英美文学选读笔记完整笔记_全面归纳

Ⅲ. William Shakespeare

1. 一般识记Brief Introduction

William Shakespeare was the greatest writer of plays who ever lived. His friend & fellow playwright Ben Jonson said that Shakespeare was "not of an age but for all time." The 18th-century English essayist Samuel John son described his work as "the mirror of life." The 19th-century English po et Samuel Taylor Coleridge spoke of "myriad-minded Shakespeare." The 20 th-century English dramatist George Bernard Shaw stressed his "enormous power over language."

4 5. 领会His Major Theme

1) Shakespeare is against religious persecution & racial discrimination, a gainst social inequality & the corrupting influence of gold & money.

2) He was a humanist of the time & accepted the Renaissance views on literature.

7. 应用Selected Readings

1) Sonnet 18

Theme: a profound meditation on the destructive power of time & the eternal beauty brought forth by poetry to the one he loves.

Imagery: a summer's day-youth

the eye of heaven-the sun

3) Hamlet

This is one part of Hamlet's most famous monologue. Hamlet, facing t he dilemma of action & mind, is hesitating whether he should revenge for his father, which may bring him death, or he should suffer & hide his hatr ed for his uncle in his deep heart, which may secure his life.

IV. Francis Bacon

1. 一般识记Brief Introduction

English Renaissance philosopher, essayist, statesman, born in London, England, Jan 22,1561 and died in London, April 9 1626.

One of the outstanding figures of the Renaissance, Bacon made importa nt contributions to several fields. His chief interest were science philosophy, but he was also a distinguished man of letters & held several high govern mental positions during the reign of king JamesⅠ. He was one of the earli est & most eloquent spokesmen for experimental science. He lays the foun dation for modern science with his insistence on scientific way of thinking

& fresh observation rather than authority as a basis for obtaining knowled ge.

4. 领会His achievements

As a literary man, Bacon is the first English essayist, whose Essays won hi m a high place in the history of English literature.

As a philosopher, he is the founder of English materialistic philosophy. He advocates the inductive method of reasoning. In his famous plea for progr ess, Bacon demands three things: 1) the free investigation of nature, 2) t he discovery of facts instead of the blind belief in theories 3) the verificati on of results by experiment rather than by argument. In our day, these ar e the ABC of science, but in Bacon's time they were revolutionary, Marx c alled him "the real father of English materialism & experimental science of modern times in general."

5. 应用Of Studies

Of Studies is the most popular of Bacon's 58 essays. It analyzes what studies chiefly serve for, the different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies, & how studies exert influence over human character. Force ful & persuasive, compact & precise, Of Studies reveals to us Bacon's mat ure attitude towards learning. Bacon's language is neat, priest, & weighty. It is some what affected, like the water in the reservoir, restricted & confi ned.

V. John Donne

1.一般识记Donne & the Metaphysical Poetry

The finest works of the metaphysical poets combine intellectual sub tlety with great emotional power. The poems reflect a broad knowledge of science, art, & other branches of learning. At the same time, metaphysical poems express an intense awareness of common human feelings & experi ences, such as jealousy, the loss of religious faith, the complexities of love & the fear of death. Although the imagery of metaphysical poetry is frequ ently strained, the language is often as natural & direct as ordinary speec h.

2识记His major works

In his life, Donne wrote a large number of poems & prose works, His poems are especially admired for their unique combination of passionate fe eling & intellectual wit. Many of his poems rank with the finest in the Engli sh language. Among his most famous works are the poems Death Be Not Proud, "Go & Catch a Falling Star," The Ecstacy, & A Valediction Forbiddin

g Mourning.

3. 领会Characteristics of His Poems

Donne's poetry is subtle, complex, & often startling. He made expert u

se of such poetic techniques as the paradox, a statement that seems contr adictory but actually contains truth, & the conceit, a pertinent comparison between 2 apparently dissimilar things.

His early Lyrics most exist in The Songs & Sonnets. Love is the basic t heme. Donne holds that the nature of love is the union of soul & body. Th e operations of the soul depend on the body. Idealism & cynicism about lo ve coexist in Donne's love poetry.

As a religious poet, his chief power is shown in the Holy Sonnets & th e last hymns.

In his poems, Donne frequently applies conceits, i.e. extended metaph ors involving dramatic contrasts. His poetry involves a certain kind of argu ment, sometimes in rigid syllogistic form. With the brief, simple language, the argument is continuous throughout the poem.

4. 应用Selected Readings

1) Death Be Not Proud, one of Donne's Holy Sonnets, is an almost Sta rtling put-down of poor death. Staunchly Christian in its pare expectation o f the resurrection, Donne's poem personifies death as an adversary swollen with false pride & unworthy of being called "mighty & dreadful." Donne gi ves various reasons in accusing death of being little more than a s lave bos sed about by fate, chance, kings & desperate men-a craven thing that kee ps bad company, such as poison, was & sickness. Finally, Donne taunts de ath with a paradox: "death, thou shalt die."

