7.2 考研真题与典型题详解
I. Fill in the blanks.
1．In consideration of the beauty of poems, ________ concludes that “the death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.”（天津外国语学院2007研）
【答案】Edgar Allan Poe
【解析】爱伦·坡认为，美的效应在于使灵魂激动而变得高尚；无论哪种美，其最高形式必然使敏感的灵魂悲泣。因此，诗的基调应该是“忧郁”。人最感到忧郁的事莫过于死，而最富于诗意的死莫过于心爱的年轻美女离世。
2．________is regarded as the father of psychoanalytic criticism and the detective story.（首师大2008研）
【答案】Edgar Allan Poe
【解析】爱伦·坡被认为是精神分析批评之父和侦探小说的鼻祖。
3．________ is generally thought of as the true beginner of the short stories because he was the first writer who formulated poetics of the short stories.
【答案】Edgar Allan Poe
【解析】爱伦·坡被视作短篇小说的真正始祖因为他是第一个在小说中赋予了诗意的作家。
4．________ is usually acknowledged as the originator of detective stories. He is also credited with developing many of the standard features of detective fiction. His detective M August Dupin of Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined letter is the forerunner of a long line of fictional detectives who are eccentric and brilliant.
【答案】Edgar Allan Poe
【解析】爱伦·坡被视作侦探小说的鼻祖。
5．________’s poems have the musical quality and romantic beauty. The Raven is his best-known poem.
【答案】Edgar Allan Poe
【解析】爱伦·坡的诗歌富有音乐感和浪漫主义色彩，《乌鸦》是最知名的一首。
II. Multiple Choice
1．Mark the novelist whose major works are characterized by the elements of the “grotesque”?（四川大学2008研）
A. Philip Freneau
B. Edgar Allan Poe
C. Washington Irving
D. Emily Dickson
【答案】B
【解析】Edgar Allan Poe（爱伦·坡），美国著名诗人、短篇小说家、文学评论家。他的短篇小说着意描写人的内心世界，对表现人的思想病态尤其感兴趣。其后期的短篇小说，经常充满一种恐怖气氛，情节阴森古怪，令人毛骨悚然。
2．Edgar Allan Poe’s first collection of short stories is ________.
A. Tales of a Traveller
B. Leatherstocking Tales
C. Canterbury Tales
D. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
【答案】D
【解析】埃德加·爱伦·坡（Edgar Allan Poe）（1809～1849）十九世纪美国诗人、小说家和文学评论家，在世时长期担任报刊编辑工作。《怪异故事集》（Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque）是爱伦·坡的第一部短篇小说集。
III. Read the following quotations and answer the questions.
Passage 1（人大2007研）
Questions：
(1) Give the title of the work and the full name of the author.
(2) Explain the implications of the underlined parts.
Key:
(1) The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
(2) Prophet: The speaker here calls the raven as a prophet, who can give him some clues to his puzzle of his beloved one.
Implore: This word means that the speaker appeals the raven to tell him whether there are ways to cure his pain.
Balm in Gilead: This sentence is quoted from the Bible, which means that whether there are some medicines to reduce the speaker’s pain.
Passage 2（北航2007研）
Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that this very ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament, displaying itself through long ages, in many works of exalted art, and manifested, of late, in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more than to the orthodox and easily recognizable beauties, of musical science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the stem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with the accredited character of the people, and while speculating upon the possible influence which the one, in the long lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other—it was this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with the name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge the original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal appellation of the “House of Usher”—an appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family mansion.
Questions:
(1) Which fiction is this excerpt from?
(2) Who is the author? What are the artistic features of the author?
(3) What literary technique is the fiction famous for, as embodied in this excerpt?
Key:
(1) This excerpt is from “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
(2) The author is Edgar Allan Poe. As a remarkable poet and critic, Poe stresses rhythm, defines true poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty,” and declares that “music is the perfection of the soul, or idea, of poetry.” As a short-story writer, Poe is a fascinating man of imagination. In his psychological fiction, he places the subconscious condition of the mind under investigation and probes beneath the surface of normal existence. He was the first author in American literature to make the neurotic the heroic figure, the protagonist, in his stories. He is the father of many things, one of which is psychoanalytic criticism, the other being the detective story.
(3) The Fall of the House of Usher possesses the essential features of the Gothic fiction. It is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architectures, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets, and hereditary curses.
IV. Short answer question
1．How does Edgar Allan Poe anticipate the 20th-century literature?（国际关系学院2007研）
Key: Allan Poe anticipates the 20th century literature and his influence is world-wide in modern literature. He was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the father of psychoanalytic criticism and the detective fiction. Poe is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. His aesthetics and conscious craftsmanship, his attack on “the heresy of the didactic,” and his call for “the rhythmical creation of beauty” have influenced French symbolists and the devotees of “art for art’s sake.”
V. Essay question
1．What are the artistic achievements of Edgar Allan Poe?
Key: Edgar Allan Poe has been recognized as a great writer of fiction, a poet of the first rank, and a critic of acumen and insight. Poe is the father of many things, one of which is psychoanalytic criticism, the other being the detective story.
Poe was good at generalizing. He tried to cash in on his literary practice to rationalize about literary creation. His poetic theories are remarkable in their clarity, which are best elucidated in his “The Philosophy of Composition” and “The Poetic Principle.” He says that the poem should be short and its aims are beauty, melancholy. He insists on a metrical flow in versification.
His theories for the short story are equally remarkable. In his opinion, the short story should be short and reveal some logical truth. As a short-story write, Poe was a fascinating man of imagination. In theme, Poe anticipates the twentieth-century literature in his treatment of the disintegration of the self. He places the subconscious condition of the mind under investigation and probes beneath the surface of normal existence.