英国文学名词解释【整理后】
英国文学-名词解释-【整理后】汇编

1.epic 史诗:a long narrative poem, grand in style, about heroes and heroic deeds, embodying heroicideals of a nation or race in the making. Beowulf is the English national epic that was passed from mouth to mouth and written down by many unknown hands.2.Conceit:a kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things. Aconceit usually provides the framework for an entire poem. An especially unusual and intellectual kind of conceit is the metaphysical conceit, used by certain 17th-century poets, such as John Donne..3.Epiphany(顿悟): a sudden revelation of truth about life inspired by a seemingly trivial incident4.Metaphysical poetry:玄学诗派the poetry of John Donne and other 17th-century poets who wrotein a similar style. It is characterized by verbal wit and excess, ingenious structure, irregular meter, colloquial language, elaborate imagery, and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas .5.Stream of consciousness意识流: a kind of writing technique in which a character's perceptions, thoughts, andmemories are presented in an apparently random form, without regard for logical sequence, chronology, or syntax.Often such writing makes no distinction between various levels of reality--such as dreams, memories, imaginative thoughts or real sensory perception.6.heroic couplet 英雄双韵体two successive lines of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter. Geoffrey Chaucer’s masterpiece The Canterbury Tale was written in heroic couplet.7.ballad meter 民谣体traditionally a four-line stanza containing alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, usually with a refrain and the rhyme scheme of abcb. Robert Burns’ “A Red, Red Rose” is a great love ballad.8.9.sonnet 十四行诗a fixed form consisting of fourteen lines of 5-foot iambic verse. It first flourished in Italy in the 14thcentury. William Shakespeare was a great English sonnet writer famous for his 154 sonnets.10.iambic pentameter 五步抑扬格the basic line in English verse, with five feet in a line, usually an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. It was probably introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer and certainly established by him in The Canterbury Tales.11.image 意象a concrete representation of an object or sensory experience. Typically, such a representation helpsevoke the feelings associated with the object or experience itself. Many images are conveyed by figurative language. An image may be visual, olfactory, tactile, auditory, gustatory, abstract and kinaesthetic. The rose in Robert Bur ns’ poem “A Red, Red Rose” is a beautiful image.12.“Dramatic monologue”戏剧独白that is a lyric poem which reveals “ a soul in action” through the conversation of one character in a dramatic situation. T he character is speaking to an identifiable but silent listener at a dramatic monent in the speaker’s life.13.blank verse 无韵诗,素体诗unrhymed iambic pentameter, the most widely used of English verse forms and usually used in English dramatic and epic poetry. Willi am Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is written in blank verse.14.Sonnet is a verse form of fourteen lines, in English characteristically in iambic pentameter and most often in one ofthe two rhyme schemes: the Italian(or Petrarchan) or Shakespearean15.essay 散文a composition, usually in prose, which may be of only a few hundred words or of book length andwhich discusses, formally or informally, a topic or a variety of topics. It is one of the most flexible and adaptable of all literary forms. Francis Bacon is a great essayist; his “Of Studies” is a model of good essay.16.English Romanticism 英国浪漫主义a literary movement that aimed at free expression of the writer’s ideas and feelings and flourished inthe early 19th century England. A great representative of this movement is Percy Bysshe Shelley, the author of “Ode to the West Wind”.17.18.Naturalism自然主义: A literary movement seeking to depict life as accurately as possible, without artificialdistortions of emotion, idealism, and literary convention. The school of thought is a product of post-Darwinian biology in the nineteenth century.19.Sentimentalism感伤主义:It is a literal movement in the middle of the 18th century in England which concentrateson the distressed of the poor unfortunate and virtuous people and demonstrates that effusive emotion was evidence of kindness and goodness.20.21.Bildungsroman: a novel that traces the initiation, development, and education of a young person. Examples areDickens’s David Copperfield and James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.22.ke poets 湖畔诗人the three romantic poets who lived in the Lake District of England and wrote poems about nature.William Wordsworth was the most famous of the lake poets; he wrote many great nature poems, including “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”.24.25.poet laureate 桂冠诗人 A poet honored for his artistic achievement or selected as mostrepresentative of his country or era; in England, a court official appointed by the sovereign, whose original duties included the composition of odes in honor of the sovereign’s birthday and in celebration of state occasions of importance. William Wordsworth became poet laureate in 1843.26.Realism现实主义: An elastic and ambiguous term with two meanings. (1) First, it refers generally to any artistic orliterary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner, unclouded by false ideals, literary conventions, or misplaced aesthetic glorification and beautification of the world. It is a theory or tendency in writing to depict events in human life in a matter-of-fact, straightforward manner.27.Allegory is a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas ormoral qualities. Thus, an allegory is a story with two meaning, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.28.Byronic hero is a character-type found in Byron’s narrative Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. He is aboldly defiant but bitterly self-tormenting outcast, proudly contemptuous of social norms but suffering for some unnamed sin. Emily Bronte’s Heath cliff is a later example.29.30.启蒙运动:The 18th century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe, known as theEnlightenment, which was, on the whole, an expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempt to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual needs and requirements of people.31.English Renaissance 英国文艺复兴the literary flowering of England in the late 16th century and early 17th century, with humanism as its keynote. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is considered the summit of this renaissance.。
