American Literature

1. American Literature 美国文学史及选读

2. Edgar Allan Poe（1809—1849）埃德加.爱伦.坡 • His Life • Main Works • His position • His theory of poetry • His theory for short story • His style • Reasons for Misunderstanding

3. His Life • miserable childhood; • foster child; • entered University of Virginia at 17 but not finish; • went to West Point but was dismissed; • worked as editor of a number of magazines; • wrote poetry, tales and reviews; • unhappy marriage; • poor all his life;

4. His Works • Famous American poet, short-story writer, and literary critic • Most controversial and misunderstood in America • Well received in Europe, England, Spain, esp. in France • Literary output: some seventy short stories and a dozen poems

5. Poems 1The Raven (1844) 《乌鸦》 2 Annabel Lee 《安娜贝尔丽》 3 The Sleeper 《睡美人》 4 A Dream Within a Dream 《梦中梦》 5 Israfel《伊斯拉菲尔》 6 The Bells 《钟》 7 Sonnet – To Science 《十四行诗--致科学》 8 To Helen 《献给海伦》 9 The City in the Sea 《海中的城市》

6. Short stories 1 MS. Found in a Bottle (1833) 《瓶中手稿》 2 Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque (1839) 《荒诞奇异的故事》 3 The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) 《毛格街血案》 4The Fall of the House of Usher《厄舍古屋的倒塌》 5 The Cask of Amontillado 《一桶白葡萄酒》 6 The Tell-Tale Heart 《泄密的心》 7 The Purloined Letter 《窃信案》 8 The Man of the Crowd 《人群中的人》 9 Black Cat《黑猫》 10 William Wilson《威廉.威尔逊》 11 The Gold Bug《金甲虫》 12 The Masque of the Red Death 《红色死亡的化妆舞会》

7. literary theory • The Poetic Principle <诗歌原理> • The Philosophy of Composition <创作哲学> • Review of Twice-Told Tales

8. His position Poe’s position in world literature is secure. His influence is world-wide in modern literature. His aesthetics and conscious craftsmanship, his attack on “the heresy of the didactic” and his call for “the rhythmical creation of beauty” have influenced French symbolism and the devotees of “art for art’s sake”. Poe is father of many things, one of which is psychoanalytic criticism, the other being the detective story. 评霍桑的<故事重述>

9. Position of Edgar Allan Poe • A few writers have found Poe’s writing unpolished.Mark Twain said he would read Poe only if someone paid him to do so.Yet most writers and critics, especially Europeans have admired Poe

10. More than any other American writer. The Irish poet W.B.Yeats considered Poe “certainly the greatest of American poets.” • Poe is still praised for his extraordinary ability to create moods and atmospheres,his unforgettable images, the music of his language and his awareness of universal human fears. Edgar Allan Poe is a poet, short-story writer,critic.

11. His theory of poetry • 1) His poetic theories are remarkable in their clarity. • 2) theory: The poem should be short, readable at one sitting (or as long as “The Raven”). Its chief aim is beauty, namely, to produce a feeling of beauty in the reader. • 3) He calls for “pure” poetry. • 4) He stresses rhythm.

12. Selected Reading of Edgar Allan Poe • To Helen • To Helen shows how a Romantic poet can use classic images for his own purposes. Inspired by the beauty of the mother of one of his schoolmate, Poe uses Helen of Troy-----”the face that launched a thousand ships”---to represent that beauty. • In the first stanza, Helen’s beauty is special, it provided security and safety. Perhaps the reader is expected to associate Marlowe’s

13. Famous line:”Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?”Poe uses allusions to classical names and places, as well as certain kinds of images to create the impression of unreal woman like a Greek state. She becomes a symbol both of beauty and frustration. • The Helen of Greek myth was the beautiful daughter of Zues. Her abduction by Paris was

14. Questions on TO Helen • The cause of the Trojan War and the source of the Iliad of Homer. • 1.To what does the poet compare Helen’s beauty in the first stanza? • 2.What images describe Helen’s in the second stanza? • 3.What is Helen doing in the third stanza? • 4. With whom is Helen associated in line 14?