The sonnet is written in the strict Petrarchan pattern. It reveals the po et's belief in life after death: death is eternal.

Ⅵ. John Milton

1.一般识记Brief Introduction

2. 识记His literary achievements

Milton's literary achievements can be divided into three groups: the ea rly poetic works, the middle prose pamphlets & the last great poems.

3.领会His Major Works

2) Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost, an epic poem in 12 books, written in blank verse, repre sents the fullest expression of Milton's genius. The poem vividly portrays t he story of Satan's rebellion against God & his tempting of Adam & Eve to eat the fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The theme is the "Fall o f Man," i.e. man's disobedience & the loss of Paradise, with its prime caus e-Satan. Although Adam is the central figure in Paradise Lost, it is the vill ain, Satan, who emerges for many readers as the most interesting charact er in the poem, In Paradise Lost, Milton used the conventions of ancient G

reek & Latin epics & enriched his poem with reference to classical mytholo gy & literature.

二该时期的重要作家

I. William Blake

2. 识记His political, religious & literary views

Blake never tried to fit into the world; he was a rebel innocently & comp letely all his life. He was politically of the permanent left & mixed a good deal with the radicals like Thomas Paine& William Godwin. Like Shelley, Bl ake strongly criticized the capitalists' cruel exploitation, saying that the "da rk satanic mills left men unemployed, killed children & forced prostitution." Meanwhile he cherished great expectations & enthusiasm for the French R evolution, & regarded it as a necessary stage leading to the millennium pr edicted by the biblical prophets. Literarily Blake was the first important Ro mantic poet, showing contempt for the rule of reason, opposing the classic al tradition of the 18th century & treasuring the individual's imagination. 3. 领会His poems

5. 应用Select Readings:

1) The Chimney Sweeper (from Songs of Innocence)

Songs of Innocence is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy & i nnocent world, though not without its evils & sufferings. In this volume, Bl ake, with his eager quest for new poetics forms & techniques, broke compl etely with the traditions of the 18th century. He experimented in meter & rhymes & introduced bold metrical innovations which could not be found in the poetry of his contemporaries.

3) The Tyger

The Tyger, included in Songs of Experience, is one of Blake's best-known poems. It seemingly praises the great power of tiger, but what the tiger symbolizes remains disputable: the power of man? Or the revolutionary for ce? Or the evil? Or as it is usually interpreted, the Almighty Maker who cr eated both the meek & gentle lamb & the terrible & awesome tiger? The p oem is highly symbolic with a touch of mysticism & it is open to various i nterpretations. The poem contains six quatrains in rhyming couplets & its l anguage is terse & forceful with an anvil rhythm.

II. William Wordsworth

5. 应用：Selected Readings

1) I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1)

Wordsworth is regarded as a "worshipper of nature." He can penetrate t o the heart of things & give the reader the very life of nature. "I Wandere d Lonely as a Cloud" is perhaps the most anthologized poem in English lite rature, & one that takes us to the core of Wordsworth's poetic beliefs. Wo rdsworth wrote this beautiful poem of nature after he came across a long belt of gold daffodils tossing & reeling & dancing along the waterside. Ther e is a vivid picture of the daffodils here, mixed with the poet's philosophic al & somewhat mystical thoughts.

The poem consists of four 6-lined stanzas of iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of ababcc in each stanza. The last stanza describes the poe t's recollection in tranquility from which this poem arose. The poet thinks t hat it is a bliss to recollect the beauty of nature in his mind while he is in solitude

IV George Gordon Byron

4. 领会Characteristics of Byron's Poems

Byron's poetry, though much criticized by some critics on moral ground s, was immensely popular at home, & also abroad, where it exerted great influence on the Romantic Movement. This popularity it owed to the author 's persistent attacks on "cant political, religious, & moral," to the novelty o f his oriental scenery, to the romantic character of the Byronic hero, & to the easy, fluent, & natural beauty of his verse. Byron's diction, though une qual & frequently faulty, has on the whole a freedom, copiousness & vigor. His descriptions are simple & fresh, & often bring vivid objects before the reader. Byron's poetry is like the oratory which hurries the hearers witho ut applause. The glowing imagination of the poet rises & sinks with the to nes of his enthusiasm, roughing into argument, or softening into the melo dy feeling & sentiments. Byron employed the Ottva Rima (Octave Stanza)

from Italians mock-heroic poetry. It was perfected in Don Juan in which th e convention flows with ease & naturalness, as Colonel Stanhope described "a stream sometimes smooth, sometimes rapid & sometimes rushing dow n in cataracts-a mixture of philosophy & slang-of everything."

5 领会Byronic Hero

As a leading Romanticist, Byron's chief contribution is his creation of th e " Byronic hero," a proud & mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With i mmense superiority in his passions & powers, the Byronic hero would carr y on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in an evil society, & would fight single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either i n government, in religion or in moral principles with unconquerable wills & inexhaustible energies. The conflict is usually one of rebellious individuals against outworn social systems & convention. Such a hero appears first in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, & then further developed in later works such as Oriented Tales, Manfred, & Don Juan in different guises. The figure is, to some extent, modeled on the life & personality of Byron himself, & makes Byron famous both at home and abroad.

