美国文学考试必备知识点

I. Tra nsce nden talism

Transcenden talism refers to the religious and p hilos op hical doctri nes of Ralph

Waldo

Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800 s, which emphasizedthe imp orta nee of in dividual insp irati on and in tuiti on, the Oversoul, and Nature. Other concepts

that acco mpanied Transcenden talism in clude the idea that n ature is enn obli ng and the idea that the in dividual is divine and, therefore, self-relia nt. New En gla nd

Tran sce nden talism is the p roduct of a comb in ati on of n ative America n Purita nism and

Euro pean Roma nticism.

2. Naturalism

Naturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually invoIves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary moveme nt, n aturalism was in itiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at

“scientifiC status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hun ger, sexual obsessi on, and hereditary defects. Natural fiction asp ired to a sociological

objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreis 'er s

Sister Carrie.

3. American Dream

The American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of 1.

Roma ntic p eriod 9. Sherwood An ders on 2.

Wash ington Irving 10. Ste phen Crane 3.

Edgar Alla n Poe 11. Theodore Dreiser 4.

Natha nial Hawthor ne 12. III. Moder n p eriod 5.

Walt Whitman 13. F. S. Fitzgerald 6.

Emily Dick inson 14. Ern est Hemi ngway 7. II. Realist p eriod 15. William Faulk ner

8. Mark Twain

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.

4. The Lost Generation

The term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald,Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein (“You are all a lost generation”) as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally,the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during

World War I. They were“lost” because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to more into a settled life

5. Modernism

Modern 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.