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Fill in the blanks.

1. American achievements in the short story have demanded international respect and

admiration for more than a century and a half. The first successful American short stories came from Washington Irving in the early 19th century.

2. Edgar Allan Poe is generally thought of as the true beginner of the short stories because

he was the first writer who formulated a poetics of the short stories.

3. In the 20th century, there have been many who have won fame abroad as well as in the US

for their short stories: Sherwood Anderson, Hemingway Faulkner, Anna Porter, and dozens of others.

4. As you read from writer to writer, from Washington Irving‘s ?Rip Van Winkle‘ to

O’Connner‘s ?A Good Man is Hard to Find‘, you will see the coming of a short story age, growing from an entertaining tale into a story which probes deep into human souls. 5. Modern literary fiction has been dominated by two forms: the short story and the novel. 6. Washington Irving, the Father of American Literature, developed the short story as a

genre in American literature.

7. Allan Poe is usually acknowledged as the originator of detective stories. He is also

credited with developing many of the standard features of detective fiction.

II.

Multiple choice

1. Edgar Allan Poe wrote poems which are marvels of beauty and craftsmanship, such as

____.

A. I Hear America Singing B. The Raven

C. To a waterfowl D. The fall of the House of Usher

2. The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the___.

A. revolutionism B. reason C. individualism D. rationalism

3. In American literature, the 18th century was the Age of the Enlightenment, ___ was the

dominant spirit.

A. humanism B. rationalism C. revolution D. evolution

4. Who was considered the ―Poet of American Revolution‖?

A. Michael Wigglesworth B. Edward Taylor C. Anne Bradstreet D. Philip Freneau

5. Thomas Jefferson‘s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness,

is typical of the period we now call___.

A. Age of Evolution B. Age of Reason C. Age of Romanticism D. Age of Regionalism

6. Mark Twain created, in _____, a masterpiece of American realism that is also one of the

great books of world literature.

A. Huckleberry Finn B. Tom Sawyer C. The Man That Corrupted Hadleybury D. The Gilded Age

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7. The pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervaded the works of such

American writers as___.

A. Mark Twain B. Scott Fitzgerald C. Walt Whitman D. Stephen Crane

8. Although realism and naturalism were products of the 19th century, their final triumph

came in the 20th century, with the popular and critical successes of such writers as Edwin Arlington, William Cather, Robert Frost, William Faulkner and_____. A. Edgar Allan Poe B. Sherwood Anderson C. Washington Irving D. Ralph Ellison

9. American literature produced only one female poet during the 19th century. She was___.

A. Anne Bradstreet B. Jane Austen C. Emily Dickinson D. Harried Beecher

10. With Howells, James and Mark Twain active on the scene, ____ became the major trend in

the seventies and eighties of the 19th century. A. sentimentalism B. romanticism C. realism D. naturalism

11. Choose from the following writers a staunch advocate of the 19th century American

realism.

A. Mark Twain B. Washington Irving C. Stephen Crane D. Jack London 12. Which writer has naturalist tendency?

A. Frank Norris B. William Dean Howells C. Theodore Dreiser D. Both A and C

13. Early in the 20th century, ____ published works that would change the nature of American

poetry.

A. Ezra Pound B. T.S. Eliot C. Robert Frost D. Both A and B

14. The Imagist writers followed three principles. They respectively are direct treatment,

economy of expression and ____.

A. local color B. irony C. clear rhythm D. blank verse

15. ____, one of the essays in The Sacred Wood, is the earliest statement of T.S. Eliot‘s

aesthetics, which provided a useful instrument for modern criticism.

A. ?Sweeny Agonistes‘ B. ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’ C. ?A Primer of Modern Heresy‘ D. ?Gerention‘

16. T.S Eliot used a form, that is, the orchestration of related themes in successive

movements, in such works as ____.

A. The Waste Land B. ?A Rose for Emily‘ C. The Scarlet Letter D. The Egg

17. T.S. Eliot‘s first major poem (1917)____, has been called the first masterpieces of

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modernism in English.

A. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ B. ?The Waste Land‘ C. ?Four Quartets‘ D. Prelude

18. The three poets Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and ____ opened the way to modern poetry.

A. O. Henry B. Henry David Thoreau C. E.E. Cummings D. Robert Frost

19. In 1954, ___ was awarded the Nobel prize for literature fro his ―mastery of the art of

modern narration‖.

A. T.S Eliot B. Earnest Hemingway C. John Steinbeck D. William Faulkner

20. William Faulkner is one of the most important southern writers in the United States. ____,

As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! are works that ambitious critics tend to admire.

A. The Sound and the Fury B. The Invisible Man C. A Good Man is Hard to Find D. The Wrath of the Grapes

IV. Questions and answers.

1. How do you understand Mark twain‘s use of local color in his writing?

Mark Twain‘s narratives are distinguished for his use of local color. This 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. He insisted that the job of the native novelists was to depict each of the country‘s regions and people accurately. Only in this way could the peculiarity of American experience, the polyglot tongues of its people, and the vastness of the continent be captured. He mainly exploited the possibilities of the local color in the Mississippi region.

2. Discuss the concept of wasteland in relation to the works of those writers in the 20th

century American literature.

?The Waste Land‘ is a poem written by T.S. Eliot on the theme of the sterility and chaos of th3 contemporary world. This most widely known expression of the despair in the postwar era has appeared over and over again in the works of those writers in the 2oth century American literature. Faulkner exemplified T.S. Eliot‘s concept of modern society as a wasteland is a dramatic way, he condemned the mechanized, industrialized society that has dehumanized man by forcing him to cultivate false values and decrease those essential human values such as courage, fortitude, honesty and goodness. Fitzgerald sought to portray a spiritual wasteland of the jazz age. Beneath the masks of relaxation and joviality, there was only sterility, meaningless and futility amid the grandeur and extravagance, there was a hint of decadence and moral decay. Hemingway, the leading spokesman of the Lost Generation, though disillusioned in the postwar period, strove to bring about man‘s ―grace under pressure‖. He tried to bring out the idea than man can be physically destroyed but never defeated spiritually. 3. Analyze Walt Whitman‘s ?O Captain! My Captain‘ in terms of free verse.

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In the poem, Whitman celebrates the heroic struggle of the American people for democracy, freedom and justice and expresses his seething hatred of slavery.

Free verse is a kind of poetry that lacks regular meter or pattern and may not rhyme. Depending on natural speech rhythms, its lines may be of different lengths and may switch abruptly from one rhythm to another. Whitman was the first American poet to use free verse extensively, because it is an appropriate form for his liberating view of life and for his poetry that would allow every aspect of life to speak without restraint. He tried to approximate the natural cadences of speech in his poetry, carefully varying the length of his lines according to his intended emphasis.

Literature of Colonial America

I.

Literary Terms

―separatists‖. Unlike the majority of Puritans, they saw no hope of reforming the Church of England from within. They felt that the influences of politics and court had led to corruptions within the church. They wished to break free from the Church of England. Among them was the Plymouth plantation group. They wished to follow Calvin‘s model, and to set up ―particular‖ churches.

2.Pilgrims and Puritans: A small group of Europeans sailed from England on the

Mayflower in 1620. The passengers were religious reformers--- Puritans who were critical of the Church of England. Having given up hope of ―purifying‖ the Church from within, they chose instead to withdraw from the Church. This action earned them the name Separatists. We know them as the pilgrims.

II.

Fill in the blanks

1. The term ―Puritan‖ was applied to those settlers who originally were devout members of

the Church of England.

2. Harvard College was established in 1636, with a printing press set up nearly in 1639. 3. Hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety, these were the puritan values that dominated much

of the early American writing.

4. The American poets who emerged in the seventeenth century adapted the style of

established European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange, new environment. Anne Bradstreet was one of such poets.

5. Bradstreet used a word ―pilgrim‖ to describe the community of believers who sailed from

Southampton England, on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.

6. The writer who best expressed the Puritan faith in the colonial period was John Winthrop.

1.Separatists: In the colonial period, the Puritans who had gone to extreme were known as

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7. The Puritan philosophy known as Puritanism was important in New England during

colonial time, and had a profound influence on the early American mind for several generations.

III.

