美国文学史 术语解释
术语解释 American Romanticism The romantic period stretched from the end of the eighteenth century through the outbreak of the Civil War. It is a term that is associated with imagination and boundlessness, as contrasted with classicism, which is commonly associated with reason and restriction. A romantic attitude may be detected in literature of any period, but as an historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th centuries, in reaction to more rational literary, philosophic, artistic, religious, and economic standards. The most clearly defined romantic literary movement in the U.S.was Transcendentalism.Romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man’s societies as a source of corruption. The representatives of the early period includes Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, and those of the late period contain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.
American Realism; As a literary movement,Realism came in the latter half of the 19th century as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. It 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 common place and the low, and it offers an objective rather an idealistic view of human nature and human experience. The American realists advocated “verisimilitude of detail derived from observation,” the effort to approach the norm of experience —— a reliance on the representative in plot, setting, and character, and to offer an objective rather than an idealized view of human nature and experience. Realists looked for truth in everyday truths. Some of the representatives are William Dean Howells and Henry James
Enlightenment: The American Enlightenment is the intellectual thriving period in America in the mid-to-late 18th century(1715-1789),especially as it relates to American Revolution on the one hand the the European Enlightenment on the other. Influenced by the scientific revolution of the 17th century and the humanist period during the Renaissance, the Enlightenment took scientific reasoning and applied it to human nature,society and religion. Politically, the age is distinguished by an emphasis upon liberty,democracy, republicanism and religious tolerance--culminating in the drafting of the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Attempts to reconcile science and religion resulted in a rejection of prophecy, miracle and revealed religion, often in preference for Deism. Historians have considered how the ideas of John Locke and republicanism merged to form Republicanism in the United States. The most important leaders of the American Enlightenment include Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Regionalism (local color writing) Local colorism came into being in the late 1860s and early 1870s.The name is given especially to a kind of American literature that in its most characteristic form made its appearance just after the Civil War and for nearly three decades was the single most popular form of American literature. The ultimate aim of the local colorists is to write or present local characters of their regions in truthful depiction distinguished from others, usually a very small part of the world. The style of writing derived from the presentation of the features and peculiarities of a particular locality and its inhabitants. Simply it means The use of regional detail in a literary or artistic work. Following in the footsteps of the pre-war "sectional humorists," local colorists were interested in realistically depicting life in different sections of the United States in order to promote understanding and unification. Fiction writers like Sarah Orne Jewett, Bret Harte, O. Henry, and Mark Twain have been identified within this tradition. By the 1930s, the local color style had spread beyond the bounds of novels and short stories into less formal territory like the "hometown material" section of local newspapers. Local color writing had always been premised（前提） on an informal approach and rejection of high-culture concerns. Now it entered mass media.
Cosmopolitan Novelist Henry James’s fame rested largely upon his handling of his major fictional theme, the international theme, that is the meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contact and contrast with cosmopolitan European decadence, and the moral and psychological complications arising therefrom. So he was called the cosmopolitan novelist.
