美国文学术语解释全面且简练

1、术语解释美国文学简史1、 American PuritanismBack grounding:American Puritanism appeared in the colonial period, from 1607 to 1775, in America.Representatives:There are many writers in this period, such as Captain JohnSmith, the author of the True Relation of Virginia (1608) and Description of New England (1616)

2、, Anne Bradstreet, who wrote the famous work called Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650).Main ideas:They stress predestination, original sin, total depravity, and limited atonement from God s grace. They go to America to prove that they are God s chosen people who will enjoy God s blessings

3、 on earth and in Heaven. Finally, they build a way of life that stresses hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.Influences:American Literature is based on a myth the Biblical mythof the Garden of Eden. The American Puritan s metaphoricalmadeof perception symbolism. It has a great influence notonly o

4、n the Literary Scene in Colonial America, , but also onthe literature in the 18th century, especially on JonathanEdwards and Benjamin Franklin.American RomanticismBack grounding:It appeared in the end of the 18 th century through the outbreak of the Civil War, from 1828 to 1865, and it was strongly

5、influenced by European culture.Representative:There are somerepresentative newEngland poets and out-sanding writers such as, James Fenimaore Cooper, the author ofTheLeather Stocking Tales, Washington Irving , whose famous work is The Sketch Book (1819) .Main ideas:Romanticism is a rebellion against

6、the objectivity of rationalism. .For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions are more important than reason and commonsense. They emphasize individualism, placing the individual against the group, against authority.Influence:It produces a feeling of “ Newness” which inspires the romantic im

7、agination.3、 TranscendentalismsBack grounding:Transcendtalism flourished in the New England from about 1836 to 1860.Ralph Waldo Emerson published Nature in 1836 which represented a new way of intellectual thinking in America.Representatives:There are two representative writers, namely Ralph Waldo Em

8、erson (1803 1882), whose famous work called Nature, Henry David Thoreau (18171862), the author of Walden.Main ideas:Believe people can learn things both from the outside world by means of the 5 senses and from the inner world by intuition;It places spirit first and matter second; It takes nature as

9、symbolic of spirit or God. It emphasizes the significance of the individual; Religion is an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal over soul .Influences:It is a manifestation of Romantic Movement in literature and philosophy and an ethical guide to life of America. Howe

10、ver, it is never a systematic philosophy because of a lack of logical connection.Back grounding:In American literature, the Civil War brought the RomanticPeriod to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence, from 1865 to 1918.Representatives:There are some famous writers in this period, such as

11、WilliamDean Howells , the Dean of American Realism, whose famous work is A Chance Acquaintance 偶然相遇; O. Henry, the author ofAfter Twenty Years; Henry James, the author of The Portrait of a Lady.Main ideas:Realism is the theory of writing in which familiar aspects of contemporary life and everyday sc

12、enes are represented in a straightforward or mother-of-fact manner. It often uses the open ending, focuses on the lives of the common people, and emphasizes objectivity.Influences:It comes as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. It expresses the concern for commonplace and t

13、he low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.5、 Local ColorismBack groundingLocal colorism as a trend became dominant in American literature in the late 1860s and early 1870s； The frontierhumorists whohad been popular with their “ tall tales

14、” before the Civil War paved the way for local color fiction.Representatives ：There is a famous writers in this period, namely Mark Twain,（ 马 克 ?吐温）, whose masterpiece is Huckleberry Finn.Main ideas:Local color fiction presents a locale which is distinguishedfrom the outside world, and describes the

15、 exotic and the picturesque. It describes things that are not common in other regions, attempting to show things as they as they are.Local color fiction glorifies the past and stresses the influence of setting on character.Influences:Mark Twain is the representative in this period, and his style is

16、the vernacular language, local color, and cracker-barrel philosopher.6、 NaturismBack grounding ：Naturalism is a literary trend prevailing in Europe, especially in France and Germany, in the second half of the 19th century.And, Charles Darwin stresses the struggle of existence, survival of the fittes

17、t, natural selection.Representatives:There are some writers in this period, such as Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, and Jack London . Crane s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is the first American naturalism work.Main ideas:Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment.The universe is cold, go

18、dless, indifferent and hostile to human desires.Influences:Although naturalist literature describes the world with sometimes brutal realism, it sometimes also aims at bettering the world through social reform. This combination of grim reality and desire for improvements is typical of America as it m

19、oves into the twentieth century.7、 ImagismBack grounding:Imagism is a literary movementlaunched by a number of British and American poets from 1909 to 1917, which is prevalent in the Western world and is a branch of the Symbolist literary movement.Representatives:Four Quartets ; Wallace Stevens; Rob

20、ert Frost.Main ideas:In a sense, imagism is equivalent to naturalism in fiction.Itproduces free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern.Imagism tries to record objectiveobservations of an object ora situation without interpretation or comment by the poet.Influences:It is one of the most essentia

21、l techniques of writing poetryin modern period, with a spirit of revolt against conventions; imagism is anti-romantic and anti - Victorian.8、 the Lost GenerationBack grounding:The term “ lost generation ” is coined by Gertrude Stein, a lost generation writer herself, after World WarI. It is between

22、the first and second World Wars.Representatives:There are some excellent writers, including Ernest Hemingway;whose famous work is The Old Man and the Sea (1952); Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the Great Gatsby.Main ideas:The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group ofAmerican writers who

23、were rebelling against what America had become by the 1900 s.It aims to seek the bohemian lifestyle and reject the values of American materialism and meansthis generation had lost the beautiful sense of the calm idyllic past.Influences:Being cut off from their past, disillusioned in reality, and wit

24、hout a meaningful future to fall on, they are lost in disillusionment and existential voids.9、 the code hero （网上找的）The Hemingway hero is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent, a manof action, and one of few words. That is an individualist keeping emotions under cont

25、rol, 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 an

26、other, they boldly and courageously face the reality; whatever the result15, 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 isHemingway.10、 Iceberg Theory（ 网上找的）It is a term used to

27、 describe the writing style of American writer ErnestHemingway. 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.11、 the Jazz AgeThe 20 s are also referred to as “ The Jazz Age,” a term coined by F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Jazz A