美国文学复习考点

⑴Transcendentalism 超验主义

Transcendentalism was a broad, philosophical movement in New England during the Romantic era (peaking between 1835 and 1845). It stressed the role of divinity in nature and the individual’s intuition, and exalted feeling over reason. The phase of New England Transcendentalism is the summit of American Romanticism. The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe, stressed the importance of the individual and offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God.

⑵American Romanticism 美国浪漫主义

(1) American Romanticism is one of the most important periods in the history of American literature. (2) It started with the publication of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Wa lt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. (3) Being a period of the great flowering of American literature, it is also call ed “the American Renaissance”.(4) It was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense. They emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group. They affirmed the inner life of the self, and cherished strong interest in the past, the wild, the remote, the mysterious and the strange. They stressed the element “Americanness” in their works.(5) American romanticists includes such literary figures as Washington Irving, James Fennimore Cooper, William Cullen Bryant, Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and some others.

⑶Imagism 意象派

Imagism came into being in Britain and U. S. around 1910 as a reaction to the traditional English poetry to express the sense of fragmentation and dislocation. The imagists, with Ezra Pound leading the way, hold that the most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of one dominant image. Imagism as a movement flourished only briefly, but it had considerable influence on the development of form and subject matter in modern poetry. Poets like T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and E. E. Cummings, recognizing strengths in imagist philosophies, made poems of the imagist type.

Imagism is characterized by the following three poetic principles :

1. Direct treatment of subject matter;

2. Economy of expression

3. as regards rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of metronome

Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” is a well-known imagist poem.

⑷Lost Generation 迷茫的一代

The "Lost Generation" was the generation that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel. Variously, the term is used for the period from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression, though in the United States it is used for the generation of young people who came of age during and shortly after World War I, alternatively known as the World War I generation. In Britain the term was originally used for those who died in the war

Writers of the first post war era self-consciously acknowledged that they were a “Lost Generation”, disillusioned by the war, and devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization. Hemingway was regarded as the spokesman for the Lost Generation.

⑸Free Verse 自由体诗，如惠特曼的草叶集

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. A clear example of this can be found in Walt Whitman's poems, where he repeats certain phrases and uses commas to create both

a rhythm and structure. Much pattern and discipline is to be found in free verse: the internal pattern of sounds, the choice of exact words, and the effect of associations give free verse its beauty.

诗歌

(诗人 诗名 主题 韵式 象征意义；Poem analysis in the terms of title of the poem , poet’s name , word , phrase explanation , theme , metrical , rhyme scheme )

1、The Road Not Taken

Poet: Robert Frost (1874-1963) ;Four times winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

born in San Francisco. Entered Dartmouth College after graduating from high school, dissatisfied with college life and withdrew, entered Harvard University in 1897 after marrying Elinor White; left Harvard two years after and moved to a farm near Derry , New Hampshire, given to him by his grandfather

← Poem Type:

lyrical poem

← Rhyme Scheme:

Iambic tetrameter;

4 5-line stanzas with the rhyme scheme “abaab”.

← Literary Devices:

Symbolism

Metaphor

Personification

2、In a station of the Metro (Imagism )

Poet: Ezra Pound (1885—1972)

Poe; Translator ;Editor; Polemicist 辩论家;Essayist

Life and Career:

Pound was often called “the poet’s poet” because his profound influence on 20th century writing in English.

In a Station of the Metro The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

Question:

How is the central image in the poem “In a Station of the Metro” related to the subject the poet intends to present?

Who composed this poem? What kind of form is adopted in this verse?

? Ezra Pound; the Japanese haiku.

Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians “apparition”?

? These pedestrians are all walking in a hurry amidst the drizzling rain.

What do “petals” and “bough” stand for?

? Petals refer to the faces while the bough stands for the floating crowd.

What does the poet describe in the poem?

? The poem is an observation of the poet of the human faces in a Paris subway station where

Pound was once impressed by the pretty faces of people hurrying out of the dim, damp and gloomy metro station. The faces Pound observed reflect variously against light

and

darkness, like flowers petals on a wet and dark bough. The word “apparition” reminds one of ghost or hell.

?This poem is probably the most famous of all imagist poems. Pound attempts to produce the emotion he felt when he walked down into a Paris subway station and suddenly saw a number of faces in the dim light. To capture the emotions, Pound uses the image of petals on wet, black boughs.

?In two lines it combines a sharp visual image or two juxtaposed images （意象叠加）"Petals on a wet，black bough" with an implied meaning. The faces in the dim light of the Metro suggest both the impersonality and haste of city life and the greater transience of human life itself.

?The word “apparition” is a well-chosen one which has a two-fold meaning：Firstly，it means

a visible appearance of something real. Secondly，it builds an image of a ghostly sight，a

delusive and unexpected appearance.

