超权威的英美文学名词解释及作家写作风格及作品总结

1、British and American Literature一、 选择题（共10个，每个1分）二、名词解释（共5个，共30分）Modernism : Modernism is a cultural movement that generally includes the progressive art and architecture, design, literature, music, dance, painting and other visual arts which emerged in the beginning of the 20th century, particularly

2、 in the years following World War I. It was a movement of artists and designers who rebelled against late 19th century academic and historicist tradition, and embraced the new economic, social and political aspects of the emerging modern world.The key elements of Modernism in literature are experime

3、ntation, anti-realism, individualism and a stress on the cerebral 'seribr?l rather than emotive aspects. The work of Modernist writers is characterized by showing the disenchantment, dislocation, and alienation of men in the world, and by the emphasis on experimentation and formalism and objecti

4、vism which are, in most cases, a reaction to the Modern Age.Enlightenment : The Enlightenment was a progressive intellectual movement throughout Western Europe in the 18h century. It was an expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie ,bu?w a'zi: against feudalism. The enlighteners thought the chie

5、f means for bettering the society is enlightenment or education for the people.Transcendentalism: Transcendentalism ,tr?nsen'dentliz?m is a New England movement which flourished from about 1835 to 1860. It had its roots in romanticism and in post-Kantian idealism by which Coleridge was influence

6、d. It had a considerable influence on American art and literature. Basically religious, it emphasized the role and importance of the individual conscience 'k?n?ns, and the value of intuition in matters of moral guidance and inspiration.Imagism: It ' aspoetic movement of England and the U.S.

7、flourished from 1908 to 1917.The Imagists used precise, clearly presentedimages in their works. They also used common, every day speech and aimed for concisenessk?n'saisnis, concrete imagery, and the creation of new rhythms. The leaders of this movement were Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell.Puritanism

8、: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church. They were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles.They wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices.They vi

9、rtues of thrift and hard work.They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin sin and total depravity di'pr?viti, and limited atonement ?'t?unm?nt through a special infusion of grace form God.Puritanism has a profound influence on American literature.Realism:A nineteenth century E

10、uropean literary movement that sought to portray p?:'trei familiar characters, situations, and settings in a realistic manner. This was done primarily by using an objective narrative point of view and through the buildup of accurate detail. It is an action against Romanticism, and it paves the w

11、ay for Modernism.Romanticism :A movement that flourished in literature, philosophy, music, and art in Western culture during most of the 19th century.Romanticism r?u'm?nt?siz?m was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.Romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: mor

12、al 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 a source of corruption. Romantic values were prominent in American politics, art, and philosophy until the Civil War.Lost Generation : A

13、 term first used by Stein to describe the post-World 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. Full of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love

14、affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date. The three best-known representativesof Lost Generation are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos.三、简答（共30分，共5个或6个题目）Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic.He is co

15、nsidered as the father of detective story and psychoanalytic ,saik?u,?n?l'itik criticism.His aesthetics i:s'6 etiks call for "the rhythmical 'rie mikl creation ofbeauty" have influenced French symbolists and the devotees of "art for art's sake."The style of Poe is

16、 unique. He tries to bring out the evil of humanity and show it to the world.He is what you would call a Dark Romantics.His writing style is owing to his personal tragedy.The three major themes of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poems are death, insanity, and horror.His famous Poems:The Rave

17、n, Annabel Lee, To HelenMark TwainMark Twain is a great literary giant of America.He was acclaimed as "the father ofAmerican literature."With works like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi Twain shaped the world ' s view of America and made a more extensive c

18、ombination of American folk humor and serious literature than previous writers had ever done.Twain is also known as a local colorist who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions. With his great mastery and effective use of vernacular v?'n?kjul ?,

19、Twain has made colloquial k?'l?ukwi ?l speech an accepted respectable medium in American literature. BesidesTwain' humor and satire's?tai ? is remarkable, too.Ernest HemingwayErnest Hemingway was an American writer and journalist.He was also known as oneof the representatives of "th

20、e Lost Generation."Typical of this “iceberg “ style is Hemingway ' s style, which he had been trying hard to get. Besides, Hemingway develops the style of colloquialism k?'l?ukwi?liz ?m initiated by Mark Twain. He deals with a limited range of characters in quite similar circumstances a