Multiple choice

1. Early in the 17th century, the English settlements in ___ began the main stream of what we

recognize as the American national history.

A. Virginia and Pennsylvania B. Massachusetts and New York C. Virginia and Massachusetts D. New York and Pennsylvania

2. The first writings that we call American were the narratives and ___ of the early

settlements.

A. journals B. poetry C. drama D. folklores

3. Among the earliest settlers in North America were Frenchmen who settled in the Northern

Colonies and along the ____ River.

A. St. Louis B. St. Lawrence C. Mississippi D. Hudson 4. In 1620 a number of Puritans came to settle in ___.

A. Virginia B. Georgia C. Maryland D. Massachusetts

5. Whose reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, have been regarded as the

first distinct American literature written in English? A. John Winthrop‘s B. John Smith’s

C. William Bradford‘s D. Christopher Columbus‘s

6. What style did the seventeenth century American poets adapt to the subject matter

confronted in a strangely new environment? A. The style of their own.

B. The style mixed with English and American elements. C. The style mixed with native-American and British tradition. D. The style of established European poets.

7. ____ was a civil covenant designed to allow the temporal state to serve the godly citizen.

A. The early history of Plymouth Colony. B. The Magnalia Christi America. C. Mayflower Compact. D. Freedom of the Will

8. Who among the following translated the Bible into the Indian tongue?

A. Roger Williams B. John Eliot C. Cotton Mather D. John Smith

9. The best of Puritan poets was____, whose complete edition of poets appeared in 1960,

more than two hundred years after his death.

A. Anne Bradstreet B. Michael Wigglesworth C. Thomas Hooker D. Edward Taylor

10. English literature in America is only about more than ___ years old.

A. 500 B. 600 C. 200 D. 100

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11. The early history of ___ Colony was the history of Bradford‘s leadership.

A. Plymouth B. Jamestown C. New England D. Mayflower

12. The common thread throughout American literature has been the emphasis on the ___.

A. revolutionism B. reason C. individualism D. rationalism

13. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. Her poems made such a stir in England that she

became known as the ―___‖ who appeared in America. A. Ninth Muse B. Tenth Muse C. best Muse D. First Muse

14. The ship ―___‖ carried about one hundred Pilgrims and took 66 days to beat its way

across the Atlantic. In December of 1620, it put the Pilgrims ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

A. Sunflower B. Armada C. Mayflower D. Titanic 15. Which writer best expressed the Puritan sense of the self?

A. Jonathan Edwards B. Cotton Mather C. John Smith D. Thomas Hooker

16. Before _____ the American newspapers were cultural and literary nature, but after this

time, they became more political.

A. 1620 B. 1700 C. 1775 D. 1750 IV.

Question and answer.

Who was Anne Bradstreet? What were her literary achievements?

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) is one of the most important figures in the history of American literature. She is considered by many to be the first American poet and her first collection of poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America, by a Gentlewoman of Those Parts, was the first book written by a woman to be published in the United States. Mrs. Bradstreet‘s work also serves as document of the struggles of a Puritan wife against the hardships of new England colonial life.

Literature of Reason and Revolution

I.

Literary terms.

1. Autobiography: An autobiography is a person‘s account of his or her life. Generally

written in the first person, with the author speaking as ―I‖. Autobiographies present life events as the writer views them. In addition to providing inside details about the writer‘s life, autobiographies offer insights into the beliefs and perceptions of the author. They also offer glimpse of what it was like to live in the author‘s time period. They often provide a view of historical events that you won‘t find in history books. Benjamin Franklin‘s Autobiography set the standard for what was then a new genre.

2. Persuasion: Persuasion is writing meant to convince readers to think or act in a certain

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way. A persuasive writer appeals to emotions or reason, offer opinions and urges action. 3. Aphorism: An aphorism is a short, concise statement expressing a wise or clever

observation or a general truth. A variety of devices make aphorisms easy to remember. Some contain rhymes or repeated words or sounds. Others use parallel structure to present contrasting ideas. The aphorism ―no pains no gains‖ uses rhyme, repetition and parallel structure. II.

Fill in the blanks.

1. At the initial period the spread of ideas of the American Enlightenment was largely due to

journalism.

