文学名词解释
1、Modernism(现代主义)
1)Modernism was a complex and diverse international movement in all creative arts, originating about the end of the 19th century、
2)rising out of skepticism and disillusionment of capitalism, which made writers and
artists search for new ways to express their understanding of the world and the human nature、The French Symbolism, appearing in the late, 19th century, became the forerunner of modernism、
3)It provided the greatest renaissance of the 20th century、
4)It means a departure from the conventional criteria or established values of the Victorian age、It took the irrational philosophy and theory of psychoa/nalysis as its theoretical base、
5)Major themes: the distorted, alienated and ill relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man, man and himself、
6) It was made up of many facets, such as symbolism, surrealism, stream of consciousness , expressionism, futurism, etc、Alienation and loneliness are the basic themes of modernism、Modernism also touched upon visual arts, music, dance and
the other fields of social life、
7)The major figures that were associated with this movement were Kafka, Picasso, Pound, Eliot, Joyce and Virginia Woolf, etc、
2、Streams of consciousness (意识流)
(1)is a term to describe the flow of thoughts of the waking mind、
(2)Now it is widely used to describe the unspoken thoughts and feelings of the characters, without resorting to objective description or conventional dialogue、
(3)It was adapted and developed by Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and others、
(4)The ability to represent the flux of a character’s thought, impressions, emotions, or reminiscences, often without logical sequence or syntax, marked a revolution in the
form of novel at that time、
(5)The order of our study must be analytic、
(6)It begins the introspective study of the adult consciousness itself、
3、Renaissance (文艺复兴)
A、 a great bourgeois cultural movement in Europe, which began in the 14th century
and continued to the mid-17th century、
B、It first started in Italy, with the flowering of painting, sculpture and literature and
then spread all over Europe、
、
C、the term means “rebirth” or “revival”
D、Humanism is the essence of the renaissance
、
E、representatives: Dante, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare
F、It marked the beginning of bourgeois revolution
4、Humanism(人文主义)
A、it is a system of beliefs upheld by writers and artists of the renaissance period in
their fighting against medieval a/sceticism禁欲主义、
B、It states that man is able to find truth, goodness a nd beauty, and that man is in control of the present life rather than being controlled by God、
C、Briefly, humanism puts man at the center of their beliefs and takes man to be the
measure of everything
D、They introduce new ideas, call for man’s freedom in thinking, praise man’s w aspirations渴望, and de/nunciate (公开谴责)the feuda/listic control of man’s
thought、
E、In England, Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the
best representatives of the English humanists、
F、it is the essence of the Renaissance Period、
5、Gothic Novel(哥特式小说)
1)It is a type of romantic fiction that predominated in the late 18th century
2)Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural、
3)Mostly stories of mystery and horror took place in some haunted or dilapidated
/deserted Middle Age castles、
4) gothic heroes and heroines tend to the equally mysterious, emphasis on the
irrational and dark side of human nature: the imaginative, the supernatural, the
discarded Medieval castles against the rigid rationality principle
、
5) They emphasize story line and setting over character and characterization
6) Representatives: Horace Walpole–The Castle of Otranto;Ann Radcliff---- The
Mysteries of Udolpho
6、Realism(现实主义)
1)Realism is the determination to face facts and deal with them practically, without
being influenced by feelings or false ideas、
2)In literature, realism is a way of writing about people and events as they actually
are、
3)in art, an attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or to represent
figures and objects exactly as they act or appear in life、
4) Representative writers: Daniel Defoe; Joanthan Swift; Henry Fielding, etc、
7、Enlightment:The Enlightment movement
(1),it 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 f rom 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)they believed that reason or rationality become standards for measurement of
