美国文学简史名词解释

1.American Puritanism清教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 and sobriety（清醒）were praised.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.2.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.3.Transcendentalism先验说,超越论:is a philosophic and literary movement that flourished in New England, particular at Concord, as a 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.4.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 experience5.Local colorism乡土文学: is a type of writing that was popular in the late 19th century, particularly among the authors in the south of the U.S.. this style relied heavily on using words, phrases, and slang that were native to the particular region in which the story took place. 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)humor. A well-known local colorism author was Mark Twain with his books Tom Sowyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.6.Naturalism自然主义: American naturalism was a new and harsher realism.It was initiated in France. American naturalism had been shaped by the war; by the social upheavals（剧变）that undermined the comforting faith of an ear lier age. America’s literary naturalists 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.7.Stream of consciousness意识流：It is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing thatattempts 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。

美国文学术语解释(全面且简练)美国文学是指具有美国独特文化地域色彩的文学作品。

包括小说、戏剧、诗歌、散文以及加拿大和多明尼加等国家的文学作品。

其短篇小说及戏剧都有着浓厚的美国文化特色，其龙头主流的文学派别是在17世纪后期形成的新约克郡派，主要有约翰•德拉谢尔（John Dryden）、Jonathan Swift 等人，他们为美国文学写下了精彩绝伦的篇章。

新约克郡派把文章写成了装满宗教特质、歌颂胜利、崇高赞美的模式，也就是赞美诗，发掘探索细节、夸张搭配修辞，准确表达真实情境，是后期美国文学的重要基础；而在早期的美国文学发展史上，更多的是宗教文学。

随着美国政治的发展，社会文化的不断进步，宗教文学慢慢地被实用的文学文本所取代。

美国的文学活动开始贴近人文主义的文学脉络，表现出散文风格，致力于针对现状的批判性反思以及自我叙述性自觉。

然而，到了18世纪末，受英国文学传统影响，美国文学正式步入正轨，并开始向两群导向，即诗歌与小说。

第一类作品赞美自然风景、积极的立场或事实内容，通过句法、修辞手法和宋体表达，以“说服力”为特征；而小说，基本上描写人物及其情感，作者给予考量和评析，以构建一个小说世界。

有关美国文学习派别方面，它指的是具有某种特殊特性的作品、作者或趋势，这些特性可以汇聚成学派，如经典主义派、象征主义派、古典注重艺术形式翻新派、现代主义派、问题类型派、客观散文派等等。

美国文学家们也是新的运动的团体来提倡这些派别，如1820年墨西哥战争、当时的托马斯汉密尔顿著名的圣教徒笃信运动引起的“波厄特派”，其中的小说作家和写报人表达了一种激进的、反殖民主义的文学潮流。

波厄特派的影响很大，它声称小说应该坚持自然、客观原则，实证严谨，保持超验主义，而不是神话传说，也不是把文学作品改写成像诗歌一样的形式。

自19世纪初美国文学思想开始发展至今，美国文学进入了一个更加多样化、开放空间愈加广阔的阶段，无论是宗教、哲学还是政治新思想都将重新回归到文学之中，美国文学也变得更加丰富多彩了。

