美国文学史名词解释

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美国文学史复习提纲名词解释

I. Explain the following literary terms(名词解释).1. RomanticismThe most profound and comprehensive idea of romanticism is the vision of a greater personal freedom for the individual. Appeals to imagination; Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, gen iality. Subjectivity: in form and meaning.2 American transcendentalismAmerican transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy and literature that flourished during the early to middle years of the nineteenth century (about 1836-1860). For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains.3 Realism: ―nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.‖ the Civil wara. verisimilitude of details derived from observationb. representative in plot, setting and characterc. an objective rather than an idealized view of human experienceor（American 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.）4. Modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. The general term covers many political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in Western society at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at the turn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century.5、American Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them. They were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace form God. 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.6、Transcendentalism: In New England, an intellectual movement known as transcendentalism developed as an American version of Romanticism. The movement began among an influential set of authors based in Concord, Massachusetts and was led by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Like Romanticism, transcendentalism rejected both 18th century rationalism and established religion, which for the transcendentalists meant the Puritan tradition in particular. The transcendentalists celebrated the power of the human imagination to commune with the universe and transcend the limitations of the material world. They found their chief source of inspiration in nature. Emerson’s essay Nature was the major document of the transcendental school and stated the ideas that were to remain central to it.7、Free verse: free verse is the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without attention to conventio nal rules of meter. Free verse was first written and labeled by a group of French poets of the late 19th century. Their purpose was to deliver poetry from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to recreate the free rhythms of natural speech. Walt Whitman was the precursor who wrote lines of varying length and cadence, usually not rhymed. The emotional content or meaning of the work was expressed through its rhythm. Free verse has been characteristic of the work of many modern American poets, including Ezra Pound and Carl Sandburg.8、Naturalism: A more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories and plays, usually involving a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. Naturalism was a new and harsher realism. Itdeveloped on the basis of realism but went a step further than it in portraying social reality.9、Lost Generation: Also termed the Sad Young Men, which was created by F.S. Fitzgerald in his book All the Sad Young Men. The term in general refers to the post- World War I generation, but specifically a group of US writers who came of age during the war and established their reputation in the 1920s. It 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, a novel that captures the attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast living set of disillusioned young expatriates in postwar Paris. 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 US, they seemed hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren. The term embraces Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, E.E. Cummings and so on.10、International theme：The meeting of America and Europe, American innocence in contrast with European decadence and the moral and psychological complications arising therefore. The typical pattern of the conflict between the two cultures could be that of a young American man or girl who goes to Europe and affronts his or her destiny. Marriage and love are used by James as the focal point of the confrontation between the two value Systems, and the protagonist usually goes through a painful process of spiritual growth, gaining knowledge of good and evil from the conflict.11、Symbolism: It is a movement in literature and the visual arts that originated in France in the poetry of Charles Baudelaire in the late 19th century. In literature, symbolism was an aesthetic movement that encouraged writers to express their ideas, feelings, and values by means of symbols or suggestions rather than by direct statements. Hawthorne and Melville are masters of symbolism in America in the 19th century.II. Questions and Answers. Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English.1. What is local color？an amalgam of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the dialects, customs, sights, and sounds of regional America‖2. What is American Puritanism1). Total Depravity - the concept of Original Si2). Unconditional Election - the concept of predestination3). Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone.4). Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied.5). Perseverance of the "saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God.3. Analyze Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography.themes in autobiography: Self- Improvement Mind: Self-education Body: Physical Activity Behavior: Moral Perfection Religion: The best service to God is to be good to manBenjamin Franklin and aspects of The American DreamRags to Riches: Impotence to Importance: A Philosophy of Individualism:Freewill vs. Determinism: Hope and Optimism:The Autobiography is a record of self-examination and self-improvement.Benjamin Franklin was a spokesman for the new order of the 18th century enlightenmentThe Autobiography is a how-to-do-it book, a book on the art of self-improvement. (for example, Franklin’s 13 virtues)Through telling a success story of self-reliance, the book celebrates, in fact, the fulfillment of the American dream. The Autobiography is in the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision4. What is Imagism?It is a movement of English and American poets in revolt from Romanticism, which flourish 1910-1917. The characteristic products of the movement are more easily recognized than its theories defined: they tend to be short ,composed of short lines of musical cadence rather than metrical regularity, to avoid abstraction, and to treatthe image with a hard, clear precision rather than with overt symbolic intent.As part of the modernist movement, away from the sentimentality and moralizing tone of nineteenth-century Victorian poetry, imagist poets looked to many sources to help them create a new poetic expression, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images.III. Topic discussion.1. Discuss Allen Poe’s literary achievements with his works.famous American poet, short-story writer and critic father of detective story master of gothic novel forerunner of symbolism a father of detective storyPoe introduced of a new form of short fiction--- the detective story.The word ―detective‖ did not exist in English at the time that Poe was writing, but the genre has becomea )fundamental mode of twentieth-century literature and film.b) master of gothic novelGothic novel, a genre that rose with Romanticism in Britain in the late eighteenth century, explores the dark side of human experience—death, alienation, nightmares, ghosts, and haunted landscapes. Poe brought the Gothic to America.Gothic novels originated from The Castle of Otranto, written by Horace Walpole in Britain at the end of the 18th century, which created the early classical Gothic novel mode.It leads habitually with darkness and horror. Gothic elements include horror, mystery, supernatural phenomenon, misfortune, death, haunted houses, and family curses.c Literary criticPoe is one of the few American writers who not only wrote poetry, but also wrote about how to write poetry. His critical essays on poetry include The Poetic Principle, and The Philosophy of Composition.Poe remained the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature. 2. Analyze Freneau’s The Wild Honeysuckle.野金银花Philip Freneau as Father of American Poetry as Leader of 18th Century NaturalismThe following poem was published in his Poems (1786) and was virtually unread in the time when he was living. In the poem the poet expresses his keen awareness of the liveliness and transience of nature celebrating the beauty of the frail forest flower, thus showing his deep love for nature.The poem was written in six-line iambic tetrameter stanzas rhymed on ababcc pattern.The poem is said to anticipate the nineteenth-century romantic use of simple nature imagery.It is considered one of the author’s finest nature poems.Comments on The Wild Honey Suckle1. A flower may be the most beautiful and overlooked piece of nature. Cherish it while it lasts for by the change of each season it may dissipate only to become a desire. Perhaps Freneau knew of a beauty that only nature could describe, provoked by the insincerity of the British people.2. Philip Freneau, in this poem, was expressing his dream of a paradise in nature, or rather, on the new continent of America. His dream was the originality of the paradise on the earth, i.e, USA. The wild honey suckle is something of freedom, tranquility, nature, and of no convention, no suppression, no traditional or anything beyond the pure nature.This poem is not only a mere description of nature, but something ideal in the poet's construction of a real paradise of human beings. This paradise is of real freedom, pure nature, total independence, grand beauty. As we know, Freneau was against the British interference in the independence of the new land, and was hoping to establish a real free country of the people on the new Continent. So in my opinion, this poem was in fact the beautiful bode of a paradise in nature(on the earth), in very brief and true words. This paradise is independent without meeting any vicious interference, beautiful without catering to any