A COURSE OF a SURVEY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE (COLLEGE STUDENTS INTERNAL USE)

QUANG BINH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES    A COURSE OF A SURVEY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE (COLLEGE STUDENTS - INTERNAL USE) Compiled Vo Thi Dung, Ph.D QUANG BINH 2016 PREFACE A course of a Survey of English and American Literature is intended chiefly for college students and the general reader who is interested in the history of literature This course aims at encouraging students to gain an insight into, and broad awareness of, the development of English and American literature from its perceived origins in the beginning until the end of the twentieth century All the topics have been selected carefully from the different sources Some examples of examination questions at the end of each chapter hopefully are helpful guide We would be very happy if this material proved to be helpful for providing students with a door to your own research and study We highly appreciated to receive the ideas and comments from the readers so that it will be corrected and used in an effective way The author Vo Thi Dung, PhD TABLE OF CONTENT Page Part 1: CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF ENGLISH LITERATURE I Historical background II The formation of the language III Division of English literature history - The Old English literature - The Middle English literature - The Modern English literature CHAPTER 2: THE OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE I The making of England II Features of the Old English literature III Typical work: Beowulf CHAPTER 3: THE MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE I Language and literature II Typical poet: George Chaucer CHAPTER 4: MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE I Periods of Modern English literature II Typical authors: - William Shakespeare - John Milton - Daniel Defoe - Charles Dickens III English literature in the 20th century Part 2: CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF AMERICAN LITERATURE I Historical background II The literature of exploration III Typical authors: - William Byrd - James Fennimore Cooper CHAPTER 2: THE MIDDLE AMERICAN LITERATURE I Historical background II Literature: - The Romantic period - Typical authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne Edgar Allan Poe Harriet Beecher Stowe Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) CHAPTER 3: THE MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURE I Historical background II Literature: - Modernism - Prose writing - Typical authors: William Faulkner F.Scott Fitzgeral Ernest Hemingway Review PART I ENGLISH LITERATURE CHAPTER AN OVERVIEW OF ENGLISH LITERATURE I HISTORYCAL BACKGROUND The time period of about 500-1100 AD in British history was characterized by foreign invasions and internal struggles This resulted in the mixing of several races, tongues and cultures After the Romans departed from the British Isles in 407 AD fighting continued between the Picts and the Scots who had lost their common enemy The fifth century also saw conquests and the gradual occupation by Germanic tribes - Angles, Jutes and Saxons - who had moved north to Scandinavia and from there to Britain Apart from making conquests, these tribes preferred agricultural life, had strong family and tribal ties, and were very loyal to their king or chief The legendary King Arthur defeated the Saxons in 490 AD and for about a decade halted their advance At the end of the sixth century, the Anglo-Saxons accepted Christianity after Pope Gregory sent Saint Augustine to Britain in 597 AD (The Romans had introduced Christianity to the Celts centuries earlier.) This gave rise to some religious writings At the end of the eighth century the Vikings (also known as Norsemen or Danes) invaded the country, easily overcame the local inhabitants, and plundered their estates It was not until the reign of King Alfred the Great (871 - 900) that their advance was stopped With their acceptance of Christianity, the Danes partially blended in with the local people Alfred's successors, Edgar and Ethelred II were in 1016 followed by Danish King Canute (reigned 1016-1035), after whose death the empire fell apart Alfred's great-grandson, Edward, son of the French Emma of Normandy, took over the throne The fact that Edward had no descendants led to a power struggle between his brother-in-law, Harold, and Emma's nephew, William of Normandy William's victory over Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 led to the Norman conquest and occupation of England, which then opened a new chapter in British history The language of this whole period (500-1100) is known as Old English No exact date exists for its beginning The first written records of the language date from around 690 AD (however, people had spoken it long before then) Most Old English words were Germanic, having come from the languages of the Angles, Jutes and Saxons Latin, however, also had a strong influence on early English Later, the Scandinavians (Vikings) contributed many words to Old English By the end of the Old English period (marked by the Norman Conquest), Old English had been