英国文学名词解释(整理版)

Allegory:A tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. An allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.Alliteration:The repetition of the initial consonant sounds in poetry.Antagonist:A person or force opposing the protagonist in a narrative; a rival of the hero or heroine. Antithesis:(a figure of speech) The balancing of two contrasting ideas, words phrases, or sentences. An antithesis is often expressed in a balanced sentence, that is, a sentence in which identical or similar grammatical structure is used to express contrasting ideas. Aside:In drama, lines spoken by a character in an undertone or directly to the audience. An aside is meant to be heard by the other characters onstage.Ballad:A story told in verse and usually meant to be sung. In many countries, the folk ballad was one of the earliest forms of literature. Folk ballads have no known authors. They were transmitted orally from generation to generation and were not set down in writing until centuries after they were first sung. The subject matter of folk ballads stems from the everyday life of the common people. Devices commonly used in ballads are the refrain, incremental repetition, and code language. A later form of ballad is the literary ballad, which imitates the style of the folk ballad.Biography:A detailed account of a person’s life written by another person.Blank verse:Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.Classicism:A movement or tendency in art, literature, or music that reflects the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Classicism emphasizes the traditional and the universal, and places value on reason, clarity, balance, and order. Classicism, with its concern for reason and universal themes, is traditionally opposed to Romanticism, which is concerned with emotions and personal themes.Climax:T he point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense in a gogotory’s turning point. The action leading to the climax and the simultaneous increase of tension in the plot are known as the rising action. All action after the climax is referred to as the falling action, or resolution. The term crisis is sometimes used interchangeably with climax. Comedy:in general, a literary work that ends happily with a healthy, amicable armistice between the protagonist and society.Conceit:A kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things.A conceit may be a brief metaphor, but it usually provides the framework for an entirepoem. An especially unusual and intellectual kind of conceit is the metaphysical conceit.Conflict:A struggle between two opposing forces or characters in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem. Usually the events of the story are all related to the conflict, and the conflict is resolved in some way by the story’s end.Couplet:Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhymed. A heroic couplet is an iambic pentameter couplet.Critical Realism:The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties. The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils.Dramatic monologue:A kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose replies are not given in the poem. The occasion is usually a crucial one in the speaker’s personality as well as the incident that is the subject of the poem.Elegy:A poem of mourning, usually over the death of an individual. An elegy is a type of lyric poem, usually formal in language and structure, and solemn or even melancholy in tone.Enlightenment:With the advent of the 18th century, in England, as in other European countries, there sprang into life a public movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeois against feudalism. The ego goes inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people. Epic:A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down. Essay:A piece of prose writing, usually short, that deals with a subject in a limited way and expresses a particular point or view.Free Verse:Verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern.Hyperbole:A figure of speech using exaggeration, or overstatement, for special effect.Iamb抑扬格:It is the most commonly used foot in English poetry, in which an unstressed syllable comes first, followed by a stressed syllable.Iambic pentameter:A poetic line consisting of five verse feet, with each foot an iamb—that is, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter is the most common verse line in English poetry.Irony:A contrast or an incongruity between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.Three kinds of irony are(1) verbal irony, in which a writer or speaker says one thing and means something entirely different;(2) dramatic irony, in which a reader or an audience perceives something that a character in the story or play does not know;(3) irony of situation, in which the writer shows a discrepancy between the expected results of some action or situation and its actual results.Lyric:A poem, usually a short one, that expre sses a speaker’s personal thoughts or feelings. The elegy, ode, and sonnet are all forms of the lyric.Morality play:An outgrowth of miracle plays. Morality plays were popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. In them, virtues and vices were personified.Myth:A story, often about immortals and sometimes connected with religious rituals, that is intended to give meaning to the mysteries of the world. Myths make it possible for people to understand and deal with things that they cannot control and often cannot see. A body of related myths that is accepted by a people is known as its mythology. A mythology tells a people what it is most concerned about.Narrator:One who narrates, or