英语专业美国文学重难点.doc

三章
I Three Major American Poets in Romantic Period
William Cullen Bryant
布莱恩特
(1794-1878)
Major works:
• Thanatopsis 《死亡随想曲》
• To a Waterfowl 《致水鸟》
Outline
• Lines 1-8: Nature speaks in various ways to those who love her
• Lines 8-17: Turn to Nature when thoughts of death bring sadness to you
• Lines 17-30: From Nature we learn that death comes to all
• Lines 31-57: Nature comforts us with a reminder that we do not go alone to our resting place but will lie down in the company of all who have lived before us, including all the great of the past.
• Lines 58-72: Even though we die unmourned, all the living, all those yet to be born, must follow us.
• Lines 73-81: Moral conduct will make death easier.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849 )
• I. Literary Status
• Pioneer of American Horror Tales
• Pioneer of American Detective Tales
• Pioneer of American Southern writings
• Pioneer of American Psycho-Analytic fiction
• Editor, Poet and Professional literary critic
III. Edgar Allan Poe’s Works
• Tale

• The Fall of the House of Usher

Poetry

• Annabel Lee
• The Raven
• To Helen

An analysis of To Helen
• Helen, to me, your beauty is like those Nicean vessels long ago, which is sailing gently over a perfumed sea, which the weary, wayworn wanders rowed to his homeland.

Paraphrasing the 2nd stanza
• On the fluctuating sea where there is often storm, your hyacinth hair and classic face and your nymph-like air have brought me to the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome, which I am so long to embrace.
Paraphrasing the 3rd stanza
• Look, you are standing beside the window, where you are holding a agate lamp in your hand. The light of the lamp has made the window glistening, your silhouetted figure is like a statue in a niche. Ah, you are the Psyche from the holy place.

• Here, Helen is the one serving as the beacon for the speaker.

Analysis of the Poem
In the first Stanza, Helen’s beauty is smoothing. It provides security and safety which are likes the ships that transported the wandering speaker home.
Throughout the poem, Poe uses allusions to classical names and places, as well as certain kinds of images to create the impression of a far off idealized, unreal woman, like a Greek statue. Words that support the image of an ideal woman are “hyacinth” and “classic”, “Naiad airs” and “statue-like”. Helen stands, not like a real woman, but like a saint in a “window-niche”. She becomes a symbol both of beauty and of frustration, a romantically idealized, yet inaccessible image of the heart’s desire.

Theme of the poem
• It is an eulogy to human beauty. The real beauty is a combination of physical beauty and spiritual beauty. It is the beauty that can lead the wonderers out of the trouble sea of life to the shore of civilization where they can find consolation and joy.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

His position and contribution:
• Greatly loved in his day, Longfellow has been credited with popularizing American themes abroad and bringing European themes home.
• His greatest strength lay in his mastery of rhythm, his gift for narrative, and his ability to evoke the poetic qualities of everyday things.
A Psalm of Life
An appreciation of this poem
• Try to identify the figures of speech in this lyrical poem.
The tone of this lyric
• Didactic, firm and optimistic

The Tone
Definition: It “indicates the speaker’s attitude toward his subject and toward his audience, and sometimes toward himself”.

So, usually the word or words describing the tone is/are adjective/adjectives, e.g. humorous, cold , ironical, lighthearted, sympathetic, angry, etc.

Lecture Four
New England Transcendentalism * Emerson * Thoreau
v I. New England Transcendentalism
v (When? Where? Who? What? How?)
v II. Ralph Waldo Emerson
v (his major works, his major ideas)
v III. Henry David Thoreau
v (his major works, his major ideas)
v I. New England Transcendentalism (1836-1855)
v 1. Time: 1836-1855:
v In 1836, a little book came out which made a tremendous impact on the intellectual life of America. It was entitled Nature by R.W.Emerson. The New World was thrilled to hear the new voice it uttered. … A whole new way of thinking began to exert its influence on the consciousness of man. Nature’s voice pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, the summit of American Romanticism.
v 2. Essence: “Transcendentalism is idealism” in essence.
v 3. Representative figures: some 30 men and a couple of women such as Emerson, Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, and Margaret Fuller, most of them teachers or clergymen

v 4. Major Features:
A. Emphasis on spirit, or Oversoul
omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent
B. the importance of the individual as the most important element of society
The regeneration of the society could only come about through the regeneration of the individual, through his self-perfection, self-culture, self-improvement, self-reliance
C. Nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God
Nature was not purely matter. It was the garment of the Oversoul.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Literary Status:
v “Father of American Essay”,
v The Concord Sage
v Leader and spokesman of New England Transcendentalism
v Essayist, poet, philosopher, orator, critic

His major works:
Essays:
"Nature" (the Bible and manifesto of the New England Transcendentalism)
"The American Scholar" (Intellectual Declaration of Independence)

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Literary Status:
v The Prophet of Non-Violence Movement
v Advocate of New England Transcendentalism
v American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, sage writer and philosopher.

His Major Works:
v “Civil Disobedience or Resistance to Civil Government” (1849)
v A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)
v Walden (1854)
(In 1845, he built a cabin on Walden Pond and moved in on July 4, illustrating his desire to be independent and find truth for himself. He wanted to move away from the rush of American social life which was getting more and more materialistic-oriented. There on the Pond, he tried to be self-sufficient in every thing)

Themes of Walden
The importance of self-reliance

The value of simplicity

The illusion of progress
A reproduction of Thoreau's cabin with a statue of Thoreau

v 本书以春天开始，历经了夏天、秋天和冬天，又以春天结束，这正是一个生命的轮回，终点又是起点，生命开始复苏。
v 　　这是一本宁静、恬淡、充满智慧的书。其中分析生活，批判习俗处，语语惊人，字字闪光，见解独特，耐人寻味。许多篇页是形象描绘，优美细致，像湖水的纯洁透明，像山林的茂密翠绿；也有一些篇页说理透彻，十分精辟，给人启迪。
v 　　这是一本清新、健康、引人向上的书，对于春天，对于黎明，都有极其动人的描写。这里有大自然给人的澄净的空气，而无工业社会带来的环境污染。读着它，读者自然会感觉到心灵的纯净，精神的升华。
v 　　《瓦尔登湖》的伟大之处就在于梭罗能够通过艺术来实现自己决意要做的事业。通过创造一个有机的形式，他使自己的决定获得了新生：通过有意识的努力，他重新获得了一种成熟的恬静，如果说那不是黄金年龄的清纯狂喜的话。
v 　　整个《瓦尔登湖》记录着自我在微观宇宙历程中的经历。
v 　　正像一切所进展的一样，梭罗记下了人跟自然的关系，人在社会中的困境和人希望提高自然的关系，人在社会中的困境和人希望提高自我精神的习性，连他自己恐怕也没有意识到自己在做什么；他一会儿为自我辩护，一会儿充满了喜悦、自由、奔放、创造出了一个独特的煎蛋卷，让人们在饥饿的一天不断从中汲以营养。《瓦尔登湖》是最早一盘充满维生素的菜肴之一。