established as a literary language with a remarkable polish and versatility Old English literature consists of poetry, prose, charms, riddles, maxims, proverbs, and various other wisdom sayings It is a mixture of pagan traditions, thoughts about life, the universe and nature, as well as Christian thought and moral values There is often no clea - cut delineation between religious and nonreligious poetry or sometimes even between poetry and prose The terms anno Domini (AD or A.D.) and before Christ (BC or B.C.) are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars The term anno Domini is Medieval Latin, which means in the year of the Lord but is often translated as in the year of our Lord It is occasionally set out more fully as anno Domini nostri Iesu (or Jesu) Christi ("in the year of Our Lord Jesus Christ") II THE FORMATION OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY The first tribes inhabiting England were of Celtic and pre-Celtic stock The Celts spoke the Celtic language The Roman invasion took place in 43 A.D The Romans came to stay until 410 A.D The language of the land then consisted of Latin and Celtic Latin was the language of the upper classes and the government, while Celtic remained that of the populace Today we can find the traces of Celtic language in many place-nations like London, Dover, York, Thames Avon, Severn, Trent The common nouns bin, crag, curse, dun are Celtic After the Roman invasion came the invasion of many Germanic tribes in the fifth century Of these tribes the best known were the Angles and the Saxons The Angles and the Saxons displaced the Celtic-speaking inhabitants The dialect used by the Saxons became the dominant language However, because the Angles were more numerous than the Saxons, they gave their name to that dominant language, which has been called English since * The development of English language has gone through three periods: a) The Old English period (c450 –c1066) Specimen: Cwom ϸa to flode (Came then to the flood) b) The Middle English period (c1066 – c1500) Specimen: Whan that April with his showres soote The drought of March hath perced to the roote And bathe every veine in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flowr (When that April with his showers swept The drought of March has pierced to the root And bathe every vein in such liquor Of which virtue engendered is the flower) c) The Modern English period (after c1500) Specimen: When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes I all alone beweep my outcaste state And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries (From sonnet xxix by William Shakespeare 1564-1616) During the first five centuries of our era and long before that Britain was inhabited by a people called Kelts, who lived in tribes Britain’s history is considered to begin in the 5th century, when it was invaded from the Continent by the fighting tribes of Angles, Saxon and Jutes At the very end of the 5th century they settle in Britain and began to call themselves English (after the principal tribe of settlers, called Englisc) Through the influence of the British Empire, the English language has spread around the world since the 17th century * What is English literature? English literature term is very popular that means writing in English language Formerly, it was meant to be British writing With the course of the time, the concept has changed and now it means writing produced in English language by any one at any place in the world There are countries such as India, Africa etc… have given great literature in English and continues to contribute to world literature III THE DIVISION OF ENGLISH LITERARY HISTORY The literary history of England may be divided into three periods: a The Old English period 450 AD – 1066 (Anglo-Saxon) The so-called "Dark Ages" (455 CE -799 CE) occur when Rome falls and barbarian tribes move into Europe Franks, Ostrogoths, Lombards, and Goths settle in the ruins of Europe and the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes migrate to Britain, displacing native Celts into Scotland, Ireland, and Wales Early Old English poems such as Beowulf, The Wanderer, and The Seafarer originate sometime late in the Anglo-Saxon period The Carolingian Renaissance (800850 CE) emerges in Europe In central Europe, texts include early medieval grammars, encyclopedias, etc In northern Europe, this time period marks the setting of Viking sagas During this period the language of the country was called Old English (abbreviated OE), or Anglo – Saxon Its vocabulary was limited Old English was very different from the English we read and hear today However, we have to remember that scholarly works during this period were written in Latin It was not until in the second half of the ninth century that there was a serious attempt to establish a written prose literature in English b The Middle English period 1066 – 1500 (c.1066-1500CE) In 1066, Norman French armies invade and conquer England under William I This marks the end of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy and the emergence of the Twelfth Century Renaissance (c 1100-1200 CE) French chivalric romances such as works by Chretien de Troyes and French fables