tells, a story. A story may be told by a first-person narrator, someone who is either a major or minor character in the story. Or a story may be told by a third-person narrator, someone who is not in the story at all. The word narrator can also refer to a character in a drama who guides the audience through the play, often commenting on the action and sometimes participating in it.Naturalism:An extreme form of realism. Naturalistic writers usually depict the sordid side of life and show characters who are severely, if not hopelessly, limited by their environment or heredity.Neoclassicism:A revival in the 17th agogo of order, balance, and harmony in literature.Ode:A complex and often lengthy lyric poem, written in a dignified formal style on some lofty or serious subject. Odes are often written for a special occasion, to honor a person or a season or to commemorate an event.Pathos:The quality in a work of literature or art that arouses the reader’s feelings of pity, sorrow, or compassion for a character. The term is usually used to refer to situations inwhich innocent characters suffer through no fault of their own.Poetry:The most distinctive characteristic of poetry is form and music. Poetry is concerned with not only what is said but how it is said. Poetry evokes emotions rather than express facts. Poetry means having a poetic experience. Imagination is also an essential quality of poetry. Poetry often leads us to new perceptions, new feelings and experiences of which we have not previously been aware.Protagonist:The central character of a drama, novel, short story, or narrative poem. The protagonist is the character on whom the action centers and with whom the reader sympathizes most. Usually the protagonist strives against an opposing force, or antagonist , to accomplish something.Renaissance:The term originally indicated a revival of classical (Greek and Roman) arts and sciences after the dark ages of medieval obscurantism.Romance:Any imagination literature that is set in an idealized world and that deals with a heroic adventures and battles between good characters and villains or monsters.Satire:A kind of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and wrongdoings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general. The aim of satirists is to set a moral standard for society, and they attempt to persuade the reader to see their point of view through the force of laughter.Song:A short lyric poem with distinct musical qualities, normally written to be set to music. In expresses a simple but intense emotion.Sonnet:A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter. A sonnet generally expresses a single theme or idea.Spenserian stanza:A nine-line stanza with the following rhyme scheme: ababbabcc. The first eight lines are written in iambic pentameter. The ninth line is written in iambic hexameter and is called an alexandrine.Stanza: It’s a structural division of a poem, consisting of a series of verse lines which usually comprise a recurring pattern of meter and thyme.Canto:A section or division of a long poem. The cantos can be a great lyric/poem Stream of consciousness: “Stream-of-Consciousness” or “interior monologue”, is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thought s, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them.Wit: A brilliance and quickness of perception combined with a cleverness of expression. In the 18th century, wit and nature were related-nature provided the rules of the universe; wit allowed these rules to be interpreted and expressed.。
(完整版)英国文学名词解释

①Beowulf: The national heroic epic of the English people. It has over 3,000 lines. It describes the battles between the two monsters and Beowulf, who won the battle finally and dead for the fatal wound. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero. The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use if alliteration. Other features of it are the use of metaphors(暗喻) and of understatements(含蓄).②Alliteration: In alliterative verse, certain accented(重音) words in a line begin with the same consonant sound(辅音). There are generally 4accents in a line, 3 of which show alliteration, as can be seen from the above quotation.③Romance:The most prevailing(流行的) kind of literature in feudal England was the Romance. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse(诗篇), sometimes in prose(散文), describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, usually a knight, as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournament(竞赛), or fighting for his lord in battle and the swearing of oaths.④Epic:An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significantly to a culture or nation. The first epics are known as primacy, or original epics.⑤Ballad: The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad which is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas(诗节), with the second and fourth lines rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters and class struggle. The paramount(卓越的) important ballad is Robin Hood(《绿林好汉》).⑥Geoffrey Chaucer杰弗里▪乔叟: He was an English author, poet, philosopher and diplomat. He is the founder of English poetry. He obtained a good knowledge of Latin, French and Italian. His best remembered narrative is the Canterbury Tales(《坎特伯雷故事集》), which the Prologue(序言) supplies a miniature(缩影) of the English society of Chaucer’s time. That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism”. Chaucer affirms men and women’s right to pursue their happiness on earth and opposes(反对) the dogma of asceticism(禁欲主义) preached(鼓吹) by the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life. Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic(抑扬格) meter(the “heroic couplet”) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.