V. Percy Bysshe Shelley

2) Ode to the West Wind

The poem Ode to the West Wind was the best known of Shelley's shor ter poems. In the poem the poet describes vividly the activities of the We st Wind on the earth, in the sky & on the sea, & then expresses his envy for the boundless freedom of the West Wind & his wish to be free like the wind & scatter his words among mankind. He gathered in this poem a we alth of symbolism, employed a structural art & his powers of metrical orch estration at their mightiest. The autumn wind, burying the dead year, prep aring for a new Spring, becomes an image of Shelley himself, as he would want to be, in its freedom, its destructive-constructive power, its universa lity, "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!" calls the Shelley that could no t bear being fettered to the humdrum realities of everyday! The whole poe m has a logic of feeling, a progression that leads to the triumphant, hopef ul & convincing conclusion: "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" H ere is no reassurance, no mysticism, but the primal amorality of nature its elf, with its mad fury & its pagan ruthlessness. Shelley's ode is an invocati on to a primitive deity, a plea to exalt him in its fury & to trumpet the ra dical prophecy of hope & rebirth.

VI. John Keats

5.应用Selected Reading:

"Ode on a Grecian Urn"

The Grecian Urn that the poem depicts is a piece of ancient Greek potte ry with a pastoral scene overwrought upon it. The urn represents a piece of artifact, & it has endured a long history, yet remains untarnished, & the pastoral scene on it can still be seen clearly.

On the surface, this ode is about the Grecian Urn, but we can fairly say it is a commentary on nature & art, for art has the power to preserve inte nse human experiences, so that they may go on being enjoyed by men fr om generation to generation. Pleasure in life cannot be protected from cha nge, while artifact can remain intact.

The Ode consists of 5 stanzas, the first four stanzas describing a pastora l scene on the urn, & the last epitomizing the relation of the timeless ideal world in art to the woeful actual world.

VII Jane Austen

2.识记Her Major Works

Pride & Prejudice, originally drafted as "First Impressions" in 1796, is the most delightful of Jane Austen's works. The title tells of a major concern of the novel pride & prejudice. If to form good relationships is our main ta sk in life, we must first have good judgment. Our first impressions, accordi ng to Jane Austen, are usually wrong, as is shown here by those of Elizab eth. In the process of judging others, Elizabeth finds out something about herself: her blindness, partiality, prejudice & absurdity. In time she discove red her own shortcomings. On the other hand, Darcy too learns about oth er people & himself. In the end false pride is humbled & prejudice dissolve d.

I. Charles Dickens

3. 领会Distinct Features of His Novels

(1) Character Sketches & Exaggeration

In his novels are found about 19 hundred figures, some of whom are r eally such " typical characters under typical circumstances," that they beco me proverbial or representative of a whole group of similar persons.

As a master of characterization, Dickens was skillful in drawing vivid c aricatural sketches by exaggerating some peculiarities, & in giving them ex actly the actions & words that fit them: that is, right words & right actions

for the right person.

(2) Broad Humor & Penetrating Satire

Dickens is well known as a humorist as well as a satirist. He sometime s employs humor to enliven a scene or lighten a character by making it (h im or her) eccentric, whimsical, or laughable. Sometimes he uses satire to ridicule human follies or vices, with the purpose of laughing them out of existence or bring about reform.

(3) Complicated & Fascinating Plot

Dickens seems to love complicated novel constructions with minor plots beside the major one, or two parallel major plots within one novel. He is also skillful at creating suspense & mystery to make the story fascinating.

(4) The Power of Exposure

As the greatest representative of English critical realism, Dickens made his novel the instrument of morality & justice. Each of his novels reveals a specific social problem.

His later works show a highly conscious modern artist. The settings ar e more complicated; the stories are better structured. Most novels of this period present a sharper criticism of social evils & morals of the Victorian England, for example, Bleak House, Hard Times, Great Expectations & so o n. The early optimism could no more be found.

II. The Bronte Sisters

3. 应用Selected Readings

Excerpt One: from Chapter XXIII of Jane Eyre by charlotte Bronte The work is one of the most popular & important novels of the Victorian a ge. It is noted for its sharp criticism of the existing society, e.g. the religi ous hypocrisy of charity institutions, the social discrimination & the false s ocial convention as concerning love & marriage. At the same time, it is an intense moral fable. Jane, like Mr. Rochester, has to undergo a series of physical & moral tests to grow up & achieve her final happiness. The succ ess of the novel is also due to its introduction to the English novel the firs t governess heroine. Jane Eyre is a completely new woman image. She re presents those middle-class workingwomen who are struggling for recogniti on of their rights & equality as a human being. The vivid description of he r intense feelings & her thought & inner conflicts brings her to the heart o f the audience.

