美国文学史名词解释

1、1. American PuritanismIt comes from the American puritans, who were the first immigrants moved to American continentin the 17th century. Original sin, predestinationand salvationwere the basic ideas of AmericanPuritanism. And, hard-working, piousness，thrift and sobrietywere praised.Characteristics:1

2、. Idealistic: Puritans pursue the purity and simplicity in worship. They focuse the glory of God, and the angry believe in the doctrine of destiny, original sin, limited atonement2.Practical:Puritanscome toAmricanto do businessand make profitswiththedesireofchasingwealthand status.They havetostruggl

3、eforsurvivalunderthe severityofthewesternfrontier.3 .The struggle between the spiritual and the material is the basics of the Puritan mind. On theone hand, Puritans chase the purity of the early the other hand, they come to America to earnmoney. This contradictory will be reflected by their thoughts

4、.4.In a word, it rests on purity, ambition,harding work,and an intense struggling for success.2.Romanticism the literature term was first applied to the writers of the 18thcentury in Europewho brokeaway from theformalrulesofclassicalwriting.Whenitwas used in Americanliteratureitreferredtothewriters

5、ofthe middleof the 19th centurywho stimulatedthesentimentalemotionsoftheirreaders.They wrote ofthemysteriousoflife,love,birthand death.The Romanticwritersexpressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all kinds of materials, poetry,essays, plays, fictions, history, works of travel, an

6、d biography.3.Transcendentalismis a philosophic and literary movement that flourished in New England,particular at Concord, as a reaction against Rationalism and CalvinismMainly it stressedintuitive understanding of God, without the help of the church, and advocated independence ofthe mind. The repr

7、esentative writers are Emerson and Thoreau.4.AmericanRealism InAmerican literature,theCivilWar broughttheRomanticPeriodtoan end.The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism andsentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a fait

8、hful rendering ofthe ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplaceand the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and humanexperience5.Localcolorismas a trendbecame dominant in Americanliteratureinthe 1860s and early1

9、870s，it is defined by Hamlin Garland as having such quality of texture and background that it couldnot have been writteninany otherplaceorby anyone elsethana nativestoriesoflocalcolorismhaveaqualityofcircumstantialauthenticity,aslocalcoloriststriedtoimmortalizethedistinctivenatural,socialand linguis

10、ticfeatures.Itischaracteristicofvernacularlanguageand satirical humor6.NaturalismAmerican naturalism was a new and harsher realism. American naturalism had beenshaped by thewar;by thesocialupheavalsthatunderminedthecomfortingfaithofan earlierage.Americasliterarynaturalistsdismissedthevalidityofcomfo

11、rtingmoral truths.They attemptedto achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economicclasses who were determined by their environment and heredity. Although naturalist literaturedescribedtheworldwithsometimesbrutalrealism,itsometimes alsoaimed atbetteringthew

12、orldthrough social reform.7.Stream ofconsciousnessItisone of themodern literarytechniques.It isthe styleofwritingthat attempts to imitate the natural flow of a characters thoughts, feelings, reflections,memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by theIr

13、ishnovelistJames Joyce.Those novelsbrokethroughthebounds oftime and space,and depictedvividlyand skillfullythe unconsciousactivityofthemind fast changingand flowingincessantly。8. Modernism It was a complex and diverse international movement in all the creative arts（，originating about the end of the

14、19th century. It provided the greatest creative renaissance ofthe20thcentury.It wasmade upofmanyfacetssuchassymbolism ， surrealismcubism，expressionism ， futurismect9.Imagism It sa poeticmovement ofEnglandand the. flourishedfrom1909 tomovementinsistson the creation of images in poetry by“the direct t

15、reatment of the thing” and the economy ofwording. The leaders of this movement were Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell.10.Jazz Age The Jazz Age describes the period of the 1920s and 1930s， the years between WorldWar I and World War II. Particularly in North America. With the rise of the great depression，the

16、values of this age saw much decline. Perhaps the most representative literary work of theage is American writer Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby. Highlighting what some describe as thedecadence and hedonism ， as well as the growth of individualism. Fitzgerald is largely creditedwith coining the term“ Ja

17、zz Age ”。11.The Lost generationIt refers to a group of young intellectuals who came back from war， wereinjuredboth physicallyandmentally. They livedby indulgingthemselvesintheBohemianway of life.Their American dream was disillusionedThe best representative of the lost generation was ErnestHemingway.

18、12.Hemingway Code Hero : also called code hero， is one who，wounded but strong more sensitive，enjoys the pleasures of life（sex ，alcohol ， sport ） in face of ruin and death，and maintains，through some notion of a code， an ideal of himself. 2> barnes in the sun also Rises， Henry ina Farewell to arms

19、and Santiago in the old man and the sea are typical of Hemingway Code Hero.13.Stream ofconsciousnessIt is one of the modern literarytechniques.Itisthe style of writingthat attempts to imitate the natural flow of a characters thoughts, feelings, reflections,memories, and mental images as the characte

20、r experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by theIrishnovelistJames Joyce. Those novels brokethroughthebounds of timeand space,and depictedvividly and skillfullytheunconscious activityof themind fast changing and flowingincessantly。14. Postmodernism It is a disputed term that has occupied much re

21、cent debate about contemporary culture since the early 1980s. in its simplest and least satisfactory sense it refers generallyto the phase of 20th century western culture that succeeded the reign of hign modernism， thusindicating the products of the“space age ” after some time in the 1950s. More oft

22、en though itis appliedto a culturalconditionprevailingin the advanced capitalistsocietiessince the 1960s，characterizedby a superabundance of disconnectedimages and styles.In thissense post modernityis said to be a culture of fragmentary sensations， eclectic nostalgia，disposable simulacra，and promiscuoussuperficialityinwhich the traditionallyvalued qualitiesof depth ， coherence ，meaning originality and