Brief Survey of Brief Survey of American LiteratureAmerican Literature

Brief Survey of Brief Survey of American LiteratureAmerican Literature

Some Basic Characteristics of

American Literature

• Short history but great achievement

• Began with oral myths, legends, tales

• Poetry, fiction, drama, essay all highly

developed

• Female, ethnic literature came into the centre recently

• Drawn immense interest from Chinese readers

Outline of American Literature

1. Beginnings to 17002. From colonies to nation: 1700-18203. The Romantic period: 1820—18654. The Realism and Naturalism: 1865—19145. The Modern period: 1914—19456. Contemporary literature: since 1945

Cf. Norton Anthology of American Literature, the 7th edition, 2007.

1. Beginnings to 17001. Beginnings to 17001. Beginnings to 17001. Beginnings to 1700

• Great mixing of peoples from the whole Atlantic basin

• Bloody conflicts between Native Americans (or American Indians) and European explorers and settlers who had both religious and territorial aspirations

- Native American oral literature / oral tradition

- European explorers’ letters, diaries, reports, etc., such as Christopher Columbus’s letters about his voyage to the “New world”.

- Anglo (New England) settlers’ books, sermons, journals, narratives, and poetry

Native American / American Indian oral literature / oral

tradition

• creation stories （起源神话）• trickster tales （恶作剧者传奇）• rituals / ceremonies （典仪）• songs / chants （曲词）

Anglo Settlers’ Writings• Highly religious and pragmatic - John Smith, founder of Jamestown, Virginia; Pocahontas - John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity”: “… We

shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us…”

- William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (1630-50, pub. 1856)

- Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), The Tenth Muse (1650), the first volume of poems published by a resident of the New World

- Edward Taylor (1642- 1729), Preparatory Meditations (1682-1725, pub. 1939, 1960)

- Mary Rowlandson (1636-1711), A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682)

2. American 2. American Literature 1700-Literature 1700-

18201820

2. American 2. American Literature 1700-Literature 1700-

18201820

From Colonies to NationFrom Colonies to Nation

• Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), whose passionate sermons helped revive religious fervor during the “Great Awakening”（大觉醒运动 , 1730s-1740s)

• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)• Thomas Paine (1737-1809)• Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)• Olaudah Equiano (1745?-1797)• Philip Freneau (1752-1832)• Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)• Hannah Webster Foster (1758-1840)

Enlightenment and Enlightenment and establishment of the establishment of the

nationnation

Enlightenment and Enlightenment and establishment of the establishment of the

nationnation

Benjamin Franklin

• a second-generation immigrant of English descendent

• Writer, printer, publisher, scientist, statesman, and diplomat, he was the most famous and respected private figure of his time.

• Benjamin Franklin recorded his early life in his famous book The Autobiography.

Benjamin Franklin (1706----1790)

Benjamin Franklin• He was the first great self-made man in America, a

poor democrat born in an aristocratic age• supported the cause of independence,, and aided

Jefferson in writing the Declaration of Independence.

• Practical yet idealistic, hard working and enormously successful.

• the Scottish philosopher David Hume called him America's "first great man of letters”.

Major WorksFranklin’s place in literature owes much to his

almanac and autobiography:

• Poor Richard’s Almanac (1732)（穷理查格言历书）• Published from 1732 to 1758 under the

name of Richard Saunders• Full of proverbs which teach people

thrift, carefulness, and independence

Poor Richard’s Almanac

• “lost time is never found again”• “a penny saved is a penny earned”• “God helps those that help

themselves”• “Early to bed, and early to rise,

makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”

The Autobiography• First published in Paris in March of 1791 entitled

“Memoires De La Vie Privee”• The first English translation, "The Private Life

of the Late Benjamin Franklin. Originally Written By Himself, And Now Translated From The French," was published in London in 1793.

• Faithful Puritan account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man.

