The poem describes the influence of environment on the child, and the poet divides these influences into the animal and vegetable world of nature and the human world of the home. It is interesting to reexamine the sequence of the items listed in this poem which "became part of the child." They reflect the natural process of a boy's growth. At first, his world was limited within the barnyard. Later, he sought into fields and streets. Then, he became interested in something more mysterious -his fellow human beings. Finally, he was on the symbolic threshold of the outside world, the sea. He had grown into a young man from a baby.
2. Cavalry Crossing a Ford
This poem is grouped under the Drum-Taps section in the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass， which reminds its readers of a picture, or a photo, of a scene of the American Civil War. All the movements described in this picture are frozen. And while sounds are depicted, it's more likely that they come out of the watcher's imagination, rather than from the picture itself. This poem incorporates his emotions and feelings during the war period.
Not a lover of violence and bloodshed, Whitman expressed much mourning for the sufferings of the young lives in the battlefield and showed a determination to carry on the fighting dauntlessly until the final victory.
Whitman uses colors and images.
3. Song of Myself： The two principal beliefs embodied in this poem:
In this poem Whitman sets forth two principal beliefs: the theory of universality, which is illustrated by lengthy catalogues of people and things, and the belief in the singularity and equality of all beings in value. He extols whole universe and the world. He is thinking of the self as a powerful and sensitive instrument for receiving and expressing. He moves from himself to you to others, to all humanity all together about him.
Ⅴ. Herman Melville(1819-1891)
Herman Melville is best-known as the author of his mighty book, Moby-Dick(1851), which is one of the world's greatest masterpieces.
一．一般识记 His life and his career as a writer
Herman Melville was born in 1819 in Lansingburgh, New York. The early sailing experiences were rewarding, for they gave him a love of the sea, and aroused his desire for adventure. In 1841, Melvile went to the South Seas on a whaling ship, where he gained the first-hand information about whaling that he used later in Moby Dick. In the following three years, Melville served on three different whalers, finally served for a year in the regular navy. Working as a sailor, he had experienced the most brutalizing life in his time for a man, yet years of adventures also furnished him with abundant raw materials for most of his major fictions and his imaginative visions of life.
In 1850, Melville and Hawthorne became very good friends. Hawthorne's black vision regarding the evil of human beings had in some way changed Melville's outlook on life and the world and his allegorical way of exposition had affected his writing technique. Shakespearean tragic vision and Emersonian Transcendentalism also produced some positive effects on his writing.
二．识记 The differences between Melville's early works and later ones:
Melville's writings can be well divided into two groups, each with something in common in the light of the thematic concern and imaginative focus.
(1) His early works were sea adventures, condidered to be the best. Among them are Typee(1846), Omoo(1847), and Mardi(1849). Redburn(1849) is a semi-autobiographical novel, concerning the sufferings of a genteel youth among brutal sailors; in White Jacket(1850) Melville relates his life on a United States man-of-war. Of all these sea adventure stories, Moby-Dick proves to be the best. By writing such a book Melville reached the most flourishing stage of his literary creativity.
(2)Pierre is a popular romance intended for the feminine market but provoking an outrageous repudiation. A series of short stories or novellas which attracted public attention. Among them are "Bartleby, the Scrivener," a short story strikingly symbolizing the loneliness and anonymity and passivity of little men in big cities. Billy Budd again deals with the sea and sailors and the theme of a conflict between innocence and corruption. In the early works Melville is more enthusiastic about setting out on a quest for the meaning of the universe, hence they are more metaphysical and the main characters are ardent and self-dramatizing "I," defying God, as best reflected in Moby-Dick; while in the late works, Melville becomes more reconciled with the world of man, in which, he admits, one must live by the rules. However, the purpose of Melville's fictional tales, exotic or philosophical, is to penetrate as deeply as possible into the metaphysical, theological, moral, psychological, and social truths of human existence.