such as the works of Marie de France and Jeun de Meun spread in popularity Abelard and other humanists produce great scholastic and theological works Late or "High" Medieval Period (c 1200-1485 CE): This often tumultuous period is marked by the Middle English writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, the "Gawain" or "Pearl" Poet, the Wakefield Master, and William Langland Other writers include Italian and French authors like Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante, and Christine de Pisan During this period the language of the country called Middle English Middle English was in a state of continuous change The vocabulary of the language was enriched borrowing many words from French and Latin c The Modern English period after 1500 In this period, the English is substantially very much like the English used today It has been called Modern English But there is one thing we should know not until the 18th century did English spelling come to be standardized Corresponding to these three periods, there are the Old English literature; the Middle English literature and the Modern English literature Although we know very little of this period from literature some poems have nevertheless reached us In those early days songs called epics were created in many countries The epics tells of some events from a people history, sings the heroic deeds of a man, his courage and his desire of justice, his love for his people and self-sacrifice for the sake of his country IV PRACTICE * For each statement, write T if the statement is true or F if it is false English followed Latin usage by placing the "AD" abbreviation before the year number However, BC is placed after the year number (for example: AD 2016, but 68 BC), which also preserves syntactic order BC is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, it is sometimes incorrectly concluded that AD means After Death, i.e., after the death of Jesus According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, usage of AD gradually became more common in Roman Catholic countries from the 15th to the 17th centuries Oral tradition was very strong in early English culture Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English, and has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the fifth century, are called Middle English Old English literature, or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses the surviving literature written in the period after the settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England (Jutes and the Angles) c. 450, after the withdrawal of the Romans, and "ending soon after the Norman Conquest" in 1766 * Answer the following question 10 and the complexities of moral choices Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history 2.2.2 Edgar Allan Poe Born January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor Edgar Allan Poe's tales of mystery and horror initiated the modern detective story His The Raven (1845) numbered among the best-known poems in national literature With his short stories and poems, Edgar Allan Poe captured the imagination and interest of readers around the world His creative talents led to the beginning of different literary genres, earning him the nickname "Father of the Detective Story" among other distinctions His life, however, has become a bit of mystery itself The son of actors, Poe never really knew his parents His father left the family early on, and his mother passed away when he was only three Separated from his siblings, Poe went to live with John and Frances Allan, a successful tobacco merchant and his wife, in Richmond, Virginia He and Frances seemed to form a bond, but he never quite meshed with John Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan's business papers Money was also an issue between Poe and John Allan When Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826, he didn't receive enough funds from Allan to cover all his costs Poe turned to gambling to cover the difference, but ended up in debt He returned home only to face another personal setback—his neighbor and fiancée Elmira Royster had become engaged to someone else Heartbroken and frustrated, Poe left the Allan’s house At first, Poe seemed to be harboring twin aspirations Poe published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1827, and he had joined the army around this time Poe wanted to go to West Point, a military academy, and won a spot there in 1830 Before going to West Point, he published a second collection Al Aaraaf, Tamberlane, and Minor Poems in 1829 Poe excelled at his studies at West Point, but he was kicked out after a year for his poor handling of his duties After leaving the academy, Poe focused his writing full time He moved around in search of opportunity, living in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Richmond From 1831 to 1835, he stayed in Baltimore with his 67 aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia His young cousin, Virginia, became a literary inspiration to Poe as well as his love interest The couple married in 1836 when she was only 13 (or 14 as some sources say) years old Returning to Richmond in 1835, Poe went to work for a magazine