Jane Eyre's character:

Jane Eyre, an orphan child with a fiery spirit & a longing to love & be loved, a poor, plain, little governess who dares to love her master, a man superior to her in many ways, & even is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him, cuts a completely new woman image. In this novel

Charlotte characterizes Jane Eyre as a naive, kind-hearted, noble-minded woman who pursues a genuine kind of love. Jane Eyre represents those m iddle-class workingwomen who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights & equality as a human being. The vivid description of her intense fe elings & her thought & inner conflicts brings her to the heart of the audien ce.

The selected part is taken from Chapter XXIII, not long after Jane is b ack from her aunt's funeral. Jane finds herself hopelessly in love with Mr. Rochester but she is aware that her love is out of the question. So, when forced to confront Mr. Rochester, she desperately & openly declared her eq uality with him & her love for him. The passion described here is intense & genuine.

III. Alfred Tennyson

on's poetry.

4. 应用Selected Readings

(1) Break, Break, Break (1)

This short lyric is written in memory of Tennyson's best friend, Arthur Hallam, whose death has a lifelong influence on the poet. Here, the poet's own feelings of sadness are contrasted with the carefree, innocent joys of the children & the unfeeling movement of the ship & the sea waves. The beauty of the lyric is to be found in the musical language & in the associa tion of sound & images with feelings & emotions. The poem contains 4 qu atrains, with combined iambic & anapaestic feet. Most lines have three fee t & some four. The rhyme scheme is a b c b.

Ⅲ.William Butler Yeats (1865-1939 )

二．识记和领会：

1. Yeats's literary ideas:

Not content with any dogma in any of the established religious instituti ons, Yeats built up for himself a mystical system of beliefs. In choosing th e mystical belief of cyclical history over the modern conception of progress, Yeats owed a great deal to the Italian philosopher Vico, and the German philosopher Nietzsche. He believed that history, and life, followed a circular, spiral pattern consisting of long cycles which repeated themselves over an d over on different levels. And symbols 1ike " winding stairs," "spinning to ps," "gyres" and "spirals" were part of his elaborate theory of history, whic h had obviously become the central core of order in his great poems. Yeat s later disagreed with the idea of "art for art's sake." He came to see that literature should not be an end in itself but the expression of conviction a nd the garment of noble emotion. To write about Ire1and for an Irish audi ence and to recreate a specifically Irish literature -- these were the aims t hat Yeats was fighting for as a poet and a playwright.

2．The three periods of Yeats's poetic creation and their respective featur

es:

三．应用：Selected Readings:

1. The Lake Isle of Innisfree

第一章

美国浪漫主义时期

一、美国浪漫主义时期概述

Ⅰ.本章学习目的和要求

通过本章学习，了解１９世纪初期至中叶美国文学产生的历史、文化背景；认识该时期文学创作的基本待征、基本主张，及其对同时代和后期美国文学的影响；了解该时期主要作家的文学创作生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题思想、人物刻画、语言风格等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品并了解其思想内容和艺术特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。

Ⅱ.本章重点及难点：

1．浪漫主义时期美国文学的特点

2．主要作家的创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、思想意义。

3．分析讨论选读作品

Ⅲ.本章考核知识点和考核要求：

1.美国浪漫主义时期概述

(1)．"识记"内容：美国浪漫主义文学产生的社会历史及文化背景

(2)．"领会"内容：美国浪漫主义在文学上的表现

a.欧洲浪漫主义文学的影响

b.美国本土文学的崛起及其待证

(3)．"应用"内容：清教主义、超验主义、象征主义、自由诗等名词的解释

2.美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家

Ａ．华盛顿·欧文

1．一般识记：欧文的生平及创作主涯

2．识记：《纽约外史》《见闻札记》

3．领会：欧文的创作领域、创作思想，及其作品的艺术风格

4.应用：选读《瑞普·凡·温可尔》的主题及其艺术特色

Ｂ．拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生

1．一般识记：．爱默生的生平及创作生涯

2．识记：爱默生的超验主义思想

3．领会：

（1）爱默生的散文：《论自然》《论自助》《论美国学者》等

（2）．爱默生与梭罗：梭罗的超验主义思想和他的《沃尔登》

4．应用：《论自然》节选：爱默生的基本哲学思想及自然观

Ｃ．纳撒尼尔·霍桑

1．一般识记：霍桑的生平及创作主涯

2．识记：霍桑的长短篇小说

3．领会：

（1）《红字》的主题、心理描写、象征手法和、小说结构

（2）霍桑的清教主义思想及加尔文教条中的"原罪"对霍桑的影响（人性本恶的观点）（3）霍桑对浪漫主义小说的贡献

4．应用：选读《小伙子布朗》的主题结构、象征手法及语言特色

Ｄ．华尔特·惠特曼

1．一般识记：惠特曼的生平及其创作生涯

2．识记：惠特曼的民主思想

3．领会：

（1）惠特曼的《草叶集》的主创意图、思想感情及诗体形式、语言风格

（2）．惠特曼的个人主义

4．应用：选读《草叶集》诗选："一个孩子的成长"、"涉水的骑兵'"、"自己之歌"的主题结构、诗歌的艺术特色、语言风格

Ｅ．赫尔曼·麦尔维尔

1．一般识记：麦尔维尔的生平及创作生涯

2．识记：麦尔维尔的早期作品：《玛地》《雷得本》《白外衣》，后期作品《皮埃尔》《骗子的化装表演》《比利伯德》等

3．领会：《白鲸》的

（1）主题：表层及深层意义

（2）小说结构：浪漫主义和现实主义的统一

（3）象征手法和寓言的运用

（4）语言特色

4．应用：选读《白鲸》最后一章的节选：主题思想、人物刻画、象征手法、语言特色

Chapter l The Romantic Period

(一)"识记"内容：

1.The origin of Romantic American literature

The Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War. It started with the publication of Washington Irv ing's The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

