美国文学选读复习

2021年1月22日发(作者：庾翼)

History And Anthology of American Literature

(Volume
ⅠⅡ
)
美国文学史及选读
1
、
2
Part
Ⅰ
The Literature of Colonial America
殖民主义时期的文学
(at the beginning of 17
th
century)
Part
Ⅱ
The Literature of Reason And Revolution
理性和革命时期文学
(by the mid-18th century)
1
．

Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence
独立宣言

(1776
年

18
世纪中后期
)
（仔细阅读知道意思）

Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography

Thomas Paine: The American Crisis*

一、

Benjamin Franklin
本杰明
·
富兰克林
1706-1790

Symbol of America in the Age of Enlightenment
殖民地时期作家。独立战争前惟一的杰出的美国作家
in the colonial period, the only good American author before the Revolutionary
War.
1
．

其还是美国第一位主要作家
the first major writer
非凡表达能力，简洁明了，
有点幽默，
还是一位讽刺天才
as an author he had power
of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor. He was also sarcastic.
2
．

他最好作品收录在《自传》
“
Autobiogra phy
”
。

“
对这个年青的国家来说，他的损失比其它任何人的都要大“
his shadow lies heavier than any other man
’
s on this young nation.

二、

Thomas Jefferson
托马斯
·
杰弗逊（
1743-1826
）

1
．

美国历史上最为广泛影响人物
his thought and personality have influenced his countryman more deeply and remained more effectively
alive.
同富兰克林一样具人道主义精神
vigorous humanitarian sympathies.
启蒙运动的产物
a product of the Enlightenment.
2
．

1776
年 同约翰
·
亚当斯、
本杰明
·
富兰克林、
罗杰
·谢尔曼、
罗伯特
·
R·
利文斯顿一起起草
《独立宣言》
with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin,
Roger Sherman and Robert R Livingston, he drafted the Declaration of Independence.
3
．

1790-1793
任华盛顿内阁中第一任国务卿，
as the first American secretary of state. 1800
起担任两届美国总统。

4
．

教材作品：
《独立宣言》
(1776
年
7
月
4
日
)
：
“
The Declaration of Independence
”
。


三、

Thomas Paine
托马斯
·
佩因（
1737-1809
）
*

1
．

1776-1783
《美国危机》
“
American Crisis
”
signed
“
Common Sense
”
was a series of sixteen pamphlets.

2
．

战争结束后
perfecting the model of an iron bridge without piers
。

(1791-1792)
《人权》
“
Rights of Man
”
。

3
．

《理性的时代》
“
The Age of Reason
”
1794-1795,
他最后一部作品
1797
《土地公平》
“
Agrarian Justice
”
.
4
．

教材作品：
《美国危机》
：
“
The American Crisis
”
.

四、

Philip Freneau
菲利浦
·
弗瑞诺（
1752-1832
）
*

1
．

革命战争后期最杰出作家
perhaps
the
most
outstanding
writer
of
the
Post-Revolutionary
period
“美国革命诗人”
（
the
poet
of
the < br>Revolution
）
;
“美国诗歌之父”
（
Father of American Poetry
）
.
2
．

1770
年第
1
部作品《想象的力量》
（
The Power of Fancy
）
.1775
年因出版有关讽刺英国人作品而被认可
as a satirist of the British.
3
．

1776
年出版《夜屋》
（
The House of Night
）哥特式小说
the Gothic mood.

4
．

1781
写下名诗《英国囚船》
(The British Prison Ship)
5
．

教材作品：
《野忍冬花》
：








“
The Wild Honey Suckle
”













《印第安人的坟地》
：

“
The Indian Burying Ground
”













《致凯提
·
迪德》
：





“
To a Caty-Did
”


Part
Ⅲ
The Literature of Romanticism
浪漫主义文学
(1810-1860)
1.

浪漫主义共同点
romantics shared certain general ch aracteristics:
他们都注重道德，强调个人主义价值观及直觉感觉，并且认为自然
是美的源头，人类社会是腐败之源
moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that
the natural world was a source of goodness and man
’
s societies a source of corruption.


