美国文学史期末复习_名词解释_简答term.doc

Black humor: the term black humor was created in 1920s, but it was not noticed until 1960s. it was particularly a literary phenomenon in America after WWⅡ. Black humor, in literature, is drama, novel, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic face. Josegh Heller and Kury Vonnegut are famous for their novels of black humor. Especially Heller’s Catch—22. Imagism: A poetic movement of England and the U.S. that flourished from 1909 to 1917. The movement insists on the creation of images in poetry by “the direct treatment of the thing” and the economy of wording. “poetic techniques to record exactly the momentary impressions” Three main principles of the Imagist Movement (1912) : [1] direct treatment of poetic subjects [2] elimination of merely ornamental or superfluous words, to use no word that does not contribute to the presentation. [3] rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence of a metronome. 4 pound’s In a Station of the Metro is a well-known poem. Local colorism: local colorism is a type of writing that was popular in the late 19th(1860s—1870s). The feature of local colorism are: (1) presenting a locale distinguished from the outside world; (2)describing the exotic of the picturesque; (3)glorifying the past; (4) showing things as they are; (5) influence of setting on characters. The well known local colorism authors were Mark Twain with his book Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Bret Harte’s with his The Luck of the Roaring Camp. American Puritanism: the settlement of North American continent by English started in the early 17th century. Under siege from church and crown, it sent an offshoot in the third and fourth decade