Washington IrvingBracebridge Hall布雷斯布里奇田庄(1822)The Legend of Sleepy HollowTales of a Traveller旅客谈(1824)Christopher Columbus (1828)c. writing characteristics(1) humorous: the function of his writing is to amuse,to entertain instead of teaching or instruction(2) vivid and true character portrayal(3) finished (refined) and musical language, thusregarded as “the Amn. Goldsmith”d. analysis on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(选自thesketch book见闻札记)1. the story:setting,character, plot2. theme:conflicts and praiseconflict betw. Ichabod and Bromconflict betw. the village and the outside world James Fenimore CooperThe Spy (1821): a historical novelThe Pilot (1824): a sea novelLeatherstocking Tales皮裹腿故事集(1823-1841):frontier novelsThe Last Mohicans(1826) (Colonial War betw.Britain and France)e. writing features:strong points: we can see a variety of incidents andtensions, complicated plot and structure and abeautiful description of nature.Weak points: characterization is weak. There isunsatisfactory description of characters (esp. female).He is not free from syntactical awkwardness,heavy-handed attempt at humor. “Where Irvingexcels Cooper is weak.”Dialect is not authentic. Edgar Allan PoeThe Fall of the House UsherFeature:i. brevity (15 pages)ii. Single effectiii. originality in themeTo HelenIt was inspired by the beauty of the mother of aschoolmate of Poe in Richmond, Virginia.The poem is famous for a number of things:1. its rhyme scheme: ababb2. its varied line lengths3. its metaphor of a travel on the sea4. its oft-quoted lines:"To the glory that was Greece,/And the grandeur thatwas Rome."theme: praise the ideal love and beauty and ancientGreek and Roman civilizationsThe Raven乌鸦theme: the lament over the death of a beautifulwomantone: melancholyTranscendentalism (essayists, poets, novelists)Their journal is “The Dial”.Definition: Transcendentalism is idealism. (Emerson)b. features(1) stress on Oversoul, that is spirit.(2) stress the importance of individual.(3) fresh conception of nature.c. significance(1) inspired a whole generation of writers such asWhitman, Melville and Dickinson.(2) dresses man’s subjective initiative as opposed tomaterialism.(3) liberated people from Calvin’s original sind. limitation(1) shallow: cut off from real life or reality; initiatedby the rich, they were limited in a certain circle. So,in some degree, they have been cut off from sociallife and can’t understand the sufferings of thecommon people.(2) inward contradiction: gain knowledge byintuition, shows its idealistic aspect.R.W. Emerson (Ralph Waldo)Nature(1836): the Bible of NewEngland transcendentalismThe American Scholar(1837): "America's Declaration of IntellectualThe Divinity School Address神学院致辞(1838)Essays (1841/1847)Representative Men (1850)English Traits (1856)Poems (1847)d. significance(1) He embodied a new nation’s desireand struggle to assert its own identity inits formative period.(2) his stress on individualismLimitation:self-centered, individualHis ideas influence a lot of writers suchas Dikinson, Hawthorne and Whitman.Henry David ThoreauA Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers康考德和梅里马克河上的一周(1849)Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)Civil Disobedience不服从论(1849, an address)c. Waldenmain ideas:(1)on self-cultivation and human perfectibility,elevated from Puritan original sin, believe in innervirtue and inwardly grace(2) criticism on civilization and capitalism(3) only truth and knowledge can’t be taken away,trust in future and in manStyle: pithy (colloquial sayings), vivid description, symbols and imagesNathaniel HawthorneTwice-Told Tales (1837): a collection of short storiesMosses from an Old Manse古屋青苔(1846): anothercollection of short storiesThe House of the Seven Gables七个尖角的阁楼(1851): on the effect of a curseThe Scarlet Letter (1850): masterpieceIt ’s not a love story, trying to show the moral,emotional and psychological effects of sin on hischaracters.“A”: Adultery-Able-Angel“A” on chest: sinner, confessed, d ied, shows anhonest manMoral: man should be true and honest and ready toshow one’s worst to the world（批评与自我批评）Herman MelvilleTypee (《泰比》1846)Omoo (《奥穆》1847)Mardi (《马尔迪》1847)这三部作品描写塔希提群岛和马吉萨斯群岛以及他在岛上的奇遇。

Redburn (《莱德勃恩》1849)：描写了他的第一次航海经验以及在利物浦港贫民窟的见闻。

White Jacket(《白外套》1850)：根据他在美国海军军舰上服役时期的生活体验写成。