美国文学术语解释(全面且简练)
美国文学术语解释(全面且简练)美国文学是指具有美国独特文化地域色彩的文学作品。
包括小说、戏剧、诗歌、散文以及加拿大和多明尼加等国家的文学作品。
其短篇小说及戏剧都有着浓厚的美国文化特色，其龙头主流的文学派别是在17世纪后期形成的新约克郡派，主要有约翰•德拉谢尔（John Dryden）、Jonathan Swift 等人，他们为美国文学写下了精彩绝伦的篇章。
新约克郡派把文章写成了装满宗教特质、歌颂胜利、崇高赞美的模式，也就是赞美诗，发掘探索细节、夸张搭配修辞，准确表达真实情境，是后期美国文学的重要基础；而在早期的美国文学发展史上，更多的是宗教文学。
随着美国政治的发展，社会文化的不断进步，宗教文学慢慢地被实用的文学文本所取代。
美国的文学活动开始贴近人文主义的文学脉络，表现出散文风格，致力于针对现状的批判性反思以及自我叙述性自觉。
然而，到了18世纪末，受英国文学传统影响，美国文学正式步入正轨，并开始向两群导向，即诗歌与小说。
第一类作品赞美自然风景、积极的立场或事实内容，通过句法、修辞手法和宋体表达，以“说服力”为特征；而小说，基本上描写人物及其情感，作者给予考量和评析，以构建一个小说世界。
有关美国文学习派别方面，它指的是具有某种特殊特性的作品、作者或趋势，这些特性可以汇聚成学派，如经典主义派、象征主义派、古典注重艺术形式翻新派、现代主义派、问题类型派、客观散文派等等。
美国文学家们也是新的运动的团体来提倡这些派别，如1820年墨西哥战争、当时的托马斯汉密尔顿著名的圣教徒笃信运动引起的“波厄特派”，其中的小说作家和写报人表达了一种激进的、反殖民主义的文学潮流。
波厄特派的影响很大，它声称小说应该坚持自然、客观原则，实证严谨，保持超验主义，而不是神话传说，也不是把文学作品改写成像诗歌一样的形式。
自19世纪初美国文学思想开始发展至今，美国文学进入了一个更加多样化、开放空间愈加广阔的阶段，无论是宗教、哲学还是政治新思想都将重新回归到文学之中，美国文学也变得更加丰富多彩了。
美国文学史及选读的名词解释（全）
1. American Puritanism it it comes comes comes from from from the the the American American American puritans, puritans, puritans, who who who were were were the the the first first first immigrants immigrants immigrants moved moved moved to to American continent in the 17th century. Original sin, predestination （预言）（预言） and salvation （拯救） were the basic ideas of American Puritanism. And, hard-working, piousness （虔诚,尽职）， thrift and sobriety （清醒）（清醒）（清醒） were praised. 2. Romanticism: the literature term was first applied to the writers of the 18th century in Europe who broke away from the formal rules of classical writing. When it was used used in in in American American American literature literature literature it it it referred referred referred to to to the the the writers writers writers of of of the the the middle middle middle of of of the the 19th century century who who who stimulated stimulated （刺激）（刺激） the the sentimental sentimental sentimental emotions emotions emotions of of of their their their readers. readers. They wrote of the mysterious of life, love, birth and death. The Romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all all kinds kinds of materials, poetry, essays, plays, fictions, history, works of travel, and biography. 3. 2. 2. Transcendentalism Transcendentalism Transcendentalism ((先验说,超越论): ): is is is a a a philosophic philosophic philosophic and and and literary literary literary movement movement that that flourished flourished flourished in in in New New New England, England, England, particular particular particular at at at Concord, Concord, Concord, as as as a a a reaction reaction reaction against against Rationalism Rationalism and and and Calvinism Calvinism Calvinism ((理性主义and 喀尔文主义). ). Mainly Mainly Mainly it it it stressed stressed intuitive intuitive understanding understanding understanding of of of God, God, God, without without without the the the help help help of of of the the the church, church, church, and and and advocated advocated independence of the mind. The representative writers are Emerson and Thoreau. 4. Local colorism: as a trend became dominant in American literature in the 1860s and early 1870s ，it is defined by Hamlin Garland as having such quality of texture and and background background background that that that it it it could could could not not not have have have been been been written written written in in in any any any other other other place place place or or or by by anyone else than a native stories of local colorism have a quality of circumstantial(详细的) authenticity(确实性), as local colorists tried to immortalize(使不朽) ) the the the distinctive distinctive distinctive natural, natural, natural, social social social and and and linguistic linguistic linguistic features. features. features. It It It is is characteristic of vernacular(本国语本国语) language and satirical(讽刺的) humor 5. Stream of consciousness （意识流）： It is one of the modern literary techniques. It is is the the the style style style of of of writing writing writing that that that attempts attempts attempts to to to imitate imitate imitate the the the natural natural natural flow flow flow of of of a a a character’s character’s thoughts, thoughts, feelings, feelings, feelings, reflections, reflections, reflections, memories, memories, memories, and and and mental mental mental images images images as as as the the the character character experiences experiences them. them. them. It It It was was was first first first used used used in in in 1922 1922 1922 by by by the the the Irish Irish Irish novelist novelist novelist James James James Joyce. Joyce. Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space, and depicted vividly and and skillfully skillfully skillfully the the the unconscious unconscious unconscious activity activity activity of of of the the the mind mind mind fast fast fast changing changing changing and and and flowing flowing incessantly 。
美国文学简史名词解释
