Grace美国文学名词解释
1. American Naturalism(自然主义）
Naturalism is evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic. It is no more than a gloomy philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence. (书P476 第一段最后)
2. Free verse(自由诗体）
Free verse has fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. A looser and more open-ended syntactical(依照句法的)structure is frequently favored. Lines and sentences of different lengths are left lying side by side just as things are undisturbed .(Whitman’s poetry)
3. Local colorism（地方色彩）
4. Transcendentalism: （超验主义）
Transcendentalism，which appeared after 1830, marked the maturity of American Romanticism and the first Renaissance in the American literary history. The term was derived from Latin ,meaning to rise above or to pass beyond the limits. It laid emphasis on spirit and individual and nature.
5. Jazz Age
Jazz age describe the period of 1920s and 1930s, the years between WW1 and WW2. With the rise of the Great Depression, the values of the age saw much decline. The most representative literature work is The Great Gatsby highlighting what some describe as the decadence and hedonism, as well as the growth of individualism.
6.Modernism(现代主义)Ezra Pound庞德
It is used to show the literary art possessing outstanding characteristics in conception, feeling ,form and style after the WWI. It means cutting off history and a sense of despair and loss. It refused to accept the traditional concept of value and all traditional ideological influences.
7. Original sin
The wrong doing of one generation lives into the successive ones. Human beings are basically depraved and corrupted, hence, they should obey God to atone for their sins.