【正文】 Jewish LiteratureI. DefinitionJewish literature refers to published creative writings by American Jews about their American experiences. This kind of writings is shown in Jewish perspective.II. Jewish Point of View1. Jews believe that God has sent perpetual sufferings to his chosen people to strengthen and purify them, and they are the “chosen people”.2. Humour is a prominent aspect of Jewish point of view. It is often a twisted kind of edy to keep them from despair. Jews are able to laugh at themselves, so some of their best humour is selfmocking.3. Jews lay emphasis upon the power of intellects. The power to understand their own experience to judge their own life rationally to think well is considered a high virtue.4. Selfteaching is at the heart of almost all Jewish novels. The Jewish heroes often try to seek a rational interpretation of the world through their own experience in it.III. Saul Bellow1. life2. works(1) The Adventures of Augie March(2) Henderson the Rain King(3) Herzog(4) Mr. Sammler’s Planet3. Themes: Saul Bellow’s basic themes are essentially threefolded: First, he views contemporary society as a threat to human life and human integrity. Then living in such an environment, people tend to bee paranoid, highstrung, and impotent, and so lose their sanity. Bellovian characters suffer most from a kind of psychosis. They go through a phase before they regain their mental balance and serenity. Finally, there is the quest motif, a quest for truth and values, difficult, excruciating, but successful in a way.Chapter 7 American DramaI. Eugene O’Neil1. life2. works(1) The Emperor Jones(2) The Hairy Ape(3) Desire under the Elms(4) The Iceman Cometh(5) Long Day’s Journey into Night3. The Hairy Ape: Yank4. style(1) O’Neil was a tireless experimentalist in dramatic art. He paid little attention to the division of scenes. He introduced the realistic or even the naturalistic into the American theatre.(2) He borrowed freely from the best traditions of European drama, especially the stream of consciousness.(3) He made use of setting and stage property to help in his dramatic representation.(4) He wrote long introduction and directions for all the scenes, explaining the mood and atmosphere.(5) He sometimes wrote the actors’ lines in dialect.II. Tennessee Williams1. life2. point of view and themesHe writes about violence, sex, homosexuality (taboos in drama). Some of his plays rooted in southern social scene. The characters are often unhappy wanderers。3. As regarding rhythm, to pose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome.Imagism: Imagism was a poetic movement that flourished in America and England, at the beginning of the 20th century. Ezra Pound raised three principles for the movement: direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective。 The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn(3) Life on the MississippiIV. Comparison of the three “giants” of American RealismIn thematic terms, James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life, whereas Mark Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society. Technically, Howells wrote in the vein of genteel realism, James pursued the psychological realism, but Mark Twain’s contribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole was partly through his theories of local colorism in American fiction, and partly through his colloquial style.Chapter 4 American NaturalismI. Background1. Darwin’s theory: “natural selection”2. Spenser’s idea: “social Darwinism”3. French Naturalism: ZoraII. Definition: American Naturalism appeared in the 1890s with the representatives of Crane, Norris and Theodore Dreiser. They tore the mask of gentility to pieces and wrote about the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world, and his lack of dignity in face of the crushing forces of environment and heredity. They reported truthfully and objectively, with a passion for scientific accuracy and a lot of details. The whole picture is somber and dark。僅作參考，最主要還是要自己消化，整理Chapter 1 Colonial Period 1. Puritanism: American puritans accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God.2. Influence(1) A group of good qualities – hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.(2) It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.(3) Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.(4) With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct。 and the general tone one of hopelessness and even despair.III. Theodore Dreiser1. life2. works(1) Sister Carrie3. point of view(1) He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned to regard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.(2) Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3) No one is ethically free。 to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation。 lonely, vulnerable women indulged in memory of the past or illusion of the future. He was attra