Pierre (《皮埃尔》1852)Israel Potter(《伊斯莱尔·波特》1855): historicalnovelPiazza Tales (《广场故事》1856): a collection of shortstoryMoby Dick (《白鲸》1851): masterpiece(1) a whaling book: an encyclopedia ofwhaling/description of a whaler’s life(2) a tragedy about man fighting against universe(hostile)Man in this universe lives a meaninglessand futile life, meaningless because futile.Man can observe and even manipulate in a prudentway, but he cannot influence and overcome nature atits source.(3) alienation异化:between man and manbetween man and society (ship)between man and natureAhab is the best representative.To him the world exists for his sake. His selfhoodmust be asserted at the expense of all else: lives maybe sacrificed, and nature may have to be vanquishedin order that he may do what he wills.Richard Chase says: the idea Melville conveys in it is"death---spiritual, emotional, physical".(5) theme: quest(6) symbolismthe voyage: a metaphor for "search and discovery,the search for the ultimate truth of experience".the Pequod皮阔德: the ship of the American soulthe endeavor of the crews: "the maniacal fanaticismof our white mental consciousness"Moby Dick: (many interpretations) the symbol ofnatureW. C. Bryantthe analysis on To a Waterfowl致水鸟It is the "most perfect brief poem in the language".(Matthew Arnold)It is a poem of nature in quatrains rhyming in abab.theme: from a bird and its flight to an ordinaryperson and his course of life, this poem conveys thateverything in nature is under the beneficence andprotection of the Power.Henry Wadsworth LongfellowTheme: idealized love, children, family and friendshipA Psalm of LifeThe poem is divided into 9 stanzas, each composedof two iambic tetrameter lines and two trochaictrimeter lines rhyming abab.The first two stanzas refute the pessimism that life isbut a dream, affirming the contrary that life is real.The following stanzas urge the reader to act in thepresent and to leave "footprints" as great people didin order to inspire the followers.The last stanza ends with a resounding note whileadmonishing people to learn to wait as well as tolabor.Realism（the 19th-century literary movement that reacted to romanticism by insisting on a faithful, objective presentation of the details of everyday life.）features:☐i.objective description (concern for the commonplace/the low)☐ii. criticism of society and reality, exposing and criticizing the society; the writers’ dissatisfaction; nolonger eulogize human glority☐iii. verisimilitude逼真性(true to details)☐iv. influenced by bourgeois’ 中产阶级democratic ideas (not overthrow but reform, changes)☐v. reformative: to reform the society, not to change completely☐features: Naturalism（A post-Darwinian movement of the late 19th century that tried to apply the"laws" of scientific determinism to fiction.）is atheory which applied scientific concepts andmethods to such problems as plot development andcharacterisation.☐Comparison between Realism and Naturalism:☐Realism.☐i. objective☐ii. creation of types☐iii. influenced by British Rom. works with hope☐Naturalism☐i. scientific accuracy☐ii. collect material from their lives☐iii.against this, hopeless/gloomy picture of thesocietyWalt WhitmanLeaves of Grass《草叶集》,(1) themes☐i. unity of all man and of man within universe☐ii. equality of all man☐iii. cycle of life and death☐iv. enthusiastic idea toward Westward Expansion☐v. brotherhoodd. Song of Myself自我之歌☐(1) influence of Transcendentalism: praise of individualism☐(2) cycle of life and death☐(3) ideal of democracy: equality between different races and brotherhoodEmily DickinsonA Bird came down the walkI died for Beauty---but was ScarceI Heard a Fly buzz---when I died---Because I could not stop for Death-H.B. StoweUncle Tom's Cabin (1851): masterpiecesignificance:☐ 1.intensified and strengthened abolitionist sentiment;☐ 2. gave a better balanced, more specific picture of plantation life;☐ 3. praised the merits of slaves and showed great sympathy for themHenry James☐The American(1877): begins with international theme☐Daisy Miller(1878): brings the author first international fame☐The Wings of the Dove (1902)☐The Ambassadors (1903)☐The Golden Bowl (1904)☐The Portrait of A Lady贵妇画像:masterpiece☐It tells about the fate of one of those splendid Jamesian American girls, Isabel Archer, arriving inEurope, full of hope, and with a will to live a freeand noble life, only to fail prey to the sinister designsof two vulgar and unscrupulous expatriates, MadamMerle and Gilbert OsmondInternational theme国际主题:☐the meeting of America and Europe; American innocence in contact and contrast with Europeandecadence and the moral and psychologicalcomplications arising therefrom; for the American itwas a process of progression from inexperience toexperience, from innocence to knowledge andmaturity. Those American heroes or heroins whoconfronting European sophistication, eithertriumphed over it or were overwhelmed.Mark Twain☐The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Count卡拉维拉斯县有名的跳蛙(1865):a short story ☐The Innocents Abroad国外的无辜者(1869): letters on his travelling in Europe and Near East☐Roughing It苦行记(1872): on his experience in the western America☐The Gilded Age (1873): his first novel, collaborated with Charles Dudley Warner☐The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)☐The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利·费恩历险记(1884): masterpiece☐Life on the Mississippi (1883)☐ A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court误闯亚瑟王宫(1889)☐The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg败坏了哈德莱堡的人(1900)☐The Mysterious Stranger (1916)e. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer☐ 1. It is "a boy's book" which sets 20 years before Civil War.☐ 2. themes:☐1)picaresque以流浪汉和无赖为题材的(adventure story)☐2) moral growth of Tom☐ 3. techniques: verisimilitude, humor, colloquial style Deadpan（铁面幽默）: oral humor/the teller has a strict face but the listeners are laughing.Language: dialects as forms of artJack London☐The People of the Abyss深渊居民(1903): about London's slum☐The Iron Heel铁蹄(1908): the first proletarian criterion novel which envisages the development offascism☐The Call of the Wild野性的呼唤(1903): the most widely read book☐The Sea Wolf 海狼(1904)☐These two novels reflect the ideas of the law of survival and the will to power☐Martin Eden马丁伊登(1909): a reflection of the contradiction between these competeing beliefsc. Martin Eden--theme:the failure of American Dream.After he realized his dream of getting into the upper class, he also realized the emptiness of it and committed suicide.☐"This is a book that missed fire with a majority of the critics. Written as an indictment of individualism, itwas accepted as an indictment of socialism; writtento show that man cannot live for himself alone, itwas accepted as a demonstration that success madefor death. Had Martin Eden been a socialist he wouldnot have died."☐Consciously London meant the novel to show that only a belief in the people, only the devotion of one'slife to a cause greater than onself, could give life anyreal meaning.T. Dreisser西奥多·德莱塞☐Sister Carrie 嘉莉妹妹(1900): the first novel, masterwork☐Jannie Gerhardt (1911)☐The Fanancier (1912)☐The Titan (1914)☐The Stoic (1947)☐The Genius (1915)☐An American Tragedy美国悲剧(1925)☐Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928)c. Sister Carrie☐theme:the emptiness of Ameircan Dream☐i. jungle law☐Famous actress bank manager(the unfit is bound to die) <——☐Country girl (able to follow her instinct) commit suicide☐ii. chance and luck☐iii. criticism of American values: money and sex —the standards to see if a person is successful ☐iv. concern for the poorJazz Age:the Jazz Age lasted from 1919-1929, the decade enjoyed economic prosperity. The war and economic boom encouraged a breaking with the tradition (Puritanism). People upheld the value of money-making and pleasure-seeking.Ezra Pound埃兹拉·庞德Imagism意象派⏹Pound became the most important figure. Imagistpoetry reached the peak of literature for three thingsappeared:⏹i. a manifesto⏹ii. three principles⏹iii. a lot of writings⏹Pound said, an image is "that which presents anintellectual and emotional complex in an instant oftime."In a Station of the Metro在地铁车站⏹ 1. This is the much-quoted masterpiece of Pound anda representative of the Imagist poetry.⏹ 2. In form, the poem is similar to the Japanese haiku,a two-line couplet with rhymes. Pound's poemreminds the Chinese of two lines by a Tang poet, BaiJuyi. When describing the sad yet beautiful face ofYang Huifei, a Tang emperess, the poet wrote,⏹The beautiful face, lonesome with tears;⏹ A pear branch, radiant with rain.⏹ 3. The poem is a representative of Imagist poems inthat the image of petals on a wet, black bough bestrepresents the picture of those lovely faces in thecrowd and that the image is dominant in thepoem---the image itself is the poem.T.S. Eliotpoetry:⏹Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)⏹Poems (1920)⏹The Waste Land (1922)⏹The Hollow Men (1925)⏹Ash Wednesday (1930)⏹Four Quartets (1943)plays:⏹Sweeney Agonistes (1932)⏹Murder in the Cathedral (1935)⏹The Cocktail Party (1950)⏹The Confidential Clerk (1954)critical essays:⏹The Sacred Wood (1920)⏹For Lancelot Andrews (1928)⏹The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933)⏹After Strange Gods (1934)⏹On Poetry and Poets (1957)c. The Waste Land荒原⏹ 5 parts: The Burial of Dead, The Game of Chess, TheFire Sermon, Death by Water, What the ThunderSaid⏹chief characteristics⏹ 1. quotations and allusions暗示⏹ 2. objective correlative⏹ 3. juxtaposition并列: mingle brand image withcommon image⏹ 4. use of antiquity古风The Love Song⏹"Prufrock" is not the image of one unlucky modernman; instead, he represents many other modernwesterners who are "divided between passion andtimidity, between desire and impotence".4. theme⏹This poem reflects the decadent modern civilizationand the nightmarish inferno in which modernWesterners are living in.5. techiniques⏹1) irony⏹2) striking images⏹3) the form of dramatic monologue⏹The poem is written in irregular lines, with but a fewrhymes.Robert Frostb. Characteristics⏹ 1. not in the main stream of modern poetry, but withconventional form and plain language. That’s whyhe’s the most popular poet in the 20th century.