美国文学史名词解释

1、t he Lost Generation
In gen eral, the post-World War I gen eratio n, 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 Ste in to Ern eHem in gway, “ You
are all a lost gen erati on. ” Hem in gway used it as anTpgSaurihAbBo Rises
(1926). The gen erati on was “ lost ” in the sense that its in herited values were no Ion ger releva nt in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alie nati on from a U.S. that, bask ing un der Preside nt Hardin g's “ back to no rmalcy ” policy, seemed to its members to be hopelessly provin cial, materialistic, and emoti on ally barre n. The term embraces Hemin gway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joh n Dos Passos, e.e. cum mings 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 dist in ctive stamp of the postwar period. The last represe ntative works of the era were Fitzgerald'sTe nder
Lost gen erati on
The lost gen eratio n is a term first used by Stein to describe the post-war I gen erati on of America n writers: men and wome n haun ted by a sense of betrayal and empti ness 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 fin est America n literature to date.3>the three best-k nown represe ntatives of lost gen erati on are F.Scott Fitzgerald, Hem in gway and Joh n dos Passos.
Lost gen erati on
The Lost Generation is a group of expatriate American writers residing primarily in Paris duri ng the 1920s and 1930s. The group was give n its n ame by the America n writer Gertrude Stei n, who used “ a lost gen erati on ” to refer to expatriate America ns bitter about their World War I experie nces and disillusi oned with America n society.
Hemin gway later used the phrase as an epigraph for his no vel The Sun Also Rises. It con sisted of many in flue ntial America n writers, i ncludi ng Ern est Hemin gway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams and Archibald MacLeish.
2、I ceberg Theory
It 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 ben eath the surface.
Iceberg Theory
Ernest Hemingway ' s “ iceberg theory ” suggests 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 eno ugh about what he is writi ng about he may omit things that will have a feeli ng of
those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an
iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A good writer does not n eed to reveal every detail of a character or action
There is seve n-eighths of it un der water for every part that shows. Any thi ng you know you can elim in ate and it only stre ngthe ns your iceberg. It is the part that does n (1938) (PPT)
3、Code hero
The Hemin gway hero is an average man of decidedly masculi ne tastes, sen sitive and in tellige nt, a man of action, and one of few words. That is an in dividualist keep ing 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 someth ing in com mon which Hemin gway values: they have see n the cold world and for one cause or ano ther, they boldly and courageously face the reality; whatever the result is, they are ready to live with grace un der pressure. The Hemin gway code hero has an in destructible spirit for his optimistic view of life, though he is pessimistic that is Hemin gway.
4、Stream of consciousness
The continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the hu man mind: or a literary method of represe nting such a ble nding of men tal processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjoint form of interior monologue. 注：sense-perceptions 认知，观念blending：混合物unpunctuated未加标点的Disjoi nt :脱节
5、Imagism
A poetic moveme nt of En gla nd and the U.S. that flourished from 1909 to 1917. The moveme nt in sists on the creati on of images in poetry by “ the direct treatme nt of the
thing ”and the economy of wording. “ poetictechniques to record exactly the
momentary impressions ” Tbeders of this movement were Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell.
Three mai n prin ciples of the Imagist Moveme nt (1912):
[1] direct treatme nt of poetic subjects
[2] elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words, to use no word that does not con tribute to the prese ntati on.
[3] rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the seque nce of a metrono me.
[4] pound ' s In a Station of the Metro is a wenown 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 and an ti-victoria n
---In a sen se, imagism was equivale nt to n aturalism in ficti on
---it produced free verse without imposing a rhythmical pattern.
---Imagism tried to record objective observations of an object or a situation without in terpretati on or comme nt 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 in terpretati on or comme nt by the poet.
The most outsta nding figures:
Ezra Pou nd Amy Lowell Hilda Doolittle
The form of free verse (Ezra Loomis Pound)
影响its in flue nee
1) the imagist theories call for brief Ian guage, describ ing the precise picture in as few words as possible. This new way of poetry compositi on has a last ing in flue nce in the 20th cen tury poetry.
