Early period美國(guó)文學(xué).doc

Early period The early period of American literature is often divided into two halves of Literature of colonial America And Literature of reason and revolution John Smith is considered as the 1st American writer who introduced the development or Virginia, the first English colony. Anne Bradstreet is the earliest poet who wrote poems in English in Colonial America. The 2nd group of immigrant from England were different in nature from the 1st group at three points: 1st. they left England in different ways, 2nd. they were different people in nature , and 3rd. they came to the new world for different purpose The puritans from England came to the new world on purpose to seek for freedom of religion, freedom Of speech , and freedom From want The different ideas against John Cotton Roger Williams put forward are democracy , tolerable religion and Separation of politics from religion The 2nd and 3rd puritan immigrants left England for the new continent on the board of May flower and Apollo The first and the second settlements were respectively named Jamestown and Plymouth The three main drafters of Declaration of Independence are Benjamin Franklin John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was not only the 1st but the 3rd president of the USA and the 1st president of Virginia University. The greatest 3 articles in The American Crisis are Common Sense ,The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason In the late 18th century, the most important events in American history are The War of Independence and The revolution of Independence Two books by Franklin which is the most widely read are Autobiography of Franklin And Poor Richards Almanac Among the poets of colonial America, the writer who gained the honor of Father of Poetry is just Philip Freneau rather than Anne Bradstreet or Edward Taylor . The revolutionary writer and poet, Thomas Paine and Philip Freneau are two brave fighters who fought with their pens as weapons.Romantic period Romantic period is marked from the end of War of Independence and the beginning of The Civil WarThe literary movement stepping together with the development of American Romanticism is known as The American Renaissance Washington Irving marked the beginning of American romantic period and was considered in honor Father of American literature Romanic literature in America marked the end of the age of writings of Teaching and political declaration and beginning of the writings of Poetry, novels and novellas The themes of American romanticism often focuses on close attention to mental states, influence of puritan strict moral laws, Return to nature and Celebration of the landscape with its virgin Compared with European romanticism, American romanticism richened it with its own New England transcendentalism by Ralph Emerson Washington Irving is well known as a writer of novella and his best novellas collected in his The Sketch Book are Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow James Cooper is well known as the early novelist whose famous stories are collected in his collection of novels Leather-stocking TalesThe five collected long stories are his masterpieces that are good examples of pioneering the West literature of America After Freneau , the most outstanding and the leading poet at the time is William Bryant . His poems with musicality celebrate the landscape with its virgin and harmony between nature and beings; good examples are his early romantic poem To A Waterfo and his best poem An Indian at the Burial Place of His Fathers Edgar Allen Poe was honored as a pioneer of the new style of poetry and novels in European literature but not accepted by the native; his famous poem written for his wife is To Hellen and his analyzing novel The Purloined Letter The source of New England Transcendentalism are both American Puritanism and European romanticism Transcendentalism advocates harmony and unity of man and nature. Emersons nature is honored declaration of transcendentalism and of Independence of literature the American Scholar as manifesto of Intellectual independenceTrue or false Herman Melville is one of the half-dozen major American literary figures of the 19th century. Melvilles outlook on life and the world was influenced by Hawthornes black vision, Shakespearean tragic vision and Emersonian Transcendentalism. Henry Wordsworth Longfellow became the only American to be honored with a burying in the poets Conner of Westminster Abbey. Emily Dickinson is one of the precursors (先驅(qū)) of the Imagist Movement. Emily Dickinson is the master of lyric short poems. Emily Dickinsons theme of writing focuses of death, love, and nature. Allen Poe is the precursor of modern detective stories James Cooper is the precursor of American west literature Washington Irving is considered the father of American literature. Ralph Emerson is the spokesman of New England Transcendentalism. Henry Thoreau is Emersons truest friend and disciple. Henry Longfellow is one of the representatives of Brahmins of Boston during New England renaissance. Henry Longfellow was given a private audience by Queen Victoria and became the only American to be honoured with a bust in the Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey. Walt Whitman is the prophet and singer of democracy . Writers and works Walt Whitman Song