美国文学术语解释

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 John Smith, the author of the True Relation of Virginia (1608) and Description of New England (161

2、6),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 Gods 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 myth of the Garden of Eden. TheAmerican Puritans metaphorical made of perception - symbolism. It has a great influence not onl

4、y on the Literary Scene in Colonial America, , but also on the literature in the 18th century, especially on Jonathan Edwards 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 stro

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

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

7、tic imagination.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 Wal

8、do Emerson (), whose famous work calledNature, Henry David Thoreau (), 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 symbolic of

9、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. However, it is ne

10、ver a systematic philosophy because of a lack of logical connection.4、RealismBack grounding:In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period 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 Wil

11、liam Dean Howells , the Dean of American Realism, whose famous work is A Chance Acquaintance 偶然相遇 ;O. Henry, the author of After 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 sce

12、nes 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 th

13、e low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.5、Local ColorismBack grounding :Local colorism as a trend became dominant in American literature in the late 1860s and early 1870s; The frontier humorists who had 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 distinguished from the outside world, and describes the ex

15、otic 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 the

16、 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 fittest,

17、natural selection.Representatives:There are some writers in this period, such as Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, and Jack London . Crane 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, godle

18、ss, 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 move

19、s into the twentieth century.7、ImagismBack grounding:Imagism is a literary movement launched 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:There are some outstanding figures, su

20、ch as Ezra Pound, the leader of the imagism; whose best work is the Four Quartets ; Wallace Stevens; Robert Frost.Main ideas:In a sense, imagism is equivalent to naturalism in fiction. It produces free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern. Imagism tries to record objective observations of an

21、object or a situation without interpretation or comment by the poet.Influences:It is one of the most essential techniques of writing poetry in modern period, with a spirit of revolt against conventions; imagism is anti-romantic and anti Victorian.8、the Lost GenerationBack grounding:The term “ lostge

22、neration is coined by Gertrude Stein, a lost generation writer herself, after World War I. It is between 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

23、the Great Gatsby.Main ideas:The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who 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 means this generation had lost the beautifu

24、l sense of the calm idyllic past.Influences:Being cut off from their past, disillusioned in reality, and without 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

25、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 ar

26、e 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 opt

27、imistic view of life; though he is pessimistic that is Hemingway.10、Iceberg Theory（网上找的）It is a term used to 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 Fitzgera