3. Because I could not stop for death

Poet: Emily Dickinson ;(1830-1886) (The Age of Realism)

Notes:

1.For his civility: 因为他彬彬有礼。

2.The cornice but a mound: 几乎看不见屋顶的上楣，只看到土墩子。

Question:

?In Because I Could Not Stop for Death, the poet uses personification.

?(a) Who is her companion in the carriage, and what qualities are assigned to him?

?(b) What is the house mentioned in lines 13-16?

?(c) Explain in your own words the idea the poem develops.

?Answer :

?(a) Death is her companion. He is both kindly and civil. (b) The grave. (c) This is how death comes according to the poet: Death interrupts the frenzied activity of life and guides the traveler calmly to eternity.

小说

1.A rose for Emily by William Faulkner

Faulkner: A country folk writer

?The story is set in the southern town of Jefferson in Yoknapatawpha Country which is also the setting for a dozen of his novels.

?Emily Grierson, the protagonist, has been twisted in personality by forces beyond her control. Dominated by her aristocratic father, she has been

prevented from marrying and after his death she is left alone and penniless.

She kills her lover Homer Barron in order to keep him with her. She does not accept change of the time and alienates herself from the community. She is insane and her actions grotesque, but she is a victim, a tragic woman who invites sympathy.

The meaning of the story:

The plot of the story revolves around many conflicts: the conflicts between Mr. Grierson and his daughter, the conflict between Miss Emily and Homer Barron, the conflict between Miss Emily and the community, the conflict between the South and the North, the conflict between Miss Emily and the established codes of conduct, and the conflict be tween the past and the present. The readers’ different focus on these conflicts may lead to different interpretations. On the whole, it tells what it is like to live in the American South between the 1860s and the 1930s when the South had to digest the loss of the war and cope with its legacy in a changing society. Plot:

The story begins with the description of Miss Emily's funeral. Town people all came to her house: men out of respects and women for curiosity. There had been no one around Miss Emily for many years except a Negro servant. Miss Emily, whose life was manipulated by her father, was the last des cendent of the old noble Grierson family.

After her father's death, Miss Emily was crushed. The town's mayor freed her from all taxes beca use her father had loaned money to the town. But the next generation dissatisfied with this traditio n. The new mayor wrote to Miss Emily himself and a group of Aldermen even came to her house, b ut all of them were refused.

Miss Emily once hung around with a Yankee named Homer Barron who loved free life and had no intention to settle down. One day Miss Emily went to the druggist to get some poison without any reason. People thought she was going to kill herself, but she did not die. Instead, people later found that Miss Emily was deserted by Homer Barron who had gone away. Because he had not been see n again.

Since then, Miss Emily had been living a completely estranged life. One of the few links with the outer world was that once a foul smell developed from the high and mighty Grierson. Some people had to cross Miss Emily's lawn and sprinkled lime there. The foul went away weeks later.

However, now, people could look around her old, dusty and smelly house. They opened her room which had been enclosed for a very long time. Astonishingly, they found the fleshless dead body of Homer Barron: it had been hidden by Miss Emily on her bed for decades of years.

Character:

Emily Grierson - The object of fascination in the story. An eccentric recluse, Emily is a mysterious figure who changes from a vibrant and hopeful young girl to a cloistered and secretive old woman. Devastated and alone after her father’s death, she is an object of pity for the townspeople. After a life of having potential suitors rejected by her father, she spends time after his death with a newcomer, Homer Barron, although the chances of his marrying her decrease as the years pass. Bloated and pallid in her later years, her hair turns steel gray. She ultimately poisons Homer and seals his corpse into an upstairs room.

Themes:

One of the themes of this story is the relation of the individual and his actions to the past, present and future. Apart from the exploration of psychological reality, the displaced chronology in narration is also characteristic of Faulkner’s style.

Resistance to change ----- This is perhaps the most recurrent theme in the book. Despite the family's fallen fortunes, Emily's father resists allowing any suitors to propose to Emily. This gradually

erodes her chances of ever being married. She eventually settles for Homer, but the townspeople see this as an affront to her noble heritage, and she eventually murders Homer and dies a recluse. Emily's inability to realize her father's death and refusal to adapt to a changing world intensify her seclusion.

Compassion and Forgiveness ---- "Compassion and Forgiveness" is another major theme that we can find in almost any Faulkner story. The story seems to argue that forgiveness, compassion, and understanding can only come by facing the facts of the past and the present, which are tangled up together in a tight knot. Faulkner is both mercilessly subtle, and painfully blunt in this story, but we can feel the spirit of compassion rushing through.

the cask of Amontillado(1846) by Edgar Allan Poe

The Romantic Period (1780-1860)

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

. Points of View and Theme :

? 1. He concludes that “the death of a beautiful woman is,

unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world”.

? 2. Melancholy is the most legitimate of all the poetic tones.

? 3. He was interested in imagination and fancy as well as deduction and induction.