Ⅲ. 重要作家及作品Nathanial Hawthorne (纳撒尼尔·霍桑)1.life2.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from an Old Manse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun(5)The Blithedale Romance(6)―Rappaccini’s Daughter‖(7)―The Birth-ma rk‖(8)―Young Goodman Brown‖3.point of view(1)Evil is at the core of human life, ―that blackness in Hawthorne‖(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.4.aesthetic美学的ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity.To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows tofruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was thepredestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was whatHawthorne had in mind to achieve.5.style – typical romantic writer(1)the use of symbols(2)revelation of characters’ psychology(3)the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teacha lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the worldof uncertainty – multiple point of view6.Hawthorne’s Literary View:(1)He repeatedly complains about ―the poverty of materials‖ in America.(2)He believes that romance is the predestined form of American narrative. He makes a distinction between novel and r omance in his Preface to ―The House of the Seven Gables‖.(3)He is haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life, therefore we see ―black vision‖ in his works.7.―The Minister’s Black Veil‖:Parable: allegoryMr. Hooper: a Christ figure; moral ambiguitythe veil: a symbol of sin, separationthemes: isolation of the individual from society; guilt of sinThe Scarlet Letter, （adultery）1.About the story:(1)The story of Hester Prynne Set: the 17th century(2)What is situated immediately outside the door ofthe prison in which Hester is kept: A rosebush(3)How does Hester support herself financially: as aseamstress(4)She always wears: black(5)―A‖ represents: adultery2.Major characters in the story:(1)Hester Prynne: wears ―A‖; ―A‖ defines her identity(2)Arthur Dimmesdale: wears ―A‖ in his heart; hissoul never in peace (invisible wearer)(3)Roger Chillingworth: the maker of scarlet letter(4)Pearl: the p roduct/result of ―A‖3.Symbolism: (special movement in literature; the use of symbols)In ―The Scarlet Letter‖:(1)The rosebush: passion(2)The forest: an ungovernable place(3)The scarlet letter: adultery; sin(4)Pearl: wildness; passion(5)The meteor: community4.Refuse to take off ―A‖:(1)For Hester, to remove scarlet letter would be toacknowledge the power it has in determining who she is(2)She is determined to transform its meaning andher identity(3)She wants to be the one who controls its meaning(4)She stands as a self-appointed reminder of theevils society can commitYoung Goodman Brown1. Psychological interpretation——Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychology):(1)superego——consciousness——the principle ofmorality 超我(2)ego——subconsciousness——the principle ofreality 自我(3)id——unconsciousness——the principle of pleasure本我Brown’s journey is psychological as well as physical:Village, a place of light and order——Forest, a place of darkness and wildnessconsciousness——unconsciousnessvillage——superego——FaithBrown——egoforest——id——SatanHawthorne saw the dangers of an overactive suppression of libido and the consequent development of tyrannous superego.2. Men, Women, and the loss of Faith:Despite the literary sexism of his day, Hawthorne portrays women as powerful moral agents.Although Faith is not a three-dimensional character, the story centers on her husband’s rejection of her. Women are victimized.Women——angle in the house——do not have desires, rights and needsFallen women——prostitutes, witches, and mad womenFaith to Brown is female sexuality; Satan to Brown is patriarchal authority3. Female images:Innocents vs. Temptresses:(1)Governor’s wife, Goody Cloyse, prostitutes,maidens, witches, Quaker women, Faith(2)Sex is seen as alluring and dangerous(3)Brown is an empty and failed husband and fatherHerman Melville (赫尔曼·麦尔维尔)1.life2.works(1)Typee 《泰皮》(2)Omio 《殴穆》(3)Mardi 《玛地》(4)Redburn 《雷德本》(5)White Jacket 《白外衣》(6)Moby Dick 《白鲸》(7)Pierre 《皮埃尔》(8)Billy Budd 《比利·巴德》3.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of ―Everlasting Nay‖ (negative attitude towards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress4.