美国文学史及选读期末复习题

1. Captain John Smith became the first American writer. 2. The puritans looked upon themselves as a chosen people. 3. The first major intellectual spokesman of the Massachusetts Bay colony was John Cotton, sometimes called “the Patriarch of New England.” 4. Anne Bradstreet published The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, and she was nicknamed the tenth Muse. 5. Poor Richard’s Almanac is an annual collection of proverbs written by Benjamin Franklin. 6. Thomas Paine’s famous pamphlet Common Sense boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence”. 7. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. 8. Philip Freneau developed a natural, simple, and concrete diction, best illustrated in such nature lyrics as “The Wild Honey Suckle” and “The Indian Burying Ground”. 9. Philip Freneau has been called the “Father of American Poetry”. 10. In Washington Irving’s Sketch Book appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature. 11. Cooper’s enduring fame rests on his frontier stories, especially the five novels that comprise the Leatherstocking tales. 12. “To a Waterfowl” is perhaps the peak of William Cullen Bryant’s wok. 13. “Thanatopsis”, William Cullen Bryant’s best-known poem, consists of four stanzas in iambic tetrameter abab. The title means “view of death”. 14. Edgar Allan Poe is considered “father of American detective stories and American gothic stories”. 15. Emerson believed above all in individualism, independence of mind, and self-reliance. 16. In Walden, Thoreau thought it better for a man to work one day a week and rest six, and the rest of the time could be devoted to thought. 17. Hawthorne’s stories touch the deepest roots of man’s moral nature. 18. Moby Dick is a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale. 19. After his death, Longfellow became the only American to be honored with a bust in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey. 20. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, had become an American institution and the most famous literary woman in the world. 21. William Dean Howells found his subject matter in the experiences of the American middle class. 22. William Dean Howells called for the treatment of the “smiling aspects of life” as being the more “American.” 23. The naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that their lives were controlled by heredity and the environment. 24. The poetic style Walt Whitman devised is now called free verse. 25. O·Henry’s stories are usually short and interesting; Famous for their surprising end. 26. Henry James is famous for his international theme of the traditionless American confronting the complexity of European life. 27. Jack London believed in the inevitable triumph of the strongest individuals. 28. Dreiser’s greatest and most successful novel, An American Tragedy, is about a young man who acts as if the only way he can be truly fulfilled is by acquiring wealth—through marriage if necessary. 29. Writers of the first postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that they were a “Lost Generation,” devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization. 30. Wallace Stevens’ work is primarily motivated by the belief that “ideas of order”. 31. With the publication of The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway became the spokesman for what Gertrude Stein had called “a lost generation.” Terms 1. Transcendentalism Transcendentalism refers to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800’s, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and Nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant. New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism. 2. Naturalism Naturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at “scientific” status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects. Natural fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreiser’s Sister Carrie. 3. American Dream The American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations. 4. The Lost Generation The term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein (“You are all a lost generation”) as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during World War I. They were “lost” because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to more into a settled life 5. Modernism Modern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious. 6. Romanticism Romanticism as a literary movement came into being in England in the later half of the 18th century. It first made its appearance in England as a renewed interest in medieval literature. William Blake and Robert Burns represented the spirit of what is usually called Pre-Romanticism. With the publication of William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads in collaboration with S. T. Coleridge, romanticism began to bloom and found a firm place in history of English literature. In fact, the first half the 19th century recorded the triumph of Romanticism. 7. Puritanism The principles and practices of puritans were popularly known as Puritanism. Puritanism accepted the doctrines of Calvinism: the sovereignty of God; the supreme authority of the Bible; the irresistibility of God’s will for man in every act of life from cradle to grave. These doctrines led the Puritans to examine their souls to find whether they were of the elect and to search the Bible to determine God’s will. 8. Hemingway Heroes / Code Hero “Hemingway Heroes” refer to some protagonists in Hemingway’s works. Such a hero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. And usually he is a man of action and of a few words. He is such an individualist, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happiness. The Hemingway heroes stand for a whole generation. In a world which is essentially chaotic and meaningless, a Hemingway hero fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The awareness that it must end in defeat, no matter how hard he strives, engenders a sense of despair. But Hemingway heroes possess a kind of “despairing courage” as Bertrand Russell terms. It is this courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. Surely Hemingway heroes differ, one from another, in their view of the world. The difference which comes gradually in view is an index to the subtle change which Hemingway’s outlook had undergone. Identify the fragments. 1. These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly—This dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods. (1)Which book is this passage take from? (2)Who is the author of this book? (3)Whom is the author praising? Whom is the author criticizing? (4)What do you think of the language? Answer: (1) The American Crisis. (2) Thomas Paine (3) Paine is praising those who stand “it”, it referring to “the service of their country”. In the meantime, Paine is criticizing those who shrink from the service of their country in this crisis. (4) The language is plain, impressive and forceful. Paine himself once said that his purpose as a writer was to use plain language to make those who can scarcely read understand and to fit the powers of thinking and the turn of language to the subject, so as to bring out a clear conclusion that shall hit the point in question and nothing else. 2. From morning suns and evening dews At first thy little being came; If nothing once, you nothing lose, For when you die you are the same; The space between, is but an hour, The frail duration of a flower. (1) Who is the writer of these verses? (2) What is the title of this poem? (3) Give a brief comment on this poems. Answer: (1) Philip Freneau (2) The Wild Honeysuckle (3) Here Freneau offers a version of an abundant America with potential for providing a good life for all. The poem is also an indication of his dedication to American subject matter as he examined peculiarly American characteristics of the countryside. 