Puritanism:
clergyman
A religious doctrine that advocates hard work, self-discipline, thrift, and sobriety, regards labour as one’s divine task, without the enjoyment of the fruit of the labour. The purpose is to purify the corrupted church as had been established by Jesus Chris himself.
John cotton and William roger 
Romanticism
Is intellectual movement originating in Germany at the end of 18th century that gained strength in Western Europe after the Industrial Revolution, in the reaction to the social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, its scientific rationalization of nature. The romantic values revolved around the full spectrum of the human emotional side embracing its instincts and rejecting the conventions of the Age of Reason.
Romanticism的特点：frequently shared certain general characteristics, moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that he natural
world was a source of corruption.
Transcendentalism
as a moral philosophy, transcendentalism was neither logical nor systematized. It exalted feeling over reason, individual expression over the restraints of law and custom.2) they spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of American society. 3）they believe in the transcendence of "over soul", an all-pervading power for goodness from which all things come and of which all things are a part. 
Emerson 第一个提出  idealism
代表人物：Emerson，believed that man was a part of absolute good。
Thoreau ，beheld divinity in the “unspotted innocence” of nature.
Social &cultural background
1 a protest of intellectualism and doctrine of the church
2 a protest of foreign influences
A idealistic philosophy of German & France (Fichte Schelling and Kant)
B oriental mysticism Hindu works, Buddhism/the doctrine and philosophy of Chinese Confucius and Mencius
3 product of the dual heritage of American Puritanism
Inner communication of the soul with God/puritan principle of self culture and self-improvement.
Features: 1 emphasis on the spirit or over soul 2 emphasis on the importance of individual 3 nature as the symbolic of God/spirit/over soul
Realism
is a movement in European and American literature from 1830s to the end of the century. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life. It aimed at th
e interpretation of the actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic colour. It expressed the concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, and for the familiar and the low.
代表作家：William Dean Howells Mark Twain and Henry James
1. Changes for the better
2. Changes for the worse
Naturalism
“is the application of the principles of scientific determinism to fiction and drama” in the last decade of 19th century.
Associated with realism, they shared emphasis on the depicting surface reality, but naturalism was more inclusive and less selective than realism. It emphasized the limited ability of humans to impose will upon their own destiny.
Topics of literature in America
1. Object of study: lower ranks of society and misery, poverty of the “underdogs”2. Theme: human bestiality, esp. as an explanation of the sexual desire.3. Mood: pessimistic
Representatives: Jack London Stephen Crane Theodore Dreiser Frank Norris
Washington Irving  the first great belletrist 第一个纯文学作家
三个主要contribution  ① the first great prose stylist of American romanticism.②“Sketch Book” Rip van winkle The legend of Sleepy Hollow-Icabod Crane
The father of American literature or the father of American letters
Nathaniel Hawthorne（1804—1864）
Theory of Sin: unpardonable sin---There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps through the whole life; but circumstance may rouse it to activity.
“The Scarlet Letter”
Characters: Hester Prynne: heroine----Pearl Dimmesdale: a young clergyman
Chillingworth: rigid priest
Symbols“A” : a. Punishment, shame/disgrace, immorality and sin. B. able, angel and charity; pride
Theme: 1it focuses on the nature of the individual and the individual relationship with the community 2The implication of self-reliance, the difference between the private and the public character and the consequences of passion and repression are discussed.
Significance: 1 he was the first major novelist in English to combine morality with art. 2 he is significant for the themes with regard to : the consequences of pride, selfishness, and secret guilt and so on. 3 he is significant for his style of writing romance, which he though a predestined from American narrative.

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