英美文学名词解释TermsinEnglishLiterature
英美文学之文学术语
英美文学之文学术语文学术语汇编11.Literature of the absurd: (荒诞派文学) The term is applied to a number of works in drama and prose fiction which have in common the sense that the human condition is essentially absurd, and that this condition can be adequately represented only in works of literature that are themselves absurd. The current movement emerged in France after the Second World War, as a rebellion against essential beliefs and values of traditional culture and traditional literature. They hold the belief that a human being is an isolated existent who is cast into an alien universe and the human life in its fruitless search for purpose and meaning is both anguish and absurd.2.Theater of the absurd: (荒诞派戏剧) belongs to literature of the absurd. Two representatives of this school are Eugene Ionesco, French author of The Bald Soprano (1949) (此作品中文译名<秃头歌女>), and Samuel Beckett, Irish author of Waiting for Godot (1954) (此作品是荒诞派戏剧代表作<等待戈多>). They project the irrationalism, helplessness and absurdity of life in dramatic forms that reject realistic settings, logical reasoning, or a coherently evolving plot.3.Black comedy or black humor: (黑色幽默) it mostly employed to describe baleful, naïve, or inept characters in a fantastic or nightmarish modern world playing out their roles in what Ionesco called a “tragic farce”, in which the events are often simultaneously comic, horrifying, and absurd. Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (美国著名作家约瑟夫海勒<二十二条军规>) can be taken as an example of the employment of this technique.文学术语汇编24. Aestheticism or the Aesthetic Movement（唯美主义）: it began to prevail in Europe at the middle of the 19th century. The theory of “art for art’s sake” was first put forward by some French artists. They declared that art should serve no religious, moral or social purpose. The two most important representatives of aestheticists in English literature are Walt Pater and Oscar Wilde.5. Allegory（寓言）: a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities, such as John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. An allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.6. Fable（寓言）: is a short narrative, in prose or verse, that exemplifies an abstract moral thesis or principle of human behavior. Most common is the beast fable, in which animals talk and act like the human types they represent. The fables in Western cultures derive mainly from the stories attributed to Aesop, a Greek slave of the sixth century B. C.7. Parable（寓言）: is a very short narrative about human beings presented so as to stress analogy with a general lesson that the narrator is trying to bring home to his audience. For example, the Bible contains lots of parables employed by Jesus Christ to make his flock understand his preach.(注意以上三个词在汉语中都翻译成语言，但是内涵并不相同，不要搞混)8. Alliteration（头韵）: the repetition of the initial consonant sounds. In Old English alliterative meter, alliteration is the principal organizing device of the verse line, such as in Beowulf.9. Consonance is the repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants but with a change in the intervening vowel, such as “live and love”.10. Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar vowel, especially in stressed syllables, in a sequence of nearby words, such as “child of silence”.11. Allusion （典故）is a reference without explicit identification, to a literary or historical person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage. Most literary allusions are intended to be recognized by the generally educated readers of the author’s time, but some are aimed at a special group.12. Ambiguity（复义性）: Since William Empson（燕卜荪）published Seven Types of Ambiguity（《复义七型》）, the term has been widely used in criticism to identify a deliberate poetic device: the use of a single word or expression to signify two or more distinct references, or to express two or more diverse attitudes or feeling.文学术语汇编313. Antihero（反英雄）：the chief character in a modern novel or play whose character is totally different from the traditional heroes. Instead of manifesting largeness, dignity, power, or heroism, the antihero is petty, passive, ineffectual or dishonest. For example, the heroine of Defoe’s Moll Flanders is a thief and a prostitute.14. Antithesis（对照）：(a figure of speech)An antithesis is often expressed in a balanced sentence, that is, a sentence in which identical or similar syntactic structure is used to express contrasting ideas. For example, “Marriage has many pains, but celibacy（独身生活）has no pleasures.” by Samuel Johnson obviously employs antithesis.15. Archaism（拟古）：the literary use of words and expressions that have become obsolete in the common speech of an era. For example, the translators of the King James Version of Bible gave weight and dignity to their prose by employing archaism.16. Atmosphere（氛围）: the prevailing mood or feeling of a literary work. Atmosphere is often developed, at least in part, through descriptions of setting. Such descriptions help to create an emotional climate to establish the reader’s expectations and attitudes.文学术语汇编417. Ballad（民谣）：it is a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story. It originated and was communicated orally among illiterate or only partly literate people. It exists in many variant forms. The most common stanza form, called ballad stanza is a quatrain in alternate four- and three-stress lines; usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme. Although many traditional ballads probably originated in the late Middle Age, they were not collected and printed until the eighteenth century.18. Climax：as a rhetorical device it means an ascending sequence of importance. As a literary term, it can also refer to the point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense in a story’s turning point. The action leading to the climax and the simultaneous increaseof 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.19. Anticlimax（突降）：it denotes a writer’s deliberate drop from the serious and elevated to the trivial and lowly, in order to achieve a comic or satiric effect. It is a rhetorical device in English.20. Beat Generation（垮掉一代）：it refers to a loose-knit group of poets and novelists, writing in the second half of the 1950s and early 1960s, who shared a set of social attitudes – antiestablishment, antipolitical, anti-intellectual, opposed to the prevailing cultural, literary, and moral values, and in favor of unfettered self-realization andself-expression. Representatives of the group include Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. And most famous literary creations produced by this group should be Allen Ginsberg’s long poem Howl and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.文学术语汇编521. Biography（传记）：a detailed account of a person’s life written by another person, such as Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets and James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.22. Autobiography（自传）：a person’s account of his or her own life, such as Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography.23. Blank verse（无韵体）: Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is the verse form used in some of the greatest English poetry, including that of William Shakespeare and John Milton.24. A parody（模仿）imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work, or the distinctive style of a particular author, or the typical stylistic and other features of a serious literary genre, and deflates the original by applying the imitation to a lowly or comically inappropriate subject.文学术语汇编625. Celtic Revival also known as the Irish Literary Renaissance （爱尔兰文艺复兴）identifies the remarkably creative period in Irish literature from about 1880 to the death of William Butler Yeats in 1939. The aim of Yeats and other early leaders of the movement was to create a distinctively national literature by going back to Irish history, legend, and folklore, as well as to native literary models. The major writers of this movement include William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, John Millington Synge and Sean O’Casey and so on.26. Characters（人物）are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from the dialogues, actions and motivations. E. M. Forster 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.27. Chivalric Romance (or medieval romance) （骑士传奇或中世纪传奇）is a type of narrative that developed in twelfth-century France, spread to the literatures of other countries. Its standard plot is that of a quest undertaken by a single knight in order to gain a lady’s favor; frequently its central interest is courtly love, together with tournaments fought and dragons and monsters slain. It stresses the chivalric ideals of courage, loyalty, honor, mercifulness to an opponent, and elaborate manners.28. Comedy:（喜剧）in general, a literary work that ends happily with a healthy, amicable armistice between the protagonist and society.29. Farce （闹剧）is a type of comedy designed to provoke the audience to simple and hearty laughter. To do so it commonly employs highly exaggerated types of characters and puts them into improbable and ludicrous situations.30. Confessional poetry（自白派诗歌）designates a type of narrative and lyric verse, given impetus by Robert Lowell’s Life Studies, which deals with the facts and intimate mental and physical experiences of the poet’s own life. Confessional poetry was written in rebellion against the demand for impersonality by T. S. Elliot and the New Criticism. The representative writers of confessional school include Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath and so on.31. Critical Realism:（批判现实主义）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. Representative writers of this trend include Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray and so on.32. Drama:（戏剧）The form of composition designed for performance in the theater, in which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the indicated action, and utter the written dialogue. (The common alternative name for a dramatic composition is a play.)