美國(guó)文學(xué)名詞解釋

1、American Dream: American dream means the belief that everyone can succeed as long as he/she works hard enough. It usually implies a successful and satisfying life. It usually framed in terms of American capitalism（資本主義） , its associatedpurported meritocracy, （知識(shí)界精華） and the freedoms guaranteed by th

2、e U.S. Bill of Rights.American Puritanism 清教主義 : Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the protestant church who wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrines of predestination, original si

3、n and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. American literature in the 17th century mostly consisted of Puritan literature. Puritanism had an enduring influence on American literature. It had become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, so mucha par

4、t of national cultural atmosphere, rather than a set of tenets.Transcendentalism 超 驗(yàn) 主 義 : Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19 th century. Transcendentalists spoke for cultural rejuvenation a

5、nd against the materialism of American society. It placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over soul, as the most important thing in the world. It stressed the importance of individual and offered a fresh perception nature ad symbolic of the spirit of God. Prominent transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo

6、 Emerson and Henry David Thorough.American Naturalism 自然主義 : American naturalism was a new and harsher realism.The naturalists attempt to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by environment and heredity. It emphasized

7、 that the world was amoral, the men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death. The pessimism and deterministic ideas naturalism pervaded the works of such American writers as Stephen Crane

8、 and Theodore Dreiser.American Naturalism（ 美國(guó)自然主義文學(xué) ）：The American naturalists accepted the more negative interpretation of Darwin's evolutionary theory and used it to accountfor the behavior of those characters in literary works who were regarded as more or less complex combinations of inherite

9、d attributes, their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.2） naturalism is evolved from realism when the author 's tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a gloomy philosophical approach to reality, or to human

10、 existence.3>Dreiser is a leading figure of his school.The Gilded Age 鍍金時(shí)代 : the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by

11、 Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 book, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today .The Gilded Age is most famous for the creation of a modern industrial economy. The end of the Gilded Age coincided with thePanic of 1893, a deepdepression. The depression lasted until 1897 and marked a major p

12、olitical realignment in the election of 1896. After that came the Progressive Era.The Lost Generation : The Lost Generation is a group of expatriate American writers residing primarily in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. The group was given its nameby the American writer Gertrude Stein, who used “a

13、 lost generation ” to refer to expatriate Americans bitter about their World War I experiences and disillusioned with American society. Hemingwaylater used the phrase as an epigraph for his novel The Sun Also Rises. It consisted of manyinfluential American writers, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Sco

14、tt Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams and Archibald MacLeish.The Lost Generation（ 迷惘的一代）： The lost generation is a term first used by Stein to describe the post-war I generation of American writers:men and women haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness brought about by the destructiveness of th

15、e war.2>full of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literatureto date.3>the three best-known representatives of lost generation are F.Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway and John dos Passos.Tragedy

16、 : in general, a literary work in which the protagonist meets an unhappy or disastrous end. Unlikecomedy, tragedy depicts the actions of a centralcharacterwho is usually dignified or heroic. Through a series of events, this tragic hero is brought to a final downfall. The causes of the tragic hero

17、9;s downfall vary.In traditional dramas, the cause can be fate, a flaw in character or an error in judgment. In modern dramas, where the tragic hero is often an ordinary individual, the causes range from moral or psychological weakness to the evils of society.Catch-22 第22條軍規(guī): Catch-22 is a general c

18、ritique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning. Resulting from its specific use in the book, the phrase "Catch-22" is commonidiomatic usage meaning "a no-win situation" or "a double bind" of any type. The term was originally from Joseph Heller's anti novel Catch-22

19、.Beat Generation 垮掉的一代 : group of American writers of the 1950s whose writing expressed profound dissatisfaction with contemporary American society and endorsed an alternative set of values. The term sometimes is used to refer to those who embraced the ideas of these writers. The Beat Generation'

20、;s best-known figures were writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.The Beat Generation（ 垮掉的一代 ）:The members of The Beat Generation were new bohemian libertines.Whoengaged in a spontaneous, sometimes messy, creativity.2>The Beat writers produced a body of written work controversial both for its ad

21、vocacy of non-conformity and for its non-conforming style.3> the major beat writings are Allen Ginsberg 's howl.Howl became the manifesto of The Beat Generation.Psychological Realism 心理現(xiàn)實(shí)主義 : it is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities of characte rs' thoughts and

22、 motivations. It places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization and on the motives, and internal action which springs from and develops external action. In Psychological Realism, character and characterization are more than usually important. HenryJames is considered a gr