viewer,tranquil but fearful of no hardships, wild in nature without any vulgar provocation.in this poem the poet expressed a keen awareness of the loveliness and transience of nature.he not only meditated on mortality but also celebrated nature.it implies that life and death are inevitable law of nature,"the wild honey suckle"is philipfreneau's most widely read natureal lyric with the theme of transience.the central i mage is a nativewild flower,which makes a drastic difference from elite flower images typical of tradition english p oems.the poem showed strong feelings for the natural beauty,which was the characteristic of romantic.3. Analyze Poe’s To Helen and translate the third stanza in your own words.The theme of this short poem is the beauty of a woman with whom Poe became acquainted when he was 14. Apparently she treated him kindly and may have urged him–or perhaps inspired him–to write poetry. Beauty, as Poe uses the word in the poem, appears to refer to the woman's soul as well as her body. On the one hand, he represents her as Helen of Troy–the quintessence of physical beauty–at the beginning of the poem. On the other, he represents her as Psyche–the quintessence of soulful beauty–at the end of the poem. In Greek, psyche means soul.It was first published in 1831 collection Poems of Poe then reprinted in 1836 in the Southern Literary Messenger. Poe revised the poem in 1845, making several improvements, most notably changing "the beauty of fair Greece, and the grandeur of old Rome" to "the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome." These improved lines are the most well-known lines of the poem.Imagery and Summary of the PoemPoe opens the poem with a simile–―Helen, thy beauty is to me / Like those Nicéan barks of yore‖–that compares the beauty of Helen (Mrs. Stanard) with small sailing boats (barks) that carried home travelers in ancient times. He extends this boat imagery into the second stanza, when he says Helen brought him home to the shores of the greatest civilizations of antiquity, classical Greece and Rome. It may well have been that Mrs. Stanard’s beauty and other admirable qualities, as well as her taking notice of Poe’s writing ability, helped inspire him to write poetry that mimicked in some ways the classical tradition of Greece and Rome.Certainly the poem’s allusions to mythology and the classical age suggest that he had a grounding in, and a fondness for, ancient history and literature. In the final stanza of the poem, Poe imagines that Mrs. Stanard (Helen) is standing before him in a recess or alcove in front of a window. She is holding an agate lamp, as the beautiful Psyche did when she discovered the identity of Eros (Cupid).in the first stanza,helen's beauty is soothing.it provides security and safety.perhaps the reader is expected to a ssociate marlowe's famousline:was this the face that launched a thousand ships? to helen's beauty,for her beauty is as hypnotic for the speaker as the ships that transported another wanderer-Ulysses-home from Troy. throughout the poem,Poe uses allusions to classical names and places,as well as certain kinds of images to creat e the impression of a far-off idealized,unreal woman,like a Greek statue.words that support the image of an ideal woman are "hyacinth"and"classic""Naiad airs"and"statued like.helen stands,not like a real woman,but like a saint i n a "windows-niche.she becomes a symbol both of beauty and of frustration,a romantically idealized,yet inaccessi ble image of the heart's desire.it's believed that few american poets can surpass Poe's ability in the use of english as a medium of pure musical and rhythmic beauty.Poe made good use of rhythm is not regular,which shows the poet was excited,the poem is a haunting melody done with extreme artistry of alliteration as in "weary"and"way-worn",assonance as in "wont to roam"and masculine end rhyme,for example,with"me"rhythm with "sea",the rhyme scheme is ababb,cdcec,fggfg.i n the poem words containing vowels or diphthongs were used to bring about the slow rhythm which reveals the s peaker's admiration and deep regret and suggest a theme that beauty is soothing yet inaccessible.in light of anal ysis above,the general tone of the poem is passionate and regretful.4. Discuss Mark Twain’s art of fiction: the setting, th e language, and the characters, etc., based on his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.Huckleberry Finn (1884) was first considered adult fiction. Huck Finn, which painted a picture of Mississippi frontier life, was intended as a sequel to Tom Sawyer. Huck, who could not possibly write a story, tells us the story. Twain wrote a novel that embodies the search for freedom. He wrote during the post-Civil War period when there was an intense white reaction against blacks. According to some critics,[who?]Twain took aim squarely against racial prejudice, increasing segregation, lynchings, and the generally accepted belief that blacks were sub-human. He "made it clear that Jim was good, deeply loving, human, and anxious for freedom."[12]However, others have criticized the novel as racist, citing the use of the word "nigger" and Jim's Sambo-like character.[2][3]Throughout the story, Huck is in moral conflict with the received values of the society in which he lives, and while he is unable to consciously refute those values even in his thoughts, he makes a moral choice based on his own valuation of Jim's friendship and human worth, a decision in direct oppositio n to the things he has been taught. Mark Twain in his lecture notes proposes that "a sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience," and goes on to describe the novel as "...a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come in to collision and conscience suffers defeat."[13]5. Discuss James Cooper’s literary contributions.Contributions of CooperThe creation of the famous Leather stocking saga has cemented his position as our first great national novelist and his influence pervades American literature. In his thirty-two years (1820-1851) of authorship, Cooper produced twenty-nine other long works of fiction and fifteen books - enough to fill forty-eight volumes in the new definitive edition of his Works. Among his achievements:1. The first successful American historical romance in the vein of Sir Walter Scott (The Spy, 1821).2. The first sea novel (The Pilot, 1824).3. The first attempt at a fully researched historical novel (Lionel Lincoln, 1825).4. The first full-scale History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839).5. The first American international novel of manners (Homeward Bound and Home as Found, 1838).6. The first trilogy in American fiction (Satanstoe, 1845; The Chainbearer, 1845; and The Redskins, 1846).7. The first and only five-volume epic romance to carry its mythic hero - Natty Bumppo - from youth to old age. James Fenimore Cooper was one of the first novelists to enjoy great fame as a result of his literary career and although some may argue that this is because the subject matter was entertaining (rather than instructive or socially conscious, for example) the fact remains that he was able to introduce Americans to their own frontier. A writer in the style of romanticism, James Fenimore Cooper was enamored with tales of the outdoors and encounters with strange and often hostile people or forces. This material was well-received and because of his literary success James Fenimore Cooper was able to produce his large body of works throughout his lifetime.6. Analyze Whitman’s One’s Self I Sing.Analysis of One’s Self I SingIn 1855 he published Leaves of Grass by himself at his own expense. His intention was to create a truly American poem, one "proportionate to our continent, with its powerful races of men, its tremendous historic events, its great oceans, its mountains, and its illimitable prairies." In fact, his poem goes beyond American subject to deal with the universal themes of nature, fertility, and mortality."One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate person," run the opening lines of Leaves of Grass from 1871 on, "Yet utter the word Democratic." A poetic universe of productive tension is hinted by that "Y et"; the tense equipoise between individualism and democracy, this poem suggests, is the foundational theme of Whitman’s book. The poem then goes on to introduce the site and symbol for this reconciliation of individual to mass: the body, "physiology from top to toe." We receive individual identity through our body, . . . yet at the same time, physicality, and especially physical affection, are universal, binding us together in common humanity. Much of the boldly progressive politics of Whitman’s poetry will follow from this emphasis on the body; thus his introduction of the theme of "physiology" isfollowed by his (then quite radical) insistence on the political equality of male and female.In Whitman’s ―One’s Self I Sing‖, the theme of the poem, namely the celebration of both oneself and the whole human beings, is realized at various levels. In this renowned short poem, Whitman trumpets the individualism that underlies American democracy and society, interpreting the politics of democracy into terms of everyday life. The poem is also presented as a drama of democratic identity in which the poet seeks to balance and reconcile major conflicts in the body politic of America: the conflict between "separate person" and "en masse," individualism and equality, liberty and union, female and male, or even alluding to the conflict with the South and the North, the farm and the city, labor and capital, black and white, religion and science.In Whitman’s ―One’s Self I Sing‖, the theme of the poem, namely the celebration of both oneself and the whole human beings, is realized at various levels. In this renowned short poem, Whitman trumpets the individualism that underlies American democracy and society, interpreting the politics of democracy into terms of everyday life. The poem is also presented as a drama of democratic identity in which the poet seeks to balance and reconcile major conflicts in the body politic of America: the conflict between "separate person" and "en masse," individualism and equality, liberty and union, female and male, or even alluding to the conflict with the South and the North, the farm and the city, labor and capital, black and white, religion and science.。