文学术语汇编733. Dramatic Monologue:（戏剧独白）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. 34. Elegy（哀歌或挽歌）：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.35. Enlightenment（启蒙运动）：The name applied to an intellectual movement which developed in Western Europe during the seventeenth century and reached its height in the eighteenth. The common element was a trust in human reason as adequate to solve the crucial problems and to establish the essential norms in life, together with the belief that the application of reason was rapidly dissipating the remaining feudal traditions. It influenced lots of famous English writers especially those neoclassic writers, such as Alexander Pope.36. Epic（史诗）：it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race.37. Epiphany:（顿悟）In the early draft of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce employed this term to signify a sudden sense of radiance and revelation that one may feel while perceiving a commonplace object. “Epiphany” now has become the standard term for the description, frequent in modern poetry and prose fiction, of the sudden flare into revelation of an ordinary object or scene.38. Epithet（移就）: as a term in criticism, epithet denotes an adjective or adjectival phrase used to define a distinctive quality of a person or thing. This method was widely employed in ancient epics. For example, in Homer’s epic, the epithet like “the wine-dark sea” can be found everywhere.39. Essay:（散文）any short composition in prose that undertakes to discuss a matter, express a point of view, persuade us to accept a thesis on any subject, or simply entertain. The essay can be divided as the formal essay and the informal essay (familiar essay).40. Euphemism（委婉语）: An inoffensive expression used in place of a blunt one that is felt to be disagreeable or embarrassing, such as “pass away” instead of “die”41. Expressionism（表现主义）：a German movement in literature and the other arts which was at its height between 1910 and 1925 – that is, in the period just before, during, and after WWⅠ. The expressionist artist or writer undertakes to express a personal vision – usually a troubled or tensely emotional vision – of human life and human society. This is done by exaggerating and distorting. We recognize its effects, direct or indirect, on the writing and staging of such plays as Arthur Miller’s Death ofa Salesman as well as on the theater of the absurd.42. Free verse（自由体诗）：Like traditional verse, it is printed in short lines instead of with the continuity of prose, but it differs from such verse by the fact that its rhythmic pattern is not organized into a regular metrical form – that is, into feet, or recurrent units of weak and strong stressed syllables. Most free verse also hasirregular line lengths, and either lacks rhyme or else uses it only occasionally. Walt Whitman is a representative who employed this poem form successfully.文学术语汇编843. Gothic novel:（哥特式小说）It is a type of prose fiction. The writers of this type of fictions mostly set their stories in the medieval period and in a Catholic country, especially Italy or Spain. The locale was often a gloomy castle. The typical story focused on the sufferings imposed on an innocent heroine by a cruel villain. This type of fictions made bountiful use of ghosts, mysterious disappearances, and other supernatural occurrences. The principle aim of such novels was to evoke chilling terror and the best of this type opened up to the fiction the realm of the irrational and of the perverse impulses and nightmarish terrors that lie beneath the orderly surface of the civilized mind. Some famous novelists liked to employ some Gothic elements in their novels, such as Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.44. Graveyard poets（墓园派诗歌）: A term applied to eighteenth-century poets who wrote meditative poems, usually set in a graveyard, on the theme of human mortality, in moods which range from pensiveness to profound gloom. The vogue resulted in one of the most widely known English poems, Thomas Gray’s“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”.45. Harlem Renaissance（哈莱姆文艺复兴）：a period of remarkable creativity in literature, music, dance, painting, and sculpture by African-Americans, from the end of the First World War in 1917 through the 1920s. As a result of the mass migrations to the urban North in order to escape the legal segregation of the American South, and also in order to take advantage of the jobs opened to African Americans at the beginning of the War, the population of the region of Manhattan known as Harlem became almost exclusively Black, and the vital center of African American culture in America. Distinguished writers who were part of the movement included Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. The Great Depression of 1929 and the early 1930s broughtthe period of buoyant Harlem culture – which had been fostered by prosperity in the publishing industry and the art world – effectively to an end.46. Heroic Couplet（英雄双韵体）refers to lines of iambic pentameter which rhyme in pairs: aa, bb, cc, and so on. The adjective “heroic” was applied in the later seventeenth century because of the frequent use of such couplets in heroic poems and dramas. This verse form was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer. From the age of John Dryden through that of Samuel Johnson, the heroic couplet was the predominant English measure for all the poetic kinds; some poets, including Alexander Pope, used it almost to the exclusion of other meters.47. Hyperbole（夸张）:this figure of speech called hyperbole is bold overstatement, or the extravagant exaggeration of fact or of possibility. It may be used either for serious or ironic or comic effect.48. Understatement（轻描淡写）：this figure of speech deliberately represents something as very much less in magnitude or importance than it really is, or is ordinarily considered to be. The effect is usually ironic.49. Imagism（意象派）：it was a poetic vogue that flourished in England, and even more vigorously in America, between the years 1912 and 1917. It was planned and exemplified by a group of English and American writers in London, partly under the influence of the poetic theory of T. E. Hulme, as a revolt against the sentimental and mannerish poetry at the turn of the century. The typical Imagist poetry is written in free verse and undertakes to be as precisely and tersely as possible. Meanwhile, the Imagist poetry likes to express the writers’ momentary impression of a visual object or scene and often the impression is rendered by means of metaphor without indicating a relation. Most famous Imagist poem, “In a Station of the Metro”, was written by Ezra Pound. Imagism was too restrictive to endure long as a concerted movement, but it influenced almost all modern poets of Britain and America.50. Irony（反讽）：This term derives from a character in a Greek comedy. In most of the modern critical uses of the term “irony”, there remains the root sense of dissembling or hiding what is actually the case; not, however, in order to deceive, but to achieve rhetorical or artistic effects.51. Local Colorism（地方色彩）was a literary trend belonging to Realism. It refers to the detailed representation in prose fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of thinking and feeling which are distinctive of a particular region. After the Civil War a number of American writers exploited the literary possibilities of local color in various parts of America. The most famous representative of local colorism should be Mark Twain who took his hometown near the Mississippi as the typical setting of nearly all his novels.52. Lyric（抒情诗）：in the most common use of the term, a lyric is any fairly short poems consisting of the utterance by a single speaker, who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought and feeling.。
英国文学名词解释大全(整理版)
名词解释1.Epic(史诗)（appeared in the the Anglo-Saxon Period ）It is a narrative of heroic action, often with a principal hero, usually mythical in its content, grand in its style, offering inspiration and ennoblement within a particular culture or national tradition.A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated.Epic is an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, like Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey. It usually celebrates the feats of one or more legendary or traditional heroes. The action is simple, but full of magnificence.Today, some long narrative works, like novels that reveal an age & its people, are also called epic.E.g. Beowulf （the pagan（异教徒），secular(非宗教的) poetry）Iliad 《伊利亚特》，Odyssey《奥德赛》Paradise Lost 《失乐园》，The Divine Comedy《神曲》2.Romance （传奇）(Anglo-Norman feudal England)•Romance is any imaginative literature that is set in an idealized world and that deals with heroic adventures and battles between good characters and villains or monsters.•Originally, the term referred to a medieval (中世纪) tale dealing with the love and adventures of kings, queens, knights, and ladies, and including supernatural happenings.Form:long composition, in verse, in proseContent:description of life and adventures of a noble heroCharacter:a knight, a man of noble birth, skilled in the use of weapons; often described as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournaments(骑士比武), or fighting for his lord in battles; devoted to the church and the king •Romance lacks general resemblance to truth or reality.•It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtues.•It contains perilous (dangerous) adventures more or less remote from ordinary life.•It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to a fair lady.