Part I Each of the following statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement.
1. In American literature, the eighteen century was the age of the Enlightenment. __C_______ was the dominant spirit.
A. Humanism
B. Rationalism
C. Revolution
D. Evolution
2. Which statement about Franklin is not true? A
A. He instructed his countrymen as a printer.
B. He was a scientist.
C. He was a master of diplomacy.
D. He was a Puritan.
3. What is regarded as the first American prose epic? A
A. Nature
B. The Scarlet Letter
C. Walden
D. Moby-Dick
4. The Romanic Period of American literature started with the publication of Washington Irving's __A______ and ended with Whiteman's Leaves of Grass.
A. The Sketch Book
B. Tales of a Traveler
C. The Alhambra
D. A history of New York
5. In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, "A" may stand for__D______.
A. Adultery
B. Angel
C. Amiable
D. All the above
6. In the middle of 19th century, America witnessed a cultural flowering which is called “_B____”。
A. the English Renaissance
B. the Second Renaissance
C. the American Renaissance
D. the Salem Renaissance
7. As a philosophical and literary movement, the main issues involved in the debate of Transcendentalism are generally concerning _A_____.
A. nature, man and the universe
B. the relationship between man and woman
C. the development of Romanticism in American literature
D. the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism
8. In the history of American literature，___C___ is usually agreed to be the summit of the American Romanticism.
A. the Harlem Renaissance
B. England Transcendentalism
C. New England Transcendentalism
D. New Transcendentalism
9. The period before the American Civil War is generally referred to as__C_________ .
A. the Naturalist Period
B. the Modern Period
C. the Romantic Period
D. the Realistic Period
10. The Age of Realism is the literary history of the United States refers to the period from to_____A____.
A. 1861 – 1914
B. 1863 – 1918
C. 1865 – 1914
D. 1865 – 1918
11. Mark Twain, one of the greatest 19th century American writers, is well known for his__C______.
A. international theme
B. waste-land imagery
C. local color
D. symbolism
12. The impact of Darwin's evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the
nineteenth-century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism: American____B_______ .
A. modernism
B. naturalism
C. vernacularism
D. local colorism
13. The great sea adventure story Moby-Dick is usually considered__B____.
A. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe
B. an adventurous exploration into man’s relati onship with nature
C. a simple whaling tale or sea adventure
D. a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the artistic truth and beauty
14. In his poems, Walt Whitman is innovative in the terms of the form of his poetry, which is called “_____A___.”
A. free verse
B. blank verse
C. alliteration
D. end rhyming
15. Which of the following is right about Emily Dickinson’s poems about nature？C
A. In them, she expressed her general affirmation about the relationship between man and nature.
B. Some of them showed her disbelief that there existed a mythical bond between man and nature.
C. Her poems reflected her feeling that nature is restorative to human beings.
D. Many of them showed her feeling of nature’s inscrutability and indifference to the life and interests of human beings.
Part II Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English.
16.Standing on the bare ground, --my head bathed by the blither air and uplifted into the infinite
space, --all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulated though me; I am part or particle of God.
A.Which work is this fragment taken from?
Nature
B.How do you understand the philosophical ideas in these words?
1) He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and
advocates a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature. In this connection, Emerson’s emotional experiences are exemplary in more ways than one. 2) Now this a moment of “conversion” when one feels completely merged with the outside world, when the soul has gone beyond the physical limits of the body to share the omniscience of the Over-soul. Emerson sees spirit pervading everywhere, not only in the soul of man, but behind nature, throughout nature.
17.The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be
commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some nameless battle Revolutionary War.
A.Identify the work and the author.
B.The author also wrote another famous story that is about a henpecked man. Please identify
it and elaborates on the political standpoint of the author.
(注：该题选自浪漫主义时期一散文家的著名短篇小说。答案不便给出。)
18.I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belonging to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I learn and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
A.Identify the work and the author.
Song of Myself
B.Who is the poet celebrating?
Walt Whitman
C.What is the verse structure?
The poet is celebrating himself, his own life. Line 2-3 also include “you”, the readers and their lives in the celebration.