3
．

超验主义（
1830s
—
the
Civil
War
）
：
(1830-1850)
既不讲究逻辑，也不讲究系统 ，它只强调超越理性的感受，超越法律和世俗束缚
的个人表达，他们相信精神上的超越，相信无所不能的 善的力量，强调善为万物之源，万物都是善的一部分

Transcendentalism: (1830-1850) Defined as the recognition in man of the capacity of acquiring knowledge transcending the reach of the
five senses, or of knowing truth intuitively, or of reaching the divine without the need of an intercessor. It had some basic principles that
were generally shared by its adherents. They believed that God is immanent in each person and in nature and that individual intuition is the
highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance and rejection of traditional authority.
1.

Stress the power of intuition, believing that people could learn things both from the outside world by means of the five senses and
from the inner world by intuition.
2.

Place spirit (oversoul) first and matter second
3.

Take nature as symbolic of spirit or God. Nature could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on human mind. People should
come close to nature for instructions
4.

Stress the importance of the individual (the ideal kind of individual is self-reliant and unselfish (individuality).
5.

Exalt
feeling
(subjectivity,
imagination,
heart
thinking)
over
reason
(rationalism,
head
thinking),
individual
expression
over
the
restraints of law and custom.
代表：
Ralph Waldo Emerson
：
Nature, Self- reliance
；
Henry David Thoreau
：
Walden

As a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematized. It exalted feeling over reason, individual expression
over the restraints of law and custom. They believed in the transcendence of the
“
Oversoul
”
, an all- pervading power for goodness from
which all things come and of which all things are a part.

4
．

Dark Romanticism
19 century America (often conflated with Gothicism or called American Romanticism) is a literary subgenre

centered
on writers Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven(death, beauty), Nathaniel Hawthorne: The scarlet letter and Herman Melville: Moby Dick(dark,
glooming, mysterious). As opposed to the perfectionist beliefs of Transcendentalism, the Dark Romantics emphasized human fallibility and
proneness to sin and self-destruction, as well as the difficulties inherent in attempts at social reform.

The Dark Romantics adapted images
of anthropomorphized evil in the form of Satan, devils, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and ghouls, as more telling guides to man's inherent
nature.
5
．

American Renaissance (1836-1855):

American Romanticism culminated
达到顶峰

around the 1840s in what has come to be known as
“New England Transcendentalism” or “American Renaissance”

6
．

The differences of American Romanticism and British Romanticism.

The UK is one of the earliest countries of romantic literature. The British romanticism writers discontented in the development of the
capitalist urban civilization, and they tended to be cynical and have the tendency of going back to nature and live in seclusion. In
mid-to-late 18th century poet Robert burns (1759-1796) and William Blake (1757-1827) was a pioneer of the romantic literature. And the
American romantic literature is influenced by western European romantic literature. In the early 19th century, (1810-1840) the American
capitalism developed rapidly, which caused strong national consciousness and patriotic enthusiasm of Americans. They wanted to get rid of
the bondage of British literature and American romanticism attaches great importance to the spirit of creation and the pursuit of free
transcendentalism.

Although greatly influenced by their English counterparts
，
the American romantic writers revealed unique characteristics of their own in
their works and they grew on the native lands. For examp1e
，

American national experience of
They celebrated America's landscape with its virgin forests
，
meadows
，
groves
，
endless prairies
，
streams
，
and vast oceans. The wil
derness came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral 1aw.
desire for an escape from society and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature. Such a desire is parti
cularly evident in Cooper
’
s Leather Stocking Tales
，
in Thoreau's Walden and
，
later
，
in Mark Twain
’
s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
the growth of American national consciousness
，
American character types speaking local dialects appeared in poetry and fiction
with increasing frequency.


the American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values and American Romanticism. O
ne of the manifestations is the fact that American romantic writers tended more to moralize than their English and European counterparts.
s
，
a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of origina1 sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne
，
Melville
and a host of lesser writers.

一、

Washington Irving
华盛顿
·
欧文
1783-1859

1.

2.

