美国文学史复习提纲.doc

I. Explain the following literary terms. Romanticism The most profound and comprehensive idea of romanticism is the vision of a greater personal freedom for the individual. Appeals to imagination; Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, geniality. Subjectivity: in form and meaning. American transcendentalism American transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy and literature that flourished during the early to middle years of the nineteenth century (about 1836-1860).?For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains. Realism: “nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.” the Civil war a. verisimilitude of details derived from observation b. representative in plot, setting and character c. an objective rather than an idealized view of human experience 4. Modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both HYPERLINK "/wiki/Social_progress" \o "Social progress" progressive and HYPERLINK "/wiki/Optimism" \o "Optimism" optimistic. The general term covers many political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in HYPERLINK "/wiki/Western_culture" \o "Western culture" Western society at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at the turn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century. II. Questions and Answers. Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English. What is local color？ an amalgam of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things immediately observable: the