19.The apparition of these faces in the crowd
Petals on a wet, black bough.
A.Identify the poem and the poet.
In a Station of the Metro, Ezra Pound. The poem is an observation of the poet of the human faces seen in a Paris subway station.
B.What kind of mood does the image in the second line convey?
“Petals on a wet, black bough” vividly brings out the sudden feelings of freshness and happiness. The mood is joyous and exhilarati ng.(Here “petals” stands for “human faces”.
The two lines compare human faces to petals on a wet, black bough. This way of making poetry comes from Chinese poetics.)
C.Why is “apparition” a better word choice than, say, “appearance” or “sight”?
“Apparition” very precisely covers the meaning of sudden, unexpected appearance. Thus it is a better choice to describe the poet’s momentary feelings at the sight of the scene.
20.The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
A.identify the poem and the author
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Forest
B.What does the second “sleep” refer to?
It refers to “die”.
https://www.doczj.com/doc/bc2514107.html,ment briefly on the poem.
On the surface, the passage is deceptively simple. However, with the commonest words, it is deeply meditative. The simple poem uses its superb craftsmanshipto come to a clamix of responsibility: the promises to be kept, the obligation to be filled.(The poet seems to show that he would like to stay forever in the beautiful snowy woods, but as a poet, he still has many tasks to fulfill in his life and he has to go ahead. )“Before I sleep”may be understood as “Before I die”.
21.I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman ---
I have setested you long enough,
I come to you as a grown child
Who has had a pig-headed father;
I am old enough now to make friends.
A.Indentify the poem and the poet.
A Pact, Ezra Pond
B.What does the word “pact” mean?
The word “pact” means “agreement”.
https://www.doczj.com/doc/bc2514107.html,ment briefly on this stanza.
In this lines Pound comes to agree the importance of Walt Whitman although he has in the previous time rejected and attracted the achievements made by Whitman. Pound calls himself a grown child, which means he has matured so that he would like to take up what Whitman has left. The poem shows the undeniable position of Walt Whitman in American literature. (As time went by, Pound had realized that some agreement existed between “Whitmanesque” free verse, which he used to attack for its carelessness in composition.
He’d like to learn from the free verse and show respect to Whitman.)
22.Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fritterer in New York – every
Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of purples halves.
There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour in a little button was pressed two hundred times y a butler’s thumb.
A.Indentify the work and the author.
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
B.What does the word “pyramid” mean here?
It means a pile of objects that have been put into the shape of a pyramid.
C.What picture does the quoted passage present?
It represents a picture of wastefulness and extravagancy.
Part III Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English
23.Analyzes the effects of Puritanism on Nathaniel Hawthorne.
1)Hawthorne’s view of man and human history derives, to a great extent, from Puritanism. He
was not a Puritan himself, but his puritan ancestors had done the misdeeds. He believes that “the wrong doing of one generation lives into the successive ones,” and he was said to be often haunted by the sins of his ancestors. This intense awareness leads to his understanding of evil being at the very core of human life, which is typical of the Calvinistic doctrine that human beings are basically depraved and corrupted, hence, they should obey God to atone for their sins. 2)In many of Hawthorne’s stories and novels, the Puritan past is shown in an almost totally negative light, especially in his Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter.
Hawthorne is attracted in every way to the Puritan world, even though he condemns its less human manifestations. On the one hand, it provided him with subject, and on the other hand, with the Puritan world of society as a historical background, he discusses some of the most important issues that concern the moral life of man and human history.
24.The white whale, Moby Dick, is the most important symbol in Melville’s novel. What symbolic
meaning can you draw from it?
It symbolic meaning is a voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into man’s deep reality and psychology.
25.Emerson is generally known as an essayist. What is the style of his prose”.
1)Emerson’s essays often have a casual style, for most of them were derived from his journals
or lectures. 2)They are usually characterized by a series of short, declarative sentences, which are quite logically connected but will flower out into illustrative statements of truth and thoughts. Emerson’s philosophical discussion is sometimes difficult to understand but he uses comparisons and metaphors to make the general idea of his work clearly expressed.
