美国文学名词解释

美国文学名词解释1、American Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them. They were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace form God. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind. American Puritanism also had a enduring influence on American literature.2、 American Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.3、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. The transcendentalists celebrated the power of the human imagination to commune with the universe and transcend the limitations of the material world. They found their chief source of inspiration in nature. Emersons essay Nature was the major document of the transcendental school and stated the ideas that were to remain central to it.4、Free verse: free verse is the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without attention to conventional rules of meter. Free verse was first written and labeled by a group of French poets of the late 19th century. Their purpose was to deliver poetry from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to recreate the free rhythms of natural speech. Walt Whitman was the precursor who wrote lines of varying length and cadence, 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.5、Naturalism: A more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories and plays, usually involving a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. Naturalism was a new and harsher realism. It developed on the basis of realism but went a step further than it in portraying social reality.6、Lost Generation: Also termed the Sad Young Men, which was created by F.S. Fitzgerald in his book All the Sad Young Men. The term in general refers to the post- World War I generation, but specifically a group of US writers who came of age during the war and established their reputation in the 1920s. It 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, a novel that captures the attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast living set of disillusioned young expatriates in postwar Paris. 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 US, they seemed hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren. The term embraces Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, E.E. Cummings and so on.7、International theme：The meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contrast with European decadence and the moral and psychological complications arising therefore. The typical pattern of the conflict between the two cultures could be that of a young American man or girl who goes to Europe and affronts his or her destiny. Marriage and love are used by James as the focal point of the confrontation between the two value Systems, and the protagonist usually goes through a painful process of spiritual growth, gaining knowledge of good and evil from the conflict.8、Symbolism: It is a movement in literature and the visual arts that originated in France in the poetry of Charles Baudelaire in the late 19th century. In literature, symbolism was an aesthetic movement that encouraged writers to express their ideas, feelings, and values by means of symbols or suggestions rather than by direct statements. Hawthorne and Melville are masters of symbolism in America in the 19th century.美国文学名词解释1. Puritans: is English protestant, one division of Protestant (one division of Christianity, appeared in the 16th c, against the ruling Roman Catholic. In England, there were many divisions in protestant, for instance, Quakers, Baptism, 震颤派，喧嚣派). They regarded the reformation of the Church under Elizabeth as incomplete, and called for its further “purification” from what they considered to be unscriptural and corrupt forms and ceremonies retained from the unreformed church. They objected, for instance, to the wearing of the surplice and to government by the prelates, and they demanded the right to partake of the communion in a sitting posture. Their Millenary Petition (1603) requested a reform of the church courts, a doing away with “superstitious” customs, a discarding of the use of apocryphal books of the Bible, a serious observance of the Sabbath, and various ecclesiastical reforms. The 17th century American Puritans included two parts: one part of them were the creators of the Plymouth colony, called “Separatists”. They were so suppressed by the church of England that they sought escape. Those Separatists first went into exile to Holland, then were aboard “Mayflower” in 1620 and settled down in Plymouth. America, therefore, as an infant was born. They considered that the Church of England had become hopeless and advocated to separate from it since general reform would be useless. The other part was the Englishmen in the Massachusettes Bay Colony. Though they came later than those of Plymouth colony, they were richer and better-educated. They devoted themselves to the reform of the Church of England and meant to clear away the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church in it. In reality, only this part of them were true Puritans. They accepted the doctrine of original sin and total depravity, and predestination, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. The main doctrine of Calvinism Puritans believed in was first shown in “total depravity”. They believed in the “original sin” in which Adam the first man God created sinned and which led to the conclusion that “in Adams fall, we sinned