①The Romance Cycles/Groups/DivisionsThree Groups●matters of Britain Adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table （亚瑟王和他的圆桌骑士）●matters of France Emperor Charlemagne and his peers●matters of Rome Alexander the Great and the attacks of TroyLe Morte D’Arthur （亚瑟王之死）②Class Nature (阶级性) of the RomanceLoyalty to king and lord was the theme of the romances, as loyalty was the corner-stone（the most important part基石）of feudal morality.The romances were composed not for the common but for the noble, of the noble, and by the poets patronized （supported 庇护,保护）by the noble.3. Alliteration（押头韵）: a repeated initial(开头的) consonant(协调,一致) to successive(连续的) words.e.g. 1.To his kin the kindest, keenest for praise.2.Sing a song of southern singer4. Understatement（低调陈述）（for ironical humor）not troublesome: very welcomeneed not praise: a right to condemn6. Ballads （民谣）（The most important department of English folk literature ）①Definition:A ballad is a narrative poem that tells a story, and is usually meant to be sung or recited in musical form.An important stream of the Medieval folk literature②Features of English Ballads1. The ballads are in various English and Scottish dialects.2. They were created collectively and revised when handed down from mouth to mouth.3. They are mainly the literature of the peasants, and give an outlook of the English common people in feudal society.③Stylistic （风格上）Features of the Ballads1. Composed in couplets （相连并押韵的两行诗,对句）or in quatrains （四行诗）known as the ballad stanza （民谣诗节）, rhyming abab or abcb, with the first and third lines carrying 4 accented syllables （重读音节）and the second and fourth carrying 3.2. Simple, plain language or dialect （方言，土语）of the common people with colloquial （口语的，会话的）, vivid and, sometimes, idiomatic （符合当地语言习惯的）expressions3. Telling a good story with a vivid presentation around the central plot.4. Using a high proportion of dialogue with a romantic or tragic dimension （方面）to achieve dramatic effect.④Subjects of English Ballads1. struggle of young lovers2. conflict between love and wealth3. cruelty of jealousy4. criticism of the civil war5. matters of class struggle7. Heroic couplet （英雄双韵体）（introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer）Definition:the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter; a verse form in epic poetry, with lines of ten syllables and five stresses, in rhyming pairs.英雄诗体/英雄双韵体：用于史诗或叙事诗，每行十个音节，五个音部，每两行押韵。
(完整版)英美文学名词解释最全版
01. Humanism(人文主义)1>Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.2> it emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life. Humanists voiced their beliefs that man was the center of the universe and man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of the present life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.02. Renaissance(文艺复兴)1>The word “Renaissance”means “rebirth”, it meant the reintroduction into western Europe of the full cultural heritage of Greece and Rome.2>the essence of the Renaissance is Humanism. Attitudes and feelings which had been characteristic of the 14th and 15th centuries persisted well down into the era of Humanism and reformation.3> the real mainstream of the English Renaissance is the Elizabethan drama with William Shakespeare being the leading dramatist.03. Metaphysical poetry(玄学派诗歌)1>Metaphysical poetry is commonly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne.2>with a rebellious spirit, the Metaphysical poets tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry.3>the diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan or the Neoclassical periods, and echoes the words and cadences of common speech.4>the imagery is drawn from actual life.04. Classicism(古典主义)Classicism refers to 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.05. Enlightenment(启蒙运动)1>Enlightenment movement was a progressive philosophical and artistic movement which flourished in France and swept through western Europe in the 18th century.2> the movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance from 14th century to the mid-17th century.3>its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas.4>it celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science. It advocated universal education.5>famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like Alexander pope. Jonathan Swift. etc.06.Neoclassicism(新古典主义)1>In the field of literature, the enlightenment movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works.2>this tendency is known as neoclassicism. The Neoclassicists held that forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers such as Homer and Virgil and those of the contemporary French ones.3> they believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity.07. The Graveyard School(墓地派诗歌)1>The Graveyard School refers to a school of poets of the 18th century whose poems are mostly devoted to a sentimental lamentation or meditation on life. Past and present ,with death and graveyard as themes.2>Thomas Gray is considered to be the leading figure of this school and his Elegy written in a country churchyard is its most representative work.08. Romanticism(浪漫主义)1>In the mid-18th century, a new literary movement called romanticism came to Europe and then to England.2>It was characterized by a strong protest against the bondage of neoclassicism, which emphasized reason, order and elegant wit. Instead, romanticism gave primary concern to passion, emotion, and natural beauty.3>In the history of literature. Romanticism is generally regarded as the thought that designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and experience. 4> The English romantic period is an age of poetry which prevailed in England from 1798 to 1837. The major romantic poets include Wordsworth, Byron and Shelley.09. Byronic Hero(拜伦式英雄)1>Byronic hero refers to a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin.2> with immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic Hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society. And would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies.3> Byron’s chief contribution to English literature is his creation of the “Byronic Hero”10. Critical Realism(批判现实主义)1>Critical Realism is a term applied to the realistic fiction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.2> It means the tendency of writers and intellectuals in the period between 1875 and 1920 to apply the methods of realistic fiction to the criticism of society and the examination of social issues.3> Realist writers were all concerned about the fate of the common people and described what was faithful to reality.4> Charles Dickens is the most important critical realist.11. Aestheticism（美学主义）1>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.2> aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, not art imitate life.3> 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.4> This is 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.美学运动的基本原则”为艺术而艺术”最初由法国诗人西奥费尔.高缔尔提出,英国运用该美学理论的第一人是沃尔特.佩特.美学主义崇尚艺术高于生活,认为生活应模仿艺术,而不是艺术模仿生活.在美学主义看来,所有的艺术创作都是绝对主观而非客观的产物.艺术不应受任何功利的影响,只有当艺术为艺术而创作时,艺术才能成为不朽之作.他们还认为艺术不应只关注一些热点话题如政治和道德问题,艺术应着力于以华丽的风格张扬美.这是对维多利亚工业发展时期物质崇拜的一种回应,也是向艺术为道德或为金钱而服务的维多利亚传统的挑战.12.The Victorian period(维多利亚时期)1>In this period, the novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive thought. While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the 18th century realist novel, novelists in this period carried their duty forward to criticism of the society and the defense of the mass.2> although writing from different points of view and with different techniques, they shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the common people. They were angry with the inhuman social institutions, the decaying social morality as represented by the money-worship and Utilitarianism, and the widespread misery, poverty and injustice.3>their truthful picture of people’s life and bitter and strong criticism of the society had done much in awakening the public consciousness to the social problems and in the actual improvement of the society.4> Charles Dickens is the leading figure of the Victorian period.13. Modernism(现代主义)1>Modernism is comprehensive but vague term for a movement , which begin in the late 19th century and which has had a wide influence internationally during much of the 20th century.2> modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical case.3> the term pertains to all the creative arts. Especially poetry, fiction, drama, painting, music and architecture.4> in England from early in the 20th century and during the 1920s and 1930s, in America from shortly before the first world war and on during the inter-war period, modernist tendencies were at their most active and fruitful.5>as far as literature is concerned, Modernism reveals a breaking away from established rules, traditions and conventions. fresh ways of looki ng at man’s position and function in the universe and many experiments in form and style. It is particularly concerned with language and how to use it and with writing itself.14. Stream of consciousness(意识流)(or interior monologue)In literary criticism, Stream of consciousness denotes a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes. Stream of consciousness writing is strongly associated with the modernist movement. Its introduction in the literary context, transferred from psychology, is attributed to May Sinclair. Stream of consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing as they do a character’s fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings. Famous writers to employ this technique in the English language include James Joyce and William Faulkner.学术界认为意识流是一种通过直接描述人物思维过程来寻求个人视角的文学写作技巧。
英国文学期末复习-名词解释部分