美国文学史名词解释

1.A m e r i c a n P u r i t a n i s m清教2.It 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 a n d s o b r i e t y（清醒）w e r e p r a i s e d. Characteristics: 特点1. Idealistic: Puritans pursue the purity and simplicity in worship. They focuse the glory of God, and the angry God.They believe in the doctrine of destiny, original sin, limited atonement2. Practical: Puritans come to Amrican to do business and make profits with the desire of chasing wealth and status. They have to struggle for survival under the severity of the western frontier.3 .The struggle between the spiritual and the material is the basics of the Puritan mind. On the one hand, Puritans chase the purity of the early church.On the other hand, they come to America to earn money. This contradictory will be reflected by their thoughts.4. In a word, it rests on purity, ambition, harding work, and an intense struggling for success.3.Romanticism浪漫主义: 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 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 that flourished in New England, particular at Concord, asa 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.American Realism现实主义: 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 experience6.Local colorism乡土文学: 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 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), as local 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) humor7.Naturalism自然主义: American naturalism was a new and harsher realism. American naturalism had been shaped by the war; by the social upheavals（剧变）that undermined the comforting faith of an earlier age. America’s literary naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity. Although naturalist literature described the world with sometimes brutal realism, it sometimes also aimed at bettering the world through social reform.8.Stream of consciousness意识流：It is one of the modern literary techniques. 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。

