Humanism is both the keynote of the Renaissance and the intellectual liberation movement. Humanists took interest in human life and human activities and gave expression to the new feeling of admiration for human beauty, human achievements and human reason and passion. The English humanists in this period are Thomas More(Utopia) and dramatists such as Christopher Marlowe( The Jew of Malta),William Shakespeare(The Merchant of Venice) and Ben Jonson(Volpone).
The metaphysical poets were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them, and whose work was characterized by inventiveness of metaphor (these involved comparisons being known as metaphysical conceits).
The term 'metaphysical poetry' is commonly used to name the work of the 17th-century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne(1572-1631),the author of A Valediction:Forbidding Mourning.
English Romanticism，as a literary movement,took place in Britain and then throughout the whole Europe between 1770 and 1832,emphasized the individual, the subiective, the irrational, the imaginative,the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary and the transcendental.English romantic poets are Byron,Shelley(Ode to the West Wind) , Keats(Ode to a Nightingale) and so on.
Critical Realism
Critical Realism is a term applied to the realistic fiction in the late 19th and early20th centuries.It means the tendency of writers and intellectuals in the period between1875and1920to apply the methods of realistic fiction to the criticism of society and the examination of social issues.Realist writers were all concerned about the fate of the common people and described what was faithful to reality.The most important critical realist is Charles Dickens(Oliver Twist). Theater of the Absurd
It is famous for its anti-drama qualities. It has no main plot. The characters lack a necessary social and personal background. They are deprived of any personality. Language fails to act as a means of true communication. These broken images reflect the debased position of modern man in the post-industrial society in a symbolic way.The representative is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Transcendentalism is the summit of the Romantic Movement in the history of American literature in the 19th century. In a literal sense, it means the belief that knowledge and principles of reality can be obtained by studying thought, not necessarily by practical experiences.The most important representatives are Ralph Waldo Emerson (Nature) and Henry David Thoreau (Walden).
American Realism :It refers to a literary movement that sprang up in the latter half of the 19th century in the United States. It is the theory of writing in which familiar aspects of contemporary life and everyday scenes are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact manner.It stresses truthful treatment of material.The representatives are Mark Twain(The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) and Henry James(Daisy Miller).
American Naturalism，as a literary movement, grew out of 19th century realism. It wanted to tell the whole truth about life and to represent contemporary reality faithfully.Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, S.Anderson’s Winesburg,Ohio and S.Lewis’s Main Street are representatives.
Imagism
It is a Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. It grew out of the Symbolist Movement in 1912 and was initially led by Ezra Pound(In a Station of the Metro).。