all.” They considered that man was born sinful, was a sinner and could not redeem his original sinfulness. Moreover, they could not save themselves. Secondly Puritans underscored that man would be chosen by God unconditionally. They thought that God occupied a dominant position. He could save a part of people willfully, made them rise to the Heaven after death, and could also destroy some other part of people wantonly, made fall into the hell after death. Therefore, determinism took firm root in their minds. They believed in mans destiny, everything of man was disposed in the hands of God, only God knew who were “chosen people” after they died. Man himself was predestined and could not master his own destiny. They thought that God willfully granted people the favor that man could neither strive to gain, nor refuse to accept. The obtaining of the Gods special kindness or Gods providence for him meant his “rebirth” or “being sainted.” In this sense, they strived to be saints while they were still alive. Man did not know whether they could be Gods chosen people, but should live a saint-like life at ordinary times according to Gods will. The Holy Bible was the guidebook to mans behaviors. In New England where Puritanism was popular, ones life was only the course of moral training and that of his struggle between God and devils. People had an austere and rigid way of life governed by the church. Therefore, clergymen were the dominant authorities. Puritans tended to suspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin: they didnt dance, did not go to theatre, but sang chant in church and listened to the music. However, they allowed drinking, smoking and putting on beautiful clothes. Puritanism encouraged people to struggle in their careers. If ones business was booming, it proved that he had gained Gods providence.They held extreme opinions. They regarded themselves as “chosen people” of God. Those who challenged their way of life were opposing Gods will. They were zealous in defense of their own beliefs, intolerant of others. They drove out or persecuted those whose opinions seemed dangerous to them. They embraced hardships, industry and frugality. They favored a disciplined, hard, somber, ascetic, harsh life. They opposed pleasure and arts. They suspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin. They made laws about private morality as well as public behavior. They emphasized a wrathful God and to forget His mercy. They were much concerned with authority than with democracy.2. Puritanism: a religious and political movement that developed in England about the middle of the 16th century and later spread influence into the New England in America. Puritanism was a logical aftermath of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the establishment of the church of England, and the growth of Presbyterianism. Through these movements, one sees emerging the right of the individual to political and religious independence. Across the pages of American literature Puritanism is written large. It may almost be considered the ethical mode of American thought. As an extreme form of the Protestant sensibility, Puritanism exaggerated those protestant traits-especially industry, frugality, hardships. They favored a disciplined, hard, somber, ascetic, harsh life. All these, according to Max Weber and other analysts of social history contributed to the rise of capitalism.3. Enlightenment Movement: In 18th century, there was a dramatic change in the minds of Europeans, before the bourgeois revolution broke out. Inspired by the development of science, philosophers hoped to apply reason to all aspects of social and political life-government, law, economics, religion and education. This period therefore, came to be called the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment. It began with some key ideas that were put forth in the 17th century by English political thinkers such as: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke. According to Locke, the purpose of government is to protect what he called the “natural rights” of its citizens. All people, said Locke, are born free and equal, with a right to life, liberty and property. Another natural right he believed, was “the pursuit of happiness”, the individuals private rights and choices. If a government fails to protect the rights of its citizens, the leaders of the government have “put themselves into a state of war with the people”. The people have the right or duty to overthrow that government and established a better one. government derives its power from the consent of the people. (foundation of modern democracy) Enlightenment philosophers held that powerful government is indispensable, as a device for progress. They strongly argued for the education of common people, questioned religious authority. They advocated free and independent thought. Enlightenment: a philosophical and intellectual movement of the18th century, it advocated reason or rationality, the scientific method, equality and human beings ability to perfect themselves and their society. The movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works. It was also the outgrowth of a number of 17th c intellectual attainments and currents: the discoveries of Sir Issac Newton, the rationalism of Descartes and Pierre Bayle, and the empiricism of Francis Bacon and John Locke. Enlightenment philosophers made a critical examination