of Myself Walt Whitman I Hear America Singing Walt Whitman free verse form of poetry Henry Longfellow Hiawatha Henry Longfellow A Psalm of life Henry Thoreau Walden James Cooper Leatherstocking Tales James Cooper The Pioneers Allen Poe The Raven Allen Poe reasoning stories Ralph Emerson Self Reliance Emily Dickinson Because I could Not Stop Death Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Herman Melville Moby Dick Ralph Ellison Invisible Man Saul Bellow Henderson the Rain King Toni Morrison Beloved Moby-Dick Ahab Leatherstocking Tales Natty Bumpoo The Scarlet Letter Hester The Sketch Book Rip Van Winkle Ken Kesey One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse V Joseph Heller Catch-22 Thomas Pynchon Gravitys RainbowMultiple choice 1-15 1. As to the great American poet Ezra Pound, which of the following statements is not true? A. His language is usually oblique yet marvelously compressed and his poetry is dense with personal, literary, and historical allusions. B. His artistic talents are on full display in the history of the Imagist Movement. C. From his analysis of the Chinese ideogram Pound learned to anchor his poetic language in concrete, perceptual reality, and to organize images into larger patterns through juxtaposition.D. For he was politically controversial and notorious for what he did in the wartime, his literary achievement and influence are somewhat reduced 2. Which story is William Dean Howells masterpiece on the American spirit of the self-made man ? A. The Rise of Silas Lapham B. The Luck of Roaring Camp C. A Modern Instance D. A Womans Reason 3. The great sea adventure story Moby-Dick is usually considered_. A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the artistic truth and beauty B. an adventurous exploration into mans relationship with nature C. a simple whaling tale or sea adventure D. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe 4. Which of the following is said of the American naturalists? A. They preferred to have their own region and people at the forefront of the stories. B. Their characteristic setting is usually an isolated town. C. Human should be united because they had to adapt themselves to changing harsh environment. D. Their characters were conceived more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces. 5. _ is said to be a “historical novel” by Faulkner. A. Go Down, Moses B. Light in August C. The Sound and the Fury D. Absalom, Absalom 6. Which of the following is not written by Henry James? A. The Portrait of A Lady and The Europeans B. The Wings of the Dove and The Ambassadors C. What Maisie Knows and The Bostonians D. The Genius and The Gilded Age 7. Which of the following is depicted as the mythical county in William Faulkners novels?A. Cambridge. B. Yoknapatawpha C. Mississippi. D.Tagliamento 8. “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.” This is the shortest poem written by _. A. T. S. Eliot B. Robert Frost C. Ezra Pound D. E. E. Cummings 9. Which story is William Dean Howells masterpiece on the American spirit of the self-made man ? A. The Rise of Silas Lapham B. The Luck of Roaring Camp C. A Modern Instance D. A Womans Reason 10. Eliots first major poem (1917) has been called the first masterpiece of modernism in English. A. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock B. The Waste Land C. Four Quartets D. Preludes 11.The realistic schools led by Mark Twain and Henry James Differ in their understanding of the _. A. inner world of man B. truth C. human nature D. human life 12._ fuses symbolism, poetry, and the affirmation of a pagan idealism to show how materialistic civilization denies the lifegiving impulses and destroys the genuine artist. A. Desire Under the Elms B. The Emperor Jones C. Lazarus Laughed D. The Great God Brown 13. The 1940s saw the flourishing of a new contingent of writers, including R. P. Warren, A. Miller, T. Williams, K. A. Porter and E. Welty. All but Miller were from _. A. the North B. the South C. the West D. the East 14. In the Depression Age, _ is the famous leftist for his sympathetic story about drifting farm laborers and factory workers. A. John Steinbeck B. Margaret Mitchell C. Jack Kerouac D. J.D. Salinger 15. Beat Generation is a large group including San Francisco writers, the name referred simultaneously_, through drugs, alcohol. A. to their sense that society was worn out B. to their interest in new forms of experience C. to the rhythm of jazz D. all aboveWhat theories have influenced the development of the American literature in the modern period? And in what way they did it? Several theories exerted influence on the development of American literature in the modern period. 1st: Darwinism, which suggests the man was dominated by the irresistible forces and lays the foundation of the theory of modern naturalism. 2nd. Marxism, which holds that the root cause of all behavior was economic and that the leading feature of the economic life wade the division of society into antagonistic classes based on a relation to the means of production and which is theoretical foundation of leftist writing. 3rd. Freuds psychoanalysis which emphasizes on the unconscious and the irrational side of human psyche and which is the theoretical basis for the writing of the stream-of-consciousness and sexuality. Apart from the above, modern European arts such as Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism also had great impact on the American literature. Brief answer to following questions 1. Who are the forerunners of three main branches of American realism? 