美国文学简史名词解释Puritanism:the settlement of North American continent by English started in the early 17th century. Under siege from church and crown, it sent an offshoot in the third and fourth decades of the seventeenth century to the northern English colonies in the New World—a migration that laid the foundation for the religious, intellectual, and social order of New England. Puritanism, however was not only a historically specific phenomenon coincident with the founding of New Zealand; it was also a way of being in the world—a style of response to lived experience—that has reverberated through American life ever since. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind. American Puritanism also had a enduring influence on American literature.Romanticism ：The Romantic Period stretches from the end of the 18th \century through the outbreak of the Civil War.Romanticism was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. (subjectivity)For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense.They emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group, against authority.They affirmed the inner life of the self, and wanted to be free to develop and express his own inner thoughts.Transcendentalism:In the realm of art and literature it meant the shattering of pseudo-classic rules and forms in favor of a spirit of freedom, the creation of works filled with the new passion for nature and common humanity and incarnating a fresh sense of the wonder, promise, and romance of life.Transcendentalism①The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the oversoul , as the most important thing in the universe.②The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual is the most important element of Society.③The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence.RealismAs a literary movement, the Age of Realism came into existence after Romanticism with the Civil War It was a reaction against “the lie” of Romanticism and sentimentalism, and paved the way to Modernism. This literary interest in the so-called “reality” of life started a new period in the American literary writing known as The Age of Realism.Psychological RealismIt is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities o f characters’ thoughts and motivations. And Henry James is considered the founder of psychological realism. He believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator, and not in any facts of which the spectator is unaware. Such realism is therefore merely the obligation that the artist assumes to represent life as he sees it.Local colorism: local colorism is a type of writing that was popular in the late 19th(1860s—1870s). The feature of local colorism are: (1) presenting a locale distinguished from the outside world; (2)describing the exotic of the picturesque;(3)glorifying the past; (4) showing things as they are; (5) influence of setting on characters.Black humor: the term black humor was created in 1920s, but it was not noticed until 1960s. it was particularly a literary phenomenon in America after WWⅡ. Black humor, in literature, is drama, novel, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic face. Josegh Heller and Kury V onnegut are famous for their novels of black humor. Especially Heller’s Catch—22.The novels of such writers as Kurt V onnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth contain elements of black humor.Naturalism: The American naturalists accepted the more negative interpre tation of Darwin’s evolutionary theory and used it to accout for the 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 with his Sister Carrie is a leading figure of his school.Imagism: A poetic movement of England and the U.S. that flourished from 1909 to 1917. The movement insists on the creat ion of images in poetry by “the direct treatment of the thing” and the economy of wording. “poetic techniques to record exactly the momentary impressions”Three main principles of the Imagist Movement (1912) :[1] direct treatment of poetic subjects [2] elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words, to use no word that does not contribute to the presentation.[3] rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence of a metronome. 4> pound’s In a Station of the Metro is a well-known poem.Harlem Renaissance：Harlem Renaissance refers to a period of outstanding literary vigor and creativity that occurred in the United states during the 1920s.2> the Harlem Renaissance changed the images of literature created by many black and white American writers. New black images were no longer obedient and docile. Instead they showed a new confidence and racial pride. 3> the center of this movement was the vast black ghetto of Harlem. In New York City.4> the leading figures are langston Hughes, James W.Johnson.etc主要作品：The Weary Blues, The Dream keeper and Other Poems, Fine Clothes to the JewThe Modern PeriodPart I The 1920s-1930s ( the second renaissance of American literature)l The Roaring Twenties (economically)l The Jazz Age (socially)l “lost” and “waste land” (spiritually)There had been a big flush of new theories and new ideas in both social and natural sciences.Darwinism(Darwin), Socialism (Karl Marx), Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud)Lost generation: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.The Beat Generation:The Beat Generation is a group of American young writers and artists popular in the 1950s and early 1960s. the member of the beat generation were new bohemian libertines, who engaged in a spontaneous, sometimes messy, creativity. The beat writers produced a body of written work controversial both for its advocacy of non conformity and for its non conforming style. The major writing are jack Kerouac’s on the road and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl.American DreamThe is the idea held by many in the United States that through hard work, courage and determination one could achieve prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations.The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America. 