15. To Helen • Helen thy beauty is to me • Like those Nicean barks of yore • That gently o'er a perfumed sea • The weary wayworn wanderer bore • To his own native shore.

16. On desperate seas long wont to roam • Thy hyacinth hair thy classic face • Thy Naiad airs have brought me home • To the glory that was Greece • And the grandeur that was Rome.

17. Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche • How statue-like I see thee stand • The agate lamp within thy hand! • Ah Psyche from the regions which • Are Holy Land!

18. The Raven • 1.What is the only word the raven speaks? • Poe said that when he set to write a poem, the word “nevermore” was the first word that came into his mind:both for its sound and for its meaning.

19. What is the subject of this poem? • “The death of a beautiful woman ” was the most poetical topic in the world. • His first thought was to have “never more ” repeated by a parrot, but he saw greater possibility in a raven,”the bird of ill omen”.Death is a predominent theme of Poe’s poetry.

20. Sound Devices • Poe’s use of sound devices in the poetry is as important as his subject matter.The particular music of his verses creates mood,reveals character and conveys ideas. • A) alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. • “weak and weary” • “silken,sad, uncertain rustling”

21. B) assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create mood. • The open “O” sound,with its deep mournful effect;sorrow for the lost Lenore;nevermore,door ,yore and so on. • C) onomatopoeia : the use of words with sounds that suggest their meanings.”tapping,rapping”---knocking

22. Annabel Lee • 1.The poet looks back into the distant past to a time “in a kingdom by the sea” where he and his lover Annabel Lee lived.They were both very young but their love was great.

23. Their love was so great that even “the winged seraphs of Heaven ”,the highest rank of angels ,envied them for it. • And the death came to Annabel Lee, and her kinsmen carried her to her grave. The poet attributes her death to the envious angels and vows that no power can separate her soul from his. He remembers her always and sleeps by the side of her tomb;everynight

24. The moon and the stars together remind him of her.Even death can not demolish their love,and he loves her in spite of her death. • It is important to note that the very opening of the poem—”It was many and many a year ago”—suggest a tale many times.Many of the oldest folktales and legends tell the story of two young lovers separated by fate of families.

25. 2.Poe uses the unusual words for the more common or familiar words in parenthesis: • maiden(girl) seraph(angel) • kinsmen(relatives) dissever(separate) • sepulcher(tomb)

26. 3.The mood changes from the mournful beginning, becoming slowly more emphatic as the angels are blamed.Poe uses insistent repetition for effect.The girl’s name and the phrase like “in this kingdom by the sea”are repeated like the insistent tolling of a bell, the sound of church-bell at a funeral.This solemn beat becomes stronger and more pronounced like a drumbeat as the poem reaches its emotional climax.

27. Questions for “The Fall of the House of Usher” • 1.What adjectives does the narrator first use to describe the house of Usher? • 2.According to the third paragraph, what do peasants mean when they say “House of Usher”?

28. Questions for “The Fall of the House of Usher” • 3.In what country is the story set? • 4.Where is the House of Usher? • 5.How did Poe use the setting to control the atmosphere? • 6.What does Roderick say about the nature of his malady? • 7.What three things does the narrator do in an attempt to alleviate(ease)the melancholy of his friend?

29. Questions for “The Fall of the House of Usher” • 8.What does the narrator notice while turning aside the lid of Madelime’s coffin? • 9.Why is it significent that they are twins? • 10.Why might Roderick have put lady Madelime in the tomb while she was alive? • 11.What happens to the house in the last paragraph?

30. Reasons for Misunderstanding • 1) As a perceptive critic, he wrote some scathing criticisms on distinguished literary figures. • 2) His literary executor sullied his reputation after his death.