Important Literary Terms
Transcendentalism (超验主义): Transcendentalism, which appeared after 1830, marked the maturity of American Romanticism and the first renaissance in the American literary history. The term was derived from Latin, meaning to rise above or to pass beyond the limits. It laid emphasis on spirit and individual and nature.
Free verse (自由体诗): Free verse has no regular rhythm or line length and depends on natural speech rhythms and the counterpoint (对照法) of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Also called open-form poetry, free verse refers to poems characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza. Free verse uses elements such as speech patterns, grammar, emphasis, and breath pauses to decides line break, and usually does not rhyme.
Emily Dickinson V.S Walt Whitman
She differs from Whitman in a variety of ways. For one thing, Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is regional.”
Dickinson often used variations of meters common in hymn writing, especially iambic tetrameter (eight syllables per line, with every second syllable being stressed). She frequently employed off-rhymes. Dickinson’s short poetic lines, condensed by using intense metaphors and by extensive use of ellipsis (the omission of words understood to be there), contrasted sharply with the style of her contemporary Walt Whitman, who used long time, litter rhyme, and irregular rhythm in his poetry.
1. Which statement about Thoreau was NOT right? A. He was a lover of nature.
B. He was a particular kind of romantic. C. He was a polemicist.
D. He was a thorough transcendentalist.
2. Which of the following has been called “the manifesto of American transcendentalism”? A. Divinity School Address. B. Self-Reliance C. Nature D. The American Scholar
3. As a philosophical and literary movement, _______ flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.
A. sentimentalism B. transcendentalism C. modernism D. rationalism 4. The period before and American Civil War is generally referred to as ________. A. the Modern Period B. the Realistic Period C. the Romantic Period D. the Naturalist Period
5. All the following are works by Nathaniel Hawthorne EXCEPT ________.
A. The Marble Faun B. Typee C. The Scarlet Letter D. Mosses from an Old Manse 6. Which of the following is not a work of Emily Dickinson’s? A. I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died. B. The Raven.
C. This is My Letter to the World D. I lIke to See it Lap the Miles
7. Whitman’s poems are characterized by all the following features EXCEPT ________. A. the strict poetic form B. the free and natural rhythm
C. the wwasy flow of feelings D. the simple and conversational language
8. As a philosophical and literary moment, ________ fourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.
A. modernism B. rationalism C. sentimentalism D. transcendentalism 9. Which book is not written by Emerson?
A. The American Scholar B. Self-Reliance C. Nature D. Civil Disobedience
10. The finest example of Hawthorn’s symbolism is the recreation of Puritan Boston in ______. A. The Scarlet Letter B. Young Goodman Brown C. The Marble Faun D. The Ambitious Guest
11. The chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism is ________. A, Nathaniel Hawthorn B. Ralph Waldo Emerson C. Henry David Thoreau D. Washington Irving
12. Transcendentalists recognized _______as the “highest power of the soul”. A. intuition B. logic C. data of the senses D. thinking
13. American literature produced only one female poet during the nineteenth century. This was ________.
A. Anne Bradstreet B. Jane Austin C. Emily Dickinson D. Harriet Beecher 14. Captain, My Captain is written for ________.
A. Lincoln B. Whitman C. Washington D. Hemingway 15. Which of the foolowing was written by Thoreau?
A. Nature B. Walden. C. The Scarlet Letter D. The Fall of the House of Usher
16. Which of the following books is a tremendous chronicle of an appalling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale?
A. The Scarlet Letter B. Moby Dick C. The Marble Faun D. Moses from an old Manse 17. Ralph Waldo Emerson is the most outstanding of all the _______ writers in _______ literature. A. transcendental/ English B. transcendental/ American C. realistic/ English D. realistic / American
18. Edgar Allan Poe occupies an important position in American literature as a poet and a ______. A. short story writer B. novelist C. dramatist D. translator
19. In Walden, who urges people to simplify their lives and look to nature for meaning?
A. Robert Frost B. Walt Whitman C. Henry David Thoreau D. Herman Melville 20. The setting of the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne id in ________. A. England during World War II
B. Paris during the French Revolution C. the Middle Ages in Italy D. Puritan America