1. American Puritanism: a domination factor in American life. AmericanPuritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thoughts and literature.2. Transcendentalism: time 1836. Features: 1.the transcendentalistsplaced emphasis on spirit, or over soul, as the most important thing in the universe 2. The transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. 3. The transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit of God. The representatives are Emerson and Thoreau.3. Free Verse: like traditional verse, it is printed in short lines instead ofthe continuity of prose, but it has no meter and either lack rhyme or uses it occasionally. A representative is Whitman’s Leave of Grass. 4. Realism: time: 2nd and half of 19th century. Features: verisimilitude ofdetails derived from observation. Representatives are Howells, James, Mark Twain5. Local Colorism: It is a branch of Realism; it refers to detailedrepresentation, in fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of thinking which are distinctive of a particular region. The representative of Local Colorism is Mark Twain.6. American Naturalism: time: 1890s. Features: 1. naturalists wroteabout 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.2. They reported truthfully and objectively with passion for scientific accuracy and an overwhelming accumulation of factual detail.3. The representatives are Crane, Dreiser.7. Imagism: six principles: momentary, one dominant image, hardpersonal word, direct treatment, concise, free verse. The representatives are Pound.8. Lost generations: it refers to a group of American writers of thedecade following WWI, disillusioned by their War experience or by materialization of American culture, holds a pessimistic new of life.The representatives are Fitzgerald and Hemingway.9. Flashback: interpolating narratives or scenes which represent eventsthat happened before the story began. For example: Miller used flashback in Death of Salesman.10. Black Humor: the tragic absurdity of the human condition is oftenseen in their novels. As a cosmic joke. The response they intend to provoke in the reader to the blackness of modern life is a laughter that is, laughing in face of a tragic situation. The representative work of black humor is Heller’s Catch-22.11. Harlem Renaissance: a period of remarkable creativity in literatureand other arts by African Americans, from the end of WWI in 1917 through the 1920s. The representative is Hughes.12. Irving: 1.He is was the first American writer of imagination literature to gain international fame. 2 The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book.3.The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American romanticism.13. Hawthorne: feature: 1, symbol2, deep analysis of psychology3, gloomy and depressive tone4. evil sides of the world5, super natural element14. The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne): 1, Character: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdable, Roger Chillingworth. 2. Theme: criticizing Puritan suppression/ sin and atonement.15. Emily Dickinson: feature: 1.short and concise2. approximate rhyme and meter3. ungrammatical elements 4. original images5. many poems about death15. Moby Dick (Melville): character: Ishmael (survivor), Ahab (captain) 12.Allan Poe: 1. the poetic principle ①the poem, he says, should be short, at one sitting ②Its chief aim is beauty ③melancholy is the most legitimate of all the poetic tone. ④the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.⑤stress rhyme, defines true poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty. 2. Work: to Helen, The Fall of the House of Usher.13. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain): 1. His usually use French, mostly Anglo-Saxon on origin, and his words are short, concrete and direct in effect.2. Most of his sentence structures are simple or compound.3. he use”took”repeatedly.4. There have ungrammatical elements in his work. One of his significant contributions to American literature lies in fact that he made colloquial speech an accepted.14. Frost: the features of his work1.he usually use traditional form 2. His language is plain3. He likes to use symbolism4. Most his poems describe nature of famers’ life.15. Fitzgerald: the Great Gatsby: 1.characters: Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanam, Tom Buchanam, Myrtle Wilson, George Wilson, Jay Gatsby, 2. Theme: criticizing materialized society, disillusionment of American dream.16. Miller: Death of Salesman: 1.Charaters: Willy &Linda&Biff&Happy Loman, Chalery and Bernard. 2. Theme: a criticizing metalized society/ understanding between parents and children.17. Salinger: The Catch in the①. Setting: 1950s New York2. Plot: Holden Caulfied 1st day: expelled. 2nd day: Sally (shallow). Carl (hypocritical).2nd night: Sneak home—Phoebe, Mr.Antolini. 3rd day: go to the west.②.character: Holden---rebellious, innocent, sincerely③. Style: This novel use colloquial and vulgar worlds. There also has exaggeration in this work ④: theme: growing pain.18: Cath-22: Yossarian, Milo, And Snowden.19. Lolita :( Nabokov): character: Humbert Humbert, Dolores Haze (Lolita), Clare Qulity .。

1. American Puritanism it it comes comes comes from from from the the the American American American puritans, puritans, puritans, who who who were were were the the the first first first immigrants immigrants immigrants moved moved moved to to American continent in the 17th century. Original sin, predestination （预言）（预言） and salvation （拯救） were the basic ideas of American Puritanism. And, hard-working, piousness （虔诚,尽职）， thrift and sobriety （清醒）（清醒）（清醒） were praised. 2. Romanticism: 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 used in in in American American American literature literature literature it it it referred referred referred to to to the the the writers writers writers of of of the the the middle middle middle of of of the the 19th century century who who who stimulated stimulated （刺激）（刺激） the the sentimental sentimental sentimental emotions emotions emotions of of of their their their readers. readers. They wrote of the mysterious of life, love, birth and death. The Romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint. They wrote all all kinds kinds of materials, poetry, essays, plays, fictions, history, works of travel, and biography. 3. 2. 2. Transcendentalism Transcendentalism Transcendentalism ((先验说,超越论): ): is is is a a a philosophic philosophic philosophic and and and literary literary literary movement movement that that flourished flourished flourished in in in New New New England, England, England, particular particular particular at at at Concord, Concord, Concord, as as as a a a reaction reaction reaction against against Rationalism Rationalism and and and Calvinism Calvinism Calvinism ((理性主义and 喀尔文主义). ). Mainly Mainly Mainly it it it stressed stressed intuitive intuitive understanding understanding understanding of of of God, God, God, without without without the the the help help help of of of the the the church, church, church, and and and advocated advocated independence of the mind. The representative writers are Emerson and Thoreau. 4. Local colorism: 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 and background background background that that that it it it could could could not not not have have have been been been written written written in in in any any any other other other place place place or or or by 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 the the distinctive distinctive distinctive natural, natural, natural, social social social and and and linguistic linguistic linguistic features. features. features. It It It is is characteristic of vernacular(本国语本国语) language and satirical(讽刺的) humor 5. Stream of consciousness （意识流）： It is one of the modern literary techniques. It is is the the the style style style of of of writing writing writing that that that attempts attempts attempts to to to imitate imitate imitate the the the natural natural natural flow flow flow of of of a a a character’s character’s thoughts, thoughts, feelings, feelings, feelings, reflections, reflections, reflections, memories, memories, memories, and and and mental mental mental images images images as as as the the the character character experiences experiences them. them. them. It It It was was was first first first used used used in in in 1922 1922 1922 by by by the the the Irish Irish Irish novelist novelist novelist James James James Joyce. Joyce. Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space, and depicted vividly and and skillfully skillfully skillfully the the the unconscious unconscious unconscious activity activity activity of of of the the the mind mind mind fast fast fast changing changing changing and and and flowing flowing incessantly 。