美国文学史名词解释_综合版

美国文学史名词解释_综合版第一篇：美国文学史名词解释_综合版美国文学选读复习资料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 coincidentwith 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.American 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 thanreason and common sense.• They emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group,against authority.• The affirmed the inner life of the self, and wanted to be free to develop andexpress his own inner thoughts.New England Poets: William Cullen Bryant;Henry Wadsworth Longfellow;Writers: James Fenimaore Cooper The Spy(1821)The Leatherstocking Tales(1823—1841)The Pilot(1824)The Red Rover(1827)Washington Irving（“The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Grayon” “Bracebridge Hall”“Tales of a Traveller”“The History of the Life and Voyages of ChristopherColumbus ”）American TranscendentalismIn 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.Transcendentalism① The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe.② The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual.To them, the individual is the most important element of Societ y.③ The 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.Writers Emerson’s：Nature；Self-Reliance；The American Scholar；The Over-soul；H.D.Thoreau：WaldenHenry Wadsworth LongfellowWalt Whitman：Leaves of Grass Emily Dickinson：I Died for Beauty；Because I couldnot stop for DeathWilliam Faulkner(1897-19621949 Nobel priceAs I Lay Dying(1930)Light in the August(1932)Absalom, Absalom(1936)Go Down Moses(1942)Ernest HemingwayIceberg Principle(Theory)“grace under pressure”Major Works:The Sun Also Rises 1926(Jake Barnes)A Farewell to Arms 1928(a tragic story about war and love)(Frederic Henry andCatherine Barkley)For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940(Spanish civil war)(Robert Jordan)The Old Man and the Sea 1952(Santiago)Herman Melville代表作：白鲸Moby DickOther Works are: Billy Budd,Typee, Omoo, Mardi.Nathaniel HawthorneThe Scarlet LetterMosses from an Old Manse;Twice-Told Tales;The Marble Faun;The House of theSeven GablesRealismAs a literary movement, the Age of Realism came into existence after Romanticismwith the Civil War It was a reaction against “the lie” of Romanticism andsentimentalism, and paved the way to Modernism.This literary interest in the so-called “reality” of life started a new period in theAmerican literary writing known as The Age of Realism.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 localedistinguished from the outside world;(2)describing the exoticof the picturesque;(3)glorifying the past;(4)showing things as they are;(5)influence of setting oncharacters.The well known local colorism authors were Mark Twain with his bookTom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Bret Harte’s with his TheLuck of the Roaring Camp.American naturalists accepted the more negativeinterpretation of Darwin’s evolutionary theory and used it to accout for the behaviorof those characters in literary works who were regarded as more or less complexcombinations of inherited attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economicforces.2)naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writingbecomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.It isno more than a gloomy philosophical approach to reality, or to humanexistence.3>Dreiser with his Sister Carrie is a leading figure of his school.1917.The movement insists on the creation of images in poetry by “the directtreatment of the thing” and the economy of wording.“poetic techniques to recordexactly 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 doesnot contribute to the presentation.[3] rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in thesequence of a metronome.4> pound’s In a Station of the Metro is a well-knownpoem.The 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 naturalsciences.Darwinism(Darwin), Socialism(Karl Marx), Psychoanalysis(Sigmund Freud)The lost generation is a term first used by Stein to describe thepost-war I generation of American writers: men and women haunted by a sense ofbetrayal and emptiness brought about by the destructiveness of the war.2>full ofyouthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, hadlove affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date.3>the threebest-known representatives of lost generation are F.Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway andJohn dos Passos.The Beat Generation is a group of American young writersand artists popular in the 1950s and early 1960s.the member of the beat generationwere 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.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.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.To them, religion was the most important thing.They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original s in, total depravity 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.第二篇：美国文学史名词解释It were flourishing from the beginning of 17th to the middle period of 18th.They stressed predestination, original sin, total depravity, and limited atonement from God‟s grace.They went to America to prove that they were God‟s chosen people who would enjoy God‟s blessings on earth and in Heaven.Finally, they built a way of life that stressed hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.Both doctrinaire and an opportunist.Its Influence on literary were as follows:（影响）(1)American Literature is based on a myth------the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden.(2)The American Puritan‟s metaphorical made of perception----symbolism.The representatives were Edwards(The Freedom of the Will), Franklin(On the Art of Self-improvement), Crevecoeur(Letters from an American Farmer).代表作家及代表作：Captain John SmithTrue Relation of Virginia(1608)Anne Bradstreet“To My Dear and Loving Husband”Benjamin Franklin:The Autobiography of Benjamin FranklinRomanticism was a complex artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution.Elements of Romanticism1.Frontier: vast expanse, freedom, no geographic limitations.2.Optimism: greater than in Europe because of the presence of frontier.不要这么多，我就删掉了3、4、5条。

(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。

美国文学史名词解释

1、Romanticism浪漫主义a movement of the 18th and 19th century that affected the whole of Europe and America.It is the predominance of imagination over reason and formal rules and over the sense of fact or the actual, a psychological desire to escape from unpleasant realities.Romanticism was a movement in literature, philosophy, music and art which developed in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.It emphasized individual values and aspirations above those of society as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution.It looked to the Middle Ages and to direct contact with nature for inspiration的特点：frequently shared certain general characteristics, moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that he natural world was a source of corruption.浪漫主义之间大多是相通的，都注重道德，强调个人主义价值观和直觉感受，并且认为自然是美的源头，人类社会是腐败之源。

