American Literature

American Literature 美国文学史及选读

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Life experience • Major works • Style of local color • Appreciation

1870 married Olivia langdon Love story of Mark Twain: “Fall in love at first sight”—Mark fell in love with his future wife—Olivia Landdon when he happened to see her picture in her brother’s necklace picture box. Then he obtained a recommendation letter from an old friend of Olivia’s father. Then the two got married and lived a happy life ever since.

“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man's.”

his masterpieces The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn <<哈克贝里费恩历险记>>

Lecture Nine: Mark Twain (1935-1910) • I. Introduction • “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” • --------Ernest Hemingway • Samuel Langhorne Clemens is better known by the pen name(pseudonym) Mark Twain,the cay of the boatman taking soundings and meaning two fathoms,I.e. twelve feet.

Now on a hill above Hannibal,stands a bronze figure of Mark Twain with the inscription: His religion was humanity. • The humorist: Mark Twain did not write a story ;he told it. His mastery of American speech was unrivaled.His greatest works was set on the long river---Mississippi.

Major Works • 1865 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County • 1869 The Innocents Abroad • 1873 The Gilded Age • 1876 The Adventure of Tom Sawyer • 1883 Life on the Mississippi • 1884 The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn(his masterpiece) • 1882 The Prince and the Pauper

1894 Pudd’nhead Wilson • 1900 The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg • (the best of his powerful pessimistic tales)

Tom Sawyer • About the Book • Tom Sawyer, a mischievous redheaded orphan taken in by his Aunt Polly, goes through a series of adventures involving his friends, Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • A) Tom Sawyer: a plain American boy • Sid: Tom’s younger brother • Aunt Polly: lives in St.Petrsbury, a remote town on the banks of the Mississippi. • Huck Finn: Tom’s bosom friend • Becky Thatcher: a daughter of the Judge • girl-friend • Indian Joe: a real criminal

Tom Sawyer • The hero of the novel,he is a young boy of indeterminate age who is neither good nor bad. He delights in getting into trouble sometimes, especially when he can fool his aunt or his school teacher . • Tom is a clever, imaginative boy who reads a lot and then somewhat bookish in his approach to games in adventures that of an 8; sometimes those of a 13; this is why Twain does not tell us exactly how old Tom is. He is apparently an orphan,for he lives with his aunt.

The Language Style of Mark Twain • Colloquial language: is the everyday language we use in our conversation.It is sometimes ungrammatical, and it may contain slang words or phrases .It varies from place to place and among ethnic groups.Mark Twain was the master of colloquial speech art,including dialect. • Vivid depiction of the country life along the Mississippi River.Mark Twain is the first American writer to introduce colloquialism into American literature.

2.What is the style of this excerpt? • Use big words, e.g. glorious, issue, melancholy, expedition, etc. • Comparison and contrast. (e.g.worldly wealth—marbles, bits of toys and trash) • Figures of speech/rhetoric language: hyperbole (the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence; make a world of fun of him, etc.); metaphor, metonymy (Big Missouri—Ben Rogers) and etc. • Irony. (e.g. But of course you’d druther work—wouldn’t you? Of course you would!)

Style • a. The use of allegory and symbolismAllegory: a literary device in which fictional characters symbolically represent a moral or universal principle. • b. The production of the first American prose epic. • c. Language

Question and Discussion • Discipline and punishment in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

American Literature