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 characteralso 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 au dience, 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 suc h “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 from 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, imageryincludes 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.PuritanismAmerican Puritanism was practice and belief of Puritans. Puritans were the people who wanted to purify the Church of England and then were persecuted in England. They came to America for various reasons. But because they were a group of serious and religious people, they carried a code of value and a philosophy of life. T o them, religion was the most important thing. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin, total depravi ty and limited atonement for God’s grace. They also believed in hard working, piety and sobriety. In a word, American Puritanism exerted great influences upon American thought and literature.。
(完整版)美国文学史及选读名词解释
美国文学史及选读名词解释1。
Transcendentalism19th—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. In their religious quest， the Transcendentalists rejected the conventions of 18th—century thought； and what began in a dissatisfaction with Unitarianism developed into a repudiation of the whole established order.2。
Langston HughesAmerican poet and writer emphasized on lower—class black life。
He established himself as a major force of the Harlem Renaissance。
In 1926， in the Nation, he provided the movement with a manifesto when he skillfully argued the need for both race pride and artistic independence in his most memorable essay， 'The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” In many ways Hughes always remained loyal to the principles he had laid down for the younger black writers in 1926。
美国文学史及选读的名词解释(全) (2)
Colonial Period:1.American Puritanismit comes from the American puritans, who were the first immigrants moved to American continent in the 17th century. Original sin, predestination（预言）and salvation（拯救）were the basic ideas of American Puritanism. And, hard-working, piousness（虔诚,尽职），thrift and sobriety（清醒）were praised.Romanticism Period:2.Romanticism: the literature term was first applied to the writers of the18th century in Europe who broke away from the formal rules of classical writing. When it was used in American literature it referred to the writers of the middle of the 19th century who stimulated（刺激）the sentimental emotions of their readers. They wrote of the mysterious of life, love, birth and death. The Romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all kinds of materials, poetry, essays, plays, fictions, history, works of travel, and biography.3.Gothic tradition (哥特传统): Gothic novel or Gothic romance is a storyof terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old castle or monastery. In an extended sense, many novels do not have a medievalized setting, but which share a comparably sinister, grotesque, or claustrophobic atmosphere have been classed as Gothic. It contributed to the new emotional climate of Romanticism.4.Transcendentalism (先验说,超越论): is a philosophic and literarymovement that flourished in New England, particular at Concord, as a reaction against Rationalism and Calvinism (理性主义and喀尔文主义). Mainly it stressed intuitive understanding of God, without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind. The representative writers are Emerson and Thoreau.5.Stream of consciousness（意识流）：It is one of the modern literarytechniques. It is the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space, and depicted vividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing incessantly。
美国文学文学名词解释
1 Modernism(现代主义)Modernism is comprehensive but vague term for a movement , which begin in the late19th century and which has had a wide influence internationally during much of the 20th century、2> modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical case、3> the term pertains to all the creative arts、Especially poetry, fiction, drama, painting, music and architecture、现代主义就是全面但运动模糊的术语,在19世纪末期开始,在国际上有广泛影响的在20世纪的大部分时间。
2 >现代主义以非理性哲学与精神分析理论为其理论的情况。
3 >这个词属于所有的创造性艺术。
特别就是诗歌、小说、戏剧、绘画、音乐与建筑。
2 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 Church, 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、超验主义就是从1836至1860于新英格兰发起的一场文学,哲学以及艺术运动。
美国文学史及选读_部分名词解释 解释详细,备有汉语解释