美国文学史及选读名词解释

美国文学史及选读名词解释本文出自网络，作者不详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. 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 values of 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 fertility, 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 provinc ial, 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, beingswhose 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 theall-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 powers of 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. To survive 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).。

美国古代文学史名词解释、简答、论述题

美国古代文学史名词解释、简答、论述题本文旨在阐述美国古代文学发展史中的重要名词、简述相关内容及针对论述题展开适当讨论。

一、名词解释1. Puritanism（清教主义）：是17世纪时在英格兰和美洲流行的宗教改革运动。

清教徒最初移民纽英格兰是为了逃避英王的压迫。

清教徒的中包括坚信的意志对人的一切事宜具有决定性作用，反对世俗和欲望，鼓励个人的努力，强调个人的责任以及间接地强调了民主的概念。

2. Transcendentalism（超验主义）：是19世纪30年代美国文化中一股对启蒙运动的反动，反对理性主义和经验主义。

超验主义者认为人们应该依靠个人直觉和灵感开启心灵深处的真实，超越感官经验。

超验主义者强调个人的自由发展，自然的神秘和美好。

3. Regionalism（地方主义）：是19世纪晚期至20世纪初美国文学的一种流派。

运动的核心思想是反对现代工业化和全球化，提倡重视地方风景、文化和民俗，关注本土的人、事、物，并以此为原材料创作文学。

二、简答题1. Nathaniel Hawthorne的小说《红字》反映了哪些思想和文化特征？《红字》十分典型地表现了清教徒文化对美国文学的影响，其中包括对罪恶的强烈谴责和对个人自由的崇尚。

小说中的同情感是从人性中萃取出来的，同时还揭示了社会伦理和人性的冲突。

2. 简要说明Mark Twain的《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》中的重要主题。

《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》中最为重要的主题之一是反对奴隶制度和种族歧视。

小说通过边缘化非洲裔角色吉姆和他与哈克贝利的冒险来表达这一主题。

通过小说中的观点发表间接批判制奴政策和对黑人的压迫。

三、论述题威廉·福克纳的小说《荒野上的救世主》中如何体现了超验主义思想？《荒野上的救世主》小说通过多个角色的人生经历，呈现出一种东西方的宗教信仰和精神世界上的共性。

超验主义的思想在小说中得到了体现，例如鲍姆对科学和机械世界的愤恨，以及詹妮·霍查神秘的形象等等。

(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。

(完整word版)美国文学史名词解释

美国文学史名词解释Romanticism1. The American Romanticism covers the first half of the 19th century。

2. American Romanticism was both imitative and independent. Some of American romantic writing was modeled on English and European works. While it was in essence the expression of “a real new experience” and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien。

3。

The American national experience of “pioneering” into the west proved to be a rich fund of material for American writers to draw upon。

4。

The “newness” of the Americans as a nation is another major element connected with American Romanticism. Their ideals of individualism and political equality, and their dream that America was to be a new Garden of Eden for man were distinctly American. 5。

In technique they loved traditional meters and stanza forms； in language their English was usually British.6。

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.Transcendentalism—it is a philosophic and literary movement that flourish in New England, as a reaction against rationalism and Calvinism. It stressed intuitive understanding of god without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind.2. The Lost Generation Writers of the first postwar era self-consciously acknowledged that they were a “lost Generation”, devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization.3. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puritans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the Church of England.4. Imagism is to present an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. An imagistic poem must present the object exactly the way the thing is seen. And the reader can form the image of the object through the process of reading the abstract and concrete words.Imagism 意象派：is a poetic movement of England and the United States, flourished from 1909-1917. Its credo, expressed in Some Imagist Poets, included the use of the language of common speech, project matter, the evocation of images in hard, clear poetry, and concentration.5、Realism：（现实主义）appeared in the United States in the literature of local color, an amalgam of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things was immediately observable. the dialects, customs, sights.现实主义有浓厚的美国本土特色，是浪漫主义故事情节和现实主义描写相结合的产物：美国风味的方言、风俗、各种观点6.Naturalism：自然主义 a new and harsher realism, 新型的更为冷峻的现实主义，产生悲观的流派，产生于the end of the century 十九世纪末，因为Perception of society’s disorders 对社会无序的感知。

