《美國文學(xué)簡史》試圖簡潔而全面地展現(xiàn)美國民族的想象力——以文字形式體現(xiàn)出來的想象力。《美國文學(xué)簡史》共分五章，第一章實際上是前史，即美國文學(xué)正式誕生前的文學(xué)史，是對新大陸這一“伊甸園”的想象。第二章的主題為“美國文學(xué)的創(chuàng)造” ，與“創(chuàng)造美國”這一主題密切相關(guān)，論述美國從1800年建國后到1865年南北戰(zhàn)爭結(jié)束之間的美國文學(xué)。第三章的主題為“重現(xiàn)過去，重塑未來”，與“重建美國”這一主題密切相關(guān)，論述南北戰(zhàn)爭后到1900 年之間的美國文學(xué)。第四章的主題為現(xiàn)代美國和現(xiàn)代主義，論述1900年至1945年二戰(zhàn)結(jié)束之間的美國文學(xué)。第五章的主題是“美國的世紀”，論述1945年二戰(zhàn)結(jié)束后美國逐漸稱霸時期的美國文學(xué)。
1 The First Americans：American Literature During the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods
Imagining Eden
Writing of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods
2 Inventing Americas：The Making of American Literature 1800-1865 Making a Nation
The Making of American Myths
The Making of American Selves
The Making of Many Americas
The Making of an American Fiction and Poetry
3 Reconstructing the Past， Reimagining the Future：The Development of American Literature 1865-1900
Rebuilding a Nation
The Development of Literary Regionalisms
The Development of Literary Realism and Naturalism
The Development of Women's Writing
The Development of Many Americas
4 Making It New：The Emergence of Modern American Literature 1900-1945
Changing National Identities
Between Victorianism and Modernism
The Inventions of Modernism
Traditionalism， Politics， and Prophecy
Community and Identity
Mass Culture and the Writer
5 Negotiating the American Century：American Literature Since 1945
Towards a Transnational Nation
Formalists and Confessionals
Public and Private Histories
Beats， Prophets， and Aesthetes
The Art and Politics of Race
Realism and Its Discontents
Language and Genre
Creating New Americas
Index
《美國文學(xué)簡史》：
What she learns， insum， is to see and appreciate Ahnira as an "absolute， archaic" embodiment of the life and landscapeof Dunnet Landing. Departing from Durmet Landing at the end of summer， the narrator iooksback from the boat carrying her away and sees Almira on the shore. As earthy and yet as strange.miraculous as her environment， Almira Todd then vanishes into it： the narrator loses sight of her，finally， as she "disappeared ... behind a dark clump of juniper and the pointed firs." The rune ofpassing away， departure， on which The Country of the Pointed Firs finishes gathers up in~：nations ofsadness and loss that quietly circulate through the entire narrative. This is a book about the ageiug oflife and communities. Almira Todd vanishes at the end of the story； and， equally， the life she rehearses，in all its homeliness and heroism —— that is vanishing too. In this book， Jewett manages somethingquite remarkable， She weaves together the great theme of pastoral， that the best days are the first toflee， and a major theme in American thought and writing at the turn of the century.， that an older，simpler form of society is dying.
Another woman writer who devoted herself， at least in her best work， to her New Englandhomeplace was Mary Wilkins Freeman （1852-1930）. Her finest achievements were the storiesshe produced for her first two published collections， A Humble Romance and Other Stories （1887）and A New England Nun and Other Stories （1891）. Set in the decaying rural counnunities of smallNew England villages and farms， these stories capture the spirit of the people through theirdialect. That spirit is often dour： Freeman describes what she calls， in one of her stories， "AChurch Mouse" （1891）， % hard-working and thrifty" but also "narrow-minded" group of peoplewhose "Puritan consciences" often blight their lives. Freeman focuses， in particular， as Jewettdoes on the lives of women in these small communities. Exploring their interior lives and theirrelationslaips， she shows them struggling to assert themselves， and acquire some small portion ofwhat they want， in a community dominated by male power —— or， to be more accurate， grumblingmale indifference. "You ain't found out yet we're women-folks. You ain't seen enough of men-folks yet to，" a woman tells her daughter in "The Revolt of 'Mother'" （1891）. "One of these da~you'll find out， an' then you'll know we only know what men-folks think we do， so far as any of itgoes，" she adds with caustic irony； "an' how we'd ought to reckon men-folks in with ProvidenCe，an' not complain of what they do any more than we do of the weather."
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