美国文学术语解释.docVIP

1. American Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and briefs of the Puritans. As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purify their religious beliefs and practices. The American Puritans, like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the church should be restored to complete “purity”. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. But in the grim struggle for survival, they became more and more practical and built a way of life that stressed hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety. So they were practical idealists. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind and American literature as Confucianism did on Chinese. It encouraged Americans fighting the bad and harsh condition. The American Puritan’s metaphorical mode was chiefly used in the American literary symbolism. This kind of puritan minds formed part of the intellectual tradition. Some writers, such as, Hawthorne, Melville, Howells, were very skillful at symbolism. Another influence on literature is simplicity. So their writing style is fresh, simple and direct. 2. Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants or consonant clusters, in a group of words. Sometimes the term is limited to the repetition of initial consonant sounds. When alliteration occurs at the beginning of words, it is called initial alliteration; when it occurs within words, it is called internal or hidden alliteration. It usually occurs on stressed syllables. Although alliteration sometimes appears in prose, it is mainly a poetic device. Like other forms of sound repetition, alliteration in poetry serves two important purposes: it is pleasing to the ear, and it emphasizes the words in which it occurs. A well-known example of alliteration is this line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan”: “Five miles meandering with a mazy motion.” Alliteration