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1、The Age of Realism,现实主义文学时期,The year 1865 is considered as an important year in the shift from Romanticism （浪漫主义）to Realism （现实主义）in American literatureRealism had always existed in literature，but yet not until the late nineteenth century did realism dominate in American LiteratureThe American socie
2、ty after the Civil War (18611865) provided rich soil for the rise and development of Realism,The Civil War was a turning point in American historyIt brought Americas great change from an agrarian （农业的）to an industrial societyThe principal issue of the war was the conflict between industry and capita
3、list dermocracy （民主） in the North and agriculture and slavery in the SouthThe war ended with the overwhelming triumph of industrialism over agrarianism. The War brought many great changes to every aspect of American people.,The Civil War destroyed the romantic concept of war. In the eyes of romantic
4、ists，wars were always glorious, grand，and noble encounters，something heroic. However, the amazing number of dead soldiers made it hard for people to have a noble vision of mankind any more. Therefore, Mark Twain once described man as “the only animal who indulged in one after another of the atrocity
5、 （凶恶，残暴） of war” This statement is a representative attitude of the post-Civil War writers in AmericaTo them，there is nothing romantic about war,Moreover, the Civil War also changed American peoples views on values, morality and religionBefore the Civil War，the puritan ethic （清教的价值观）was the dominant
6、 morality in AmericaPuritans believed in the principles of evil and“salvation”. They considered perseverance （坚持不懈），stark （全然的）simplicity，and strenuous （艰苦，繁重的）good works as virtue，and regarded idleness，drunkenness and sexual immorality as depravity （堕落）.,However，materialism had shaken the religious
7、 conviction of the Puritans. Stimulated by materialism，people were eager to pursue money and enjoyed the pleasures of lifeThey became dubious about human nature and Gods benevolence （仁慈）. The Civil War marked a deterioration （恶化）of American moral values,Another important effect of the Civil War was
8、American industrialization and urbanization （城市化） with its accompanying social diseasesWith the war, there was an explosive growth of business and industry This growth is symbolically shown in the rapid development of the railroadThe 35,000 miles of railroad track of 1865 increased to about 2,000,00
9、0 miles by the end of the century,The improvements in industrial technology and transportation provided the incentive （刺激）and capacity for large-scale agriculture，manufacturing，and miningWith the development of industry，more and more factories appeared，and urbanization was required and facilitated b
10、y industrialization,Nevertheless, industrialization and the urbanization were accompanied by the incalculable sufferings of the laboring peopleBeing attracted by higher pay, many farmers flocked （蜂拥至）to the industrialized citiesTherefore, in the cities there were an oversupply of labor，which kept wa
11、ges down and allowed the industrialists to offer workers adverse （恶劣）working conditions,Wealth was more than ever in the possession of the few - bankers and industrialists -with the poor poorer and the rich richerIt was the beginning of what Mark Twain called“The Gilded Age（镀金时代）”，an age of extremes
12、（充满极端和对立的时代）of decline and progress，of poverty and dazzling wealth，of gloom and buoyant （持续上涨的） hope,The post-Civil War years were a period of great plunder （掠夺）and exploitation，of greedy materialism and political corruption All the accompanying social diseases，especially slum （贫民窟）conditions，child
13、labor，poverty，crime，and labor strikes became reflected in American literature.,The above political，social and moral changes have influenced American writers in both theme and technique After the Civil War，there appeared a new generation of writers who were dissatisfied with the optimistic ideas of t
14、he Romanticists and showed a great interest in the realities of life.,These realist writers sought to portray American life as it really was. They insist that the ordinary and the local were as suitable for artistic portrayal as the magnificent and the remote. They tried their best to create a new k
15、ind of literature that was completely realistic,Realism first appeared in the United States in literature with local, an amalgam （混合物） of romantic plots and realistic description of things immediately observable：the dialects，customs，sights，and sounds of reginal America.,We can see this in the true-t
16、o-life descriptions of Bret Harte，William Dean Howells, Hamlin Garland，and Mark TwainBret Harte is the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularityHe presents stories about western mining town involving colorful gamblers，outlaws，and scandalous （丑恶可耻的）women,Thereafter editors ever sensitive to public taste （大众的阅读兴趣）demanded such works，and writers including Harte, Harriet Beecher Stowe，and Mark Twain provided regional stories and tales of the lives of Americas Westerners，