3)Well-read in the classics of Western European literature, Emerson often employed these
literary sources to make and enrich his own points but never let them take the full reins of his discussion.
26.What is local colorism in American literature?
1)Mark Twain, Sara Orne Jewett and Joseph Kirkland are the representatives of local colorists
whose writings are concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town. 2)These local colorists, especially Mark Twain, preferred to present social life through portraits of the local character of his regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, and other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on. 3)This particular concern about the local character of a region came about as “local colorism”, a unique variation of American literary realism.
27.What are the characteristics of American naturalism? Please discuss the above question in
relation to the basic principles of literary naturalism.
1)The most familiar themes in American naturalism is the theme of human, especially as
explanation of sexual desire. 2)Artistically naturalistic writings are usually unpolished in language, lacking in academic skills and awkward in structure. 3)Philosophically, the naturalists believe that the real and true is always partially hidden from the eyes of the individual, or beyond his control. 4)The author’s tone in writing becomes less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.
28.What are the qualities of Emily Dickinson’s poems?
1)Dickinson’s poems are usu ally based on her own experiences, her sorrows and joys. 2)Love
is another subject Dickinson dwelt on. 3)Many poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general skeptical about the relationship between man and nature is well-expressed.
4)Dickinso n’s poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way. Her poems have no titles,
hence are always quoted by their first lines.
29.Imagism:1)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. 2)The imagists, with Ezra Pound leading the way, hole that the most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of one dominant image. The image is a representation of a physical object, and the reader is made to react to it. 3)Imagism is characterized by the following three poetic principles: a)direct treatment of “the thing”, whether subjective or objective; b)to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation; c)as regards rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of metronome. 4)Ezra Pound’s In a Station of the Metro is a well-known imagist poem.
30.Transcendentalism: 1)Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as “the recognition
in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses”. 2)Transcendentalists stress the importance of the Over-soul, the Individual and nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant. New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism.
31.What is “The Lost Generation”?
1)It is a term first used by Gertrude Stein to describe the post –World War I generation od
American writers: men and women haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness brought about by the destructiveness of the war. 2)Full of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date. 3)The three best- known representatives of Lost Generation are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos. 4)Others usually included among the list are Sherwood Anderson, Kay Boyle, Hart Crane, Ford Maddox Ford and Zelda Fitzgerald. 32.Please interpret Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”?
1)The poem is written in classic five-line stanzas, with the rhyme scheme a-b-a-a-b and
conversational rhythm. The poem seems to be about the poet, walking in the woods in the autumn, choosing which road he should follow on his walk. In reality, it concerns the important decisions which one must make in life, when one must give up one describe things in order to posses another. Then, whatever the outcome, one must accept the consequences of one’s choice for it is not possible to go back and have another chance to choose differently. 2)In the poem, the poet hesitates for a long time, wondering which road to take, because they are both pretty.
In the end, he follows the one which seems to have fewer travelers on it. Symbolically, he choose to follow an unusual, solitary life; perhaps he was speaking of his choice to become a poet rather than some commoner profession. But he always remembers the road which he might have taken, and which would have given him a different kind of life.
33.What kind of person is Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby?
Gatsby is a typical Everyman in the Jazz Age. His dream partakes of the state of mind that embodies American itself. He wants to be rich starting from nothing by earnest working.
However, he does this by bootlegging. His failure and death mean the end of the American Dream.