他是美国第一位浪漫主义散文文体作家，大众化风格
was the first great prose stylist of American romanticism familiar style.
1819-1820
他第一部《见闻札记》是现代文学史上的第一部短篇小说， 也是美国第一部伟大的青少年文学读物，他把历史与传说
当作娱乐形式来写，把大众化的散文引入美国< br>his
“
Sketch Book
”
appeared the first modern short stories and the first great American
juvenile literature to write good history and biography as literary entertainment. He introduced the familiar essay to America

3.

1809
年以迪德里奇
·
尼克博克的名字出版《纽约 外史》
，轻松欢快的滑稽戏形式讲出了早期荷兰殖民者在美洲殖民时的真实历史成
为了幽默作品 中的经典“
A History of New York
”
by Diedrich Knickerbocker a rollicking burlesque of a current serious history of the
early Dutch settlers, has become a classic of humor.
14
．教材作品：
《作者自叙》
：
“
The Author
’
s Account of Himself
”
;













《睡谷传奇》
：
“
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
”
.


二、

Edgar Allan Poe
埃德加
·
阿伦
·
坡
1809-1849

1.

2.

3.

4.

1833
年，在一次小说比赛中他的《金瓶子城的方德先生》获奖
he won a contest with his story
“
Ms. Found in a Bottle
”
.
发表了《鄂榭府崩溃记》
“
The Fall of the House of Usher
”
.
1840
年，第一部短篇小说集《述异集》
his first collection of short stories
“
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
”
.
教材作品：
《给海伦》
：
“
To Helen
”

《乌鸦》
：
“

The Raven
”

《安娜贝尔
·
李》
“

Annabel Lee
”

《鄂榭府崩溃记》
“
The Fall of the House of Usher
”


三、

Ralph Waldo Emerson
拉尔夫
·
沃尔多
·
爱默生
1803-1882

1
．

他是把
超验主义思想
引入新英格兰的先驱，被看作是超验主义运动的领袖
he was responsible for bringing Transcendentalism to New
England
and
was
recognized
throughout
his
life
as
the
leader
of
the
movement
爱默生首先强调的是个人主义、思想独立和自强

he
believed
above
all
in
individualism,
independence
of
mind
and
self- reliance
他崇尚英勇，并不忌讳变化和有冲突的思想
he
admired
courage, he was not afraid of changing or clashing ideas.
2
．

The Style of Emerson’s Essays



Emerson’s essays often have a
casual style, for most of them were derived from his journals or lectures. They are usually characterized by a
series of short, declarative sentences, which are not quite logically connected but will flower out into illustrative statements of truth and thoughts.
Emerson’s philosophical discuss
ion is sometimes difficult to understand but he uses comparisons and metaphors to make the general idea of his
work
clearly
-read
in
the
classics
of
Western
European
literature,Emerson
often
employed
these
literary
sources
to
make
and
enrich
his
own
points
but
never
let
them
take
the
full
reins
of
his
discussion.
In
general,
Emerson
was
showing
to
the
world
a
distinctive
American style.
3
．

1836
年出版了第一本书
《论自然》
“
Nature
”
, 1847
年他的
《诗集》
问世
. Many of his lectures were later distilled into his famous
“
Essays
”
.
Among his most important works are
“
Representative Men
”
and
“
English Traits
”
.His
“
Poems
”
appeared in 1847.
4
．

人们认为他的诗作缺乏诗的形式，用语也太粗糙，但最后他的诗歌却受 到了高度评价，他那样并不工整的韵律和动人的形象如艺
术品一样，
非常适合现代读者的口味< br>in his day, Emerson
’
s poems were criticized for their lack of form and polish. In recent years, hower,
his poetry has received high praise. His harsh rhythms and striking images appeal to many modern readers as artful techniques.
5
．

《美国学者》
The American Scholar
被称为“我们知识分子的独立宣言”

“
our intellectual Declaration of Independence
”

6
．

教材作品：
《论自然》
：
“
Nature
”
;













《论自助》
：
“
Self- Reliance
”




