美国文学名词解释

Realism

Realism is a literary movement which came in the latter half of the 19th century as a reaction against “the lie ” of a romanticism .It could be divided into two phases.The first phase is the local and regional writings.The second is naturalism which implies a biological or socioeconomic determination.It features in a faithful representation of life,complete authorial objectivity,responsible morality and so on . William Dean Howells ,Henry James and Mark Twain are all its representative writers.

Black Humor

Black Humor is a grotesque or morbid humor used in literature,drama,and

film

to

express

the

absurdity,insensitivity,paradox,and cruelty of the modern world,It usually exaggerate the ordinary characters or situations far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony.The use of black humor often associates with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce.Its representative writers contain Kurt Vonnegut,John Barth,Joseph Heller etc.

The Lost Generation

The Lost Generation generally refers to the post-World War I generation ,but specifically to a group of U.S.writers who came of age during the war and established their literary reputations in the 1920s.It stems from a remark made by Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway .They are considered “lost”because of their inadaptation to the postwar world and their spiritual alienation from a country they considered hopelessly provincial and emotionally barren.F.Scott Fitzgerald ,Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos are the three best known representative writers. 【Hemingway heroes:a noble but tragic hero fighting with overwhelming force;though he knows that he will be defeated at last,he decides to act like a hero.】

Imagism

Imagism was an early twentieth-century artistic movement in the United States and Britain and was considered to be the first organized Modernist literary movement in the English language. Led by Pound and Amy Lowell,the Imagist poets advocated the use of free verse,common speech patterns,and clear concrete images as a reaction to Victorian sentimentalism.

The Beat Generation

The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-World War II writers who came to prominence in the 1950s,as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired.It could also be used to refer to a cultural and literary movement in the 1950s in America.It was characterized by a rejection

of

the

materialism,militarism,consumerism,and

conformity of the 1950s,in favor of individual freedom and spontaneity.Its most prominent members were the novelists John Clellon Holmes and Jack Kerouac,and the poets Allen Ginsberg.

Modernism

Modernism is a general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental and Avantgarde trends in the literature (and other arts) of the early 20th century, including Symbolism, Futurism, Expressionism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surealism, along with the innovations of unaffiliated writers.Modernism emphasized strong and conscious break with traditional forms, perceptions, and techniques of expression, and greatly concerns with language and all aspects of its medium.It marks a distinctive break with Victorian bourgeois morality,

rejecting nineteenth-century optimism, presenting a profoundly pessimistic picture of a culture in disarray. Vachel Lindsay,Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot are the representative writers.

Transcendentalism

Appeared in 1830s,Transcendentalism is the summit of the Romantic Movement in the history of American literature in the 19th century.It has been defined philosophically as“the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively”.Transcendentalists

place

emphasis

on

the

importance of the over-soul,the individual and Nature.The most important representatives are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

惠特曼创作风格：

Whitman is a language-maker who often found material in the common,familiar American daily life everywhere.The language in his poems is direct,plain and even vulgar.Technically speaking,Whitman’s poetry is “free verse”--also known as “open form” verse,which depends on natural speech rhythms related to the actual cadence of the poet expressing himself.There are several

important

features

in instead

his of

poems:parallelism,repetition,phrase

foot ,juxtaposition and long lines.Whitman is usually not easy to read because of the “untold latencies ”in his poems.

狄金森的创作风格

Dickinson’s poems have a great influence on the Imagist Movement in the 20th century.Her poems are almost all extremely concentrated and are usually very short.She often chooses

concise,direct

and

simple

diction

and

syntax.Besides ,she uses dashes abundantly and adopts irregular and often idiosyncratic punctuation and capitalization.Many of her

poems

are

based

on also

a

single feature

image in

or the

symbol.Dickinson’poems

fragmentary,enigmatic metric pattern and the extraordinary originality in her choice of words,metaphors,use of assonance or half rhymes and other figures of speech.Despite its apparent formal irregularity and simplicity,Dickinson’s poetry is remarkable for its uncommon variety ,original subtlety,and unusual richness.

狄金森的诗歌主题

Unlike Whitman who seems to keep his eyes on society at large,Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual.She seems to be wholly original,taking the stuff of her poetry merely from her personal experiences in order to express what she felt about

death

and

immortality,individualism

and

spirituality ,love ,nature,suffering and pain,friendship,and developing her own poetic form with many peculiar features.Her verses are short yet inventive,and her themes are universal.

fragmentary,enigmatic metric pattern and the extraordinary originality in her choice of words,metaphors,use of assonance or half rhymes and other figures of speech.Despite its apparent formal irregularity and simplicity,Dickinson’s poetry is remarkable for its uncommon variety ,original subtlety,and unusual richness.

狄金森的诗歌主题

Unlike Whitman who seems to keep his eyes on society at large,Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual.She seems to be wholly original,taking the stuff of her poetry merely from her personal experiences in order to express what she felt about

death

and

immortality,individualism

and

spirituality ,love ,nature,suffering and pain,friendship,and developing her own poetic form with many peculiar features.Her verses are short yet inventive,and her themes are universal.

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