• The writing process lasted for 40 years, yet the book was still not completed when he died 。

13 virtues followed by Franklin

1. Temperance 节制（饮食）

2. Silence 沉默3. Order 条理4. Resolution 决心5. Frugality 节俭6. Industry 勤劳

7. Sincerity 真诚8. Justice 公正9. Moderation 温和10. Cleanliness 整洁11. Tranquility 平静12. Chastity 贞洁13. Humility 谦卑

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

• Political Pamphlets during the revolutionary period:

- Common Sense (1776) urges immediate independence from Britain

- Crisis (1776-1783) shore up the soldiers’ spirits

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

• Third president of US (1801-9)• Advocated religious freedom• Major drafter and writer of The

Declaration of Independence (1776)• Author of Notes on the State of

Virginia (1784) 《弗吉尼亚州笔记 》 for religious freedom （宗教自由）， white superiority （白人种族优越论）

More literature during More literature during the revolutionthe revolution

More literature during More literature during the revolutionthe revolution

Olaudah Equiano (1745?-1797)

• Black writer of autobiography: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789)

- about the cruel slave trade - promoting the abolition campaign

in England

Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

• “Poet of American Revolution”: poems of patriotism and nationalism

• Poems in praise of nature and the American Indian’s way of life (“noble savage”), a part of American romantic tradition

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)

• First black woman poet who published poems in the literary history of the United States

First American novelists

• Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810), Wieland (1798)

• William Hill Brown (1765-1793), The Power of Sympathy (1789)

• Hannah Webster Foster (1758-1840), woman novelist who wrote The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton; A Novel; Founded on Fact. By a Lady of Massachusetts (1797)

3. The Romantic 3. The Romantic period 1820period 1820——186518653. The Romantic 3. The Romantic period 1820period 1820——18651865

Romanticism

• As an approach in literary creation, romanticism is ever present in literature of all times.

• As a literary movement, it occurred and developed in Europe and America at the turn of the 19th century

• Under the historical background of the Industrial Revolution around 1760 and the French Revolution(1789—1799)

Romantic vs. Neoclassic (1)

• Neoclassicism: - reason, order, elegant wit - rationalism of enlightenment in 18th-

cent.• Romanticism: - passion, emotion, natural beauty - imagination, mysticism, liberalism

(freedom to express personal feelings)

Romantic vs. Neoclassic (2)

• Innovation: - subjects:

common life; the supernatural; the far away and the long ago

- style: common language really used by men; poetic symbolism

• Strong traditionalism:

-distrust of radical innovation

-respect for classical writers

-upper-class subjects

-elevated style: poetic diction

Romantic vs. Neoclassic(3)

• Good poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

- unforced and free composition out of the inherent organic “laws” of the poet’s imagination

• Poetry is an “art” that needs long studied and practiced skills to achieve “correctness”

- observe stylistic decorum

- respect established / artificial “rules” of poetry

Romantic vs. Neoclassic(4)

• Subject matter: nature; central human experiences and problems

• Feelingful meditation; thinking

• Subject matter: human beings

• Poetry is an imitation of human life, “a mirror held up to nature”

• Art for humanity’s sake: for instruction and aesthetic pleasure

Romantic vs. Neoclassic(5)

• Subject matter: personal experiences of the poet, often the social nonconformists or outcasts

• Subject matter and objects: what human beings possess in common – representative characteristics and widely shared experiences, thoughts, feelings and tastes.

Romantic vs. Neoclassic(6)

• Human beings are endowed with limitless aspiration toward the infinite good

• Highest art – an endeavour beyond finite human possibility

• Human beings are limited

- attack human “pride”

- Great Chain of Being

- submitted to “rules” or conventions in subjects, structure, diction, e.g. heroic couplet

The American Romanticism

• stretched from the end of the 18th century to the end of the Civil War

• was extremely influential, and best represented by the New England poets and novelists

• Both imitative and independent• One of the most important periods in the

history of American literature, usually called the Renaissance of American literature

Early Romanticism

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow• James Russell Lowell • John Greenleaf Whittier• James Fenimore Cooper• Washington Irving• William Cullen Bryant

New England Transcendentalism

• Ralph Waldo Emerson• Henry David Thoreau• Margaret Fuller

High Romanticism

• Walt Whitman• Emily Dickinson• Nathaniel Hawthorne• Herman Melville• Edgar Allan Poe

Early romantic writersEarly romantic writersEarly romantic writersEarly romantic writers

Washington Irving (1783-1859)

• The first American writer internationally acclaimed, most famous for his book The Sketch Book (1819-1820) including