四、

Nathaniel Hawthorne
纳撒尼尔
·
霍桑
1804-1864

1
．
《霍桑独特的才能主要表现在他能够通过一些极具象征意义的故事来触摸人类灵魂深处的道 德品质，最好的例证便是波士顿清教徒
引以自娱的《红字》
，小说的每一个字，每一幅画面和每 一个事件都能够达到了一个特定的效果，它讲述了关于罪的故事，罪对不
同人的影响以及有些人获得拯救 的故事
Hawthorne
’
s unique gift was for the creation of strongly symbolic stories which touch the deepest
roots of man
’
s moral nature. The finest example is the recreation of Puritan Boston,
“
The Scarlet Letter
”
. In this novel each word, image, and
event works toward a single effect. It is a complex story of guilt, its effects upon various persons, and how deliverance is obtained for some
of them.
1
．

在他的短篇小说中，
他通过活生 生，
极有象征意味的想象来体现人类社会的一些重大道德问题
his ability to create vivid and symbolic
images that embody great moral questions appear strongly in his short stories
。
霍桑同埃德加
·
阿伦
·
坡并称为美国短篇 小说现代艺术大师，
他们都创作了独一无二的小说形式样
Hawthorne
shares
with
Edgar
Allan
Poe
the
distinction
of
advancing
the
art
of
the
short
story,
giving to the form qualities that are uniquely American
。

2
．

他的作品还有：
《
伊桑
·
布兰德》
、
《
小伙子布朗 》
、
《
海德格博士的体验》
、
《
野心勃勃的客人》
、
《
巨石脸》
。
“
Ethan Brand
”
;
“
Young Goodman
Brown
”
;
“
Dr. Heidegger
’
s Experiment
”
;
“
The Ambitious Guest
”
;
“
The Great Stone Face
”
.
3
．

教材作品：
《红字》
：
“
The Scarlet Letter
”


五、

James Fenimore Cooper
詹姆斯
·
芬尼莫
·
库珀
1789-1851*

1
．美国第一位凭着胆识走上文坛的著名小说家
the first important American novelist began his literary career on a dare.
2
．
1821
年他第二部小说
《间谍》
获得极大的成功，
是一部引人入胜的探险类故事，
事件发生在美国独立战争 期间
“
The Spy
”
was successful,
it was a rousing tale about espionage against the British during the Revolutionary War.
5
．教材作品：
《最后的莫希干人》
：
“
The Last of the Mohicans
”
最后的莫西干人



六、

William Cullen Bryant
威廉
·
卡伦
·
布莱恩特
1794-1878*

1.

2.

3.

1817
年伟大史诗
《死之思考》< br>（
希腊语）
，
人们一致认为这是当时美国最杰出的一篇诗作
the stately poem called
”
Thanatopsis
”
(Greek,
meaning
“
view of death
”
) introduced the best poet to appear in American up to that time.
《致水鸟》是其巅峰之作，
“ 用美国英语写作的最完美的短诗”
，
“
To a Waterfowl
”
is perhaps the peak of his work,
“
Most perfect brief
poem in the language
”
.
当欧文用自己的作品预示美国散文时代的到来时，布莱恩特向 欧洲读者证实了美国的诗歌也达到了相当高的水平，他是第一个获
得美国主要诗人称号的作家
A s Irving had shown that American prose had come of age, so Bryant demonstrated to European readers that
American poetry was ready to demand serious attention. He was the first American to gain the stature of a major poet.
4.


七、

Henry David Thoreau
亨利
·
戴 维
·
梭罗
1817-1862*

4
．

他是爱默生最忠实的信徒，是他把爱默生的许多理论付诸了实践
he
was
Emerson
’
s
truest
disciple,
who
put
into
practice
many
of
Emerson
’
s theories.
5
．

1854
年，
梭罗根据他在沃尔登湖畔居住两年经历 写出名作
《沃尔登》
“
Walden
”
, the superb book came out of his two-year
’
s residence at
Walden
Pond
在这部书中阐释了他去体验这种生活的原因，他认为 一个一星期最好工作一天，而剩下的六天时间则用来思索，他
也认为人类心灵的自助和独立最为重要，每 个人都应该发现自己的生活方式
he explained many of the beliefs that led him to try this
kind of life. He thought it better for a man to work one day a week and the rest of the week could be devoted to thought. For Thoreau, as for
Emerson, self- reliance and independence of mind ranked above all each should find out his own way of living.
6
．

