美国文学史重点名词解释-英文版.doc

美国文学史重点名词解释-英文版 The romantic period It started with the publication of Washington Irvings The Sketch Book and ended with Whitmans Leaves of Grass. Historical Background: 1.American Puritanism 2.New England Transcendental Movement 3.American westward Expansion. I.Washington Irving 1.Works: Rip Van Winkle 2.Father of the American short stories. II. Ralph Waldo Emerson Works:Essays Nature I. Emerson’s transcendentalism and his attitude toward nature: 1.Transcendentalism—it is a philosophic and literary movement that flourishes in New England, as a reaction against rationalism and Calvinism. It stressed intuitive understanding of god without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind. 2. Emerson’s transcendentalism: The over-soul—it is all-pervading power goodness, from which all things come and of which all are a part. It is a supreme reality of mind, a spiritual unity of all beings and a religion. It is a communication between an individual soul and the universal over-soul. And he strongly believes in the divinity and infinity of man as an individual, so man can totally rely on himself. 3. His toward nature: Emerson loves nature. His nature is the garment of the over-soul, symbolic and moral bound. Nature is not something purely of the matter, but alive with God’s presence. It exercises a healthy and restorative influence on human beings. Children can see nature better than adult.  III. Nathaniel Hawthorne Hawthorne’s Puritanism and his black vision of man: 1. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puritans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the church of England. 2. his black vision of man—by the Calvinistic concept of original sin, he believed that human being are evil natured and sinful, and this sin is ever present in human heart and will pass one generation to another. 3. Young Goodman Brown—it shows that everyone has some evil secrets. The innocent and na?ve Brown is confronted with the vision of