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1、1.American PuritanismAmerican PuritanismIt comes from the American puritans,who were the first immigrants moved to American continentin the 17th century.Original sin,predestinationand salvationwere the basic ideas of AmericanPuritanism.And,hard-working,piousness，thrift and sobrietywere praised.Chara
2、cteristics:Characteristics:1.Idealistic:Puritans pursue the purity and simplicity in worship.They focuse the glory ofGod,and the angry believe in the doctrine of destiny,original sin,limited atonement2.Practical:Puritans come to Amrican to do business and make profits with the desire of chasingwealt
3、h and status.They have to struggle for survival under the severity of the western frontier.3.The struggle between the spiritual and the material is the basics of the Puritan mind.On theone hand,Puritans chase the purity of the early the other hand,they come to America to earnmoney.This contradictory
4、 will be reflected by their thoughts.4.In a word,it rests on purity,ambition,harding work,and an intense struggling for success.2.RomanticismRomanticismthe literature term was first applied to the writers of the 18 century in Europewho broke away from the formal rules of classical writing.When it wa
5、s used in American literatureit referred to the writers of the middle of the 19 century who stimulatedthe sentimental emotionsof their readers.They wrote of the mysterious of life,love,birth and death.The Romantic writersexpressed themselves freely and without restraint.They wrote all kinds of mater
6、ials,poetry,essays,plays,fictions,history,works of travel,and biography.3.TranscendentalismTranscendentalism is a philosophic and literary movement that flourished in New England,particular at Concord,as a reaction against Rationalism and Calvinism Mainly it stressedintuitive understanding of God,wi
7、thout the help of the church,and advocated independence ofthe mind.The representative writers are Emerson and Thoreau.4.AmericanAmerican RealismRealismIn American literature,the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end.The Age of Realism came into existence.It came as a reaction against the l
8、ie of romanticism andsentimentalism.Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering ofthe ordinary,a slice of life as it is really lived.It expresses the concern for commonplaceththand the low,and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and hu
9、manexperience5.LocalLocal colorismcolorism as a trend became dominant in American literature in the 1860s and early 1870s，it is defined by Hamlin Garland as having such quality of texture and background that it couldnot have been written in any other place or by anyone else than a native stories of
10、local colorismhave a quality of circumstantialauthenticity,as local colorists tried to immortalizethedistinctive natural,social and linguistic features.It is characteristic of vernacularlanguageand satirical humor6.NaturalismNaturalismAmerican naturalism was a new and harsher realism.American natura
11、lism had beenshaped by the war;by the social upheavalsthat undermined the comforting faith of an earlier age.Americas literary naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths.They attemptedto achieve extreme objectivity and frankness,presenting characters of low social and economicclas
12、ses who were determined by their environment and heredity.Although naturalist literaturedescribed the world with sometimes brutal realism,it sometimes also aimed at bettering the worldthrough social reform.7.Stream of consciousnessIt is one of the modern literary techniques.It is the style of writin
13、gthat attempts to imitate the natural flow of a characters thoughts,feelings,reflections,memories,and mental images as the character experiences them.It was first used in 1922 by theIrish novelist James Joyce.Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space,and depictedvividly and skillfully
14、the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing incessantly。8.ModernismModernismIt was a complex and diverse international movement in all the creative arts（，originating about the end of the 19th century.It provided the greatest creative renaissance ofthe 20th century.It was made up o
15、f many facetssuch as symbolism，surrealismcubism，expressionism，futurismect9.ImagismImagismIts a poetic movement of England and the.flourished from 1909 to movement insistson the creation of images in poetry by“the direct treatment of the thing”and the economy ofwording.The leaders of this movement we
16、re Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell.10.Jazz AgeJazz AgeThe Jazz Age describes the period of the 1920s and 1930s，the years between WorldWar I and World War II.Particularly in North America.With the rise of the great depression，the values of this age saw much decline.Perhaps the most representative literary
17、work of theage is American writer Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby.Highlig hting what some describe as thedecadence and hedonism，as well as the growth of individualism.Fitzgerald is largely creditedwith coining the term“Jazz Age”。11.The Lost generationThe Lost generationIt refers to a group of young int
18、ellectuals who came back from war，wereinjuredboth physicallyand mentally.They lived by indulgingthemselves in the Bohemianway of life.Their American dream was disillusionedThe best representative of the lost generation was ErnestHemingway.12.Hemingway Code HeroHemingway Code Hero:also called code he
19、ro，is one who，wounded but strong more sensitive，enjoys the pleasures of life（sex，alcohol，sport）in face of ruin and death，and maintains，through some notion of a code，an ideal of himself.2 barnes in the sun also Rises，Henry ina Farewell to arms and Santiago in the old man and the sea are typical of He
20、mingway Code Hero.13.StreamStream ofof consciousnessconsciousnessIt is one of the modern literary techniques.It is the style of writingthat attempts to imitate the natural flow of a characters thoughts,feelings,reflections,memories,and mental images as the character experiences them.It was first use
21、d in 1922 by theIrish novelist James Joyce.Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space,and depictedvividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing incessantly。14.PostmodernismPostmodernismIt is a disputed term that has occupied much recent debate abo
22、ut contemporaryculture since the early 1980s.in its simplest and least satisfactory sense it refers generallyto the phase of 20th century western culture that succeeded the reign of hign modernism，thusindicating the products of the“space age”after some time in the 1950s.More often though itis applie
23、d to a cultural condition prevailing in the advanced capitalist societies since the 1960s，characterized by a superabundance of disconnected images and styles.In this sense post modernityis said to be a culture of fragmentary sensations，eclectic nostalgia，disposable simulacra，and promiscuous superfic
24、iality in which the traditionally valued qualities of depth，coherence，meaning originality and authenticity are evacuated or dissolved amid the random swirl of emptysignals.15.American DreamAmerican Dream:American dream means the belief that everyone can succeed as long as he/sheworks hard enough.It
25、usually implies a successful and satisfying life.It usually framed in termsof American capitalism,its associated purported meritocracy(and the freedoms guaranteed by the.Bill of Rights.16.TheThe HarlemHarlem RenaissanceRenaissance：refers to the flowering of African American literature,art,and dramaduring the 1920s and 1930s.Though centered in Harlem,New York,the movement impacted urbancenters throughout the United States.Black novelists,poets,painters,and playwrights begancreating works rooted in their own culture instead of imitating the styles of Europeans and whiteAmericans.