美国文学Chapter 1 Colonial PeriodI.Background: Puritanism1.features of Puritanism(1)Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.(2)Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can bepassed down from generation to generation.(3)Total depravity(4)Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved.2.Influence(1)A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious andthoughtful) influenced American literature.(2)It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden.(3)Symbolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception waschiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.(4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric isplain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.II.Overview of the literature1.types of writingdiaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, autobiographies/biographies, sermons2.writers of colonial periodAnne Bradstreet/ Edward Taylor/ Roger Williams/ John Woolman/ Thomas Paine/ Philip FreneauIII.Jonathan Edwards1.works(1)The Freedom of the Will(2)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3)The Nature of True Virtue2.ideas – pioneer of transcendentalism(1)The spirit of revivalism(2)Regeneration of man(3)God’s presence(4)Puritan idealismIV.Benjamin Franklin1.works(1)Poor Richard’s Almanac <穷查理的历书>(2)Autobiography2.contribution(1)He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American PhilosophicalSociety.(2)He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case)from heaven”.(3)Everything seems to meet in this one man –“Jack of all trades”. HermanMelville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Romantic PeriodWhat is Romanticism?●An approach from ancient Greek: Plato● A literary trend: 18c in Britain (1798~1832)●Schlegel Bros.I.Preview: Characteristics of romanticism1.subjectivity 主观性(1)feeling and emotions, finding truth(2)emphasis on imagination(3)emphasis on individualism –personal freedom, no hero worship, naturalgoodness of human beings2.back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature(1)unrestrained by classical rules(2)full of imagination(3)colloquial language(4)freedom of imagination(5)genuine in feelings: answer their call for classics3.back to naturenature is “breathing living thing” (Rousseau)II.American Romanticism1.Background(1)Political background and economic development(2)Romantic movement in European countries Derivative – foreign influence 2.features(1)American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real newexperience and contained “an alien quality” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien.(2)There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. Americanromantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained.(3)The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with Am ericanRomanticism.(4)As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, Americanromanticism was both imitative and independent.III.Washington Irving1.several names attached to Irving(1)first American writer(2)the messenger sent from the new world to the old world(3)father of American literature2.works(1)A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of theDutch Dynasty(2)The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure ofinternational recognition with the publication of this.)(3)The History of the Life and V oyages of Christopher Columbus(4)A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5)The Alhambra3.style – beautiful(1)gentility, urbanity, pleasantness(2)avoiding moralizing – amusing and entertaining(3)enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4)vivid and true characters(5)humour – smiling while reading(6)musical languageIV.James Fenimore Cooper1.works(1)Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)(2)The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3)Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer,The Prairie2.point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights3.style(1)highly imaginative(2)good at inventing tales(3)good at landscape description(4)conservative(5)characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6)language and use of dialect not authentic4.literary achievementsHe created a myth about the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventure into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – American TranscendentalismI.Background: four sources1.Unitarianism 一神论者(1)Fatherhood of God(2)Brotherhood of men(3)Leadership of Jesus(4)Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character)(5)Continued progress of mankind(6)Divinity of mankind(7)Depravity of mankind2.Romantic IdealismCenter of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3.Oriental mysticismCenter of the world is “oversoul”4.PuritanismEloquent expression in transcendentalismII.Appearance1836, “Nature” by EmersonIII.Features1.spirit/oversoul2.importance of individualism3.nature – symbol of spirit/Godgarment of the oversoul4.focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV.Influence1.It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the ideathat human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2.It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economywhere opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on”obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.3.It helped to create the first American renaissance –one of the most prolificperiod in American literature.V.Ralph Waldo Emerson1.works(1)Nature(2)Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet2.point of view(1)One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence ofthe “oversoul”.(2)He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence onman, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature.(3)If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine inhimself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”.(4)Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, andthat he makes the world by making himself.3.aesthetic ideas(1)He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2)True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3)The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4)As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate Americawhich was to him a lone poem in itself.4.his influenceVI.Henry David Thoreau1.works(1)A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2)Walden(3)A Plea for John Brown (an essay)2.point of view(1)He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and wasvehemently outspoken on the point.(2)He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3)Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative,healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being.(4)He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5)He was very critical of modern civilization.(6)“Simplicity…simplify!”(7)He was sorely disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’sodd-fellow society”.(8)He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation ofmen.Section 3 Late RomanticismI.Nathaniel Hawthorne1.works(1)Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and OldManse(2)The Scarlet Letter(3)The House of the Seven Gables(4)The Marble Faun2.point of view(1)Evil is at the core of huma n life, “that blackness in Hawthorne”(2)Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed fromgeneration to generation (causality).(3)He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4)He has disgust in science.3.aesthetic ideas(1)He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish thesoil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2)He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of Americannarrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was whatHawthorne had in mind to achieve.4.style – typical romantic writer(1)the use of symbols(2)revelation of characters’ psychology(3)the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4)his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson(5)use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty –multiplepoint of viewII.Herman Melville1.works(1)Typee(2)Omio(3)Mardi(4)Redburn(5)White Jacket(6)Moby Dick(7)Pierre(8)Billy Budd2.point of view(1)He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of“Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2)One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causingdisaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence andevil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress3.style(1)Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguitythrough employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2)He tends to write periodic chapters.