教材作品：
《沃尔登

我生活的地方；我为何生活》
：
“
Walden Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
”



八、
Herman Melville
赫尔曼
·
麦尔维尔
1819-1891*


教材作品：
《死之思考》
：
“
Thanatopsis< br>”

《致水鸟》
：
“
To a Waterfowl
”


1.
《白鲸》主要讲述了一个为追捕一 只想象中的神秘白鲸的漫长海上故事，这本书达到了象征主义手法的创作高峰，这种写法强烈地
吸引了现 在社会的读者

“
Moby Dick
”
, a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.
The book is steeped in symbolism, another strong appeal to readers of his century.
2.
教材作品：
《白鲸》
：
“
Moby Dick
”


九、
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
亨利
·
沃兹沃思
·
朗费罗
1807-1882*
1
．朗费罗 去世后被安葬在威斯敏斯特教堂的诗人之角，他也是美国惟一获此殊荣的诗人，他的诗歌因高雅宜人，纯正有韵味 而大受欢
迎
after
his
death,
he
became
the
only
American
to
be
honored
with
a
bust
in
the
Poet
’
s
corner
of
Westminster
Abbey.
The
gentleness,
sweetness, and purity for which his poetry was popular during his lifetime.
2
．教材作品：
《人生礼赞》
：
“
A Psalm of Life
”
;












《奴隶的梦》
：
“
The Slave
’
s Dream
”
;












《逝去的青春》
；
“
My Lost Youth
”
;












《海华沙之歌

海华沙的禁食》
“
The Song of Hiawatha

Hiawatha
’
s Fasting
”


Part
Ⅳ

The Literature Of Realism
现实主义文学
1860-
一战前
1914
1. < br>19
世纪，美国现实主义文学：他们寻找描写美国人真实生活的方法，他们声称平凡的、就近的事 件同重大的、遥运的事件一样都
是艺术创作的源泉
they
sought
to
portray
American
life
as
it
really
was,
insisting
that
the
ordinary
and
local
were
as
suitable
for
artistic
portrayal as the magnificent and the remote.
2.
美国新的现实主义即自然主义大师们不再崇尚过去粉饰太平的写作方法，他们设法尽力客 观，真实地展现出受环境与出身局限的
下层人民和各种经济阶层人物的真正生活，他们强调世界的非道德 性，他们认为，人们并没有意志的自由，他们的生活状况往往受到
了生活的环境与自己的出身所局限；他 们还认宗教上的“真理”是虚幻的，人类世俗的现实生活是痛苦的，死亡以后，一切又烟消云
散了现实主 义的分支

Naturalism
: (in the late nineteenth century), American naturalism was a new and harsher realism. America
’
s literary naturalists dismissed the
validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and
economic classed who were dominated by their environment and heredity, 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, that religious “truths” were illuso
ry, that the destiny of
humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death.
代表：
Jack London: The Call of the Wild, Martin Eden; Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie
Free verse
is rhymed or unrhymed poetry free from conventional rules of meter; instead, it uses the cadences(
抑扬顿挫
) of natural
famous for their works composed in free verse include Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Amy Lowell and Carl Sandburg.
一、
Walt Whitman
沃尔特?惠特曼
1819-1892
1.
美国文学史上极 其重要的、
具有创新精神的作家之一，
他的
《草叶集》
中系列诗歌是美国文学 史上第一部真正的史诗
one of the great
innovators in American literature. In the cluster of poems he called
“
Leaves of Grass
”

