American Literature: A Conci History
I. Review
1. Who wrote The American? (2008)
A. Herman Melville B. Nathaniel Hawthorne
C. Henry James D. Theodore Dreir
2. Death of a Salesman was written by____. (2007)
A. Arthur Miller B. Ernest Hemingway
C. Ralph Ellison D. James Baldwin
3. The novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is written by___. (2006)
A. Scott Fitzgerald B. William Faulkner
C. Eugene O’Neil D. Ernest Hemingway
4. William Sydney Porter, known as O’Henry, is most famous for_____. (2005)
A. his poems B. his plays
C. his short stories D. his novels
II. Historical Periods
1. Colonial Period: 17th~18th (faith → reason)
2. Romantic Period: end of 18th to the Civil War ★
3. The Age of Realism: 1865-1890 ★
4. The Age of Naturalism: 1890-1900
5. Modern Period: 1912-1945 ★
6. Postwar Realism: 1950s-1960s
7. Postmodernism: 1960s-1980splea wait是什么意思
III. Key Figures
承担的英文
1. Benjamin Franklin
2. James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving; Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson/Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville (R. W. Emerson, H.D. Thoreau)
3. O’Henry, Henry James, Mark Twain
4. Stephan Crane, Theodore Dreir, Jack London
5. Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, R.L. Frost/Ernest Hemingway, F.S. Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck/Eugene O’Neill, Tenne Williams, Arthur Miller
6. Jerome Salinger
7. Nabokov
Mark Twain: ① Trend: realism (local colorism) ② Genre: fiction ③ Masterpiece: The Adve
ntures of Huckleberry Finn ④有志者事竟成 英文 Distinctive Style: vernacular language ⑤ Other Important Works
IV. Sample
1. American literature produced only one female poet during the 19th century. She was __________.
A. Anne Bradstreet B. Jane Austen
C. Katherine Anne Porter D. Emily Dickinson
2. The first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature was a sharp social critic, who name was __________.
english resume
A. T.S. Eliot B. Sinclair Lewis
C. Ernest Hemingway D. William Faulkner
3. Which of the following is NOT included in Dreir’s
trilogy of desire concerning the ruthlessness of
经典英文台词capitalists?
cecA. The Genius B. The Financier
corning
C. The Titan D. The Stoic
4. With Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the scene, __________ became the major trend in the venties and eighties of the nineteenth century.
A. ntimentalism B. romanticism
navigatorC. realism D. naturalism
5. From 1732 to 1758, Franklin wrote and published his famous __________, an annual collection of proverbs.
A. Autobiography
B. Poor Richard’s Almanac
C. Common Sen
D. The General Magazine
6. “The American Renaissance” is the period of ______ in the history of American literature.
A. local colorism B. Romanticism
C. Transcendentalism D. Colonism
7. _________ is Mark Twain’s master work, the one book from which as Hemingway noted, “All modern American literature comes”.
A. The Gilded Age
B. Life on the Mississippi
C. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
D. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
8. _______ is the only American playwright awarded Nobel Prize of Literature.
A. Arthur Miller B. Eugene O’Neill
C. Tenne Williams D. Sinclair Lewis
9. Which of the following does NOT belong to “Beat Generation”?
A. Jack Kerouac B. F. S. Fitzgerald
C. Allen Ginsberg D. William Burroughs
10. __________ is identified as the father of modern American poetry, who also plays an important role in transmitting Chine culture to the English-speaking world.
A. T. S. Eliot B. Robert Frost
C. Ezra Pound D. Walt Whitman
I. Colonial Period: 17th~18th
The influence of Puritanism on writing:
fresh, simple and plain
traceable to the direct influence of the Bible
frequent reference to the technique of symbolism
Anne Bradstreet
The Tenth Mu Lately Sprung up in America
Michael Wigglesworth
The Day of Doom
Edward Taylor: a metaphysical poet
Benjamin Franklin: the spokesman of the American Enlightenment (Age of Reason/Great Awakening); created the image of the Yankee
pudonym: Silence Dogood
Poor Richard’s Almanac
Autobiography
Thomas Paine (his style: plain)
成员英语Common Sen—the first pamphlet urging immediate independence from Britain; his most famous pamphlet; the greatest of the Revolutionary pamphlets
Philip Freneau
吸血鬼复仇记The first American-born poet; Poet of the American Revolution
Theme: nationalism
The beginning of American Romanticism
