《美国社会文化》旨在为中国的英语学习者和美国文化爱好者提供一幅以美国文化理念和价值观为主线、以美国人民族特性和行为方式为内容、以美国社会结构和地区特色为衬托的“美国社会文化全景图。。众所周知,语言的背后是文化,文化的背后是良知,良知的背后是人性。因此,无论是从现实主义或者实用主义,还是从道德良知或者人文精神的角度来说,知晓和领悟美国文化不仅有助于我们对英语的切实掌握和灵活运用,而且有助于我们人文素养的提升和思想情操的修炼。
《美国社会文化》在了解和诠释美国社会文化的精神之旅中,我们不仅可以解读英语文字中的文化信息,更可以以英语文字为载体透视美利坚民族之魂。通过学习美国社会与文化,可以更加系统、完整地理解和把握美国文化,进而在理性层面对英语语言既“知其然”,又“知其所以然”,最终自觉使用正确、地道的英语。
目前,我国外语教学界正日渐形成这样一种共识,即外语教学与外国文化教育密切相关,不可割离。围绕语言教学与文化教育的关系问题,学术界主要有三种观点。一种观点认为,语言与文化是一种从属关系,即语言为主,文化为辅,英语表述为langtrage teaching with a cultural dimen-sion。另一种观点提出,语言教学与文化教育应齐头并进,不分主次,互为补充,英语表述为culture teaching as a paralle to language teaching。还有一种观点主张,语言教学与文化教育构成一个不可割裂的整体,英语表述为culture teaching as an integral part of language teaching。尽管这三种观点侧重点相异,对文化在语言教学过程中的权重认识不一,但它们的共同点还是显而易见的,即三者都强调文化教育对语言教学的影响和作用。以此推论,即便了解和掌握一国文化不是学好其语言的必要条件,至少也是有助于语言学习和运用的。
正是基于这一认识,本人用英语编写了这本《美国社会文化》,旨在为中国的英语学习者和美国文化爱好者提供一幅以美国文化理念和价值观为主线、以美国人民族特性和行为方式为内容、以美国社会结构和地区特色为衬托的“美国社会文化全景图”。众所周知,语言的背后是文化,文化的背后是良知,良知的背后是人性。因此,无论是从现实主义或者实用主义,还是从道德良知或者人文精神的角度来说,知晓和领悟美国文化不仅有助于我们对英语(至少是美国英语)的切实掌握和灵活运用,而且有助于我们人文素养的提升和思想情操的修炼。毋庸说,我们不必把美国文化“照单全收”,更没有必要仿而效之,而应该采取取其精华、去其糟粕的态度,一方面探寻美国人的文化精神,另一方面寻求全人类的共同关怀。在了解和诠释美国文化的精神之旅中,我们不仅可以解读英语文字中的文化信息,更可以英语文字为载体透视美利坚民族之魂。
长期以来,本人在讲授英语语言技能的同时教授美国文化课程。近三十载的教学实践告诉我,英语语言教学必须辅以文化内容,即language teaching with a cultural dimension。这是最基本的要求,否则语言学习只能流于表面,无法深入内层。事实上,对英语国家文化的生疏和无知不仅阻碍语言习得过程,而且影响甚至制约对语言的准确理解和完整掌握。
王恩铭,出生于1957年,教授,博士生导师,上海外国语大学美国研究中心负责人。
1982年7月毕业于原上海外国语学院英语系英语语言文学专业,毕业后留校任教至今。1982至1983年在上外“美国学助教进修班”研修一年。1985年获美国富布赖特青年学者奖学金赴美国Universityof WIscomm Mdison攻读美国学硕士学位,于1987年回国。1992年作为富布赖特高级访问学者,再赴University of Wisconsin Madison,作为期一年的研究。1996年,获美国“全国人文基金会”资助,赴美国University of Kansas Laurence,参加为期两个月的“美国学暑期研讨班”。2000年,获美国斯塔尔基金会资助,在香港大学美国研究中心做了10个月的访问学者。2004年1月,受香港城市大学的邀请,做了一个月的“高级研究员”。2004年9月,获斯塔尔基金会奖学金,赴香港大学美国研究中心,作6个月的研究工作。在上海外国语大学期间,主要从事美国学领域的教学和研究工作,主要方向为美国史,美国文化与社会,现代美国妇女研究。近八年来,参加高级英语和高级口译的课程教学。从1985年至今,发表美国学方面的论文30多篇,主要有《美国历史上的政教关系》、《从政治边缘走向政治中心》、《美国的新自由主义》、《美国60年代的反正统文化运动》和《美国新左派运动》。出版的论著包括:《20世纪美国妇女研究》、《当代美国社会与文化》、《美国文化与社会》和《美国名校风采》。参加的教材编写有《高级翻译教程》。此外,还有译著《危机》和《美国人的生活和社会制度》。2002年获上外“申银万国科研”一等奖;2002年被评为“上外十佳青年教师”。参加的学术组织包括:中华美国学会,中国美国史研究会和上海美国研究学会。
Chapter One Out of the Past
Learning Objectives
1.1 The Birth of a New Nation
1.2 The Growth of the-New Republic
1.3 The Civil War and the Reconstruction
1.4 Growth and Transformation
1.5 The Progressive Thrust
1.6 War, Prosperity, and Depression
1.7 World War II and Its Impact
1.8 Decades of Change: 1960-1980
1.9 America at the Turn of the Century
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Two The American Identity
Learning Objectives
2.1 The Anglo-Saxons
2.2 White Ethnic Americans
2.3 African Americans
2.4 Latinos/Hispanies
2.5 Asian Americans
2.6 Native Americans
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Three Religion in America
Learning Objectives
3.1 Religion in America: A Brief History
3.2 "In God We Trust"
3.3 Church, State and Polities
3.4 Popular Religion
3.5 Civil Religion and Beyond
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Four American Beliefs
Learning Objectives
4.1 Primary Beliefs of American Culture
4.2 Immigrant Beliefs
4.3 Frontier Beliefs
4.4 Religious and Moral Beliefs
4.5 Social Beliefs
4.6 Political Beliefs
4.7 Beliefs on Human Nature
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Five American Values and Assumptions
Learning Objeetives
5.1 Individualism and Privacy
5.2 Equality
5.3 Informality
5.4 Achievement, Action, Work, and Materialism
5.5 Directness and Assertiveness
5.6 Cooperation and "Fair Play"
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Six Cultural Regions in America
Learning Objectives
6.1 New England
6.2 The South
6.3 The Midland
6.4 The Midwest
6.5 The Far West
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Seven Education in America
Learning Objectives
7.1 Initial Efforts in Promoting Education
7.2 Education as Philanthropy
7.3 The Birth of Public Schools
7.4 The Emergence of the Academies
7.5 Colleges: Private and Public
7.6 The Arrival of the University
7.7 Progressivism in Education
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Eight The American Family