一．The Literature of Colonial America(Puritanism) 1.The first English colony: Jamestown in Virginia in 1607 2.The first American writer: John Smith 3.Anne Bradstreet: first American woman poet; a Puritan poet; once called “Tenth Muse”; 二．Literature of Reason and Revolution War of Independence (1775-1783);The French and Indian War / the Seven Y ears’War(1756-1763) 1..Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography; Richard’s Almanac Maxims from Poor Richard’s Almanac (proverbs that give practical wisdom) 2..Thomas Paine (1737-1809): Common Sense: a strong push for the Revolution W ar; four parts (British enslavement of the colonies; praising democratic election; America’s economic and military potential to protect the rights of people) 3..Philip Freneau (1752-1832) The first American-born poet;“Poet of the American Revolution”, “Father of American Poetry”, the most significant poet of 18th century America W orks:The Wild Honey Suckle《野忍冬花》on mortality, The Indian Burying Ground 《印第安人殡葬地》on the imagined afterlife, The British Prison Ship《英国囚船》about his imprisoned experience. 三．Romanticism The American Romantic period is considered one of the most important periods, the first literary Renaissance, in the history of American literature. It stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil W ar. It started with the publication of W ashington Irving’s The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. 1.Washington Irving (1783-1859) Literary status: the first American to earn an international reputation; Father of the American short stories The Sketch Book: winning him international popularity，the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature. Major works: A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty under the name of “Diedrich Knickerbocker
Part I The Literature of Colonial America I．Historical Introduction The colonial period stretched roughly from the settlement of America in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th. The first permanent settlement in America was established by English in 1607. ( A group of people was sent by the English King James I to hunt for gold. They arrived at Virginia in 1607. They named the James River and build the James town.) II．The pre-revolutionary writing in the colonies was essentially of two kinds: 1) Practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people "at home" what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration 2) Highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions. III．The First American Writer The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, their lives in the new land, their dealings with Indians. Captain John Smith is the first American writer. A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (1608) A Map of Virginia: A Description of the Country (1612) General History of Virgini a (1624): the Indian princess Pocahontas Captain John Smith was one of the first early 17th-century British settlers in North America. He was one of the founders of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. His writings about North America became the source of information about the New World for later settlers. One of the things he wrote about that has become an American legend was his capture by the Indians and his rescue by the famous Indian Princess, Pocahontas. IV．Early New England Literature William Bradford and John Winthrop John Cotton and Roger Williams Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor V．Puritan Thoughts 1. The origin of puritan In the mediaeval Europe, there was widespread religious revolution. In the 16th Century, the English King Henry VIII (At that time, the Catholics were not allowed to divorce unless they have the Pope's permission. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife because she couldn't bear him a son. But the Pope didn't allow him to divorce, so he) broke away from the Roman Catholic Church & established the Church of
美国文学期末考试复习必备（精） 1. What’s Puritanism? A religious and political movement which appeals to the right of the individual to political & religious independence. It includes three parts: a code of values, a point of view & a philosophy of life 2. What are the basic Puritan beliefs? 1). Total Depravity 2). Unconditional Election 3). Limited Atonement 4). Irresistible Grace 5). Perseverance of the "saints" 3. What are American Puritan values? Sobriety thrift, Self-reliance Diligence, Struggle, simple tastes 4. What are the features of American literature in the Colonial Period? A. Humble origins: diaries, journals, histories, letters. Its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period. B. in content: serving either god or colonial expansion or both C. in form: imitating English literary traditions. D. in style: tight and logic structure, precise and compact expression, avoidance of rhetorical decoration, adoption of homely imagery and simplicity of diction. E. Symbolism formed in this period ------To the pious Puritan, the physical, phenomenal world was nothing but a symbol of God. F. Simple, fresh and direct style