Ⅱ. Define the following terms.1.English critical realism2.Victorian period3.Autobiography4.Regional novel5.Dramatic monologue6.Dramatization7.Disinterestedness8.Idyll9.Psychological novel10.The Pre-Raphaelites11.Künstlerroman12.Aestheticism13.Naturalism14.Aestheticism15.Beowulf16.Blank verse17.Ballad18.Byronic Heroes19.Classicism20.Conceitic epic in prose22.Enlightenment23.Graveyard School / Poets24.Gothic novel25.Heroic couplet26.Humanism27.Individualismke Poets29.Metaphysical Poetry30.Neoclassicism31.Romance32.Romanticism33.Renaissance34.Rationalism35.Relativism36.Sonnet37.Spenserian Stanza38.Sentimentalism39.Stream-of-consciousness40.University witsⅡ. Define the following terms.1.English critical realism: English critical realism o f the 19th century flourished in the forties and in theearly 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 view point. The greatest English realist of the time was Charles Dickens. With striking force and truthfulness, he pictures bourgeois civilization, showing the misery and sufferings of the common people. Another critical realist, William Makepeace Thackeray, was a no less severe exposer of contemporary society. Thackeray‟s novels are mainly a satirical portrayal of the upper strata of society. Other adherents to the method of critical realism were Charlotte and Emily Bronte, and Elizabeth Gaskell. In the fifties and sixties the realistic novel as represented by Dickens and Thackeray entered a stage of decline. It found its reflection in the works of George Eliot. Though she described the life of the laboring people and criticized the privileged classes, the power of exposure became weaker in her works. She seemed to be more morally than socially minded. 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.2.Victorian period: The era of Queen Victoria‟s reign (1837~1901). The period is sometimes dated from1832 (the passage of the first Reform Bill), a period of intense and prolific activity in literature, especially by novelists and poets, philosophers and essayists. Dramatists of any note are few. Much of the writing was concerned with contemporary social problems: for instance, the effects of the industrial revolution, the influence of the theory of evolution, and movements of political and social reform. The following are among the most not able British writers of the period: Thomas Carlyle, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Charles Darwin, W. M. Thackeray, Robert Browning, Edward Lear, Charles Dickens, Anthory Trollope, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte, George Eliot, John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold, George Meredith, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Morris, Samuel Butler, Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Arthur Jones, Oscar Wilde.3.Autobiography: An account of a person‟s life by him or herself. The term appears to have been first usedby Southey in 1809. In Dr. Johnson‟s opinion no man was better qualified to write his life than himself, but this is debatable. Memory may be unreliable. Few can recall clear details of their early life and most are therefore dependent on other people‟s impressions, of necessity equally unreliable. Moreover, everyone tends to remember what he or she wants to remember. Disagreeable facts are sometimes glossed over or repressed, truth may be distorted for the sake of convenience or harmony and the occlusions of time may obscure as much as they reveal.4.Regional novel: A regional writer is one who concentrates much attention on a particular area and uses itand the people who inhabit it as the basis for his or her stories. Such a locale is likely to be rural and or provincial. Once established, the regional novel began to interest a number of writers, and soon the regions described became smaller and more specifically defined. For example, the novels of Mrs. Gaskell (1810~1865) and George Eliot (1819~1880) centered on the Midlands, and those of the Bronte sisters were set in Yorkshire. There were also “urban” or “industrial” novels, set in a particular town or city, some of which had considerable fame in the 19th century. Notable instances are Mrs. Gaskell‟s Mary Barton (1848), Charles Dickens‟s Hard Times (1854) and George Eliot‟s Middlemarch (1871~1872).5.Dramatic monologue:Dramatic monologue is a kind of poem in which a single fictional or historicalcharacter other than the poet speaks to a sile nt “audience” of one or more persons. Such poems reveal not the poet‟s own thoughts but the mind of the impersonated character,whose personality is revealed unwittingly; 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‟s “Ulysses” (1842), Browning‟s “Fra Lippo Lippi” (1855), and T. S. Eliot‟s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917).Some plays in which only one character speaks, in the form of a monologue or soliloquy, have also been called dramatic monologues; but to avoid confusion it is preferable to refer to these simply as monologues or as monodramas.6.Dramatization: The act of making a play out of a story in another genre, from a chronicle, novel, shortstory and so forth. In medieval drama the Bible was dramatized into the Mystery Plays. In the Tudor period dramatists “lifted” plots, stories, and ideas from historians like Plutarch and Holinshed, and novelists like Lodge and Nashe. But it was not until the 18th century that dramatization really began to flourish. Then novels provided the material. For example, Richardson‟s Pamela, dramatized by James Dance, was extremely popular. There followed dramatization of novels by Mrs. Radcliffe, Alpole, Godwin, “Monk”Lewisand Clara Reeve. In the 19thcentury.DickensandScottweretheauthorsmostused; so were Lord Lytton, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Reade, Wilkie Collins, and many more. The arrival of a group of original dramatists towards the end of the century saved the theatre from this deadening activity. But it is a practice by no means extinct, as television and recent theatrical history amply demonstrate.7.Disinterestedness: (In criticism) “Disinterestedness” is an important term in Matthew Arnold‟s essay TheFunction of Criticism at the Present Time, first delivered as a lecture in1864 and later published in Essays in Criticism(1865). Arnold spoke of the need, in the study of all branches of knowledge, to see the object “as in itself it really is”.This depended on the attitude of the critic, which, in his view, ought to be objective and open-minded, a kind of involved detachment.8.Idyll:Idyll is a short poem describing an incident of country life in terms of idealized innocence andcontentment, or any such episode in a poem or prose work. The term is virtually synonymous with pastoral poem. The title of Tennyson‟s Idylls of the King (1842~1885), a sequence of Arthurian romances, bears little relation to the usual meaning. Browning in Dramatic Idylls(1879~1880) uses the term in another sense, as a short self-contained poem.9.Psychological novel: A vague term to describe that kind of fiction which is for the most part concernedwith the spiritual, emotional and mental lives of the characters and with the analysis of characters rather than with the plot and the action. Many novelists during the last two hundred years have written psychological novels.10.The Pre-Raphaelites:Pre-Raphaelites is a group of English artists and writers of the Victorian period,associated directly or indirectly with the self-styled Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of young artists founded in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt.The PRB (as it is usually abbreviated) rebelled against the conventional academic styles of painting modeled upon Raphael (1483～1520), seeking a freshness and simplicity found in earlier artists, along witha closer fidelity to Nature. The organized Brotherhood itself lasted only a few years, but Pre-Raphaelitismas a broader current survived in the paintings of Edward Burne-Jones, the designs of William Morris, and the art criticism of John Ruskin, as well as in the poetry of Christina Rossetti, D. G. Rossetti, Morris, and A.C. Swinburne—the last three being dubbed “The Fleshly School of Poetry” in a hostile review by RobertBuchanan (Contemporary Review, 1871). Pre-Raphaelite poetry is often characterized by dreamy medievalism, mixing religiosity and sensuousness, notably in D. G. Rossetti‟s“The Blessed Damozel”(1850), Morris‟s The Defence of Guenevere (1858), and Swinburne‟s Poems and Ballads (1866).11.Künstlerroman: A novel which has an artist (in any creative art) as the central character and which showsthe development of the artist from childhood to maturity and later. In English literature the most famous example of a Künstlerroman is James Joyce‟s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.12.Aestheticism:The term aesthetic has come to signify something which pertains to the criticism of thebeautif ul or to the theory of taste. An aesthete is one who pursues and is devoted to the “beautiful” in art, music and literature. And aestheticism is the term given to a movement, a cult, a mode of sensibility (a way of looking at and feeling about things) in the 19th century. Fundamentally, it entailed the point of view that art is self-sufficient and need serve no other purpose than its own ends. In other words, art is an end in itself and need not be (or should not be) didactic, politically committed, propagandist, moral or anything else but itself; and it should not be judged by any non-aesthetic criteria (e.g. whether or notit is useful).13.Naturalism:Naturalism is a post-Darwinian movement of the late 19th century that tried to apply the”laws”of scientific determinism to fiction. The naturalist went beyond the realist‟s insistence on the objective presentation of the details of everyday life to insist that the materials of literature should be arranged to reflect a deterministic universe in which a person is a biological creature controlled by environment and heredity. Major writers include Crane, Dreiser, Norris, and O‟Neill in America; Zola in France; and Hardy and Gissing in England. Crane‟s“The Blue Hotel” (1898) is perhaps the best example in this text of a naturalistic short story.14.Aestheticism唯美主义（名词解释）The Aesthetic Movement is a loosely defined movement in literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design in later nineteenth-century Britain. It represents the same tendencies that symbolism or decadence stood for in France and may be considered the British branch of the same movement. It belongs to the anti-Victorian reaction and had post-Romantic roots, and as such anticipates modernism. It took place in the late Victorian period from around 1868 to 1901, and is generally considered to have ended with the trial of Oscar Wilde.15.Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements.16.Blank verse（名词解释）:This term，which was first brought into England by Surrey，is used to name the unrhymed iambic pentameter 1ine in poetry．17.Ballad民谣（名词解释）(Popular Ballads 大众民谣：a story hold in 4-line stanzas with second and fourth line rhymed.)A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. It can be about the story, folklore popular legends. straightforward verse, with graphic simplicity and force and is suitable for singing generally written in ballad meter, with the last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming.Ballads are anonymous narrative songs that have been preserved by oral transmission.18.Byronic heroA proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies.19.Classicism（名词解释）In the arts, historical tradition or aesthetic attitudes based on the art of Greece and Rome in antiquity. In the context of the tradition, Classicism refers either to the art produced in antiquity or to later art inspired by that of antiquity; Neoclassicism always refers to the art produced later but inspired by antiquity.20.ConceitConceit is a far-fetched metaphor or simile originally a "concept" or "idea", conceit came to mean a striking parallel between two highly dissimilar things, The metaphysical conceit is more far-fetched and less trivially ornamental, and generally more original.ic epic in prose（散文体喜剧史诗）It …s similar to the epic.its large,comprehensive,and contains many incidents and characters.Unlike the serious epic,which treats great persons,the comic epic treats persons pf inferior rank and manner(the generic subject matter of comedy)instead of kings and nobles and it portrays the ridiculous.22.Enlightenment (1650-1800)（名词解释）The Enlightenment was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeoisie against feudalism.A revival of interest in the old classical works, order, logic, restrained emotion(抑制情感) and accuracy23.Graveyard School / Poets:A term applied to eighteenth-century poets who wrote meditative poems, usually set in a graveyard, on the theme of human mortality, in moods which range from elegiac pensiveness to profound gloom.24.Gothic novel(哥特式小说)mystery, horror, castles(from middle part to the end of century)25.Heroic couplet (名词解释)heroic couplet 英雄双韵体：a verse unit consisting of two rhymed(押韵) lines in iambic pentameter(五步抑扬格)26.Humanism 人文主义：Humanism is a system of beliefs upheld by writers and artists of the Renaissance period in their fighting against medieval asceticism．It states that man is godly，that man is able to find truth，goodness and beauty，and that man is in contro1 of the present life rather than being controlled by God. Briefly，humanism puts man at the center of their be1iefs and takes man to be the measure of every thing while the former asceticism puts God at the center of their beliefs and takes personal salvation to be the most important thing on the earth for man．27.Individualismemphasized the importance of the individual and his inborn rightske Poets（名词解释）The Lake Poets all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century.29.Metaphysical Poetry"The term "metaphysical poetry" is commonly used to designate the works of the 17th-century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne .With a rebellious spirit, they tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, in particular the Petrarchan tradition, which is full of refined language, polished rhyming schemes and eulogy to ideal love, The diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan or the Neoclassic periods, and echoes the words and cadences of common speech.30.NeoclassicismIt is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture (usually that of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome). These movements were dominant at various times between the 18th and 20th centuries. This article addresses what these "neoclassicisms" have in common.31.Romance （名词解释）(1)The basic material of medieval romance is knightly activity and adventure; we might best define medieval ro mance as a story of adventure--fictitious, frequently marvelous or supernatural--in verse or prose.(2)A long com position describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. The central character was the knight, a man of noble birth skilled in the use of weapons who was very devoted to the king or to the church.(3)One who wanted to be a knight should serve patiently until he was admitted to the knighthood with solemn ceremony and the swearing of oaths.32.RomanticismRomanticism was a movement in literature，philosophy，music and art which developed in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Starting from the ideas of Rousseau in France and from the Storm and Stress movement (狂飙运动) in Germany. Romanticism emphasized individual values and aspirations (灵感) above those of society. As a reaction (反应) to the industrial revolution (工业革命)，it looked to (承上启下) the Middle Ages and to direct contact with nature (与大自然的直接接触) for inspiration (灵感)。
英美文学名词解释
English Literature terms:Poetry: the literature that is written in some kind of verse form. Aside from the basic demand that poetry “say something”, poetry is characterized by the following elements: a musical effect created by rhythm（节奏，韵律）and sounds, a precise and fresh imagery（意象）, and multiple levels of interpretation suggested by the connotation of the closer words and by allusions（暗指）. The musical effect of poetry:Poetry has its roots in song. The earliest poetic forms were the epics （史诗）and ballads（民谣）sung by travelling bards （诗人）and minstrels（吟游诗人）. Though no longer sung , poems retain their musical quality（音色）. We should learn the elements of poetry which create that musicality （音感）.Meter(音律，格律): loosely defined meter is the “beat” or rhythm of the poem. It is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables used in the poem.Meter is shown by a visual code/ The accent mark(ˊ＾) indicates the stressed syllable, the mark(ˇ︿)indicates the unstressed syllables used in the poem. The metric pattern(格律)has :iambic ︿＾, trochaic＾︿, anapestic ︿︿＾, dactylic＾︿︿, Spondaic＾＾Certain combinations of these syllables are most frequently employed in English verse.One foot , or one combination, is called a foot. The following are basic metric feet: (音步) Monometer: one foot per lineDimeter: two feet per lineTrimeter ; three feet per lineTetrameter: four feet per linePentameter: five feet per lineHextameter: six feet per lineHeptameter: seven feet per lineOctometer: eight feet per lineA Caesura: Meter is also influenced by pauses. Most metrical poetry evolves into a pattern of pauses at lines’ends. A caesura, or a pause with in a line (usually indicated by a mark of punctuation), can alter; usually slow down, the meter. It is called end-stop line.An Enjambement or run-on line, can speed up the flow of the poem.Rhyme(脚韵，押韵): (or rime) the repletion of similar (or duplicate) sounds at regular intervals. Usually this repetition occurs at the ends of the lines.Types of rhyme: 1. End rhyme: rhyme found at the ends of verse lines2. Internal rhyme : this is rhyme contained within a line of verse.3. Slant rhyme/near rhyme/half rhyme/ partial rhyme : an inexact rhyme wherethe final consonant sounds are the same but the vowel sounds are different .4．Eye rhyme: the rhyme of two words which look as if they’d rhyme, but do not, such as “move”“love”5. Feminine rhyme: rhyme in which two consecutive syllables of therhyme-words match The first syllable carries the stress. Feminine rhyme addslightness to a poem. “gladness”“madness”6. Masculine rhyme: the rhyme of one-syllable words or in the case of words ofmore than one syllable, the rhyming of stressed final syllables. (dress,wantonness繁茂)Other musical devices: the use of sounds:Assonance:（部分谐音）the repetition of two or more vowel sounds within a line.Our echoes roll from soul to soulConsonance: the repetition of two or more consonant sounds within a line.And snowy summit old story.Alliteration（头韵）: repetition of two or more initial consonants sounds in words within a line. He clasps the crag with crooked hands.Onomatopoeia（拟声）: the use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning or which imitates the sound made by an object or creature.I heard a fly buzz when I died.Euphony谐音: is the use of harmonies, melodious sounds in a poem.Cacophony不和谐: is the use of harsh, irritating sounds,Stanzas : are the paragraphs of the poems. Stanzas can range in length from two lines to an unlimited number of lines, However, few poems use stanzas of more thaneight lines. For convenience of reference, the stanzas have titled according toline length.Stanza name: couplet, tercet, quatrain, cinquain, sestet, septet , octave (octet). For stanzas of 9 or more lines, merely refer to them as “nine-line- stanzas”, etc.Imagery: is the use of descriptive language to recreate sensory experience. An image is verbal picture of an object, action , abstract idea, or sensation.Images often are created by utilizing figures of speech. These are ways of making an idea or picture come clearer into focus by relating the idea or experience to anotherthat may be more familiar to the reader.Figures of speechMetaphor: a comparison of unlike items. This comparison is directly stated as in: “All the world’s a stage ” It is a device in which one object is substituted for another,or an idea is identified by a concrete object.Simile: the direct comparison of two unlike items, using the words “like or as” to complete the comparisonExtended metaphor: a metaphor that is carried and embellished for a lengthy duration in a poem. .Also called a conceit.Personification: the figure of speech which assigns human qualities to inanimate objects or abstractions.Metonymy转喻: literally “a change of name”, a figure of speech in which the name of some object or idea is substituted for another name to which it has some relation Eg: The serpent that did sting the father’s lifeNow wears his crown.Synecdoche: （提喻法）a figure of speech in which a part of an object is used to represent the whole object or idea.。