（完整版）美国文学史期末考试名词解释

（完整版）美国⽂学史期末考试名词解释2013-2014第⼆学期《美国⽂学》考查范围I.名词解释部分 20%1.Black Humorhe 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 Vonnegut are famous for their novels of black humor. Especially Heller?s Catch—22.2.American TranscendentalismThe emergence of the Transcendentalists as an identifiable movement took place during the late 1820s and 1830s, but the roots of their religious philosophy extended much farther back into American religious history. Transcendentalism and evangelical Protestantism followed separate evolutionary branches from American Puritanism, taking as their common ancestor the Calvinism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the Universe. They stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society. They offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Transcendentalism is based on the belief that the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of the senses. Emerson’s Nature has been called the “Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” and his The American Scholar has been rightly regarded as America’s “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”.3.Jazz AgeThe Jazz Age refers to the period of the 1920s when Traditional values of the previous period declined while the American stock market soared. The age takes its name from popular music, which saw a tremendous surge in popularity. The characters of Jazz Age novels live in restless pursuit of stimulus and pleasure and wallow in heavy drinking,fast driving and casual sex.The phrase was coined by Fitzgerald,who greatly criticized this new era of 'relaxation' in novels such as The Great Gatsby.4.The Lost GenerationAfter the WWI, some young writers chose Paris as their place of exile and used their wartime experience as the basis for their works.Those young people were not off from old values and yet unable to come to terms with the new era. They wondered pointlessly and restlessly, while at the same time were aware that the world was crazy and meaningless.The lost generation is a term first used by Stein to describe the post-war I generation of American writers:1>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.5.Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance, known as the "New Negro Movement", was a literary and intellectual flowering that fostered a new black cultural identity in the 1920s and 1930s.During this period, the black community was able to seize upon its "first chances for group expression and self determination." the Harlem Renaissance is considered to have transformed "social disillusionment to race pride."6.ImagismA poetic movement of England and the U.S. that flourished from 1909 to 1917. The movement insists on the creation 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 s equence of a metronome.7.Free Versefree verse is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length, and that attempts avoid any predetermined verse structure; instead, it uses the cadenees of natural speech. While it alternates stressed and unstressed syllables as stricter verse forms do ,free verse does so in a looser way. Whitman’s poetry is an example of free verse at it s most impressive,for example Song of Myself. It has since been used Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and other major American poets of the 20th century.Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is, perhaps , the most notable example.8.TragedyIn general, a literary work in which the protagonist meets an unhappy or disastrous end. Unlike comedy, tragedy depicts the actions of a central character who is usually dignified or heroic.9.MythMyth is a fictional tale originally with religious significance,which explains the actions of gods or heroes,the causes of natural phenomena,or both.Allusions to characters and motifs from Greek,Roman,Celtic myths are common in English literature.10.PostmodernismA term referring to certain radically experimental works of literature and art produced after World War II. Postmodernism is distinguished from modernism,which generally refers to the revolution in art and literature that occurred during the period of 1910 through 1930,particularly following the disillusion experience of World War I.The postmodern era,with its potential for mass destruction and its shocking history of genocide,has evoked a continuing disillusionment similar to that widely experienced during the Modern period.Much of postmodernist writing reveals and highlights the alienation of individuals and the mindlessness of human existence.Postmodernists frequently stress that human desperately(and ultimately unsuccessfully)cling to illusions of security to conceal and forget the void over which their lives are perched.II⽂本解读部分（50%）以问答作业中出现的作家，作品为主。

美国文学史名词解释

1、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; bas king 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 TenderLost generationThe 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.Lost generationThe 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 society. Hemingway later used the phrase as an epigraph for his novel The Sun Also Rises. It consisted of many influential American writers; including Ernest Hemingway; F. Scott Fitzgerald; William Carlos Williams and Archibald MacLeish.2、Iceberg TheoryIt is a term used to describe the writing style of American writer Ernest Hemingway. The meaning of a piece is not immediately evident; because the crux of the story lies below the surface; just as most of the mass of a real iceberg similarly lies beneath the surface.Iceberg TheoryErnest Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” sugge sts that the writer include in the text only a small portion of what he knows; leaving about ninety percent of the content a mystery that grows beneath the surface of the writing. If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity ofmovement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or actionThere is seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. 1938PPT3、Code heroThe Hemingway hero is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes; sensitive and intelligent; a man of action; and one of few words. That is an individualist keeping emotions under control; stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place. These people are usually spiritual strong; people of certain skills; and most of them encounter death many times. The heroes in his book are all have something in common which Hemingway values: they have seen the cold world and for one cause or another; they boldly and courageously face the reality; whatever the result is; they are ready to live with grace under pressure. The Hemingway code hero has an indestructible spirit for his optimistic view of life; though he is pessimistic that is Hemingway.4、StreamofconsciousnessThecontinuousflowofsense-perceptions;thoughts;feelings;andmemoriesinthehumanmi nd:oraliterarymethodofrepresentingsuchablendingofmentalprocessesinfictionalcharact ers;usuallyinanunpunctuatedordisjointformofinteriormonologue.注：sense-perceptions：认知;观念blending：混合物unpunctuated:未加标点的Disjoint：脱节5、ImagismA poetic movement of England and the U.S. that flourished from 1909 to 1917. The movement insists on the creation of images in poetry by “the direct treatment of the thing” and the economy of wording. “poetic techniques to record exactly the momentary impressions”The leaders of this movement were Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell.Three main principles of the Imagist Movement 1912 :1 direct treatment of poetic subjects2 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.4pound’s In a Station of the Metro is a well-known poem.Major features:--- it was one of the most essential technique of writing poetry in modern period.--- with a spirit of revolt against conventions; imagism was anti—romantic andanti-victorian--- In a sense; imagism was equivalent to naturalism in fiction--- it produced free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern.--- Imagism tried to record objective observations of an object or a situation without interpretation or comment by the poet.--- it produced free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern.--- Imagism tried to record objective observations of an object or a situation without interpretation or comment by the poet.The most outstanding figures:Ezra Pound Amy Lowell Hilda DoolittleThe form of free verse Ezra Loomis Pound影响its influence1the imagist theories call for brief language; describing the precise picture in as few words as possible. This new way of poetry composition has a lasting influence in the 20th century poetry.2)the second lasting influence of Imagism is the form of free verse. There are no metrical rules. There are apparent indiscriminate line breaks; which reflects the discontinuity of life itself. That is art of the poem. The poet uses the length of the lines and the strange groupings of words to show how life itself can be broken up into somehow meaningless clusters6、ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity; a sense of alienation; of loss; and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious.Modernism来自老师的PPTA general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental andavant-garde trends in the literature and other arts of the early 20th century; including Symbolism; Futurism; Expressionism; Imagism; Vorticism; Dada; and Surrealism; along with the innovations of unaffiliated writers.7、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.Harlem Renaissance主要作品：The Weary Blues; The Dream keeper and Other Poems; Fine Clothes to the Jew8、Postmodernism From Wikipedia; the free encyclopediaPostmodernism is a term which describes the postmodernist movement in the arts; its set of cultural tendencies and associated cultural movements. It is in general the erathat follows Modernism.It frequently serves as an ambiguous overarching term forskeptical interpretations of culture; literature; art; philosophy; economics; architecture; fiction; and literary criticism. It is often associated with deconstruction and post-structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twentieth-century post-structural thought.后现代主义是一个术语;它描述了后现代主义运动在艺术;文化倾向和相关的文化运动..它是在一般的时代;遵循现代主义..它经常作为一个模棱两可的总体长期持怀疑态度的诠释;文化;文学;艺术;哲学;经济学;建筑;小说;文学批评..它往往是与解构主义和后结构主义;因为它作为一个长期使用在20世纪后期的结构思想的同时;取得了显着的普及..9、Black humorThe 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 Vonnegut are famous for their novels of black humor. Especially Heller’s Catch—22.American DreamThe American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work; courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself; usually through financial 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.The Jazz Age“The Jazz Age” describes the period the period of the 1920s and 1930s; the years between World War I and World War II; particularly in North America; with the rise of the Great Depression; the values of this age saw much decline. Perhaps the most representative literary work of the age is American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby; highlighting what some describe as the decadence and hedonism; as well as the growth of individualism. Fitzgerald is largely credited with coining the term “The Jazz Age”. It can also be known as “The Roaring Twenties” and “The Dollar Decade.”。

