英美文学主要知识点

Doctrines of Puritans: (1). Predestination: God decide everything before things occurred. (2). Original Sin: Human beings were born to be evil and this original sin.(3). Total Depravity: A state of corruption due to original sin held in Calvinism to infect every part of man’s nature and to make the natural man unable to know or obey god. (4). Limited Atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.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 guaranteed by the U.S. Bill of Rights.American Naturalism Major Features: (1) Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment. (2) The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. (3) Naturalistic writers are pessimistic. They choose their subjects from the lower ranks of the society, and portray misery and poverty of the “underdogs”who demonstrably victims of society and nature. (4) One of the most familiar themes in American naturalism is the theme of human bestiality. (5) Naturalistic writings are usually unpolished in language.American Naturalism: Naturalism designates a literary movement in the late 19th century and early 20th century in France, America and England. It applies the scientific determinism to fiction and drama. It viewed human beings as animals in the natural world responding to environmental forces and internal stresses and drives, or none of which they fully understand.American Realism: 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 individualism, people’s attention was now directed to the interesting features of everyday existence, to what was brutal or sordid, and to the open portayal 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.Ice-berg Principle: (1) 1/8 is above the water, 7/8 is under the water. (2) Also known as the “theory of omission”, the Ice-berg Principle was proposed by Emest Hemingway:” if a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the readers, if the writer is writing truly enough will have a feeling of those things.” The dignity of movement of the ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. (3) This principle is about the obvious makes writing more dignified. (4) These omissions help more a story along because the reader is permitted to witness just enough to figure out what is happening.The Imagist Movement (Imagism): Led by Ezra Pound and flourished from 1909 to 1917, the movement advanced modernism in arts which concentrated on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed to Romanticism, especially Tennyson’s wordiness and high-flown language in poetry. The Three Principles Followed By Imagist Were: (1) Direct Treatment: The subject of the poem must be expressed in such a way as to resemble it and reproduce it as closely as possible. Simple language must be used to create an "image" which the reader can immediately see in his own imagination. Each word must be used with great exactitude to produce a precise image and nothing more.(2) Economy of expression: No word must be used which does not contribute directlyto the image. The language must be concentrated. There must be no drawing of conclusions, no explanations. (3) Rhythm (Free Verse): No unnecessary words may be included in order to make meter or a rhyme. A poem should be composed with the phrasing of music, not a metronome.Modernism: During the first decades of the 20th century modernism became an international tendency in art and literature. It began in Germany in the 1890s, and spread worldwide, and ended in the early 1940s. It included a wide range of artistic expressions such as symbolism, impressionism, post-impressionism, imagism, expressionism and so on. The distinctive feature of literary modernism was its strong and conscious break with traditional forms, perceptions and techniques of expression, and its great concern with language and all aspects of its medium.Jazz age: (1) The end of World War II to the Great Depression (1918-1929). (2) At that time, many young people became the upper class generation since they got a lot of money from stock Market, and old moral codes. (2) They suffered they suffered from spiritual disillusionment and indulged themselves in pleasure-seeking. Fitzgerald, with his The Tales Of Jazz Age, became its spokesman.The Lost Generation: (1) 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.Gothic Novel: A type of romantic fiction that was a popular game of the day between the last third of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 19th century. The term Gothic is also used to narrative prose or poetry of which the principle elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural. Henry James, William Faulkner. At their best, such novels offer tremendous suspense and hints of magic along with profound explorations of the human soul in extremity.Transcendentalism 超验主义: Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th century. Transcendentalists spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society. It placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over soul, as the most important thing in the world. It stressed the importance of individual and offered a fresh perception nature ad symbolic of the spirit of God. Prominent transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thorough.International Theme: ---to set a novel against a larger international background, usually between Europe and America, and centered on the confrontation of the two different cultures each with its peculiar value systems.Henry James’s fame generally rests on his novels and stories with the international theme. These novels are always set against a large international background, usually between Europe and America, and centered on the confrontation of the two different cultures with two different groups of people representing two different value systems. The treatment of the international theme is characterized by the richness of syntax and characterization and the originality in point of view, symbolism, metaphoric texture, and organizing rhyme. James is now more mature as an artist, more at home in the craft of fiction.Local Color Fiction: Exploits the speech, dress, mannerisms, and habits of thought which are peculiar to a certain region. Local color writing exists primarily for the portrayal, the people and life of a geographical setting.红字A代表：angel, America, able, adultery. According to original work, A in fact means Adultery, however, at the night when the Governor dies, the letter A appearing in the sky is regarded as Angel and as Hester gains a strange influence, some people relate A with Able.The Great Awakening:。