美国文学名词解释

1 What is Transcendentalism In New England an intellectual movement known as transcendentalism developed as an American version of Romanticism The movement began among an influential set of authors based in Concord Massachusetts and was led by Ralph Waldo Emerson Like Romanticism Transcendentalism rejected both 18th century rationalism and established religion which for the transcendentalists meant the Puritan tradition in particular Instead the transcendentalists celebrated the power of the human imagination to commune with the universe and transcend the limitations of the material world The transcendentalists found their chief source of inspiration in nature Emerson s essay Nature 1836 was the first major document of the transcendental school and stated the ideas that were to remain central to it His other key transcendentalist works include The American Scholar 1837 a volume in which he addressed the intellectual s duty to culture and Self Reliance 1841 an essay in which he asserted the importance of being true to one s nature 2 What is Puritanism The word Puritanism is originally used to refer the theology advocated by a party within the Church of England The term Puritanism is also used in a broader sense to refer to attitudes and values considered characteristic of the Puritans It has been employed to denote a rigid moralism or the condemnation 谴责 of innocent pleasure or religious narrowness adhered by the early New England Puritans The American Puritanism as cultural heritage exerted great influence over American moral values And this Puritan influence over American Romanticism was conspicuously noticeable The American Puritans accepted the doctrine of predestination original sin and total depravity and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God 3 What is Free verse Free Verse is the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without attention to conventional rules of meter Free verse is used to deliver poetry free from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to re create instead the free rhythms of natural speech Pointing to the American poet Walt Whitman as their precursor they wrote lines of varying length and cadence 节奏 usually not rhymed The emotional content or meaning of the work was expressed through its rhythm Free verse has been characteristic of the work of many modern American poets including Ezra Pound and Carl Sandburg 4 What is Local Colorism Post Civil War America was large and diverse various enough to sense its own local difference Regional voices had emerged from newly settled territories in the South and to the west of the Appalachan Local colorism is a unique variation of the American literary realism Generally the works by local colorists are concerned with the life of a small well defined region This kind of fiction depicts the characters from a specified setting or of an era which are marked by its customs dialects landscape or other peculiarities that have escaped standardizing cultural influence 5 What is naturalism In literature the term refers to the theory that literary composition should aim at a detached scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man The movement is an outgrowth of 19th century scientific thought following in general the biological determinism of Darwin s theory or the economic determinism of Karl Marx Artistically naturalistic writings are usually unpolished in language lacking in academic skills and unwieldy in structure Philosophically the naturalists believe that the real and true is always partially hidden from the individual or beyond his control and that men are c