美国文学大纲.docx

1、美国文学大纲苏州科技学院外国语学院 _美国文学史_(课程名称)课程考试大纲 一、课程性质与特点美国文学史为“英语”和“英语（师范）”专业任意选修课，属于考查课，共24学时，1.5学分。本课程涵盖美国文学史上从殖民地时期、浪漫主义、现实主义、现代主义、后现代主义至当代各个时期重要的文学思潮、流派及其发生的社会、文化、哲学背景以及各个时期重要作家的代表性作品。本课程所讲授的知识是英语专业本科生知识结构不可或缺的一部分，是英语专业学生人文素养必要的组成成分，也是英语专业八级考试“人文知识”部分考核的内容之一。鉴于本课程学时短，内容多，本课程的特点是以史为经，以作家作品为纬，详讲浪漫主义、现实主义和现

2、代主义部分，略讲其它部分。二、课程目标与基本要求学生在学习本课程后应该对美国文学史上殖民地时期、浪漫主义、现实主义、现代主义、后现代主义至当代各个时期重要的文学思潮、流派及其发生的社会、文化、哲学背景以及各个时期重要作家的代表性作品有个宏观的了解，能解释相关的名词，熟悉各个时期的主要特点和重要作家及其重要作品，并能结合文学外在与内在因素对文学作品做出初步评论。三、教材及主要参考书教材：童明：美国文学史增订版 ( A History of American Literature, Revised and expanded edition).北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2010.主要参考书：常耀信

3、：美国文学简史第二版(A Survey of American Literature,2nd edition).天津：南开大学出版社，2003. 四、考核内容与考核目标Part 1 Early American Literature: Colonial Period to 1815Chapter 1 The literature of the New World1. “discoverer” of America: Christopher Columbus, 1492; Amerigo Vespucci ( Hence “America”,1507 world map) （识记，次重点）2.N

4、ative (Indian) American Oral literature: origin stories, trickster tales , historical narratives (理解，次重点) Chapter 2 The Literature of Colonial America: 1620-17633. Jamestown: first English settlement in North America（识记，重点）5. Captain John Smith: First author in the history of American literature (ab

5、out Jamestown) （识记，一般）6.William Bradford: Father of American history, author of Of Plymouth Plantation（识记，一般）7. In 1620, the Bradford party sailed on the Mayflower and came to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. （识记，次重点）8. Anne Bradstreet: the first poetess in the colonial period: The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung

6、up in America（识记，一般）9.Jonathan Edwards: the great thinker of the “Great Awakening” （识记，一般） Chapter 3 Literature and American Revolution:1764181510. American Puritanism (重点，理解)11. The 18th century, in America, as in Europe, is known as the Age of Reason and Enlightenment. （识记，次重点）12. Enlightenment in

7、 America （理解，次重点）13. Deism and Unitarianism（理解，一般）14. Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richards Almanacs; Autobiography（理解，重点）15.Thomas Paine: Common Sense; The American Crisis; The Rights of Man（识记，重点）16. Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence（理解，重点）17. Alexander Hamilton: The Federalist Papers (

8、co-author) （识记，一般）18. Philip Freneau: the poet of “American Revolution”: The Wild Honey Suckle, The Indian Burying Ground（识记，重点）Part 2 American Romanticism 18151865Chapter 4 The Age of American Romanticism1. definition and characteristics of American Romanticism （应用，重点）2. First flowering of American

9、 literature（识记，次重点）Chapter 5 Early Romanticism1. The three early romanticists: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant （识记，重点）3. Washington Irving: The Sketch Book, in which two of Irvings best known stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” are included（

10、理解，重点）; A History of New York（识记，一般）; A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus（识记，一般）4. James Fenimore Cooper: The Leather-stocking Tales ( The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinder, The Deerslayer), the mythic hero of this series is Natty Bumppo (理解，重点)5.

11、William Cullen Bryant: Poems : Thanatopsis (meaning meditation on death); To a Waterfowl (about Natures power) (识记，次重点)Chapter 6 Transcendentalism and Symbolic Representation1. The Transcendental Club: 1) published 16 issues of The Dial; 2) established Brook Farm, a utopian community （识记，一般）2. Trans

12、cendentalism as a philosophy （应用，重点）3. Ralph Waldo Emerson: 1) the leading spokesman for Transcendentalism (识记，重点). 2) Nature: “the manifesto of American transcendentalism” (理解，重点).;3) Essays (First serirs,1941, Second series,1844): “The Over-soul”, “Compensation”, Self- Reliance ( from which comes

13、the idea “Trust thyself); “The Poet”.（识记，一般）4) Representative Men （识记，一般）5) Address: “The American Scholar”( called Americas “ intellectual Declaration of Independence”); “Divinity School Address”. (识记，次重点)6) His poetry（识记，一般）7) His style（识记，一般）4. Margret Fuller: first editor of The Dial, author of

14、Woman in the Nineteenth Century (advocating for womens rights) （识记，一般）5. Henry David Thoreau:1) today primary remembered for two of his works: Walden and the essay “Civil Disobedience”. (识记，重点) 2) Nature and Implications of Thoreaus revolt as revealed in Walden and “Civil Disobedience” （理解，重点）3) Tho

15、reaus style: thinking in imagery （理解，一般）Chapter 7 Hawthorne, Melville and Poe1. Hawthorne, Melville and Poe are masters of “negative capability”. （理解，重点）2. Nathaniel Hawthorne1) Hawthornes moral vision（理解，次重点）2) Hawthornes themes: sin and evil, internal contradiction, male withdrawal from marriage（识