⑦【William Langland威廉▪朗兰: Piers the Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》】The English Bible:The first complete English Bible was translated by John Wycliffe(约翰▪威克里夫). The Authorized Version is King James Bible made in 1611. The result is a monument of English language and English literature.Renaissance:Renaissance or the birth of letters is an intellectual movement. Its two features are a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature and the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance.William Caxton威廉▪卡克斯顿: He is the first English printer and invented in England the profession of publisher.Thomas More托马斯▪莫尔:The greatest of the English humanists was Thomas More, the author of Utopia《乌托邦》. He is also one of such “giants”(巨匠) of the Renaissance. He distinguished himself as a learned scholar, a master of Latin, a witty talker, a lover of music, an honest statesman , and a man of noble character, modest but steadfast(坚定的), to his convictions. He was a far-sighted thinker, aspired for a totally new society with happy, classless, and free from poverty and exploitation. He was one of the forerunners of modern socialist thought.Utopia:It is More’s masterpiece, written in the form of a conservation between More and Hythloday, a returned voyager. It is divided into two books. The first book contains a long discussion on the social conditions of England. In the second book is described in detail an ideal communist society, Utopia. The name “Utopia” comes from Greek words meaning “no place” and was adopted by More as the name of his ideal commonwealth.Philip Sidney菲利普▪锡德尼: He is well-known as a poet and critic of poetry. His collection of love sonnets, Astrophel and Stella《爱星者与星》, was published in 1591.Edmund Spenser埃德蒙▪斯宾塞(莎翁之前最杰出的英国诗人):The poet’s poet of the period was ES who was buried beside Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. ES has held his position as a model of poetical art among the Renaissance English poets, and his influence can be traced in the works of Milton, Shelley, and Keats. ES is the first master to make that language the natural music of his poetic effusions(感情的流露). His sonnets in Amoretti, together with Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella and Shakespeare’s sonnets ,are the most famous sonnet sequences of the Elizabeth Age.【In 1579 he wrote The Shepherd’s Calendar《牧人日记》which marked the budding(萌芽) of the Renaissance flower in the northern island of England. The faerie Queen 《仙后》is his greatest work which was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.】Francis Bacon: He is the founder of English materialist philosophy and the founder of modern science in England. His New Instrument is called the Inductive Method of reasoning. He is also the first English essayist. To give a few, “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark..”“Studies serve for delight.”“Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing anexact man.”Drama: The Miracle Play圣迹剧The Morality Play道德剧寓意剧The Interlude幕间节目Christopher Marlowe克里斯托弗·马洛: The most gifted of the “university wits”was Christopher Marlowe. His best work include 3 of his plays, Tamburlaine《帖木儿大帝》(1587), The Jew of Malta《马耳岛的犹太人》(1592), and Doctor Faustus《浮士德博士》(1588). He was the greatest of the pioneers of English drama. His work paved the way for the plays of the greatest English dramatist——Shakespeare——whose achievements were the monument of the English Renaissance. 【His plays show the spirit of the rising bourgeoisie, its eager curiosity for knowledge, its towering pride, its insatiable(不知足的) appetite for power won by military, might, knowledge, or gold. The theme of his plays is the praise of individuality freed from the restraints of medieval dogmas and law, and the conviction of the boundless possibility of human efforts in conquering the universe. The heroes in his plays are merely individualists, their individualistic ambition often brings ruin to the world and sometimes to themselves.】William Shakespeare: Shakespeare is one of the founders of realism in world literature. His dramatic creation often used the method of adaptation. Shakespeare long experience with the stage and his intimate knowledge of dramatic art thus acquired make him a master hand for playwriting. Shakespeare was skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the sonnet, the couplet, and the dramatic blank verse. He was especially at home with the blank verse. Shakespeare was a great master of the English language. Shakespeare has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of the English Renaissance, and one of the greatest writers over the world.①The great comedies:A Midsummer Might’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It,Twelfth Night.②The great tragedies:Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth.The Merchant of V enice:威尼斯富商安东尼奥Antonio为了成全好友巴萨尼奥Bassanio的婚事,向犹太人高利贷者夏洛克Shylock借债。
英国文学史名词解释

英国文学史名词解释1、Romanticism:浪漫主义An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism.English literary romanticism is from the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads in 1798 to the death of Sir Walter Scott in 1832.2、Byronic hero: 拜伦式英雄an idealized but flawed character exemplified in the life and writings of Byron:*an exile流亡者, an outcast流浪者or an outlaw 歹徒*being cynical愤世嫉俗的, rebellious反抗的, lonely*against government, religion or moral values singly逐一地*being passionate热情的, energetic积极的, talented多才的3、ottava rima :Italian stanza form established by Boccaccio,An eight-line stanza of poetry in iambic pentameter (a five-foot line in which each foot consists of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable), following the abababcc rhyme scheme.4、Critical realism:批判现实主义English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties. The critical realists described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint. The representative realists of the time were Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, the Bronte sisters, Mrs. Gaskell, etc.The critical realists not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling class, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people.5、Dramatic monologue:戏剧独白a kind of poem in which a single fictional or historical character other than the poet speaks to a silent ‘audience’of one or mor e persons. Such poems reveal not the poet ‘s own thoughts; this distinguishes a dramatic monologue from a lyric,while the implied presence of an auditor distinguishes it from a soliloquy. Major examples of this form in English are