A Course Description of American Literature 1
A Brief Introduction of American Literature 3
Part One Colonial Period and Early American Literature（1620-1800） 13
Chapter1 The Planters and the Puritans 13
Background Information 13
1.1 Captain John Smith 15
From The Generall Historie 16
Captain Smith Among the Indians 16
1.2 William Bradford 20
From The Pilgrims Meet the Indians 20
1.3 Edward Taylor 22
The Joy of Church Fellowship Rightly Attended 23
Chapter2 The Founders of the Nation 25
Background Information 25
2.1 Benjamin Franklin 27
From The Whistle 29
A Receipt to Make a New England Funeral Elegy 30
From The Way to Wealth 31
2.2 Thomas Paine 33
From Common Sense 34
2.3 Thomas Jefferson 38
The Declaration of Independence 39
Part Two The Romantic Period（1780-1860） 47
Chapter 3 The New National Literature 47
Background Information 47
3.1 Washington Irving 49
The Devil and Tom Walker 52
3.2 James Fenimore Cooper 63
An Overview of The Deerslayer 65
From The Deerslayer 65
3.3 William Cullen Bryant 76
Thanatopsis 78
To a Waterfowl 81
3.4 Edgar Allan Poe 83
The Masque of the Red Death 85
Annabel Lee 91
To Helen 93
Chapter 4 The Transcendentalism 95
Background Information 95
Transcendentalism 96
4.1 Ralph Waldo Emerson 98
From Self-Reliance 100
The Rhodora 105
4.2 Henry David Thoreau 107
An Overview of Walden 109
From Walden 110
Where I Lived，and What I Lived for 110
4.3 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 123
The Arsenal at Sprinfield 125
The Tide Rises，the Tide Falls 127
Nature 127
The Sound of the Sea 128
4.4 Nathaniel Hawthorne 129
The Maypole of Merry Mount 131
An Overview of The Scarlet Letter 142
The Summary of Chapter 12 144
From The Scarlet Letter Chapter 12 144
The Minister’s Vigil 144
Part Three The Age of Realism（1860-1910） 157
Chapter 5 The Conflict between North and South 157
Background Information 157
5.1 Walt Whitman 163
Young Grimes 165
From Song of Myself 167
Cavalry Crossing a Ford 168
5.2 Abraham Lincoln 169
Second Inaugural Address，March 4，1865 170
5.3 Emily Dickinson 172
I Like to See It Lap the Miles 174
I’ll Tell You How the Sun Rose 175
Because I Could Not Stop for Death 176
5.4 Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe 177
An Overveiew of Uncle Tom’s Cabin 179
The Summary of Chapter 12 182
From Uncle Tom’s Cabin Chapter 12 182
Select Incident of Lawful Trade 182
Chapter 6 New American Outlooks 201
Background Information 201
6.1 Mark Twain 207
From Life on the Mississippi 210
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County 213
An Overview of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 219
The Summary of Chapter 31 220
From The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapter 31 220
6.2 Henry James 229
An Overview of The Portrait of a Lady 232
The Summary of Chapter 7 235
From The Portrait of a Lady Chapter 7 235
6.3 Stephen Crane 245
A Mystery of Heroism 246
6.4 Theodore Dreiser 255
An Overview of Sister Carrie 258
A Summary of Chapter 47 259
From Sister Carrie Chapter 47 259
The Way of the Beaten—A Harp in the Wind 259
Part Four Modern American Literature（1910-） 277
Chapter 7 American Literature after WWⅠ 277
Background Information 277
7.1 Ezra Pound 280
In a Station of the Metro 281
The River-Merchant’s Wife： A Letter 282
A Pact 284
7.2 Sherwood Anderson 284
From Winesburg ， Ohio 286
Sophistication 286
From Winesburg， Ohio 294
Mother 294
7.3 Robert Frost 301
Nothing Gold Can Stay 302
Fire and Ice 302
To a Young Wretch 303
Mending Wall 304
7.4 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald 306
An 0veveiew of The Great Gatsby 308
From The Great Gatsby Chapter 3 309
7.5 Ernest Hemingway 326
In Another Country 329
An Overview of A Farewell to Arms 334
From A Farewell to Arms Chapter 36 335
7.6 Eugene O Neill 341
An 0veveiew of The Hairy Ape 342
From The Hairy Ape SCENE Ⅰ 343
From The Hairy Ape SCENE Ⅲ 352
From The Hairy Ape SCENE Ⅷ 356
7.7 John Ernst Steinbeck 362
The Leader of the People 363
An Overview of The Grapes of Wrath 377
From The Grapes of Wrath Chapter 9 377
7.8 William Faulkner 382
The Bear 384
Chapter 8 American Literature after WWⅡ 401
Background Information 401
The War Novelists 402
The Southern Writers 402
The Jewish Writers 403
The Beat Generation and the Beat Writers 404
The Black Humor/Black Humorist 405
The Black Writers 406
The Feminist Writers 406
8.1 Saul Bellow 407
An Overview of The Adventures of Augie March 411
From The Adventures of Angie March Chapter 21 411
8.2 Norman Mailer 417
From “The White Negro”2 421
From “The White Negro” 4 423
An Overview of The Armies of the Night 424
From The Armies of the Night 424
Part 6—A Transfer of Power 424
8.3 J.D.Salinger 429
An 0veveiew of The Catcher in the Rye 431
From The Catcher in the Rye Chapter 22 434
From The Catcher in the Rye Chapter 24 440
8.4 Joseph Heller 452
An Overview of Catch-22 454
From Catch-22 Chapter 40 455
From Catch-22 Chapter 42 464
8.5 The Black Writers 478
Background Information 478
Langston Hughes 481
Negro Speaks of Rivers 484
Richard Wright 485
From Black Boy 487
James Baldwin 489
An Overview of Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone 491
From Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone 492
8.6 The Southern Writers 494
Background Information 494
Robert Penn Warren 495
Infant Boy at Midcentury 498
Truman Capote 500
From In Cold Blood 502
Flannery O’Connor 504
An Overview of A Good Man is Hard to Find 505
From A Good Man Is Hard to Find 505
8.7 The Jewish Writers 507
Isaac Bashevis Singer 508
Gimpel the Fool 509
The Son from America 522
8.8 The Feminist Writers 529
Sylvia Plath 529
Words 530
Daddy 531
Alice Walker 535
Everyday Use 537
For Your Grandmama 537
Appendix Ⅰ A Chronology of American Literature and Life 546
Appendix Ⅱ Literary Terms 552
Appendix Ⅲ Suggested Answers to the Questions 576
Appendix Ⅳ Tests 623
Appendix Ⅴ 试卷参考答案 666
Appendix Ⅵ Bibliography 671