2. By what historical events are the three main periods of American literature briefly divided? 3. What renaissances successively appeared in the development of American literature? 4. What expressive forms does post-modernism have? 5. During the South Renaissance, what literary schools was formed one after another by nearly the same key members? 6. What are the three main branches of knowledge covered by the Course of American Literature? 7. Which main literary schools played the role in American early modernism of the 20s to 30s of the 20th century? 8. What special names are given to the 20s, 30s, and 50s of the 20th century? 9. Which three periods consist of the main development of American literature?Answer 14 1. A. W.D. Howells for social realism, B. Mark Twain for regionalism, C. H. James for psychological realism 2. A. the War of Independencethe Civil War, B. the Civil WarWorld War I, C. World War IWorld War IIthe end of last century 3. A. the 1st American Renaissance in romantic period, B. the 2nd American Renaissance during the 20s30s of the 20th century, C. the Harlem Renaissance during the 30s of the 20th century, D. the South Renaissance during the 40s of the 20th century 4. A. black humor, B. fiction of absurdity, C. meta-fiction, D. avant-garde fiction 5. A. Fugitives B. Agrarians C. The New Criticism 6. A. the history of literature, B. reading of literary works, C. the criticism of literature 7. A. the Lost Generation, B. muckraking realism, C. leftist naturalism 8. A. The Jazz Age, B. The Red Decade/Angry Decade, C. The Timid Decade 9. A. the period of Romanticism, B. the period of Realism, C. the period of Modernism Compared with earlier writings, especially those of the 19th century, what are the characteristics of modern American writings? The characteristics of modern American writings could be concluded as followings: 1st. A typical modern work will seem to begin arbitrarily, to advance without explanation, and end without resolution. 2nd. The work is no longer a record of sequence and coherence but a juxtaposition of the past and the present, of the history and the memory. 3rd. There are shifts in perspective, voice, but the biggest shift is from the external to the internal, from the public to the private, from the chronological to the psychic, from the objective description to the subjective projection. 4th. The traditional educated literary voice, conveying the truth and culture, has lost its authority to a more detached and ironic tone. 5th. Vignettes of contemporary life, dream imagery and symbolism drawn from the authors private repertory of life experiences are also important. Brief answer to following questions1. Who are the forerunners of American naturalism?2. Who named a literary school of last century the Lost Generation and what name did these men of letters call themselves?3. Which four fictional schools successively came into being in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 60s of the 20th century?4. Who is the most outstanding novelist of the 30th decade of last century and what are his earliest best seller and his greatest book5. Which names are always associated with the stream-of-consciousness? 6. As the following naturalists example, which two novels are Stephen Cranes main works ?7. What four literary branches consist of the American realism?8. What skills of literary creation does the 20th century stream-of-consciousness of American literature often include?9. Which three periods consist of the main development of American literature? 1. A. Stephen Crane, B. Frank Norris C. Theodore Dreiser 2. A. Ernest Hemingway, B. exiles/expatriates 3. A. the Lost Generation fiction, B. the leftist fiction, C. the south fiction, D. the Beat Generation fiction 4. A. John Steinbeck B. Of Mice and Men , C. The Grapes of Wrath 5. A. William James, B. Henry James, C. Sigmund Freud, D. Carl G. Jung, E. James Joyce, F. T.S. Eliot, 6. A.Maggie: A Girl of the Streets B.The Red Badge of Courage 7. A. social realism, B. psychological realism, C. regionalism, D. naturalism 8. A. interior monologue, B. free-association, C. multi-level structure 9. A. the period of Romanticism, B. the period of Realism, C. the period of Modernism Literary cloze1. The most outstanding poet in America of the 18th century was _.2. In the early nineteenth century, Washington Irving wrote “_” which became the first work by an American writer to win financial success on both sides of the Atlantic.3 Except for The Age of Reason, Paines the other famous works are “_” and Rights of Man.3. Emersonian Transcendentalism is actually a philosophical school which absorbed some ideological concerns of American _and European Romanticism. a) _ was considered as the “poet of the American Revolution.”4. 6. The central figure in Coopers masterpiece, “_” is Natty Bumppo, who goes by the various names of Leatherstocking, Deerslayer, Pathfinder and Hawkeye.5. 7. Hester Prynne is the heroine in Hawthornes greatest novel “_”.6. 8._ is the pioneer who wrote in the naturalistic tradition.7. 9.The best work that Mark Twain ever produced is “_”, which has been regarded as one of the g