16、记，重点）3) Hawthornes style: 1) elevated in diction and restrained in rhetoric, thus graceful and polished; 2) allegory and symbol; 3) irony and ambiguity（识记，重点）4) Novels: Scarlet Letter （应用，重点）; The House of Seven Gables（识记，一般）; The Blithedale Romance（识记，一般）; The Marble Faun（识记，一般）5) Short stories: Yo

17、ung Goodman Brown; The Ministers Black Veil; Major Molineux; Rappcinnis Daughter; The Birthmark（识记，一般）3. Herman Melville1) His major works: Moby Dick （应用，重点）2) Other works: Typee; Omoo; Mardi; Redburn（识记，一般）; Billy Budd （理解，次重点）4. Edgar Allen Poe1) Father of American detective stories（识记，重点）;2) His

18、only novel: Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym（识记，一般）3) Gothic fiction: E.g. The Fall of the House of Usher（识记，一般）;4) Short stories: Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque（识记，一般）5) Theme of his poems: Beauty associated with sadness (melancholy)（应用，重点）. E.g. The Raven; To Helen; Ulalume; Annabel Lee（识记，一般）

19、Chapter 8 Whitman and Dickinson1.Walt Whitman 1) free verse （理解，重点） 2) Collected poems: Leaves of Grass （识记，重点）E.g.Song of Myself (celebrating the Self and Individualism) （理解，重点） O Captain! My Captain! (in mourning of Lincoln) （识记，次重点）2. Emily Dickinson; wrote nearly 2000poems,but fewer than 20 were

20、 published 1) Recluse of Amherst（识记，重点） 2) Themes of her poems: individualism and spirituality; suffering, dying and death（识记，次重点） 3) style: short words and phrases separated and joined by dashes. （识记，一般）Chapter 9 A House Divided: Writing Against Slavery1. Harriet Beecher Stowe (Lincoln called her “

21、the little lady who made this big war), author of Uncle Toms Cabin (1851-1852) （理解，重点）2. Frederick Douglass: Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) （识记，次重点）3. Harriet Ann Jacobs : Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) （识记，一般）Part 3 American Realism 18651914Chapter10 The Age

22、 of Realism1. subdivided into two periods: the period of an expanding continental nation from 1865 till the 1890s and the “progressive period” from the 1890s to 1914. （识记，一般）2. Realism as a broader term is also inclusive of naturalism, regionalism and local color writing. （识记，一般）3. Parameters (chara

23、cteristics ) of Realism （运用，重点）Chapter 11 Regional and Local color Writing 1. Mark Twain 1) Four Types of his writing: A) personalized fiction ( The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day; The Tragedy of Pudddnhead Wilson) （理解，重点）B) Travel fict

24、ion (The Innocents Abroad; Roughing It; A Tramp Abroad; Life on the Mississippi; Following the Equator) （识记，一般）C) Historical romance ( The Prince and The Pauper; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court; Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc by the Sieur Louis Conte) （识记，一般）D) Tall tales (The Celebr

25、ated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County; The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg) （识记，次重点）2）“All Modern literature come from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” (Ernest Hemingway) （识记，重点）Chapter 12 Henry James and William Dean Howells1. William Dean Howells1) held a central position in the deve

26、lopment of American realism, representative of Mid-western realism. （识记，重点）2) His long essay of criticism: Criticism and Fiction（识记，一般）3) Novels: The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) （识记，重点）; A Hazard of New Fortune (1890) （识记，一般）2. Henry James1) Themes of his novels: （识记，重点）A. The international theme;B.

27、 the emotion-of-life theme;C. The artist theme;D. psychological realism2) Novels: Three of the best: The Wings of Dove; The Ambassadors; The Golden Bowl（识记，次重点）3) The two best-known novellas: Daisy Miller; The Turn of the Screw（识记，一般）4) Other works: The American; The Portrait of a Lady（识记，次重点）Chapte

28、r 13 Literary Naturalism1. Philosophical elements and literary characteristics of Naturalism（应用，重点）2. Hamlin Garlands “veritism” （理解，次重点）3. Stephen Crane (1871-1900) 1) Two of his well-known novels: Maggie of the Streets（理解，次重点）; The Red Badge of Courage（理解，重点）2) Three well-known short stories: The

29、Open Boat; The Monster; The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky. （识记，一般）4. Frank Norris (1870-19020: American Zola 1) The naturalist characteristics of Frank Norriss “Romance “（理解，次重点）2) Novels: McTeague（理解，重点）; Octopus（识记，一般）; The Pit（识记，一般）5. Jack London(1876-1916) 1) Londons naturalist view of life and Man

30、（应用，重点） 2) Works：The Call of the Wild（应用，重点）; White Fang（识记，一般）; The Sea Wolf（识记，一般）; Martin Eden（识记，一般）; Iron Heel（识记，一般）6. Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)1) Major theme of Dreisers fiction（应用，重点）2) Works: Sister Carrie（应用，重点）; Jennie Gerhart; The Genius（识记，一般）; An American Tragedy（理解，次重点）; Trilogy of

31、 Desire: a. The Financier; b. The Titan; c. The Stoic（识记，次重点）Chapter 14 Women Writing on the “Woman Question”1. “Woman question” in the late 19th century and early 20th century（理解，一般）2. Kate Chopin (1851-1904) 1) Her theme （理解，一般） 2) Her work: The Awakening（理解，重点）3. Edith Wharton (1862-1937) 1) Her theme（理解，一般） 2) Works: The Age of Innocence（应用，重点）; The House of Mirth（理解，次重点）; The Great Inclination（识记，一般）; Ethan Frome（识记，一般）Part 4 American Mod