Free V erse:is poetry that is based on irregular rhythmic cadence（抑扬顿挫，节奏）recurring ,withvariations of phrases ,image ,and syntactical patterns rather than the conventional use of meter . In other word ,free verse has no rhythm scheme, pattern or line length, new form, new subject, message was always moreimportant than form .However ,much poetic language and devices（手段，策略）are found in free verse .It is used in Walt Whitman’s poems.Local Colorism: is defined by Hamlin Garland加兰in his Crumbling Idols as having “such quality of texture（手感，质感）and background that is could not have been written in any other place or by anyone else than a native”Texture refers to the elements which characterize（是---特征，以----为特征）a local culture , elements such as speech , customs , and mores peculiar to one particular place.Background covers physical身体setting and those distinctive qualities of landscape which human thoughtand behavior.Other definition: a trend first made its presence felt in the late 1860s and early 1870s in America. It may be defined as the careful attention in speech, dress or behavior peculiar to a geographical locality.The ultimate aim of the local colorists is to create the illusion错觉，幻想of an indigenous土生土长的，固有的little word with qualities that tell it apart from the world outside.Major Local Colorists: Mark Twain; Hamlin Garland (Main Travelled Roads)Imagism:1) It is a Movement in U.S and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete明确的，实体的language and figures of speech, modern subject matter主旨, metrical韵律freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise精确的visual看得见的images.2) It grew out of the symbolism movement in 1912 and was initially led by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and others.3) The Imagist manifesto宣言came out in 1912 showed three Imagist poetic principles:A: Direct treatment of the “thing” whether subject or objective.B: To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.C: As regarding rhythm: to compose创作in the sequenc e有关联的一组事物, 一连串of musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome节拍器.4) Pound defined the image as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time,版权所有本人亲自打出来的期末复习资料and later he extended this definition when he started that an image was “a vortex旋窝or cluster串of fused熔化; 融合ideas, endowed with energy”.5) The existed great influence in Chinese poetry on the movement of Imagism. Imagists found value in Chinese poetry was because Chinese poetry is, by virtue长处of the ideographic象形文字and pictographic nature of Chinese language, essentially imagistic poetry.The Lost Generation:is a term used to describe a group of American intellectuals知识分子, poets, artists and writers fled to France in the post WW1 years to reject the values of American materialism唯物主义and to seek the bohemian(放浪者)(a person with artistic or literary interests who disregards conventional standards ofbehavior) lifestyle in Pairs. 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.Refers to the disillusioned使不再抱幻想intellectuals and aesthetes审美家of the years following WW1, who rebelled against former ideals and values but could replace them only by despair or a cynical愤世嫉俗的hedonism(快乐主义).The main representatives代表人of Lost Generation include F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and so on.Modernism:is a culture movement that is generally includes the progressive不断有进展的art and architecture建筑学,design, literature, music, painting ,dance and other visual arts which emerged in the beginning of 20th century, particular in the years following WW1. It was a movement of artists and designers who rebelled against the 19th century academic and historicist tradition, and embraced信奉，拥抱the new economic,social and political aspects of the emerging modern world.Modernism in literature is not easily to summarized, but the key elements are experimentation, anti-realism, individualism and a stress on the cerebral诉诸理性的;非感情方面的rather than emotive-aspects.The avant-garde革新者movements that followed-including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism立体派, Futurism未来主义, Expressionism, Constructivism构成主义and Abstract抽象Expressionism are generally defined as Modernist.版权所有本人亲自打出来的期末复习资料The work of Modernist writers is characterized by showing the disenchantment脱离, 分离, dislocation脱位, and alienation疏远of men in the world, and by the emphasis on experimentation and formalism形式主义and objectivism which are, in most cases, a reaction to the cataclysm大灾难known as the Modern Age.Among the American writer, the best known Modernism is Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and so on.Transcendentalism:is a philosophical哲学上的and literary movement that flourished繁荣in New England from about 1836-1860. It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy正统观念of Calvinism and rationalism理性主义of the Unitarian唯一神论者Church, developing their own faith centering on the divinit y宗教的，神学的of humanity and the natural world. Transcendentalismderived some of its basic idealistic concepts from romantic German philosophy, and from such English authors as Carlyle, Coleridge and Wordsworth. Its mystical aspects were partly influenced by Indian and Chinese religiousteachings. The beliefs that God is immanent天生的，内在的in each person and in nature and that individual intuition直觉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 mostly eloquently expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in such essay as Nature