美国文学试题 半期
美国文学期中试题
(The Literature of Realism)
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1. Realism had originated in the country _ _France as a literary doctrine that called for "reality and truth" in the depiction of ordinary life.
2. The arbiter of nineteenth century literary realism in America was
deeply at the individual psychology of his characters, writing in a rich and intricate style that supported his intense scrutiny of complex human experience.
4. _Mark Twain_, breaking out of the narrow limits of local color fiction, described the breadth of American experience as no one had ever done before, or since.
5. _Darwinism_had an evident influence on naturalism. It seemed to stress the animality of man, to suggest that he was dominated by the irresistible forces of evolution.
6. The poetic style Walt Whitman devised is now called _free verse__ , that is poetry
without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.
7. In his cluster of poems called Leaves of Grass, _Walt Whitman_ gave America its first genuine epic poem.
8. There is no doubt that the solitary Emily Dickinson of _Amherst__,
Massachusetts , is a poet of great power and beauty.
9. There was only one female prose writer in the nineteenth century. That was_Harriet Beecher Stowe
10. Harriet Beecher Stowe' s masterpiece is Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ .
11. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is better known by the pen name Mark Twain_.
12. One of Samuel Langhorne Clemens' best books Life on the Mississippi is built around his experiences as a steamboat pilot.
13. The result of Mark Twain' s European trip was a series of newspaper articles, later published as a book called Innocents Abroad_ .
14. Mark Twain__was the first literary giant born west of the Mississippi.
15. Mark Twain's work The Mysterious Stranger tells of the visits of an angel to the village of Eseldorf in Austria in 1590.
16. William Sidney Porter, whose pen name was , was the author of The Cop and the Anthem.
17. Many of O. Henry's stories tell about the life of poor people in _New York_
18. 0. Henry sympathized with the poor's lot and hated those rich who exploited and
despised them. This is especially seen in his story entitled _An Unfinishedtory_
19. It is said that O. Henry imitated a French author named De Maupassant as a model, and there is indeed much in common between these two writers.
20. The title of one of O. Henry' s books The Four Millions_ indicates that he considered all the people of New York City worth writing about, instead of only the upper class.
21. Henry James' first novel is Watch and ward_ , which failed to make him famous.
22. The novel which was described by an American critic as "an outrage to American
girlhood" is Henry James' Daisy Miller_ .
23. Henry James' first important fiction was A passionate Pilgrim__, in which he took up for the first time the theme of The American in Europe.
24. In 1881, Henry James published his novel _The portrait of a Lady___, which is generally considered as his masterpiece.
25. Henry Jams__ is considered the founder of Psychological realism. He believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator.
26. The name of the heroine in The Portrait of a Lady is _Isabel Archer_.
27. In 1902 Jack London published his first novel A Daughter of The Snows__.
28. _Martin Eden__is the novel into which Jack London put most of himself.
29. The first novel of Theodore Dreiser was _Sister Carrie____ .
30. The identification of potency with money is at the heart of Theodore Dreiser's
Masterpiece An American Tragedy_ .
31. The protagoniswof Theodore Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire is _Frank Cowperwood
32. Theodore Dreiser visited the Soviet Union in 1927 and published Dreiser Looks at Russia he following year.
33. Theodore Dreiser's novel Sister Carrie_, a commercial and critical failure when first published in 1900, was reissued in 1907 and won high praise for its grim, naturalistic portrayal of American society.
34. Mark Twain' s first novel, The Gilded Age__was an artistic failure, but it gave its name to the America of the postbellum period which it
attempts to satirize.
35. Three years' life on the Mississippi left such a fond memory with Mark Twain that
he returned to the theme more than once in his writing career. His book Life on the Mississippi relates it in a vivid, moving way.
36. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_was Mark Twain' s masterpiece from which, as Hemingway noted, "all modern American literature comes. " 37. The best work that Mark Twain ever produced is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn __ , which was a success from its first publication in 1884, and has always been regarded as one of the great books of western literature and western civilization.
38. _Stephen Crane_is the pioneer who wrote in the naturalistic tradition.
39. Stephen Crane' s noel Maggi, Girl of the Streets_relates the story of a good woman' s down fall and destruction in a slum environment. 40. War in the novel The Red Badge of Courage __ by Stephen Crane is a plain slaughter-house. There is nothing like valor or heroism on the battlefield, and if there is anything , it is the fear of death, cowardice, the natural instinct of man to run from danger.
41. Benjamin Frank Norris' s novel McTe-ague_has been called "the first full-bodied naturalistic American novel" and "a consciously naturalistic manifesto".
42. Jack London's masterwork Martin Eden_is somewhat autobiographical.
43. O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi__ is a very moving story of a young couple who sell their best possessions in order to get money for a Christmas present for each other.
II. Analyze the following work
1.Analyze Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie is a famous work of America in 20 century. it was written by Theodore Dreiser who was an American novelist andjournalist, and it’s the greatest naturalist writer as well. Sister Carrie tells the story of a small country girl Carrie who moves to Chicago to realize her “American Dream”and eventually becomes a Broadway star in New York. Despite living a luxurious life, she is lost in spirit. Reading the novel ,,we may easily care Carrie’s different needs and desires arising gradually and also the betrayal of traditional moral code in the process of persuing material gain. However, the reasons why Carrie has various needs at different stages of life ,mainly based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. One is Carrie’s inner desires; the other is the outside force, including temptations of environment, cities, and etc. The interaction between them makes Carrie lose herself eventually. It seems to tell people that in modern society material supplies more and more abundantly, but we should never pursue it blindly and much importance should be attached to happiness and stability created by spirit. It is essential to ponder the significance and the value of life.
In the novel, Dreiser depicted the reality of the deep gap between the poor and the rich and the situation of poor working people. It exposes the cruel relationship between persons, and citizens hypocrisy of bourgeoisie. What’s more , it reveals the rotten way of life of
bourgeoisie. It smashes the mythic of so-called “American Dream”. Dreiser made great contributions to American literature. Though some people criticize Dreiser’s style. They complain too many details and his language is not clear. But nobody could deny his importance in American naturalism. The novel’s plot is coincidence with the order of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It exhibits that Carrie’s destiny is inevitably.
For Carrie, life is a state of wanting, which keeps her hunting. She needs what she wants and prioritizes them. An inexperienced girl comes to the prosperous city with beautiful the picture is not is miserable with cold and hunger ,and loses her position because of illness. And finally, Carrie succeeds in New York as a musical star. She immerses herself into the upper social class . She has wealth in abundance. Then she realizes that happiness is not identical with wealth. She feels lonely and void in spirit. She ponders what happiness is. Though Carrie has not founded happiness she wants, she will keep pursuing.