美国文学考试必备知识点Word文档下载推荐.docx

1、3. Edgar Allan Poe4. Nathanial Hawthorne5. Walt Whitman6. Emily Dickinson7. II. Realist period8. Mark Twain9. Sherwood Anderson10. Stephen Crane11. Theodore Dreiser12. III. Modern period13. F. S. Fitzgerald 14. Ernest Hemingway15. William Faulkner 1.Transcendentalism Transcendentalism refers to the

2、religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800s, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and Nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling a

3、nd the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant. New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism. 2.Naturalism Naturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive

4、 victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at “scientific” status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects. Natural

5、fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreisers Sister Carrie.3.American Dream The American Dream is the faith held by many people in the

6、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. 4.The Lost Generation The term Lost G

7、eneration was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderso

8、n, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein （“You are all a lost generation”） as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during World War I. They were “lost” becau

9、se after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to more into a settled life5. ModernismModern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving

10、it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious.6. Romanticism .7. Puritanism The principles and practices of puritans were popularly known

11、 as Puritanism. Puritanism accepted the doctrines of Calvinism: the sovereignty of God; the supreme authority of the Bible; the irresistibility of Gods will for man in every act of life from cradle to grave. These doctrines led the Puritans to examine their souls to find whether they were of the ele

12、ct and to search the Bible to determine Gods will.8. Hemingway Heroes / Code Hero“Hemingway Heroes” refer to some protagonists in Hemingways works. Such a hero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. And usually he is a man of action and of a few words. He

13、 is such an individualist, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happiness. The Hemingway heroes stand for a whole generation. In a world which is essentially chaotic and meaningle

14、ss, a Hemingway hero fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The awareness that it must end in defeat, no matter how hard he strives, engenders a sense of despair. But Hemingway heroes possess a kind of “despairing courage” as Bertrand Russell terms. It is this courag

15、e that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. Surely Hemingway heroes differ, one from another, in their view of the world. The difference which comes gradually in view is an index to the subtle change which Hemingways outlook had undergone.ExpressionismExpre

16、ssionism refers to a movement in Germany early in the 20th century, in which a number of painters sought to avoid the representation of external reality and, instead, to project a highly personal or subjective vision of the world. The main principle involved is that expression determines form, and therefore imagery, punctuation, syntax, and so fo