第1篇：英美文学选读
英美文学选读
American Literature
Chapter one : The romantic period
I. Emerson’s transcendentalism and his attitude toward nature:
1.Transcendentalism—it is a philosophic and literary movement that flourish in New England, as a reaction against rationalism and Calvinism. It stressed intuitive understanding of god without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind.
2. Emerson’s transcendentalism:
The over-soul—it is an all-pervading power goodness, from which all things come and of which all are a part. It is a supreme reality of mind, a spiritual unity of all beings and a religion. It is a communication between an individual soul and the universal over-soul. And he strongly believe in the divinity and infinity of man as an individual, so man can totally rely on himself.
3.His toward nature:
Emerson loves nature. His nature is the garment of the over-soul, symbolic and moral bound. Nature is not something purely of the matter, but alive with God’s presence. It exercise a healthy and restorative influence on human beings. Children can see nature better than adult.
II. Hawthorne’s Puritanism and his black vision of man:
1. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puristans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the church of England.
2. his black vision of man—by the Calvinistic concept of original sin, he believed that human being are evil natured and sinful, and this sin is ever present in human heart and will pass one generation to another.
3. Young Goodman Brown—it shows that everyone has some evil secrets. The innocent and na?ve Brown is confronted with the vision of human evil in one terrible night, and then he becomes distrustful and doubtful. Brown stands for everyone ,who is born pure and has no contact with the real world ,and the prominent people of the village and church. They cover their secrets during daily lives, and under some circumstances such as the witch’s Sabbath, they become what they are. Even his closed wife, Faith, is no exception. So Brown is aged in that night.
III. The symbolism of Melville’s Mobby-Dick
1.The voyage to catch the white whale is the one of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of universe.
2. To Ahab, the whale is an evil creature or the agent of an evil force that control the universe. As to readers, the whale is a symbol of physical limits, or a symbol of nature. It also can stand for the ultimate mystery of the universe and the wall behind which unknown malicious things are hiding.
IV. Whitman and his Leaves of Grass :
1. Theme: sing of the “en-mass” and the self / pursuit of love, happiness, and ***ual love / sometimes about politics (Drum taps)
2. Whitman’s originality first in his use of the poetic form free verse (i.e. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme),by means of which he becomes conversational and casual.
3.He uses the first person pronoun “I” to stress individualism, and oral language to acquire sympathy from the common reader.
Chapter two : The realistic period
I. The character analysis and social meaning of Huck Finn in Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Huck is a typical American boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”. He appears to be vulgar in language and in manner, but he is honest and decent in essence. His remarkable raft’s journey down on the Mississippi river can be regarded as his process of education and his way to grow up. At first, he stands by slavery, for he clings to the idea that if he lets go the slave, he will be damned to go to hell. And when the “King” sells Jim for money, Huck decides to inform Jim’s master. After he thinks of the past good time when Jim and he are on the raft where Jim shows great care and deep affection for him, he decide to rescue Jim. And Huck still thinks he is wrong while he is doing the right thing.
Huck is the son of nature and a symbol for freedom and earthly pragmatism. Through the eye of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed. Twain contrasts the life on the river and the life on the banks, the innocence and the experience, the nature and the culture, the wilderness and the civilization.
第2篇：英美文学选读教学大纲
“英美文学作品选读”教学大纲
课程类别：专业基础必修课课程代码：BT6262
总 学 时：32学分：2
适用专业：英语专业
先修课程：综合英语，英语泛读，英美概况
一、课程的地位、性质和任务
英美文学选读是桂林电子工业学院外语系文学科外语类英语专业（本科）的一门必修课。目的在于通过学习该课程使学生对英美文学有一个概观了解。同时初步培养学生对英美文学作品的鉴赏能力。
本课程用一学期完成，具体要求是：主要了解英美文学史上不同时期的重要作家极其代表作品；重点掌握作家的生平介绍，主要代表作品的篇名、内容梗概、主人公形象、作品风格流派及其在英美文学史上的地位与影响。
二、课程教学的基本要求
要要求学生重点了解不同时期重要作家及其代表作，包括其生平年代、历史背景、代表作品篇名及评论赏析，并能回答相关一些问答题。能就每位作家代表作品的篇名、主题思想、内容梗概、主人公形象及作品的风格流派、语言特色和在文学史上的地位与影响发表自己意见。
三、理论教学内容与学时分配
1.文学的基本概念（2学时）
2.文学基本理论教学（4学时）
3、英国重要文学作品赏析（10学时）
4、美国重要文学作品赏析（8学时）
3.学生课堂讨论，分析作品（8学时）
四、教学方法建议
1．课前要求学生预习所选作家的介绍并阅读所选作品的篇章，教师在授课时进行重点讲解和介绍，并围绕要点进行提问，指导学生讨论、概述要点大意。提倡师生互动的课堂局面，逐步培养学生分析、鉴赏英语文学作品的能力。
2．每讲完一个作家的作品，教师应督促学生完成课后练习，落实形成性考核作业，以强化学习过程，巩固所学知识。
3．在学习该课程的同时，可举办有关专题讲座，或组织学生观看名著影片，还可让学生在网上查阅相关资料。以扩大学生的视野。
五、考核方式及成绩构成考核方式：开卷考试，就某作品写一篇1千以上字的论文
成绩评定：平时30％，期末考试70％
六、考核方式及成绩构成使用教材：陶洁，英美文学选读，高等教育出版社，2001
参考书目：
1、王守仁，英国文学选读，高等教育出版社，20012、刘炳善，英国文学简史，河南人民出版社，20003、常耀信，美国文学简史，南开大学出版社，1999
第3篇：英美文学选读总结
英国文学选读
乔叟（Geoffrey Chaucer）坎特伯雷故事集 The Canterbury Tales 英雄双韵体（压头韵，每两行押韵）
逼真的描述了当时英国社会的全貌，作品中的人物几乎包括了当时英国社会的各阶层人士，展现出一幅富有生活气息和时代特征的画卷。作品内容反映了当时英国新型的市民阶层的生活理想和追求，同时以幽默和讽刺笔法揭示了种种人性，揭露了宗教的腐朽堕落、贵族的奢侈糜烂等当时社会中的丑陋现象，表达了英国人民对中世纪的封建思想和习俗的反叛，洋溢着人文主义精神的光辉。意义：规范了中古英语。
威廉 莎士比亚（William Shakespeare）历史剧：亨利四世（Henry IV）十四行诗（sonnet）
威廉 布莱克（William Blake）代表作：天真之歌（Songs of I
