美国文学Introduction
Introduction to the Course
I. Course Objectives
1. 历史背景
Enable the Ss to get a general knowledge about the history of America;
2. 文学运动
Enable the Ss to know the four literary periods and literary movements in American literary history;
3. 作家作品赏析
Enable the Ss to know the background, representative writers and their works of each period in American literary history
4. 文学批评Literary criticism
Enable the Ss to appreciate a literary work from different perspectives
II. How to study literature?
1. Historical Approach
Aims at illustrating the historical development of literature.
2. Thematic Approach
“What is the story, the poem, the play or the essay about?”
2. Analytical Approach
Be familiar with the elements of a literary work, eg: plot, characterization, setting, subject matter, writing style, point of view, etc; answer some basic questions about the text itself.
III.Modes of teaching and learning
1. Lectures
2. Study groups: 12-15 Study groups, 4 students in 1 group and each group is responsible for one writer
Oral presentation and a nswer teacher’s questions in class
Write down the answers to the questions from the teacher and other groups and tell the answers to the students in the next class
Write an essay on the writer or his novels as part of your mid-term exam (one group, one essay) (at least 800 words ) and answer the questions raised from the teacher on the basis of the paper.
IV. Grade determinant
1. In-class performance Attendance 20%
Absent -5, late and ill -3
Study groups: answer questions of the teacher and the other groups
Quiz
2. Mid-term test 20%
Essay
3. Final exam: Close-book test 60%
Types of examination
-Matching the authors with their works
-Multiple choice questions
-True and false statements
-Defining the literary terms or answering questions
-Analyzing the theme, characters and language of a selected reading
V. Reference book
1. Course Book: 曹曼. 美国文学教程
2. Reference Books:
[1] 常耀信. 美国文学选读[Z]. 天津：南开大学出版社，1991.
[2] 常耀信. 美国文学简史[Z]. 天津：南开大学出版社，1990.
[3]吴定柏. 美国文学大纲[Z]. 上海：上海教育出版社，1998
[4]吴伟仁编. 美国文学史及选读（第1、2册）[Z]. 北京：外研社
[5] 童明. 美国文学史外研社
3. Journals:
《外国文学评论》《外国文学研究》《外国文学》
《当代外国文学》《国外文学》
4. 其他外语类核心期刊
https://www.360docs.net/doc/993834243.html,
Introduction to American literature
1. Ten American Writers winning the Nobel Prize for Literature Sinclair Lewis (1930) Eugene O’Neill(1936)
Pearl Buck(1938) T.S.Eliot (1948)
William Faulkner (1949) Ernest Hemingway (1954)
John Steinbeck (1962) Saul Bellow (1976)
Isaac Bashevis Singer辛格( 1978) Tony Morrison (1993)
2. The classification of different periods
1. Colonial Period
Puritans; Practical
2. The Romantic Age
Confident; divine
3. The Age of Realism
Realistic, mirror the life 4. The Modern Age The war of independence1776-1783 The civil war:1861-1865
WW?: 1914-1918
WWП:1939-1945
Disappointed; inner
Appendix 1:
I. Colonial Period (1620-1800) 殖民地时期文学
?John Smith约翰.史密斯
II. Revolutionary Period (1765—1800) 独立革命时期文学?Benjamin Franklin 富兰克林
III. The Age of Romanticism (1800—1865) 浪漫主义文学 Early Romanticism早期浪漫主义文学
?Washington Irving 欧文
?James Fenimore Cooper 库伯
?Edgar Allan Poe 坡
Transcendentalism 超验主义
?Ralph Waldo Emerson 爱默生
?Henry David Thoreau 梭罗
?Nathanial Hawthorne 霍桑
?Herman Melville 麦尔维尔
Transitional period浪漫主义和现实主义转型时期?Walt Whitman 惠特曼
?Emily Dickinson 狄金森
IV. The Age of Realism (1865—1918)现实主义文学
Local Colorism乡土文学
?Mark Twain 马克.吐温
International novel 国际题材小说
?Henry James 亨利.詹姆斯
Naturalism 自然主义
?Theodore Dreiser 德莱塞
V. American Modernism (1918—1945) 现代主义文学 Imagism 意象派
?Ezra Pound 庞德
the Jazz Age 爵士乐时代
?Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald 菲茨杰拉德 The Lost Generation迷惘的一代
?Ernest Hemingway 海明威
American Drama 美国戏剧Expressionism 表现主义?Eugene O’Neil奥尼尔
The Great Depression 大萧条
?John Steinbeck 斯坦贝克
Southern literature
?William Faulkner 福克纳
Sherwood Anderson 舍伍德.安德森
Robert Frost 弗罗斯特
VI. American Literature after WW II 二战后文学
Black Humor黑色幽默
?Joseph Heller 约瑟夫.海勒
Harlem Renaissance 哈莱姆文艺复兴
?Langston Hughes 兰斯顿.休斯
the Feminist Writers 女性文学
I. Writer作家：
life生平
works作品
artistic features艺术特点
style风格，language语言风格，tone基调，setting场景，subject matter题材，characterization人物刻画，theme主题
II .Literary movement文学时期：
