美国文学术语解释(全面且简练)

1、术语解释（美国文学简史）1、 American Puritanism Back grounding: American Puritanism appeared in the colonial period, from 1607 to 1775, in America. Representatives: There are many writers in this period, such as Captain John Smith, the author of the True Relation of Virginia (1608) and Description of New England (1616),Anne Bradstreet, who wrote the famous work called Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650).Main ideas:They stress predestination, original sin, total depravity, and limited atonement from

2、 Gods grace. They go to America to prove that they are Gods chosen people who will enjoy Gods blessings on earth and in Heaven. Finally, they build a way of life that stresses hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety. Influences: American Literature is based on a myth - the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden. The American Puritans metaphorical made of perception - symbolism. It has a great influence not only on the Literary Scene in Colonial America, , but also on the literature in the 18th centu

3、ry, especially on Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin.American RomanticismBack grounding: It appeared in the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War, from 1828 to 1865, and it was strongly influenced by European culture.Representative:There are some representative new England poets and out-sanding writers such as, James Fenimaore Cooper, the author of The Leather Stocking Tales, Washington Irving , whose famous work is The Sketch Book (1819). Main ideas:Romanticism is a

4、rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. .For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions are more important than reason and common sense. They emphasize individualism, placing the individual against the group, against authority. Influence:It produces a feeling of “Newness” which inspires the romantic imagination.3、 TranscendentalismsBack grounding: Transcendtalism flourished in the New England from about 1836 to 1860.Ralph Waldo Emerson published Nature in 1836 which represented a

5、 new way of intellectual thinking in America. Representatives:There are two representative writers, namely Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), whose famous work called Nature, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), the author of Walden.Main ideas: Believe people can learn things both from the outside world by means of the 5 senses and from the inner world by intuition; It places spirit first and matter second; It takes nature as symbolic of spirit or God. It emphasizes the significance of the individual;

6、 Religion is an emotional communication between an individual soul and the universal over soul.Influences: It is a manifestation of Romantic Movement in literature and philosophy and an ethical guide to life of America. However, it is never a systematic philosophy because of a lack of logical connection.4、 RealismBack grounding:In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence, from 1865 to 1918.Representatives:There are some famo

7、us writers in this period, such as William Dean Howells , the Dean of American Realism, whose famous work is A Chance Acquaintance 偶然相遇; O. Henry, the author of After Twenty Years; Henry James, the author of The Portrait of a Lady.Main ideas:Realism is the theory of writing in which familiar aspects of contemporary life and everyday scenes are represented in a straightforward or mother-of-fact manner. It often uses the open ending, focuses on the lives of the common people, and emphasizes object

8、ivity.Influences:It comes as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. 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.5、Local ColorismBack grounding：Local colorism as a trend became dominant in American literature in the late 1860s and early 1870s；The frontier humorists who had been popular with their “tall tales” before the Civil War paved the way for local color fiction.Rep

9、resentatives：There is a famous writers in this period, namely Mark Twain,(马克吐温), whose masterpiece is Huckleberry Finn.Main ideas:Local color fiction presents a locale which is distinguished from the outside world, and describes the exotic and the picturesque. It describes things that are not common in other regions, attempting to show things as they as they are. Local color fiction glorifies the past and stresses the influence of setting on character.Influences:Mark Twain is the representative in this period, and his style is the vernacular language, local color, and cracker-barrel philosopher.6、NaturismBack grounding：Naturalism is a literary trend prevailing in Europe, especially in France and Germany, in the second half of the 19th century. And, Charles Darwin stresses the struggle of existence, survival of the fittest, natural selection.Representatives:

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