美国文学名词解释

迷惘的一代(Lost Generation)，又称：迷失的一代。

西方现代派文学的一种。

第一次世界大战以后出现于美国的一个文学流派。

第一次世界大战以后，美国有一批青年作家陆续登上文坛。

他们不仅年龄相仿，而且经历相似，思想情绪相近，在创作中表现出许多共同点，逐渐形成一新的文学流派。

代表作家有海明威(1899—1961)、福克纳(1897—1962)、约·多斯·帕索斯(1896—1970)、菲兹杰拉德(1896—1940)，和诗人肯明斯(1894—1962)等。

他们曾怀着民主的理想奔赴欧洲战场，目睹人类空前的大屠杀，经历种种苦难，深受“民主”、“光荣”、“牺牲”口号的欺骗，对社会、人生大感失望，故通过创作小说描述战争对他们的残害，表现出一种迷惘、彷徨和失望的情绪。

这一流派也包括没有参加过战争但对前途感到迷惘和迟疑的20年代作家，如菲兹杰拉德、艾略特和沃尔夫(1900～1938)等。

特别是菲兹杰拉德，对战争所暴露的资产阶级精神危机深有感触，通过对他所熟悉的上层社会的描写，表明昔日的梦想成了泡影，“美国梦”根本不存在，他的人物历经了觉醒和破灭感中的坎坷与痛苦。

沃尔夫的作品以一个美国青年的经历贯穿始终，体现了在探索人生的过程中的激动和失望，是一种孤独者的迷惘。

迷惘的一代作家在艺术上各有特点，他们的主要成就闪烁于20年代，之后便分道扬镳了意象派诗歌意象派（Imagists）是1909年至1917年间一些英美诗人发起并付诸实践的文学运动，它是当时盛行于西方世界的象征主义文学运动的一个分支。

其宗旨是要求诗人以鲜明、准确、含蓄和高度凝炼的意象生动及形象地展现事物，并将诗人瞬息间的思想感情溶化在诗行中。

它反对发表议论及感叹。

意象派的产生最初是对当时诗坛文风的一种反拨，代表人物是埃兹拉·庞德。

由于意象派诗人大多经历了象征诗歌创作，所以理论界也有人将意象派看做象征主义的分支，实际上意象派和象征主义诗歌有极大的本质差异。

美国文学史名词解释

1. American Puritanism: is a code of values, a philosophy of life, and a point of view；in essence, it is an idealism；it is the basis of American dream, but it is also concerned with business and profit.3. Realism: is a reaction against "the lie" of Romanticism and sentimentalism in the later half of the 19th century. It expressed the concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, and for the familiar and the low.5. Local colorism: a trend first made its presence felt in the late 1860s and early seventies. Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They formed an important part of the realistic movement.6. American Naturalism: is a branch and a furtherance of American Realism in the late 19th century. Naturalists tore the mask of gentility to pieces and wrote about the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world and his lack of dignity in face of the crushing forces of environment and heredity（遗传）；they reported truthfully and objectively, with a passion for scientific accuracy and an overwhelming accumulation of factual detail；Naturalists reveal a bitter and wretched world where human beings battle hopelessly against overwhelming odds in a cold, harsh and at best apathetic environment.7.Imagism: Imagist movement came as a reaction to the traditional English poetics to meet the need of expressing the temper of the age, the sense of fragmentization and dislocation.（three phases: ① It first began in London in the years 1908-1909. T. E. Hulme founded a Poets' Club which met in Soho every Wednesday to dine and discuss poetry. ②The second phase of the movement was the period of some three years 1912-1914 when Ezra Pound took over and championed the new poetry. ③ The third phase of Imagism（1914-1917）was when Amy Lowell took over from Pound and pushed the movement into the period of "Amygism," as Pound called it.）8. The Lost Generation: is a term coined by Gertrude Stein. It is a label for the group of American young expatriate writers born at turn 20th century and reached maturing after World War I. These writers felt profound cut off from tradition, disillusioned and alienated with society and cynical idealism. To them, life ismeaningless and futile. F. Scott. Fitigerald, Ernst Hemingway, T. S. Eliot are the most important representatives.9. Iceberg Theory: If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those as strongly as though the writer had said. The dignity of the movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it begin above water.10. The Y oknapatawpha county series：It have overall pattern in which the fate of a ruined homeland always focus on the collision of Faulkner’s intelligence sensitive and isealistic protagonist with the society of the 20th century. Most of the major themes are the confrontation.11. The Hemingway hero: the typical Hemingway hero is one who wounded but strong, more sensitive and wounded because stronger, 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.。