Tennyson,Browning and T. S. Eliot.6、Aestheticism:美学主义the doctrine that regards beauty as an end in itself, and attempts to preserve the arts from subordination to moral, didactic, or political purposes. The term is often used synonymously with the Aesthetic Movement, a literary and artistic tendency of the late 19th century which may be understood as a further phase of Romanticism in reaction against vulgar bourgeois values of practical efficiency and morality.7、Naturalism:自然主义A literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions,heredity遗传and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character.8、Modernism:现代主义A general term applied to the wide range of experimental and avant-garde trends in literature of the early 20th century. It takes the irrational philosophy and the theory ofpsycho-analysis as its theoretical base. It is a reaction against realism. It rejects rationalism which is the theoretical base ofrealism; by advocating a free experimentation on new forms and new techniques in literary creation, it casts away almost all the traditional elements in literature such as story, plot, character, chronological narration etc. , which are essential to realism.9、Imagism:意象派A literary movement started by British and American poets early in the 20th century that advocated the use of short lyrics, free verse, common speech patterns, and clear concrete images. Greatly under the influence of Symbolism, and was initially led by Ezra Pound.10、Stream of Consciousness:意识流One of the modern literary techniques, which is used to depict the mental and emotional reactions of characters to external events, rather than plot, story themselves. It adopts the psycho-analytic approach in literary creation to explore the existence of sub-conscious and un-conscious elements in the mind. And it neglects totally “fetters of grammar, syntax, and logic”。
英国文学名词术语解释(已整理版)

Iambic pentameter is a commonly used type of metrical line in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm that the words establish in that line, which is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". The word "iambic" refers to the type of foot that is used, known as the iamb, which in English is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "feet".Iambic rhythms come relatively naturally in English. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry; it is used in many of the major English poetic forms, including blank verse, the heroic couplet, and some of the traditional rhymed stanza forms. William Shakespeare used iambic pentameter in his plays and sonnets.Allegory Allegories are typically used as literary devices or rhetorical devices that convey hidden meanings through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, and/or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey.Epic(史诗)An epic is a long oral narrative poem that operates on a grand scale and deals with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance .Most epics deal with the exploits of a single individual and also interlace the main narrative with myths, legends, folk tales and past events; there is a composite effect, the entire culture of a country cohering in the overall experience of the poem . Epic poems are not merely entertaining stories of legendary or historical heroes; they summarize and express the nature or ideals of an entire nation at a significant or crucial period of its history.简史P39Blank verse is poetry written in regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always iambic pentameters.[1] It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century"[2] and Paul Fussell has estimated that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."[3]Christopher Marlowe was the first English author to make full use of the potential of blank verse. The major achievements in English blank verse were made by William Shakespeare. Blank verse, of varying degrees of regularity, has been used quite frequently throughout the 20th century in original verse and in translations of narrative verse.Ode(颂歌) Long, often elaborate formal lyric poem of varying line lengths dealing with a subject matter and treating it reverently. It aims at glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Conventionally, many odes are written or dedicated to a specifie subject. For instance,Ode to the West Wind is about the winds that bring change of season in England. Ode to the Nightingale is about the nightingale that lures the poet temporarily away from his great misery. The earliest English odes include the Epithalamion and the Prothalamion,or marriage hymns by poet Edmund Spenser.Metaphysical poetry(玄学诗) a derogatory term invented by John Dryden(1631-1700 ) and later adopted by Samuel Johnson(1709-1784) describing a school of highly intellectual poetry marked by bold and ingenious conceits,incongruous imagery,complexity of thought,frequent use of paradox,and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression.The main themes of metaphysical poets are love,death,and religion.According to them,all things in the universe, no matter how dissimilar they are to each other,are closely unified in God.The chief representative of this school was John Donne.Byronic belonging to or derived from Lord Byron(1788-1824)or his works. The Byronic hero is a character-type found in his celebrated narrative poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage(1812-18),his verse drama Manfred(1817),and other works:he is a boldly defiant butbitterly self –tormenting outcast,proudly contemptuous of social norms but suffering for some unnamed sin. Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights(1847)is a later example.Heroic couplet a rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines:Let Observation with extensive ViewSurvey Mankind, from China to Peru (Johnson)Named from its use by Dryden and others in the heroic drama of the late 17th century,the heroic couplet had been established much earlier by Chaucer as a major English verse-form for narrative and other kinds of non-dramatic portry: it dominated English poetry of the 18th century,notably in the couplets of Pope,before declining in importance in the early 19th century.Soliloquy a dramatic speech uttered by one character speaking aloud while alone on the stage (or while under the impression of being alone).The soliloquist thus reveals his or her inner thoughts and feelings to the audience,either in supposed self-communion or in a consciously direct address. Soliloquies often appear in plays from the age of Shakespeare, notably in his Hamlet and Macbeth. A poem supposedly uttered by a solitary speaker,like Robert Browning’s‘Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister’(1842),may also be called a soliloquy. Soliloquy is a form of monologue,but a monologue is not a soliloquy if (as in the dramatic monologue) the speaker is not alone.简史P39 Sonnet a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length:iambic pentameters in English,alexandrines in French,hendecasyllables in ltalian. The rhyme schemes of the sonnet follow two basic patterns.①The Italian sonnet②The English sonnetSpenserian stanza (宾塞诗体)an English poetic stanza of nine iambic lines, the first eight being pentameters while the ninth is a longer line known either as an iambic hexameter or as an alexandrine.The rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc. The stanza is named after Edmund Spenser,who invented it------probably on the basis of the ottava rima stanza-----for his long allegorical romance The Faerie Queene (1590-6). It was revived successfully by the younger English Romantic poets of the early 19th century: Byron used it for Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage(1812,1816), Keats for‘The Eve of St Agnes’(1820),and Shelley for The Revolt of Islam (1818)and Adonais (1821).Lake poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey became known as the Lake Poets, because they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England. According to the critics, such as, Francis Jeffrey, Thomas De Quincey, the Lake Poets shared only friendship and brief periods of collaboration, not similar philosophies or poetic styles.Wordsworth used his imaginative powers to idealize nature, Coleridge explored the philosophical aspects of poetry,Southey's Romantic efforts centered on travel and adventure.Stream of Consciousness(意识流)Stream of Consciousness(意识流) :Stream of consciousness, which presents the thoughts of a character in the random, seemingly unorganized fashion in which the thinking process occurs, has the following characteristics. First, it reveals the action or plot through the mental processes of the characters rather than through the commentary of an omniscient author. Second, character development is achieved through revelation of extremely personal and often typical thought processes rather than through the creation of typical characters in typical circumstances. Third, the action of the plot seldom corresponds to real, chronological time, but moves back and forth through present time to memories of past events and drams of the future. Fourth, it replaces narration, description, and commentary with dramatic interior monologue and free association.Critical Realism (批判现实主义) Critical realism is one of the literary genres thatflourished mainly in the 19th century. It reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature. Here lies the essentially democratic and humanistic character of critical realism. The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people. In their best works, they used humor and satire to contrast the greed and hypocrisy of the upper classes with the honesty and good-heartedness of the obscure “simple people” of the lower classes. Humorous scenes set off the actions of the positive characters, and the humor is often tinged with a lyricism which serves to stress the fine qualities of such characters. At the same time,bitter satire and grotesque is used to expose the seamy side of the bourgeois society. The critical realists, however, did not find a way to eradicate the social evils they knew so well. They did not realize the necessity of changing the bourgeois society through conscious human effort. Their works do not point toward revolution but rather evolution or reformism. They often start with a powerful exposure of the ugliness of the bourgeois world in their works, but their novels usually have happy endings or an impotent compromise at the end. Here are the strength and weakness of critical realism.Classicism(古典主义): A movement or tendency in art, music, and literature to retain the characteristics found in work originating in classical Greece and Rome. It differs from Romanticism in that while Romanticism dwells on the emotional impact of a work, classicism concerns itself with form and discipline.Romanticism(浪漫主义) The term refers to the literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and early 19th century. Romanticism rejected the earlier philosophy of the Enlightenment, which stressed that logic and reason were the best response humans had in the face of cruelty, stupidity, superstition, and barbarism. Instead ,the Romantics asserted that reliance upon emotion and natural passions provided a valid and powerful means of knowing and a reliable guide to ethics and living.The Romantic movement typically asserts the unique nature of the individual, the privileged status of imagination and fancy, the value of spontaneity over “artifice”and “convention”, the human need for emotional outlets, the rejection of civilized corruption, and a desire to return to natural primitivism and escape the spiritual destruction of urban life Their writings are often set in rural, or Gothic settings and they show an obsessive concern with “innocent”characters----children, young lovers, and animals. The major Romantic poets included William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats , Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Gordon Byron.Aestheticism( 美学主义) The basic theory of the Aesthetic movement----“art for art’s sake”----was set forth by a French poet, Theophile Gautier. The first Englishman who wrote about the theory of aestheticism was Walter Pater, the most important critical writer of the late 19th century. The chief representative of