英国文学选读名词解释

Byronic hero： a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin，which is s a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Example: Don Juan by George Gordon Byron

Post colonialism is a specifically postmodern intellectual discourse that consists of reactions to, and analysis of, the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Post colonialism is defined in anthropology as the relations between nations and areas they colonized and once ruled. Example: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. A symbol is an object, action, or idea that represents something other than itself, often of a more abstract nature. Example:The Waste Land by T.S.Eliot

Mysticism: refers to conceal or hidden in ancient times ,it can also be thought of as a constellation of distinctive practices, discourses, texts, institutions, traditions, and experiences aimed at human transformation, variously defined in different traditions. Example: A Vision by William Butler Y eats

Ode: it is a dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem of some length, praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Example: Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats

Dramatic monologue: A literary, usually verse composition in which a speaker reveals his or her character, often in relation to a critical situation or event, in a monologue addressed to the reader or to a presumed listener.

Dramatic monologue:a monologue is a lengthy speech by a single person. Dramatic monologue does not designate a component in a play, but a type of lyric poem that was perfected by Robert Browning. By using dramatic monologue, a single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment. For example, Robert Browning’s famous poem “My Last Duchess” was written in dramatic monologue.

Naturalism:it first appeared in France, there naturalists including Zola turned especially to “slum life”, in England flourished in the 2nd half of 19th century; naturalists argued that literature reflect life, be “true to life”, writer must reproduce in his writings life exactly as it is, (including all details without any selection), theory of “a slice of life”; However, a fallacy, for impossible to include all the details in real life; only give the appearance of life but not its essence. In England, two outstanding writers in the last decades: George Gissing, George Moore.

Naturalism: a movement in theatre, film, and literature that seeks to repeat/copy a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism in which

subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalistic writers were influenced by the evolution theory of Charles Darwin. They believed that one's heredity and social environment decide one's character. Major writers include Crane, Dreiser and Norris in America; Hardy and Gissing in England. Art for art’s sake: It is the usual English version of a French slogan, from the early 19th century, and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only” true” art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian fu nction. The chief representative of the movement in England was Oscar Wilde, with his “picture of Dorian Gray”.

Modernism:Around the two world wars, many writers and artists began to suspect and be discontent with the capitalism. They tried to find new ways to express their understanding of the world. It was a movement of experiments in techniques in writing. It flourished in the 20s and 30s in English literature.They turned their interest to describing what was happening in the minds of their characters. Because of their emphasis on the psychological activities of the characters, their writings are also called psychological novels. The Representatives are W.B. Y eats and T.S. Eliot,D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Foster, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

Modernism: Modernism describes a group of cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The term covers a series of reforming movements in art, architecture, music, literature and the applied arts which emerged during this period. At its most basic level, Modernism could be described as the experimentation and fragmentation of the human experience, characterized by deviations from the norms of society. James Joyce, T.S Eliot, Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner are the representative writers.

Stream of consciousness: is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions. Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a character's fragmentary tho ughts and sensory feelings. James Joyce’s “Ulysses” is a representative of this kind of novel.