and Self-reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden. Major Features:A. placing emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe --- a new way of looking at the world (omnipresent无所不在, omniscient无所不知, omnipotent全能的)B. the importance of the individual as the most important element of society. --- A new way of looking at man (The regeneration新生，革新of the society could only come about through the regeneration of the individual, through his self-perfection, self-culture, self-improvement, self-reliance)C. offering a fresh perception认识，看法of nature as symbolic of Spirit or God. (Nature was not purely matter. It was the garment衣服of the Oversoul.)Jazz Age:describe he period of 1920s and 1930s, the years between WW1 and WW2, particular in NorthAmerican; with the rise of the Great Depression, the values of the age saw much decline. The most representative literature work is The Great Gatsby highlighting强调what some describe as the decadence衰落，堕落and hedonism享乐主义, as well as the growth of individualism. Fitzgerald is largely credited with coining the term 版权所有本人亲自打出来的期末复习资料。
美国文学史及选读的名词解释（全）
美国文学史及选读的名词解释（全）The American Enlightenment is the intellectual thriving period in America in the mid-to-late 18th century (1715–1789), especially as it relates to American Revolution on the one hand and the European Enlightenment on the other. Influenced by the scientific revolution of the17th century and the humanist period during the Renaissance, the Enlightenment took scientific reasoning and applied it to human nature, society, and religion.Politically, the age is distinguished by an emphasis upon liberty, democracy, republicanism and religious tolerance –culminating in the drafting of the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Attempts to reconcile science and religion resulted in a rejection of prophecy, miracle and revealed religion, often in preference for Deism. Historians have considered how the ideas of John Locke and republicanism merged to form republicanism in the United States. The most important leaders of the American Enlightenment include Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.1.2. American Puritanismit comes from the American puritans, who were the first immigrants moved to American continent in the 17th century. Original sin, predestination（预言）and salvation（拯救）were the basic ideas of American Puritanism. And, hard-working, piousness（虔诚,尽职），thrift and sobriety（清醒）were praised.3. Romanticism: the literature term was first applied to the writers of the 18th century inEurope who broke away from the formal rules of classicalwriting. When it was used in American literature it referred to the writers of the middle of the 19th century who stimulated（刺激）the sentimental emotions of their readers. They wrote of the mysterious of life, love, birth and death. The Romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all kinds of materials, poetry, essays, plays, fictions, history, works of travel, and biography.4. Transcendentalism (先验说,超越论): is a philosophic and literary movement thatflourished in New England, particular at Concord, as a reaction against Rationalism and Calvinism (理性主义and喀尔文主义). Mainly it stressed intuitive understanding of God, without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind. The representative writers are Emerson and Thoreau.5. Local colorism: as a trend became dominant in American literature in the 1860s and early1870s，it is defined by Hamlin Garland as having such quality of texture and background that it could not have been written in any other place or by anyone else than a native stories of local colorism have a quality of circumstantial(详细的) authenticity(确实性), aslocal colorists tried to immortalize(使不朽) the distinctive natural, social and linguistic features. It is characteristic of vernacular(本国语) language and satirical(讽刺的) humor 6. Stream of consciousness（意识流）：It is one of the modern literary techniques. It is thestyle of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memorie s, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. Those novelsbroke through the bounds of time and space, and depicted vividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing incessantly。
(完整word)美国文学史及选读名词解释
美国文学史及选读名词解释1. Transcendentalism19th-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。
In their religious quest, the Transcendentalists rejected the conventions of 18th—century thought; and what began in a dissatisfaction with Unitarianism developed into a repudiation of the whole established order.2。
Langston HughesAmerican poet and writer emphasized on lower—class black life。
He established himself as a major force of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1926, in the Nation， he provided the movement with a manifesto when he skillfully argued the need for both race pride and artistic independence in his most memorable essay， 'The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." In many ways Hughes always remained loyal to the principles he had laid down for the younger black writers in 1926. His art was firmly rooted in race pride and race feeling even as he cherished his freedom as an artist。
美国文学史及选读名词解释