the movement in England was Oscar Wilde,with his Picture of Dorian Gray. Aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, not art imitate life. According to the aesthetes, all artistic creation is absolutely subjective as opposed to objective. Art should be free from any influence of egoism. Only when art is for art’s sake,can it be immortal They believed that art should be unconcerned with controversial issues, such as politics and morality, and that it should be restricted to contributing beauty in a highly polished style. This was one of the reactions against the materialism and commercialism of the Victorian industrial era, as well as a reaction against the Victorian convention of art for morality’s sake, or art for money’s sake.Neoclassicism The term mainly applies to the classical tendency which dominated the literature of the early period. It was, at least in part, the result of a reaction against the fires of passion which had blazed in the late Renaissance, especially in the metaphysical poetry. It found itsartistic models in the classical literature of the ancient Greek and Roman writers like Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, etc. and in the contemporary French writers such as V oltaire and Diderot. It put the stress on the classical artistic ideals of order, logic, proportion, restrained emotion, accuracy, good taste and decorum.Such elegant styles were found in almost all the writings of the period, especially in those of John Dryden, Alexander Pope,Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Henry Fielding, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edward Gibbon , the man who wrote the famous history The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire(1776―1788) , and other neoclassicist writers. They were careful imitators. Their approach was thoroughly professional. Their works, mostly refined and perfect, are conscientious craftsmanship and often highly didactic. Neoclassical poetry , as represented by Dryden, Pope, and Johnson, reached its stylistic perfection during the period, although to the modem readers it seems to lack in imagination and energy. The neoclassical poetry is one of the most significant phenomena in the literature of the age, to which it has given its name.Naturalism(自然主义): 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.Neo-Romanticism(新浪漫主义): it appeared at the end of 19th century and represented by Robert Louis Stevenson; it protests against the ugly social reality of their day but taking no positive steps about it,in a sense another form of escapism; dissatisfied with the contemporary reality, but at best a mild dissatisfaction; tried to find interest or enjoyment out from sheer imagination and fancy by creating exciting events and romantic characters that can hardly exist in reality,indulge in the description of exciting adventures in distant lands to deal with the heroic, to lay emphasis on the complexity and sensationalism of the material, Treasure Island, the representative in this school.Modernism(现代主义): 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. Yeats and T.S. Eliot,D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Foster, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.。
英国文学下名词解释

英国文学下名词解释英国文学是一个重要的文学流派,它涵盖了从中世纪到21世纪的大量文学作品。
它的特点是将传统的文学元素和新的思想融合在一起,多元文化融合成一个独特的文学文化。
英国文学下的名词解释包括:一、浪漫主义(Romanticism):浪漫主义是一种文学流派,它着重于个人情感和想象力。
浪漫主义以自然、传统文化和古老传说为主题,把人的情感和自然的美放在首位。
典型的浪漫主义作品有《失乐园》、《格列佛游记》等。
二、文艺复兴(Renaissance):文艺复兴是一个文学思想的运动,它的特点是主张摆脱经受中世纪压迫的宗教仰,重视人的自由意志和人文主义思想。
它的典型代表作有《哥白尼原始纲要》、《莎士比亚戏剧》等。
三、古典主义(Classicism):古典主义是一种文学流派,它强调传统文学的艺术价值,以及把文学作品和艺术结合在一起。
古典主义文学作品着重结构完整、内容严谨、文字精致,典型的古典主义作品有《阿瑟王》、《费尔南多与玛丽亚》等。
四、海明主义(Hemingwayism):海明主义是一种文学流派,它的特点是简洁、精准、讽刺、抒情,着重于展示现实世界的真实面貌。
海明的代表作有《老人与海》、《猎人》等。
英国文学的多样性反映了英国文化的发展和多元文化的融合,这种多样性使英国文学在世界文学史上占有重要地位。
浪漫主义、文艺复兴、古典主义和海明主义是英国文学发展史中重要的文学流派,它们都给英国文学提供了新的思想,使英国文学不断发展壮大。
浪漫主义以自然和传统文化为主题,着重于情感和想象力,是一种表现个人内心世界的文学流派。
文艺复兴是一个文学思想运动,它强调人文主义思想,重视自由意志和人的尊严。
古典主义是一种文学流派,它着重于文学作品的艺术价值,追求文学作品的结构完整性和文字精致性。
海明主义是一种文学流派,它以简洁、精准、讽刺、抒情为特点,展示现实生活的真实面貌。
英国文学的多样性和文学流派的多元化,使英国文学在世界文学史上独树一帜,成为一种独特的文学文化。
英国文学 名词解释

英国文学名词解释
英国文学是指英格兰、苏格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰地区的文学作品。
它的历史可以追溯到中世纪,经历了文艺复兴时期、启蒙时代、浪漫主义时期、维多利亚时代等不同的文学风格和时期。
英国文学的特点之一是其丰富多样的文学形式。
从中世纪的骑士传奇和中世纪诗歌到现代小说和诗歌,英国文学涵盖了各种各样的文学体裁。
其中一些最重要的文学体裁包括史诗、戏剧、诗歌、小说和散文。
这些不同的文学形式为英国文学带来了不同的风格和主题。
英国文学的另一个重要特点是其丰富多样的主题和风格。
从中世纪的宗教作品和史诗到现代小说和诗歌,英国文学涵盖了各种各样的主题。
它反映了社会、政治、宗教和文化变革的演变。
一些最常见的主题包括爱情、战争、自然、宗教、社会道德和个人发展。
不同的作家和时代也采用了不同的文学风格和技巧来表达这些主题。
英国文学的另一个重要方面是它的历史和文化意义。
通过阅读英国文学作品,我们可以了解英国历史的演变,了解英国社会和文化的发展。
英国文学作品中经常出现的历史事件、人物和地点也成为了文学研究和文化遗产的重要组成部分。
在英国文学中,有很多重要的作家和作品。
莎士比亚、狄更斯、奥斯卡·王尔德、简·奥斯汀和弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫都是英国文学史上的重要人物。
他们的作品不仅在英国有着广泛的影响力,也
对世界文学产生了重要的影响。
总之,英国文学是一个丰富多样的文学传统,它的作品涵盖了各种各样的文学形式、主题和风格。
通过阅读和研究英国文学作品,我们可以深入了解英国的历史、文化和文学发展。
英国文学的一些名词解释

英国文学的一些名词解释英国文学是世界文学宝库中的明珠,众多文学名著诞生于这片土地上。
提到英国文学,我们不仅仅要了解其中众多名著的作者和故事情节,我们还需要掌握一些专业术语和概念。
在本文中,我将为大家解释一些与英国文学相关的名词,帮助读者更好地理解英国文学的精髓。
一、浪漫主义浪漫主义是18世纪末到19世纪初兴起的一种文学运动,它强调个人感受、想象力和超凡脱俗的体验。
浪漫主义充满了激情和对自然、人类内心世界的热爱。
在英国文学史上,浪漫主义给予了众多优秀的作品,如《弗兰肯斯坦》、《唐吉诃德》等。
二、维多利亚时代维多利亚时代是指1837年至1901年英国女王维多利亚统治下的时期。
这个时代是英国工业革命达到巅峰的时期,但也是社会动荡和不平等的时期。
维多利亚时代的文学作品通常描写社会阶级落差、人性的复杂以及对女性地位的思考。
其中最著名的代表作品包括《雾都孤儿》、《呼啸山庄》等。
三、现代主义现代主义是20世纪初兴起的一种文学运动,它试图打破传统的叙事形式,挑战读者的理解和想象力。
现代主义作品通常以碎片化的结构、内心独白和流露出的不确定性为特点。
英国文学史上的现代主义代表作品有《尤利西斯》、《荒原》等。
四、战后文学战后文学是指第二次世界大战结束后,英国文学的新兴潮流。
在这一时期,英国文学持续呈现多样性和实验性。
战后文学关注社会变革、性别政治以及民族认同,并通过多种不同的写作风格和技巧来探索个体心理和文化理解。
该时期的代表作品包括《动物农场》、《1984》等。
五、北方现实主义北方现实主义是19世纪中叶至20世纪初期在英国出现的文学派别,它对于社会的现象和底层人民的生存状况进行了深刻而真实的描写。
北方现实主义作品通常关注社会困境和阶级冲突,以真实主义的手法展现人物的命运和社会环境的影响。
代表作品有《红与黑》、《战争与和平》等。
六、文学奖项文学奖项是评选和表彰优秀文学作品和作者的机构或组织举办的活动,也是文学界的重要盛事。