3. From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. Drowsy and dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Question: (1) Who is the writer of this short story from which the passage is taken? (2) What is the title of this short story? (3) Give a definition of “short story”? Answer: (1) Washington Irving (2) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (3) A short story is a brief prose fiction, usually one that can be read in a single sitting. It generally contains the six major elements of fiction—characterization, setting, theme, plot, point of view and style. 4. It was not very long after speaking the Goney that another homeward-bound whaleman, the Town-Ho, was encountered. She was manned almost wholly by Polynesians. In the short gam that ensued she gave us strong news of Moby Dick. To some the general interest in the White Whale was now widly heightened by circumstance of the Town-Ho’s story, which seemed obscurely to involve with the whale a certain wondrous, inverted visitation of one of those so called judgments of God which at times are said to overtake some men. This latter circumstance, with its own particular accompaniments, forming what may be called the secret part of the tragedy about to be narrated, never reached the ears of Captain Ahab or his mates…Nevertheless, so potent and influence did this thing have on those seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of it, and by such a strange delicacy, to call it so, were they governed in this matter, that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never transpired abaft the Pequod’s main-mast. Interweaving in its proper place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship, the whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on lasting record. Question: (1)From which novel is this paragraph taken? (2) What is the name of the novelist? (3) Who is Ahab? (4) What is Pequod? (5) What is the theme of the novel? Answer: (1) Moby Dick (2) Herman Melville (3) The captain of the whaling ship (4) The name of the whaling ship (5) The rebellious struggle of Captain Ahab against the overwhelming, mysterious vastness of the universe and its awesome sometimes merciless forces. 5. To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generation the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these preachers of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. Question: (1)This paragraph is taken from a famous essay. What is the of the essay? (2)Who is the author? (3)What does the author say would happen if the stars appeared one night in a thousand years? (4)Give a peculiar term to cover the author’s belief. Answer: (1) Nature (2) Ralph Waldo Emerson (3)Then, the men cannot believe and adore the God, cannot preserve the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown. (4)Transcendentalism 6. Isabel always felt an impulse to pull out the pins; not that she imagined they inflicted any damage on the tough old parchment, but because it seemed to her her aunt might make better use of her sharpness. She was very critical herself-it was incidental to her sex, and her nationality but she was very sentimental as well, and there was something in Mrs. Touchett’s dryness that set her own moral fountains flowing. Questions: (1) This passage is taken from a well-known novel. What is the name of the novel? (2) Who is the author of this novel? (3) Make a brief comment on the heroine of this novel? (4) What is theme of the author? Tell something about it. Answer: (1) The Portrait of a Lady (2) Henry James (3) She is one of the Jamesian American girls. She arrives in Europe, full of hope, and with a will to live a free and noble life, but in fact, she only falls prey to the sinister designs of two vulgar and unscrupulous expatriates, Madam Merle and Gilbert Osmond. (4) Jamesian theme refers to Henry James’s handling of his major fictional theme, “the international theme”: the meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence and the moral and Psychological complications arising there from. 7. When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human temper. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counselor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens then perverts the simpler human perceptions. Questions: (1) From which novel is this paragraph taken? (2) Who is the author of this novel? (3) How do you understand “the cosmopolitan standard of virtue”? (4) Is there any naturalist tendency in this passage? Answer: (1)Sister Carrie (2) Theodore Dreiser (3) “The cosmopolitan standard of virtue” is something that makes a person become low in virtue and become worse. (4) Yes. Give brief answers to the following questions. 1. What are the characteristics of the Colonial Literature? In a real sense, there were no literal works in the early colonial period. They were just personal literature in the form of diaries, travel books, letters, journals, sermons, histories and prose. (1) In content, they wrote about the voyage to the new land, about adopting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops, about dealing with Indian, and especially about religion. (2) In form, English traditions were imitated. 2. Comment briefly on Emily Dickinson’s themes? (1) By far the largest portion of Dickinson’s poetry concerns death and immortality, theme which lie at the centre of Dickinson’s world. (2) Dickinson’s nature poems are also great in number and rich in matter. Natural phenomena, changes of seasons, heavenly bodies, animals, birds and insects, flowers of various kinds, and many other subjects related to nature find her way into her poetry. (3) Dickinson also wrote some poems about love. Like her death and nature poems, her love poems were original. (4) Besides deaths and immortality, nature and love, Dickinson’s poems are concerned about ethics, with respect to which, she emphasizes free will and human responsibility. 3. Comment briefly on Theodore Dreiser’s themes and writing style? Theme: Dreiser’s works are mainly concerned with the tragic nature of the human condition by depicting the coarse, vulgar, cruel, and terrible aspects of life like sex and crime. Style: In terms of style, Dreiser has sometimes been censured for his clumsy syntax, deficient characterization, and inept and dull prose. Yet his accumulated detail, carefully selected and faithfully recorded, is a technique of power. Like the other naturalists, he refused to judge—to consider people as good or evil. He clothes his concepts symbolically in the details of reality. It is his journalistic method that has made him one of America’s foremost novelists. 4 Henry James is a great realistic writer. Name two of his major works. Do you know anything about his narrative “point of view”? What is it for? How does James employ it in his works? Briefly discuss this question. (1) Henry James’s major works include Daisy Miller and The Portrait of A Lady, etc. (2) One of Henry James literary techniques is his narrative “point of view.” As the author, James avoids the authorial omniscience as much as possible and makes his characters reveal themselves with his minimal intervention. So it is often the case that in his novels we usually learn the main story by reading through one or several minds and share their perspectives. This narrative method proves to be successful in bringing out his themes. 5. What are the three main principles that Ezra Pound endorsed? (1) Directly treat poetic subjects. (2) Eliminate merely ornamental or superfluous words. (3) Rhythm