咆哮营的幸运儿》
;
Tennessee’s Partner《田纳西的伙伴》
?
Poem: “Plain
Language from Truthful
James”《老实人詹姆斯的老实话》
Hamlin Garland
（
1860
—
1940
）
哈姆林
·
加兰
?
Peculiar
to the west
?
Main Travelled Road
《大路》
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Edward
Eggleston
（
1837
—
1902
）
爱德华
·
埃格尔斯顿
?
Peculiar to
Indiana
?
The
Hoosier Schoolmaster
（
1871
）
《呼泽的小学校长》
Sarah Orne Jewett
（
1849
—
1909
）
萨拉
·
奥恩
·
朱厄特
?
Peculiar to Maine
?
Deephaven
（
1877
）
《迪普黑文》
;
The
Country of Pointed Firs
（
1896
）
《尖枞树之乡》
6.2
马克吐温
Mark Twain
(1835-1910)
Life and Career
Real name: Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835
Printer, writer, river-boat pilot,
correspondent
In 1863
adopt
ed Pen name “Mark Twain”, the
sailor’s jargon on Mississippi:
12 feet deep: an
available
depth of water for ship sailing
Great
Affection to Mississippi River
the west bank of the
Mississippi River. That was, to be a
steamboatman.
Mississippi', 1875
Writing Stages:
1.
1867
—
1870:short
story
；
2. 1870s
–
1900:novel
；
3. 1900s
–
1910s:
Travelogue,
scribble
杂文
,
political comment
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Works
Early period (1860s): light humor and
social concern, mild criticism
“The celebrated Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County” (1865)
《卡拉维拉斯县驰名的跳蛙》
his first
story of success;
Innocents
Abroad (1869)
《傻子国外旅行记》
Middle Period (early 70s-mid 90s):
maturity and success, married Olivia Langdon, met
Howells
The Gilded Age
(1873) collaboration, unsuccessful;
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1876);
Life on the
Mississippi
(1883);
The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
(1884)
More
aware
of
social
evils
and
committed
to
expose
theme:
hypocrisy,
trickery,
corruption,
repression of
democracy, racial discrimination, etc.
Late Period (late 1890s-1900s): period
of pessimism
Failure
in
business,
death
of
wife
and
daughters,
despairing
determinism,
bitter
skepticism
in
human nature
The Man that
Corrupted Hadleyburg
(1900)
《败坏了哈德莱堡的人》
The Mysterious Stranger
(1906)
《神秘的来客》
What Is Man
(1906)
《人是怎么一回事》
Features of Twain’s Writing:
Mississippian Flavor
Colloqu
ial
通俗的
speech: He is the
first who makes colloquial speech an accepted,
respectable
literary medium in the
literary history of the country.
Southwestern humor
A brief
summary of Mark Twain’s literary
creation:
Representing
social life through portraits of local places
which he knew best.
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eg: Boyhood experience:
Autobiography
(1924);
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1876) Its sequel:
续集
The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
(1884).
Mississippi experience:
Life
on the Mississippi.
Contributions
His theories
of localism in American fiction
He made colloquial speech an accepted,
respectable literary medium in the literary
history of the
country.
He was a great social critic: His
writings touch upon almost every issue of his time
such as politics,
religion, capital and
labor, slavery, U.S imperialism abroad, and the
persecution of the Chinese
and the Jews
The Jumping Frog of
Calaverious County
Published in1865, giving Twain fame all
over the country.
Local color: Frame
story (story within story); Setting; Narrator;
Language (vo animals cabulary,
grammar,
sentence structure); Deadpan humor
冷幽默
& exaggeration
Themes: Clash between East and West;
Human greed; Human cruelty on animals
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
哈克贝利
·
费恩历险记
-- Mark Twain's first novel
-- an American classic
?
“
All
modern
American
Literature
comes
from
one
book
by
Mark
Twain
called
Huckleberry
Finn
…
all American writing
comes from that. There was nothing before. There
has
been nothing as good
since.
?
Vivid
portrayal of realistic characters
?
Truthful
depiction of life on the Mississippi
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?
The
use of colloquial speech, making it an acceptable
and respectable literary medium.
Background information:
The
story takes place before the Civil War, around
1850, when the great Mississippi Valley was
still being settled. Here lies an
America, with its great national faults, full of
violence and even
cruelty, yet still
retaining the virtues of “some simplicity, some
innocence, and some peace”.
The story
takes place along the Mississippi River.
Major theme of the book:
anti-slavery; lashing at social prejudices and
social discrimination
Main characters
Tom Sawyer: mischievous; active
imagination; good heart; strong moral conscience
Huckleberry Finn: a
juvenile outcast; superstitious; ready for an
adventure
Injun Joe; violent,
villainous
Themes: Moral
and Social Maturation; Society
’s
Hypocrisy
; Freedom through Social
Exclusion;
Superstition in an Uncertain
World
7.1
自然主义
American
Naturalism ( late 19th~early 20th)
Historical Background
?
Time
period:1890s
?
Social background:
–
Industrialism, the widening division
bet. the rich and the poor
?
Intellectual
background:
–
Darwinism:
biological
determinism,
“
the
survival
of
the
fittest
”
,
“
natural
selection
”
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–
Herbert Spencer: social Darwinism,
social determinism
–
Marx and Freud: socioeconomic forces &
sexual drive
?
Literary background: French Naturalism,
Russian novelists
Definition
：
A critical term applied to the method
of literary composition that aims at a detached,
scientific objectivity in the treatment
of natural man. It is thus more inclusive and less
selective
than realism, and holds to
the philosophy of determinism. It conceives of man
as controlled by
his instincts or his
passions, or by his social and economic
environment and circumstances. Since
in
this
view
man
has
no
free
will,
the
naturalistic
writer
does
not
attempt
to
make
moral
judgments,
and
as
a
determinist
he
tends
toward
pessimism.