2. Franklin edited the first colonial magazine, which he called the Great Magazine. 3. Franklin‘s beat writing is found in his masterpiece Autobiography.

4. Thomas Paine, with his natural gift for pamphleteering and rebellion, was appropriately

born into an age of revolution.

5. On January 10, 1776, Paine‘s famous pamphlet Common Sense appeared.

6. Paine‘s second most important work The Rights of Man was an impassioned plea against

hereditary monarchy.

7. The most outstanding poet in America of the 18th century was Philip Freneau.

8. Philip Freneau‘s famous poem ―The British Prison Ship” was written about his

imprisoned experience.

9. Philip Freneau was a close friend and political associate of President Thomas Jefferson. 10. Philip Freneau was considered as the ―poet of the American Revolution‖, because he

wrote impassioned verse in support of the American revolution.

11. Philip Freneau was noteworthy first because of the nature of his poems. They were truly

American and very patriotic. In this respect, he reflected the spirit of his age. Therefore, he has been called the ―father of American poetry‖.

12. In American literature, the eighteenth century was an Age of Reason and Revolution. III.

Multiple choice

1. In American literature, the eighteenth century was the age of the Enlightenment. ___ was

the dominant spirit.

A. Humanism B. rationalism C. Revolution D. Evolution

2. In American literature, the Enlighteners were not opposed to___.

A. the colonial order B. religious obscurantism C. the Puritan tradition D. the secular literature

3. The English colonies in North America rose in arms against their parent country and the

Continental Congress adopted ___ in 1776.

A. the Declaration of Independence B. the Sugar Act C. the Stamp Act D. the Mayflower Compact

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4. Which statement about Franklin is not true?

A. He instructed his countrymen as a printer. B. He was a master of diplomacy. C. He was a Puritan. D. He was a scientist.

5. The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career

of ___.

A. Thomas Hood B. Benjamin Franklin C. Thomas Jefferson D. George Washington

6. Which of the following does not belong to this literary period?

A. The American Crisis B. The Federalist C. Declaration of Independence D. The Waste Land 7. Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the ___.

A. American Enlightenment B. Sugar Act C. Chartist movement D. Romanticist

8. From 1732 to 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published his famous ___, an annual

collection of proverbs.

A. The Autobiography B. Poor Richard’s Almanac C. Common Sense D. The General Magazine

9. The first pamphlet published in America to urge immediate independence from Britain is

___.

A. The Rights of Man B. Common Sense

C. The American Crisis D. Declaration of Independence

10. ―These are the times that try men‘s souls‖, these words were once read to Washington‘s

troops and did much to shore up the spirits of the revolutionary soldiers. Who is the author of these words?

A. Benjamin Franklin B. Thomas Jefferson C. Thomas Paine D. George Washington 11. Which statement about Philip Freneau?

A. He was a satirist B. He was a pamphleteer. C. He was a singer. D. He was a bitter polemicist. 12. Who was considered as the ―poet of American Revolution‖?

A. Michael Wigglesworth B. Edward Taylor C. Anne Bradstreet D. Philip Freneau

13. At the Reason and Revolution Period, Americans were influenced by the European

movement called the___.

A. Chartist Movement B. Romanticist Movement C. Enlightenment Movement D. Modernist Movement

14. Thomas Jefferson‘s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness,

is typical of the period we now call____.

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A. Age of Evolution B. Age of Reason C. Age of Romanticism D. Age of Regionalism IV.

Questions and Answers.

1. What are the characteristics of Benjamin Franklin‘s literary work?

The main quality in all Benjamin Franklin‘s writing is its genuine humanness. His literary work was typical of himself. Honest, plain, democratic, clear-headed, shrewd, worldly-wise, he was interested in the practical side of life. The absence of ideality is obvious in all his compositions. He never reached the high levels of imaginative art. But on this lower plane of material interest and every-day life he was, the works possess a universal charm

2. Give a brief account of American literature of this period.

Much work during the Revolutionary period was public writing. By the time of the War for Independence, nearly fifty newspapers had been established in the coastal cities. At the time of Washington‘s inauguration, there were nearly forty magazines. Almanacs were popular from Massachusetts to Georgia. The mind of the nation was on politics. Journalists and printers provided a forum for the expression of ideas. The writing of permanent importance is mostly political writing. The best-known writing of the period outside the field of politics was done by Benjamin Franklin. 3. Write an analysis of The Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation, it also set forth a philosophy of human freedom which served as an important force in the western world. Its ideas inspired mass fervor for the American cause, for it instilled among the common people a sense of their own importance, and inspired struggle for personal freedom, self-government, and a dignified place in society.

