Terms(取5个, 每个3分)
Trickster tales
Native American oral literature. People are in the form of animal or half human half animal. Trickster characters exist in the margins of social world, they are resourceful and clever. They attempt to violate established rules and engage in socially unacceptable acts.
Origin stories
Native American oral literature. creator takes the animal form. Sun Father. Earth Mother.
Historical narratives
Native American oral literature. A mix of legend and history. The line between actual event and tribal beliefs is blurred.
Puritanism
During the colonial period in America. Beliefs held by Puritans: original sin, elect group, receive God’s Grace, total depravity, a way of life that stresses hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.
Transcendentalism
American Romanticism’s mature period. It emphasized the significance of the individual. It stressed the power of intuition. Spirit transcended matter. Emerson’s Nature.
Allegory
A tale in verse or prose in which characters, settings or actions represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. An allegory is a story with two meanings: a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Hawthorne’s Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
Free verse
Origin: in the 19th century, a group of French poets intended to free French poetry from restrictions of formal pattern. It is a kind of poetry that lacks regular meter. It has repetition and parallel constructions. Whitman’sLeaves of Grass.
Realism
Realism(from the end of Civil War to the year before WWI)emphasizes fidelity and accurate observation to actuality of life(objectivity), thus against romanticism’s optimistic view. It insists on precise description to everyday scene of lives of common people and presents moral visions. It often has an open/surprising ending, for example, O Henry’s The Last Leaf.
Local Colorism
Dominant in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Works could not be written in any other place or by anyone else than a native. The aim is to create an indigenous little world that differs from the world outside. Mark Twain’s Running for Governor
Naturalism
Naturalism(late 19th c)tries to apply the determinism to fiction.It believes that a person is controlled by environment and heredity and the universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. For example, Jack London’s Moon Face
Lost generation
Applied to US disillusioned intellectuals and artists after WWI. They were cut off from the old values and unable to adapt to the new era. It may also refer to the entire post-WWI American generation. Ernest Hemingway’s In another Country.
Imagism
A poetic movement in England and US flourishing from 1908 to 1917. Anti-Romantic, anti-Victorian. Dealing with single, concentrated moments of experience, using common speech and concise language, producing free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern, recording objective observations.Ezra Pound’s In a Station of The Metro
Modernism
Modernism(1914~1945) emerged under the background of the Lost Generation and the Great Depression, influenced by Freud, Marxism and Nietzsche. 1. It indicates an impulse to “make it new”. 2. It leads to a greater awareness of internationality in American literature. 3. It has a more complex view of reality. For example: Ernest Hemingway’sIn another Country.
Fragmentation
the technique of pasting different fragments together in the text. a fragment is a broken piece. When dissociated fragments are put together, they present the effects ofjuxtaposition, and discontinuity. What the reader experiences is the sense of uncertainty or indeterminacy.
Harlem Renaissance
In the 1920s, a rebirth of African American arts, known as the “New Negro Movement”. In the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Open racial pride. Langston Hughes’Early Autumn
Slave narrative
The Afro-American literature in the middle of the 19th century. Fugitive slaves wrote the cruelties of their lives under slavery. It can be categorized into threeforms: tales of religious redemption, tales to inspire the abolitionist struggle, and tales of progress. Langston Hughes’s Early Autumn.
一篇小essay, 两个题选一个
1. Modernismvs. Post-modernism
Modernism and post-modernism have shared similarities and distinctions.
Modernism (1914~1945) emerged under the background of the Lost Generation and the Great Depression, influenced by Freud, Marxism and Nietzsche.
1. It indicates an impulse to “make it new”.
2. It leads to a greater awareness of internationality in American literature.
3. It has a more complex view of reality. For example: Ernest Hemingway’sIn another Country.
Post-modernism(after WWII) has shared goals of breaking away from traditions through experimentation with new literary forms. However, it more emphasizes constructivism, idealism, pluralism. It includes genres as the Absurd, the Antinovel, the Beat Generation. For example: Allen Ginsberg’s A Supermarket in California.
The novel of Modernism represents social reality. However, in Post-modernism, the literature is exhausted and dead. The novel favors “fiction” over “reality”. The time、structure of language are disjointed. Subject functions only as a symbol. The world is hopelessly dark.
2. Realism vs. Naturalism
Realism and Naturalism have shared similarities and distinctions.
Realism(from the end of Civil War to the year before WWI)emphasizes fidelity and accurate observation to actuality of life(objectivity), thus against romanticism’s optimistic view. It insists on precise description to everyday scene of lives of common people and presents moral visions. It often has an open/surprising ending, for example, O Henry’s The Last Leaf.
Naturalism(late 19th c)tries to apply the determinism to fiction.It believes that a person is controlled by environment and heredity and the universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. For example, Jack London’s The Call of The Wild.
There are many differences between Realism and Naturalism. Firstly, realism is mimesis while naturalism is reproduction. Secondly, realism has ethical choices while naturalism has no freedom of will, only uncontrollable forces. Thirdly, for realism, there are limited range of materials filtered by conventional standardswhile naturalism is less restrained in matters of sexuality.
填空
1. 获得诺贝尔奖的作家：Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Tony Morrison.