2.The American Renaissance or New England Renaissance is a period o

f the great flowerin

g of American literature, from the i830s roughly until t

h e end of the American Civil War. It came of age as an expression of a nat ional spirit. One of the most important influences in the period was that of the Transcendentalists, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thor eau. The Transcendentalists contributed to the founding of a new national culture based on native elements. Apart from the Transcendentalists, there

emerged during this period great imaginative writers ---Nathaniel Hawthor ne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman---whose novels and poetry left a p ermanent imprint on American literature.

3.Its social historical and cultural background

The development of the American society nurtured "the literature of a great nation." America was flourishing into a politically, economically and c ulturally independent country. Historically, it was the time of westward exp ansion in America economically, the whole nation was experiencing an indu strial transformation. Politically, democracy and equa1ity became the ideal of the new nation, and the two-party system came into being. Worthy of mention is the literary and cultural life of the country. With the founding o f the American Independent Government, the nation felt an urge to have i ts own literary expression, to make known its new experience that other n ations did not have: the early Puritan settlement, the confrontation with th e Indians, the frontiersmen's life, and the wild west. Besides, the nation's l iterary milieu was ready for the Romantic movement as we11. Thus, with a strong sense of optimism, a spectacular outburst of romantic feeling was brought about in the first ha1f of the 19th century.

4.Major writers of this period

There emerged a great host of men of letters during this period, amon g whom the better-known are poets such as Philip Freneau, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wordsworth Long Fellow, James Russel Lowell, John Greenl eaf Whitter, Edgar Ellen Poe, and, especially, Walt Whitman, whose Leaves Of Grass established him as the most popular American poet of the 19th century. The fiction of the American Romantic period is an original and div erse body of work. It ranges from the comic fables of Washington Irving t o the The Gothic tales of Edgar Allen Poe, from the frontier adventures of James Fenimore Cooper to the narrative quests of Herman Melville, from t he psycho1ogical romances of Nathaniel Hawthorne to the social realism of Rebecca Harding Davis.

(二)．领会内容

1.The impact of European Romanticism on American Romanticism Foreign literary masters, especially the English counterparts exerted a stim ulating impact on the writers of the new world. Born of one common cultu ral heritage, the American writers shared some common features with the English Romanticists. They revolted against the literary forms and ideas of the period of classicism by developing some relatively new forms of fiction or poetry.

(1) They put emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature, which included a liking for the picturesque, the exotic, the sens uous, the sensational, and the supernatural.

(2) The Americans also placed an increasing emphasis on the free expr

ession of emotions and disp1ayed an increas ing attention to the psychic st ates of their characters. Heroes and heroines exhibited extremes of sensiti vity and excitement.

(3) The strong tendency to exalt the individual and the common man was almost a national religion in America. Writers like Freneau, Bryant, an d Cooper showed a great interest in external nature in their res pective wor ks.

(4) The literary use of the more colorfu1 aspects of the past was also to be found in Irving's effort to exploit the legends of the Hudson River re gion, and in Cooper's long series of historical tales.

(5) In short, American Romanticism is, in a certain way, derivative.

2.The unique characteristics of American Romanticism

Although greatly influenced by their English counterparts, the American romantic writers revealed unique characteristics of their own in their work s and they grew on the native lands. For examp1e,(1) the American natio nal experience of "pioneering into the west" proved to be a rich source of material for American writers to draw upon. They celebrated America's lan dscape with its virgin forests, meadows, groves, endless prairies, streams, and vast oceans. The wilderness came to function almost as a dramatic ch aracter that symbolized moral 1aw. (2)The desire for an escape from socie ty and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American lite rature. Such a desire is particularly evident in Cooper's Leather Stocking T ales, in Thoreau's Walden and, later, in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckle berry Finn. (3) With the growth of American national consciousness, Ameri can character types speaking local dialects appeared in poetry and fiction with increas ing frequency. (4) Then the American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values and America n Romanticism. One of the manifestations is the fact that American romant ic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counte rparts. (5) Besides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of origina1 si n and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesser writers.

(三)．应用内容

1. The American Puritanism and its great influence over American mor al values, as is shown in American romantic writings.

