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  Chapter8 The Modern Period (America)

　　1.age： second half of the 19th century to early decades of the 20th century

　　2.background：

　　(1)the U.S. has become the most powerful country

　　(2)technological revolution

　　(3)a decline in moral standard， a spiritual wasteland， feelings of fear， loss， disorientation and disillusionment

　　3. influencing ideas：

　　(1)the same as English Modern period： Karl Marx， Darwin， Freud

　　(2)stream of consciousness：

　　4.“The Lost Generation” by Gertrude

　　5.John Steinbeck： “The Grapes of Wrath”

　　Allen Ginsberg： “Howl”， the manifesto of Beat Movement

　　Salinger： “The Catcher in the Rye”

　　6.modernism‘s features：

　　literature： convey a vision of social breakdown and moral decay

　　writer： develop techniques that could represent a break with the past. modernistic works are discontinuity and fragmentation

　　7.The differences between Modernism America and England

　　(1)American writers emphasize the concrete sensory images or details as the direct conveyor of experience

　　(2)modern fiction employ the first narration or confine the reader to the “central consciousness” or one character‘s point of view

　　common ground： directness， compression， vividness， sparing of words

　　Ezra Pound

　　1.imagist：

　　(1)direct treatment of poetic subjects

　　(2)eliminate ornamental words

　　(3)rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence of a metronome

　　example：“In a Station of the Metro”

　　2.works：In a Station of the metro; The River-Merchent‘s Wife; A pact(free verse)Robert Lee Frost

　　1.works：The Road Not Taken， Mountain Interval， uncertainty of the speaker‘s choice between safety and unknown(meditative)

　　Stopping by Woods on a snowy Evening-New Hampshire

　　After Apple-Picking，a man‘s best efforts ever satisfy God?

　　2.idea：a momentary stay against confusion， like Wordsworth

　　3.The Road Not Taken： took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference

　　Eugene I‘Neill

　　1.works： The Hairy Ape

　　characters seek meaning and purpose in their lives through love or religion or revenge. the result is disappointment or despair. use Expressionism

　　2.The Hairy Ape： concerns the problem of modern man‘s position. Yank’s sense of belonging nowhere is a typical of the mood of isolation and alienation in the early twentieth century in the US and the whole world as well.

　　F.Scott Fitzgerald

　　1.both an insider and outsider of the Jazz Age

　　2.The Great Gatsby

　　narrator： Nick Carraway

　　Ernest Hemingway

　　1.Hemingway hero

　　(1)a wounded hero confronts all the difficulties of the situation with his dignity and courage.(In Our Times-Nick Adams)

　　(2)a group of wandering， amusing and aimless people caught in the war.(The Sun Also Rises-The Lost Generation)

　　(3)man suffers both physically and mentally， and is doomed to suffer， refute God‘s kindness to man.(A Farewell to Arms-Frederick Henry)

　　(4)proves life‘s worth and there are causes worth dying for.(For Whom the Bell Tolls-Robert Jordan)

　　(5)show great respect for the struggle of mankind against unconquerable natural forces， though only a partial victory is possible.(The Old Man and the Sea-Santiago)

　　(6)he is with the honesty， the discipline， and the restraint. man always fights a losing battle of life，but never lose dignity. man can be physically destroyed， but never defeated spiritually

　　(7)man of courage， and masculinity and inflexible heroism.(The Undefeated)

　　2.The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water

　　3.colloquialism (Mark Twain)(short， simple， conventional words)

　　4.works： Indian Camp(In Our Times)

　　William Faulkner

　　1.works：The Sound and The Fury; Light in August; Absalom， Absalom!; Go Down， Moses; The Marble Faun; Soldiers‘ Pay; As I Lay Dying; Wild Palms; The Hamlet; Intruder in the Dust(Nobel Prize); The Bear; Requiem for a Nun; The Fable; The Town; The Mansion

　　2.background： American South， Northern Mississippi， Yoknapatawpha County

　　3.theme：almost all his heroes are tragic

　　(1)they are prisoners of the past or of the society， or of some social and moral taboos， or of their own personalities

　　(2)society conditions man with its laws and institutions and eliminates man‘s chance of responding naturally to the experiences of his existence

　　(3)man tries to explain the incomprehensible by turning away from reality， but becomes weak， cowardly and confused(Emily-coward)

　　4. nostalgic in The Sound and The Fury

　　5.works‘ features：

　　(1)use of narrative techniques is remarkable，let the characters explain themself， the reader experiences the work of art directly

　　(2)breaks up chronology， juxtaposes the past with the present

　　(3)stream of consciousness

　　(4)inner musings of the narrator

　　(5)good at presenting multiple points of view

　　6.works： A Rose for Emily(Gothic devices)

　　Emily ：the symbols of the Old South， the prisoners of the past. an eccentric spinster. she refuses the inevitable changes and loss with the pass of time.