(3)His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profuselycommented upon and praised.(4)His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5)He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background ordescription of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick) Romantic PoetsI.Walt Whitman1.work: Leaves of Grass (9 editions)(1)Song of Myself(2)There Was a Child Went Forth(3)Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4)Democratic Vistas(5)Passage to India(6)Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking2.themes –“Catalogue of American and European thought”He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jefferson’s individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything):●equality of things and beings●divinity of everything●immanence of God●democracy●evolution of cosmos●multiplicity of nature●self-reliant spirit●death, beauty of death●expansion of America●brotherhood and social solidarity (unity of nations in the world)●pursuit of love and happiness3.style: “free verse”(1)no fixed rhyme or scheme(2)parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3)phonetic recurrence(4)the habit of using snapshots(5)the use of a certain pronoun “I”(6)a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7)use of conventional image(8)strong tendency to use oral English(9)vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, someeven wrong(10)sentences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines4.influence(1)His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2)He took over Whitman’s vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher andrecast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3)He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4)Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to hisgreat influence.II.Emily Dickenson1.works(1)My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2)Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3)I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4)Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5)Wild Nights – Wild Nights2.themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1)religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2)death and immortality(3)love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4)physical aspect of desire(5)nature – kind and cruel(6)free will and human responsibility3.style(1)poems without titles(2)severe economy of expression(3)directness, brevity(4)musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5)capital letters – emphasis(6)short poems, mainly two stanzas(7)rhetoric techniques: personification – make some of abstract ideas vivid parison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1.Similarities:(1)Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergentAmerica, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetrybeing part of “American Renaissance”.(2)Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nationby breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibitinga freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry.2.differences:(1)Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores theinner life of the individual.(2)Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3)Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) whichWhitman doesn’t have.Edgar Allen PoeI.Works1.short stories(1)ratiocinative storiesa.Ms Found in a Bottleb.The Murders in the Rue Morguec.The Purloined Letter(2)Revenge, death and rebirtha.The Fall of the House of Usherb.Ligeiac.The Masque of the Red Death(3)Literary theorya.The Philosophy of Compositionb.The Poetic Principlec.Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told TalesII.Themes1.death –predominant theme in Poe’s writing“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.”2.disintegration (separation) of life3.horror4.negative thoughts of scienceIII.Aesthetic ideas1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression andfinality.2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy.Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.IV.Style – traditional, but not easy to readV.Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)Chapter 3 The Age of RealismI.Background: From Romanticism to Realism1.the three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period(1)industrialism vs. agrarian(2)culturely-measured east vs. newly-developed west(3)plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility2.1880’s urbanization: from free competition to monopoly capitalism3.the closing of American frontierII.Characteristics1.truthful description of life2.typical character under typical circumstance3.objective rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life“Realistic writers are like scientists.”4.open-ending:Life is complex and cannot be fully understood. It leaves much room forreaders to think by themselves.5.concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustrations ofcharacters in an environment of sordidness and depravityIII.Three Giants in Realistic Period1.William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”(1)Realistic principlesa.Realism is “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”.b.The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of American life”.c.Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells’sfictional representation.d.Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals but includesa cen tral concern with “motives” and psychological conflicts.e.He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, and avoidssuch themes as illicit love.f.Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense ofsomething “desultory, unfinished, imperfect”.g.Characters should have solidity of specification and be real.h.Interpreting sympathetically the “common feelings of commonplace people”was best suited as a technique to express the spirit of America.i.He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with currenthumanitarian ideals.j.Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates all things.k.With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjective evaluations on books but should follow the detached scientist in accurate description, interpretation, and classification.(2)Worksa.The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(3)Features of His Worksa.Optimistic toneb.Moral development/ethicscking of psychological depth2.Henry James(1)Literary career: three stagesa.1865~1882: international theme●The American●Daisy Miller●The Portrait of a Ladyb.1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays●Daisy Miller (play)c.1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence,then back to international theme●The Turn of the Screw●When Maisie Knew●The Ambassadors●The Wings of the Dove●The Golden Bowl(2)Aesthetic ideasa.The aim of novel: represent lifemon, even ugly side of lifec.Social function of artd.Avoiding omniscient point of view(3)Point of viewa.Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousnessb.Psychological realismc.Highly-refined language(4)Style –“stylist”nguage: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb.V ocabulary: largec.Construction: complicated, intricateLocal Colorism1860s, 1870s~1890sI.Appearance1.uneven development in economy in America2.culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3.magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII.What is “Local Colour”?Tasks of local colourists: to write or present local characters of their regions in truthful depiction distinguished from others, usually a very small part of the world.Regional literature (similar, but larger in world)●Garland, Harte – the west●Eggleston – Indiana●Mrs Stowe●Jewett – Maine●Chopin – LouisianaIII.Mark Twain – Mississippi1.works(1)The Gilded Age(2)“the two advantages”(3)Life on the Mississippi(4)A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court(5)The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug2.style(1)colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2)local colour(3)syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimes ungrammatical(4)humour(5)tall tales (highly exaggerated)(6)social criticism (satire on the different ugly things in society)parison of t he three “giants” of American Realism1.ThemeHowells – middle classJames – upper classTwain – lower class2.TechniqueHowells – smiling/genteel realismJames – psychological realismTwain – local colourism and colloquialismChapter 4 American NaturalismI.Background1.Darwin’s theory: “natural selection”2.Spenser’s idea: “social Darwinism”3.French Naturalism: ZoraII.Features1.environment and heredity2.scientific accuracy and a lot of details3.general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the societyIII.significanceIt prepares the way for the writing of 1920s’ “lost generation” and T. S. Eliot. IV.Theodore Dreiser1.life2.works(1)Sister Carrie(2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3)Jennie Gerhardt(4)American Tragedy(5)The Genius3.point of view(1)He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned to regardman as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existencein which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.