美国文学史网(4)

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:

1. Carroll C.Calkins, The story of America, New York: The Readers Digest Association, Inc, 1975

2. Elisabeth B. Booz, A Brief Introduction To Modern American Literature 1919-1980, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1982

3. 柯恩, Landmarks of American Literature, 北京: 三联书店, 1988

4. Wu Dingbo, An outline of American literature, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1998

5. Edited by W. P. Trent, J. Erskine & S. P. Sherman, The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Cambridge, England: University Press, 1997