⏹ 2. a kind of a regionalist----New England, but notlocal colorism. He used New England as a metaphorfor the whole world and universe.⏹ 3. a plain poet using symbols from everyday countrylife. Simple symbols but express deep meanings.The Road Not Taken⏹ 1. The poem was written in very regular lines withiambic pentametre and rhyme scheme of abaab.⏹ 2. The symbolic meaning of the two divergent roadsis rather clear. They represent any importantdecisions in one's life.⏹ 3. details:Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening⏹ 1. It is a lyric poem with iambic tetrametre andinterlocking enclosed rhyme.⏹ 2. It represents a moment of relaxation from theonerous journey of life, an almost aestheticenjoyment and appreciation of natural beauty whichis wholesome and retorative against the chaoticexistence of modern man.The Lost Generation⏹ 1. term: It is a term in frequent use after WWI inreference to the young men who survived physicallybut were afterwards spiritually and morally adrift. Sothe lost generation refers to disillusioned writers whowrote after WWI. Many of them went to the battle.After the war, they rebelled against former ideals andvalues and can’t find new ones to replace.⏹ 2. It first coined by Gertrude Stein. In Paris, sheopens the door to American expatriates. She oncesaid to Hemingway, “You’re all a lost generation.”⏹ 3. It was used as preface to The Sun Also Rises. Thenit became popular. Fitzgerald once said they are “ageneration grown up to find all gods died, all warsfought, all faith in men shaken”.Ernest Hemingway⏹ 1.Hemingway theme/hero/situation. Theme: “graceunder pressure”2.nihilism: negative attitude towards the world. There is only one thing man is certain---death⏹ 3. devotion to truth. He believes the writer's job is totell truth.c. style⏹ 1.iceberg principle. The meaning here is that thewriter should say only one eighth, in such a way thatthe remaining seven eighths be discerned andprovided by the reader.⏹ nguage: short, common, fundamental words,simple sentence, structure.The effect of the language:clearness, cleanness and great care.⏹ 3.dialogue: plays a very important part in hiswritings. Hemingway’s dialogue can show setting,development of plot, characters, even theme.⏹ 4.cinematic way: he uses showing instead of telling.He likes to describes actions (kiss, withdraw hand)vividly instead of mental description.⏹ 5.symbolism⏹ e of stream of consciousnessd. A Farewell to Arms⏹ 1. If we say The Sun Also Rises tells why they lost,this novel describes how they lost. Thus it can beread as a footnote to the former.⏹ 2. the double meanings of the title⏹ 3. the hero Henry: Hemingway's hero⏹ 4. theme: war and love. It shows a world of completeunreason and reflects the mood of the post-wargeneration.F. Scott Fitzgeraldb. The Great Gatsby⏹Theme:⏹ 1. about reality and atmosphere of 1920s⏹ 2. failure of American Dreamc. attitude towards the rich: paradoxical⏹He is charmed by the rich.⏹He is critical of the rich who are corruptedthemselves and meanwhile corrupting others.d. attitude towards the Jazz Age: insider and outsider John Steinbeckb. The Grapes of Wrath愤怒的葡萄1. significance⏹1) it’s a great social document in 1930s.⏹2) A protest novel. In the novel, the author attacksthe decadence, wickedness and cruelty of banks andland owners and the current social system as awhole.⏹3) themes: unity and faithunity: Steinbeck believes that strength lies in the unity of people and he also stresses on individualism.faith: The Great Depression was the most miserable period in the 20th century. Even though people suffered a lot, they still held on their hope and will live on.2. characters:⏹Ma Joad (the mother): embodiment of the theme. Sheasked Rose to save the stranger.⏹1) she realized unity would bring people strength.⏹2) the faith in future⏹Tom: shows the change from I (individualism) to we(unity)⏹Jim Casy: a preacher he developed himself from alabor to an organizer and set up the guiding principleand after his death, Tom took over his role. Theinitial of his name: J.C.---Jesus ChristWilliam FaulknerSound and Fury: divided into 4 parts⏹ 1. themes:⏹a) downfall of the South. The south was indeterioration. It’s going from bad to worse. Thepresent and the past form a contrast from Benjy’seyes. He’s an idiot so his reactions were distinctivefeeling. He felt strongly the loss of love. Thedownfall of Mr. Campson was not only a personalone but also a universal one---the society was indisorder.⏹b) conflict between the old/young generationsA Rose For Emily。