Captain John Smith (first American writer). Anne Bradstreet；The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America （colonists living） Edward Taylor(the best puritan poet) John Cotton ”the Patriarch of New England” teacher spiritual leader Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography Poor Richard’s Almanack Thomas Jefferson： Political Career Thoughts The Declaration of Independence we hold truth to be self-evidence Philip Freneau“Father of American Poetry” The Wild Honey Suckle American Romanticism optimism and hope Nationalism Washington Irving“Father of American Literature short story”The first “Pure Writer” A History of New York The Sketch Book marked the beginning of American Romanticism! “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”Rip Van Winkle James Fenimore Cooper Father of American sea and frontier novels Leather stocking Tales The Last of the Mohicans The Pioneers The Prairie The Pathfinder The Deerslayer Edgar Allan Poe father of detective story and horror fiction Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque “MS. Found in a Bottle” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” “The Fall of the House of Usher”“The Masque of the Red Death”“The
1、The Colonial Period（1607-1765） American Puritanism ( in the early 17th century through the end of the 18th) 北美第一位女诗人Anne Bradstreet(宗教气息，夫妻恩爱) Edward Taylor 都受英国玄学派影响（metaphysical） 2、The Enlightenment and Revolution Period Benjamin Franklin:Poor Richard's Almanac The Autobiography---“美国梦”的根源 3、American Romanticism（end of 18th to the civil war） American writers emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature. 早期浪漫主义Washington Irving father of American Literature
一 I heard the merry grasshopper then sing, The black-clad cricket bear a second part, They kept one tune, and played on the same string, Seeming to glory in their little art. Shall creatures abject thus their voices raise? And in their kind resound their maker’s praise, Whilst I, as mute, can warble forth no higher lays? “Under the cooling shadow of a stately Elm, Close state I by a goodly River’s side, Where gliding streams the Rocks did overwhelm; A lonely place with pleasures dignifi’d. I once that lov’d the shady woods so well, Now thought the rivers did the trees excel, And if the sun would ever shine there would I dwell. “While musing thus with contemplation fed, And thousand fancies buzzing in my brain, The sweet tongu’d Philomel percht o’er my head, And chanted forth a most melodious strain, Which rapt me so with wonder and delight, I judg’d my hearing better than my sight. 题目：the 9th of Contemplations 作者：Anne Bradstreet 赏析： 1. Rhyme royal: sevenline iambic petametre 七行五步抑扬格 2. Rhyme: ababccc 3. Theme: religion 4. 象征：black-clad=death; abject=admitting defeat; maker= god 5. A genuine expression of poetic feeling in the presence of nature. The poem offers the reader an insight into the mentality of the early Puritan pioneering in a new world. The poet heard the grasshopper and the cricket sing, and she searched for her own soul accordingly. 6. She saw sth metaphysical inhering in the physical, a mode of perception which was singularly Puritan 二 It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous was not sufficient to prevent our slipping and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method. In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalog more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or
名词解释： Imagism: It’s a poetic movement of England and the U.S. flourished from 1909 to 1917.The movement insists on the creation of images in poetry by “the direct treatment of the thing” and the economy of wording. The leaders of this movement were Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell. Beat generation: The term was coined by Jack Kerouac in 1948 to refer to a group of disillusioned writers following World War Two. Later, this literary and cultural movement continued into the 1960s. The Beat Generation must not be confused with the Lost Generation of writers. Spokesmen and representatives of the Beat Generation were Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and others. They revolted against an America that was materialistic, belligerent and frustrating. Social, intellectual and sexual freedom was advocated. Traditional culture and normal social behavior were attacked and violated. Many of them were drug addicts wearing long hair and dirty clothes. They were fond of slangs and jazz. Masterpieces created by writers of this g roup include Kerouac’s On the Road and Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, which were regarded as pocket Bibles of that generation. Other prominent Beats include William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, and Neal Cassady. The Beat Generation, had greatly influenced the countercultural movements of the 1960s and the adolescents and adults in other countries. In England, the “angry young men” made an echo and imitated the American “beatnik.” 二、1. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature: it is generally regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism. The American Scholar:it has been regarded as “America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence”. 2. Henry David Thoreau: Walden 3. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter: 主题：Hawthorne focuses his attention on the moral, emotional, and psychological effects or consequences of the sin on the people in general and those main characters in particular, so as to show us the tension between society and individuals. To Hawthorne, everybody is potentially a sinner, and great moral courage is therefore indispensable for the improvement of human nature. 4. Herman Melville: Moby Dick A. 