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1、American Literature Foreign Language Department Tang Xu,Words On the study of American Literature,I. Preliminary knowledge for the study of American literature 1. Basic knowledge of American literary works 2. Basic knowledge of world literary classics, particularly those of ancient Greece 3. Basic k
2、nowledge of ancient Greek and Roman mythology 4. Basic knowledge of American history and politics 5. Basic knowledge of the Christian Bible,II. Essential prerequisites for the study of British and American literature 1. Interest in literature 2. A large vocabulary 3. Good habits of study,III. What i
3、s to be studied in American literature 1. History of American literature; 2. Major writers and their major works; 3. Historical (economic, political and ideological) background for the creation of the major writers; 4. Literary creative thought and artistic features of the major writers; 5. Central
4、thought and social significance and writing techniques of a specific literary work; 6. General literary theories and schools,IV. Requirements 1. Previewing without exception 2. Regular attendance (exception permitted only with convincing reasons) 3. Class participation (Be active) and oral presentat
5、ion,4. Note-taking (many things out of the textbook are to be touched upon in class, and some of them are to be included in the final exam); 5. Dont expect me (or anybody else) to discuss everything about a writer or a literary work as a teacher of intensive reading does; dont expect me to write eve
6、rything I say on the blackboard. This is not at all the proper method of studying literature.,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,American Puritanism (the early 17th century-the end of the 18th),1706-1790,1703-1758,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,The L
7、iterary Scene in the Colonial Period 1. American literature grew out of humble origins. 2.Diaries, histories, journals, letters, commonplace books, travel books, sermons, in short, personal literature in its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period.,V. Th
8、e Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,3. In content these early writings served either God or colonial expansion or both. In form, English literary traditions were faithfully imitated and transplanted. 4. The major representatives in this period were John Smith (1588-1649), William Br
9、adford (1590-1657), John Winthrop (1588-1649), and Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672).,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,The Romantic Period 1.The Romantic Period that follows covers the first half of the nineteenth century. 2. Washington Irving (1783-1859) and James Fenimore Cooper
10、 (1789-1851) will be our first concern. 3. Irvings “Rip Van Winkle“and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow“ in The Sketch Book will be placed at the top of any reading list on American literature.,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,New England Transcendentalism (1836-1855) 1.One of t
11、he major literary figures in this period was Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), the leading New England Transcendentalist, whose Nature (1836) has been called “the Manifesto of American Transcendentalism,“ and whose “The American Scholar“(1837) has been rightly regarded as Americas “Declaration of Int
12、ellectual Independence.“,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,2. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was at first a faithful follower of Emerson, but alienated himself somewhat from the master later on. 3. Another of Emersons contemporaries, Walt Whitman (1819-1892), tried to write
13、poetry describing the native American experience. 4. Whitman and Dickinson were the two major American poets of the nineteenth century.,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,5. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) did not feel comfortable with Emersons buoyant sense of optimism about
14、man and his nature, and kept a respectable distance from Emerson and his ideas. 6. His The Scarlet Letter (1850) and other works reveal a blackness of vision of which Emerson was not capable.,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,7. Standing apart from his contemporaries but no l
15、ess important in the history of American literature is Edgar Allan Poe, who was for a long time perhaps the most controversial of American writers. 8. From the very outset he was not appreciated in his own country, but he was well received in Europe, in England, in Spain, and especially in France wh
16、ere he first acquired greatness.,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,The Age of Realism (1861-1865) 1.The Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. 2.The Age of Realism came into existence. 3.It came as a reaction against “the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism,“ as E
17、verett Carter put it. 4.A fearless and enthusiastic champion of the new school was William Dean Howells (1837-1920).,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,5. Two other staunch fighters for realism were Mark Twain (1835-1910) and Henry James (1843-1916), with both of whom William
18、Dean Howells sustained a personal relationship. 6. Mark Twain wrote works, which have become part of the American cultural tradition. 7. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, his masterpiece, has, in the opinion of Ernest Hemingway, fathered modern American literature.,V. The Survey of Selected Readin
19、gs in American Literature,8. Henry James, with his “international theme,“ and his psychological realism, is now considered as one of the most important literary figures coming out of the nineteenth century.,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,The Age of Natrualism 1. In the las
20、t decade of the nineteeth century, literary naturalism came into being. 2. Three American writers who wrote in this tradition deserve special treatment: Stephen Crane (1871-1900), Frank Norris (1870-1902), and Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945).,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,3.
