专八:美国文学简史(八)

III. Sinclair Lewis – “the worst important writer in American literature”

1. life

2. works

(1) Main Street
(2) Babbitt
(3) Arrowsmith
(4) Dodsworth
(5) Elmer Gantry
3. point of view – satirical critic of American middle class

(1) Lewis showed the villagers to be narrow-minded, greedy, pretentious and corrupt.
(2) He attacked middle class for its indifference to art and culture, and its assumption that economic success made it superior.
4. style

(1) photographic, verisimilitude
(2) colloquialism
(3) characterization: he often created a type of character rather than an individual
(4) old fashioned in theme
(5) lack in psychological exploration
IV. Willa Cather

1. life

2. works

(1) Alexander’s Bridge
(2) O Pioneers
(3) The Song of the Lark
(4) My Antonia
3. features of her works

(1) She was one of the few “uneasy survivors of the nineteenth century”. Hanging onto the traditional values, she was never able to come to terms with modernity.
(2) Old west becomes in most of her novels the centre of moral reference against which modern existence is measured.
(3) She withdraws in her later fiction into the historical past.
(4) She often uses women protagonists in her novels.