2013m美国文学 terms.doc

American Literature Terms Puritanism 1. Features (1) Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred. (2) Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed 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 and thoughtful) 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 was chiefly 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 is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible. 3. Writers and their works American Romanticism 1. Background (1) Political background and economic development (2) Romantic movement in European countries 2. features (1) 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. (2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic 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 American Romanticism. (4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent. 3. Writers and their works Transcendentalism 1. spirit/ oversoul 2. importance of individualism 3. nature - symbol of spirit/God garment of the oversoul 4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness ) 5. Influence of Transcendentalism (1) It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought abou