he gave America its first genuine epic poem.
他所创造< br>的这种诗体叫做
自由诗，
在这种诗歌中，
没有固定的节拍，
也没有有规 律的韵脚，
惠特曼认为传统的格律诗不适合表达民主之声
the poetic
style
he
devised
is
now
called
free
verse
-that
is,
poetry
without
a
fixed
beat
or
regular
rhyme
scheme.
Whitman
thought
that
the
voice
of
democracy should not be haltered by traditional forms of verse.
2. 1855
年出版
《草叶集》
第一部，
其中的大部分作品表达的主题是人类与大自然。
他给诗人重新进行 了定义，
他认为诗人是一个英雄，
是一个救世主，
还是先知，
诗人通过对真理 的表达来引导大众
in his poetry, Whiman combined the ideal of the democratic common man and
that of the rugged individual. He envisioned the poet as a hero, a savior and a prophet, one who leads the community by his expressions of the
truth.
Special Features of his Poems
1. Poetic structures:


1.1 Lines: often long
1.2 Envelope structure
1.3 Unique verse unit:
?

?


No regular pattern

Each verse unit is usu. an independent clause

?

Each verse unit is a complete statement.

1.4 Thought rhythm
1.5 Composed like mosaics
马赛克

Language

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

3.
Slang words, foreign words, technical words, sexual words, and learned words
Coined new words, and gave old words new meanings
Rough and uncivilized
few metaphors or other kinds of symbolic language

parallelism: a technique of the Biblical poetry
The parallel lines say the same thing but use different words.
Whitman’s desire to express spiritual truth based on his

mystical experience
. Rhetorical devices

Poetic style:
religious
教材作品：
《自己之歌》
：
”
Song of Myself
”

《我坐在这儿眺望着》
：
”
I Sit and Look Out
”

《敲呀！敲呀！鼓啊！
》
：
”
Drum-Taps Beat! Beat! Drums
”


二、
Emily Dickinson
爱米丽?狄金森
1830-1886
1.
她的诗歌古 怪、简洁，她对做任何大众或流行诗人的概念保持惊人冷漠，她往往是通过一件具体的家庭小事，和一种闲适的生 活
来阐明事理，并把这些描写成为令人痴迷的诗歌
she wrote her whimsical, darting verse with sublime indifference to any notion of being a
democratic or popular poet. Her work illustrated the fact that one could take a single household and an inactive life, and make enchanting poetry
out of it.
Features of Dickinson’s Poetry

Original

Style:
?

?

?

?

?

?

Themes:
?

?

?

?

Love
Nature
Death and immortality

Unity of goodness, truth and beauty

No titles
Extensive use of Dashes

Unconventional Capitalization

Idiosyncratic (
有个人特点的
)V
ocabulary and Imagery
Unconventional metaphors
Hymn Meter
Other subjects

2.
教材作品：
《我品味未经酿造的饮料》
：
”
I taste a liquor never brewed
”

《我意识到一场葬礼》
：
”
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
”

《鸟儿沿着小径过来》
：
”
A Bird came Down the Walk-
“

《我为美而死》
：
”
I Died for Beauty-but Was Scarce
”

《听到苍蝇的嗡嗡声
-
我死时》
：
”
I Heard a Fly Buzz-when I died-
“

《我不能等候死神》
：
”
Because I Could not Stop for Death-
“


三、
Harriet Beecher Stowe
哈丽雅特?比彻?斯托
1811-1896*
1. < br>这部小说被翻译成
40
多种文字，被全球数百万计的人们广泛阅读，这部小说的成功源于 该作品倾注了作者自己对两主人公所受痛


苦和压迫的深刻感受，
再就是人们为作者要解放这些奴隶的决心所感动
Since then has been published in some forty languages and has been
read by millions of people around the world. The power of the novel unquestionably comes from the investment of the aut
hor’s sense of her own
suffering and oppression (as well as her determination to be free) in the characters of Tom and his fellow slave Eliza,, the
protagonists of the
book’s two main plots.

