美国文学史试题库

英美文学史课程试题库

an actual way of life.

2. Naturalism: A more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories and plays, usually

involving a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment.

3. Local color: It may be defined as the careful attention to details of the physical scene and

to those mannerisms in speech, dress, or behavior peculiar to a geographical locality. 4. Psychological realism: It is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities

of characters‘ thoughts and motivation. Henry James‘ novel The Ambassadors is considered to be a masterpiece of psychological realism. II.

Fill in the blanks

1. By 1875, American writers were moving toward realism in literature. We can see this in

the true-to-life descriptions of Bret Harte, Willim Dean Howells and Hamlin Garland. 2. The most straightforward definition of realism is probably the one given by the American

realist William Dean Howells. That is: ―nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.‖

3. Realism first appeared in the United States in the literature of local color, an amalgam of

romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the dialects, customs, sights and sounds of regional.

4. As one of America‘s first and foremost realists and humorists, Mark Twain, the pen name

of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experiences.

5. At the heart of Mark Twain‘s achievement is his creation of two characters: Tom Sawyer

and Huckleberry Finn.

6. Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835, in the village of Florida, Missouri, and

grew up in the larger river town of Hannibal. The steamboats which passed daily were the fascination of the town and became the subject matter of Twain‘s Life on the Mississippi. 7. Ernest Hemingway, whose own style is based on Twain‘s, once said, ―All modern

American literature comes from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.‖

8. Stephen Crane, the first American naturalist, was not much influenced by the scientific

approach. He was a genius with amazing sympathy and imagination.

9. In The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane‘s greatest novel, the accident of war makes

a young man seem to be a hero. War changes men into animals. In the view of the author, good or bad, hero or coward, are merely matters of chance, of fate.

10. Hamlin Garland developed a writing method which he called ―veritism‖ (meaning truth).

He described people, places and events in a careful and factual manner.

11. Henry James was a realist, but not a naturalist. He was an observer of the mind rather

than a recorder of time. His realism was a special kind of psychological realism.

12. Henry James first achieved recognition as a writer of the ―International‖ novel--- a story

which brings together persons of various nationalists who represent certain charactistics.

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13. The Portrait of a Lady is the best novel of Henry James‘ ―middle period‖. It is a story

about a young, bright American girl who goes to Europe to explore life.

14. Dreiser‘s greatest novel An American Tragedy, reveals a last stage in his thinking of

social consciousness.

15. Darwinism had an evident influence on naturalism. It seemed to stress the animality of

man, to suggest that man was dominated by the forces of evolution.

16. The Art of Fiction was Henry James‘ most famous and influential critical essay written in

response to a lecture on fiction delivered by an English novelist. III.

Multiple choice

1. ___, who became the editor of Harper‘s Monthly in 1891,created the first theory for

American realism.

A. Emile Zola B. Hamlin Garland C. Stephen Crane D. William Dean Howells

2. ___ in the 1860s was the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularity.

A. Mark Twain B. William Dean Howells C. Bret Harte D. Harriet Beecher Stowe

3. Stephen Crane‘s novel: Maggie: A Girl of the Street, is the story of a girl ___.

A. who is brought up in a poor area of Chicago

B. who is loved by her family but betrayed by her friends.

C. who experienced the violence and cruelty of the society almost every day D. who is evil by nature.

4. In his short story, ___, Stephen Crane shows how even life and death are determined by

fate.

A. ‘The Open Boat‘ B. ?The Open Window‘ C. ?War Is Kind‘ D. ?War is Slaughterhouse‘

5. The naturalism of ___ was filled with deep sympathy for the common people. His

literature was a form of protests against the conditions which made the lives of Mid-western farmers so painful and unhappy. A. Harold Frederic B. Ambrose Bierce C. Henry James D. Hamlin Garland

6. The novel which was described by an American critic as ―an outrage to American

girlhood‖ is Henry James‘ ___.

A. Daisy Miller B. The Portrait of a Lady C. Woman in Love D. Awakening

7. Mark Twain‘s first novel, ___, was an artistic failure, but it gave its name to the America

of the period which it attempts to satirize.

A. The Gilded Age B. Life on the Mississippi C. The Innocents Abroad D. The Mysterious Stranger

8. Jack London was at his height of his powers when he wrote ___, which is deeply

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influenced by Darwinism.

A. The Sea Wolf B. To Build a Fire C. The Call of the Wild D. Martin Eton

9. With the publication of ___ in 1900, Theodore Dreiser committed his literary force to

opening the new ground of American naturalism. A. An American Tragedy B. Sister Carrie C. The Bulwark D. The Stoic 10. In his works, Theodore Dreiser‘s tone is always ___.

