关于英美文学重点名词解释汇总.doc

American Puritanism Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church, who came into existence in the reigns Queen Elizabeth and King JamesⅠ. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them Puritans. Characteristics of Local Color 1. Settings are frequently remote and inaccessible 2. Characters may become character types, sometimes quaint or stereotypical. 3. The narrator is typically an educated observer from the world beyond 4. Stories may revolve around the community and its rituals. 5. An antipathy to change and a nostalgia for an always-past golden age Darwinism Social Darwinism is a belief that societies and individual human beings compete in a struggle for existence in which natural selection results in “struggle of the fittest.” Social Darwinists base their beliefs on theories of evolution developed by British naturalist Charles Darwin. Social Darwinists typically deny that they advocate a “law of jungle.” But most propose arguments that justify imbalances of power between individuals, races, and nations, because they consider some more fit to survive than others. The theory had produced a big impact on Naturalism. Emersonian Transcendentalism Emersonian Transcendentalism is actually a philosophical school which absorbed some ideological concerns of American Puritanism and European Romanticism, with its focus on the intuitive knowledge of human beings to grasp the absolute in the universe and the divinity of man. In his essays, Emerson put forward his philosophy of the over-soul, the importance of the Individual, and Nature. Expressionism Expressionism is used to describe the works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision, transforming nature rather than imitating it. In literature it is often considered a revolt against realism and naturalism, a seeking t