三．领会 1. Moby-dick
Moby-dick is regarded as the Great American Novel, the first American prose epic(散文史诗： a long narrative poem telling of heroic deeds of reflecting the values of the society from which it originated), though it is presented in the form of a novel.
(1).its surface and the deep meaning
(a).its surface meaning: It is a whaling tale or sea adventure, dealing with Ahab, a man with an overwhelming obsession to kill the whale which has crippled him, on board his ship Pequod in the chase of the big whale. The dramatic description of the hazards of whaling makes the book a very exciting sea narrative and builds a literary monument to an era of whaling industry in the nineteenth century.
The deep symbolic theme: Moby-Dick is not merely a whaling tale or sea adventure, considering that Melville is a great symbolist. It turns out to be a 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. This is shown in Captain Ahab's rebellious struggle against the overwhelming mysterious vastness of the universe and its awesome sometimes merciless forces.
In the perverted grandeur of Captain Ahab and in the beauties and terrors of the voyage of the "Pequod," however, Melville dramatized his bleak view of the world in which he lived. It is at once godless and purposeless. Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life, meaningless because futile. As some critics note, man can observe and even manipulate in a prudent way, but he cannot influence and overcome nature at its source. Once he attempts to seek power over it he is doomed. Here Melville expressed his deep concerns: the equivocal defeats and triumphs of the human spirit and its fusion of creative and murderous urges.
(2)It is a mixture of romanticism and realism
(a) romantic features: Ahab is a Byronic hero, a man with an overwhelming obsession or consuming desire to take revenge against the whale which has crippled him. His revenge ends in tragedy and he, who burns with a baleful fire, becomes evil himself in his thirst to destroy evil. Moby Dick, for the writer, symbolizes the unknown, mysterious natural force, an unreal world of speculation and mystery which is very hard for man to manipulate.
(b) realistic features: The dramatic description of the hazards of whaling makes the book a very exciting sea narrative and builds a literary monument to an era of whaling industry in the nineteenth century.
(3)Allegory and symbolism
Moby-Dick is not merely a whaling tale or sea adventure, it is also a 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.
Like Hawthorne, Melville is a master of allegory and symbolism. He uses allegory and symbolism in Moby-Dick to present its mighty theme. Instead of putting the battle between Ahab and the big whale into simple statements, he used symbols, that is, objects or persons who represent something else. Different people on board the ship are representations of different ideas and different social and ethnic groups; facts become symbols and incidents acquire universal meanings; the Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truth. The white whale, Moby Dick, symbolizes nature for Melville, for it is complex, unfathomable, malignant, and beautiful as well. For the character Ahab, however, the whale represents only evil. Moby Dick is like a wall, hiding some unknown, mysterious things behind. Ahab wills the whole crew on the Pequod to join him in the pursuit of the big whale so as to pierce the wall, to root out the evil, but only to be destroyed by evil, in this case, by his own consuming desire, his madness. For the author, as well as for the reader and Ishmael, the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe, inscrutable and ambivalent, and the voyage of the mind will forever remain a search, not a discovery, of the truth.
(4)Other artistic devices in Moby-Dick
Melville's great gifts of language, invention, psychological analysis, speculative agility, and narrative power are fused to make Moby-Dick a world classic. The skillful use of Ishmael both as a character and a narrator gives the novel a moral magnitude; the manipulation of the whaling chapters for some philosophical speculation makes the novel more than symbolic; different levels of language use and styles turn the whole book into a symphony with all the musical instruments going on to form a melody; and moreover, Melville's knowledge of epic and tragedy, the highest literary genres, helps him produce a great tragic epic, with Ahab at the center as a tragic hero, who burns with a baleful fire, becoming evil himself in his thirst to destroy evil.
四．应用 Selected Reading: An Excerpt from Moby-Dick
(1) The image of the captain, Ahab: The captain, Ahab, is a monomaniac whose single purpose is to capture the fierce, cunning white whale, Moby Dick, which had torn away his leg during their last encounter. Ahab is a tragic hero with an overwhelming obsession or consuming desire to kill Moby Dick. He transforms himself into an evil in his thirst to destroy evil.
