美国文学选读名词解释

1、精选文档1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans.1. simply speaking , American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans,who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions.2. In content

2、it means scrupulous ,moral rigor ,especially hostility to social pleasure and religion .3. with time passing it became a dominant factor in American life , one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and literature.to some extent it is a state of mind,a part of the national cultu

3、ral atmosphere that the American breathes ,rather than a set of tenets.4. Actually it is a code of values,a philosophy of life and a point of view in American minds,also a two-faceted tradition of religious idealism and level -headed in common sense .2.The American Romanticism(浪漫主义):a literary movem

4、ent flourished as a cultural force the early period and the late period. associated with imagination and boundlessness, as an historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th centuries.(Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.)II.Features of American romanticism (1) It w

5、as the expression of “a real new experience(全新体验)”. (2) American Puritanism was a cultural heritage. Many American romantic writings intended to edify(启发) more than they entertained.(3) American Romanticism is full of “newness(新奇)” .Ideals：Individualism; political equalityDream：America: a new Garden

6、 of Eden(4) American romanticism was both imitative and independent.3.Transcendentalism 超验主义The major features of Transcendentalism: The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. 思想 超灵 宇宙 The Transcendentalists stressed the importance

7、 of the individual. To them, the individual is the most important element of Society. The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with Gods overwhelming presence. 自然+上帝Ralph Waldo Emerson. American T

8、ranscendentalism:As a philosophical and literary movement, American Transcendentalism (also known as “ American Renaissance”) flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War. It is the high tide of American romanticism and its doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in Emerson an

9、d Thoreau. Transcendentalists spoke for the cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society.4.Naturalism: It views human beings as animals in the natural world responding to environmental forces and internal stresses and drives, over none of which they have control and none of

10、which they fully understand. The literary naturalists have a major difference from the realists. They look at a different spot to find real life.5.Free verse: It is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length and that attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it uses the

11、cadences of natural speech. 6.What is the Lost Generation?The Lost Generation refers to the disillusioned intellectuals and artists of the years following the First World War, who rebelled against former ideals and values but could replace them only by despair of a cynical hedonism. The remark of Ge

12、rtrude Stein,Hemingway7.American Dream: American dream means the belief that everyone can succeed as long as he/she works hard enough. It usually implies a successful and satisfying life. It usually framed in terms of American capitalism, its associated purported meritocracy,and the freedoms guarant

13、eed by the U.S. Bill of Rights8.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 fait

14、hful 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 .9.Black Humor:also called Black Comedy, writing that juxtaposes morbid or ghast

15、ly elements with comical ones. Black humor is a type of modern humor that is caused by anger. It often describes gruesome events, which are normally associated with pleasant occasions, thus producing the congruous effect for humor. Black humor attacks on social mores through shocking language and of

16、fensive imagery. Black humor is a kind of desperate humor. It is thelaughter at tragic things. In this meaningless world, according to Black Humorists, mans fate is decided by incomprehensive powers. We cant do anything about it; therefore we may as well laugh. Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, and Kurt V

17、onnegut，Nathanael West,Joseph Heller.10.Local colorism: as a trend became dominant in American literature in the 1860s and early 1870s，Local Colorism: The definition of local colorism is made clear by Hamlin Garland in his Crumble Idols, he claims that it has “such quality and texture and background

18、 that it could not have been written in any other place or anyone else than a native.” Here “text” refers to the elements which characterizes a local culture, elements such as speech, customs, and mores peculiar to one particular place. And his “background” covers physical setting and those distinct

19、ive qualities of landscape which condition human thought and behavior. The ultimate aim of the local colorism is to create the illusion of an indigenous little world with qualities that differs from the world outside.11.Code Hero硬汉形象General Features:1.He has great physical potential and courage, have str