英美文学选读.doc

3 Emily Dick inson43. “ We passede School, where Children stroveAt Recess in the Ring We passed the Fields of Gazing GraiWe passed the Sett ing Sun ”Questi ons:A. Who is the author of this stanza taken from the poem“ BenoUse I couldstop for Death ?B. What do the underlined parts symbolize?C. Where were“we” heading towd34) 4143. A. These lines are take n from a poem writte n by Emily Dick inson.B. The School, the Fields of Gazing Grain, the Sett ing Sun symbolize three stages of one' s life: youth, man hood and old age.C. "We" were riding in a hearse (or a carriage), heading toward Eternity.43. “ With Blue uncertain stumbling Buzz Betwee n the light and me And the n the Win dows failed and the nI could not see to see”Questio ns:A. Ide ntify the poem and the poet.B. What do“Windows” symbolically stand for?C. What idea does the quoted passage expres(fl44) 4243. A. Emily Dicki nso n: (465)“I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died ”.B. Eyes, for they are considered as the windows of human soul.C. The last thing the dying person saw and heard was the fly and its buzz. When the eyes failed, the huma n soul was closed and the pers on died. (The speaker could not see any of the afterlife or God or an gels she expected to see.)44. “We passed thehSol, where Children stroveAt Recess in the Ri ngWe passed the Fields of Gazi ng GraiWe passed the Sett ing Su ”Questio ns:A. Identify the poem and the poet.B. What do “thdSchool, ” “theFields ” and 'Shting Sun” standor respectively?(054)44. A. Emily Dick inson; “ Because I could not stop for DathB. Three stages of life: childhood, adulthood and old age.43. This is my letter to the WorldThat n ever wrote to Me The simple News that Nature toldWith ten der Majesty”Questio ns:A. Ide ntify the poet.B. What idea does the poem express?C. Why does the poet use dashes and capital letters in the poer(l104)4443. A. Emily DickinsonB. The poem expresses the poet 'asnxiety about her communication with the outside world.C. Dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis.43. “ We passed the School, where Children stroveAt Recess- in the Ring-We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain -We Passed the Setting Sun”-( From Emily Dickinson o'ems Bpecause I could not stop for Death)Questions:A. What does the phrase“ Fields of Gazing Grain” symbolize?B. What figure of speech is used in the poem?C. What are Dickinson ' s unique writing feat(ure1s0?7)43. A. It symbolizes the mature period.B. PersonificationC. (1) Her poems have no titles. (2) Dashes are used as a musical device. (3) Capital letters are used as a means of emphasis. (4) Irregular and inverted sentence structure is used. (5) Her poetic idiom is noted for its laconic brevity, directness and plainness.(6) Her poems are usually short, personal and meditative.£148. The literary school of naturalism was quite popular in the late 19 th century. Whatare the major characteristics of naturalism?(044)48. A. Strongly influenced by social Darwinism, naturalism emphasizes the determining power of the crushing forces of environment and heredity.B. Being devoid of the freedom of choice and incapable of shaping their own destinies, men and women are helpless and insignificant in a cold and indifferent world.C. The naturalistic writers reported truthfully and objectively, with a passion for scientific accuracy and overwhelming accumulation of factual detail.48 Why are naturalists inevitably pessimistic in their view? ( 084)47. Who are the three dominant figures of the American Age of Realism and what are the differences in their understanding of the(094) “ truth ”?47. A. William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, Henry JamesB. Mark Twain and Howells seemed to have paid more attention to thef“ life ” othe Americans. Howells focused his discussion on the rising middle class and the way they lived; Mark Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories; Henry James had apparently laid a greater emphasis on the “ inner world ” of man.47. What are the factors that gave rise to American naturalism(?104)47. A. The impact of Darwin' s evolutionary theory on the American thought.B. The influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters.Mark Twain 48. Local colorism is a unique variation of American literary realism.Who is the most famous local colorist? What are local colorists most concerned? (097)48. A. Mark TwainB. Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They tended to idealize and glorify, but they never forgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life. They formed an important part of the realistic movement.48. Briefly state Mark Twain ' s magic power with lanhgisunagoveeilns. (104)48. A. His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simple, even ungrammatical spoken languageB. His characters speak with a strong accent, which is true of his local colorism.C. Different characters from different literary or cultural backgrounds talk differently.Henry James48. What is the most famous theme in Henry James fiction? And what is his favourite approach in characterization, which makes him different from Mark and W. D. Howells as realists? Give two titles of his works in which this theme and this approach are employed. (034)48. Henry James' s most famous theme is what is generally called "the international theme". His novels or short stories of the theme are always set against a larger international background,usually between