(1) American Puritanism

Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. (The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church, who came into e xistence in the reigns Queen Elizabeth and King James Ⅰ.The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a fe w of them Puritans. They came to America out of various reasons, but it s hould be remembered that they were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. As the word itself hints, P

uritans wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They felt that the Church of England was too close to the Church of Rome in doctrine f orm of worship, and organization of authority.) The American Puritans, like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church s hould be restored to complete "purity". They accepted the doctrine of pred estination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. But in the grim struggle for survival that followed immediately after their arrival in America, they became more and more practical, as indeed they had to be. Puritans were noted for a s pirit of moral and religious earnestness that determinated their whole way of life. Puritans' lives were extremely disciplined and hard. They drove out of their settlements all those opinions that seemed dangerous to them, an d history has criticized their actions. Yet in the persecution of what they c onsidered error, the Puritans were no worse than many other movements i n history. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind and American values. American Puritanism als o had a conspicuously noticeable and an enduring influence on American lit erature. It had become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so muc

h a part of the national cultural atmosphere, rather than a set of tenets.

(2) One of the manifestations is the fact that American romantic writer s tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts. B esides, a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of origina1 sin and the m ystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesse r writers.

2. New England Transcendentalism

New England Transcendentalism is the mot clearly defined Romantic lit erary movement in this period. It was started in the area around Concord, Mass. by a group of intellectual and the literary men of the United States such as Emerson, Henry David Thoreau who were members of an informa l club, i. e. the Transcendental Club in New England in the l830s. The tran scendentalists reacted against the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism in Boston. They adhered to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation , the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the d eepest truths. The writings of the transcendentalists prepared the ground o f their contemporaries such as Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Nathan iel Hawthorne.

The main issues involved in the debate were generally philosophical, conce rning nature, man and the universe. Basically, Transcendentalism has been defined philosophical1y as "the recognition in man of the capacity of kno wing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses." Emerson once proclaimed in a speech, "Nothing is at last sacr ed but the integrity of your own mind." Other concepts that accompanied

Transcendentalism inc1ude the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea t hat the individual is divine and, therefore, self-re1iant.

3. American Romanticists differed in their understanding of human nat ure.

To the transcendentalists such as Emerson and Thoreau, man is divine in nature and therefore forever perfectible; but to Hawthorne and Melville, ev erybody is potentially a sinner, and great moral courage is therefore indisp ensab1e for the improvement of human nature, as is shown in Hawthorne' s The Scarlet Letter.

二.美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家

Ⅰ. Washington Irving(1783-l859)

Irving's position in American literature Washington Irving was one of th e first American writers to earn an international reputation, and regarded a s an early Romantic writer in the merican literary history and Father of th e American short stories.

一．一般识记

His life and major works

Washington Irving was born in New York City in a wealthy family. Fro m a very early age he began to read widely and write juvenile poems, ess ays, and plays. In l798, he conc1uded his education at private schools and entered a law office, but he loved writing more.

His first successful work is A History Of New York from the Beginning Of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, which, written under the n ame of Diedrich Knickerbocker, won him wide popularity after it came out in 1809. With the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in serials between 1819 and 1820, Irving won a measure of international fame on both sides of the Atlantic. The book contains familiar essays on t he Eng1ish life and Americanized vers ions of European folk tales like "Rip Van Winkle＂, and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Geoffrey Crayon is a carefully contrived persona and behind Crayon stands Irving, juxtaposing t he Old World and the New, and manipulating his own antiquarian interest with artistic perspectives.

The major work of his later years was The Life of George Washington.

二．识记

1.Irving's great indebtedness to European literature

Most of Irving's subject matter are borrowed heavily from European source s, which are chiefly Germanic. Irving's relationship with the Old World in t erms of his literary imagination can hardly be ignored considering his succ ess both abroad and at home.

A History of New York is a patchwork of references, echoes, and burles

ques. He parodies or imitates Homer, Cervantes, Fielding, Swift and many other favorites of his. He was also absorbed in German Literature and got ideas from German legends for two of his famous stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Alhambra is usually regarded as Irving's "Spanish Sketch Book" simply because it has a strong flavor of Sp anish culture. Most of the thirty-three essays in The Sketch Book were wri tten in England, filled with English scenes and quotations from English aut hors and faithful to British orthography. Washington Irving brought to the new nation what its peop1e desired most in a man of 1etters the respect of the Old World.

2.Irving's unique contribution to American literature

Irving's contribution to American literature is unique in more than one way. He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain int e rnational fame. Although greatly influenced by European literature, Irving g ave his works distinctive American flavor. "Rip Van Winkle" or "The Legend of Sleepy Hol1ow", however exotic these stories are, are among the treas ures of the American language and culture. These two stories easily trigge r off American imagination with their focus on American subjects, American landscape, and, in Irving's case, the legends of the Hudson River region o f the fresh young 1and. It is not the sketches about the Old World but the tales about America that made Washington Irving a household word and his fame enduring. He was father of American short stories. And later in t he hands of Hawthorne and Melville the short story attained a degree of p erfection.

