童明教授在美国加州大学从事教学与研究多年。《美国文学史》以他的学术积累为依托,专为中国读者而写。既有对美国文学发展历史的宏观叙述,又有对具体作品的细致分析,内容丰富,观点新颖,评价中肯,文笔流畅,是一部让人难以释手的文学史著作,更是一本英语专业师生不可或缺的好教材。 《美国文学史》尤其深广的时空跨度,如此规模的英文版美国文学史论著是**在国内出版。熟知美国学界的*新研究动态,又有亚洲学者的独特视角,同时兼顾史学研究和**作品的赏析。见解独到,文笔优雅,是国内学人****的一部好书。

Life and works. At least in his own time, Cooper's character was asimportant a factor in his fame as his writing was. His life merits our review.Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1789. His father, JudgeWilliam Cooper, was a wealthy merchant and landowner who also servedas a Congressman for two terms. Judge Cooper passed his Federalist beliefson to his son. Cooper also studied under a tutor who was anti-Puritan and aLoyalist. Cooper spent his youth in his father's village Coopertown, whichwas not far from the border of the 18th century frontier. He went to Yale at13 where he studied with great interest Shakespeare and the major poets ofthe 18th century. Two years later he was dismissed from Yale because of hisrowdy behaviors. He was then sent to sea, serving first on a merchant ship asa deckhand and later as a midshipman in the navy. In 1811, he married SusanDeLancey of a Loyalist family. She kept him off the sea. From 1814 till 1817when the family estate was divided, he lived with his wife in Coopertown as acountry squire. Because of the "accident" described, he published Precautionin 1820. The following year he published The Spy, with the RevolutionaryWar as the backdrop. The Spy was soon translated into several languages andwas turned into a play. Suddenly Cooper was the most popular Americanwriter in Europe.
Cooper's third novel was The Pioneers (1823), set in the Otsego Lakeregion during the decade after the Revolutionary War. The Pioneers startedthe Leather-stocking series consisting of five novels. In 1823, Cooper alsopublished The Pilot, the first of 11 sea novels. This was a sea story thatfeatured Long Tom Coffin and other memorable characters. Its blending oftechnical details and fiction to make a patriotic appeal anticipated HermanMelville and Joseph Conrad. Both, indeed, generously acknowledged theirindebtedness to Cooper.
In 1826 Cooper took his family to Europe. That year and in the followingyear he met Scott and Lafayette. By 1833
…… 《美国文学史》是为中国的学者、学生写的一部学术专著。2002年由南京译林出版社出版之后,颇得读者厚爱,增印多次。这一次我对原书做了全面修订和勘校,又增添了不少新内容。例如,为每一章编写了详尽的提问练习并提供参考书目(全部纳入Appendix 1),增补了若干新的作者和作品,对前版已有的作品分析做了必要的补充。此增订版是一部具有充分教材功能的专著,既可作为英语专业高年级本科生和研究生的教材,也可为学者的研究、自学者的学习提供参考,为所有对美国文学和文化有兴趣的读者提供对美国文学史的一个完整和准确的叙述。所谓“完整”,指本书的叙述没有止于二十世纪六、七十年代,而是把美国文学史一直延展到二十一世纪“当下”的现状和趋势,因此,本书首尾呼应,有始有终。

Part 1 Early American Literature: Colonial Period to 1815
1 The Literature of the New World
2 The Literature of Colonial America: 1620—1763
3 Literature and the American Revolution: 1764—1815

Part 2 American Romanticism: 1815—1865
4 The Age of American Romanticism
5 Early Romanticism
6 Transcendentalism and Symbolic Representation
7 Interrogating Innocence
8 Whitman and Dickinson
9 A House Divided: Writing against Slavery

Part 3 American Realism: 1865—1914
10 The Age of Realism
11 Regional and Local Color Writing
12 Henry James and William Dean Howells
13 Literary Naturalism
14 Women Writing on the Woman Question

Part 4 American Modernism: 1914—1945
15 Modernism in the American Grain
16 The Evolution of Modernism
17 American Modernism in Europe
18 Modern Fiction between the Wars
19 Modern American Poetry
20 African American Literature and Modernism

Part 5 American Literature Diversified: From 1945 to the 21st Century
21 Literature Diversified under New Conditions
22 American Theatre: Three Major Playwrights
23 Major Fiction Writers: 1945 till 1960s
24 Poetic Tendencies since 1945
25 Fictional Inclinations since the 1960s
26 Contemporary Multiethnic Literature
27 Globalization of American Literature: Diasporic Writers

Selected Bibliography
Chronology of Historical Events
Index
……

“高等学校英语专业系列教材”是一套为英语专业高年级本科生和研究生编写的教材,包括**英语语言技能、英语专业知识和相关专业知识三个方面。本系列教材为开放式,涵盖面广,设计科学,注重时代性、知识性与实用性,有助于学习者在掌握英语技能的基础上进一步扩充知识领域,培养应用能力,提高综合素养。
增订版的《美国文学史》内容更加充实
既是学术专著又可做大学和研究院的教材
跨文化的视角,多层次的叙述
涵盖美国自殖民时期至新世纪600年来的文学、哲学、文化思潮
精辟解读重要作家的经典作品
在欧美近代思潮的宏观图景内论述美国文学的传统风格及50年来的文学主流和势脉
新意卓见,皎然迭出
英语行文流畅优雅,庄谐并陈,引人人胜。 童明教授所著《美国文学史》是一本具有深广时空跨度的英文版美国文学史论著。作者熟知美国学界的*新研究动态,又有亚洲学者的独特视角,同时兼顾史学研究和**作品的赏析。见解独特,文笔优雅,是国内学人****的一部好书。
何其莘,北京外国语大学教
童明教授在美国加州州立大学从事教学与研究多年。《美国文学吏》以他的学术积累为依托,专为中国读者而写。其中既有对美国文学发展历史的宏观叙述,又有对具体作品的细致分析,内容丰富,观点新颖,评价中肯,文笔流畅,是一部让人难以释手的文学吏著作,更是一本英语专业师生不可或缺的好教材。
王守仁,南京大学教授