美国文学名词解释 -

迷惘的一代(Lost Generation)，又称：迷失的一代。

西方现代派文学的一种。

第一次世界大战以后出现于美国的一个文学流派。

第一次世界大战以后，美国有一批青年作家陆续登上文坛。

他们不仅年龄相仿，而且经历相似，思想情绪相近，在创作中表现出许多共同点，逐渐形成一新的文学流派。

代表作家有海明威(1899—1961)、福克纳(1897—1962)、约·多斯·帕索斯(1896—1970)、菲兹杰拉德(1896—1940)，和诗人肯明斯(1894—1962)等。

这一流派也包括没有参加过战争但对前途感到迷惘和迟疑的20年代作家，如菲兹杰拉德、艾略特和沃尔夫(1900～1938)等。

沃尔夫的作品以一个美国青年的经历贯穿始终，体现了在探索人生的过程中的激动和失望，是一种孤独者的迷惘。

其宗旨是要求诗人以鲜明、准确、含蓄和高度凝炼的意象生动及形象地展现事物，并将诗人瞬息间的思想感情溶化在诗行中。

它反对发表议论及感叹。

意象派的产生最初是对当时诗坛文风的一种反拨，代表人物是埃兹拉·庞德。

由于意象派诗人大多经历了象征诗歌创作，所以理论界也有人将意象派看做象征主义的分支，实际上意象派和象征主义诗歌有极大的本质差异。

美国文学史名词解释

◆sonneta poem of 14 lines following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure◆stanza 诗节a unit within a larger poem, consisting a grouping of lines2 lines = couplet3 lines = tercet4 lines = quatrain14 lines = sonnet◆coupletheroic couplet: a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poetry aa bb cc◆rhymea repetition of a similar sounds in two or more words◆meter 格律the number of the feet and typeiambic pentameter 抑扬格五音步trochaic tertrameter 扬抑格四音步◆foot音步the basic unit of a poem, the character and number of syllables it containsiamb 抑扬格trochee 扬抑格tetrameter 四音步pentameter 五音步◆alliteration头韵the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words that are close together◆anaphora首语重叠法the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses◆Romanticisma style of art, music, and literature, popular in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, thatdeals with the beauty of nature and human emotions◆Classicisma style in painting, sculpture, and building, based on particular standards in Greek and Roman artfavored rationality and restraint and strict forms◆anastrophe 倒装法inversion of the usual order of words◆assonance元韵/半谐韵the effect created when two syllables in words that are close together have the same vowel sound, but different consonants, or the same consonants but different vowelseg. sonnet and porridge or cold and killed◆ a periodic sentence 周期性句子/圆周句one in which the most important part is withheld until the very end◆ a loose sentence松散句a sentence in which the principal clause comes first and subordinate modifiers or trailing elementsfollow◆trochee扬抑格/长短格a unit of sound in poetry consisting of one strong or long syllable followed by one weak or shortsyllable◆dactyl扬抑抑格/长短短格a unit of sound in poetry consisting of one strong or long syllable followed by two weak or shortsyllables◆anapest 抑抑扬格a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed-stressed syllables。

美国文学名词解释

美国文学名词解释美国文学是指美国国内所产生的文学作品，包括小说、诗歌、剧本等各种文学体裁。

它具有自己的特点和风格，反映了美国人的文化、价值观念和思想观念。

美国文学中有许多特殊的名词和术语，下面是其中一些常见的名词解释：1. Puritanism（清教主义）: 清教主义是美国文学发展的重要起点之一，它是在17世纪早期由清教徒带入美洲的思想和信仰体系。

清教徒强调个人责任和纯洁的生活方式，他们的文学作品通常传达着信仰、奋斗和自我批判的主题。

2. American Renaissance（美国文艺复兴）: 美国文艺复兴指的是19世纪中期到20世纪初期的一个时期，这个时期出现了一大批杰出的美国作家和作品。

其中包括威廉·福柯特、纳撒尼尔·霍桑、赫尔曼·梅尔维尔等人的文学作品。

这些作品在内容、风格上更加关注人性、自然和道德等问题。

3. Realism（现实主义）: 现实主义是19世纪末至20世纪初的一种文学流派，在美国文学发展史中具有重要的地位。

现实主义作家力求以客观、真实的方式描绘生活中的人和事，关注社会问题和个人命运。

马克·吐温和亨利·詹姆斯被认为是现实主义文学中最有影响力的作家。

4. Harlem Renaissance（哈莱姆文艺复兴）: 哈莱姆文艺复兴是20世纪20年代至30年代期间，在纽约哈莱姆区集中发展起来的一种文化和艺术运动。

这个运动推动了非洲裔美国人在文学、音乐、舞蹈和绘画等领域的发展。

其中包括作家朗斯顿·休斯、小说家托妮·莫里森等的作品被认为是哈莱姆文艺复兴的代表作。

5. Beat Generation（垮掉的一代）: 垮掉的一代是20世纪50年代和60年代期间在美国兴起的一种文学和文化运动。

这个运动反对传统社会规范和价值观，追求自由和个性的表达。

杰克·凯鲁亚克和艾伦·金斯堡是这个运动的代表作家，他们的作品通常以自由、追求和反叛为主题。

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美国文学名词解释 -

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