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique ofmultiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic powerhave been profusely commented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters offactual background or description of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)Moby Dick《白鲸》：Moby-Dick, often considered the greatest American novel, is a masterpiece with many layers. It is a sea adventure, an exciting chase after a destructive and mysterious creature. The enormous white whale Moby-Dick torments Captain Ahab, who is obsessed with finding and killing Moby-Dick, having lost a leg in a previous encounter with the whale, and Ahab’s burning desire for revenge really is the center of the story. At the novel’s end, Ahab finds and attacks Moby-Dick, but the terrible whale takes Ahab, his ship Pequod, and nearly all its crew down to a watery grave with him.1. An encyclopedia of everythingA Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fates (extreme individualism)2. Image of ship: ship on the sea is the human soul search the meaning in the universe.3. Purpose——noble: he think Moby Dick as an evilHero: he is a hero but not a traditional hero (he does not stand for goodness); a villain hero4. Byronic hero (create by Byron): mad, bad, dangerous to know, obsessive——rebellions: challenge the authority; unconventional; right the wrongSatanic: revengeful; rebellious; the fight between God & Satan5. The Pequod——a symbol of doom(named after a native American tribe in Massachusetts; did not long survived of white men(extincted); is painted gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones)The sailors are of different ethics——all people in American (individual)Queequeg’s Coffin——life boat; life6. Theme of Moby Dick:(1)Melville’s bleak view (negative attitude) the senseof futility and meaninglessness of the world. His attitude to life is ―Everlasting Nay‖. Man in this universe lives ameaningless and futility.The adventure of killing Moby Dick is meaningless. Ahab tries to control it, which leads to his doom.Modern life——the loss of faith, the sense of futility——well expressed in Moby Dick(2)Alienation (far away from each other): exists between man & man, man & society, and man & nature.(3)Loneliness and suicidal individualism——the basic pattern of 19th century American life(individualism causing disaster and death)——Moby Dick isa negative reflection upon Transcendentalism.(4)Rejection and quest:Voyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and valuesHenry David Thoreau （亨利·戴维·梭罗）1.life2.works(1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River康《科德河和梅里麦克河上的一个星期》(2)Walden《瓦尔登湖》(3)Civil Disobedience 《论公民的不服从权利，又译作消极反抗》(4)Life Without Principle3.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.(6)―Simplicity…simplify!‖(7)He was sorely disgusted with ―the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society‖.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.WaldenEdgar Allen Poe (埃德加·爱伦·坡)I.Life诗人、小说家和文学评论家II.Works(1)Ms Found in a BottleThe Purloined LetterThe Fall of the House of UsherThe Masque of the Red DeathAnnabel LeeTo HelenSonnet—To ScienceThe Raven(2)Literary theorya.The Philosophy of Compositionb.The Poetic Principlec.Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told TalesIII.Themes1.death –predominant theme in Poe’s writing―Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.‖2.disintegration (separation) of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIV.Aesthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V.Style – traditional, but not easy to readVI.Reputation: ―the jingle man‖ (Emerson)VII.His influencesWalt Whitman(沃尔特·惠特曼)1.life诗人、人文主义者2.work: Leaves of Grass 草叶集(9 editions)(1)Song of Myself(2)There Was a Child Went Forth(3)Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4)Democratic Vistas(5)Passage to India(6)Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking3.themes –―Catalogue of American and European thought‖He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson’s individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything):●equality of things and beings●divinity of everything●immanence of God●democracy●evolution of cosmos●multiplicity of nature●self-reliant spirit●death, beauty of death●expansion of America●brotherhood and social solidarity (unity of nations inthe world)pursuit of love and happiness4.style: ―free verse‖(1)no fixed rhyme or scheme(2)parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3)phonetic recurrence(4)the habit of using snapshots(5)the use of a certain pronoun ―I‖(6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(10)sentences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines5.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever schoolor form, bears witness to his great influence.Ralph Waldo Emerson (拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生)1.life (American philosopher, poet and essayist; the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism)2.works(1)Nature——his first book expressing the main principle of Transcendentalism. It is regarded as―American’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence‖(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet(3)Self-Reliance(4)Each and All(5)Rhodora3.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the ―oversoul‖.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by ―the infinitude of man‖.