本书是一本集历史、文本、批评理论于一书的文学选读教材。该书介绍了美国自殖民地时期到20世纪末的历史文化背景和各个时期的文艺思潮以及代表作家和他们的代表著作。书中按照美国文学的发展分九章，每章包括历史文化背景简介、作家作品选读、文学聚焦、阅读与欣赏和时代之声5个部分。

《美国文学选读》是《求知高等学校英语专业系列教材》的一部分，旨在为英语专业高年级学生、美国文学爱好者和研究者提供一片园地，用以学习和研究美国文学，提高文学素养，开拓视野，陶冶情操。本书是一本集历史、文本、批评理论于一书的文学选读教材。该书介绍了美国自殖民地时期到20世纪末的历史文化背景和各个时期的文艺思潮以及代表作家和他们的代表著作。本书按照美国文学的发展分九章，每章包括历史文化背景简介、作家作品选读、文学聚焦、阅读与欣赏和时代之声5个部分。精简而丰富的注释、引导自主性研究的思考题能有效帮助读者加深对所选作品的理解和鉴赏。

Chapter 1 EARLY AMERICA TO 1750

 INTRODUCTION

 William Bradford( 1590-1657 )

 from Of Plymouth Plantation

 Anne Bradstreet(1612-1672)

 To My Dear and Loving Husband

 LITERARY FOCUS

READING FOR APPRECIATION

VOICE OF THE AGE

Chapter 2 REASON AND REVOLUTION 1750-1800

 INTRODUCTION

 Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

 from Poor Richard's Almanac

 Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

 from The American Crisis

 Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

 The Declaration of Independence

 LITERARY FOCUS

 READING FOR APPRECIATION

 VOICE OF THE AGE

Chapter 3 NATIVE GROUNDS 1800-1840

 INTRODUCTION

 Washington Irving(1783-1859)

 Rip Van Winkle

 James Fenimore Cooper ( 1789-1851 )

 from The Last of the Mohicans

 William Cullen Bryant( 1794-1878 )

 Thanatopsis

 Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849)

 To Helen

 The Raven

 LITERARY FOCUS

 READING FOR APPRECIATION

 VOICE OF THE AGE

Chapter 4 NEW ENGLAND RENAISSANCE 1840-1855

 INTRODUCTION

 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 from Nature

 from Self Reliance

 Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

 from The Scarlet Letter

 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

 A Psalm of Life

 The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

 LITERARY FOCUS

 READING FOR APPRECIATION

 VOICE OF THE AGE

Chapter 5 CONFLICT AND CELEBRATION 1855-1880

 INTRODUCTION

 Walt Whitman ( 1819-1892 )

 from Song of Myself

 0 Captain ! My Captain !

 Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

 Success is counted sweetest

 Because I could not stop for Death

 I heard a fly buzz--when I died--

 Mark Twain(1835-1910)

 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

 Abraham Lincoln( 1809-1865 )

 The Gettysburg Addreg

 LITERARY FOCUS

 READING FOR APPRECIATION

 VOICE OF THE AGE

Chapter 6 REGIONALISM AND REALISM 1880-1910

 INTRODUCTION 

 Bret Harte (1836-1902)

 The Outcasts of Poker Flat

 Kate Chopin (1851-1904)

 The Story of an Hour

 Jack London (1876-1916)

 The Call of the Wild

 Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)

 Richard Cory

 Miniver Cheevy

 LITERARY FOCUS

 READING FOR APPRECIATION

 VOICE OF THE AGE

Chapter 7 THE BLOOM OF MODERNISM 1910-1930

 INTRODUCTION

 Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

 In a Station of the Metro

 The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter

 T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

 William Carlos Williams ( 1883-1963 )

 The Red Wheelbarrow

 The Great Figure

 The Dance

 Robert Frost (1874-1963)

 Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

 The Road Not Taken

 Mending Wall

 Sherwood Anderson ( 1876-1941 )

 The Egg

 Ernest Hemingway ( 1899-1961 )

 Hills Like White Elephants

 LITIIARY FOCUS

 READING FOR APPRECIATION

 VOICE OF THE AGE

Chapter 8 MID-CENTURY VOICES 1930-1960

 INTRODUCTION

 W. H. Auden (1907-1973)

 If lCould Tell You

 The Unknown Citizen

 Theodore Roethke ( 1908-1963 )

 My Papa's Waltz

 Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

 The Negro Speaks of Rivers

 Early Autumn

 William Faulkner ( 1897-1962 )

 A Rose for Emily

 Arthur Miller ( 1915-2005 )

 from The Death of a Salesman

 LITERARY FOCUS

 READING FOR APPRECIATION

 VOICE OF THE AGE

Chapter 9 IN OUR TIME 1960-PRESENT

 INTRODUCTION

 Robert Penn Warren (1905-199)

 from Audubon: A Vision

 John Updike ( 1932-- )

 A&P

 Saul Bellow ( 1915-2005)

 from Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

 Edward Albee (1928--)

 The Zoo Story

 LITERARY FOCUS

 READING FOR APPRECIATION

 VOICE OF THE AGE

BIBLIOGRAPHY