英美文学名词解释
English Renaissance:The renaissance, which means rebirth and revival, is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, such as the religious reformation.The renaissance, therefore, in essence, is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars tried to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval.To introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of rising bourgeoisie, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church.2 features: thirsting curiosity for the classical literature;General dissatisfaction at the Catholic and feudal ideas.Keynote: humanismEnglish Romanticism:Under the impetus of the Industrial Revolution and French Revolution rose and grew English Romanticism. Romanticism prevailed in England during the period 1798-1832. Owing to differences social and political attitudes, English Romanticists spilt into two groups. Some romantic writers reflected the thinking of classes ruined by the bourgeoisie and were called the elder generation of romanticists, sometimes called escaping romanticists, which includes Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey. They have also been called the Lake Poets. Others expressed the aspirations of the classed created by capitalism and they were called active romanticists, which represented by Byron, Shelley and Keats.The features of English Romanticism are:It expresses dissatisfaction with the bourgeois society, which finds expression in a revolt or an escape from the prosaic, sordid life;Their writings are filled with strong-willed heroes, formidable events, tragic situations, powerful conflicting passions, and exotic pictures;Sometimes they resorted to symbolic methods;The romanticists paid great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man;Nature, often personified, also plays an important role in their works.The Romantic Period was one of poetical revival.Sonnets:A sonnet is a lyric, invariably, of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme.There are two dominant types of sonnets, all named after their founders or perfecters.The Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet: comprises an 8-line “octave”, followed by a6-line “sestet”. Its rhyme scheme is usually abba abba or abab abab and cdecde or cdcdcd. The octave presents the narrative, states the proposition or raises a question; the sestet concludes the narrative by making an abstract comment, applies theproposition, or solves the problem.The English (Shakespearean / Elizabethan) sonnet: comprises three 4-line quatrains and a final couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. The quatrains will offer three successive images, or experiences, or observations which move toward the resolution or conclusion of the couplet.English Critical Realism:English critical realism is flourished in the forties and in the early fifties of 19 century. The critical realists described the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint. The representatives of this period are Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray.Features:They give a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classed, but also showed profound sympathy for common people.In their best works, the greed and hypocrisy of the upper classes are contrasted with the honesty and good-heartedness of the obscure “simple people” of the lower classes.They also use humor and satire.Critical realism reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature.Limitations:The critical realists did not find a way to eradicate social evils.The chief tendency in their works is not of revolution but rather of reformism.They often close in a much too coincidental happy ending or an impotent compromise.Stream of Consciousness:The “stream of consciousness” is a psychological term indicating” the flux of conscious and subconscious thoughts and impressions moving in the mind at any given time independently of the person’s will.” In late 19th century, the literary device of “inferior monologue” was originated in France as application of modern psychological knowledge to literary creation. In the 20th century, under the influence of Freud’s theory of psychological analysis, a number of writers adopted the “stream of consciousness” method of novel writing.The striking feature of these novelists is their giving precedence to the depiction of the characters’ mental and emotional reactions to external events, rather than the events themselves. In doing so, the novelist abandoned the conventional usages of realistic plot structure, characterization and description, and their works became successions of “fleeting images of eternal world mingled with thoughts andhalf-thoughts and shadows of thought attached to the immediate present or moving back and forth in memory.”In English literature, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf are the two best known novelists of the “stream of consciousness” school.Transcendentalism:Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson marked that a new way of thinking began to exert its influence on the consciousness of man. Nature’s voice pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, the summit of American Romanticism. Transcendentalism was the product of a combination of foreign influences and the American puritan tradition.The major features can be summarized as follows:First, the Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing.( The Oversoul was an all-prevailing power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. It existed in human and nature. )Secondly, the Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important elements of society. As the regeneration of society could only come about through the regeneration of the individual, his perfection, his self-culture and his self-improvement. The ideal type of man was the self-reliant individual.Thirdly, the Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit of God. Nature was, to them, not purely matter. And they believed that Oversoul could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on the human kind.The representatives of this period are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.Imagism:Imagism was an Anglo-American poetic movement flourishing in the 1910s.Pound defined an image as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. An Imagistic presentation is hard, clear, un-blurred, done by means of the chosen “exact word.”The movement underwent three phases in its brief yet immensely important history.It first began in London in the years 1908-1909. The representative of this period is T. E. Hulme.The second phase of the movement was the period of three years. Pound and Flint laid down three Imagist poetic principles:(1)direct treatment of the “thing” whether subjective or objective;(2)to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation;(3)as regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase,not in the sequence of a metronome.The third phase of the movement is a down one. Amy Lowell took over from pound and pushed the movement into the period of “Amygism”. Pound left to devote his attention to new movements like “V orticism.”“Lost Generation”:The "Lost Generation" was the generation that came of age during World War I.The term was coined by Gertrude Stein and popularized by Ernest Hemingway.Hemingway’s work, The Sun Also Rises, paints the image of the whole generation, the Lost Generation. This includes the young English and American expatriates as well as men and women caught in the war and cut off from the old values and yet unable to come to terms with the new era when civilization had gone bad.People of the Lost Generation lived an undercut and defeated life. To them, the whole world is meaningless and futile.One of the themes that commonly appear in the authors' works is decadence and the frivolous lifestyle of the wealthy.The representatives of this period are Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.Harlem Renaissance:After the Emancipation, Great Migration occurred in full swing between 1890 and 1920. The cities was developing and its industrial complexes needed labor, as well as natural calamities, poor soil, and agricultural mechanization, people moved from the south to the north into big cities. Of all the places where African Americans gathered was Harlem. They were from all places and all walks of life and made Harlem the hub of black life and drew all their artists and intellectuals over.Influenced by the modernist movement, they rebelled against the values of their fathers and their way of life. They took an enormous interest in their own life and values. They tried to solicit the attention of their African American people as well as the whites. And they began a search for a distinct tradition of their own.African American writers came together and wrote free of conventional restrictions, to say what they wanted to say without having to suffer any oppression by the whites and without even seeing any whites.As a result they managed to build a counter culture, a battle literature, a literature which reflects the feelings, the experience, the history, and the ambitions of the African American people.Local Colorism:Local colorism as a trend first made its presence felt in the late 1860s and early seventies. Hamlin Garland defines local colorism as having “such quality of texture and background that it could not have been written in any other place or by anyone else than a native.” Garland’s “texture” refers to the elements which characterize a local culture, elements such as speech, customs, and mores peculiar to one particular place. And his “background” covers physical setting and those distinctive qualities of landscape which condition human thought and behavior.The social and intellectual climate forced frontier humorists to assert their cultural identity. In the humorous “tall tales” of these writers, there was an obvious emphasis on local peculiarities of speech, dress and habits of thought and the presentation of native character types.Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the localcharacters of their regions, and they tended to idealize and glorify.The local colorists formed an important part of the realistic movementTheir truthful depiction of the common people in their commonplace lives and use of humor was a feature of local colorism.The representative of local colorism is Mark Twain.。
