英美文学名词解释(二)

21. Ballad stanza: A type of four-line stanza. The first and third lines have four stressed words or syllables; the second and fourth lines have three stresses. Ballad meter is usually iambic. The number of unstressed syllables in each line may vary. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

22. Biography: A detailed account of a person’s life written by another person.

23. Blank verse: Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

24. Caesura诗间休止: A break or pause in a line of poetry.

25. Canto: A section or division of a long poem.

26. Caricature: The use of exaggeration or distortion to make a figure appear comic or ridiculous. A physical characteristic, an eccentricity, a personality trait, or an act may be exaggerated.

27. Character: In appreciating a short story, characters are an indispensable element. Characters are the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work. Forst divides characters into two types: flat character, which is presented without much individualizing detail; and round character, which is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity.

28. Characterizatiogogoo, the means by which a writer reveals that personality.

29. 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.

30. Climax: The 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.

31. Comedy: in general, a literary work that ends happily with a healthy, amicable armistice between the protagonist and society.

32. 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 entire poem. An especially unusual and intellectual kind of conceit is the metaphysical conceit.

33. 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.

34. Connotation: All the emotions and associations that a word or phrase may arouse. Connotation is distinct from denotation, w hich is the literal or “ dictionary” meaning of a word or phrase.

35. Consonance: The repetition of similar consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words.

36. Couplet: Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme. A heroic couplet is an iambic pentameter couplet.

37. Critical Realism: The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the

fouties 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.

38. Dactyl扬抑抑: It’s made up of one stressed and two unstressed syllables, with the stressed in front.

39. Denotation: The literal or “dictionary” meaning of a word.

40. Denouement结局: The outcome of a plot. The denouement is that part of a play, short story, novel, or narrative poem in which conflicts are resolved or unraveled, and mysteries and secrets connected with the plot are explained.

41. Description: It is a great part of conversation and of almost all writing. It is a part of autobiography, storytelling. With description, the writer tries terror, feel, and hear by showing rather than by merely telling. It’s through the use of specific d etails and concrete language that abstract ideas and half-formed thoughts are make vividly real. We have objective and subjective description.

42. Diction: A writer’s choice of words, particularly for clarity, effectiveness, and precision.

43. Dissonance: A harsh or disagreeable combination of sounds; discord.

44. 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.

45. 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.

46. Emblematic image: A verbal picture or figure with a long tradition of moral or religious meaning attached to it.

47. 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 egogo inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. The attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people.

48. 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.

49. Epigram: A short, witty, pointed statement often in the form of a poem.

50. Epigraph: A quotation or motto at the beginning of a chapter, book, short story, or poem that makes some point about the work.

51. Epilogue收场白: A short addition or conclusion at the end of a literary work.

52. Epiphany主显节: A moment of illumination, usually occurring at or near the end of a work.

53. Epitaph: An inscription on a gravestone or a short poem written in memory of someone who has died.

54. Epithet称号: A descriptive name or phrase used to characterize someone or something.

55. Era of Modernism: The years from 1910 to 1930 are often called the Era of Modernism, for there seems to have been in both Europe and America a strong awareness of some sort of “break” with the past. The new artists shared a desire to capture the complexity of modern life, to focus on the variety and confusion of the 20th century by reshaping and sometimes discarding the ideas and habits of the 19th century. The Era of Modernism was indeed the era of the New.

56. Essay: A piece of prose writing, usually short, that deals with a subject in a limited way and expresses a particular point or view. An essay may be serious or humorous, tightly organized or rambling, restrained or emotional. The two general classifications of essay are the informal essay and the formal essay. An informal essay is usually brief and is written as if the writer is talking informally to the reader about some topic, using a conversational style and a personal or humorous tone. By contrast, a formal essay is tightly organized, dignified in style, and serious in tone.

57. Exemplum说教故事: A tale, usually inserted into the text of a sermon that illustrates a moral principle.

58. Exposition: (1) That part of a narrative or drama in which important background information is revealed. (2) It is the kind of writing that is intended primarily to

present information. Exposition is one of the major forms of discourse. The most familiar form it takes is in essays. Exposition is also that part of a play in which important background information is revealed to the audience.

59. Fable: A fable is a short story, often with animals as its characters, which illustrate a moral.

60. Farce: A type of comedy based on a ridiculous situation, often with stereotyped characters. The humor in a farce is largely slapstick—that is, it often involves crude physical action. The characters in a farce are often the butts of practical jokes.