Romantic Period of American Literature

I.

Literary Terms.

1. Romanticism: The literature term was first applied to the writers of the 18th century in

Europe who broke away from the formal rules of classical writing. When it was used in American literature it referred to the writers of the middle of the 19th century who stimulated the sentimental emotions of their readers. They wrote the mysteries of life, love, birth and death. The romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all kinds of materials: poetry, essays, plays, fiction, history, works of travel, and biography.

2. Fireside poets: William Gullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russel

Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Greenleaf Whittier constituted a group called the Fireside Poets. They earned this nickname because they frequently used the hearth as

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an image of comfort and unity, a place where families gathered to learn and tell stories. They were widely read around the hearthsides of 19th-century American families. 3. Transcendentalism: In New England, an intellectual movement known as

transcendentalism developed as an American version of Romanticism. The movement began among an influential set of authors based in Concord, Massachusetts and was led by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Like Romanticism, transcendentalism rejected both 18th century rationalism and established religion, which for the transcendentalists meant the Puritan tradition in particular. The transcendentalists celebrated the power of the human imagination to commune with the universe and transcend the limitations of the material world. They found their chief source of inspiration in nature. Emerson‘s essay nature was the major document of the transcendental school and stated the ideas that were to remain central to it.

4. Symbolism: It is a movement in literature and the visual arts that originated in France in

the poetry of Charles Baudelaire in the late 19th century. In literature, symbolism was an aesthetic movement that encouraged writers to express their ideas, feelings, and values by means of symbols or suggestions rather than by direct statements. Hawthorne and Melville are masters of symbolism in America in the 19th century.

5. Free verse: free verse is the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without attention to

conventional rules of meter. Free verse was first written and labeled by a group of French poets of the late 19th century. Their purpose was to deliver poetry from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to recreate the free rhythms of natural speech. Walt Whitman was the precursor who wrote lines of varying length and cadence, usually not rhymed. The emotional content or meaning of the work was expressed through its rhythm. Free verse has been characteristic of the work of many modern American poets, including Ezra Pound and Carl Sandburg.

6. Puritanism: The word is originally used to refer to the theory advocated by a party

within the Church of England. It is also used to refer to attitudes and values considered characteristics of the Puritans. It denotes a rigid moral, or the condemnation of innocent pleasure, or religious narrowness adhered by the early New England Puritans. It exerted great influence over American Romanticism. The preoccupation with the Calvinist view of original sin and the mystery of evil marked the works by such famous writers as Hawthorne and Melville.

II.

Fill in the blanks

1. In the early 19th century Rip Van Winkle established Washington Irving‘s reputation at

home and abroad, and designed the beginning of American Romanticism.

2. Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s first book in 1836 Nature brought American Romanticism into a

new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism.

3. In the early 19th century, Washington Irving wrote The Sketch Book which became the

first work by an American writer to win financial success on both sides of the Atlantic. 4. Allan Poe‘s poems have the musical quality and romantic beauty. The Raven is his

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symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into man‘s deep reality and psychology. The Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truths. The white whale, Moby Dick, symbolizes nature, for it is complex unfathomable, malignant and beautiful as well. For Ahab, the whale represents only evil. For the author, the narrator Ishmael and the readers, Moby Dick is an ultimate mystery of the universe. The voyage of the mind will forever remain a search of the truth.

