Lecture 5 American Literature
Definition of literature
--Literature encompasses poetry, fiction
(novels, 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 and
other printed texts – the scope of
literature was broad, encompassing
all 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》
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 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
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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
p r e s e n c e
a s
a
r e l i e f .
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 ( 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
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 Daffodils
by William Wordsworth
《水仙》威廉.华兹华斯(英）
I wander’d lonely as a cloud
That 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
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 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
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 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》
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 （2）Emily Dickinson (poet)

gaiety / gloom
6. 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》
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 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》
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
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》
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 (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
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 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
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 Question : What do you know about
American literature?