called the Southern Literary Messenger There he developed a reputation as a cutthroat critic, writing vicious reviews of his contemporaries Poe also published some of his own works in the magazine, including two parts of his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Poe’s writing is often exotic since he believed that strangeness was an essential ingredient of beauty Like many other southern writers of the time, Poe’s stories and poems are populated with doomed, introspective aristocrats Most biographers agree that Poe died of alcoholism, of congestion of the brain However, in 1996 Dr R Michael Benitez concluded that Poe died from rabies 2.2.3 Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elizabeth Beecher was born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut She was one of 13 children born to religious leader Lyman Beecher and his wife, Roxanna Foote Beecher, who died when Harriet was a child Harriet’s seven brothers grew up to be ministers, including the famous leader Henry Ward Beecher Her sister Catharine Beecher was an author and a teacher who helped to shape Harriet’s social views Another sister, Isabella, became a leader of the cause of women’s rights Harriet enrolled in a school run by Catharine, following the traditional course of classical learning usually reserved for young men At the age of 21, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where her father had become the head of the Lane Theological Seminary Here, she formed a friendship with fellow member and seminary teacher Calvin Ellis Stowe They were married on January 6, 1836, and eventually moved to a cottage near in Brunswick, Maine, close to Bowdoin College Along with their interest in literature, Harriet and Calvin Stowe shared a strong belief in abolition In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law Stowe decided to express her feelings through a literary representation of slavery, basing her work on the life of Josiah Henson and on her own observations In 1851, the first installment of Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s 68 Cabin, appeared in the National Era Uncle Tom's Cabin was published as a book the following year and quickly became a best seller Stowe continued to write and to champion social and political causes for the rest of her life She published stories, essays, textbooks and a long list of novels, including Oldtown Folks and Dred While none of these matched Uncle Tom’s Cabin in terms of popularity, Stowe remained well known and respected in the North, particularly in reform-minded communities The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, Connecticut, preserved the home where Stowe lived for the final decades of her life The home is now a museum, featuring items owned by Stowe, as well as a research library The home of Stowe’s next-door neighbor, Samuel Clemens (better known as Mark Twain), is also open to the public 2.2.4 Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain, was born on November 30, 1835, in the tiny village of Florida, Missouri, the sixth child of John and Jane Clemens When he was years old, the Clemens moved to nearby Hannibal, a bustling town of 1,000 people Sam Clemens lived in Hannibal from age to age 17 The town, situated on the Mississippi River, was in many ways a splendid place to grow up These imaginary river towns are complex places: sunlit and exuberant on the one hand, but also vipers' nests of cruelty, poverty, drunkenness, loneliness, and lifecrushing boredom All of that had been a part of Sam Clemens' boyhood experience Sam kept up his schooling until he was about 12 years old In 1851, at 15, he got a job as a printer and occasional writer and editor at the Hannibal Western Union, a little newspaper owned by his brother, Orion Then, in 1857, 21-yearold Clemens fulfilled a dream: He began learning the art of piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi After 18 months of hard work, he earned his pilot's license Altogether, Twain spent four years steaming up and down the Mississippi When the Civil War broke out, Twain spent a few weeks in the Confederate army before resigning and heading to Nevada, where his brother Orion had been appointed territorial secretary While there, Clemens began to write again and adopted the pen name "Mark Twain." Twain's experiences in 69 the first three decades of his life became fodder for the stories he would later write In 1865 Twain published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," a humorous tale that earned him national attention He followed it with Innocents Abroad, his first best-selling book, in 1869 It told the story of a trip he'd taken to Europe and the Middle East Twain married a woman named Olivia Langdon in 1870 At their home in Hartford, Connecticut, Twain wrote the novels that made him an American treasure Among these were Roughing It (1872), Tom Sawyer (1876), and Huckleberry Finn (1884) The books sold well, but Twain struggled financially A poor businessman, he invested much of his earnings in worthless inventions, and was often in debt Twain was forced to write and lecture to pay off his debts, which he finally succeeded in doing The deaths of his wife and two daughters