Europe and America. They center around the conflict of the two cultures,represented by an innocent American and a sophisticated European. James is regarded as the founder of psychological realism for his psychoanalytical approach to his Characters. Daisy Miller, The Portrait of A Lady, The American, The Ambassadors are his representative works of this kind.Theodore Dreiser47. “In your rockin-cghair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel. T”he two sentencesare taken from Theodore Dreiser 'nosvel, Sister Carrie. What idea can you draw from the“-crhoacirkin”g(0?44)47. A. The“ roc-kci nhga i r ” is a symbsotlanding for fate. It is like a cradle that makesone feel peaceful. It is also like a tide that ever goes on with life, the destiny of which is uncertain.B. At the end of the novel, Carrie sits in the rocking-chair which implies that her future is still uncertain and hard to foresee.48. What's Dreiser' s naturalistic belief? Please discuss the question with Carrie, acharacter inSister Carrie as an example.(094)48. A. Dreiser believes that while men are controlled and conditioned by heredity, instinct and chance, a few extraordinary and unsophisticated human beings refuse to accept their fate wordlessly and instead strive, unsuccessfully, to find meaning and purpose for their existence.B. Carrie, as one of such, senses that she is merely a cipher in an uncaring worldyet seeks to grasp the mysteries of life and thereby satisfies her desires forsocial status and material comfort, but in spite of he success, she is lonely and dissatisfied.Mark Twain50. Summerize the story of Mark twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in about 100 words, and comment on the theme of the nove(l0. 24)50. A. Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a Sequa to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.The Story takes place along the Mississippi River before the Civil War in the United States, around 1850.Along the river, floats a small raft, with two people on it; One is an ignorant,uneducated black slave named Jim and the other is little uneducated outcast white boy about the age of thirteen, called Huckleberry Finn or Huck Finn.The novel relates the story of the escape of Jim from slavery and ,more important, how Huck Finn, floating along with Jim and helping him as best he could, changes his mind ,his prejudice, about Black people, and comes to accept Jim as a man and as a close friends as well.During their journey, they experience a series of adventures:coming across two frauds, the“ Duke” and the “ King ” ,witnessing the lynching and murder of a harmlessdrunkard, being lost in a fog and finally Tom's coming to rescue.B. The theme of the novel may be best summed in a word“ freedom ”: Huck wants toescape from the bond of civilization and Jim wants to escape from the yoke of slavery. Mark Twain uses the raft's journey down the Mississippi River to express his thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization.50.Take Mark Twain T'hes Adventures of Huckleberry Finnas an example to illustrate the statement that Mark Twain was a unique writer in American literature(.054)50. A. Mark Twain shaped the world 'vsiew of America and made an extensive combination of American folk humor and serious literature.B. The novel has become a great contribution to the legacy of American literature.C. The novel is written in a language that is totally different from the rhetorical language used by his contemporary writers such as Emerson, Poe and Melville. It is simple, direct, lucid and faithful to the colloquial speech. This style of colloquialism is best describedas “ vernacular ” .D. He successfully used local color and historical settings to illustrate and shed light on the contemporary society. That' s why he is known as a local colorist.E. Mark Twain ' s humor is remarkable, too. Most of his works tend to befunny, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks. etc. Some of them are typical of tall tales. And a great deal of his humor is characterized by puns, straight-faced exaggeration, repetition, and anti-climax. He uses his humor to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism.50. Briefly discuss Mark Twain's art of fiction in terms of the setting, the language, and the characters, etc., based on his novTelhe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.50. A. Mark Twain uses the Mississippi Valley as his fictional kingdom, writing about the landscape and people, the customs and the dialects of one particular region,and is therefore known as a local colorist.B. He creates life-like characters, especially the conventional Huckleberry Finn, who runs away from civilization and stands opposite to conventional morality.C. He uses a simple, direct vernacular language, totally different from any previous literary language. It is the kind of colloquial language belonging to the lower class, the living local American English.D. He has created a special humor to satirize social injustices and the decayed convention.Henry James50. Please discuss Henry James ' contribution to American literature in regard to his representative works, themes, writing techniques and language(1. 04) 5050. A. works: Daisy Miller , The Portrait of A Lady, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl (listing any two of the novels will be enough)B. intern ati onal themesC. his psychological emphasS and n arrative point of viewD. Language: highly refined and insightful