10. Why is Leaves of Grass considered a milestone in American literature?

The work has always been considered a monumental work because of its uniquely poetic embodiment of American democratic ideal. It has nine editions and the first edition was published in 1855.In the giant work, Whitman shows concern for the whole hardworking people and the burgeoning life of the cities. The realization of the individual value also found a tough position in his poems in a particular way. In celebrating the self, Whitman emphasizes the physical dimension of the self and openly celebrates sexuality. Some of his poems are politically committed. Stylistically, Whitman experiments with a mixture of the colloquial diction and prose rhythm of journalism. The direct address is another salient feature of his poetry. He constructs a democratic ―I‖, a voice that sets out to celebrate itself and the rapture of its sense experiencing the world. He initiated the form of free verse in America that endows his poems with a flow of musicality a sense of rhythm.

11. What are the thematic concerns and the artistic characteristics of Emily Dickinson‘s

poetry?

Her poetry covers the issues vital to humanity, which include religion, death, immortality, love and nature. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines. In her poetry, there is a particular stress pattern, in which dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis. Most of her poems borrow the repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns, with two lines of four-beat meter alternating with two lines of three-beat meter. A master of imaginary that makes the spiritual materialize in surprising ways, Dickinson managed manifold variations within her simple form. She uses imperfect rhythms, subtle breaks of rhythm, and idiosyncratic syntax and punctuation to create fascinating world puzzles, which have produced greatly divergent interpretations over the years. Due to her deliberate seclusion, her poems tend to vivify some abstract ideas. Her poetry, despite its ostensible formal simplicity, is remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness. Her limited private world have never confined the limitless power of her creativity and imagination.

Period of Realism

I.

Literary terms.

1. Realism: A mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully

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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.

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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

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detail, incongruity and an almost palpable sense of suspended belief. New York city is the fine arts center of America and the birthplace of abstract expressionism a major inspiration of this poetry. Most of the poets worked as art reviewers or museum curators, or collaborated with painters. Perhaps because of their feeling for abstract art, which distrusts figurative shapes and obvious meanings, their work is often difficult to comprehend, as in the later work of John Ashbery. II.

Fill in the blanks

1. Imagism is a poetic movement of England and the United States, which flourished from

1980-1917.

2. Generally considered the leader of the imagist movement, Ezra Pound borrowed

techniques from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry and produced poems stressing clarity, precision and economy of language and foregoing traditional rhyme and meter. 3. The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot is regarded as a central text of modernism. It is said to

catch precisely the state of culture and society after Word War I and graphically illustrate the spiritual poverty of the West of that time.

4. Published in 1917, Prufrock and Other Observations immediately established T.S. Eliot

as a leading poem of the avant-garde. The most notable poem in this collection is entitled ?The Love Song of Alfred J. Pruforck’.

5. In 1927, T.S. Eliot became a British citizen and converted from the Unitarian Church to

the Church of England.

6. Among the imagists, H.D. is credited with giving a female voice to classical myths. 7. Winner of the National Book Award in 1950 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1960, William C. Williams is the author of the five-volume epic Paterson which is a lucid statement of the author‘s aesthetics.

8. The prose masterpieces of Carl Sandburg is the monumental biography Abraham

Lincohn: The Praire Years and Abraham Lincohn: The War Years, the latter of which earned him the 1940 Pulitzer Prize in history.

9. Wallace Stephen was successful in two different fields which seemed rather incompatible

with each other: he was viece-president of an insurance company and a remarkable poet at the same time.

10. Besides, T.S. Eliot also wrote verse plays and he excelled in dramatic monologue, Murder in the Cathedral is widely acknowledged as his best verse play which is based on the story of Thomas a Becket, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church of the ancient time.

III.

Multiple choice

1. Imagist poems are mainly composed in the form of ___.

A. blank verse B. free verse C. heroic couplet D. sonnet

2. Imagism was equivalent to ___ in fiction in a sense. Imagist never stated the emotion in

the poem, but just presented an image: concrete, firm and definite in picture.

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A. naturalism B. romanticism C. modernism D. surrealism

3. Pioneer of modern American poetry,___ did not only produce great poetry himself but

also helped his contemporary poets including T.S. Eliot, H.D., and Robert Frost with their literary careers.

A. Robert Lowell B. Edgar Allan Poe

C. Ezra Pound D. William Carlos Williams 4. Which of the following poets is a Nobel Prize winner?

A. Ezra Pound B. Robert Frost C. T.S. Eliot D. Wallace Stevens

5. To many who read Fog, I Am the People, the Mob, Grass, and the 21 sections of Good

Morning, America, ___ was successor to 19th century poet Walt Whitman as the proclaimer of the American spirit.