contributed to the deep sadness that Twain experienced in his later years He died on April 21, 1910, at the age of 74, at his country home in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910, with his autobiography unfinished He was buried in Elmira, New York III PRACTICE * Answer the following questions Write a brief of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s biography What was Nathaniel Hawthorne’s contribution to American literature? Which novel was Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most famous? When was The Scarlet Letter published? Where did The Romantic Movement originate? What did the themes appear in many of Poe’s works? What was Poe’s best – known poem in his own lifetime and today? Write a brief of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s biography What was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s best known novel? 10.How many books did she publish? 11.What was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s contribution? 12.What was the reason for the success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin? * Choose the word/phrase from the box to fill in the gaps in the following sentences vast associates tribal cultures movement fundamental wave of permanent enslavement ethnic 70 The Romantic ………………, which originated in Germany but quickly spread to England, France, and beyond, reached America around the year 1820 Romanticism was affirmative and appropriate for most American poets and creative essayists America's ………… mountains, deserts, and tropics embodied the sublime The New England Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and their………… were inspired to a new optimistic affirmation by the Romantic Movement The Transcendentalist movement was based on a ………… belief in the unity of the world and God There was no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and ……… that existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived Bartolomé de las Casas transcribed Columbus's journal, and late in life wrote a long, vivid History of the Indians criticizing their ………… by the Spanish In the 17th century, pirates, adventurers, and explorers opened the way to a second ……… colonists, bringing their wives, children, farm implements, and craftsmen's tools As American minority literature continues to flower in the 20th century and American life becomes increasingly multicultural, scholars are rediscovering the importance of the continent's mixed ……… heritage 71 CHAPTER THE MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURE I HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Many historian have characterized the period between the two world wars as the United States’ traumatic “coming of age”, despite the fact that U.S direct involvement was relatively brief (1917-1918) and its casualties many fewer than those of its European allies and foes In the postwar “Big Boom”, business flourished, and the successful prospered beyond their wildest dreams For the first time, many American enrolled in higher education – in the 1920s college enrollment doubled The middle class prospered; Americans began to enjoy the world’s highest national average income in this era, and many people purchased the ultimate status symbol – an automobile The typical urban American home glowed with electric lights and boasted a radio that connected the house with the outside world, and perhaps a telephone, a camera, a typewriter, or a sewing machine American of the “Roaring Twenties” fell in love with other modern entertainments Most people went to the movies once a week Although Prohibition began in 1919, nightclub proliferated, jazz music, cocktails, and daring modes of dress and dance were seen everywhere Dancing, automobile touring, and movie-going were national interests American women, in particular, resolutely modern with the short “flapper” dressed and short hair, glorified in the right to vote, which was assured by the 19th Amendment in 1920 They gave a strong voice and took important public roles in society II LITERATURE 2.1 Modernism American modernism was broadly of two kinds One was cosmopolitan, and created by expatriate writers, especially Pound, H D (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961), Stein, and Eliot Based in urban centers such as London and Paris, these writers sought to internationalize literature, often making powerful connections between their work and a broad range of past literature Generally, they had little belief in the usefulness (or existence) of an American literary tradition There was also a group of non-expatriate American modernists, even though several of them did spend time abroad Stevens, Frost, Williams, 72 Marianne Moore (1887-1972), F Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and Hemingway developed a modernist literature that was connected to American traditions, and the heavy concentration on region and place in the work of Stevens, Frost, Faulkner, and Williams marked them as radically different from Pound, Stein, and Eliot What all the modernists shared was a belief in literature's importance in the modern world, and the need for it to be continually vital Vision and viewpoint became essential