America Literature

Ten Commandments 1.You shall have no other gods before [a] me. 2."You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. 3."You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

4. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy 4."Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 5. "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 　

6. "You shall not murder. 7. "You shall not commit adultery. 8 　6."You shall not murder. 7."You shall not commit adultery. 8."You shall not steal. 9. "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 10."You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

第一诫 除了我以外，你不可有别的神。（3节） 第二诫 不可为自己雕刻偶像，也不可作什么形像仿佛上天、下地，和地底下、水中的百物。不可跪拜那些像，也不可侍奉他，因为我耶和华—你的神是忌邪的神。恨我的，我必追讨他的罪，自父及子，直到三四代；爱我、守我诫命的，我必向他们发慈爱，直到千代。（4-6节） 第三诫 不可妄称耶和华—你神的名；因为妄称耶和华名的，耶和华必不以他为无罪。（7节） 第四诫 当记念安息日，守为圣日。六日要劳碌作你一切的工，但第七日是向耶和华—你神当守的安息日。这一日你和你的儿女、仆婢、牲畜，并你城里寄居的客旅，无论何工都不可作；因为六日之内，耶和华造天、地、海，和其中的万物，第七日便安息，所以耶和华赐福与安息日，定为圣日。（8-11节） 第五诫 当孝敬父母，使你的日子在耶和华—你神所赐你的地上得以长久。（12节） 第六诫 不可杀人。（13节） 第七诫 不可奸淫。（14节） 第八诫 不可偷盗。（15节） 第九诫 不可作假见证陷害人。（16节） 第十诫 不可贪邻居的房屋；也不可贪邻居的妻子、仆婢、牛驴，和他一切所有的。（17节）

Early Fiction The post-Revolutionary period. Washington Irving: History of New York, Tour on Prairies. James Fenimore Cooper: The Spy, the Leather-Stocking Tales (containing The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinder, and The Deerslayer)

Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature Henry David Thoreau: Walden

Transcendentalism Among Transcendentalists core beliefs was an ideal spiritual state that “transcends” the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual’s intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions.

The major features of Transcendentalism 1. The transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over-soul, the most important thing in the world. The Over-soul, the souls of all individuals commune with the great universal soul. 2. The transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. It was a reaction against the Calvinist concept that man is totally depraved, he is sinful and cannot be saved except through the grace of God. It was also a reaction against the process of dehumanization which came in the wake of developing capitalism.

3. The transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature, to them, was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. It was the garment of the Over-soul. Things in nature tended to become symbolic. New England Transcendentalism was Romanticism on the Puritan soil.

Power of Imagination Edgar Allan Poe: “The Masque of Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” Nathaniel Hawthorne: Twice-Told Tales, The Scarlet Letter Herman Melville: Moby-Dick (considered as American’s greatest novel)

New Vision of America Walt Whitman: Leave of Grass is egotism (one main poem is called “Song of Myself”).

Reform and Liberation Frederick Douglass Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Regionalism(地方主义) William Dean Howells: Atlantic magazine Mark Twain (real name Samuel Clemens) The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’ Court, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (his greatest book) Emily Dickinson

The beliefs of Naturalism 1. Objectivity/ detachment 2. Relationship between hb and environment is that hb is the product of environment. 3. Without moralities, the behavior of hb is governed by instincts, emotion. 4. Accumulate details from reality( resemblance between naturalism and realism) 5. Determinism ad despair. The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires.

Criteria of Naturalism in Fiction 1. An attempted objectivity 2. Frankness 3. An amoral attitude toward material 4. A philosophy of determinism 5. Pessimism 6. The projection of “strong ”characters of marked animal or neurotic nature.

Labeled as Naturalists Frank Norris(The Octopus) Jack London (Call of the Wild) Stephen Crane (The Red Badge of Courage) Edith Wharton(House of Mirth) Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie) John Dos Passos (U.S.A) James T. Farrell (Young Lonigan)

John Steinbeck (The Wrath of Grape) Richard Wright( Black Boy) Norman Mailer(The Naked and Dead) Saul Bellow (The Adventure of Augie March)

A New Wave Henry James: The American, Portrait of a lady, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl. Emile Zola: The Rise of Silas Lapham Stephen Crane: Maggie, A Girl of the Street Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie, The Red Badge of Courage Upton Sinclair: The Jungle Jack London: Call of the Wild

Edith Wharton: The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence Kate Chopin: The Awakening Willa Cather: O Pioneers! W. E. B. Du Bois: Souls of Black Folk

Rebellious Spirit Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio and Main Street Sinclair Lewis (the first American who won the Nobel Prize in 1930): Babbitt and Arrowsmith

Imagery The representation through language of sense experience, or the use of figurative language to produce pictures in the mind of readers or hearers.

Imagism A Literary movement launched by British and American poets early in the 20th century in reaction against Victorian sentimentalism that advocated the use of free verse, common speech patterns and clear concrete images.

The Modernists and the Lost Generation Imagism Ezra Pound T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land e.e.cumming Wallace Stevens William Carlos Williams

The Lost Generation A term first used by Gertrude Stein to describe the post-WWI generation of American writers: men and women are haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness.

F.Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby Ernest Hemingway (also won the Nobel Prize): The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls. William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury(1929), As I Lay Dying(1930), Light in August(1932), and Absalom, Absalom!(1936). He used the stream of consciousness, multiple points of view, symbolism and imagery. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

Characteristics of the works of Ernest Hemingway 1. Economy of expression. 2. Use of short sentences & paragraphs 3. Deliberate avoidance of gorgeous adjectives Recurrent theme: grace under pressure

Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes Countee Cullen Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God(1937)

New Drama Eugene O’Neill: Desire Under the Elms, Mourning Becomes Electra, The Iceman Cometh and Long Day’s Journey into Night .O’Neill won a Nobel Prize in 1936 for literature.

Depression, Postwar Voices and the “Beat Generation” John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath Richard Wright: Native Son African-American Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man James Baldwin: Go Tell It on the Mountain and The Fire Next Time

Jews Saul Bellow Isaac Bashevis Singer Bellow and Singer won the Nobel Prize Tillie Olsen: Tell Me a Riddle Theater Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie, Desire Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman

The Beat Generation Alan Ginsberg: Howl J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye

Native American Literature Zitkala Sa: Old Indian Legends Mourning Dove: Cogewea, the Half-Breed D’Arcy McNickle: The Surrounded N. Scott Momaday: House Made of Dawn and The Way to Rainy Mountain (regarded as sparking the beginning of the Native American Renaissance).

New American Voices Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved. She won the Nobel Prize in 1993,the first African-American writer to receive this honor. Maxine Hong Kingston (Chinese-American): The Woman Warrior and China Men Amy Tan (Chinese-American ): The Joy Luck Club