23、eat master of psychological realism.Free Verse 自由詩(shī)體 : free verse is poetry that has an irregular rhythm and line length and that attempts to avoid any predetermined verse structure, instead, it uses the cadences of natural speech. While it alternates stressed and unstressed syllables as stricter ver

24、se form do, free verse dose so in a looser way. Walt Whitman's poetry is an example of free verse.Confessional Poetry 自白詩(shī) : it is a type of modern poetry in which poets speak with openness and frankness about their own lives, such as in poems about illness, sexuality and despondence. Robert Lowe

25、ll, Sylvia Plath and Allen Ginsberg and Theodore Roethke are the most important American poets.Imagism 意象派 : The 1920s saw a vigorous literary activity in America. In poetry there appeared a strong reaction against Victorian poetry. Imagists placed primary reliance on the use of precise, sharp image

26、s as a means of poetic expression and stressed precision in the choice of words, freedom in the choice of subject matter and form, and the use of colloquial language. Most of the imagist poets wrote in free verse, using such devices as assonance and alliteration rather than formal metrical schemes t

27、o give structure to their poetry.The movement which had these as its aims is known in literary history as Imagism. Its prime mover was Ezra Pound.Imagism（ 意象主義 ） ： Imagism came into being in Britain and U.S around 1910 as a reaction to the traditional English poetry to express the sense of fragmenta

28、tion and dislocation.2>the imagists, with Ezra Pound leading the way, hold that the most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of one dominant image.3>imagism is characterized by the following three poetic principles:A.direct treatment of subject matter;B.ec

29、onomy of expression;C. as regards rhythm ,to composein the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of metronome. 4> pound 's In a Station of the Metro is a well-known inagist poem.Black Humor : the use of morbid and the absurd for darkly comic purposes in modern fiction and drama.

30、 The term refers as much to the tone of anger and bitterness asit does to the grotesque and morbid situations, which often deal with suffering, anxiety, and death. Black humor is a substantial element in the Anti-novel and the Theatre of Absurd. Joseph Heller'sCatch-22 is an almost archetypal ex

31、ample.Irony : a contrast or an incongruity between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens in drama and literature. There are types of irony: verbal irony, dramatic irony and irony of situation. Irony of situation typically takes the f

32、orm of a discrepancy between appearance and reality, or between what a character expects and what actually happens. Both verbal and irony of situation share the suggestion of a concealed truth conflicting with surface appearances.Allusion: A reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary wo

33、rk that a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion.Satire 諷刺 : A kind of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and wrongdoings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general.

34、The aim of satirists is to set a moral standard for society, and they attempt to persuade the reader to see their point of view through the force of laughter.Symbol: A symbol is a sign which suggests more than its literal meaning. In other words, a symbol is both literal and figurative. A symbol is

35、a way of telling a story and a way of conveying meaning. The best symbols are those that are believable in the lives of the characters and also convincing as they convey a meaning beyond the literal level of the story. If the symbol is obscure or ambiguous, then the very obscurity and the ambiguity

36、may also be part of the meaning of the story.Symbolism: Symbolism is the writing technique of using symbols. It's a literarymovementthat arose in France in the last half of the 19th century and that greatly influenced many English writers, particularly poets, of the 20th century. It enables poet

37、s to compress a very complex idea or set of ideas into one image or even one word. It 's one of the most powerful devices that poets employ in creation.Stream of consciousness( 意識(shí)流 )(or interior monologue);In literary criticism, Stream of consciousness denotes a literary technique which seeks to

38、 describe an individual 's point of view by giving the writtenequivalent of the character 's thought processes.Stream of consciousness writing is strongly associated with the modernist movement.Its introduction in the literary context, transferred from psychology, is attributed to MaySinclai

39、r. Stream of consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow,tracing as they do a character 's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings.famous writer

40、s to employ this technique in the english language include James Joyce and William Faulkner.American realism ：(美國(guó)現(xiàn)實(shí)主義) Realism was a reaction against Romanticism and paved the way to Modernism; 2).During this period a newgeneration of writers, dissatisfiedwith the Romantic ideas in the older generat

41、ion, came up with a new inspiration. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life. It aimed at the interpretation of the realities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. Instead of thinking about the mysteries of life a

42、nd death and heroic individualism, people 's attention was now dir ected to the interesting features of everyday existence, to what was brutal or sordid, and to the open portayal of class struggle;3) so writers began to describe the integrity of human characters reacting under various circumstan