5.
教材作品：
《汤姆叔叔的小屋》
：
“
Uncle Tom
’
s Cabin
”


四、
Mark Twain
马克?吐温
1835-1910
1.
原名
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
塞缪尔?朗赫恩?克莱门斯。
Humorist writer
Writing style

In his earlier works, humor bounds everywhere. As a local colorist, he made use of an extensive combination of American folk humor and
light satire to criticize the American society. His humor is remarkable because there are many practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks and so
on. Some of them are tall tales and most of his humor is characterized by puns, exaggeration, and anti-climax. But in his later works, humor
gives way to agreat deal of bitter satire.
挖苦讽刺

Twain's short stories are also very unique. Twain often captured the real way common folk spoke, in dialect. Twain's short stories often
seem as though they are folk tales. His narrators seem to be speaking directly to someone, or to the general public as one. They capture the oral
tradition of America
2.
feet.
3.
1865
年，他第一本书《跳蛙》出版”
Jumping Frog
”
;
1869
年，
《傻子国外旅行记》
“
Innocents Abroad
”
;
1872
年，
《艰苦岁月》
“
Roughing It
”
;
1873
年，
《镀金时代》
“
The Gilded Age
”

1876
年，
《汤姆?索亚历险记》
“
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
”
;
1883
年，
《密西西比河上的生活》
“
Life on the Mississippi
”
;
1884
年，
《哈克贝里?费恩历险记》
”
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
”
;
1894
年，
《傻 瓜威尔逊》
“
Pudd
’
nhead Wilson
”
;
1900
年，
《败坏了哈德莱堡的人》
“
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg
”
;
1906
年，
《什么是人？》
“
What is Man
”
;
1916
年，
《神秘来客》
“
The Mysterious Stranger
”

5.

五、
O. Henry
欧?亨利

1862-1910
“The father of American modern short stories”

原名威廉?悉尼?波特（笔名欧?亨利）
William Sidney Porter.
Writing style
：

His writing is crisp and lively, usually in a chatty way. He often uses slang, puns, and malapropisms
and big words for humor’s sake. Asides
are dealt in a familiar and chatty way to readers. His short story formulas are scarcely changeable yet he cleverly makes variations on them by
means of irony, parodies extra to make them comic. Most of his works belong to black humor, humorous yet bitter and hopeless.
Vivid and detailed description: O. Henry often observes and mixes with people around. His sharp observation grants his works vividness and
liveliness.
O.
Henry
ending
or
(twist
ending)
is
one
of
the
most
extinct
characteristics
of
his
works.
It
means
that
the
characters’
fates
or
thoughts
suddenly change unexpectedly from the previous situation but the change can also find ground somewhere in the work. Such a change makes a
work surprising and attractive. Both The Gift of Magi and The Cop and the Anthem end surprisingly.
2.
欧?亨利写的故事大部 分讲的是纽约穷苦人的生活，也写过其他地方类似人的辛酸生活，他讲述的故事一般很短，情节安排巧妙
又引人入胜，故事幽默，有趣，结果往往又出人意料，他的故事中有许多俚语和地方性语言表达，美国以外读者理 解这些内容有些困

教材作品：
《汤姆?索亚历险记》
“
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
”

在弗吉尼亚《企业》杂志任 职期间，他开始使用笔名“马克?吐温”
，意为口寻，也就是十二尺深
while working for the Virginia City
Territorial Enterprise, he adopted the pseudonym
“
Mark Twain
”
, the way of a boatman taking soundings, and meaning two fathoms, i.e. twelve

难，
这些表达方式，
在作者看来是一种本地特色，
并且能够很好地 同故事中的人物和场景结合起来
Many of his stories tell about the lives
of poor people in New York, as well as in other places, his works abound in good- natured humor. His stories are usually short, the plots are
exceedingly
clever
and
interesting;
humor
abounds,
and
the
end
is
always
surprising.
Many
of
his
stories
contain
a
great
deal
of
slang
and
colloquial expressions that make them hard to be understood by people outside of America. Such forms of speech are used to give what is called
local, to make the stories fit in with the characters and scenes described.
4.
最好小说集《四百万》
his best volume
”

The Four Million
”
;
最好单部小说：
《旧知》
、
《麦琪的礼物》
、
《市政报告》
、
《没讲完的故
事》
、< br>《
月亮女神》
、
《
吝啬爱人》
、
《
装饰过的 房间》
，
his best individual stories
“
Retrieved Reformation
”
,
“
The Gift of the Magi
”
,
“
A Municipal
Report
”
,
“
An Unfinished Story
”
,
“
Phoebe
”
,
“
A Lickpenny Lov
er”, “The Furnished Room”.