Learning Objectives
8.1 European Origins of the American Family
8.2 Separate Spheres and the Birth of the Modern American Family
8.3 Private Lives and Paradoxes of Perfection
8.4 The Contemporary American Family
8.5 Upper, Middle, and Working-Class Families
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Nine Mass Media
Learning Objectives
9.1 Books
9.2 Newspapers
9.3 Magazines
9.4 Films
9.5 Radio and Sound Recording
9.6 Television
9.7 The Internet and the World Wide Web
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Ten Popular Culture
Learning Objectives
10.1 Comic Art
10.2 Advertising
10.3 Automobile Culture
10.4 Dance
10.5 Music
10.6 Sports
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Eleven Capitalist Economy and Business Civilization
Learning Objectives
11.1 American Capitalism
11.2 The Cult of the Businessman
11.3 The Corporate Empire
11.4 Business and Its Satellites
11.5 Capital and Labor
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Twelve Social Services
Learning Objectives
12.1 American Values in Social Welfare
12.2 Social Services: A Brief History
12.3 Public Social Services
12.4 Health Care Services
12.5 Housing
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Thirteen Law and Legal System
Learning Objectives
13.1 The Sources of the Law
13.2 The Federal Judicial System
13.3 The State Judicial System
13.4 The Criminal Court Process
13.5 The Civil Court Process
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Fourteen American Women
Learning Objectives
14.1 Founding Mothers
14.2 Women in the New Republic
14.3 Womens Rights Movement
14.4 The Cult of Domesticity and New Women
14.5 Housewifery and Domesticity
14.6 A New Wave of Feminism
14.7 Gains and Uncertainties
Summary
Essay Questions
Chapter Fifteen Who Is an American?
Learning Objectives
15.1 The Puritan Thesis
15.2 The Frontier Thesis
15.3 The Melting-Pot Thesis
15.4 The Salad Bowl Thesis
15.5 Multiculturalism
Summary
Essay Questions
Bibliography
The city had many faces.Slums,criminals,beggars,and grafters displayed one side of urban life.Beautiful parks broad avenues lined with smart stores and find mansions,great churches,theaters,museums,and libraries showed another.The best hospitals and the best schools were to be found in the cities,as were also the intellectual nerve centers of the country the offices of the leading magazines,newspapers,and book publishers.It was part of the centralization of American life that the mores ophisticated manners and morals of the city should exert a steadily widening influence over the country as a whole.The city was the home of the rich no less than of the poor。but the rich were enjoying their golden hour in the city as the poor could not.For women,however,the city gave them new opportunities for indepen dencethat were nerve dreamed of.The narrow alternatives of earlier davs school-teaching,domestic service,factory work now broadened to offer employment to women doctors,lawyers,typists,telephone operators,librarians,journalists,and social workers.Particularly interesting were the opportunities in nursing.Excerpt in a few Catholic hospitals,femalenurses before the Civil War were an untrained and little-respected group.But by 1883,with the radical alteration of public attitudes,there were twenty-two training schools in the country.Urban conditions,the growing independence of women,and many other economic and social factors exerted their influence on American family life.Between 1860 and 1910,the birth rate declined from about 41per thousand to about 27.Smaller families were particularly characteristic of the urban professional and business classes,who found it increasinglyexpensive to give children the educational and other advantages that were considered necessary.Even more alarming to many moralists was the steady increase in divorce.In 1867,fewer than 10,000 divorces were granted in the whole country 0.3 divorce per thousand of population.In1914,there were over 100,000 divorces and the rate had risen to 1.0 perthousand inhabitants.