43、ces and picture the pioneers of the far west, the new immigrants and the struggles of the working class; 4) Mark Twain Howells and Henry James are three leading figures of the American Realism.Local Colorism( 鄉(xiāng)土文學(xué) ) ： Generally speaking, the writings of local colorists are concerned with the life of

44、 a small, well-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town. 2) Local colorists were consciously nostalgic historians of a vanishing way of life, recorders of a present that faded before their eyes. Yet for all their sentimentality, they dedicated themselves to m

45、inutely accurate descriptions of the life of their regions, they worked from personal experience to record the facts of a local environment and suggested that the native life was shaped by the curious conditions of the local. 3) major local colorists is Mark Twain.A Jazz age（ 爵士時(shí)代 ）:The Jazz Age des

46、cribes 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 depression, the values of this age saw muchdecline. Perhaps the most representative literary work of the age is American writer Fitzgerald 's The Gr

47、eat Gatsby. Highlighting what some describe as the decadence and hedonism, as well as the growth of individualism. Fitzgerald is largely credited with coining the term ” Jazz Age”.Femi nism（女權(quán)主義）:Femi nisim in corporates both a doctri ne of equal rights for wome n and an ideology of social transform

48、ation aiming to create a world for womenbeyond simple social equality.2>i n general, feminism is ideology of women's liberation based on the belief that women suffer injustice because of their sex. Under this broad umbrella various feminisms offer differing analyses of the causes, or agents,

49、of female oppression.3> definitions of feminism by feminists tend to be shaped by their training, ideology or race. So, for example, Marxist and socialist feminists stress the interaction within feminism of class with gender and focus on social distinctions between menand women.Black feminists ar

50、gue muchmore for an integrated analysis which can unlock the multiple systems of oppression.HemingwayCode Hero（ 海明威式英雄 ）: HemingwayCode Hero ,also called code hero, is one who, wounded but strong more sentitive, enjoys the pleasures of life（ sex, alcohol, sport） in face of ruin and death, and mainta

51、ins, through somenotion of a code, an ideal of himself.2> barnes in the sun also Rises, henry in a Farewell to arms and santiago in the old man and the sea are typical of Hemingway Code HeroImpressionism（ 印象主義 ）:Impressionism is a style of painting that gives the impression made by the subject on

52、 the artist without much attention to details. Writers accepted the sameconviction that the personal attitudes and moodsof the writer were legitimate elements in depicting character or setting or action.2>briefly, it is a style of literature characterized by the creation of general impressions an

53、d moods rather that realistic mood.Modernism（現(xiàn)代主義）:Modernism is comprehensive but vague term for a movement , whichbegin in the late 19th century and which has had a wide influence internationally during much of the 20th century.2> modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psych

54、o-analysis as its theoretical case.3> the term pertains to all the creative arts. Especially poetry, fiction, drama, painting,music and architecture.4> in england from early in the 20th century and during the 1920s and 1930s, in America from shortly before the first world war and on during the

55、 inter-war period, modernist tendencies were at their most active and fruitful.5>as far asliterature is concerned, Modernismreveals a breaking away from established rules, traditions and conventions.fresh ways of looking at man's position and function in the universe and manyexperiments i n f

56、orm and style.it is particularly concerned with language and how to use it and with writing itself.the gilded age : Plains Indians were pushed in a series of Indian wars onto restricted reservations.This period also witnessed the creation of a modern industrial economy. A national transportation and

57、 communication network wascreated, the corporation became the dominant form of business organization, and a managerial revolution transformed business operations. By the beginningof the twentieth century, percapita income andindustrial production in the United States exceeded that of any other count

58、ry except Britain. Long hours and hazardous working conditions, led many workers to attempt to form labor unions despite strong opposition from industrialists and the courts.An era of intense political partisanship, the Gilded Age was also an era of reform. The Civil Service Act sought to curb gover

59、nment corruption by requiring applicants for certain governmental jobs to take a competitive examination. The Interstate Commerce Act sought to end discrimination by railroads against small shippers and the Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed business monopolies. These years also saw the rise of the Popu

60、list crusade. Burdened by heavy debts and falling farm prices, manyfarmers joined the Populist party, which called for an increase in the amount of moneyin circulation, government assistance to help farmers repay loans, tariff reductions, and a graduated income tax.Mark Twain called the late nineteenth century the "Gilded Age." By this, h