aspects of the modernist novel It was no longer sufficient to write a straight-forward third-person narrative The way the story was constructed became as important as the story itself William Faulkner, Henry James and many other American writers experimented with fictional points of view Faulkner’s novel The sound and the Fury (1929) break up the narrative into four sections, each giving the viewpoint of a different character 2.2 Prose writing (1914-1945): American Realism On the whole, American authors more realistically than European writers, despite the fact that American people prose between the wars experimented with viewpoint and form The importance of facing reality became a dominant theme in the 1920s and 1930s: Earnest Hemingwat wrote of war, hunting, and other pursuits with a simple style; William Faulkner took Mississippi heat and dust as the background for his novel; Sinclair Lewis delineated bourgeois lives with ironic voice; F.Scot Fitzgerald repeatedly portrayed the tragedy awaiting those whose live in flimsy dreams 2.3 Typical authors 2.3.1 William Faulkner William Faulkner (1897 - 1962) stands as one of the most preeminent American writers of the twentieth century On September 25, 1897, William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi His family had accumulated a great deal of wealth before the American Civil War However, his family like many Southern families had lost all of its financial power during the conflict His parents would move to Oxford, Mississippi Although William Faulkner was bright, he felt no passion for his formal education He dropped out of high school Faulkner was employed in a bank in 73 Oxford and began to write In his early forays into writing, Faulkner emulated the poetic styling Edward FitzGerald, A E Housman, John Keats, and Algernon Swinburne In 1918 William Faulkner tried to become a pilot for the U.S Army Faulkner failed to meet the physical requirements Faulkner traveled to Toronto, Canada He posed as an English citizen and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force By the time Faulkner reached France, the conflict had ended After returning to the United States, William Faulkner attended the University of Mississippi from 1919 until 1921 The New Republic published his poem "L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune." The Marble Faun was William Faulkner’s first collection of poems These poems were written in a pastoral style Book sales were very poor In 1925, William Faulkner traveled throughout England, France and Italy His writing during this period was influenced by symbolism and impressionism Faulkner’s stream-of-consciousness novel The Sound and the Fury were published in 1929 This novel was ranked sixth on the Modern Library’s on the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century William Faulkner would marry his former sweetheart Estelle Oldham in 1929 Oldham brought her two children from a previous marriage The couple would also have two daughters over the next four years The oldest one would die after only nine days But Faulkner was still responsible for taking care of his new wife and young children Faulkner’s family life did not hinder his pursuit of extra-marital affairs In 1931, A Rose for Emily was published This work is widely anthologized and is a masterpiece of narrative and communal point of view In order to make money in 1931, Faulkner wrote the novel Sanctuary The sensational subject captured the public’s attention The financial success of Sanctuary drove sales to Faulkner’s earlier stream-of-consciousness novel, The Sound and The Fury In 1932, Faulkner was assigned to write screenplays for The film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer This position required Faulkner to move to California He was well-paid, but never comfortable in his new surroundings In part, this discomfort led to Faulkner’s excessive drinking This period in his life would also set up the paradigm in which William Faulkner’s screenwriting would provide the money, which allowed him to write his fiction 74 In 1936, William Faulkner released Absalom, Absalom! In this novel, he examined the way that the shadow of American slavery lingered over the modern South In 1939, the National Institute of Arts and Letters selected William Faulkner to join its ranks The same year Faulkner was awarded the O Henry Memorial Short Story Award—a distinction he would earn the following year (1940) as well Faulkner’s writing from this period was a skillful net of vivid narrative lines His skill was also gaining Faulkner a reputation in which his work was worthy of scholarly study In 1946, Viking Press published The Portable Faulkner In 1949, William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for literature The prestige and monetary value of this award allowed Faulkner a greater degree of financial autonomy He continued to gain recognition for his writing during this period In 1950, Faulkner was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Howells Medal for Fiction and in 1951 Faulkner won the National Book Award for his collected stories From 1957 until 1958, William Faulkner would serve as the writer-in-residence at the University of Virginia