三．领会

1.Irving's theme of conservatism as is revealed in "Rip Van Winkle"

Irving's taste was essentia1ly conservative and always exa1ted a disap pearing past. This socia1 conservatism and literary preference for the past is revea1ed, to some extent, in his famous story "Rip Van Winkle." The st ory is a tale remembered mostly for Rip's 20-year s1eep, set against the background of the inevitably changing America. Rip went to sleep before t he War of Independence and woke up after it. The change that had occurr ed in the 20 years he slept was to him not always for the better. The rev olution upset the natural order of things. In the story Irving ski1lfu1ly pre sents to us paralleled juxtapositions of two totally different worlds before a nd after Rip's 20 years' s1eep. By moving Rip back and forth from a noisy world with his wife on the farm to a wild but peaceful natural world in th e mountains, and from a pre-Revolution village to a George Washington er a, lrving describes Rip's response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both the narrator and Irving agree on the preferabi1ity of t he past to the present, and the preferability of a dream-like world to the r eal one. Irving never seemed to accept a modern democratic America.

2.Irving's literary craftsmanship

Washington Irving has always been regarded as a writer who "perfecte

d th

e best classic style that American Literature ever produced."

(1) We get a strong sense impression as we read him along, since the language he used best reveals what a Romantic writer can do with words. We hear rather than read, for there is musicality in almost every line of his prose.

(2) We seldom learn a mora1 lesson because he wants us amused and relaxed. So we often find ourselves lost in a world that is permeated with

a dreaming quality.

(3) The Gothic elements and the supernatural atmosphere are manipul ated in such a way that we could become so engaged and involved in wha t is happening in a seemingly exotic place.

(4) Yet Irving never forgets to associate a certain place with the inwar

d movement of a person and to charg

e his sentences with emotion so as t o create a true and vivid character. He is worth the honor o

f bein

g "the A merican Goldsmith" for his literary craftsmanship.

四．应用

Selected Reading:

An Excerpt from "Rip Van Winkle"

The story of Rip Van Winkle

Rip, an indolent good-natured Dutch-American, lives with his shrewish wife in a village on the Hudson during the years before the Revolution. On e day while hunting in the Catskills with his dog Wolf, he meets a dwarflik e stranger dressed in the ancient Dutch fashion. He helps him to carry a k eg, and with him joins a party silently playing a game of ninepins. After d rinking of the liquor they provide, Rip falls into a sleep which lasts 20 yea rs, during which the Revolutionary War takes place. He awakes as an old man and returns to his home village that has greatly altered. Upon enterin g the village, he is greeted by his old dog, which dies of the excitement a nd then learns that his wife has long been dead. Rip is almost forgotten b ut he goes to live with his daughter, now the mother of a family, and is s oon befriended with his generosity and cheerfulness.

This excerpt below is taken from the story, describing for us Rip's diffi culties at home, which he often escapes by going to the local inn to spend his time with his friends and sometimes by going hunting in the woods wi th his dog, and then focusing on Rip 's return from his 20 years' sleep to his greatly altered home village. Here, Irving's pervasive theme of nostalgi a for the unrecoverable past is at once made unforgettable.

What are the theme and the artistic features of "Rip Van Winkle"?

(1) The theme:

Irving's taste was essentia1ly conservative and always exa1ted a disap pearing past. This socia1 conservatism and literary preference for the past

is revea1ed, to some extent, in his famous story "Rip Van Winkle." The st ory is a tale remembered mostly for Rip's 20-year s1eep, set against the background of the inevitably changing America. Rip went to sleep before t he War of Independence and woke up after it. The change that had occurr ed in the 20 years he slept was to him not always for the better. The rev olution upset the natural order of things. In the story Irving ski1lfu1ly pre sents to us paralleled juxtapositions of two totally different worlds before a nd after Rip's 20 years' s1eep. By moving Rip back and forth from a noisy world with his wife on the farm to a wild but peaceful natural world in th e mountains, and from a pre-Revolution village to a George Washington er a, lrving describes Rip's response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both the narrator and Irving agree on the preferabi1ity of t he past to the present, and the preferability of a dream-like world to the r eal one. Irving never seemed to accept a modern democratic America. (2) The artistic features:

"Rip Van Winkle" is not only well-known for Rip's 20-year sleep but also c onsidered a model of perfect English in American Literature and in the Eng lish language as well. Washington Irving has always been regarded as a w riter who "perfected the best classic style that American Literature ever pr oduced." He has a clear, easy style.

(a) We get a strong sense impression as we read him along, since the language he used best reveals what a Romantic writer can do with words. We hear rather than read, for there is musicality in almost every line of his prose.

(b) We seldom learn a mora1 lesson because he wants us amused and relaxed. So we often find ourselves lost in a world that is permeated with a dreaming quality. He uses genial humor to exaggerate the seriousness of situation. He uses dignified words to produce a half-mocking effect.

(c)The Gothic elements and the supernatural atmosphere are manipulat ed in such a way that we could become so engaged and involved in what is happening in a seemingly exotic place.( Rip Van Winkle was overwhelme d by the magic power of the drink and fell into sleep for 20 years.)

