美国文学史复习资料(4)

Ego 自我 → 分辨对错，受约束，符合现实 →Hester 女主角

Superego 超我 → →Dim 女主角的情人，牧师

⑶女主角的自我成长和自我救赎的过程。Ego growth and redeem by her own of process

⑦―The Scarlet Letter‖analysis分析：it not a praise of a Hester sinning, but a hymn on the moral growth of the woman when sinned

against. Young Hester borders on being licentious. Her drive is sexual. She does her best to keep her hold on the magic chain humanity. Her life eventually acquires a real significance when she reestablishes a meaningful relationship with her fellowmen Symbolic of her

moral development is the gradual imperceptible change with the scarlet letter undergoes in meaning. At first it is a token of shame,

―Adultery‖ but then the genuine sympathy and help Hester offered to her fellow villagers’ changes it to ―Able‖. Later in the story, the

letter A appears in the sky, signifying ―Angel‖. There is reason to agree with the critical observation that A may represent Adamic, or

prehistoric, an archetypal vice suggestive of ―original sin,‖ Dimmesdale, on the other hand, banishes himself form society. Deeply

preoccupied with himself, he lives a stranger among his admirers. The result is that, whereas Hester is able to reconstruct her life and

win a moral victory, Dimmesdale undergoes the tragic experience of physical and spiritual disintegration. Between him and Hester

they point to a moral as Hawthorne may intend them to do, that the best policy for man is to be true, honest, and ever ready to show

one’s worst to the outside world.

★8、Herman Melville 赫尔曼.麦尔维尔

①―Moby Dick‖《白鲸》，a tremendous chronicle of whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.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。②The book is steeped in symbolism. 本书达到了象征主义手法的创作高

峰。③主人公：Ishmael，取自圣经。④在书中说：to write a mighty book you must have a mighty theme. 写一部宏大的著作，必

须有一个宏大的主题。⑤故事人物：Captain Ahab.船长阿哈比；Queequeg，捕鲸人奎因奎格，was a friendly person；⑥the rebellious

struggle of Captain Ahab against the overwhelming, mysterious vastness of the universe and its awesome, sometimes merciless forces.

The fitting symbol for his theme was the ―gliding great demon of the seas of life.‖阿哈比舰长和各种危险之间的激烈斗争，他同那

些强大的、神秘的自然展开斗争，他们令人毛骨悚然，有时还冷酷无情。他把那只大白鲸贴切的比喻为―生命海洋中滑行的恶

魔‖。

⑦―Moby Dick‖：one of the major themes in Melville is alienation, which he sensed existing in the life of his time on different levels,

between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Captain Ahab seems to be the best illustration of it all. The voyage itself

is a metaphor for ―search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience.‖ He had Ahab topmost in his mind. In a sense

Ahab embodies all of the evil he once consigned to Moby Dick.

9、Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 亨利.沃兹沃思.朗费罗 poet 诗人

①it would be hard, also, to overestimate the importance of his anthology ―The Poets and Poetry of Europe‖. His own poetry became

a means of teaching readers of his day something of the possible range of poetic subject matter and techniques, ancient, medieval, and

modern. 《欧洲诗人及诗》不能把这部作品估计过高。他自己的诗歌成为了他教学的材料，在书中他讲述了诗的主题和一些

写作技巧。从古代的，中世纪的一直到现代的诗歌，他都一一作了阐述。

②殊荣：he became the only American to be honored with a bust in the Poet’s corner of Westminster Abbey.朗费罗被安葬在威斯敏

斯特教堂的诗人之角，他也是美国惟一获此殊荣的诗人。

③The gentleness, sweetness, and purity for his poetry was popular during his lifetime. 他的诗歌因高雅宜人、纯正有韵味而大受欢

迎。

④he was consistently high-minded but conventional, and untouched by the religious and social struggles that disturbed his

contemporaries. 他接受正统的思想，但并不保守。他的思想没有受到当时社会、宗教和各种政治斗争的影响。

⑤特点：exercised a great influence in bringing European culture to the U.S., and likewise did much to popularize American folk

themes abroad where his work was immensely popular and widely translated.在引进欧洲文化上起巨大推动作用，也把美国民间文

化传播到国外，他的作品还被翻译成多种文字，在海外受到高度评

美国文学史复习4（Realism）

(2009-01-17 19:44:25)

一、Background

1）Mechanization 机器化

2）Urbanization 城市化

3）Industrialization 工业化

4）Federal government(race种族平等进入宪法）标志着马克·吐温的《镀金时代》开始

5）Railway system工业化的一大标志，电力和石油的应用

二、文化特征：

1）女性发挥作用明显，女性的作者和读者明显增多

2）开始关注Mid class

3）现实主义（realism）-->New York replaced Boston as the nation's literary center. 纽约成为新的文化中心。

一、时期综述：

1、, an age of excess and extremes, of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and

buoyant hope. 无节制、走极端，倒退和进步、贫困和富有并存，既令人沮丧又让人有希望的时代。

2、Although Americans continued to read the works of Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne, and Poe, the great age of American romanticism

had ended. By the 1870s the New England Renaissance had waned. 新英格兰的文艺复兴已开始接近尾声。