Historical background 历史背景
Sources 思想来源
Artistic features 艺术特点
representatives代表人物
I. New criticism新批评
II .Structuralism 结构主义批评
III. Psychoanalytic criticism 精神分析批评
IV. Feministic criticism 女性批评
V. Deconstruction 解构主义批评
American Literature Study Groups
1.Washington Irving
The Devil and Tom W alker
Rip V an Winkle
___________ ___________
___________ ___________
2.Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death Gothic novel
___________ ___________
___________ ___________
3.Thoreau
W alden
___________ ___________
___________ ___________
4.Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
Salem Witchcraft Trial
___________ ___________
___________ ___________
5.Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Local Colorism
___________ ___________
___________ ___________
6.Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady
Periodic sentence
___________ ___________
___________ ___________
7.Theodore Dreiser
Sister Carrie
The survival of the fittest
___________ ___________
___________ ___________ 8.Ezra Pound
haiku
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ 9.Robert Frost Synecdoche
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ 10.Sherwood Anderson Mother
Freud’s id, ego and superego ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ 11.Francis Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald’s marriage life
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ 12.Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea Iceberg theory
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ 13.Eugene O’Neill
The Hairy Ape Expressionism
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ 14.William Faulkner
The Bear
Stream of consciousness
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
Requirements for American Literature course paper
●Grading standard
1. Content 70
Originality 20 + logic 20 + language 30
2. Form 20
word number : no more and no less than 1000－1300. 10’Typography 10’
3. Teamwork 10
●Content
1. Writer作家
Life (education, marriage, family) and his writing style
2. Works作品
Theme, subject matter, point of view, language, characterization, style 3. Literary Movement 流派
Romanticism in Poe’s Novels
4. Comparison and Contrast对比
Chinese and American；works of one writer；Influence
5. Literary Criticism文学批评
New Criticism, F eminism, Structuralism, Psychoanalytic analysis…
●Form
Study Group numbers__________ __________ __________ __________ Class______ Score: __________ Analysis of Huck Finn’s Inner Struggle
1. Introduction
（简述作家作品的地位，选题的意义，论文的内容）
2. (Body) Huck’s Inner Struggle （no less than 700字）
2.1. Outer forces
2.1.1. Forces of social morality
2.1.2. Forces of religious belief
2.2. Inner forces
2.2.1. Forces of humanity and conscience
2.2.1. Forces of affection
3. Conclusion
（总结论文的结论）
Bibliography
附录：Typography 排版要求：
1. 英语字体一律用Times New Roman, 12号字。论文题目三号字体。
一级标题，二级标题，三级标题都用粗体。
中文用宋体，小四号字。页面设置为两端对齐。
Size of the paper (纸张大小)：A4
Margin （页边距）：上3厘米、下2.5厘米，左3厘米，右2.5厘米，左侧装订。Row space (行间距) ：24磅
2. 参考文献Bibliography
英语文献在前，中文文献在后。
英语专著文献名及英语期刊名用斜体。字体：中文宋体（小四），英文Times New Roman (12)。
论文中引文和标注的部分必须在列出的参考文献找到出处。
文献目录一律按作者姓氏英文字母或汉语拼音顺序排列。
文献排列不用序号。
每条文献必须顶格写，回行时空两字。
将各文献的类型代号（即文献英文名的首字母）注明在文献之后：
著作[M] 论文集[C] 期刊文章[J] 网上期刊[J / OL]
网上下载文章在各项说明后加网址。
示例：
1）著作类
Author’s surname，Given name initials．Title of the book (Italic) [M]．Place：Publisher, Year．
作者（姓在前，名在后）. 文献题名[M]．出版地：出版者，出版年．2）期刊文章类
Author’s surname，Given name initials．Title of the article [J]．Name of the Journal (Italic),
Year, (volume number) ．
作者（姓在前，名在后）．文章名[J]．期刊名称，年，（期）．
参考文献范例
James, Jean M．(trans.) Rickshaw [M]．By Lao She．Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1979．
Newmark, Peter．Approaches to Translation [M]．上海：上海外语教育出版社，2001．陈德鸿、张南峰．西方翻译理论精选[M]．香港：香港城市大学出版社，2000．吴志婷．英语委婉语的探究[J/OL]．
https://www.360docs.net/doc/993834243.html,/Language/080522/15432233-2.html
常耀信《美国文学简史》(第3版)笔记和考研真题详解(9-14章)【圣才出品】