2) the sec ond lasti ng in flue nce of Imagism is the form of free verse. There are no metrical rules. There are apparent indiscriminate line breaks, which reflects the disc on ti nuity of life itself. That is art of the poem. The poet uses the len gth of the lines and the strange groupings of words to show how life itself can be broken up into somehow mea nin gless clusters
6、Modernism
Modern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and tech niq ues of expressi on; it believes that we create the world in the act of percei ving it. Modern ism implies historical disc on ti nu ity, a sen seof alie natio n, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the in dividual and his inner being over social man and prefers the uncon scious to the self-c on scious.
h rs a mo vf1 men I deittiig I he hh- 19th century, which extended imo 胡I the forms 卅
literature and art. ft involvpd a radicat and d(-lil)erate break only with traditional form^ of art but with traditional aesthetic pnrjt Th世most important period for Modemtsm I
1910 and 1925, chardt^terized by such movements as Symbolism,
—Impressionijitn, Stream of Cvn^ciou&ness, Ed^tential ism. Xb^lracti^m T Cubism and SijmealKm. (n ihr* 1930s and following lhe Wnrhi Wur Q , Existentialism prevailed in both literature and philosophy, h England f most important poets wrn*Yeats iind T. S.
i- link In the nuvd t the modemisl in ncvalists werr Jani艸and Virginia Wd with the
f，Stream of Consciouaneas'' technique and D. Lawrence with his psychological penetration.
Modernism (来自老师的PPT)
A general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental and avant-garde trends in the literature and other arts of the early 20th century, including Symbolism, Futurism, Expressio
nism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surrealism, along with the innovations of unaffiliated writers.
7、The Harlem Renaissanee
The Harlem Ren aissa nee, a floweri ng of literature (and to a lesser exte nt other arts) in New York City duri ng the 1920s and 1930s, has long bee n con sidered 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 liberati on. 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 Ren aissa nce was not a school, nor did the writers associated with it share a com mon purpose, n evertheless they had a com mon bond: they dealt with Black life from a Black perspective. Among the major writers who are usually viewed as part of the Harlem Ren aissa nce are Claude McKay, Coun tee Culle n, Lan gst on Hughes, Zora Neale Hurst on, Rudolph Fisher, James Weldo n Joh nson, and Jea n Toomer.
Harlem Ren aissa nce
Harlem Renaissance refers to a period of outstanding literary vigor and creativity that occurred in the United statesduring the 1920s.2> the Harlem Renaissancechanged the images of literature created by many black and white American writers. New black images were no Ion ger obedie nt and docile. In stead they showed a new con fide nce and racial pride. 3> the cen ter of this moveme nt was the vast black ghetto of Harlem. In New York City.4> the leading figures are Iangston Hughes, James W.Joh nson. etc 主要作品：The Weary Blues, The Dream keeper and Other Poems, Fine Clothes to the Jew
8、Postmodernism( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Postmoder nism is a term which describes the postmodernist moveme nt in the arts, its set of cultural tenden cies and associated cultural moveme nts. It is in gen eral the era that 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 ofte n associated with dec on structio n and post-structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twen tieth-ce ntury 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，取得了显著的普及。

9、Black humor
The term black humor was created in 1920s, but it was not noticed until 1960s. it was particularly a literary phenomenon in America after WW H . Black humor, in literature, is drama, no vel, 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 Vonn egut are famous for their no vels of black
humor. Especially Heller ' 2s2Catch —
America n Dream
The American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determ in atio n on e can achieve a better life for on eself, usually through finan cial prosperity. These were values held by many early Europea n settlers, and have bee n passed on to subseque nt gen erati ons. The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America.
The Jazz Age
“ TheJazz 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 Depressi on, the values of this age saw much decli ne. Perhaps the most representativeliterary work of the age is American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby, highlighti ng what some describe as the decade ncea nd hed oni sm, as well as the growth of individualism. Fitzgerald is largely credited with coining the term “ TheJazz Age” .It can also be known as “ TheRoaring Twenties ”nd “ The Dollar Decade. ”。