英国文学 下 terms 名词解释 汇总
1.Romanticism: It was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment. It was influenced by three revolution: American and French revolutions, national liberation movements and democratic movements swept across many European countries.The essence of it is the glorification of instinct and emotion, a deep veneration of nature, and a flaming zeal to remark the world.2.Romantic movement: characteristic--subjectivism\spontaneity\singularity\worship of nature\simplicity\dominating note of melancholy\poets outpoured their feelings and emotions3.Luddite movement:it is a machine-breaking movement named after Ned Ludd. With the invention of new machines, many skilled workers were replaced by women and children. Workers organized themselves and gave voice to their distress by breaking machines. The riots lated from 1811 to 1818.4. Ballad:(1)a narrative poet that tells a story.(2) the beginning is often abrupt(3)have strong dramatic elements(4)often told through dialogue and action(5)the theme is often tragic(6) ballad meter:contains four-line stanzas. The odd numbered lines have four feet each and the even numbered lines have three feet each.Rhymes fall on the even numbered lines. And there is often a refrain at the end of each stanza.5. Byronic heroes: are men with fiery passions and unbending will and express the poet's own ideal of freedom. These heroes rise against tyranny and injustice, but they are merely lone fighters striving for personal freedom and some individualistic ends.6. Lyrical poets:the cavaliers were royalists,whose poetry was marked by courtliness,urbanity,and polish.(the theme is carpe diem,17th at the court reflected the extravanvgance and moral looseness of court life)7.Petrarchan sonnet:consists of an octave and a sestet, and the rhyme scheme is abba,abba,cdcdcd. first eight lines--an octave(abba abba)--raise problems;next six lines--a sestet(cde cde)--answer to the theme.8. Ode: in ancient literature, it is an elaborate, lyrical poem composed for a chorus to chant and to dance, to In modern use, it is a rhymed lyric expressing noble feelings, often addressed to a person or celebrating an event.9. Oxymoron: phrase combining two seemingly incompatible elements10. Terza rima: was used by Dante in The Divine Comedy. The first and third lines rhyme second line is in rhyme with the fourth and sixth lines, the rhyme scheme being aba,bab,cdc,ded,ee. This linked chain gives a feeling of onward motion; the verse has a breathless quality which is in keeping with the onward motion of the wind's movement. The metrical pattern of each line is basically iambic pentameter.11.writers at Victorian period:(victorian literature truthfully represents the reality and spirit of the age, vitality, down-to-earth, good natured humor and unbounded imagination--optimistic) Novelist: George Eliot, Thomas HardyProse writer: Thomas Carlyle, Mathew ArnoldPoets: Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browningthe early Victorian Period (ending around 1870) and the late Victorian Period. Writers associated with the early period are: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), Robert Browning (1812-1889), Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), Emily Bronte (1818-1848), Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), George Eliot (1819-1880), Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) and Charles Dickens (1812-1870).Writers associated with the late Victorian Period include: George Meredith (1828-1909), Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), Oscar Wilde (1856-1900), Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), A.E. Housman (1859-1936), and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894).12. realism: writing that stresses careful description of setting and trapping of daily life, psychological probability and the lives of ordinary people. Its practitioners believe they are presenting life"as it really is" Ibsen's A Doll House is an example.13. Dramatic monologue: perfected by Robert Browning, a type of poem, consists of a single speaker talking to one or more unseen audience,revealing much more about the speaker than he or she seems to intend, know more the personality of speaker rather than what's talking about. Penetrates to depth the psychology of his characters and through their own speeches, analyze and dissects his characters and reveals the innermost secret of their lives14. anapaestic: in the first two line two unaccented syllables of each foot are omitted,but the time is preserved by the three long pauses / (of a metric foot) characterized by two short syllables followed by a long one15. Aesthetic movement: appeared on the literary scene of England in the late Victorian period. It was influenced by the French symbolists. The predecessor of the movement was the Pre-Raphaelists, a group of young writers and artists who were opposed to the materialism and commercialism of the Victorian age and who wanted to create or recreate literary forms like those before the period of Raphaol,that is ,they wanted to go back to the medieval age.16. Hedonism: the belief that pleasure is the chief good in life1.Allegory: is a story or description in which the characters and events symbolize some deeper underlying meaning, and serve to spread moral teaching.It has a primary meaning and underlying meaning.2.Alliteration: the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of two or more words that are next to or close to each other.3.Alliterative verse: paragraphs of long alliterative lines of varying length are followed by a single line of two syllables,called 'the bob' and a group of four-stressed lines called "the wheel"4.Anglo-Saxon prose: Created by King Alfred, not obscure.5.Ballad: (1)a narrative poet that tells a story.(2) the beginning is often abrupt(3)have strong dramatic elements(4)often told through dialogue and action(5)the theme is often tragic(6) ballad meter:contains four-line stanzas. The odd numbered lines have four feet each and the even numbered lines have three feet each.Rhymes fall on the even numbered lines. And there is often a refrain at the end of each stanza.6.Ballad: a narrative poem that tells a story. It has basic characteristics:the beginning is often abrupt;there are strong dramatic elements;the story is often told through dialogue and action;the theme is often tragic7.Border ballad: a group of ballad dealing with blood strifes on the English-Scottish border.8.Blank verse:unrhymed iambic pentameter.the chief verse used by Shakespeare.9.Caesura(中间休止)：a cutting, break or pause in a line of peotry.10.Epic: a lengthy narrative poem, containing details of heroic deeds,may be oral ofwritten; have been written down at least since Homer, and Virgil, Dante and John Milton.11.Feminine rhyme: the rhymed words with one or more unaccented syllables as in subtle,rebuttal12.Fytte: one section of a poem13.heroic couplet: this verse form was introduce into English by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is traditional form for English poetry,commonly used for epic and narrative poetry;it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs(aa,bb...)of iambic pentameter(the ten-syllable line in rhymed couplets)lines.The rhyme is always masculine.14.Humanism(English Renaissance):man should be given full freedom to enrich their intellectual and emotional life. In religion they demanded the reformation of the church. In art and literature,instead of singing praise to God, they sang in praise of man and of the pursuit of happiness in this life. It shattered the shackle of spiritual bondage and opened his eyes to 'a brave new world' in front of him.15.Iambic: two-syllable foot consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one.Trochaic: if we reverse the order of accented syllable,placing the stressed syllable to the first, we habe a trochaic.16.Kenning(隐喻): a metaphor usually composed of two words, which becomes the formula for a special object.17.Lyrical poets: the cavaliers were royalists,whose poetry was marked by courtliness,urbanity,and polish.(the theme is carpe diem,17th at the court reflected the extravanvgance and moral looseness of court life)18.Meter: meter is the patterned count of accent of syllable group in the line.19.Metaphysical poetry: 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 theme are love,death,religion)tonic style(Latinate): instead of using the common English sentence pattern of subject-verb0object order, Milton uses more elaborate patterns drawn from Latin. He is very fond of using inversion and allusions.