美国文学史及选读考试整理.doc

Washington Irving 华盛顿 欧文 Bracebridge Hall布雷斯布里奇田庄(1822) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Tales of a Traveller旅客谈(1824) Christopher Columbus (1828) c. writing characteristics (1) humorous: the function of his writing is to amuse, to entertain instead of teaching or instruction (2) vivid and true character portrayal (3) finished (refined) and musical language, thus regarded as “the Amn. Goldsmith” d. analysis on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(选自the sketch book见闻札记) 1. the story:setting,character, plot 2. theme:conflicts and praise conflict betw. Ichabod and Brom conflict betw. the village and the outside world James Fenimore Cooper 库珀 The Spy (1821): a historical novel The Pilot (1824): a sea novel Leatherstocking Tales皮裹腿故事集(1823-1841): frontier novels The Last Mohicans (1826) (Colonial War betw. Britain and France) e. writing features: strong points: we can see a variety of incidents and tensions, complicated plot and structure and a beautiful description of nature. Weak points: characterization is weak. There is unsatisfactory description of characters (esp. female). He is not free from syntactical awkwardness, heavy-handed attempt at humor. “Where Irving excels Cooper is weak.” Dialect is not authentic. Edgar Allan Poe 爱伦坡 The Fall of the House Usher Feature: i. brevity (15 pages) ii. Single effect iii. originality in theme To Helen It was inspired by the beauty of the mother of a schoolmate of Poe in Richmond, Virginia. The poem is famous for a number of things: 1. its rhyme scheme: ababb 2. its varied line lengths 3. its metaphor of a travel on the sea 4. its oft-quoted lines: To the glory that was Greece,/And the grandeur that was Rome. theme: praise the ideal love and beauty and ancient Greek and Roman civilizations The Raven乌鸦 theme: the lament over the death of a beautiful woman tone: melancholy Transcendentalism (essayists, poets, novelists) Their journal is “The Dial”. Definition: Transcendentalism is idealism. (Emerson) b. features (1) stress on Oversou