everything、(5)they held the common faith in human rationality and the possibility of human
perfection through education、(6)representatives:Alexander Pope, Richard Steele,
8,Critical Realism批判现实主义
It is the main trend of the literary thoughts in the 19th century、It reveals the corrupting influence
of the rule of cash upon human nature、Critical realists criticize capitalist society from a
democratic viewpoint of bourgeoisie reality、The major contribution made by the 19th century
critical realists lies in their perfection of novels、They make use of the from of novel for full and
detailed representations of social and political events, and of the fate of individuals and of whole
social classes、
美国文学名词解释
1. Transcendentalism The origin of it is a philosophical and literary movement centered in Concord and Boston, which marks the summit of American Transcendentalism. 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths. The major features of American Transcendentalism are:It emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. It stressed the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important element of society. It offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. 2.Romanticism The Romanticism period stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War. It is a term associate with imagination boundlessness, and in critical usage is contrasted with classicism which is commonly associated with reason and restriction. The features of Romanticism are: American Romanticism was in a way derivative: American romantic writing was some of them modeled on English and European works. American romanticism was in essence the expression of "a real new experience "and contained"an alien quality".Representatives:William Cullen Bryant; Henry Longfellow and James Cooper, Washington Irving. 3.Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.The representatives are Howells, James, and Mark Twain. 4. Naturalism American naturalism was a new and harsher realism, it had come from Europe. Naturalism was an outgrowth of realism that responded to theories in science, psychology, human behavior and social thought current in the late nineteenth century. The background of naturalism are: In the last decade of the nineteenth century, with the development of industry and modern science, intelligent minds began to see that man was no longer a free ethical being in a cold, indifferent and essentially Godless universe. In this chance world he was both helpless and hopeless.Major Features of it are:Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment.The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires.Representatives of it such as Stephen Crane, Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser. 5.New Criticism The New Criticism as a school of poetry and criticism established itself in the 1940s as an academic orthodoxy in the United States. The school has its beginning in the 1920s. It focus on the analysis of the text rather paying attention to external elements such as its social background, its author's intention and political attitude, and its impact on society. Then it explores the artistic structure of the work rather than its author's frame of mind or its reader's responses. It also see a literary work as an organic entity, the unity of content and form, and places emphasis on the close reading of the text. These New Critics included T.S. Eliot,I.A.Richards,John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate and some other critics. The New Criticism has tended to divorce criticism from social and moral concerns, which was to become one salient feature of the movement. 6.Imagism: Between 1912 and 1922 there came a great poetry boom in which about 1000 poets published over 1000 volumes of poetry. Indeed ,to express the modern spirit, the sense of fragmentization and dislocation, was in large measure the aim of quite a few modern literary movements, of which Imagism was one.The first Imagist theorist, the English writer T.E.Hulme. Hulme suggests that modern art deals with expression and communication of momentary phases in the poet's mind. The most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of dominant image.It is a literary movement launched American poets early in the 20th century that advocated the use of free verse, common speech patterns, and clear concrete images as a reaction to Victorian sentimentalism. The representatives are Ezra pound, William Carlos Williams and some other poets.