2. Native American literature: the Maya and the Aztec. Native Oral Literature: speech, chant, song. performative dimension: ritual dances. Major Types: Origin stories, Trickster tales, Historical Narratives. (explore both their rich heritage and their tragic loss of identity; find themselves trapped between white culture and a culture that is vanishing). Literature of early settlements: travel accounts, utilitarian, fresh and simple, nobility. Puritan idealism: to build New England a new Garden of Eden. The first American
literature was neither American (immigrants from England) nor really literature (mixture of travel accounts and religious writings).
3. The rise of national literature: the Great Awakening, Puritanism declines, Newton, Neoclassicism in arts, Deism and Unitarianism(come from the Enlightenment, simplify the Christian religion, antidote to Puritanism), American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin(individualism)/Thomas Paine/Thomas Jefferson.
4. Romantics: against the objectivity of rationalism. Emphasizes feeling, intuition, emotion. Emphasizes individualism. Close relationship between man and nature. Favor the past and irregular. Washington Irving(Rip Van Wrinkle), James Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe(The Cask of Amontillado)
5. Transcendentalism:sources: Neo-Platonism, Oriental mysticism, German Romanticism, Unitarianism(Channing). Represented by Emerson(Nature) and Thoreau(Walden).Also include Hawthorne(Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment), Melville(Moby Dick), Dickinson, Whitman(Leaves of Grass). Romanticism’s mature period. Emphasizes the importance of individual. Individuals can intuitively receive higher truths. Emphasis on senses and intuition over reason and intellect. Spirit transcended matter. Nature symbolizes God. Religion is emotional communication between individual soul and the universal “over-soul”.
6. Realism:against Romanticism. Fidelity to actuality, accurate observation of human experiences, everyday scenes, open ending, common people, objectivity, presents moral visions.Emphasizing pragmatic experience. Mimesis: literature imitates reality. O Henry(The Last Leaf)
7. Local Color Fiction: a form of Regionalism. Locale, indigenous, exotic, picturesque, nostalgia. Distinctive setting, dialect, customs, dress, ways of thinking and feeling. Mark Twain.
8. Naturalism: post-Darwinian movement. Darwin’s biological determinism; Marx’s socio-economic determinism. Deterministic universe. Controlled by environment and heredity(instincts and passion). It stems from Zola in French literature. It aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man. Dark and pessimistic. Characters often at the lowest social class. Theodore Dreiser(Sister Carrie). Jack London. 9. Women Writing: conventional attitude to women during Victorian Age(Victorianism). Women suffrage movement. (Amendment19: rights to vote; amendment13: abolished slavery; amendment15: made racial discrimination illegal). New women. Kate Chopin, Katherine Anne Porter.
10. Imagism: inspired by Greek and Roman classics and Japanese and Chinese poets. Anti-Romantic, anti-Victorian. Express momentary impressions. Dealing with single, concentrated moments of experience, using common speech and concise language, producing free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern, recording objective observations. Juxtapose with other images. Ezra Pound: In a Station of The Metro、E.E.Cumming: L(a)、Hilda Doolittle: Oread、 William Carlos Williams: The Red Wheelbarrow; The Great Figure 5、Carl Sandburg: The Harbor; Fog
11. Modernism:To “make it new”. Internationality. More complex view of reality. Background: the lost generation, the Great Depression. influenced by Freud, Marxism and Nietzsche. Robert Frost: The Road Not Take. Earnest Hemingway.
12. Afro-American literature: literary development: Oral traditions, Slave narratives, Spiritual narratives, Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes: Early Autumn.
13. Post-Modernism: after WWII. it more emphasizes constructivism, idealism, pluralism. It includes genres as the Absurd, the Antinovel, the Beat Generation(in the late 1950s, A group of American poets and novelistspublicly advocated antiestablishment views), meta-fiction(novels that specifically and self-consciously examine the nature and the status of fiction itself; Fiction about fiction). For example: Allen Ginsberg’s A Supermarket in California.
Identification(5个，每个4分，没有诗歌。识别出作家、作品名、这段讲的
什么)、简答(5个，每个3分，考手法等)
Rip Van Wrinkle. Washington Irving
Romanticism. The dog Wolf. Rip’s characteristics: would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound, henpecked. Rip’s confusion reflected Americans’ attitudes to this new nation: bewilderment. Uncertainty of identity. doubtful Rip ends with willing and happy to embrace the newness of American nation.
The Cask of Amontillado. Edgar Allan Poe
Romanticism. Montresor: deceptive, hypocritical. Fortunato: vain, insensitive. Gothic element(恐怖): the crypts invoke imagery of death.
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment. Hawthorne.
Transcendentalism. Allegory. Dark side of the individual(it is impossible to perfect human nature). Gothic elements: Dr.’s study(书房). The supernatural. Mirror: reflect truth. Rose: temporary beauty. The four friends repeat the same foolish things they did before, despite Dr. Heidegger's warnings, and eventually, when fighting for the beautiful young woman's affection, they knock over the pitcher which contained the water of youth. Dr. Heidegger, after observing these effects on his friends, is content to live life in the way nature wants it to be. He sees the harmful effects of the water and acknowledges the fact that science isn't always good.
The Last Leaf. O Henry Realism
Running for Governor. Mark Twain
Local colorism. Hyperbole, euphemism, irony.
Moon Face. Jack London
Naturalism. Irrational/primitive instinct/human nature.
The Story of an Hour.Kate Chopin Women writing