第9章地方色彩小说?马克?吐温 9.1复习笔记 I.Local Colorism（地方色彩主义） The vogue of local color fiction was the outgrowth of historical and aesthetic forces that had been gathering energy since early19th century.Local colorism as a literary trend first made its presence felt in the late1860s and early seventies.It is a variation of American literary realism. Local colorists were consciously nostalgic historians of a vanishing way of life,recorders of a present that faded before their eyes.They concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions.They tended to idealize and glorify,but they never forgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life.Major local colorists are Bret Harte,Hanlin Garland, Harriet Beecher Stowe,Kate Chopin and Mark Twain. 地方色彩小说的流行是自19世纪早期以来历史和艺术力量凝聚的产物。作为一种文学潮流，地方色彩主义在19世纪60年代晚期和70年代早期初展头角。它是美国现实主义文学的一个分支。 地方色彩主义作家是怀念正在消逝的生活方式的历史家，他们记录了在他们眼前逝去的现在。他们致力于展示描述自己地方的特色，倾向于赞颂地方生活并将其理想化，但是他们又注意不失地方生活的真实色彩。主要的地方色彩主义作家包括布莱特·哈特、汉林·加兰德、哈里耶特·比彻·斯托、凯特·肖邦及马克·吐温等。 II.Mark Twain(1835-1910)（马克·吐温） 1.Life（生平） Mark Twain,pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens,is a great literary giant of America. He was brought up in the small town of Hannibal,Missouri,on the Mississippi River.He was twelve when his father died and he had to leave school.He was successively a printer’s apprentice,a tramp printer,a silver miner,a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi,and a frontier journalist in Nevada and California.This knocking about gave him wide knowledge of humanity. With the publication of his frontier tale,he became nationally famous.His first novel The Gilded Age was an artistic failure,but it gave its name to the American of the post-bellum period.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was his masterwork.Mark Twain was essentially an affirmative writer.But toward the latter part of his life,due to some tragic events,he changed to an almost
美国文学名词解释
1. Transcendentalism The origin of it is a philosophical and literary movement centered in Concord and Boston, which marks the summit of American Transcendentalism. 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths. The major features of American Transcendentalism are:It emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. It stressed the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important element of society. It offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. 2.Romanticism The Romanticism period stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War. It is a term associate with imagination boundlessness, and in critical usage is contrasted with classicism which is commonly associated with reason and restriction. The features of Romanticism are: American Romanticism was in a way derivative: American romantic writing was some of them modeled on English and European works. American romanticism was in essence the expression of "a real new experience "and contained"an alien quality".Representatives:William Cullen Bryant; Henry Longfellow and James Cooper, Washington Irving. 3.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 faithful 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.The representatives are Howells, James, and Mark Twain. 4. Naturalism American naturalism was a new and harsher realism, it had come from Europe. Naturalism was an outgrowth of realism that responded to theories in science, psychology, human behavior and social thought current in the late nineteenth century. The background of naturalism are: In the last decade of the nineteenth century, with the development of industry and modern science, intelligent minds began to see that man was no longer a free ethical being in a cold, indifferent and essentially Godless universe. In this chance world he was both helpless and hopeless.Major Features of it are:Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment.The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires.Representatives of it such as Stephen Crane, Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser. 5.New Criticism The New Criticism as a school of poetry and criticism established itself in the 1940s as an academic orthodoxy in the United States. The school has its beginning in the 1920s. It focus on the analysis of the text rather paying attention to external elements such as its social background, its author's intention and political attitude, and its impact on society. Then it explores the artistic structure of the work rather than its author's frame of mind or its reader's responses. It also see a literary work as an organic entity, the unity of content and form, and places emphasis on the close reading of the text. These New Critics included T.S. Eliot,I.A.Richards,John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate and some other critics. The New Criticism has tended to divorce criticism from social and moral concerns, which was to become one salient feature of the movement. 