美国文学史复习提纲 名词解释
I. Explain the following literary terms(名词解释). 1. Romanticism The most profound and comprehensive idea of romanticism is the vision of a greater personal freedom for the individual. Appeals to imagination; Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, gen iality. Subjectivity: in form and meaning. 2 American transcendentalism American transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy and literature that flourished during the early to middle years of the nineteenth century (about 1836-1860). For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains. 3 Realism: ―nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.‖ the Civil war a. verisimilitude of details derived from observation b. representative in plot, setting and character c. an objective rather than an idealized view of human experience or（American Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.） 4. Modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. The general term covers many political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in Western society at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at the turn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century. 5、American Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them. They were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace form God. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind. American Puritanism also had a enduring influence on American literature. 6、Transcendentalism: In New England, an intellectual movement known as transcendentalism developed as an American version of Romanticism. The movement began among an influential set of authors based in Concord, Massachusetts and was led by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Like Romanticism, transcendentalism rejected both 18th century rationalism and established religion, which for the transcendentalists meant the Puritan tradition in particular. The transcendentalists celebrated the power of the human imagination to commune with the universe and transcend the limitations of the material world. They found their chief source of inspiration in nature. Emerson’s essay Nature was the major document of the transcendental school and stated the ideas that were to remain central to it. 7、Free verse: free verse is the rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without attention to conventio nal rules of meter. Free verse was first written and labeled by a group of French poets of the late 19th century. Their purpose was to deliver poetry from the restrictions of formal metrical patterns and to recreate the free rhythms of natural speech. Walt Whitman was the precursor who wrote lines of varying length and cadence, usually not rhymed. The emotional content or meaning of the work was expressed through its rhythm. Free verse has been characteristic of the work of many modern American poets, including Ezra Pound and Carl Sandburg. 8、Naturalism: A more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories and plays, usually involving a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. Naturalism was a new and harsher realism. It
美国文学选读名词解释
1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. 1.simply speaking , American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans,who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions. 2.In content it means scrupulous ,moral rigor ,especially hostility to social pleasure and religion . 3.with time passing it became a dominant factor in American life , one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and literature.to some extent it is a state of mind,a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes ,rather than a set of tenets. 4.Actually it is a code of values,a philosophy of life and a point of view in American minds,also a two-faceted tradition of religious idealism and level -headed in common sense . 2.The American Romanticism(浪漫主义):a literary movement flourished as a cultural force the early period and the late period. associated with imagination and boundlessness, as an historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th centuries.(Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.) II.Features of American romanticism (1) It was the expression of “a real new experience(全新体验)”. (2) American Puritanism was a cultural heritage. Many American romantic writings intended to edify(启发) more than they entertained. (3) American Romanticism is full of “newness(新奇)” . Ideals：Individualism; political equality Dream：America: a new Garden of Eden (4)American romanticism was both imitative and independent. 3.Transcendentalism 超验主义 The major features of Transcendentalism: ① The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. 思想超灵宇宙 ② The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual is the most important element of Society. ③ The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s ove rwhelming presence. 自然+上帝 Ralph Waldo Emerson. American Transcendentalism:As a philosophical and literary
美国文学名词解释
1. Transcendentalism—it is a philosophic and literary movement that flourish in New England, as a reaction against rationalism and Calvinism. It stressed intuitive understanding of god without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind. 超验主义，它是一个蓬勃发展的新英格兰的哲学和文学运动，反对理性主义和加尔文主义的反应。它强调直观地了解上帝没有教会的帮助下，主张心灵的独立性。 2. Romanticism had appeared in England in the last years of the eighteenth century. It spread to conti nental Europe and then came to America early in the nineteenth century. It came into being as a re action against the prevailing neoclassical spirit and rationalism during the Age of Reason. 浪漫主义曾经出现在英国，在过去几年的十八世纪。它蔓延到欧洲大陆，然后来到美国在十九世纪初。它应运而生作为理性的时代中针对当时新古典主义精神和理性的反应。 3. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puritans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the Church of England. 清教主义，它是清教徒，谁曾打算净化和简化英国教会的宗教礼仪的宗教信仰。 4. Imagism is to present an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. An imagistic poem must present the object exactly the way the thing is seen. And the reader can form the image of the object through the process of reading the abstract and concrete words. Imagism 意象派：is a poetic movement of England and the United States, flourished from 1909-1917. Its credo, expressed in Some Imagist Poets, included the use of the language of common speech, project matter, the evocation of images in hard, clear poetry, and concentration. 英国是与美国的诗意动作，从1909-1917蓬勃发展。它的信条，在表达意象的一些诗人，包括使用共同的讲话，不管项目，图像的硬盘，明确诗歌和浓度唤起的语言。 5、Realism：（现实主义）appeared in the United States in the literature of local color, an amalgam of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things was immediately observable. the dialects, customs, sights.现实主义有浓厚的美国本土特色，是浪漫主义故事情节和现实主义描写相结合的产物：美国风味的方言、风俗、各种观点 6.Naturalism：自然主义 a new and harsher realism, 新型的更为冷峻的现实主义，产生悲观的流派，产生于the end of the century 十九世纪末，因为Perception of society’s disorders 对社会无序的感知。Presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were dominated by their environment and heredity. 设法尽力客观真实地展现出受环境与出身局限的下层人民和各种经济阶层人物的真正生活。The naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that their lives were controlled by heredity and the environment, the religious “truths” were illusory, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death. 强调世界的非道德性，人们没有意志的自由，宗教上的真理是虚幻的，现实生活是痛苦的。Deterministic 决定论，宿命的， 代表作家：Stephen Crane 史蒂芬.克莱恩, Frank Norris 弗朗克.诺里斯, Jack London 杰克.伦敦, Theodore Dreiser 西奥多.德莱塞. 6. The naturalists tend to depict the dark side of the socity, and always take the low classes as their heros or heroes. Compare to the realism and romanticism, they have a more pessimistic view toward the society, the life. Take Theodore Dreiser for example, his Sister Carrie or American Tragedy reveal that man can not control themselves, and is at the mercy of the nature, the heredity, the society and instinct.博物学家倾向于描绘社会的阴暗面,总是以低类为他们的英雄和英雄。比较现实主义和浪漫主义,他们对社会有更悲观的观点,生活。以西奥多·德莱塞为例,他的嘉莉妹妹还是美国的悲剧表明,男人不能控制自己,自然的摆布,遗传,社会和本能。
文学概论复习资料 (二)名词解释