A. T.S Eliot B. Ezra Pound C. Robert Frost D. Carl Sandburg

6. Four of Robert Frost‘s poetic collections were Pulitzer Prize winners. They are ___,

Collected Poems, A Further Range, and a Witness Tree.

A. Paterson B. New Hampshire C. Cathay D. Des Imagistes

7. E.A. Robinson wrote narrative poems based on Arthurian legends in his later life. The

poems include___, Lancelot, and Tristram.

A. Merlin B. Guinevere C. The Holy Grail D. Camelot 8. Which of the following was not written by Robert Frost?

A. ?The Road not Taken‘ B. ?After Apple –Picking‘ C. ?Birches‘ D. ‘Richard Cory’

9. Like T.S. Eliot, ___ mainly appealed to the taste of the so-called elites.

A. E.A. Robinson B. Wallace Stevens C. E.E. Cummings D. Carl Sandburg

10. Like Robert Frost, ___ was also noted for his use of a dry, sometimes biting, New

England humor.

A. Carl Sandburg B. Wallace Stevens C. E.A. Robinson D. E.E. Cummings 11. Carl Sandburg was associated with the imagists and wrote well-known imagist poems

such as___.

A. ?The Harbor’ B. ?Merlin‘ C. ?Smoke and Steel‘ D. ?Camelot‘

12. The imagist poets followed three principles, they are ___, direct treatment and economy

of expression.

A. blank verse B. clear rhythm C. free verse D. everyday speech 13. T.S. Eliot was a ___.

A. playwright, critic and poet B. critic, poet and novelist C. novelist, essayist and poet D. poet, novelist and politician

14. ___ championed the imagist movement from 1912 to 1914, setting down the imagist

principles. Then Amy Lowell led the movement into the period of ―Amygism‖, as Pound called it, from 1914 to 1917.

A. T.S. Eliot B. H.D. C. Ezra Pound D. Carl Sandburg

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IV.

Questions and answers

1. What are the major characteristics of imagist poetry? The major characteristics are as follows:

1) direct treatment of objects, concreteness of imagery. 2) No ideas or insight but things or images.

3) Free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern. 4) Common speech, economy of expressions 2. What is the theme of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot?

The theme is modern spiritual barrenness, the despair and depression that followed the WWI, the sterility and turbulence of the modern world, and the decline and break-down of western culture. It also shows the search for regeneration by people living in a chaotic world.

20th Century American Fiction

I.

Literary terms

1. Camera eye: A literary device developed by Dos Passos, which provides an

autobiography account of his life corresponding to the time of the fictional narrative. Written usually in a stream-of-consciousness style, they record the author‘s activities and reflections at roughly the same time that events in the fictional narratives are taking place. These impressionistic accounts recreate his changing moods in a turbulent age, showing that his private life is part of a greater cultural complexity.

2. Expressionism: The term refers to a movement in Germany early in the 20th century, in

which a number of painters sought to avoid the representation of external reality and instead , to project a highly personal vision of the world. The main principle involved is that expression determines form, and therefore imagery, punctuation, syntax and so on. In brief, any of the formal rules and elements of writing can be bent or disjointed to suit the purpose. Theatrically, expressionism was a reaction against realism in that it tends to show inner psychological realities.

3. Free association: A term commonly used in psychology but which has achieved some

currency in literary criticism and theory. The point involved is that a word or idea acts as a stimulus or trigger to a series or sequence of other words or ideas which may or may not have some logical relationship. Some writing that looks like it is probably the result of carefully thought out and contrived arrangement. This technique is often adopted in modern works, such as James Joyce‘s Ulysses.