(2)Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a jung le strugglein which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in thewind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, withno power whatever to assert his will.(3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internalchemisms and by the forces of social pressure.4.Sister Carrie(1)Plot(2)Analysis5.Style(1)Without good structure(2)Deficient characterization(3)Lack in imagination(4)Journalistic method(5)Techniques in paintingChapter 5 The Modern PeriodSection 1 The 1920sI.IntroductionThe 1920s is a flowering period of American literature. It is considered “the second renaissance” of American literature.The nicknames for this period:(1)Roaring 20s – comfort(2)Dollar Decade – rich(3)Jazz Age – Jazz musicII.Background1.First World War –“a war to end all wars”(1)Economically: became rich from WWI. Economic boom: new inventions.Highly-consuming society.(2)Spiritually: dislocation, fragmentation.2.wide-spread contempt for law (looking down upon law)3.Freud’s theoryIII.Features of the literatureWriters: three groups(1)Participants(2)Expatriates(3)Bohemian (unconventional way of life) – on-lookersTwo areas:(1)Failure of communication of Americans(2)Failure of the American societyImagismI. BackgroundImagism was influenced by French symbolism, ancient Chinese poetry and Japanese literature “haiku”II. Development: three stages1.1908~1909: London, Hulme2.1912~1914: England -> America, Pound3.1914~1917: Amy LowellIII. What is an “image”?An image is defined by Pound as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time, “a vortex or cluster of fused ideas” “endowed with energy”. The exact word must bring the effect of the object before the reader as it had presented itself to the poet’s mind at the time of writing.IV. Principles1.Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective;2.To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation;3.As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not inthe sequence of a metronome.V. Significance1.It was a rebellion against the traditional poetics which failed to reflect the newlife of the new century.2.It offered a new way of writing which was valid not only for the Imagist poetsbut for modern poetry as a whole.3.The movement was a training school in which many great poets learned theirfirst lessons in the poetic art.4.It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern English andAmerican poetry.VI. Ezra Pound1.literary career2.works(1)Cathay(2)Cantos(3)Hugh Selwyn Mauberley3.point of view(1)Confident in Pound’s belief that the artist was morally and culturally thearbiter and the “saviour” of the race, he took it upon himself to purify the arts and became the prime mover of a few experimental movements, the aim of which was to dump the old into the dustbin and bring forth something new.(2)To him life was sordid personal crushing oppression, and culture producednothing but “intangible bondage”.(3)Pound sees in Chinese history and the doctrine of Confucius a source ofstrength and wisdom with which to counterpoint Western gloom and confusion.(4)He saw a chaotic world that wanted setting to rights, and a humanity,suffering from spiritual death and cosmic injustice, that needed saving. He was for the most part of his life trying to offer Confucian philosophy as the one faith which could help to save the West.4.style: very difficult to readPound’s early poems are fresh and lyrical. The Cantos can be notoriously difficult in some sections, but delightfully beautiful in others. Few have made serious study of the long poem; fewer, if anyone at all, have had the courage to declare that they have conquered Pound; and many seem to agree that theCantos is a monumental failure.5.ContributionHe has helped, through theory and practice, to chart out the course of modern poetry.6.The Cantos –“the intellectual diary since 1915”Features:(1)Language: intricate and obscure(2)Theme: complex subject matters(3)Form: no fixed framework, no central theme, no attention to poetic rules VII. T. S. Eliot1.works(1)poems●The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock●The Waste Land (epic)●Hollow Man●Ash Wednesday●Four Quarters(2)Plays●Murder in the Cathedral●Sweeney Agonistes●The Cocktail Party●The Confidential Clerk(3)Critical essays●The Sacred Wood●Essays on Style and Order●Elizabethan Essays●The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticisms●After Strange Gods2.point of view(1)The modern society is futile and chaotic.(2)Only poets can create some order out of chaos.(3)The method to use is to compare the past and the present.3.Style(1)Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone and highly expressive rhythm(2)Difficult and disconnected images and symbols, quotations and allusions(3)Elliptical structures, strange juxtapositions, an absence of bridges4.The Waste Land: five parts(1)The Burial of the Dead(2)A Game of Chess(3)The Fire Sermon(4)Death by Water(5)What the Thunder SaidVIII. Robert Frost1.point of view(1)All his life, Frost was concerned with constructions through poetry. “amomentary stay against confusion”.(2)He understands the terror and tragedy in nature, but also its beauty.(3)Unlike the English romantic poets of 19th century, he didn’t believe that mancould find harmony with nature. He believed that serenity came fromworking, usually amid natural forces, which couldn’t be understood. Heregarded work as “significant toil”.2.works – poemsthe first: A Boy’s Willcollections: North of Boston, Mountain Interval (mature), New Hampshire3.style/features of his poems(1)Most of his poems took New England as setting, and the subjects werechosen from daily life of ordinary peopl e, such as “mending wall”, “pickingapples”.(2)He writes most often about landscape and people –the loneliness andpoverty of isolated farmers, beauty, terror and tragedy in nature. He alsodescribes some abnormal people, e.g. “deceptively simple”, “philoso phicalpoet”.(3)Although he was popular during 1920s, he didn’t experiment like othermodern poets. He used conventional forms, plain language, traditional metre,and wrote in a pastured tradition.IX. e. e. cummings“a juggler with syntax, grammar and diction” –individualism, “painter poet”Novels in the 1920sI. F. Scott Fitzgerald1.life – participant in 1920s2.works(1)This Side of Paradise(2)Flappers and Philosophers(3)The Beautiful and the Damned(4)The Great Gatsby(5)Tender is the Night(6)All the Sad Young Man(7)The Last Tycoon3.point of view(1)He expressed what the young people believed in the 1920s, the so-called“American Dream” is false in nature.(2)He had always been critical of the rich and tried to show the integrating effectsof money on the emotional make-up of his character. He found that wealth altered people’s characters, making them mean and distrusted. He thinks money brought only tragedy and remorse.(3)His novels follow a pattern: dream – lack of attraction – failure and despair.4.His ideas of “American Dream”It is false to most young people. Only those who were dishonest couldbecome rich.5.StyleFitzgerald was one of the great stylists in American literature. His prose issmooth, sensitive, and completely original in its diction and metaphors. Itssimplicity and gracefulness, its skill in manipulating the relation between the general and the specific reveal his consummate artistry.6.The Great GatsbyNarrative point of view – NickHe is related to everyone in the novel and is calm and detected observer whois never quick to make judgements.Selected omniscient point of viewII.Ernest Hemingway1.point of view (influenced by experience in war)(1)He felt that WWI had broken America’s culture and traditions, and separatedfrom its roots. He wrote about men and women who were isolated from tradition, frightened, sometimes ridiculous, trying to find their own way.(2)He condemned war as purposeless slaughter, but the attitude changed when hetook part in Spanish Civil War when he found that fascism was a cause worth fighting for.(3)He wrote about courage and cowardice in battlefield. He defined courage as“an instinctive movement towards or away from the centre of violence with self-preservation and self-respect, the mixed motive”. He also talked about the。