- “Rip Van Winkle” - “The Legend of Sleepy

Hollow”

James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851)

• The Leather-stocking series 皮袜子 / 皮裹腿系列小说 (Natty Bumppo wearing long deerskin leggings)

- The Pioneers (1823) 《开拓者 》 - The Last of the Mohicans (1826) 《最

后的莫希干人》 - The Prairie (1827) 《大草原 》 - The Pathfinder, (1840) 《探路人》 - The Deerslayer (1841) 《猎鹿人》

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

• The first important American romantic poet of international reputation famous for poems like

- “Thanatopsis” (1817) 《死亡随想曲》 - “The Yellow Violet” (1814) 《黄色的

堇香花》 - “To a Waterfoul” (1815) 《致水鸟》

New England Poets• Conservative and imitative:• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) - The Song of Hiawatha 《海华沙之歌》（ 1855 ） - “I Shot an Arrow” 我射出一支箭 - “A Psalm of Life” 生命颂 / 生之礼赞• Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)• James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)• John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) - Snow-Bound (1866) (New England idyllic

scene)

New England New England TranscendentalismTranscendentalism

New England New England TranscendentalismTranscendentalism

Transcendentalism• The term “transcendentalism” is derived

from the Latin verb transcendere meaning, to rise above, or to pass beyond the limits.

• Transcendentalism has been defined as the recognition in man of the capacity of acquiring knowledge transcending the reach of the five senses, or of knowing truth intuitively, or of reaching the divine without the need of an intercessor.

Transcendentalism

• As the leader of this movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson interpreted transcendentalism as “whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought,” and as “idealism as it appears in 1842.” He believed that the transcendental law was the “moral law” through which man discovered the nature of God as a living spirit.

Three Sources• It was a system of thought that originated from three

sources.• First, American Unitarianism. It represented

a thoughtful revolt against orthodox Puritanism. Unitarianism believed God as one being, rejecting the doctrine of trinity, stressing the divinity in human nature. It laid the foundation for the central doctrines of transcendentalism.

Three Sources• Secondly, the idealistic philosophy

from France and Germany exerted enormous impact on American intellectuals.

• Thirdly, oriental mysticism as revealed in Hindu and Chinese classics reached America in English translations.

As a result, New England Transcendentalism blended native American tradition with foreign influences.

Development• Ralph Waldo Emerson published Nature in

1836 which represented a new way of intellectual thinking in America.

• “The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Spirit is present everywhere.” This new voice led American Romanticism to a new and mature period, the period of New England Transcendentalism.

• This was the most significant development of American literature in the mid-19th century.

Development• The Concord club was the first and most famous

of a series of forums that served during the next few decades as social gathering points. It became the movement's magnetic center.

• They advocated their views and principles in various magazines. Besides, they even published their journal, The Dial (1840-1844).

Major Transcendentalist Figures

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)• Nature (1836)• The American Scholar (1837)• Divinity School Address (1838)• Essays: First Series (1841)• Essays: Second Series (1844)H. D. Thoreau (1817-1862)• Walden (1854)• “Civil Disobedience” (1849)Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)• Woman in the Nineteenth Century

(1845)• Editor of The Dial (1840-42)

High RomanticismHigh RomanticismHigh RomanticismHigh Romanticism

Whitman and Dickinson: Romantic & Modern Poets1. Both passionate in expressing emotions2. Unconventional in poetic forms and

images• Walt Whitman (1819-1892) - Leaves of Grass (1855, 1856, 1860,

1867, 1871, 1876, 1881, 1889, 1891-2)• Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) - Slant rhymes, capitalizations, dashes - uncertainty

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

• The Scarlet Letter (1850)《红字》• The House of Seven Gables (1851)《带有七个尖角阁的房子》

• The Blithedale Romance (1852)《福谷传奇》

• The Marble Faun (1860)《玉石雕像》

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Typee (1846)Moby-Dick (1851)The Piazza Tales (“Beneto Cereno” “Bartleby the Scrivener”) (1856)The Confidence Man (1857)Billy Budd (1924, posthumously published)

Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick

Billy Budd

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

• “art for art’s sake”• Horror story• Science fiction• Detective story• Psychologically thrilling tale• Poems• Literary criticism

4. The Realism and 4. The Realism and NaturalismNaturalism

4. The Realism and 4. The Realism and NaturalismNaturalism

18651865——19141914

REALISM

Mid-19th-century French movement in literature.•Emphasized the use of Scientific Method: a method of observation and hypothesis to suggest solutions to problems.•Today, it generally means the surface details of things that appear life-like, or theatre that seeks to give the appearance of everyday reality.