21、 Cranes Maggie: A Girl of the Street is the first American naturalistic work, Norris MacTeague the manifesto of American naturalism, and Dreisers Sister Carrie the work in which naturalism attained maturity.,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,The Age of Modernism 1. In poetry,
22、 there appeared a strong reaction against Victorian poetry, the chief characteristics of which are its moralizing tendencies, its over-padding of extra-poetic matter, and its traditional iambic pentameter. 2. The emphasis was now on the economy of expression and on the use of a dominant image. 3. Th
23、e movement, is known as Imagism (1908-1917). Its prime mover was Ezra Pound (1885-1972).,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,4. The poetry of William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) is renowned for his simplicity, directness, and apparent formlessness. 5. To Wallace Stevens (1879-1
24、955), “the world we inhabit is one we half create; we make the order we perceive; and the world exists as meditation.“ 6. Thus, art and poetry is the means by which we create order out of a world of chaos and confusion.,V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature,7. The poetry of Rober
25、t Frost (1874-1963) is full of life, truth and wisdom. His view of man and his world is not always sunny and happy: the world as he depicts it can be frightening, too. 8. Carl Sanburg (1878-1967) from the Chicago school of poets has been seen as predominantly optimistic, writing in the tradition of
26、Walt Whitman. 9. Hart Crane (1899-1932) wrote his great work, The Bridge, a poem of epic stature, representing modern American experience.,VI. Pre-knowledge of America and American Literature,The discovery of America 1 In 1492, the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus(1451-1506) reached a group of
27、 islands now called the Bahamas, mistaking them for part of Asia, thus calling the natives there Indians,2 In 1499, another Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512), confirmed that a new continent rather than Asia had been discovered; 3 In 1507, the new continent was named after Amerigo Vespu
28、cci -America,The brief history of America 1 In 1607, a group of Englishmen came to North America, establishing the first English colony, Jamestown in Virginia, thus beginning the national history of America. 2 In 1620, another group of Englishmen got to North America in a ship called the “Mayflower”
29、 and established the Plymouth Colony in New England.,3 In 1630, more English people migrated to the continent and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 4 Up to 1773, thirteen English colonies had been established in America.,5 In 1775, the American War of Independence broke out, and in 1783 Amer
30、ica gained its independence; 6 From 1861 to 1865 America experienced the period of Civil War, through which American independence was consolidated; 7) From 1607 to the present, America has a history of roughly 400 years.,The Divisions of American literary history (1) the Colonial Period, stretching
31、roughly from the early 17th century to the middle of the 18th century; (2) the Period of Revolution and Enlightenment, covering the last decades of the 18th century; (3) the Romantic period, roughly covering the first half of the 19th century;,(4) the Age of Realism (Critical Realism), from the Civi
32、l War to the end of the19th century; (5) the Age of Modernism, originating at the end of the 19th century, reaching its maturity in the 1920s, declining after the 1950s; (6) the Age of Postmodernism, usually taken to begin from the 1950s,李宜燮，常耀信，美国文学选读 (Selected Readings in American Literature），南开大学
33、出版社，1991年（上册第二版，下册第一版）,教 材,主要参考书目 1. 常耀信著, A Survey of American Literature (the 2nd edition), 南开大学出版社, 2003 2. 杨仁敬, 20世纪美国文学史, 青岛出版社, 1999 3. 史志康主编，美国文学背景概观，上海外语教育出版社，1998 4Rod W. Horton & Herbert W. Edwards. Backgrounds of American Literary Thought (third edition), Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cl
34、iffs, New Jersey, 1974,5王长荣, 现代美国小说史, 上海外语教育出版社, 1992 6. Laurie E. Rozakis, 陈兵译编，How to Interpret Poetry（怎样赏析诗歌），上海译文出版社，2005； 7罗良功编著，英诗概论，武汉大学出版社，2002； 8王宝童编著，Round the Realms of Gold: A Poetry Textbook （金域行英 诗教程）, 河南大学出版社，1993;,9王宝童编著，Sound Oer the Realms of GoldHow Poetry Rings (金域音英诗声韵)，河南大学出版社，
35、1998 10王宝童编著，Out the Realms of GoldHow Poetry Lasts （金域荣英诗运化），河南大学出版社，2000,美文分享：从今天开始，遵守一个规则,世界上有许多规则，比如上课不能迟到，考试不能作弊，开车不能超速，踢足球不能拿手去碰球（除了守门员）凡是叫做“规则”的东西，多多少少都会让我们感到一些“不自由”。但假如没有规则，世界就会乱套，没有人愿意生活在一个乱套的世界里。 道理人人都懂。有两种规则，明明很合理，遵守起来却没那么容易。 第一种是违反的人多，遵守的人少，于是遵守规则的人成了“怪物”。比如，人行道上的红灯亮了，行人却视而不见，照走不误，这时只有你一
36、个人规规矩矩地站在那里，会不会觉得自己像个傻瓜？,美文分享：从今天开始，遵守一个规则,第二种是遵守起来麻烦，违反它却轻而易举，无需付出代价。比如，你走在路上，喝光了一瓶饮料，环顾四周却没看到垃圾桶，你是拿着空瓶继续找垃圾桶呢，还是随手把它扔掉？随手扔掉的话不会有人看到，看到了也不会有人管 我们常常听到有人说，中国人的素质真是低呀！说这话的时候，仿佛这件事与他无关。更严重的是，这些人一边数落这社会的种种不是，一边随地吐痰随手扔垃圾。 如果每个人都觉得自己改变不了世界，那么世界由谁来改变呢？所以，让我们从坚持遵守一个规则开始，给世界增加一份正能量，好吗？,美文分享：从今天开始，遵守一个规则,对，不用多，就从一个规则开始！比如，过马路不闯红灯，排队等车或购物，公众场合不大声说话，把垃圾扔进垃圾桶 当你孤独地遵守规则时，请用10秒钟顶住“我是异类”的无形压力，享受这种“众人皆醉我独醒”的感觉。 请相信，你不是唯一想遵守规则的人。你的行为会给别人信心，对他们是一种鼓励，你一定会看到有人跟着你在红灯前停下了脚步。 当你对遵守这条规则慢慢习惯后，接着去“挑战”下一条吧！,Thank You!,