21、nd measures them against an unvarying code, known as“grace under _ " pressure.His main woks include The Sun Also Rises,A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls,The Old Man and the Sea.Ezra PoundEzra Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist mo

22、vement in poetry.He launched Imagism which stressed clarity, precision, and economy of language.As a critic and editor, Pound discovered and encouraged many experimental authorsHis main woks include The Cantos'k?nt?u , In a Station of the Metroand so on.Henry JamesHenry James was an American-bor

23、n writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. James is generally ranked as the greatest American novelist of the second half of the 19th century.James is noted for his "international theme" which refers to the moral and psychological complications when the

24、American innocence encountered the European sophisticationJames is a master of character portrayal p?:'trei?l and has extensively used the "stream of consciousness" method in his fictional writing. His style is over-elaborate, refined and genteel.His major works: The American,Daisy Mil

25、ler,The Portrait of a LadyWalt WhitmanWalt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, journalist and humanist.He was a part of the transition between transcendentalism ,tr?nsen'dentliz?m and realism, incorporating both views in his works. In this giant work Leaves of Grass openness, freedom, and ab

26、ove all, individualism are all that concerned him.Whitman s poetical style is marked, first of all, by the use of the poetic Besides,Whitman was the first American to use free verse extensively.Another characteristic in Whitman s language is his strong tendency to use oral English.R.W. EmersonHe was

27、 an American essayist, philosopher, poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century.Emerson' s point of view1、the infinitude of man2、firmly believes in the transcendence tr?n'sendns of the oversoul3、regards nature as the purest and the most satisfying moral influe

28、nce on man4、everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world,and that he makes the world by making himself.Emerson" major literary works : Nature,The Amercian Scholar, PoetJane AustenJane Austen,an English novelist wrote numerous influential works contributing to the Western

29、 literary .Though living in the Romantic period, Austen is generally regarded as a realistic novelist.Her theme are mostly about love and marriage.Her style can be described as simple, suggestive , humorous and with quiet irony.Major works: Pride and Prejudice,Sense and Sensibility ,Mansfield Park,E

30、mmaEmily Dickinson四、问答（共2个题目，共30分）William Shakespeare1. Shakespeare is one of the founders of realism in world literature. He maintains that the purpose of dramatic performance is“to hold, as it were, the mirror up to natureIn his works, he paints the decline of the old feudal nobility and the vice

31、of the new Tudor 'tju:d? monarch. Besides, his plays have good plots and life-like characters too. His drama is an expression, a monument of the English Renaissancesince he wrote about his own people for his own time.2. Shakespeareis amazingly prolific. Within 22 years, he produced 37 plays, 154

32、 sonnets's?nit, and 2 long poems. No two of his play invoke the same feeling or image among the audience. He is a master-hand for every form of drama-comedy, tragedy, and historical plays. He gives us a world of full-blooded people who live and struggle, suffer and rejoice, representing all the

33、complexities and implications of real life.3. Shakespearewas skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the sonnet, the couplet 'k?plit, and the dramatic blank verse. And he is a great master of the English language. He used a vocabulary larger than any other English writers. Many of his new coinag

34、e 'k?inid? and turns of expressions have become everyday usage in English life. Shakespeare and the Authorized version of the English Bible are the two great treasures of the English language.William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner is an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state o

35、f Mississippi.He regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. In 1950,he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.Besides,he's considered part of the “Southern Renaissance. ”In his works, Faulkner explains the present by examining the past, by telling the stories o

36、f several generations of family to show how history changeslife. He was interested in the relationship between blacks and whites as well as the conflicts between generations, classes, man and environmenHt.is works also focus on focused on deteriorationdi,tiri ?rei?n,horror, violence and the abnormal

37、.Faulkner wrote works of psychological drama and emotional depth, typically with long serpentine 's?:p?nti:n prose and high, meticulously-chosen me'tikjul ?sli diction, also using groundbreaking literary devices such as stream of consciousness, multiple narrations or points of view, and time

38、-shifts within narrative.Yoknapatawpha County is the setting for most of William Faulkne rs novels and short stories, with which Faulkner has managed successfully to show a panorama of the experience and consciousness of the whole Southern society.Major Works:The Sound and the Fury,As I lay Dying,Light in August, A Rose for EmilyWhat factors help the modernism come into being?Modernism rejects rationalism. Modernism includes internal, subjective, and psychological world. The student answer could cover Darvin ' revolution theory, Marxism and Relativity theory. It