美国文学文学术语

Imagism (1908-1917)

1. Time: 1908-1917

1) first began in 1908-1909 T.E. Hulme founded a Poet's Club discussed the techniques of writing poetry.

2) 1912-1914 Ezra Pound headed the movement. He and Flint laid down three Imagist principles

3)1914-1917: Amy Lowell pushed the movement into the period of "Amygism"

2.three Imagist Principles

1). economy of expression(exclusion of redundant words)

2). metrical freedom（free verse form and the rhythm of metrical phrase(讲究自由诗歌形式,使用音乐性短语的节奏而不按节拍器的节奏

3). produce a dominant and clear visual image or a series of related images (no symbolic meaning of images, avoidance of romantic or mystical themes)

3. Representatives :Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, Hilda Doolittle, Carlos Williams

The Lost Generation

1. Time: a term coined by Gertrude Stein after the WWI (1920s)

2. Ideas: a group of American intellects, artists and writers fled to France to reject the values of American materialism. They were disillusioned and frustrated with the war and were spiritually bitter and lead aimless life.

3. Representatives: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzegerade, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein etc.

Tough Guys

1) Men who show grace under pressure, who face up to life's tragedies such as danger, violence and even death with desperate courage and maintain dignity, honor and grace.

2) Life can defeat and destroy you, but if you keep calm and stand on your set of principles, you may win on your own terms. 人可以被毁灭但是精神不能被打败

Iceberg Theory

1) In his non-fiction work Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway said "the dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only 1/8 of it being above water ,7/8 is under the water. " “冰山运动之雄伟壮观，是因为他只有八分之一在水面上。”

2) It is a combination of briefness in form and connotations in content.

Modernism

Time: the late 19th century and extended to the whole 20th century.

Ideas: characterized by such movement as Symbolism, Imagism, Futurism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism. existentialism, theatre of the absurd, and black humor.

Representatives

In Fiction: James Joyce Ulysses(novel), Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse technique of "stream of consciousness", D.H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers". William Faulkner's Sound and the Fury, Ernest Hemingway "Farewell to Arms"

In Poetry: (Ireland)William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. In the USA, Ezra Pound

Local Color

1) time: the Civil War to the turn of the century

2) Definition: local color, “an amalgam (mixture) of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the dialects, customs, sights, and sounds of regional America”