美国文学史名词解释

1、学习好资料欢迎下载1、the Lost GenerationIn gen eral, the post-World War I gen eratio n, 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 Ste in to Ern eHem in gway,“ Youare all a lost

2、gen erati on.” Hem in gway used it as anTpgSaurihAbBo Rises(1926). The gen erati on was“ lost ” in the sense that its in herited values were no Ion gerreleva nt in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alie nati on from a U.S. that, bask ing un der Preside nt Hardin gs“ back to no rmalcy” p

3、olicy, seemed to its membersto be hopelessly provin cial, materialistic, and emoti on ally barre n. The term embraces Hemin gway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joh n Dos Passos, e.e. cum mings and many other writers who made Paris the centre of their literary activities in the 20s. They were never a literary

4、 school. In the 1930s, as these writers turned in different directions, their works lost the dist in ctive stamp of the postwar period. The last represe ntative works of the era were FitzgeraldsTe nderLost gen erati onThe lost gen eratio n is a term first used by Stein to describe the post-war I gen

5、 erati on of America n writers: men and wome n haun ted by a sense of betrayal and empti ness 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 fin est America n litera

6、ture to date.3the three best-k nown represe ntatives of lost gen erati on are F.Scott Fitzgerald, Hem in gway and Joh n dos Passos.Lost gen erati onThe Lost Generation is a group of expatriate American writers residing primarily in Paris duri ng the 1920s and 1930s. The group was give n its n ame by

7、 the America n writer Gertrude Stei n, who used “ a lost gen erati on ” to refer to expatriate America ns bitter about their World War I experie nces and disillusi oned with America n society.Hemin gway later used the phrase as an epigraph for his no vel The Sun Also Rises. It con sisted of many in

8、flue ntial America n writers, i ncludi ng Ern est Hemin gway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams and Archibald MacLeish.2、Iceberg TheoryIt 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 o

9、f the story lies below the surface, just as most of the mass of a real iceberg similarly lies ben eath the surface.Iceberg TheoryErnest Hemingway s “ 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 mys

10、tery that grows beneath the surface of the writing. If a writer of prose knows eno ugh about what he is writi ng about he may omit things that will have a feeli ng ofthose 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 b

11、eing above water. A good writer does not n eed to reveal every detail of a character or actionThere is seve n-eighths of it un der water for every part that shows. Any thi ng you know you can elim in ate and it only stre ngthe ns your iceberg. It is the part that does n (1938) (PPT)3、Code heroThe He

12、min gway hero is an average man of decidedly masculi ne tastes, sen sitive and in tellige nt, a man of action, and one of few words. That is an in dividualist keep ing emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place. These people are usually spiritual strong, people of certain

13、 skills, and most of them encounter death many times. The heroes in his book are all have someth ing in com mon which Hemin gway values: they have see n the cold world and for one cause or ano ther, they boldly and courageously face the reality; whatever the result is, they are ready to live with gr

14、ace un der pressure. The Hemin gway code hero has an in destructible spirit for his optimistic view of life, though he is pessimistic that is Hemin gway.4、Stream of consciousnessThe continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the hu man mind: or a literary method of rep

15、rese nting such a ble nding of men tal processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjoint form of interior monologue. 注：sense-perceptions 认知，观念 blending：混合物 unpunctuated未加标点 的Disjoi nt :脱节5、ImagismA poetic moveme nt of En gla nd and the U.S. that flourished from 1909 to 1917.