A. sad B. satirical C. comic D. serious IV.

Questions and answers

1. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn is a thirteen-year-old boy. Why does

Mark twain use a child as the center of consciousness in this book?

In using a child protagonist, Twain is able to imply a comparison between the powerlessness and vulnerability of a child and the powerlessness and vulnerability of a black man in pre-Civil War America. Huck and Jim frequently find themselves in the same predicaments: each is abused, each faces the threat of losing his freedom, and each is constantly at the mercy of adult white men. In Huck‘s moral dilemmas, Jim is also vulnerable to Huck who is white. Twain also uses his child protagonist to dramatize the conflict between societal or received morality. As a boy, Huck is a character who can develop morally, whose mind is still open and being formed, who does not take his principles and values for granted. By tracing the education and experiences of a boy, Twain shows that conclusions about right and wrong that are based on logic and experience. The society‘s rules and morals are often hypocritical rather than logical. 2. Discuss the influence of Charles Darwin‘s theories on The Call of the Wild.

In writing his novel, Jack London was profoundly influenced by the writings of Charles Darwin. Darwin, the founding father of evolution theory, thought that life in the national world consists of a constant struggle for survival, in which only the strong could thrive and produce offspring. This ―survival of the fittest‖ was the engine that drove evolution. The world that London creates in The Call of the Wild operates strictly according to Darwinist principles in its brutality and amorality, only the fit survives in the cruel landscape of the Klondike.

3. What is special about Mark Twain‘s realism?

Mark Twain‘s contribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole was partly through his theories of local color in American fiction, and partly through his colloquial style. Mark Twain drew heavily from his own rich fund of knowledge of people and places. He confined himself to the life with which he was familiar. By quoting from his own experience, he managed to transform into art the freedom and humor, in short, the finest elements of western culture.

英美文学史课程试题库

20th Century American Poetry

I.

Literary terms

1. Imagism: Imagism is a school of poetry that flourished in North America and England at

the beginning of the 20th century. Imagists rejected the sentimentalism of late 19th century verse in favor of the poetry that relied on concrete imagery. Ezra Pound originally led the movement. Amy Lowell soon became its proponent. The major criteria are : a) regularly use everyday speech but avoids clichés; b) create new rhythms; c) address any subject matter the poet desired; d)depict its subjects through precise, clear images. The poets include H.D., Carl Sandburg; William Carlos William, D. H. Lawrence etc.

2. Confessional poetry: An autobiographical mode of verse that reveals the poet‘s personal

problems with unusual frankness. The term is usually applied to certain poets of the US. From the late 1950s to the late 1960s, notably Robert Lowell, whose Life Studies and For the Union Dead deal with his divorce and mental breakdowns. Other examples are Anne Sexton‘s To Bedlam and Part Way Back, including poems on abortion and life in mental hospitals. John Berryman‘s Dream Songs on alcoholism and insanity; Sylvia Plath‘s poems on suicide in Ariel and W.D. Snodgrass‘ Heart’s Needle on divorce.

3. Black Mountain poets: A loosely associated group of poets that formed an important part

of the avant-garde of American poetry in the 1950s, publishing innovative yet disciplined verse in the Black Mountain Review (1954-57), which became a leading forum of experimental verse. Their experimental yet disciplined style took its impetus from the essay ―Projective Verse‖ (1950) by Charles Olson. The Black Mountain School is linked with Charles Olson‘s theory of ―projective verse‖, which insists on an open from based on the spontaneity of the breath pause in speech and the typewriter line in writing. The group grew up around the poets Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan and Charles Olson while they were teaching at Black Mountain.

4. The Beat Generation: The term Beat Generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in

approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to a novelist who published an early novel about the generation. The members of the beat generation were engaged in a spontaneous, messy creativity. The beat writers produced a body of written work controversial both for its advocacy of non-conformity and for its non-conforming style. The major beat writings are Jack Herouac‘s On the Road, Allan Ginsberg‘s Howl and William Burroughs‘ Naked Lunch.

5. The New York School: Unlike the Beat poets, the poets of the New York School are not

interested in overtly moral questions and in general, they steer clear of political issues. They have the best formal education of any group. The major figures of the New York School—John Ashberry, Frank O‘Harra and Kenneth Koch—met while they were undergraduates at Harvard University. They are quintessentially urban, cool, nonreligious, witty with a poignant, pastel sophistication. Their poems are fast moving, full of urban