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 toge ther by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all cr eation,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 conven tions of18th-century thought;and what began in a dissatisfaction with Unitarianism developed int o a repudiation of the whole established order.ngston HughesAmerican poet and writer emphasized on lower-class black life.He established himself as a major force of the Harlem Renaissance.In1926,in the Nation,he provided the movement with a manife sto when he skillfully argued the need for both race pride and artistic independence in his most me morable essay,'The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain."In many ways Hughes always remain ed loyal to the principles he had laid down for the younger black writers in1926.His art was firml y rooted in race pride and race feeling even as he cherished his freedom as an artist.He was both n ationalist 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 Tra nscendentalism as recorded in his masterwork,Walden(1854),and for having been a vigorous adv ocate of civil liberties,as evidenced in the essay“Civil Disobedience”(1849).In his writings Thor eau was concerned primarily with the possibilities for human culture provided by the American na tural environment.He adapted ideas garnered from the then-current Romantic literatures in order t o extend American libertarianism and individualism beyond the political and religious spheres to t hose 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 pr actical action,he demonstrated the uses and values of leisure,contemplation,and a harmonious ap preciation 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 the1920s and1930s,has long been considered by many to be the high point in Africa n 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 co uld 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 Renaiss ance 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 Cu llen,Langston Hughes,Zora Neale Hurston,Rudolph Fisher,James Weldon Johnson,and Jean To omer.5.Mark Twainpseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens American humorist,writer,and lecturer who won a wo rldwide 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 th e history of American literature.Whitman's greatest theme is a symbolic identification of the rege nerative power of nature with the deathless divinity of the soul.His poems are filled with a religio us 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 for mation.The poetic“I”of Leaves of Grass transcends time and space,binding the past with the pre sent and intuiting the future,illustrating Whitman's belief that poetry is a form of knowledge,the s upreme 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 the1920s.The term stems from a re mark made by Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway,“You are all a lost generation.”Hemingway u sed 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 alienatio n from a U.S.that,basking under President Harding's“back to normalcy”policy,seemed to its me mbers to be hopelessly provincial,materialistic,and emotionally barren.The term embraces Hemi ngway,F.Scott Fitzgerald,John Dos Passos,e.e.cummings and many other writers who made Par is the centre of their literary activities in the'20s.They were never a literary school.In the1930s, 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.N ature,“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 i nitiate 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 thou ght and intuition;it determined men physically and psychologically;and yet it made them victims of circumstance,beings whose superfluous mental powers were incapable of truly ascertaining rea lity.Emerson asserts the human ability to transcend the materialistic world of sense experience an d facts and become conscious of the all-pervading spirit of the universe and the potentialities of hu man freedom.Emerson's doctrine of self-sufficiency and self-reliance naturally springs from his vi ew 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 hi mself 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 muc h also to his own feverish dreams,to which he applied a rare faculty of shaping plausible fabrics o ut of impalpable materials.With an air of objectivity and spontaneity,his productions are closely d ependent on his own powers of imagination and an elaborate technique.His keen and sound judg ment 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.Muc h of Poe's best work is concerned with terror and sadness.His yearning for the ideal was both of th e heart and of the imagination.His sensitiveness to the beauty and sweetness of women inspired hi s 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 the1960s.Then it was applied to the works of the n ovelists Nathanael West,Vladimir Nabokov,and Joseph Heller.The latter's Catch-22(1961)is a n otable example,in which Captain Yossarian battles the horrors of air warfare over the Mediterrane an 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 Geo rge Washington possibly the most famous18th-century American.He established the Poor Richar d of his almanacs as an oracle on how to get ahead in the world,and become widely known in Eur opean scientific circles for his reports of electrical experiments and theories and wrote his Autobio graphy which is a great contribution to the American literature.12.Ernest HemingwayAmerican novelist and short-story writer,awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in1954.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 ficti on in the20th 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 Hemingwa y a potent symbol of the world,which he viewed as complex,filled with moral ambiguities,and of fering almost unavoidable pain,hurt,and destruction.To survive in such a world,and perhaps eme rge victorious,one must conduct oneself with honour,courage,endurance,and dignity,a set of pri nciples known as“the Hemingway code.”13.Sherwood Andersonauthor who strongly influenced American writing between World Wars I and II,particularly the te chnique of the short story.His writing had an impact on such notable writers as Ernest Hemingwa y and William Faulkner,both of whom owe the first publication of their books to his efforts.His p rose 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).美国文学名词解释2.American Puritanismit comes from the American puritans,who were the first immigrants moved to American continent in the17th 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 and sobriety（清醒）were praised.3.Romanticism:the literature term was first applied to the writers of the18thcentury inEurope 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 the19thcentury who stimulated（刺激）the sentimental emotions of their readers.They wrote of the mysterious of life,love,birth an d death.The Romantic writers expressed themselves freely and without restraint.They wrote all ki nds 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 thatflourished in New England,particular at Concord,as a 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 advocat ed independence of the mind.The representative writers are Emerson and Thoreau.5.Local colorism:as a trend became dominant in American literature in the1860s andearly1870sit 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)humor6.Stream of consciousness（意识流）：It is one of the modern literary techniques.It isthe style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts,feelings,refl ections,memories,and mental images as the character experiences them.It was first used in1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce.Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space,and d epicted vividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing inces santly。