16、The moveme nt in sists on the creati on of images in poetry by“ the direct treatme nt of thething ”and the economy of wording.“ poetictechniques to record exactly themomentary impressions ” Tbeders of this movement were Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell.Three mai n prin ciples of the Imagist Moveme nt (1912

17、):1 direct treatme nt of poetic subjects2 elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words, to use no word that does not con tribute to the prese ntati on.3 rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the seque nce of a metrono me.4 pound s In a Station of the Me

18、tro is a wenown 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 an ti-victoria n-In a sen se, imagism was equivale nt to n aturalism in ficti on-it produced free verse withou

19、t imposing a rhythmical pattern.-Imagism tried to record objective observations of an object or a situation without in terpretati on or comme nt by the poet.-it produced free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern.-Imagism tried to record objective observations of an object or a situation witho

20、ut in terpretati on or comme nt by the poet.The most outsta nding figures:Ezra Pou nd Amy Lowell Hilda DoolittleThe form of free verse (Ezra Loomis Pound)影响 its in flue nee1) the imagist theories call for brief Ian guage, describ ing the precise picture in as few words as possible. This new way of p

21、oetry compositi on has a last ing in flue nce in the 20th cen tury poetry.2) the sec ond lasti ng in flue nce of Imagism is the form of free verse. There are no metrical rules. There are apparent indiscriminate line breaks, which reflects the disc on ti nuity of life itself. That is art of the poem.

22、 The poet uses the len gth of the lines and the strange groupings of words to show how life itself can be broken up into somehow mea nin gless clusters6、ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and tech niq ues of expressi on; it believes that we creat

23、e the world in the act of percei ving it. Modern ism implies historical disc on ti nu ity, a sen seof alie natio n, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the in dividual and his inner being over social man and prefers the uncon scious to the self-c on scious.h rs a mo vf1 men I deittiigI he hh- 19th

24、century, which extended imo 胡 I the forms 卅literature and art. ft involvpd a radicat and d(-lil)erate break only with traditional form of art but with traditional aesthetic pnrjtTh世 most important period for Modemtsm I1910 and 1925, chardtterized by such movements as Symbolism,Impressionijitn, Strea

25、m of Cvnciou&ness, Edtential ism. Xblractim T Cubism and SijmealKm. (n ihr* 1930s and following lhe Wnrhi Wur Q , Existentialism prevailed in both literature and philosophy, h Englandf most important poets wrn*Yeats iind T. S.i- link In the nuvd t the modemisl in ncvalists werr Jani艸and Virginia Wd

26、with thef，Stream of Consciouaneas technique and D. Lawrence with his psychological penetration.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, Futuris

27、m, Expressio nism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surrealism, along with the innovations of unaffiliated writers.7、The Harlem RenaissaneeThe Harlem Ren aissa nee, a floweri ng of literature (and to a lesser exte nt other arts) in New York City duri ng the 1920s and 1930s, has long bee n con sidered b

28、y 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 liberati on. He further believed that his people could not achieve social equality by emulating white ideals; that e

29、quality could be achieved only by teaching Black racial pride with an emphasis on an African cultural heritage. Although the Ren aissa nce was not a school, nor did the writers associated with it share a com mon purpose, n evertheless they had a com mon bond: they dealt with Black life from a Black

30、perspective. Among the major writers who are usually viewed as part of the Harlem Ren aissa nce are Claude McKay, Coun tee Culle n, Lan gst on Hughes, Zora Neale Hurst on, Rudolph Fisher, James Weldo n Joh nson, and Jea n Toomer.Harlem Ren aissa nceHarlem Renaissance refers to a period of outstandin

31、g literary vigor and creativity that occurred in the United statesduring the 1920s.2 the Harlem Renaissancechanged the images of literature created by many black and white American writers. New black images were no Ion ger obedie nt and docile. In stead they showed a new con fide nce and racial prid

32、e. 3 the cen ter of this moveme nt was the vast black ghetto of Harlem. In New York City.4 the leading figures are Iangston Hughes, James W.Joh nson. 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)Postmoder n

33、ism is a term which describes the postmodernist moveme nt in the arts, its set of cultural tenden cies and associated cultural moveme nts. It is in gen eral the era that follows Modernism.It frequently serves as an ambiguous overarching term forskeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art,

34、philosophy, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. It is ofte n associated with dec on structio n and post-structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twen tieth-ce ntury 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

35、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 WWH . Black humor, in literature, is drama, no vel, 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 assoc