名词解释 第一章文学观念 名词解释： 1、文学观念：文学观念就是对文学的看法，是对“文学是什么”的回答。文学观念是发展变化的。 2、文学四要素：当代美国学者艾布拉姆斯提出的，文学四要素是指世界、作家、作品、和读者。 3、再现说：在文学四要素中强调“世界”与“作品”的对应关系，即认为作品是对世界的摹仿或再现。 4、表现说：在文学四要素中强调“作品”与“作家”的关系，即认为作品是作家情感的自然流露、表现、传达。 5、实用说：在文学四要素中强调作品被读者所利用的关系，认为文学是一种工具，可以为某种社会目标服务。 6、客观说：在文学四要素中，把作品抬到高于一切、重于一切的地步，认为作品一旦从作家的笔下诞生之后，就获得了完全客观的性质，它既与原作家不相干，也与读者无涉，它从外界的参照物中孤立出来，本身是一个“自足体”，出现了所谓的“客观化走向”。 7、体验说：在文学四要素中强调读者对作品的意向性的体验这种关系，强调读者阅读作品是体验和现创造。 8、文学的定义：文学作为一种人类的文化形态，它是具有社会的审美意识形态性质的、凝聚着个体体验的、沟通人际的情感交流的语言艺术。 9、符号论的文化概念：从符号学的角度看，文化是人类的符号思维和符号活动所创造的产品及其意义的总和。这个观点是由德国的现代哲学家卡西尔提出的。 10、品质阅读：是指“试图尽可能完全地把握作品的肌质，表示首先注意到语言中的各种要素，重音和非重音，重复和省略，意象和含混等等，然后由此向人物、事件、情节和主题运动。这是就西语而言的，若是论汉语文学中…品质阅读”则是读者阅读是首先关注文本的用字、比兴、押韵、平仄、对仗和用事等，进一步再延伸到对情景的描写或人物、情节的叙述的理解。 11、经验和体验：个人和见闻和经历及所获得的知识和技能，统称为经验。所谓体验是经验中见出深义、诗意和个性的部分。经验是一种前科学的认识，它指向的是真理的世界（当然这还是常识、知识，即前科学的真理）；而体验则是一种价值性的认识和领悟，它要求“以身体之，以心验之”，它指向的是价值世界。 12、文以载道：中唐时期韩愈等古文运动家提出的，经宋代理学家的解释得到完善，“文以载道”的意思是说文像车，道像车上所载之货物，通过车的运载，可以达到目的地。如果车装饰得很漂亮，却不载物，那么车再美也是无用的。可见文学也就是传播儒家之道的手段和工具。这样的文学观念偏重于文学的教化目的。 13、寓教于乐：古罗马时期的思想家贺拉斯提出。认为文学的摹仿要达到“既劝谕读者，又使他喜爱，才能符合众望”。这是一种既重视摹仿又重视读者的快感和教益的文学观念。 14、价值阅读：“价值阅读”表示阅读者“试图尽可能敏锐和准确地描述出他在作品中所发现的价值”。当然这里所说的价值，首先是文化价值。 15、审美：审美是心理处于活跃状态的主体，在特定的心境、时空中，在有历史文化渗透的条件下，对于客体的美的观照、感悟、判断。 16、情致：由黑格尔提出。情致是两个方面的互相渗透，一方面是个体的心情，是具体感性的，是会感动人的，另一方面是价值和理性，可以作为认识。但这两个方面完全结合在一起，不可分离。因此对那些情致特别微妙深邃的作品，它的情致往往是无法简单地用语言传达出来的。 17、虚静：中国古代文论概念。“虚静”就是使人的精神进入一种无欲无得失无功利的极端平静的状态，这样事物的一切美和丰富性就会展现在眼前。所以虚静可以理解为审美活动时的心理状态。 18、艺术真实性：艺术真实性是指文学作品的艺术形象的合情合理的性质。 19、出入说：王国维提出的。作家的体验不但要能“入”，而且还要能“出…：诗人对宇宙人生，须入乎其内，又须出乎其外。入乎其内，故能写之。出乎其外，故能观之。入乎其内，故有生气。出乎其外，故有高致。”入乎其内就是移情式体验，出乎其外，就是体验主体对体验的反刍。
美国文学名词解释
Allegory is a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor. Allegories are written in the form of fables, parables, poems, stories, and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has characters, a setting, as well as other types of symbols, that have both literal and figurative meanings. One well-known example of an allegory is Dante’s The Divine Comedy.In Inferno, Dante is on a pilgrimage to try to understand his own life, but his character also represents every man who is in search of his purpose in the world. Alliteration is a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds. The repetition can be located at the beginning of successive words or inside the words. Poets often use alliteration to audibly represent the action that is taking place. Aside is an actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage. An aside is usually used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking. Asides are important because they increase an audience's involvement in a play by giving them vital information pertaining what is happening, both inside of a character's mind and in the plot of the play. Gothic is a literary style popular during the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. This style usually portrayed fantastic tales dealing with horror, despair, the grotesque and other “dark” subjects. Gothic literature was named for the apparent influence of the dark gothic architecture of the period on the genre. Also, many of these Gothic tales took places in such “gothic” surroundings. Other times, this story of darkness may occur in a more everyday setting, such as the quaint house where the man goes mad fro m the "beating" of his guilt in Edgar Allan Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart.”In essence, these stories were romances, largely due to their love of the imaginary over the logical, and were told from many different points of view. CATHARSIS is an emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety. According to Aristotle, catharsis is the marking feature and ultimate end of any tragic artistic work. IMAGERY: A common term of variable meaning, imagery includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature. It signifies all the sensory perceptions referred to in a poem, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor. Surrealism is an artistic movement doing away with the restrictions of realism and verisimilitude that might be imposed on an artist. In this movement, the artist sought to do away with conscious control and instead respond to the irrational urges of the subconscious mind. From this results the hallucinatory, bizarre, often nightmarish quality of surrealistic paintings and writings. Sample surrealist writers include Frank O'Hara, John Ashberry, and Franz Kafka.