美国文学史及选读名词解释1. Transcendentalism19th-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. In their religious quest, the Transcendentalists rejected the conventions of18th-century thought; and what began in a dissatisfaction with Unitarianism developed into a repudiation of the whole established order.2. Langston HughesAmerican poet and writer emphasized on lower-class black life. He established himself as a major force of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1926, in the Nation, he provided the movement with a manifesto when he skillfully argued the need for both race pride and artistic independence in his most memorable essay, 'The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." In many ways Hughes always remained loyal to the principles he had laid down for the younger black writers in 1926. His art was firmly rooted in race pride and race feeling even as he cherished his freedom as an artist. He was both nationalist and cosmopolitan. As a radical democrat, he believed that art should be accessible to as many people as possible. He could sometimes be bitter, but his art is generally suffused by a keen sense of the ideal and by a profound love of humanity, especially black Americans.3. Henry David ThoreauAmerican essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854), and for having been a vigorous advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849). In his writings Thoreau was concerned primarily with the possibilities for human culture provided by the American natural environment. He adapted ideas garnered from the then-current Romantic literatures in order to extend American libertarianism and individualism beyond the political and religious spheres to those of social and personal life. He demanded for all men the freedom to follow unique lifestyles, to make poems of their lives and living itself an art. In a restless, expanding society dedicated to practical action, he demonstrated the uses and valuesof leisure, contemplation, and a harmonious appreciation of and coexistence with nature. Thoreau established the tradition of nature writing later developed by the Americans4. the Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance, a flowering of literature (and to a lesser extent other arts) in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s, has long been considered by many to be the high point in African American writing. It probably had its foundation in the works of W.E. B. Du Bois who believed that an educated Black elite should lead Blacks to liberation. He further believed that his people could not achieve social equality by emulating white ideals; that equality could be achieved only by teaching Black racial pride with an emphasis on an African cultural heritage. Although the Renaissance was not a school, nor did the writers associated with it share a common purpose, nevertheless they had a common bond: they dealt with Black life from a Black perspective. Among the major writers who are usually viewed as part of the Harlem Renaissance are Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Rudolph Fisher, James Weldon Johnson, and Jean Toomer.5. Mark Twainpseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens American humorist, writer, and lecturer who won a worldwide audience for his stories of youthful adventures, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Life on the Mississippi (1883), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Writing in American colloquialism and subjects with humors and satires, Mark Twain shed great influence upon later writers such as Sherwood Anderson, Earnest Hemingway and Faulkner.6. Walt WhitmanAmerican poet, journalist, and essayist whose verse collection Leaves of Grass is a landmark in the history of American literature. Whitman's greatest theme is a symbolic identification of the regenerative power of nature with the deathless divinity of the soul. His poems are filled with a religious faith in the processes of life, particularly those of fertil ity, sex, and the “unflagging pregnancy” of nature: sprouting grass, mating birds, phallic vegetation, the maternal ocean, and planets in formation. The poetic “I” of Leaves of Grass transcends time and space, binding the past with the present and intuiting the future, illustrating Whitman's belief that poetry is a form of knowledge, the supreme wisdom of mankind.7. the Lost GenerationIn general, the post-World War I generation, but specifically a group of U.S. writers who came of age during the war and established their literary reputations in the 1920s. The term stems from a remark made by Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway, “You are all a lost generation.” Hemingway used it as an epigraph to The Sun Also Rises(1926). The generation was “lost” in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U.S. that, basking under President Harding's “back to normalcy” policy, seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren. The term embraces Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, e.e. cummings and many other writers who made Paris the centre of their literary activities in the '20s. They were never a literary