American Puritanism: Puritanism was a religious reform movement that arose within the Church of England in the late sixteenth century. Under siege from church and crown, it sent an offshoot in the third and forth 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 coincident with the founding of New England; 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. Doctrinally, Puritans adhered to the Five Points of Calvinism as codified at the Synod of Dort in 1619:(1) unconditional election ( the idea that God had decreed who was damned and who was saved from before the beginning of the world); (2) limited atonement ( the idea that Christ died for the elect only); (3) total depravity (humanity's utter corruption since the Fall); (4) irresistible grace (regeneration as entirely a work of God, which cannot be resisted and to which the sinner contributes nothing); and (5) the perseverance of the saints (the elect, despite their backsliding and faintness of heart , cannot fall away from grace).American Dream: The American Dream is the faith held by many 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. Nowadays the American Dream has led to an emphasis on material wealth as a measure of success and\ or happiness.Gothic tradition: Gothic novel or Gothic romance is a story of terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old castle or monastery. In an extended sense, many novels that do not have a medievalized setting, but which share a comparably sinister, grotesque, or chaustrophobic atmosphere have been classed as Gothic. It contributed to the new emotional climate of Romanticism.Historical novel: a novel in which the action takes place during a specific historical period well before the time of writing ( often one or two generations before, sometimes several centuries), and in which some attempt is made to depict accurately the customs and mentality of the period. The central character---real or imagined---is usually subject to divided loyalties within a larger historic conflict of which readers know the outcome. The pioneers of this genre were Walter Scott and James Fenimore CooperAmerican Romanticism:Romanticism refers to an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized b y a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. The romantic period in American literature stretched from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the CivilWar. It was an age of great westward expansion, of the increasing gravity of the slavery question, of an intensification of the spirit of embattled sectionalism in the South, and of a powerful impulse to reform in the North. In literature it was America 's first great creative period. A full flowering of the romantic impulse on American soil. Although foreign influences were strong, American romanticism exhibited from the very outset distinct features of its own. First, American romanticism 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. Second, Puritan influence over American romanticism was conspicuously noticeable. Emerging as new writers of strength and creative power were the novelists Hawthorne, Simms, and Melville; the poets Poe, Whittier, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell. Dickinson, and Whitman; the essayists Thoreau, Emerson, and Holmes. These American writers had made a great literary period by capturing on their pages the enthusiasm and the optimism of that dream.Transcendentalism:Transcendentalism is literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about 1836 to 1860. In 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 Carlyle, 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 Self-Reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden.American Renaissance:American Renaissance the name sometimes is given to a flourishing of distinctively American literature in the period before the Civil War. This renaissance is represented by the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, H.D. Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman. Its major works are Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter, Melville's Moby-Dick, and Whitman's Leaves of Grass. The American Renaissance may be regarded as a delayed manifestation of Romanticism, especially in Emerson's philosophy of Transcendentalism. Unitarianism:Unitarianism as, in general, the form of Christianity that denies the doctrine of the Trinity, believing that God exists only in one person. While there were previous anti-Trinitarian movements in the early Christian Church, like Arianism andMonarchianism, modern Unitarianism originated in the period of the Protestant Reformation.Realism:It is, in literature, am approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. In part, Realism was a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away. Although realism is not limited to any one century or group of writers, it is most often associated with the literary movement in 19th-century France, specifically with the French novelists Flaubert and Balzac. George Eliot introduced realism into England, and William Dean Howells introduced it into the United States, Realism has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes, where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications. Later writers felt that realism laid too much emphasis on ecternalteality. Many, notably Henry James, turned to a psychological realism that closely examined the com plex working of th e mind.。