6.Imagism: Between 1912 and 1922 there came a great poetry boom in which about 1000 poets published over 1000 volumes of poetry. Indeed ,to express the modern spirit, the sense of fragmentization and dislocation, was in large measure the aim of quite a few modern literary movements, of which Imagism was one.The first Imagist theorist, the English writer T.E.Hulme. Hulme suggests that modern art deals with expression and communication of momentary phases in the poet's mind. The most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of dominant image.It is a literary movement launched American poets early in the 20th century that advocated the use of free verse, common speech patterns, and clear concrete images as a reaction to Victorian sentimentalism. The representatives are Ezra pound, William Carlos Williams and some other poets.
History and Anthology of American Literature 美国文学史及选读 笔记
History and Anthology of American Literature Part I The Literature of Colonial America 1.Historical Introduction ·The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. ·Among the members of the small band of Jamestown settlers was Captain John Smith. His reports of exploration have been described as the first distinctly American literature written in English. 2.Early New England Literature ·The American poets who emerged in the 17 century adapted the style of established European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange, new environment. Anne Bradstreet was one such poet. John Smith 1.The first American writer. 2.Works: (1)A true Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony (2)A Map of Virginia with a Description of the Country (3)The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles William Bradford & John Winthrop 1.William Bradford: 曾任普利茅斯总督 ·Work: Of Plymouth Plantation《普利茅斯垦殖记》 2.John Winthrop: 曾任马萨诸塞湾总督，波士顿总督 ·Work: The History of New England from 1630 to 1649《新英格兰历史：1630-1649》 John Cotton & Roger Williams 1.John Cotton: 清教徒牧师和作家 ·The first major intellectual spokesman of Massachusetts Bay Colony was John Cotton, sometimes called “the Patriarch of New England”. 2.Roger Williams: 出生于伦敦的进步宗教思想家，曾长期受到英国殖民当局的迫害 ·He was interested in the Indian language ·Work：A Key into the Language of America 《阿美利加语言的钥匙》 Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor 1.Anne Bradstreet：美国第一位作品得以发表的女诗人 ·Work：The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America《第十位缪斯》 2.Edward Taylor：美国清教派牧师和诗人，被公认为美国19世纪前最重要的诗人 ·The best of the Puritan poets Part II The Literature of Reason and Revolution 1.Background: In the seventies of the eighteenth century the English colonies in North America rose in arms against their mother country. The War of Independence lasted for eight years(1775-1783) and ended in the formation of a federative bourgeois democratic republic—the United States of America. 2.American Enlightenment（美国启蒙运动）dealt a decisive blow to the Puritan traditions and brought to life secular
美国文学名词解释
Allegory is a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor. Allegories are written in the form of fables, parables, poems, stories, and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has characters, a setting, as well as other types of symbols, that have both literal and figurative meanings. One well-known example of an allegory is Dante’s The Divine Comedy.In Inferno, Dante is on a pilgrimage to try to understand his own life, but his character also represents every man who is in search of his purpose in the world. Alliteration is a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds. The repetition can be located at the beginning of successive words or inside the words. Poets