內容提要
本書原為執教於河南大學外語系的美籍專家FredMednick編寫的一部美國文學教材，在使用中受到廣大師生的一致歡迎。出版之前，又經作者作了必要的補充和認真的修改。
為了幫助讀者了解美國文學的來龍去脈和主要成就，本書將移民時期至自然主義時期的美國文學劃分為若干階段。對每一階段的哲學流派、社會思潮及文學理論均作了概要的介紹和深入的剖析，然後選取若干主要流派及代表作家，介紹其生平、文學成就和創作特點，並重點賞析其主要作品。章末還附有必要的選文。
目錄
ForewordandAcknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter1ColonialAmerica:ANewLand/ANewLiterature:Bradford,Bradstreet,Edwards
Chapter2TheRevolutionaryPeriod:AnEmergentNationalLiterature
Chapter3EarlyNationalPeriod:Irving,Bryant,Cooper
Chapter4ANationalLiteratureandRomanticIndividualism
Chapter5NathanielHawthorne(1804-1864):ConsummateRomantic
Chapter6Mid-CenturyPoetsEdgarAllanPoe(1809-1849)andHenryWadsworthLongfellow(1807-1882)
Chapter7NatureandtheIndividual:TheTranscendentalismofEmerson(1803-82)andThoreau(1817-62)
Chapter8TheAnti-SlaveryImpulse:Stowe,Douglass,Lowell,Whittier
Chapter9HermanMelville(1819-1891)MasterofPhilosophicalAllegory
Chapter10AnExperimentinForm:WaltWhitman(1819-1892)
Chapter11EmilyDickinson(1830-1886):TheRecluseofAmherst
Chapter12FromCivilWartoNewCentury:IndustrialismandtheRiseofLiteraryRealism:IntroductionstoHowells,OHenry
Chapter13MarkTwain(1835-1910):TheMan,TheHumorist,TheSocialCritic,ThePessimist
Chapter14PsychologicalRealism:HenryJames(18431916)
Chapter15InnerConflict:EdithWharton(1862-1937)
Chapter16AttheTurnoftheCentury:MuckrakingandReform,Naturalism
Chapter17TwoNaturalists:JackLondonand(1876-1916)StephenCrane(1871-1900)
Chapter18TheodoreDreiser(1871-1945):NaturalismandMoralCrisisintheTwentiethCentury
SelectedBibliography
IndexofLiteraryWorksUsed
