1.American Puritans理财道
The American Puritans, (just like their brothers back in England), wanted to make pure their religious beliefs and practices (or to purify the Church of England). They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement (or the salvation of a lected few) preached by John Calvin. It was this kind of religious belief that they brought with them into the wilderness. (There they meant to prove that they were God’s chon people enjoying His blessings on this earth as in heaven.)
2. American Romanticism
Romanticism came to America early in the nineteenth century (which coincided with the period of national expansion and the discovery of a distinctive American voice). Romantic ideas centered around art as inspiration (or as the best way to express universal truth), the spiritual and aesthetic dimension of nature. The general characteristics include moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man’s societies a source of corruption.
3. Transcendentalism
中央共青团委书记As a philosophical and literary movement, transcendentalism flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War. It exalted feelings over reason, individual expression over the restraints of law and custom. Transcendentalists believed in the transcendence of the “Oversoul”, and all pervading power for goodness from which all things come and of which all things are a part.
What is Transcendentalism? Emerson’s answer in his essay, “The Transcendentalist,” is probably the most definitive, “What is popularly called Transcendentalism among us”, he declares, “is idealism; idealism as appears in 1842”. What happened about this time was that some New Englanders, not quite happy about this materialistic-oriented life of their time. The word, “Transcendental”, as Emerson puts it, “Whatever belongs to be the class of intuitive thought”. The major features of New England Transcendentalism can be summarized as follows:
Firstly, the Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the univer. The oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, from which all things came and of which all were a part. It existed in nature and man alike and constituted the chief element of the univer. Now this, obviously, reprented a new way of looking at the world.
Secondly, the Transcendentalists stresd the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important element of society. As the regeneration of the individual, his perfection, his lf-culture and lf-improvement, and no the effort to get rich, should become the first concern of his life. The ideal type of man was the lf-reliant individual whom Emerson never stopped talking about all his life. The Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau were telling people to depend upon themlves for spiritual perfection if they cared to make the effort becau they thought that the individual soul communed with the Oversoul and was therefore divine. Now this new notion of the individual and his importance reprented a new way of looking at man.
Thirdly,鸡肉怎么炖好吃 the Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming prence. It was the garment of the Oversoul. Therefore, it could exerci a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind. What the Transcendentalists emed to be saying was: “Go back to nature, sink yourlf back into its influence and you’ll become spiritually whole again.” The natural implication of all this was that things in nature tended to become symbolic and the physical world as a symbol of the spiritual.
阿西里西4. American Realism
剩下的盛夏简谱Realism refers to the literary tendency appeared after the American Civil War. （The harsh realities of life as well as the disillusion of heroism resulting from the dark memories of the Civil War had t the nation against the romance. The Americans began to be tired of the ntimental feelings of Romanticism.）A new generation of writers, dissatisfied with the Romantic ideas in the older generation, came up with a new inspiration. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life. It
aimed at the interpretation of the actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. Instead of thinking about the mysteries of life and death and heroic individualism, people’s attention was now directed to the interesting features of everyday existence, to what was brutal or sordid, and to the open portray of class struggle. This literary interest in the so-called “reality” of life stared a new period in the American literary writings known as the Age of Realism.
5. American Naturalism
In America, Naturalism has been shaped by the war, by the social upheavals and by the disturbing teachings of Charles Darwin. It is a critical term that aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man. It evolved from realism when the author’s tone in writing becomes more ironic and pessimistic.
6. Local Colorism
Local color is a term applied to fiction or ver which emphasizes its tting, being concer骆驼祥子的启示
反思中国
ned with the character of a district or of an era, as marked by its customs, dialect, costumes, landscape, or other peculiarities that have escaped standardizing cultural influences.
7. Darwinism
暮雨潇潇The term comes from Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory. He thought that tho who survive in the world are the fittest. The who are not will perish. So the whole world is a battle ground for animal’s competition for existence. (And also in his The Origin of Species and Descent of Man,) he hypothesized that over the millennia man had evolved from lower forms of life. (Humans were special, not becau God had created them in his image, but becau they had successfully adapted to changing environmental conditions and pasd on there survival-making characteristics genetically. This idea has also been applied to explain the social phenomena of human beings.) Some American naturalist writers, influenced by this theory, also apply this idea in their writing.