often use alliteration to audibly represent the action that is taking place. Aside is an actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage. An aside is usually used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking. Asides are important because they increase an audience's involvement in a play by giving them vital information pertaining what is happening, both inside of a character's mind and in the plot of the play. Gothic is a literary style popular during the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. This style usually portrayed fantastic tales dealing with horror, despair, the grotesque and other “dark” subjects. Gothic literature was named for the apparent influence of the dark gothic architecture of the period on the genre. Also, many of these Gothic tales took places in such “gothic” surroundings. Other times, this story of darkness may occur in a more everyday setting, such as the quaint house where the man goes mad fro m the "beating" of his guilt in Edgar Allan Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart.”In essence, these stories were romances, largely due to their love of the imaginary over the logical, and were told from many different points of view. CATHARSIS is an emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety. According to Aristotle, catharsis is the marking feature and ultimate end of any tragic artistic work. IMAGERY: A common term of variable meaning, imagery includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature. It signifies all the sensory perceptions referred to in a poem, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor. Surrealism is an artistic movement doing away with the restrictions of realism and verisimilitude that might be imposed on an artist. In this movement, the artist sought to do away with conscious control and instead respond to the irrational urges of the subconscious mind. From this results the hallucinatory, bizarre, often nightmarish quality of surrealistic paintings and writings. Sample surrealist writers include Frank O'Hara, John Ashberry, and Franz Kafka.
常耀信《美国文学简史》笔记和考研真题详解(美国浪漫主义 欧文 库柏)【圣才出品】
第3章美国浪漫主义欧文库柏 3.1 复习笔记 I. Overview of American Romanticism（美国浪漫主义简介） In the history of American literature, the Romantic period is one of the most important periods. It stretched from the end of the eighteenth century through the outbreak of the civil war. 美国文学中的浪漫主义时期开始于18世纪末，到南北战争爆发为止，是美国文学史上的重要阶段。 1. Background（背景） (1) A nation bursting into new life cried for literary expression. The buoyant mood of the nation and the spirit of the times seemed in some measure responsible for the spectacular outburst of romantic feeling. The literary milieu proved fertile and conductive to the imagination. Magazine appeared in ever-increasing numbers. They played an important role in facilitating literary expansion. (2) Foreign influences added incentive to the growth of romanticism. The Romantic Movement, which had flourished earlier in the century both in England
《美国文学史及选读》考研吴伟仁版考研复习笔记和真题
《美国文学史及选读》考研吴伟仁版考研复 习笔记和真题 第一部分殖民地时期的美国文学 第1章约翰·史密斯 1.1 复习笔记 I. Historical Introduction (历史背景) (1) At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the vast continental area that was to become the United States had been probed only slightly by English and European explorers. At last early in the seventeenth century, the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts began the main stream of what we recognize as the American national history. (2) The colonies that became the first United States were for the most part sustained by English traditions, ruled by English laws, supported by English commerce, and named after English monarchs and English lands. (3) The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of the settlements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, about adapting to new life and dealing with Indians; they wrote letters, contracts, government charters, religious and political statements. (4) The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Among the members of the small band of Jamestown settlers was Captain John Smith, an English soldier of fortune.