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The Local Color Movement (1865-1880)

The second half of the 19th century saw America becoming increasingly self-conscious. Americans wanted to know what their country looked like, and how the varied races which made up their growing population lived and talked.

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Local ColorLocal Color

• A kind of fiction that came to prominence in the USA in the late 19th century, and was devoted to capturing the unique customs, manners, speech, folklore, and other qualities of a particular regional community, usually in humorous short stories. The most famous of the local colorists was Mark Twain; others included Bret Hart, Kate Chopin, and Sarah Orne Jewett.

(Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms)

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

• Innocents Abroad (1869)• The Gilded Age (1873) • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)• The Prince and the Pauper (1882)• Life on the Mississippi (1883)• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

(1884)• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s

Court (1889)• The Man That Corrupted Hadleydburg

(1900)

Bret Harte (1836-1902)

Editor, beginning in 1868, of The Overland Monthly, San Francisco, in which he published the stories “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” and the poem “Plain Language from Truthful James,” also known as “The Heathen Chine.”

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Local Color Women Novelists

• Kate Chopin (1851-1904) - The Awakening (1899)• Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) - Deephaven (1877) - A Country Doctor (1884) - The Country of the Pointed

Firs (1896)

Characteristics of Realistic Writing

1. The purpose of writing is to instruct and to entertain.

2. The subject matter of Realism is drawn from "our experience,” —it treated the common, the average, the non-extreme, the representative, the probable.

3. The style of Realism– Emphasis is placed upon scenic presentation,– de-emphasizing authorial comment and

evaluation. – rejects the omniscient point of view.

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Realistic Techniques

1. Plots emphasizing the norm of daily experience

2. Ordinary characters, studied in depth3. Complete authorial objectivity4. Responsible morality; a world truly

reported 5. Settings thoroughly familiar to the

writer

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Theorist of American Realism

• William Dean Howells (1837-1920)

Editor of Atlantic Monthly, writer of Criticism and Fiction (1891) in which he championed realism, of the novel The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)

Henry James (1843-1916), master of psychological

realism

• Writer of Daisy Miller (1879), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), The Golden Bowl (1904)

• International themes: Contrasting American and European cultures

• The first to use Third-person limited point of view 第三人称有限视角 , “center of consciousness”

What is the difference between Realism and Naturalism?

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American Naturalism

An extension or continuation of Realism with the addition of pessimistic determinism.

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American Naturalism

Includes all the characteristics of Realism, as well as the following:•The characters (who are representative of humankind) must be seen as biological phenomena whose behaviors are strictly determined by HEREDITY and ENVIRONMENT (influence of Darwin).•Highly deterministic (fatalistic), life is portrayed as brutal and ugly, where characters have no sense of free will.

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Subject Matter of Naturalism:

• Raw and unpleasant experiences which reduce characters to "degrading" behavior in their struggle to survive.

• Characters are mostly from the lower middle or the lower classes—poor, uneducated, and unsophisticated.

• Milieu is the commonplace and the unheroic.

• Life is usually the dull round of daily existence.

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Subject Matter of Naturalism:

• There is discussion of fate and “hubris” that affect a character.

• Generally the controlling force is society and the surrounding environment.