(
The
Oxford
Companion
to
American
lit
.)
Naturalism
Vs Realism
Realism: it
captured the true essence of life; focused on
literary technique.
Naturalism:
doctrine of determinism (biological, economic, and
social)
—
studied human beings
governed by their instincts and
passions as well as the ways in which the
characters' lives were
governed
by
forces
of
heredity
遗
传
and
environment
;focused
on
characters
and
their
surroundings.
Naturalism is a
we call Realism.
American Literature in Naturalistic
Period
A type of writing called
naturalism also developed during the second half
of the 1800’s. It can
be
described
as
an
extreme
form
of
realism/a
new
and
harsher
realism.
Like
the
realist,
the
naturalist
tried
to
portray
people
and
events
accurately.
But
unlike
the
realists,
naturalists
believed that people have no control
over their fates.
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They felt that human beings
are simply victims of their surroundings and of
their own drives and
desires. The
pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism
pervades the works of such writers
as
Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London, Henry
Adams, and Theodore Dreiser.
Theme
The fight for survival
—
man against nature and man
against society; violence; the consequences
of sex and sex as a commodity; the
waste of individual potential because of the
conditioning
forces of life; and
man
’
s struggle with his
animalistic, base instincts.
Tone:
pessimistic
(The
whole
picture
is
somber
and
dark;
and
the
general
tone
one
of
hopelessness and even despair.)
Features
Characters:
Frequently but not invariably ill-educated or
lower-class, often poor, driven souls who
are seeking to do the impossible in an
already difficult environment. (as Maggie in
Maggie: A Girl
of the
Streets,
Stephen Crane)
Setting: Frequently an urban setting,
like slums; or the commonplace and the unheroic.
Plots:
illustrating
how
social
and
economic
conditions
ruined
the
lives
of
innocent,
powerless
people; discussion
of fate and
society and the surrounding
environment.
Representative
writers
Frank
Norris
(1870-1902)
弗朗克·诺里斯
;
Stephen
Crane
(1871-1900)
斯蒂芬·克莱恩
;
Theodore
Dreiser
(1871-1945)
< br>西
奥
多
·
德
莱
塞
;
Jack
London
(1876-1916)
杰
克
·
伦
敦
;
Upton
Sinclair
(1878-1968); John Dos Passos
(1896-1970); John Steinbeck (1902-68)
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7.2
西奥多·德莱塞
Theodore Dreiser
(1871-1945)
?
American author, outstanding
representative of naturalism
?
An advocate for
freedom of expression.
Writing Background
Dreiser’s
family background:
German Catholic immigrant family
Major
Works:
1)
Sister
Carrie
?嘉莉妹妹?
2) Jennie Gerhardt
1911
?珍妮姑娘?
3)
The
Trilogy of
Desire
?欲望三步曲?
:(a)
The Financier
1912
?金融家?
;
(b)
The Titan
1914
?巨人?
;
(c)
The Stoic
?斯
尔葛?
4)
The Genius
1915
?天才?
an
autobiographical work 5)
An American
Tragedy
1925
?美国悲剧?
(it
was banned in Boston in 1927
; 6)
The
Bulwark
《堡垒》
Dreiser
’
s
Thoughts
?
Left-oriented view, sympathy to the
poor
?
Critical
to America
’
s moral and
social code
?
Embrace Social Darwinism, believing man
as merely an animal driven by greed and lust
His Style:
Dreiser's style is marked
by long sentences and intense attention to detail.
Since his works deal
with
social
status
and
the
pursuit
of
material
goods
and
pleasures,
this
level
of
realism
and
description services his theme; on the
other hand, it can make many of his works,
particularly
Sister Carrie
,
difficult for some. It should be noted that
Dreiser is not well-regarded for his style,
but for the realism of his work,
character development, and his points-of-view on
American life.
Still, he is known to
have had an enormous influence on the generation
that followed his.
A brief
comment on Dreiser:
With the
publication of
Sister Carrie
in 1900, Dreiser committed his literary force to
opening the
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new ground of American
naturalism. His heroes and heroines, his settings,
his frank discussion,
celebration,
and
humanization
of
sex,
his
clear
dissection
of
the
mechanistic
brutality
of
American society. All
were new and shocking to a reading public reared
on genteel romances and
adventure
narratives.
His Achievement
and Influence:
1. A leader of
Naturalism in American writing; outstanding
representative of naturalism;
2.
Dreiser
’
s
stinging
criticism
of
the
genteel
tradition
and
of
what
Howells
described
as
the
3.
Dreiser's
novels
were
held
to
be
amoral,
and
he
battled
throughout
his
career
against
censorship and popular taste. This
started with SISTER CARRIE (1900). It was not
until 1981 that
the work was published
in its original form.
4.
Despite Dreiser's alleged deficiencies as a
stylist, his novels succeed in their accumulation
of
realistic detail and in the power
and integrity with which they delineate the tragic
aspects of the
American
pursuit
of
worldly
success.
Sister
Carrie
and
An
American
Tragedy
are
certainly
enduring
works
of
literature
that
display
a
deep
understanding
of
the
American
experience
around the turn
of the century, with its expansive desires and
pervasive disillusionments.
Subject Matter and Major
Themes:
1. Dreiser deals
with social problems and with characters who
struggle to survive.
2. His
novels depict real-life subjects in a harsh light.
3. His sympathetic
treatment of a
Sister Carrie
was called immoral and
he suffered at
the hands of publishers.
4. Dreiser's
principal concern was with the conflict between
human needs and the demands of
society
for material success.
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