美国文学史笔记
文学史笔记： 一、Early American and colonial period (1607-1765) (religious conflicts Catholism vs.Puritanism) 1.Puritanism: 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.In content it means scrupulous ,moral rigor ,especially hostility to social pleasures and indulgences,that is strictness,sternness and austerity in conduct and religion. 2.)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 cultural atmosphere that the American breathes ,rather than a set of tenets. 3.）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 main features of this period 1).American literature grew out of humble origins. Diaries, histories, journals, letters, commonplace books, travel books, sermons, in short, personal literature in its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period.
美国文学简史(第三版)复习 常耀信
美国文学作者作品 Edwards: 爱德华兹 The Freedom of the Will 《论意志自由》 Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended 《论原罪》 The Nature of True Virtue 《论真实德行的本原》 名篇：Personal Narrative 《自述》 Sinners in the hands of an Angry God 《愤怒上帝手中之罪》 Benjamin Franklin:本杰明·富兰克林 Poor Richard’s Almanac《穷理查德年历》Autobiography 《自传》 Washington Irving:华盛顿·欧文 A History of New York《纽约外传》The Sketch Book 《见文札记》名篇：Rip Van Winkle《瑞普·温·凡克尔》 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 《睡谷传奇》 James Fenimore Cooper:詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库柏Leatherstocking Tales 《皮袜子故事集》 The Pioneer 《拓荒者》The Prairie 《大草原》 The Last of Mohicans《最后的莫希干人》 The Pathfinder《探路人》The Deerslayer 《猎鹿者》
Ralph Waldo Emerson:拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生 Nature 《论自然》Self-Reliance 《论自立》Essays 《随笔集》名篇：The American Scholar 《美国学者》（has been regarded as “American Declaration of Intellectual Independence”被誉为美国思想的独立宣言） The Poet Henry David Thoreau:亨利·戴维·梭罗 Walden 《瓦尔登湖》 Nathaniel Hawthorne:纳撒尼尔·霍桑 The Scarlet Letter《红字》 The House of the Seven Gables 《七个尖角阁的房子》 Mosses from an Old Manse《古厦青苔》 The Blithedale Romance《福谷传奇》 The Marble Faun 《玉石神像》 Ethan Brand 《伊桑布兰德》 Young Goodman Brown 《好小伙子布朗》 Dr. Heidggeger’s Experiment 《海德格博士的体验》 The Ambitions Guest 《野心勃勃的客人》 The Greast Stone Face 《巨石脸》
美国文学名词解释
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（资本主义）, its associated purported meritocracy,（知识界精华）and the freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Bill of Rights. American Puritanism清教主义: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the protestant church who wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrines of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. American literature in the 17th century mostly consisted of Puritan literature. Puritanism had an enduring influence on American literature. It had become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so much a part of national cultural atmosphere, rather than a set of tenets. 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. American Naturalism自然主义: American naturalism was a new and harsher realism. The naturalists attempt to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by environment and heredity. It emphasized that the world was amoral, the men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death. The pessimism and deterministic ideas naturalism pervaded the works of such American writers as Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser. American Naturalism(美国自然主义文学)：The American naturalists accepted the more negative interpretation of Darwin’s evolutionary theory and used it to account for t he behavior of those characters in literary works who were regarded as more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.2) naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a gloomy philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence.3>Dreiser is a leading figure of his school. The Gilded Age镀金时代:the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 book, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today.The Gilded Age is most famous for the creation of a modern industrial economy. The end of the Gilded Age coincided with the Panic of 1893, a deep depression. The depression lasted until 1897 and marked a major political realignment in the election of 1896. After that came the Progressive Era. The Lost Generation: The Lost Generation is a group of expatriate American writers residing primarily in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. The group was given its name by the American writer Gertrude Stein, who used “a lost generation” to refer to expatriate Americans bitter about their World War I experiences and disillusioned with American