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Authors of Naturalism

• Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915)

• Frank Norris (1870-1902)• Stephen Crane (1871-1900)• Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)• Jack London (1876-1916)• Upton Sinclair (1878-1968)

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Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

• Black educator and writer famous for his Tuskegee Institute in Alabama

• Up from Slavery (1901), an autobiography

Frank Norris (1870-1902)

• The Octopus (1901), dealing with the raising of wheat in California and the struggles of the ranchers against the railroad

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

• Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893)

• The Red Badge of Courage (1895)

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)

• Sister Carrie (1900)• Jennie Gerhardt (1911)• The Financier (1912)• The Titan (1914)• The Stoic (1947)• The Genius (1915)• An American Tragedy ( 1925)

Jack London (1876-1916)

• The Call of the Wild (1903)• The Sea-Wolf (1904)• White Fang (1906)• Martin Eden (1909), a semi-

autobiographical novel

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968)

• Muckraker writer• The Jungle (1906)

5. The Modern period5. The Modern period5. The Modern period5. The Modern period

19141914——19451945

Modernism• Background: - commercialization, industrialization

(mass production): threatens individualism; sense of despair

- wars: loss of belief and certainty - society is becoming worse - the world is incomprehensible - there are no solutions to problems:

more questions than answers - breakdown of traditional values

Characteristics of modern literature (1)

• Attitude towards what is significant - Antihero vs. hero Gertrude stein: 站在街头无所事事的士兵比

在山上英勇冲锋的士兵更值得文学的关注• Focus of description - internal, subjective, psychological world Ulysses: 800 pages about 18 hours

Characteristics of modern literature (2)

• subject matter: internal consciousness / unconsciousness, antihero; strong sense of loss, alienation, loneliness, rootlessness, fragmentation, anxiety, obscurity, absurdity

• Stylistic innovations—disruption of traditional syntax and form

• Techniques: stream-of-consciousness, juxtaposition of fragmentation, ambiguity, uncertainty

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (T.S. Eliot, 1917)

• Let us go then, you and I,• When the evening is spread out

against the sky• Like a patient etherised upon a

table• ……

The Waste Land (T.S. Eliot, 1922)

• April is the cruellest month, breeding• Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing• Memory and desire, stirring• Dull roots with spring rain.• 四月是最残忍的月份，从• 死去的土地上养育丁香，混合• 记忆与欲望，让• 春雨催生干枯的根芽。

冬天令我们温暖，遗忘的雪覆盖在地上，从干枯的根里滋养小小的生命。夏天令我们震惊，斯丹卜吉希一场暴雨来了；我们全都躲进柱廊，等候雨过天晴，走进霍夫大公园，喝着咖啡，聊上一个小时。“我不是俄国人，我从立陶宛来，是个德国人。”当我们小时候，住在大公家里，他是我表哥，带我出去滑雪，我害怕了。他说，玛丽玛丽抓紧了啊。我们滑下去了。在山里我们感到自由。我在大半个晚上阅读，冬天去了南方。

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Modern Poetry• Chicago poets: Carl Sandburg (1878-

1967), Hart Crane (1899-1932)• Imagist poets• T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)• Robert Frost (1874-1963)• Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)• The Fugitives / Agrarians

Imagism (1909-1917)• U.S.: Ezra Pound, H.D. (Hilda

Doolittle), John Gould Fletcher, Amy Lowell, William Carlos Williams

• England: F.S. Flint, Richard Aldington, D.H. Lawrence

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)• “The Love Song of J. Alfred

Prufrock” (1915)• The Waste Land (1922) 《荒原》• The Four Quartets (1935-1942)

《四个四重奏》• Murder in the Cathedral (1935)

《大教堂谋杀案》

The Fugitives / Agrarians

• Poets, novelists, critics (the New Criticism)

- John Crowe Ransom - Robert Penn Warren - Allen Tate - Cleanth Brooks

Modern Drama• Social criticism - Elmer Rice, The Adding Machine

(1923) - Clifford Odets (leftist playwright),

Waiting for Lefty (1935)• Symbolism & Expressionism - Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953)

Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953)

• Emperor Jones (1920)• The Hairy Ape (1921)• Desire Under the Elms (1924)• The Iceman Cometh (1939)• Long Day’s Journey Into Night

(1940)

Modern Fiction• Women writers• Fiction about small-town people• The Lost Generation writers• Southern writers• Leftist writers• Black writers

Modern Women Novelists

• Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), “writers’ writer”

- Three Lives (1909)• Edith Wharton (1862-1937)• Willa Cather (1873-1947)

Edith Wharton (1862-1937)

• Novel of manners 风俗小说• The House of Mirth (1905)• The Custom of the Country

(1913)• The Age of Innocence (1920)

Willa Cather (1873-1947)

• Frontier life on the western prairies

• O, Pioneers! (1913)• My Antonia (1918)