(2)Interpretations of the different meanings of the story: Moby-Dick is one of the few books in American literature that has produced an exciting effect upon readers, of which its author could not have dreamed. (a) It is a mixture of fantasy and realism based upon the South Pacific whaling industry; (b) It might be read as an initiation story about Ishmael, the outcast, finding himself in a real world of hard work and danger and an unreal world of speculation and mystery; (c)It is a fabulous dramatization of Ahab's obsessed determination to revenge himself in the pursuit of one particular whale who has previously destroyed his boat and humiliated him by ripping off one of his legs.(d) The deep symbolic theme: Moby-Dick is not merely a whaling tale or sea adventure, but turns out to be a 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. This is shown in Captain Ahab's rebellious struggle against the overwhelming mysterious vastness of the universe and its awesome sometimes merciless forces.
Nevertheless, the book has been so often interpreted in so many ways, allegorically and symbolically, that now we can safely conclude that Moby-Dick "means" almost as many things as it has readers who are deeply involved in the conflicts of life and sensitive enough to become involved in the spirit of conflict expressed in a work of art.
(3)The excerpt: The following excerpt is from the conclusion of the book, in which the great chase of the white whale is ending. The Pequod has finally sighted Moby-Dick. The boats have been lowered in chase of the whale, which has already demolished two of them. Though Ahab kills the white whale, yet all the human beings involved, except the narrator, die in the process. At the end only nature, symbolized by the sea, remains moving but unmoved.
Chapter 2 The Realistic Period
Ⅰ.本章学习目的和要求 ：通过本章的学习，了解美国19世纪中期现实主义文学产生的历史、文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征、基本主张，及其对同时代和后期美国文学的影响；了解该时期的主要作家的文学创作生涯、人生观及价值观及其代表作品的主题思想、人物刻画、语言风格；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品并了解其思想内容和艺术特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
Ⅱ.本章重点和难点：1.美国现实主义文学的特点 2.现实主义与自然主义的异同，这两种倾向在美国19世纪小说中的反映
3.主要作家的创作思想、艺术特色、及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、艺术手法、社会意义等 4.分析选读作品的思想内容及艺术特色、人物刻画
Ⅲ.考核知识点和考核要求：（一）．现实主义时期概述
1．识记：美国现实主义文学产生的社会和文化背景
（a）美国南北战争（b）威廉·迪安·豪威尔斯：美国现实主义的先驱（c）达尔文主义和法国小说家佐拉的影响
2．领会：A.美国现实主义文学的特点
（a）占主导地位的美国现实主义小说（b）现实主义文学中的地方色彩小说（c）现实主义文学中的自然主义倾向
B.现实主义文学和自然主义倾向之异同 C．达尔文主义、法国自然主义作家的主张以及对现实主义时期美国文学的影响
3．应用：A.名词解释：现实主义、达尔文主义、自然主义、地方色彩主义B现实主义文学和自然主义倾向在美国19世纪小说中的反映
（二）．美国现实主义时期的主要作家
A．马克·吐温1．一般识记：马克·吐温的生平及创作生涯 2．识记：马克·吐温的主要作品
《汤姆·索亚历险记》《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》《亚瑟王朝廷上的康涅狄格州美国人》
3．领会：马克·吐温作品中的地方色彩、幽默及语言特色
4．应用：（1）选读《哈克贝里·费恩》第三十一章：主题结构、人物刻画、语言特色（2）哈克的性格分析及其社会意义
B．亨利·詹姆斯
1．一般识记：詹姆斯的生平和创作生涯
2．识记：詹姆斯的早期作品《黛西。米勒》，〈〈一个美国人〉〉〈〈贵妇人的画像〉〉〈〈欧洲人》
中期作品《波士顿人》〈〈螺丝在拧紧〉〉〈〈丛林猛兽》
后期作品《专使》〈〈鸽翼〉〉〈〈金碗》 文艺理论著作：《小说的艺术》
3．领会：（1）詹姆斯的“现实主义” （2）詹姆斯的小说艺术特色：“视角”与心理分析
4.应用：（1）选读《黛西·米勒》第一章：主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格（2）《黛西·米勒》的主题和人物分析
C．艾米莉·狄金森
1．一般识记：狄金森的生平及创作生涯
2．识记：狄金森的诗歌：（1）狄金森有关“永恒”主题的诗（2）狄金森的爱情诗（3）狄金森的自然诗
3．领会：狄金森诗歌的主题结构，创新和艺术特色
4．应用：选读狄金森诗歌第441、465．585和712首的结构、主题、语言特色
D．西奥多·德莱塞
1．一般识记：德莱塞的生平及创作生涯
2．识记：德莱塞的主要作品;《嘉丽妹妹》《珍妮姑娘》《美国的悲剧》 “欲望”三部曲：《金融家》《巨头》《斯多葛》
3．领会：德莱塞小说的语言风格
4．应用：（1）达尔文主义与德莱塞作品中的自然主义倾向（2）选读《嘉丽妹妹》的最后一章节选：主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格
一、识记：
1．The Age of Realism (How to define the Realistic Period in American literary history?)
