The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Life on the Mississippi (1884) and
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). The characters he created were humorous and full of wittiness. Mark Twain’s work was regarded the witness of America’s pure local life. According to Calkins, “Few American writers have written the same after reading Twain, for he has helped change the entire country with his humor and skillful story telling.” (Carroll C.Calkins, 124).
(2) Rise of Realism
“Realism is the theory of writing in
which familiar aspects of contemporary life and everyday scenes represented in a straightforward or matter of fact manner“ (Wu Dingo, 59). Romantic writers focused on the development of plot, make the story as interesting and attractive as possible, while realism writers emphasized the characterization of characters, focused on objectivity rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.
William Dean Howells (1837-1920) insisted that Realism was the truthful treatment of material moral problems of society. And in O.Henry (1862-1910)’s fictions, all his characters were common people and always had an ironical and surprised ending.
There was another style of writing developed by Henry James (1843-1916), who was a writer focused on the description of psychology and behavior. He wrote some complex and profound novels such as The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassador, The Golden Bowl, and created psychological realism.
After the mid-19th century, the keynote of romantic literature changed form optimistic to doubtful. The sharp conflict of society force more writers’ attention to the unveiling of dark social fact and self-questioning.
Thought the writers of this time unveiled the misfortune and sadness or even degenerate things in actual life, they didn’t just took of the dark side of life as their material, most of them were the reformists with the hope of helping to create a
better nation. Stephen Crane (1871-1900) showed more and more serious problems in big sites in his Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, and his most famous book about the American Civil War called The Red Badge of Courage. He thought his works liked a mirror reflecting all life, he emphasized the accidental physiological nature of the characters rather than their moral and rational qualities. Stephen Crane had formed a new style called Naturalism,
which had influenced many following writers.
5. Modern American Literature
The First World War not only damaged the people’s life, but also led to a turbulent situation of the American society. People of this time were named “
The Lost Generation ”, and the writers and works had a pessimistic and disconsolate feeling.
(1) Modern poetry
Ezra Pound, T.S.Eliot and E.E Cummings are three poets who opened the way to modern poetry.
Ezra Pound started the “Imagist” movement, and his The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock has been called the first masterpiece of modernism. The Waste Land of T.S.Eliot particularly comments on the inhumanity and decadence of large modern cities.
(2) Modern novels
Many persons regarded that Ernest Hemingway and other important writers of 20th century had adopted the concise style and naturalism of Stephen Crane. Nevertheless, they still created their own styles and had written so many immortal masterpieces. Among the greatest were Ernest Hemingway (l899-1961) and William Faulkner (l897-1962).
Ernest Hemingway was once take part in the First Would War, so many of his works deal with war or injury, and nearly all of them examined the nature of courag, e. By suffering from the violent of war, he felt that he was cut off from all his old beliefs and assumptions about life. “He thought the War had broken America’s culture and traditions, and separated it from its toots” (Elisabeth B. Booz: 1982). The works he wrote--The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea—inferred the state of mind, and they became the representatives of the feeling of this generation.
Epilogue
American literature has gone though the progress of development over 200 years. It is characterized by the distinct individualism,
which is optimistic, free and always creative. The living American literature has been providing potent thinking headsprings for the writers past and nowadays, and it will continue reanimating the talents to bequeath and enrich the tradition of American literature, of
which deserved to be proud.
Bibliography转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net
共4页: 上一页 [1] [2] 3 [4] 下一页
网摘收藏:
当前位置:
载入中...
-> 在百度中搜索：
-> 在Google中搜索：