school. In the 1930s, as these writers turned in different directions, their works lost the distinctive stamp of the postwar period. The last representative works of the era were Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night (1934).8. Ralph Waldo Emerson:American lecturer, poet, and essayist, the leading exponent of New England Transcendentalism. Nature, “The American Scholar,” and Address—had rallied together a group that came to be called the Transcendentalists, of which he was popularly acknowledged the spokesman. Emerson helped initiate Transcendentalism by publishing his Nature. Emerson felt that there was no place for free will in the chains of mechanical cause and effect that rationalist philosophers conceived the world as being made up of. This world could be known only through the senses rather than through thought and intuition; it determined men physically and psychologically; and yet it made them victims of circumstance, beings whose superfluous mental powers were incapable of truly ascertaining reality. Emerson asserts the human ability to transcend the materialistic world of sense experience and facts and become conscious of the all-pervading spirit of the universe and the potentialities of human freedom. Emerson's doctrine of self-sufficiency and self-reliance naturally springs from his view that the individual need only look into his own heart for the spiritual guidance that has hitherto been the province of the established churches. The individual must then have the courage to be himself and to trust the inner force within him as he lives his life according to his intuitively derived precepts.9. Edgar Allen PoePoe's work owes much to the concern of Romanticism with the occult and the satanic. It owes much also to his own feverish dreams, to which he applied a rare faculty of shaping plausible fabrics out of impalpable materials. With an air of objectivity and spontaneity, his productions are closely dependent on his own powersof imagination and an elaborate technique. His keen and sound judgment as appraiser of contemporary literature, his idealism and musical gift as a poet, his dramatic art as a storyteller, considerably appreciated in his lifetime, secured him a prominent place among universally known men of letters. The outstanding fact in Poe's character is a strange duality. Much of Poe's best work is concerned with terror and sadness. His yearning for the ideal was both of the heart and of the imagination. His sensitiveness to the beauty and sweetness of women inspired his most touching lyrics He is regarded as the father of detective stories.10. Black Humoralso called Black Comedy, writing that juxtaposes morbid or ghastly elements with comical ones. The term did not come into common use until the 1960s. Then it was applied to the works of the novelists Nathanael West, Vladimir Nabokov, and Joseph Heller. The latter's Catch-22 (1961) is a notable example, in which Captain Yossarian battles the horrors of air warfare over the Mediterranean during World War II with hilarious irrationalities matching the stupidities of the military system. The term black comedy has been applied to playwrights in the Theatre of the Absurd. 11. Benjamin FranklinAmerican printer and publisher, author, inventor and scientist, and diplomat. Franklin, next to George Washington possibly the most famous 18th-century American. He established the Poor Richard of his almanacs as an oracle on how to get ahead in the world, and become widely known in European scientific circles for his reports of electrical experiments and theories and wrote his Autobiography which is a great contribution to the American literature.12. Ernest HemingwayAmerican novelist and short-story writer, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. He was noted both for the intense masculinity of his writing and for his adventurous and widely publicized life. His succinct and lucid prose style exerted a powerful influence on American and British fiction in the 20th century. The main characters of The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls are young men whose strength and self-confidence nevertheless coexist with a sensitivity that leaves them deeply scarred by their wartime experiences. War was for Hemingway a potent symbol of the world, which he viewed as complex, filled with moral ambiguities, and offering almost unavoidable pain, hurt, and destruction. Tosurvive in such a world, and perhaps emerge victorious, one must conduct oneself with honour, courage, endurance, and dignity, a set of principles known as “the Hemingway code.”13. Sherwood Andersonauthor who strongly influenced American writing between World Wars I and II, particularly the technique of the short story. His writing had an impact on such notable writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, both of whom owe the first publication of their books to his efforts. His prose style, based on everyday speech was markedly influential on the early Hemingway. His best work is generally thought to be in his short stories, collected in Winesburg, Ohio, The Triumph of the Egg (1921), Horses and Men (1923), and Death in the Woods (1933).。