Abstract：Sherwood Anderson's works exhibit strong experimental style. The writer adopts the economy of diction and syntax to manifest the power of the content. Besides, he undermines the function of the plot, establishes the new genre of short story cycle with fragments and looseness as the core idea, and practices his philosophy of life that the epiphany in a series of intense moments is gained from the release of repressed inner feelings. Anderson's style responds to the vernacular style of Mark Twain and the prose experiment of Gertrude Stein, and exerts far-reaching influence on Ernest Hemingway's Minimalism and Iceberg Theory. As a representative of expressionism, Anderson's style signals a significant transition from realism to modernism in the history of American literature. In this sense, the simple form and the complicated literary value demonstrate the tension in Anderson's experimental style.

Keyword：Sherwood Anderson;Winesburg, Ohio;tension;experimental style;