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。

美国文学的名词解释美国文学作为世界文学的重要组成部分，具有独特的风格和特点，是文学史上的一大瑰宝。

本文将对美国文学中一些重要的名词进行解释，帮助读者更好地理解美国文学的意义和内涵。

第一部分：美国文学的起源和发展美国文学的起源可以追溯到17世纪早期的殖民地时期。

当时，随着英国殖民者的到来，美国开始有了自己的文学作品。

早期的美国文学主要以宗教和探索为主题，其中最著名的作品就是威廉·布莱克斯通的《“前进”和定居》。

随着美国的独立建国，美国文学开始走上了独立发展的道路。

在19世纪，美国经历了浪漫主义文学的兴盛时期。

浪漫主义思想强调个人感情和自由，反对传统权威和规范。

这一时期涌现了许多优秀作家，如威廉·卡伯特·布莱恩特、华盛顿·欧文、爱德加·爱伦·坡等，他们的作品充满了热情和想象力。

第二部分：美国文学的重要流派1. "大地小说"：大地小说是20世纪初美国文学的重要流派之一，旨在通过描写农村生活和自然环境来反映人类与大自然的关系。

约翰·斯坦贝克的《愤怒的葡萄》和威廉·福克纳的《喧哗与骚动》就是典型的大地小说作品。

2. "垮掉的一代"：垮掉的一代是指20世纪20年代的一群作家，他们对传统价值观和道德规范感到厌倦，试图通过追求个人自由和享乐来突破社会的束缚。

弗朗西斯·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德的《了不起的盖茨比》和欧内斯特·海明威的《太阳照样升起》是垮掉的一代作品的代表。

3. "南方文学"：南方文学是美国文学中的重要分支，它的主要特点是描绘南方地区的生活和文化。

威廉·福克纳是南方文学的代表作家，他的作品《善良人》揭示了南方社会的种族问题和社会矛盾。

第三部分：美国文学中的重要作品1. 《老人与海》：这是海明威的代表作品，以老渔夫圣地亚哥的形象为中心，表达了对生命的坚持和追求的主题。

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).。