美国文学简史
2003-12
南开大学出版社
常耀信
654
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文学史是文学史科、哲学思想、文学理论缺一不可的统一体，没有充足的史料会流于教条，空疏；没有哲学思想则会成为现象的罗列；没有文学理论则无法对一切材料、一切现象加以分析。美国文学史当然也不例外。我们欢迎的是以马克思主义哲学思想和文学理论为指导思想与分析准则，把美国文学简短的历史产生的并不贫乏的诸多现象按发展顺序加以分析、介绍的文学史。这样一本美国文学史做为大专院校教材或是作为美国文学爱好者的读物都是佳作。 常耀信同志编写的《美国文学简史》恰是这样的佳作。在全书有限的篇幅中包含着丰富的内容。它与美国的历史文化发展联系起来，从殖民地时期写到本世纪七十年代。 这本简史对19世纪以前的美国文学从略介绍，突出地介绍清教文学及其代表人物——乔纳桑?爱德华兹和本杰明?富兰克林。从多方面看，这两人都是清教思想的代表人物。前者憧憬来生，后者着眼今世。 从19世纪以后对文学的概念来看，有许多殖民地时期的作品不能说是文学。它们有的只是一些信息的报导和宗教的或政治的宣传。但是正如作者在“前言”中说的，清教思想对美国文学产生过持久的影响。可以这样说，殖民地时期许多作品尽管文学性不强，但它们都为19世纪的美国文学奠定了基础。美国文学的主题、美国文学的形式都有从那时起的历史根源。例如爱默生的自立自强哲学可以追溯到殖民地时期的司多达牧师的某些著作。梭罗的个人主义也不能说与殖民地时代的约翰?吴勒门没有联系。
第一版自1990年问世以来，作为教育部选定的高校文科教材及美国文学研究的重要参考书，在国内广泛使用，畅销不衰。全书精述17世纪早期至当今时代的美国文学发展史，评价主要作家及其代表作品，解析引领时代风气或主导作家创作的重要文学思潮和流派等。《美国文学简史》第二版吸收了近年来美国文学研究方面的新发现、新成果，增补了50余位当代作家作品的评介，论述了后现代主义特征在战后美国文坛特别是诗歌、小说、戏剧创作当中的表现； 此外，新版还注重收入近几十年来评论界对美国文学的新定义、新解释，增加了对少数民族作家的介绍，如美国黑人作家、印第安人作家、美国亚裔作家、美国拉丁裔作家等，上述群体的崛起使美国文学凸现多样化格局，增添了艺术背景的真实性。
常耀信：教授，博士生导师，任教于中国南开大学及美国关岛大学，研究方向为英美文学。著有《希腊罗马神话》、《漫话英美文学》、《美国文学简史》（英文版）、《美国文学史（上）》（中文版）；主编有《美国文学研究选读》（上、下）、《美国文学研究评论选》（下、下）及《自选评论文集——文化与文学中的比较研究》等。此外，还在国内外刊物上发表过多篇论文，阐述中国文化对美国文学的影响。1988年被选入英国国际传记中心编纂的《远东及太平洋名人录》，后亦被选入《美国名师录》。
Foreword(For the 2nd Edition)Prefatory Note(For the 1st Edition)Foreword By Wu Fu-hengPermissions AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapters 1-261.Colonial America2.Edwards·Franklin·Crevecoeur3.American Romanticism·Irving·Cooper4.New England Transcendentalism·Emerson·Thoreau5.Hawthorne·Melville6.Whitman·Dickinson7.Edgar Allan Poe8.The Age of Realism·Howells·James9.Local Colorism·Mark Twain10.American Naturalism·Crane·Norris·Dreiser·Robinson11.The 1920s·Imagism·Pound12.T.S.Eliot·Sandburg·Cummings·Hart Crane·Moore13.Fitzgerald·Hemingway14.Fitzgerald·Hemingway15.The Southern Renaissance·William Faulkner16.Anderson·Stein·Lewis·Cather·Wolfe17.The 1930s·Dos Passos·Steinbeck18.Porter·Welty·McCullers·West·The New Critism19.American Drama20.Postwar Poetry·Poets of the 1940sGeneration21.The Confessional School·The Beat Generation22.The New York School·Meditative Poetry·The Black Mountain Poest23.The Postwar American Novel（Ⅰ）24.The Postwar American Novel（Ⅱ）25.Multiethnic Literature（Ⅰ）26.Multiethnic Literature（Ⅱ）Notes and ReferncesIndex
CHAPTER 7 Edgar Allan Poe We are not placing Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) at the bottom of the list of nineteenth-century American romantics because he was the last in the chronological order or the least in importance. It is because he stands alone, representing a category very difficult to pigeonhole. We also want to emphasize Poes unique position in the history of American literature. Poes childhood was a miserable one. He lost both of his parents when still very small, and was taken care of by John Allan, a wealthy merchant of Virginia. The Allans failed to offer the orphan a normal home as father and son enjoyed nothing but an unhappy relationship together. At 17 Poe entered the University of Virginia but did not finish. He went to West Point as a cadet but was dismissed because of misbehavior. A man of literary genius, Poe wrote and worked as editor most of his short life. His first book of poetry appeared in 1827, his second in 1829, to be followed by his third in 1831. Five of his tales came out in 1832. One of his best tales, "MS. Found in a Bottle," won first prize in a short story contest run by a Baltimore newspaper in 1833. In 1838 he published his one full-length novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and the next year saw in print his Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. The tale, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), an ingenious detective story, became the ancestor of the genre, influencing, among others, Conan Doyle. His poem, "The Raven" (1844), was an immediate success and has remained one of his most enduring works. Poes literary output (some seventy short stories and a dozen poems) is small, but it is immensely interesting and influential as a literary inheritance. We need to mention here that Poes only longer narrative, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, is a critical failure despite the fact that it has been the subject of one interesting .
作者常耀信教授，长期潜心于美国文学研究，任教于大洋两岸，主讲英美文学逾20年； 始终孜孜以求，在研究中不断吸收、融汇美国文学创作及文学批评最新发展，故该书既体现了作者本人数年的教学、研究成绩，又荟萃了中外多家学者的研究发现。 《美国文学简史》一直被用作高校英语专业美国文学教材，新版仍适用于大专院校英专学生，还可作英专考研必读书和学术研究参考书，最佳配套课本为常销不衰的《美国文学选读》（上、下）系常教授携其优秀同事合力编著，该系列还将有考研复习伴侣读要及中文版精华缩编本奉献给广大读者！
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