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himselfby making his world, and that he makes the world by making himself.老尹：(1)the transcendence of the Oversoul. His Nature records his ―moment of ecstasy‖, the moment of losing one’s individuality.(2)the infinitude of man and human perfectibility. Emerson believes that the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite.(3)nature as symbolic of God. In the eyes of Emerson,―nature is the vehicle of thought,‖ and ―particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts‖.4.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2)True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3)The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called upon Americanauthors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself.5.How important is Emerson in history?He embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period.His aesthetics marked the birth of true American poetry.He called for an independent culture, which representedthe desire of the whole nation to develop a culture of its own.His reputation declined somewhat in recent years because of his cheerful optimism.Washington Irving（华盛顿·欧文）1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new world to the oldworld(3)father of American literature2.life作家3.works(1) A History of New York 《纽约外史》(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. 《见闻札记》）(He won a measure of international recognition with the publication of this.)(3)The History of the Life and Voyages ofChristopher Columbus《哥伦布传》(4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada《攻克格拉纳达》(5)The Alhambra《阿尔罕伯拉》4.Literary career: two parts(1)1809~1832a.Subjects are either English or Europeanb.Conservative love for the antique(2)1832~1859: back to US5.style – beautiful(1)gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4)vivid and true characters(5)humour – smiling while reading(6)musical languageJames Fenimore Cooper（詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库柏）1.life (―father of American novelists‖; the creation of the west frontier and its heroes)2.works(1)The Precaution (《戒备》（1820, his first novel,imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy 《间谍》(his second novel and greatsuccess)(3)Leather stocking Tales 皮袜子故事集(hismasterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3.point of viewThe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law,order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape description(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic5.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Benjamin Franklin1.life (printer, enlightener, inventor, scientist, statesman, diplomat)2.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac(2)Autobiography——form: the first autobiography of Americanmeaning: American dream & individualismself-improvement; business (contents); prototype of American success (significance); Puritanism and enlightenment spirits3.contribution(3)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.(4)He was called ―the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven‖.(5)Everything seems to meet in this one man –―Jack of all trades‖. Herman Melville thus described him ―master of each and mastered by none‖.(6)Aid Jefferson in writing The Declaration of IndependenceThomas Paine托马斯·潘恩1.father of the American Revolution2.propagandist, pamphleteer, a master of persuasion who understands the power of language to move a man to action3.main works:(1)The American Crisis(2)Common Sense(3)The Right of Man(4)The Age of ReasonPoetry:1.Genre:Narrative Poetry 叙事诗Epic Poetry 史诗Dramatic Poetry 戏剧诗Satirical Poetry 讽刺诗Lyric Poetry 抒情诗2.Basic Elements of Poetry:(1)R hythm: the beat created by the sounds of the poem(2)Meter: a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllablesa)Foot: unit of meter 有几个重音就有几个footb)Types of Feet: Iambic——unstressed, stressed抑扬格（最常见）Trochaic——扬抑格Anapestic——抑抑扬格Dactylic——扬抑抑格Kinds of Metrical lines: monometer (1 foot on a line), dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, octameter(3)Rhyme3.Free Verse Poetry:(1)D oes not have repeating patterns of stressed & unstressed syllables(2)Very conversational: sounds like someone talking with you(3) A modern type of poetry: does not have rhyme4.Blank Verse Poetry:Written in lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter but does not use end rhymeUnrhymed iambic pentameter5.End Rhyme尾韵: a word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line6.Alliteration头韵: consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words7.Consonance一致: similar to alliteration except the repeated consonant sounds can be anywhere in the words8.Internal Rhyme: in the same line9.Figures of speech修辞: simile明喻, metaphor暗喻，隐喻, personification拟人, onomatopoeia拟声, parallelism排比, allusion引喻。