Lecture 5 American Literature

Definition of literature--Literature encompasses poetry, fiction (nove

ls, short stories) , drama, prose 诗歌 小说 戏剧 散文

--14th c.-18th c. literature was a synonym for literacy( 文化知识 )

Lecture 5 American Literature

--18th c. –the term’s meaning

changed: it referred to books andother printed texts – the scope ofliterature was broad, encompassingall public writing

-- 19th c. imaginative, creative writing

Lecture 5 American Literature

1.Early fiction (post Revolutionary period) 早期小说 mythmaker, myth-hero

(1)Washington Irving ( 华盛顿 . 欧文） History of New York 《纽约外史》 Rip Van Winkle 《瑞普凡 . 温克尔》 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 《睡谷的传说》 Tour on Prairies 《草原漫游记》

Lecture 5 American Literature

(2) James Fenimore Cooper 费尼莫 . 库珀 Leather-stocking Tales 《皮袜子故事集》 The Spy 《间谍》

Lecture 5 American Literature

2. Transcendentalists 超验主义者 19th c.

(1) Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫 . 沃尔多 .爱默生

Nature 《 论自然》(2) Henry David Thoreau 亨利 . 大卫 . 梭罗 Walden 《瓦尔登湖》

Lecture 5 American Literature

Lecture 5 American Literature

Lecture 5 American Literature

3. Power of imagination 想象力 (1) Edgar Allen Poe 爱德加 . 艾伦 . 破 The Masque of Red Death 《 红死病的假

面舞会》 The Fall of the House of Usher 《厄舍尔

厦的倒塌 》

Lecture 5 American Literature

I had taken but few turns in this manner, when a light step on the next staircase attracted my attention. I presently recognized it as that of Usher. In an instant afterwards he knocked gently at my door, and entered, carrying a lamp. His face, as usual,was wan—but there was a look of madness in his eyes. Although his appearance appalled me, anything was preferable to the loneliness which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed his presence as a relief.

Lecture 5 American Literature

( 2) Nathaniel Hawthorne 纳撒尼尔 . 霍桑 The Scarlet Letter 《红字》 (3) Herman Melville 赫尔曼 . 梅尔维尔 Moby Dick 《白鲸》 American masterpiece

Lecture 5 American Literature

4. New Vision of America 美国新构想 Walt Whitman 惠特曼 poet

Leaves of Grass 《草叶集》 poetry

Lecture 5 American Literature

Daffodils by William Wordsworth 《水仙》威廉 . 华兹华斯 ( 英）I wander’d lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Lecture 5 American Literature

《水仙》威廉 . 华兹华斯 ( 英）我独自徘徊，如一朵云霞高高漂浮于青山翠峡，忽见一丛丛，一簇簇金灿灿的水仙，在碧水畔，绿树下迎风起舞，轻盈潇洒

Lecture 5 American Literature

5. Reform and liberation 改革和自由 Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom’s Cabin 《汤姆叔叔的小屋》 --antislavery novel

Lecture 5 American Literature

Regionalism 地方主义（ 1 ） Mark Twain 马克．土温　 satire/ humor

The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn

《哈克贝利 . 费恩历险记》

Lecture 5 American Literature

（ 2 ） Emily Dickinson (poet) gaiety / gloom6. A new wave 新浪潮 Henry James The American 《一个美国人》 Portrait of a Lady 《女士的画像》 The Wings of the Dove 《鸽翼》 The Ambassadors 《专使》 The Golden Bowl 《金碗》

Lecture 5 American Literature

7. Rebellious spirit 反叛精神 20th c. (1) Sherwood Anderson 舍伍德 . 安德森 Winesburg, Ohio 《俄亥俄州的瓦恩斯堡》 (2) Sinclair Lewis

--first American winner of Nobel Prize for Literature

Main Street 《大街》

Lecture 5 American Literature

7. The modernists 现代主义作家 T.S.Eliot (T.S 艾略特 ) The Waste Land 《荒原》 8. Lost Generation 迷惘的一代(1) F.Scott Fitzgerald 弗 . 斯科特 . 菲兹杰拉德 The Great Gatsby 《了不起的盖茨比》

Lecture 5 American Literature

(2) Ernest Hemingway 厄内斯特 .海明威 The Sun Also Rises 《太阳照样升起》 A Farewell to Arms 《告别了，武器》 For Who the Bell Tolls 《丧钟为谁而鸣》 simple language

Lecture 5 American Literature In Another Country

“ What will you do when the war is over if it is over?”he asked me. “Speak grammatically!”

“I will go to the States.” “ Are you married?” “No, but I hope to be.” “ The more of a fool you are,” he said. He

seemed very angry. “ A man must not marry.” “ Why must not a man marry?”

Lecture 5 American Literature

“ He can’t marry. He cannot marry,” he said angrily. “If he is to lose everything, he should not place himself in a position to lost that. He should find things he cannot lose.”

He spoke very angrily and bitterly, and looked straight ahead while he talked.

Lecture 5 American Literature

9. Depression , realism and Escapism 10. Postwar voice and the “Beat Generation”垮掉

的一代 11. New American Voices Black women writers

Toni Morrison –Nobel Prize winner

Alice Walker

Chinese-American – Maxine Kong Kingston

Lecture 5 American Literature

Question : What do you know about American literature?