作品分析： （1）Moby Dick represents the sum total of Melville’s bleak view of the world in which he lived. It is at once godless and purposeless. The loss of faith and the sense of futility and meaningless which characterize modern life of the West were expresse d in Melville’s work so well that the twentieth century has found it both fascinating and great. (2) One of the major themes of this novel is alienation, which exists in the life of Melville on different levels, between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Melville also criticizes New England Transcendentalism of its emphasis on individualism and Oversoul. Another theme of this novel is “rejection and quest.” (3) The novel is highly symbolic. The voyage itself is a metaphor for “search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience.” Moby Dick is the most conspicuous symbol in the book and it is capable of many interpretations. It is a symbol of evil to some, one of goodness to others, and both to still others. Its whiteness is a paradoxical color, signifying as it does death and corruption as well as purity, innocence, and youth. It represents the final mystery of the universe which man will do well to desist from pursuing. (4) Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple views of his narratives. He tends to write periodic sentences. His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised. B. what does the white whale in Moby Dick symbolize? Why do you think so? For Captain Ahab, the white whale represents evil. After the loss of his leg in his encounter with the white whale, Ahab begins to hate Moby Dick and tries his best to kill the whale. It seems that he embodies all of the evil he once consigned to the white whale. For other members on the whaling ship, the white whale symbolizes the unknown, mysterious natural force of the universe. For the readers, the white whale is capable of many interpretations, for it is “paradoxically benign an d malevolent, nourishing and destructive,” “massive, brutal, monolithic, but at the same time protean, erotically beautiful, infinitely variable.” C. Major themes: obsession, religion, and idealism versus pragmatism, revenge, racism, sanity, hierarchical relationships, and politics. D. the Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truth. Moby Dick is a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe, and the voyage of the mind will forever remain a search, not a discovery, of the truth. The whole story turns out to be a symbolic voyage of the mind quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into man’s deep reality and psychology. 5. Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass.It has been praised as “Democ ratic Bible”, and as American Epic. 主题：(1)he shows concern for the whole hard-working people and the burgeoning life of cities. (2) realization of the individual value. (3) pursuit of love and happiness. (4) Before and during the Civil War, Whitman expressed much mourning for the sufferings of the young lives in the battlefield and showed a determination to carry on the fighting dauntlessly until the final victory. 写作风格：(1) Whitman wrote “free verse”, that is, poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. (2) There is a strong sense of the poems being rhythmical. Parallelism and phonetic recurrence at the beginning of the lines contribute to the musicality of his poems. (3) Most of the pictures he painted with words are honest, undistorted images of different aspects of America of the day. (4) Whitman’s language is relatively simple and even rather crude. Another characteristic in Whitman’s language is his strong tendency to use oral English. Whitman’s vocabulary is amazing. He would use powerful, colorful, as well as rarely-used words. Leaves of Grass的分析： (1). Grass, the most common thing with the greatest vitality, is an image of the poet himself, a symbol of the then rising American nation and an embodiment of his ideals about democracy and freedom. (2). In this giant work, openness, freedom, and above all, individualism are all that concerned him. (3). In this book he also praises nature, democracy, labor and creation, and sings of man’s dignity and equality, and of th e brightest future of mankind. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass sing of the “en-masse” and self as well. 6. Emily Dickinson: 诗歌的主要内容：love, nature, death and immortality. 7. Edgar Allen Poe: 短篇小说家和诗人。 Poe is the father of psychoanalytic criticism and the father of detective story. 主题：death of one’s beloved lover of great intelligence and beauty. He also writes about horror (Gothic) stories, murder, and insanity. 8. Henry James: The turn of the screw The founder of psychological realism. He was the first American writer to conceive his artistic work in international themes. 9. Mark Twain:The adventures of Huckleberry Finn Hemingway described it as the book from which “all modern American literature comes”. The style of this book is quite simple. The book is written in the colloquial style. Though a local book, it touches upon the human situation in a general, indeed universal way: humanitarianism ultimately triumphs. It tells a story about the United States before the Civil War, around 1850, when the great Mississippi Valley was still being settled. Here lies an America, wit its great national faults, full of violence and even cruelty, yet still retaining the virtues of “some simplicity, some innocence, some peace.” 10. Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser: 自然主义的代表人物。 11. F. Scott Fitzgerald:The Great Gatsby 迷惘一代的代表人物 12. Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms; For Whom the Bell Tolls; The Old Man and the Sea The title of For Whom the Bell Tolls comes from John Donne’s Meditation. 13. William Faulkner: stream of consciousness的写作手法 14. Ezra Pound: 意象派代表人物。 意象派基本主张： (1) Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective. (2) To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation (3) As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome. 15. Robert Frost: natural poet. 16. Eugene Glastone O’Neill: Desire Under the Elms Long Days Journey into Night: Mark Twain H. L. Mencken considered "the true father of our national literatu re” Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884) and Life on the Mississippi(1883) Twain shaped the world's view of American and made a more extensive combination of American folk humor and serious literature than previous writers had ever done. Mark Twain’s sty le 1) Twain is also known as a local colorist, who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions 2) Another fact that made Twain unique is his magic power with language, his use of vernacular. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simple, even ungrammatical, which is typical of the spoken language 3) Mark Twain's humor is remarkable, too. Most of his works tend to be funny, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks. 4) Paid more attention to the "life" of the Americans, Concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region and the lower-class people 5) Nostalgic in a vanishing way of life and recorders of a present that faded before their eyes Adventures of Huckleberry Fin The character analysis and social meaning of Huck Finn Huck is a typical American boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”. He appears to be vulgar in language and in manner, but he is honest and decent in es sence. His remarkable raft’s journey down on the Mississippi river can be regarded as his process of education and his way to grow up. Huck is the son of nature and a symbol for freedom and earthly pragmatism. Through the eye of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed. Twain contrasts the life on the river and the life on the banks, the innocence and the experience, the nature and the culture, the wilderness and the civilization. Ernest Hemingway A Nobel Prize winner for literature His style, the particular type of hero in his novels, and his life attitudes have been widely recognized, not only in English-speaking countries but all over the world Hemingway shot himself with a hunting gun In Our Time (1925)is the first book to present a Hemingway hero--Nick Adams The Sun Also Rises(1926) is Hemingway's first true novel. A vivid portrait of "The Lost Generation," -- a group of young Americans who left their native land and fought in the war and later engaged themselves in writing in a new way about their own experiences. Hemingway's second big success is A Farewell to Arms, telling us a story about the tragic love affair of a wounded American soldier with a British nurse -- emphasizes his belief that man is trapped both physically and mentally, but goes to some lengths to refute the idea of nature, man is doomed to be entrapped For Whom the Bell Tolls clearly represents a new beginning in Hemingway's career as a writer, which concerns a volunteer American guerrilla Robert Jordan fighting in the Spanish Civil War, this work Caps his career and leads to his receipt of the Nobel Prize The Old Man and the Sea, Men Without Women(1927), Death in the Afternoon(1932), The Snows of Kilimanjaro, To Have and Have Not (1937) Hemingway develops the style of colloquialism initiated by Mark Twain Hemingway was highly praised by the Nobel Prize Committee for "his powerful style-forming mastery of the art" of creating modern fiction. Indian Camp The title indicates that the material is contemporary and to some extent, representative of the early twentieth-century experience A reference to the well-know phrase from the Book of Common Prayer:" Give us peace in our time, O Lord," the title is very ironic because there is no peace at all in the stories In a chronological order, introduces Nick Adams to readers from his childhood to adolescence and manhood Nick watches his father deliver an Indian woman of a baby by Caesarian section, with a Jack-knife and without anesthesia. This incident brings the boy into contact with something that is perplexing and unpleasant, and is actually Nick's initiation into the pain and violence of birth and death. Most of Hemingway's later works are merely variations of the Nick Adams stories in In Our Time The Hemingway code heroes and grace under pressure They have seen the cold world, and for one cause, they boldly and courageously face the reality. They have an indestructible spirit for his optimistic view of life. Whatever the result is, they are ready to live with grace under pressure. No matter how tragic the ending is, they will never be defeated. Finally, they will be prevailing because of their indestructible spirit and courage. The iceberg technique Hemingway believes that a good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or action. The one-eighth is presented will suggest all other meaningful dimensions of the story. Thus, Hemingway’s language is symbolic and suggestive.