Before his death in 1962, William Faulkner was awarded the National Institute’s Gold Medal for Fiction He died of a heart attack Faulkner’s literature had significant influence on both popular and Modernist literature His literary reputation included poetry, novels, short stories and screenplays 2.3.2 F.Scott Fitzgeral Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined He was born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class family Fitzgerald spent the first decade of his childhood primarily in Buffalo, New York His formative years in Buffalo revealed him to be a boy of unusual intelligence and drive with a keen early interest in literature In 1908, his father was fired from Procter & Gamble, and the family returned to Minnesota, where Fitzgerald attended St Paul Academy in St Paul from 1908 to 1911 When he was 13 he saw his first piece of writing appear in print—a detective story published in the school newspaper In 1911, when Fitzgerald was 15 years old, his parents sent him to the Newman School, a prestigious Catholic prep school in Hackensack, New Jersey There he met Father Sigourney Fay, who noticed 75 his incipient talent with the written word and encouraged him to pursue his literary ambitions After graduating from the Newman School in 1913, Fitzgerald decided to stay in New Jersey to continue his artistic development at Princeton University At Princeton, he firmly dedicated himself to honing his craft as a writer There he wrote for the Princeton Triangle Club, the Nassau Lit, and the Princeton Tiger He also was involved in the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, which ran the Nassau Lit Fitzgerald's writing pursuits at Princeton came at the expense of his coursework He was placed on academic probation, and in 1917 he dropped out of school to join the U.S Army Afraid that he might die in World War I with his literary dreams unfulfilled, in the weeks before reporting to duty Fitzgerald hastily wrote a novel called The Romantic Egotist Although the publisher Charles Scribner's Sons rejected the novel, the reviewer noted its originality and encouraged Fitzgerald to submit more work in the future Paris in the 1920s proved the most influential decade of Fitzgerald's development Fitzgerald made several excursions to Europe, mostly Paris and the French Riviera, and became friends with many members of the American expatriate community in Paris, notably Ernest Hemingway Like most professional authors at the time, Fitzgerald supplemented his income by writing short stories for such magazines as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire, and sold his stories and novels to Hollywood studios Although Fitzgerald's passion lay in writing novels, only his first novel sold well enough to support the opulent lifestyle that he and Zelda adopted as New York celebrities (The Great Gatsby, now considered to be his masterpiece, did not become popular until after Fitzgerald's death.) Because of this lifestyle, as well as the bills from Zelda's medical care when they came, Fitzgerald was constantly in financial trouble and often required loans from his literary agent, Harold Ober, and his editor at Scribner's, Maxwell Perkins When Ober decided not to continue advancing money to Fitzgerald, the author severed ties with his longtime friend and agent Fitzgerald began working on his fourth novel during the late 1920s but was sidetracked by financial difficulties that necessitated his writing commercial 76 short stories, and by the schizophrenia that struck Zelda in 1930 Her emotional health remained fragile for the rest of her life In 1932, she was hospitalized in Baltimore, Maryland Fitzgerald rented the "La Paix" estate in the suburb of Towson, Maryland to work on his latest book, the story of the rise and fall of Dick Diver, a promising young psychiatrist who falls in love with and marries Nicole Warren, one of his patients The book went through many versions, the first of which was to be a story of matricide Some critics have seen the book as a thinly-veiled autobiographical novelrecounting Fitzgerald's problems with his wife, the corrosive effects of wealth and a decadent lifestyle, his own egoism and self-confidence, and his continuing alcoholism Indeed, Fitzgerald was extremely protective of his "material" (i.e., their life together) When Zelda wrote and sent to Scribner's her own fictional version of their lives in Europe, Save Me the Waltz, Fitzgerald was angry and was able to make some changes prior to the novel's publication, and convince her doctors to keep her from writing any more about what he called his "material," which included their relationship His book was finally published in 1934 as Tender Is the Night Critics who had waited nine years for the followup to The Great Gatsby had mixed opinions about the novel The novel did not sell well upon publication but, like the earlier Gatsby, the book's reputation has since risen significantly Fitzgerald is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century He is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned,The Great Gatsby (his most famous), and Tender Is the Night A fifth, unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, was