美国文学史名词解释.doc

1、the Lost GenerationIn general, the post-World War I generation, but specifically a group of U.S. writers who came of age during the war and established their literary reputations in the 1920s. The term stems from a remark made by Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway, “You are all a lost generation.” Hemingway used it as an epigraph to The Sun Also Rises (1926). The generation was “lost” in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U.S. that, basking under President Hardings “back to normalcy” policy, seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren. The term embraces Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, e.e. cummings and many other writers who made Paris the centre of their literary activities in the 20s. They were never a literary school. In the 1930s, as these writers turned in different directions, their works lost the distinctive stamp of the postwar period. The last representative works of the era were Fitzgeralds Tender Lost generationThe lost generation is a term first used by Stein to describe the post-war I generation of American writers: men and women haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness brought about by the destructiveness of the war.2full of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date.3the three best-known representatives of lost generation are F.Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway and John dos Passos.Lost generationThe Lost Generation is a group of expatriate American writers residing primarily in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. The group was given its name by the American writer Gertrude Stein, who used “a lost generation” to refer to expatriate Americans bitter about their World War I experiences and disillusioned with American society. Hemingway later used the phrase as an epigraph for his novel The Sun Also Rises. It consisted of many influential American writers, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams and Archibald MacLeish. 2、 Iceberg Theory It is a term used to describe the writing style of American writer Ernest Hemingway. The meaning of a piece is not immediately evident, because the crux of the story lies below the surface, just as most of the mass of a real iceberg similarly lies beneath the surface.Iceberg TheoryErnest Hemingways “iceberg theory” suggests that the writer include in the text only a small portion of what he knows, leaving about ninety percent of the content a mystery that grows beneath the surface of the writing. If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or actionThere is seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesnt show. (1938)（PPT）3、 Code heroThe Hemingway hero is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent, a man of action, and one of few words. That is an individualist keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place. These people are usually spiritual strong, people of certain skills, and most of them encounter death many times. The heroes in his book are all have something in common which Hemingway values: they have seen the cold world and for one cause or another, they boldly and courageously face the reality; whatever the result is, they are ready to live with grace under pressure. The Hemingway code hero has an indestructible spirit for his optimistic view of life, though he is pessimistic that is Hemingway. 4、StreamofconsciousnessThecontinuousflowofsense-perceptions,thoughts,feelings,andmemoriesinthehumanmind:oraliterarymethodofrepresentingsuchablendingofmentalprocessesinfictionalcharacters,usuallyinanunpunctuatedordisjointformofinteriormonologue.注：sense-perceptions：认知，观念blending：混合物unpunctuated:未加标点的Disjoint：脱节5、ImagismA poetic movement of England and the U.S. that flourished from 1909 to 1917. The movement insists on the creation of images in poetry by “the direct treatment of the thing” and the economy of wording. “poetic techniques to record exactly the momentary impressions”The leaders of this movement were Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell.Three main principles of the Imagist Movement (1912) :1 direct treatment of poetic subjects2 elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words, to use no word that does not contribute to the presentation.3 rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence of a metronome. 4pounds In a Station of the Metro is a well-known poem.Major features:- it was one of the most essential technique of writing poetry in modern period.- with a spirit of revolt against conventions, imagism was antiromantic and anti-victorian- In a sense, imagism was equivalent to naturalism in fiction- it produced free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern. - Imagism tried to record objective observations of an object or a situation without interpretation or comment by the poet. - it produced free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern. - Imagism tried to record objective observations of an object or a situation without interpretation or comment by the poet. The most outstanding figures:Ezra Pound Amy Lowell Hilda DoolittleThe form of free verse (Ezra Loomis Pound) 影响its influence 1)the imagist theories call for brief language, describing the precise picture in as few words as possible. This new way of poetry composition has a lasting influence in the 20th century poetry. 2) the second lasting influence of Imagism is the form of free verse. There are no metrical rules. There are apparent indiscriminate line breaks, which reflects the discontinuity of life itself. That is art of the poem. The poet uses the length of the lines and the strange groupings of words to show how life itself can be broken up into somehow meaningless clusters6、ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious.Modernism（来自老师的PPT)A general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental and avant-garde trends in the literature and other arts of the early 20th century, including Symbolism, Futurism, Expressionism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surrealism, along with the innovations of unaffiliated writers. 7、The Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance, a flowering of literature (and to a lesser extent other arts) in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s, has long been considered by many to be the high point in African American writing. It probably had its foundation in the works of W.E. B. Du Bois who believed that an educated Black elite should lead Blacks to liberation. He further believed that his people could not achieve social equality by emulating white ideals; that equality could be achieved only by teaching Black racial pride with an emphasis on an African cultural heritage. Although the Renaissance was not a school, nor did the writers associated with it share a common purpose, nevertheless they had a common bond: they dealt with Black life from a Black perspective. Among the major writers who are usually viewed as part of the Harlem Renaissance are Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Rudolph Fisher, James Weldon Johnson, and Jean Toomer.Harlem RenaissanceHarlem Renaissance refers to a period of outstanding literary vigor and creativity that occurred in the United states during the 1920s.2 the Harlem Renaissance changed the images of literature created by many black and white American writers. New black images were no longer obedient and docile. Instead they showed a new confidence and racial pride. 3 the center of this movement was the vast black ghetto of Harlem. In New York City.4 the leading figures are langston Hughes, James W.Johnson.etc 主要作品：The Weary Blues, The Dream keeper and Other Poems, Fine Clothes to the Jew8、Postmodernism(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)Postmodernism is a term which describes the postmodernist movement in the arts, its set of cultural tendencies and associated cultural movements. It is in general the era that follows Modernism.It frequently serves as an ambiguous overarching term forskeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. It is often associated with deconstruction and post-structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twentieth-century post-structural thought.后现代主义是一个术语，它描述了后现代主义运动在艺术，文化倾向和相关的文化运动。它是在一般的时代，遵循现代主义。它经常作为一个模棱两可的总体长期持怀疑态度的诠释，文化，文学，艺术，哲学，经济学，建筑，小说，文学批评。它往往是与解构主义和后结构主义，因为它作为一个长期使用在20世纪后期的结构思想的同时，取得了显著的普及。9、 Black humorThe term black humor was created in 1920s, but it was not noticed until 1960s. it was particularly a literary phenomenon in America after WW. Black humor, in literature, is drama, novel, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic face. Josegh Heller and Ku