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)

• Main Street (1920)• Babbitt (1922)

Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941)

• Winesburg, Ohio (1919), stories of small-town people

• The Triumph of the Egg (1921), stories and poems

• Death in the Woods and Other Stories (1933)

The Lost Generation• F. Scott Fitzgerald• Ernest Hemingway• John Dos Passos

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)(1896-1940)

• This Side of ParadiseThis Side of Paradise (1920) (1920)• Flappers and PhilosophersFlappers and Philosophers (1920) (1920)• Tales of Jazz AgeTales of Jazz Age (1922) (1922)• The Beautiful and DamnedThe Beautiful and Damned (1922) (1922)• The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby (1925) (1925)• Tender Is the NightTender Is the Night (1934) (1934)• The Last TycoonThe Last Tycoon (1941) (1941)

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

• The Sun Also RisesThe Sun Also Rises (1926)• A Farewell to ArmsA Farewell to Arms (1929)• For Whom the Bell TollsFor Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)• The Old Man and the SeaThe Old Man and the Sea (1952)

John Dos Passos (1896-1970)

• Three Soldiers (1921)• Manhattan Transfer (1925)• U.S.A. trilogy - The 42nd Parallel (1930) - 1919 (1932) - The Big Money (1936)

Southern Novelist: William Faulkner (1897-1962)

• His mythical Yoknapatawpha County

• The Sound and the Fury (1929), the stream-of-consciousness device

• As I Lay Dying (1930)• Absalom, Absalom! (1936)• Light in August (1932)• Go Down, Moses (1942)

Leftist Writer• John Steinbeck (1902-1968) - The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

Black WritersHarlem Renaissance 哈莱姆文艺复兴• Jean Toomer (1894-1967) - Cane (1923)• Richard Wright (1908-1960) - Native Son (1940), a “protest novel”• Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) - Their Eyes Were Watching God

(1937) 《他们眼望上苍》• Langston Hughes (1902-1967), “Harlem laureate poet”

6. Contemporary 6. Contemporary literatureliterature

6. Contemporary 6. Contemporary literatureliterature

since 1945since 1945

Main trends• Post-modernism (more sense of

absurdity and uncertainty) - beat generation, black humor,

new journalism• Rise of ethnic literature

Contemporary Fiction• The Beat Generation• The Black Humor• The Non-fiction / New Journalism novels• War Novels• Southern Writers• Black Writers• Jewish American writers• Native American writers• Chinese American writers

The Beat Generation• - Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)’s

novel On the Road (1957)

The Black Humor• Joseph Heller (1923-1999),

Catch-22 (1961)• John Barth (1930- )• Thomas Pynchon (1937- )• Kurt Vonnegut (1922- ),

Slaughter-House Five (1969)

Non-fiction / New Journalism novels

• Truman Capote (1924-1984), In Cold Blood (1966)

• Tom Wolfe (1930- )• Norman Mailer (1923-2007), The

Armies of the Night (1968)• Joan Didion (1934- )

War Novels• Norman Mailer (1923-2007), The

Naked and the Dead (1948)• Irwin Shaw (1913-1984), The

Young Lions (1948)• James Jones (1921-1977), From

Here to Eternity (1951)• Herman Wouk (1915- ), The Winds

of War (1971)

Southern Writers• Katherine Ann Porter (1890-1980)• Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964)’s novel

Wise Blood (1952), short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

• Eudora Welty (1909-2001)• Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989)’s novel

All the King’s Men (1946) won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He received Pulitzer Prizes for poetry twice. He is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.

Black Writers• Ralph Ellison (1914-1994), Invisible

Man (1952)• James Baldwin (1924-1987), Go Tell

It on the Mountain (1953)• Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), “I Have a Dream”

• Malcolm X (1925-1965), The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964) which was told to Alex Haley, writer of Roots (1976)

• Leroy Jones (1934- ), a poet

Black Women Writers• Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)’s

play A Raisin in the Sun (1959)• Alice Walker (1944- ), The Color

Purple (1982)• Toni Morrison (1931- ) who won

the Nobel Prize in 1993, The Bluest Eye (1970), Song of Solomon (1977), Beloved (1987)