of previously accepted institutions and beliefs from the viewpoint of reason and with a confident faith in natural laws and universal order. They agreed on faith in human rationality and existence of discoverable and universally valid principles governing human beings, nature and society. They opposed intolerance, restraint, spiritual authority, and revealed religion. England Enlighteners: Addison, Steele, Swift, Pope, Edward Gibbon, Hume Adam Smith, Jereny Bentham. American enlighteners: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson. Enlightenment gave philosophical shape to American revolution and two basic documents of the USA: The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. In the 18th century, the Enlightenment centered in France. (Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau) its influence was so powerful that it could be felt in the new-born British colonies in America. People opposed the old colonial order (fail to give freedom) and religious obscurantism(fail to provide education), and favored the education and freedom of thoughts. American enlightenment first severely attacked the puritan traditions which opposed pleasure and arts, enforced the uniform and rigid somber, ascetic life, and persecuted those who held different ideas. They longed to seek pleasure through ones hard work. So at that time, books on enlightenment were widely read. The demand for education and reading greatly rose. The colonial men of letters must work hard to meet the requirement. Almost all the great writers at that time were influenced or inspired by the enlightenment campaign. Their works sparkled with its spirits. The representative was Benjamin Franklin.4. Neoclassicism: a type of classicism which draws its name form its finding in classical literature of ancient Greek and Roman writers and in contemporary French neoclassical writings the models for its literary expressions and a group of attitudes toward life and art. It dominated English literature in the restoration age and in the 18th century. Neoclassic ideals had concrete effects on literature. The neoclassicists believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy. They followed some fixed laws and rules. Poetry should by lyrical, epical, didactic, satiric or dramatic. Prose should be precise, direct, smooth and flexible. Drama should be written in heroic couplet; the three unities of time, space and action should be strictly observed.5. Deism: deistic beliefs, a religion. Its followers believe in God who rules the world by established laws but not in the divinity of Christ or the inspiration of the Bible. It is a “Natural” religion, based on reason and a study of nature opposed to “revealed” religion. It developed a rationalistic ideology that more and more tended to rely on reason instead of revelation in the consideration of the relation of human beings to God and the universe. When rationalism was applied to theology, it led to the appearance of Deism. Deist held that first only one God was worth worshipping, secondly man could keep making progress by making use of his own moral sense and of his own intelligence and wisdom, thirdly man should love truth and do good; fourthly education and science was an important means to create mans happiness; fifthly the freedom of citizens speech, action, and faith embodied mans basic benefits; and lastly to serve God best was to do good for the mankind.6. Poetry is an art of transforming an intensely personal moment /experience /emotion (subjective, inward) into an impersonal and communicable image (objective, outward) through language, with a certain form and context, line-length, rhyme-scheme, regular meter.A poem is a verbal device that would preserve an experience indefinitely by reproducing it in whoever read the poem. (Philip Larkin)诗歌强调拟物寄情，把凝结在大众可普遍接受的客观世界的物上，找到一种内情和外露，个人体验与大众审美都能兼顾，相结合的一种途径、方法。Concentration and intensity are two of the qualities that distinguish the poetic treatment of a subject from its treatment on prose.Poetry is characterized by the following elements: a musical effect created by rhythm and sounds, a precise and fresh imagery, and multiple levels of interpretation suggested by the connotation of the closer words and allusions. (the ultimate aim of a poet, is to integrate all of these elements in order to produce a verbal statement in which everything form overall shape to individual word-choice is organically related in the most precise way possible.)Imagery is the use of descriptive language to re-create sensory experiences. An image is a verbal picture of an object, action, abstract idea, or sensation. It is often created by using figures of speech. There are ways making an idea or picture come closer into focus by relating the idea or experience to another that may be more familiar to the reader.Tone is inferred by the reader through the word choice, the connotation of those words, the verse form, the rhyme, the figurative language and the allusions.7. Romanticism had appeared in England in the last years of the eighteenth century. It spread to continental Europe and then came to America early in the nineteenth century. It came into being as a reaction against the prevailing neoclassical spirit and rationalism during the Age of Reason. Romanticism opposed neoclassicism which underlined formality, order, and authority, (rebellious in spirit)and stressed imagination and passion and individuality