4. Stream of consciousness: It was first used in the 19th century by William James, an

American philosopher and psychologist, in his book The Principle of Psychology. As a literary technique that novelists experiment with in the 20th century, it is employed to evince subjective as well as objective reality. It reveals the character‘s feelings, thoughts,

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and actions, often following an associative rather than a logical sequence, without commentary by the author. It is a literary technique in which authors represent the flow of sensations and ideas, added to the depth of character portrayal. The British Richardson was the pioneer in use of the device. James Joyce brought it to its highest point of development. Other exponents include Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

5. Avant-garde: The French military and political term for the vanguard of an army or

political movement, extended since the late 19th century to that body of artists and writers who are dedicated to the idea of art as experiment and revolt against tradition. It means to stay ahead of one‘s time through constant innovation in forms and subjects.

6. Collage: A term adopted from the vocabulary of painters to denote a work which contains

a mixture of allusions, references, quotations, and foreign expressions. It is common in the work of James Joyce, Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot.

7. Lost Generation: Also termed the Sad Young Men, which was created by F.S. Fitzgerald

in his book All the Sad Young Men. The term in general refers to the post- World War I generation, but specifically a group of US writers who came of age during the war and established their reputation in the 1920s. It stems from a remark made by Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway, ―You are all a lost generation.‖ Hemingway used it as an epigraph to The Sun Also Rises, a novel that captures the attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast living set of disillusioned young expatriates in postwar Paris. The generation was ―lost‖ in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from US, they seemed hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren. The term embraces Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, e.e. cummings and so on.

8. Multiple point of view: William Faulkner is a master at presenting multiple points of

view, showing within the same story how characters react differently to the same person or the same events. It gives the story a circular form with one event as the center and various points of view radiating from it. This technique makes it difficult for the reader to see the truth of the story.

II.

Fill in the blanks

1. The impact of Darwin‘s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of

the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters give rise to another school of realism: American naturalism.

2. The Sound and the Fury has four sections with four different narrators. The daughter of

the Compson family named Caddy, who is the only one capable of loving among the Compson children, appears in all the narratives.

III.

Multiple choice

1. Of the following Americans writers, who has NOT been an expatriate in Paris?

A. Ernest Hemingway B. Sherwood Anderson C. F.S. Fitzgerald D. Emily Dickinson

2. Which of the following works by Willa Cather shows Thea Kronberg finding spiritual

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renewal in the American Southwest?

A. O Pioneers! B. The Song of the Lark C. Death Comes for the Archbishop D. Shadows on the Rock 3. Which of the following statements concerning Willa Cather is NOT true?

A. Estrangement from conventional sexuality and sex roles is typical of Cather‘s main

characters.

B. O Pioneers represents the first stage of Cather’s literary life centering around

the theme of heroic manhood.

C. Books from her middle period include A Lost Lady and The Professor’s House; both

deal with spiritual and cultural crises in the lives of their main characters.

D. Death Comes for the Archbishop, a work that initiates her third stage and is set in

nineteenth century New Mexico, evokes the solidity of a vanished past.

4. In which of the works of Hemingway does the character Santiago occur?

A. In Our Time B. The Old Man and the Sea C. For Whom the Bell Tolls D. The Sun Also Rises

5. Which of the following statements concerning the role of the sea in Hemingway‘s novella

The Old Man and the Sea is NOT correct?

A. Through the protagonist‘s interactions with the sea, his character emerges. B. The sea provides glimpses of the depth of the protagonist‘s knowledge.

C. His struggle, resolve and pride are measured in terms of how far out into the gulf he

sails.

D. The sea symbolizes the benevolent side of nature. 6. The Hemingway code heroes are best remembered for their___.

A. indestructible spirit B. pessimistic view of life C. war experience D. masculinity

7. Which of the following statements concerning Ernest Hemingway is NOT true?

A. War, hunting, human dignity and triumph have been recurring motifs in Hemingway‘s

works.

B. His work is preoccupied with the cultural and psychological meanings of

femininity.

C. Hemingway identified the rapid change in women‘s status after WWI and the general

blurring of sex roles that accompanied the new sexual freedom.

D. As Hemingway aged, his interest in exclusively masculine forms of self-assertion and

self-definition became more pronounced.

8. Who has made the statement that all modern American literature comes from a single

book called The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn?

A. Ernest Hemingway B. William Faulkner C. F. S. Fitzgerald D. T.S. Eliot

9. Who was the first American author that won the Nobel Prize in 1930?

A. Toni Morrison B. Ernest Hemingway

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