(d)Yet Irving never forgets to associate a certain place with the inward movement of a person and to charge his sentences with emotion so as to create a true and vivid character. He is worth the honor of being "the Am erican Goldsmith" for his literary craftsmanship.

II. Ralph Waldo Emerson

一.一般识记

His life:Ralph Waldo Emerson is the chief spokesman of New Engla nd Transcendentalism, which is unanimously agreed to be the summit of t he Romantic period in the history of American literature.

Emerson was son of a Unitarian minister. Though born of an impoverished family, Emerson never failed to receive some formal education. Whi1e a s tudent at Harvard he began keeping journals, a practice he continued thro ughout his 1if e. He later drew on the journal for materials for his essays and poetry. After Harvard, he taught as a schoolmaster, which he soon ga ve up for the study of theology. He began preaching in 1826 and three ye ars later he became a pastor in a church in Boston. Emerson was ardent a t first in his service in religion, but gradually grew skeptical of the beliefs of the church; feeling Unitarianism intolerable, he finally left the ministry i n l832.

Emerson was greatly influenced by European Romanticism. He Carlyle, and listened to some famous Romantic poets like Coleridge and Wordswort h. Through his acquaintance with these men he became closely involved w ith German idea1ism and Transcendentalism. After he was back from Euro pe, Emerson retreated to a quiet study at Concord, Massachusetts, where he began to pursue his new path of "self-reliance." Emerson formed a club there at Concord with peop1e like Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, which was later known as the Transcendenta1 Club. And the unofficial man ifesto for the Club was Nature(l836), Emerson's first little book, which esta blished him ever since as the most eloquent spokesman of New England T ranscendentalism. Nature was the fundamental document of his philosophy and expressed also his constant, deeply-felt love for nature. It was called "the Manifesto of American Transcendentalism". He also helped to found a nd edit for a time the Transcendental journal, The Dial. Emerson lived an i ntel1ectually active and significant life between the mid-1830s and the mid -1840s, 1ecturing all over the country, and occasionally, abroad. He preac hed his Transcendental pursuit and his reputation expanded dramatically wi th his lectures and his essays. Though the rest of Emerson's life was a slo w anticlimax to his midd1e years, people continued to honor the most infl uentia1 prophet and the intellectua1 liberator of their age, and his reputati on as a family man of conventional life and a decent, solid citizen has rem ained always.

二．识记内容：

His major works:

Emerson is generally known as an essayist. During all his life he worke d steadily at a succession of essays, usually derived from his journals or l ectures he had already given. Nature did not establish him as an importan t American writer. His lasting reputation began only with the publication of Essays (1841 ). Many of his famous essays are included in Essay, which convey the best of his philosophical discussions and transcendental pursuit

s, such as The American Scholar, Self Reliance, The Over Soul. The secon d collection of Emerson's essays, Essays: Second Series (1844) demonstrat ed even more thorough1y than the first that Emerson's intellect had sharp ened in the years since Nature. The Poet and Exprience are examples, the former a reflection upon the aesthetic problems in terms of the present st ate of literature in America and the latter a discussion about the conflict b etween idealism and ordinary 1ife.

三．领会

1. Emersonian Transcendentalism

Emersonian Transcendentalism is actual1y a philosophical school which abs orbed some ideological concerns of American Puritanism and European Ro manticism, with its focus on the intuitive knowledge of human beings to gr asp the absolute in the universe and the divinity of man. In his essays, E merson put forward his philosophy of the over-sou1, the importance of the Individual, and Nature.

(1) Emerson's philosophy of the over-sou1

Emerson rejected both the formal religion of the churches and the Deis tic philosophy; instead he based his religion on an intuitive belief in an ulti mate unity, which he called the "over-soul." Emerson and other Transcend entalists believed in the transcendence of "over-soul". It is an impersonal f orce that is eternal, moral, harmonious, and beneficient in tendency. They believed that there should be an emotional communication between an indi vidual soul and the universal "oversoul", since the over-sou1 is an all-perv ading power from which all things come from and of which a1l are a part. One of the tendencies of the "over-soul " is to express itself in form, hen ce the world of nature as an emanation of the world of spirit. Emerson's r emarkable image of "a transparent eyebal1" marks a paradoxical state of being, in which one is merged into nature, the over-soul, whi1e at the sa me time retaining a unique perception of the experience.

(2)Emerson's philosophy of the importance of the Individual

Emerson is affirmative about man's intuitive knowledge, with which a man can trust himself to decide what is right and to act accordingly. The i deal individual should be a self-reliant man. "Trust thyself," he wrote in Se lf Reliance, by which he means to convince people that the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite.

(3) Emerson's view on nature

Emerson's nature is emblematic of the spiritual world, alive with God's overwhelming presence. It mediates between man and God, and its voice l eads to higher truth; hence, it exercises a healthy and restorative inf1uenc e on human mind. "Go back to nature, sink yourse1f back into its inf1uen ce and you'1l become spiritually who1e again." By employing nature as a big symbol of the Spirit, or God, or the over-soul, Emerson has brought th e Puritan 1egacy of symbolism to its perfection.