5.

六、
Theodore Dreiser
西奥多?德莱塞
1871-1945
全名西奥多?赫尔曼?阿尔伯特?德莱塞
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser
1.
德莱塞年幼时生活非常不幸，贫穷，生活不稳定，家庭不和，年轻时， 德莱塞不爱动，稀里糊涂，还有点害羞，同他小说中男女主
人公一样，
充满了各种稀奇古怪的幻 相，
实际上他的教育大部分来自自己生活的经历，
来自独立的阅读和独立的思考
Dre iser
’
s childhood
was decidedly unhappy. The large family moved from house to house in Indiana dogged by poverty, insecurity, and internal division. Dreiser as a
youth was as ungainly, confused, shy, and full of vague yearnings as most of his fictional protagonists, male and female, his education was to
come from experience and from independent reading and thinking.
3.
1900
年他的第一部小说《嘉莉妹妹》
，小说 讲述了嘉莉?米贝的发迹和
G
?
W
?赫兹伍德的悲剧性陨落，该书通过人物描 写，描绘了
当时转型的社会，
剧中人物既没有悔过之心，
还逃脱了惩罚，
用语 较为激烈

”
Sister Carrie
”
, which traces the material rise of Carrie Meeber
and the tragic decline of G
?
W
?
Hurstwood. It depicted social transgressions by characters who felt no remorse and largely escaped punishment,
and it used “strong” language and used names of living persons.

6.
1925
年出版的最为恢宏，最为成功的小说《美 国悲剧》表达了金钱万能的同样主题，作者通过自传性的生活环境，社会现实及工
业化细节等交织成一幅 气势恢宏的场面，描写了书中年轻的主人公的行为方式，他获得满足的唯一方式好像就是不断地获取财富，如果必要还可以借助于婚姻
the
identification
of
potency
with
money
is
at
the
heart
of
Dreiser
’
s
greatest
and
most
successful
novel,
“
An
American Tragedy
”
. The Center of this immense novel’s thick texture of biographical circumstance, social fact, and industrial detail is a youn
g
man who acts as if the only way he can be truly fulfilled is by acquiring wealth- through marriage if necessary.
7.

七、
Henry James
亨利?詹姆斯
1843-1916*
7.

八、
Jack London
杰克?伦敦
1876-1916*
1.
他在极端贫困中长大 ，很小的时候，就开始从事低贱和危险的工作，为了生存，他尝尽了生活的艰辛，之后下定决心通过自学来
提高自己的生活状况及其他方面
he grew up in extreme poverty:
from earliest
youth he supported himself
with menial and dangerous jobs,
experiencing profoundly the struggle for survival.
2.
1900
年第一本故事集《狼子》
：
”
The Son of the Wolf
”
;
1903
年《荒野的呼唤》
：
”
The Call of the Wild
”
;
自然主义代表作

1903
年《深渊中的人们》
”
The People of the Abyss
”
;
1904
年《海狼》
”
The Sea Wolf
”

1905
年《附级的斗争》
“
The War of the Classes
”
;
1906
年《白牙》
”
White Fang
”

1908
年《铁蹄》
”
The Iron Heel
”

1909
年纯自传小说《马丁?伊登》这部作品也是研究杰克?伦敦的核心学术文献

“
Martin Eden
”

a central document for London scholars.
1910
年《革命》
“
Revolution
”

其他作品《生活的法则》
”
The Law of Life
”
.
3.

他的小说中最受人们所接受，经得住时间考验的是关于强者与弱者之间原始又 动人心魄的较量描写，这类作品一直经久不衰，他
教材作品：
《一个贵妇人的画像》
：
”
The Portrait of A Lady
”

教材作品：
《嘉莉妹妹》
：
”
Sister Carrie
”

自然主义代表作

教材作品：
《警察与赞美诗》
：
”
The Cop and the Anthem
”