(the blank verse, the unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter,is used throughout the epic and is characterized by its employment of long and involved sentences,which run on many lines with a variety of pauses,and achieving sometimes an elaborately logical effect. This richness of poetical style has been called "Mliton style")21.Octave: the first eight lines of a sonnet or a eight-line poemSestet（六行诗节）: the following six lines of a sonnet22.Petrarchan sonnet: consists of an octave and a sestet, and the rhyme scheme is abba,abba,cdcdcd.23.pun(双关):the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound. It consists of a deliberate confusion of similar words or phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. It can rely on the assumed equivalency of multiple similar words(homonymy), of different shades of meaning of one word (polysemy), or of a literal meaning with a metaphor. Bad puns are often considered to be cheesy.24.Repetition and variation: the same idea is expressed more than once by the use of different words which are more or less synonyms.25.Rhyme: the pulse or beat in the poetic line.26.rhythm:the basic unit of meter is called the foot, a foot is one unit of rhythm.33.Robinson style: words are plain,simple,almost without any imagery of figure speech.monotonous without rhetorical devices27.Romance: 12th and 13th means the vernacular language;means a tale in verse, embodying the life and adventures of knights, about love, chivalry and religion. Motif is quest and test, meeting the evil, attack infidelity and super-natural elements and imagined maiden to accomplish a mission and a happy ending.(structure is lose, episodic;language is simple, straightforward) It falls three categories:(1) France,Charlemagne the Great(Chanson de Roland)(2) Rome, Alexander the Great and the siege of Troy(3) Britain,Arthurian legend,about Sir Gawain, Launcelot,Merlin, the quest for the Holy Grail, and the death of King Arthur.28.Soliloquy(dramatic irony): the audience know everything,but characters don't.(often used in drama)29.Sonnet:a short song in the original meaning of the word, contains 14 lines,usually in iambic pentameter with various rhymimg schemes.It was first written by Petrarch. Petrarch's sonnet: first eight lines--an octave(abba abba)--raise problems;next six lines--a sestet(cde cde)--answer to the theme.Shakespear's sonnet: consists three quantrains(abab cdcd efef)--theme is put forward and developed ; ends with a couplet rhyming(gg)--a surprise conclusion of shift of ideas.30.Spenser stanza:a group of eight lines of iambic pentameter followed by a six-stress iambic line(an Alexandrine),with a rhyme scheme ababbcbcc31.Synecdoche(提喻):when one uses a part to represent the whole.32.The 18th century: 文学- age of Neo-classicism科学-age of reason人文-age of enlightenment34.Three dramatic units: action,place,time35.The ideal of feudal knighthood：chivalry,chastity, piety,friendliness and free-giving36.The four subjects of Medieval knowledge: Theology, Philosophy, Medicine and Law.。
英美文学选读名词解释
英美文学选读名词解释Metaphysical poets（玄学派诗歌）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. Their rigorous, energetic verse appeals to t he reader’s intellect rather than emotions, discarding intuition and mysticism in favour of rational discussion. Their inventive, elaborate style was characterised by learned imagery and subtle argumentation, and the "metaphysical conceit", a figure of speech that employs unusual and paradoxical images such as in Andrew Marvell’s comparison of the soul with a drop of dew. Although such devices were not new, these poets managed to make the most of them with their fresh and original approach, infusing new life into English poetry.Metaphysical poetry(玄学派诗歌)Metaphysical poetry is commonly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne with a rebellious spirit, the Metaphysical poets tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry ,the diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan or the Neoclassical periods, and echoes the words and cadences of common speech. the imagery is drawn from actual life.Lake Poets(湖畔诗人)In english literature Lake Poets refer to such romantic poets as william wordsworth, coleridge and southey who lived in the lake District. They came to be known as the lake school or Lakers.Imagism（意象派）：it was a poetic vogue that flourished in England, and even more vigorously in America, between the years 1912 and 1917. It was planned and exemplified by a group of English and American writers in London, partly under the influence of the poetic theory of T. E. Hulme, as a revolt against the sentimental and mannerish poetry at the turn of the century. The typical Imagist poetry is written in free verse and undertakes to be as precisely and tersely as possible. Meanwhile, the Imagist poetry likes to express the writers’ momentary impression of a visual object or scene and often the impression is rendered by means of metaphor without indicating a relation. Most famous Imagist poem, “In a Station of the Metro”, was written by Ezra Pound. Imagism was too restrictive to endure long as a concerted movement, but it influenced almost all modern poets of Britain and America.Imagism(意象主义)Imagism came into being in Britain and U.S around 1910 as a reaction to the traditional English poetry to express the sense of fragmentation and dislocation.2>the imagists, with Ezra Pound leading the way, hold that the most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of one dominant image.3>imagism is characterized by the following three poetic principles:A.direct treatment of subject matter;B.economy of expression;C. as regards rhythm ,to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of metronome. 4> pound’s In a Station of the Metro is a well-known inagist poem.Harlem Renaissance（哈莱姆文艺复兴）：a period of remarkable creativity in literature, music, dance, painting, and sculpture by African-Americans, from the end of the First World War in 1917 through the 1920s. As a result of the mass migrations to the urban North in order to escape the legal segregation of the American South, and also in order to take advantage of the jobs opened to African Americans at the beginning of the War, the population of the region of Manhattan known as Harlem became almost exclusively Black, and the vital center of African American culture in America. Distinguished writers who were part of the movement included Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. The Great Depression of 1929 and the early 1930s brought the period of buoyant Harlem culture –which had been fostered by prosperity in the publishing industry and the art world – effectively to an end.。
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1. Epic (史诗)
An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.
史诗：用严肃或庄重的语言写成的叙事长诗，歌颂传奇中或历史上英雄的丰功伟绩
2. Romance (传奇故事)
An imaginative literature that is set in an idealized world and that deals with heroic adventures and battles between good and devil.
传奇故事：设定在想象世界中的以英雄冒险和善恶之间的斗争为题材的文学作品。
3. Humanism（人文主义）
Humanism is the idea that man has a potential for culture which distinguishes him from lower orders of beings, and which he should strive constantly to fulfill.
Rebellious spirit against the Medieval feudal value and blind faith in humbleness, servitude,
and after-life. Belief in man’s divinity and capability of self-perfection. Emphasis of the importance of personal worth and enjoyment of the present life.
4. Sonnet (十四行诗)
A 14-line verse form usually written in iambic pentameter.
十四行诗：一种由十四行组成的诗歌形式，通常以五步抑扬格为押韵形式。
5. Metaphysical Poetry (玄学派诗歌)
The poems of 17th-century English poets, whose verse is characterized by an intellectually challenging style and extended metaphors comparing very dissimilar things.
玄学派诗歌：17世纪英国诗人的诗歌，这种诗歌的特点是风格极具智慧，引人深思，善用引申的暗喻来对比极其不同的事物.
ke Poets（湖畔诗人）
A group of English romantic poets, including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. They came to be known as the Lake School or “Lakers”.
7.Byronic Hero（拜伦式英雄）
A figure created by George Gordon Byron in his poems, (such as Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Don Juan). He is a passionate, moody, restless character, who has exhausted most of the world’s excitements and lives under the weight of some mysterious sin committed in the past. His proud and defiant individualism refuses to be limited by the normal, institutional and moral strictures of society. He is an “outsider” whose daring life both isolates him and makes him attractive.
8. Stream of consciousness (意识流)
The style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character's thoughts, feelings reflections, and mental images as the character experiences them.
意识流：一种模仿作品中人物思想，思维，精神活动的自然过程的写作技巧。
2. Romanticism (浪漫主义)
An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century which emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism.
浪漫主义：起源于18世纪末期欧洲的一种注重个人情感和想象力的表达的艺术和知识上的运动，它与古典主义的观点和形式相悖。
55. Iambic pentameter (五步抑扬格)
A poetic line consisting of five verse feet, with each foot an iamb--that is, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
五步抑扬格:一种诗句形式，每行诗句包含五个抑扬格音步。
75. Naturalism (自然主义)
The practice of describing precisely the actual circumstances of human life in literature, it is the extreme form of realism.
自然主义：在文学中精确地描述人类现实环境的实践,现实主义的最高表现形式。
76. Neoclassicism (新古典主义)
A revival in literature in the late 17th and 18th centuries, characterized by a regard for the classical ideals of reason, form, and restraint styles.
新古典主义：17、18世纪晚期的文学复兴，以尊重古代典型的推理形式和严谨文体为特征
94. Realism (现实主义)
The representation in art or literature of objects, actions, or social conditions as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.
现实主义：在艺术或文学中将事物，行为或社会状况按其起初情况进行的表现，而不用模糊的形式来表现或理想化
29. Heroic couplet (英雄双韵体)
A couplet written in iambic pentameter is called a heroic couplet.
英雄双韵体：五步抑扬格的双韵体称英雄双韵体。
Byronic Hero（拜伦式英雄）
He is a stereotyped character created by George Gordon Byron.
This kind of hero is usually a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin.。