Jewish American Writers• Norman Mailer• I.B. Singer (1902-1991), Nobel Prize

winner in 1978• Saul Bellow (1915-2005), Nobel Prize

Winner in 1976• Bernard Malamud (1914-1986)• Philip Roth (1933- )• J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)• Henry Roth (1906-1995), Call It

Sleep (1934)

Saul Bellow (1915-2005),

• Dangling Man (1944)• The Adventures of Augie March

(1953) 获全国图书奖• Seize the Day (1956)• Henderson the Rain King (1959)• Herzog (1964) 获全国图书奖• Mr. Sammler’s Planet (1970) 获全国图

书奖• Humboldt’s Gift (1975) 获普利策奖

Bernard Malamud (1914-1986)

• Novels• The Assistant (1957)• The Fixer (1966) 获全国图书奖• The Tenants (1971) • Short Stories• The Magic Barrel (1958), short

story collection, 获全国图书奖

Philip Roth (1933- )• Goodbye, Columbus (1959) 获全国图书

奖• Portnoy’s Complaint (1969)• The Ghost Writer (1979)• The Counterlife (1986) 获全国图书批评界奖• Sabbath’s Theater (1995) 获全国图书奖• American Pastoral (1997) 获普利策奖

J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

• The Catcher in the Rye (1951) 《麦田里的守望者》

Native American Writers

• N. Scott Momady (1934- ), The House Made of Dawn 《晨曦之屋 》 (1968) 获普利策奖

• Leslie Marmon Silko (1948- ), Ceremony 《仪式 》 (1977)

• Louise Erdrich (1954- ), Love Medicine (1984) 《爱药》先后获得包括全国图书评论界奖在内的 5 项小说奖

Chinese American Writers• Maxine Hong Kingston 汤亭亭

(1940- ), Woman Warrior (1976) 《女勇士》获非小说类全国图书评论奖 , China Man (1980) 全国图书奖

• Amy Tan 谭恩美 (1952- ), Joy Luck Club (1989) 《喜福会》

• Gish Jen 任碧莲 (1955- ), Typical American (1991) 《典型的美国佬》

Other Novelists• John Updike (1932-2009) prolific writer famous for his rabbit

series novels and a novella 多产作家，以兔子五部曲闻名• Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

John Updike (1932-2009)

• Rabbit, Run (1960)• Rabbit, Redux (1971)• Rabbit Is Rich (1981) 获普利策奖、

全国图书奖、全国书评家协会奖• Rabbit at Rest (1990) 获普利策奖• Rabbit Remembered (2001),

novella

Contemporary Poetry• Beat Generation poetry• Confessional poetry• Other poets

Beat Generation poetry• Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997),

Howl (1956)• Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919- ), A

Coney Island of the Mind (1958)《心灵中的柯尼岛》

Confessional Poetry 自白派诗歌

• 描述诗人自己的真实生活，尤其是一些私密的心理和生理的体验，如性经验、心理痛苦和疾病、试用毒品的感受、自杀冲动等。

Robert Lowell (1917-1977), Life Studies (1959) 获全国图书奖

Allen GinsbergAnn Sexton (1928-1974), Live or Die (1966) 获

普利策奖Sylvia Plath (1932-1963), Collected Poems

(1981) 获普利策奖John Berryman (1914-1972), 77 Dream Songs

(1964) 获普利策奖

Other Poets• Marianne Moore (1887-1972)• Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)• Gwendolyn Brooks (1917- )• Adrienne Rich (1929- )• Charles Olson (1910-1970)• John Ashberry (1927- )• Frank O’Hara (1926-1966)

Contemporary Drama• Tennessee Williams (1914-1983) A Streetcar Named Desire (1948) The Glass Menagerie (1944)• Arthur Miller (1915-2005) Death of a Salesman (1949)• Edward Albee (1928- ) The Zoo Story （ 1958 ） Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

(1962)

Nobel Prize Winners• Sinclair Lewis 1930• Eugene O’Neill 1936• Pearl Buck 1938 赛珍珠 The Good Earth 《大

地》• T.S. Eliot 1948• William Faulkner 1950• Ernest Hemingway 1954• John Steinbeck 1962• Saul Bellow 1976• Isaac Bashevis Singer 1978• Toni Morrison 1993