英美文学名词解释Terms in English Literature

Literary Terms（文学术语解释）*Legend（传说）: A song or narrative handed down from the past, legend differs from myths on the basis of the elements of historical truth they contain.*Epic（史诗）: 1)Epic, in poetry, refers to a long work dealing with the actions of gods and heroes. 2)Beowulf is the greatest national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. John Milton wrote three great epics: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.*Romance（罗曼史/骑士文学）: 1)Romance is a popular literary form in the medieval England. 2)It sings knightly adventures or other heroic deeds. 3)Chivalry(such as bravery, honor, generosity, loyalty and kindness to the weak and poor) is the spirit of romance. *Ballad（民谣）: 1)Ballad is a story in poetic form to be sung or recited. 2)Ballads were passed down from generation to generation. 3)Robin Hood is a famous ballad singing the goods of Robin Hood. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 19th century English ballad.*The Heroic Couplet（英雄对偶句）:1)It means a pair of lines of a type once common in English poetry, in other words, it means iambic pentameter rhymed in two lines. 2)The rhyme is masculine. 3)Use of the heroic couplet was first pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer.*Humanism（人文主义）:1)Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. It emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life. 2)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 prefect himself and to perform wonders.*Renaissance（文艺复兴）:1)It refers to the transitional period from the medieval to the modern world. It first started in Italy in the 14th century. 2)The Renaissance means rebirth or revival. 3)It was stimulated by a series of historical events, such as the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek classics, the new discoveries in geography and astrology, the religious reformation and the economic expansion. 4)Humanism is the essence of Renaissance. 5)The English Renaissance didn’t begin until the reign of Henry Ⅷ. It was reg arded as England’s Golden Age, especially in literature. 6)The real mainstream of the English Renaissance is the Elizabethan drama. 7)This period produced such literary giants as Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe, Bacon, Donne and Milton, etc.*University Wits（大学才子）: 1)It refers to a group of scholars during the Elizabethan age who graduate from either Oxford or Cambridge. They came to London with the ambition to become professional writers. Some of them later become famous poets and playwrights. 2)Thomas Greene, John Lily and Christopher Marlowe were among them. 3)They paved the way, to some degree, for the coming of Shakespeare.*Blank verse（无韵体）:1)It is verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. 2)It is the verse form used in some of the greatest English poetry, including that of William Shakespeare and John Milton.*Spenserian Stanza（斯宾塞诗节）:1)It is the creation of Edmund Spenser. 2)It refers to a stanza of nine lines, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last line in iambic hexameter（六音步）,r hyming ababbcbcc. 3)Spenser’s The Faerie Queene was written in this kind of stanza.*Sonnet(十四行诗)1)It is the one of the most conventional and influential forms of poetry in English.2)A sonnet is a lyric consisting of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme.3)Shakespeare’s sonnets are well-known. *Soliloquy(独白)1)Soliloquy, in drama, means a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud. 2)In the line “To be, or not to be, that is the question”, which begins the famous soliloquy from Act3, Scene1 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this soliloquy Hamlet questions whether or not life is worth living and speaks of the reasons why he does not end his life.*Metaphysical Poets（玄学派诗人）：They refer to a group of religious poets in the first half of the 17th century whose works were characterized by their wit, imaginative picturing, compressions, often cryptic expression, play of paradoxes and juxtapositions of metaphor.*Enlightenment Movement(启蒙运动)1)It was a progressive intellectual 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 nationality, equality and science. It advocated universal education. Literature at the time became a very popular means of public education.5)Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like John Dryden, Pope, Johnson, Swift, Defoe, Fielding, Sheridan, etc.Neoclassicism(新古典主义)1)In the field of literature, the 18th century Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works. This tendency is known as neoclassicism.2)The neoclassicists hold 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 ideas should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity*Sentimentalism(感伤主义文学)1)It is a pejorative term to describe false or superficial emotion, assumed feeling, self-regarding postures of grief and pain.2)In literature it denotes overmuch use of pathetic effects and attempts to arouse feeling by pathetic indulgence.3)The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith is a case in point.*The Graveyard School(墓地派诗歌)1)It 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 theams.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.*Epistolary novel(书信体小说)1)It consists of the letters the characters write to each other. The usual form is the letter, but diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used.2)The epistolary novel’s reliance on subjective poi nts of view makes it the forerunner of the modern psychological novel.3)Samuel Richardson’s Pamela is typical of this kind.*Gothic Romance(哥特传奇)1)A type of novel that flourished in the late 18th and early 19th century in England.2)Gothic romances are mysteries, often involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and they are usually against dark backgrounds of medieval ruins and haunted castles.*Picaresque novel(流浪汉小说)1)It is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts in realistic and often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his or her wits in a corrupt society. 2)As indicated by its name, this style of novel originated in Spain, flourished in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, and continues to influence modern literature.*English Romanticism(英国浪漫主义文学)1)The English Romantic period is an age of poetry. Poets started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution. They saw poetry as a healing energy; they believed that poetry could purify both individual souls and the society.2)The Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798 acts as a manifesto for the English Romanticism.3)The Romantics not only eulogize the faculty of imagination, but also stress the concept of spontaneity and inspiration, regarding them as something crucial for true poetry.4)The natural world comes to the forefront of the poetic imagination. Nature is not only the major source of poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject matter.*Ode(颂歌)1)Ode is a dignified and elaborately lyric poem of some length, praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally.2)John Keats wrote great odes. His Ode on a Grecian Urn is a case in point.*Lake Poets(湖畔派诗人)They refer to such romantic poets as William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge and Robert Southey who lived in the Lake District. They came to be known as the Lake School or “Lakers”.*Byronic hero（拜伦式英雄）: It refers to a 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 withunconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies.Terza rima(三行体)1)It is an Italian verse that consists of a series of three-lines stanzas in which the middle line of each stanza rhymes with the first and third lines of the following stanza with the rhyming scheme ab a, bcb, cdc,ded, etc..2)Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” is a case in point*Critical Realism(批判现实主义)1)The Critical Realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties.2)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.3)Charls Dickens is the most important critical realist.*Psychological novel(心理小说)1)A vague term to describe that kind of fiction which is for the most part concerned with the spiritual, emotional and mental lives of the characters and with the analysis of characters rather than with the plot and the action.2)Thackeray’s charac terization of Rebecca Sharp is very much psychological.*Narration(叙述)1)Like description, narration is a part of conversation and writing. Narration is the major technique used in expository writing, such as autobiography.2)Successful narration must grow out of good observation, to-the-point selection and clear arrangement of details in logical sequence, which is usually chronological.3)Narration gives an exact picture of things as they occur.*Narrator(叙述者)1)It refers to one who narrates, or tells, a story.2)A story may be told by a first-person narrator, someone who is either a major or minor character in the story. Or a story may be told by a third-person narrator, someone who is not in the story at all.3)The word narrator can also refer to a character in a drama who guides the audience through the play, often commenting on the action and sometimes participating in it.*Plot(情节)1)Plot is the first and most obvious quality of a story. Plot is what happens in a story.2)It consists of the phrases of action in a story that are linked together by a chain of casual relationships.Point of view(叙述角度)1)The event of a story may be told as they appear to one or more participants or observers. In first-person narration the point of view is automatically that of the narrator.2)More variation is possible in third-person narration, where the author may choose to limit his or her report to what could have been observed or known by one of the characters at any given point in the action—or may choose to report the observations and thoughts of several characters. The author might choose to intrude his or her own point of view.*Naturalism(自然主义)1)A post Darwinian movement of the late 19th century that tried to apply the laws of scientific determinism to fiction. 2)The naturalist w ent 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.3)Major writers include Crane, Dreiser in America; Zola in France ; and Hardy and Gissing in England.*The Aesthetic Movement(唯美主义运动)1)It is a loosely defined movement in literature, fine art, the decorative arts and interior design in later nineteenth-century Britain. 2)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 (which occurred in 1895).3)The aesthetes believed that art did not have any didactic purpose; it need only be beautiful.Dramatic Monologue(戏剧独白)1)In literature, it refers to the occurrence of a single speaker saying something to a silent audience.2)Robert Browning is My Last Duchess is a typical example in which the duke, speaking to a non-responding audience, reveals not only the reasons for his disapproval of the behavior of his former duchess, but some tyrannical and merciless aspects of his own personality as well.。

