名词解释

Transcendentalism(超验主义)

Transcendentalism is literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in new england from about 1836 to 1860. it is the summit of American Romanticism. it originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Chruch, developing instead their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world. Transcendentalism derived some of its basic idealistic concepts from romantic german philosophy, and from such english authors as coleridge and wordsworth. Its mystical aspects were partly influenced by Indian and Chinese religious teachings. Although Transcendentalism was never a rigorously systematic philosophy, it had some basic tenets that were generally shared by its adherents. The beliefs that God is immanent in each person and in nature and that individual intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism,

self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority. The ideas of Transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Ralph waldo Emerson in such essays as Nature , and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden.

超验主义是从1836至1860于新英格兰发起的一场文学,哲学以及艺术运动.即浪漫主义的顶点.由于一小群知识分子反对加尔文教派和唯一神论教派理性的形式主义,他们从而提出人与自然的神圣这一信念.超验主义受到德国浪漫主义哲学以及英国浪漫主义作家柯勒律治和沃兹华斯的影响,还在一定程度上受到东方古典哲学和宗教的影响.尽管超验主义思想并不能算是严格意义上的哲学, 但是它还是有一些基本原则的.超验主义者认为人人都有内在的神性,只有通过接触自然才能使神性与人的天性相互融合.从而超验主义十分强调个人主义,自立,拒绝传统权威思想.超验主义思想在爱默生的<论自然> 和梭罗的<瓦尔登湖>等书中表现得淋漓尽致

Stream of consciousness(意识流)(or interior monologue)

In literary criticism, Stream of consciousness denotes a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes. Stream of consciousness writing is strongly associated with the modernist movement. Its introduction in the literary context, transferred from psychology, is attributed to May Sinclair. Stream of consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow,tracing as they do a character’s fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings. famous writers to employ this technique in the english language include James Joyce and William Faulkner.

学术界认为意识流是一种通过直接描述人物思维过程来寻求个人视角的文学写作技巧。意识流是现代主义运动的体现，它首先出现在心现学领域，由梅.辛克拉提出的，后引进文学领域。意识流写作通常被认为是一种特殊形式的内心独白.它的特别是联想性,以句法和标点的跳跃,文章的晦涩难懂为特征.来表现人物的片断思维和感官性直觉.比较著名的使用此技巧的有乔伊斯.福克纳.

Local Colorism(乡土文学)

Generally speaking, the writings of local colorists are concerned with the life of a small, weell-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town. 2) Local colorists were consciously nostalgic historians of a vanishing way of life, recorders of a present that faded before their eyes. Yet for all their sentimentality, they dedicated themselves to minutely accurate descriptions of the life of their regions, they worked from personal experience to record the facts of a local environment and suggested that the native life was shaped by the curious conditions of the local. 3) major local colorists is Mark Twain.

Realism(现实主义)

Realism was a loosely used term meaning truth to the observed facts of life (especially when they are gloomy). Realism in literature is an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity.

the Age of Realism(现实主义时期)

1).Realism was a reaction against Romanticism and paved the way to Modernism; 2).During this period a new generation of writers, dissatisfied with the Romantic ideas in the older generation, came up with a new inspiration. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life. It aimed at the interpretation of the realities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. Instead of thinking about the mysteries of life and death and heroic i ndividualism, people’s attention was now directed to the interesting features of everyday existence, to what was brutal or sordid, and to the open portrayal of class struggle;3) so writers began to describe the integrity of human characters reacting under various circumstances and picture the pioneers of the far west, the new immigrants and the struggles of the working class; 4) Mark Twain Howells and Henry James are three leading figures of the American Realism.

Iceberg 冰山理论

Typical of this "iceberg" analogy is Hemingway's style, which he had been trying hard to get. According to Hemingway, good literary writing should be able to make readers feel the emotion of the characters directly and the best way to produce the effect is to set down exactly every particular kind of feeling without any authorial comments, without conventionally emotive language, and with a bare minimum of adjectives and adverbs. Seemingly simple and natural, Hemingway's style is actually polished and tightly controlled, but highly suggestive and connotative. While rendering vividly the outward physical events and sensations Hemingway expresses the meaning of the story and conveys the complex emotions of his characters with a considerable range and astonishing intensity of feeling.

Jazz Age(爵士时代)

The Jazz Age describes the period of the 1920s and 1930s, the years between World War I and World War II. Particularly in North America. With the rise of the great depression, the values of this age saw much decline. Perhaps the most representative literary work of the age is American writer Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Highlighting what some describe as the decadence and hedonism, as well as the growth of individualism. Fitzgerald is largely credited with coining the term” Jazz Age”.

Free Verse(自由体诗歌)

Free verse means the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without paying attention to conventional rules of meter.

2> free verse was originated by a group of French poets of the late 19th century.

3>their purpose was to free themselves from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to recreate instead the free rhythms of natural speech.

4>Walt Whitman’s leaves of grass is, perhaps, the most notable example.

American Dream(美国梦)

American Dream refers to the dream of material success. In which one, regardless of social status, acquires wealth and gains success by working hard and good luck.

2> in literature, the theme of American Dream recurs in The Great Gatsby comes from the west to the east with the dream of material success. the novel tells the shattering of American Dream rather than its success.

The Lost Generation(迷惘的一代)

The lost generation is a term first used by Stein to describe the post-war I generation of American writers: men and women haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness brought about by the destructiveness of the war.

2>full of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date.

3>the three best-known representatives of lost generation are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway and John dos Passos.

Hemingway Code Hero(海明威式英雄)

Hemingway Code Hero, also called code hero, is one who, wounded but strong more sensitive, enjoys the pleasures of life( sex, alcohol, sport) in face of ruin and death, and maintains, through some notion of a code, an ideal of himself.2> Barnes in the sun also Rises, Henry in a Farewell to arms and Santiago in the old man and the sea are typical of

Hemingway Code Hero

Imagism(意象主义)

Imagism came into being in Britain and U.S around 1910 as a reaction to the traditional English poetry to express the sense of fragmentation and dislocation.2>the imagists, with Ezra Pound leading the way, hold that the most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of one dominant image.3>imagism is characterized by the following three poetic principles: A. direct treatment of subject matter; B. economy of expression; C. as regards rhythm ,to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of metronome. 4> pound’s In a Station of the Metro is a well-known imagist poem

The Beat Generation(垮掉的一代)

The members of The Beat Generation were new bohemian libertines. Who engaged in a spontaneous, sometimes messy, creativity.2> The Beat writers produced a body of written work controversial both for its advocacy of non-conformity and for its non-conforming style.3> the major beat writings are Allen Ginsberg’s howl. Howl became the manifesto of The Beat Generation.