published posthumously Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with age and despair Fitzgerald's work has been adapted into films many times Tender is the Night was filmed in 1962, and made into a television miniseries in 1985 The Beautiful and Damned was filmed in 1922 and 2010 The Great Gatsby has been the basis for numerous films of the same name, spanning nearly 90 years; 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000, and 2013 adaptations In addition, Fitzgerald's own life from 1937 to 1940 was dramatized in 1958 in Beloved Infidel 2.3.3 Ernest Hemingway 77 Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago He was an American author and journalist His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works Three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously Many of these are considered classics of American literature Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois After high school he reported for a few months for The Kansas City Star In 1918, he was seriously wounded and returned home His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms In 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives The couple moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s "Lost Generation" expatriate community The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's first novel, was published in 1926 In 1927 Hemingway divorced from Hadley Richardson and married Pauline Pfeiffer they divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War where he had been a journalist, and after which he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940 They separated when he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of the rest of his life Hemingway had permanent residences in Key West, Florida (1930s) and Cuba (1940s and 1950s) In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961 Hemingway - himself a great sportsman - liked to portray soldiers, hunters, bullfighters - tough, at times primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of modern society, and who in this confrontation lose hope and faith His straightforward prose, his spare dialogue, and his predilection for understatement are particularly effective in his short 78 stories, some of which are collected in Men Without Women (1927) and The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938) Hemingway died in Idaho in 1961 III PRACTICE * Read the text and answer the following questions A brief introduction to William Cuthbert Faulkner What are the major themes in Faulkner’s fiction? What awards did Faulkner receive for his writing? Talk about a brief of Fitzgerald’s life When did William Faulkner win the Nobel Prize for literature? When did Hemingway win the Nobel Prize in Literature? A brief introduction to Hemingway 79 REFERENCES Burnley, David (2000), The history of the English language, A sourcebook, 2nd edition, London: Longman Pete B High (2000), An outline of American literature, Nxb Longman Đinh Thị Minh Hiền (1999), American Literature, Nxb Giáo dục Trần Thanh Ngọc (2001), Tài liệu dạy-học A course of American literature - Book 1, Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Đà Nẵng GC Thornley and Gwyneth Roberts (1998), An outline of English literature, NXB Longman Nguyễn Chí Trung (1998), English literature, Nxb Giáo dục Nguyễn Tư Trừng (1995), A course of a Survey of English literature, Trường Đại học Sư phạm Huế Website tham khảo: http://www.literature-study-online.com/resources/ http://www.world-english.org/literaturequiz.htm http://www.americanliterature.com/ss/ssindx.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_literature 80 GLOSARY - courtier (n): cận thần - chartism (n): phong trào hiến chương - couplet (n): - commonwealth (n): cộng hòa - to compromise: thỏa hiệp - disillusionment (n): vỡ mộng, tan ảo tưởng - embodiment (n): thể (ý tưởng) hay thân - enlightenment (n): thời kỳ khai sáng - extravagant (a): ngông cuồng, quái gở - imperialist (n): người theo chủ nghĩa đế quốc - imperialic (a) - impose (n): đánh thuế - inspiration (n): cảm xúc - prevalence - prose - anomymity (n): nặc danh, giấu tên - inclination (n): - licentious (a): dâm đãng, phóng túng - clerisy (n): tầng lớp trí thức - preponderance (n): vượt trội - barreness (n): - metaphor (n): (văn học) phép ẩn dụ - impediment (n): trở ngại, cản trở - octet (n): (âm nhạc) hát cho tám - inglorious (a): không tiếng tăm, không vinh quang - pilgrim (n): người hành hương - profound (n): sâu, thăm thẳm - renaissance (n): thời kỳ phục hưng - rhym (n): vần - to rhym - significance (n): ý nghĩa - superb (n): nguy nga, tráng lệ 81 ... youth and old age, life and death, rise and fall of nations and individuals, friendship and desertion, faithfulness and betrayal, heroism and cowardice, hope and resignation, good and evil, as well... of approaching dawn, they departed They came at length to the coast of Daneland and the sea boiled white between them and the land, and the land itself was scarred and pitted with a thousand narrow... dialect East Midland dialect was accepted as the standard language because: the East midlands was the largest and most populous of the language area; the East midlands dialect was spoken by Londoners;