The period ranging from 1865 to l914 has been referred to as the Age of Realism in the 1iterary history of the United States, which is actually a movement or tendency that dominated the spirit of American literature, especia1ly American fiction, from the 1850s onwards. Realism was a reaction against Romanticism or a move away from the bias towards romance and self-creating fictions, and it paved the way to Modernism. Instead of thinking about the irrational, the imaginative, realists touched upon social and political realities and pressures in the post-Civil war society. Three dominant figures are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James.
2.The historical and socio-cultural background of American Realism
The American society after the Civil War provided rich soil for the rise and deve1opment of Realism. This period is characterized with changes, in relation to every aspect of American life, politically, economically, culturally, and religiously. First of all, politically, the Civil War affected both the social and the value system of the country. America had transformed itse1f into an industria1ized and commercialized society. Wilderness gave way to civilization. The burgeoning economy and industry stepped up urbanization. However, economically, the changes were not all for the better. The industrialization and the urbanization were accompanied by the incalculable sufferings of the laboring people. Therefore, polarization of the wellbeing between the poor and the rich started to show up. Thirdly, as far as the ideology was concerned, people became dubious about the human nature and the benevo1ence of God, which the Transcendentalists cared most. What Mark Twain referred to as “ the Gi1ded Age” replaced the frontier and the spirit of the frontiersman, which is the spirit of freedom and human connection. Fourthly, the literary scene after the Civi1 War proved to be quite different a picture. The harsh rea1ities of life as well as the disillusion of heroism resulting from the dark memories of the Civil War had set the nation against the romance. The Americans began to be tired of the sentimental feelings of Romanticism. Thus, started a new period in the American literary writings known as the Age of Realism, characterized by a great interest in the realities of life.
3.The Gilded Age
It refers to the period of gross materialism and blatant political corruption in the U.S. history during the 1870s that gave rise to important novels of social and political criticism. The period takes its name from the earliest of these, The Gilded Age(1873),written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner. The novel gives a vivid and accurate description of Washington D.C., and is peopled with caricatures of many leading figures of the day, including greedy industrialists and corrupt politicians. The political novels of the Gilded Age represent the beginnings of a new strain in the American literature, the novel as a vehicle of social protest, a trend that grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the works of the muckrakers and culminated in the proletarian novelists.
二．领会：1.What is Realism?
In art and literature, Realism refers to an attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or to represent figures exactly as they act or appear in life. Realism emerged as a literary movement in Europe in the 1850s. In reaction to Romanticism, realistic writers should set down their observations impartially and objectively. They insisted on accurate documentation, sociological insight, and avoidance of poetic diction and idealization. The subjects were to be taken from everyday life, preferably from lower-class life. Realism entered American literature after the Civil War. William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James were the pioneers of realism in the U.S.