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1.epic 史诗:a long narrative poem, grand in style, about heroes and heroic deeds, embodying heroicideals of a nation or race in the making. Beowulf is the English national epic that was passed from mouth to mouth and written down by many unknown hands.2.Conceit:a kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things. Aconceit usually provides the framework for an entire poem. An especially unusual and intellectual kind of conceit is the metaphysical conceit, used by certain 17th-century poets, such as John Donne..3.Epiphany(顿悟): a sudden revelation of truth about life inspired by a seemingly trivial incident4.Metaphysical poetry:玄学诗派the poetry of John Donne and other 17th-century poets who wrotein a similar style. It is characterized by verbal wit and excess, ingenious structure, irregular meter, colloquial language, elaborate imagery, and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas .5.Stream of consciousness意识流: a kind of writing technique in which a character's perceptions, thoughts, andmemories are presented in an apparently random form, without regard for logical sequence, chronology, or syntax.Often such writing makes no distinction between various levels of reality--such as dreams, memories, imaginative thoughts or real sensory perception.6.heroic couplet 英雄双韵体two successive lines of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter. Geoffrey Chaucer’s masterpiece The Canterbury Tale was written in heroic couplet.7.ballad meter 民谣体traditionally a four-line stanza containing alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, usually with a refrain and the rhyme scheme of abcb. Robert Burns’ “A Red, Red Rose” is a great love ballad.8.sonnet 十四行诗a fixed form consisting of fourteen lines of 5-foot iambic verse. It first flourished in Italy in the 14thcentury. William Shakespeare was a great English sonnet writer famous for his 154 sonnets.9.iambic pentameter 五步抑扬格the basic line in English verse, with five feet in a line, usually an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. It was probably introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer and certainly established by him in The Canterbury Tales.10.image 意象a concrete representation of an object or sensory experience. Typically, such a representation helpsevoke the feelings associated with the object or experience itself. Many images are conveyed by figurative language. An image may be visual, olfactory, tactile, auditory, gustatory, abstract and kinaesthetic. The rose in Robert Burns’ poem “A Red, Red Rose” is a beautiful image.11.“Dramatic monologue”戏剧独白that is a lyric poem which reveals “ a soul in action” through the conversation of one character in a dramatic situation. T he character is speaking to an identifiable but silent listener at a dramatic monent in the speaker’s life.12.blank verse 无韵诗,素体诗unrhymed iambic pentameter, the most widely used of English verse forms and usually used in English dramatic and epic poetry. William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is written in blank verse.13.Sonnet is a verse form of fourteen lines, in English characteristically in iambic pentameter and most often in one ofthe two rhyme schemes: the Italian(or Petrarchan) or Shakespearean14.essay 散文a composition, usually in prose, which may be of only a few hundred words or of book length andwhich discusses, formally or informally, a topic or a variety of topics. It is one of the most flexible and adaptable of all literary forms. Francis Bacon is a great essayist; his “Of Studies” is a model of good essay.15.English Romanticism 英国浪漫主义a literary movement that aimed at free expres sion of the writer’s ideas and feelings and flourished inthe early 19th century England. A great representative of this movement is Percy Bysshe Shelley, the author of “Ode to the West Wind”.16.Naturalism自然主义: A literary movement seeking to depict life as accurately as possible, without artificialdistortions of emotion, idealism, and literary convention. The school of thought is a product of post-Darwinian biology in the nineteenth century.17.Sentimentalism感伤主义:It is a literal movement in the middle of the 18th century in England which concentrateson the distressed of the poor unfortunate and virtuous people and demonstrates that effusive emotion was evidence of kindness and goodness.18.Bildungsroman: a novel that traces the initiation, development, and education of a young person. Examples areDickens’s David Copperfield and James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.ke poets 湖畔诗人the three romantic poets who lived in the Lake District of England and wrote poems about nature.William Wordsworth was the most famous of the lake poets; he wrote many great nature poems, including “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”.20.poet laureate 桂冠诗人 A poet honored for his artistic achievement or selected as mostrepresentative of his country or era; in England, a court official appointed by the sovereign, whose original duties included the composition of odes in honor of the sovereign’s birthday and in celebration of state occasions of importance. William Wordsworth became poet laureate in 1843. 21.Realism现实主义: An elastic and ambiguous term with two meanings. (1) First, it refers generally to any artistic orliterary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner, unclouded by false ideals, literary conventions, or misplaced aesthetic glorification and beautification of the world. It is a theory or tendency in writing to depict events in human life in a matter-of-fact, straightforward manner.22.Allegory is a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas ormoral qualities. Thus, an allegory is a story with two meaning, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.23.Byronic hero is a character-type found in Byron’s narrative Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. He is aboldly defiant but bitterly self-tormenting outcast, proudly contemptuous of social norms but suffering for some unnamed sin. Emily Bronte’s Heath cliff is a later example.24.启蒙运动:The 18th century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe, known as theEnlightenment, which was, on the whole, an expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempt to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual needs and requirements of people.25.English Renaissance 英国文艺复兴the literary flowering of England in the late 16th century and early 17th century, with humanism as its keynote. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is considered the summit of this renaissance.。