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。

英美文学名词解释(2011-01-04 17:02:14)转载▼标签：分类：英国文学文化01. Humanism(人文主义)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)The word “Renaissance”means “rebirth”, it meant the reintroduction into westerm 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)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. Classcism(古典主义)Classcism 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)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)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)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)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 contr ibution to English literature is his creation of the “Byronic Hero”10. Critical Realism(批判现实主义)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）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)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 an d 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)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 ofpsycho-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 looking 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。

Metaphysical Poetry玄学派诗歌: The term "metaphysical poetry" is commonly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. Metaphysical poetry is characterized by verbal wit and excess, ingenious structure, irregular meter, colloquial language, elaborate imagery, and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas. The metaphysical poets tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry.Blank Verse素体诗：V erse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse has been the dominant verse form of English drama and narrative poetry since the mid-sixteenth century. It was introduced by Henry Howard from Italy, and then Shakespeare transformed blank verse into a supple instrument, uniquely capable of conveying speech rhymes and emotional overtones.Romance传奇文学: it was a long composition ,sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventure of a noble hero. //Any imagination literature that is set in an idealized world and that deals with a heroic adventures and battles between good characters and villains or monsters.Heroic Couplet英雄双韵体: Heroic couplet is a rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter. It is Chaucer who used it for the first time in English in his work The Legend of Good Woman.Epic史诗: An epic is a long oral narrative poem that operates on a grand scale and deals with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance. Many epics were drawn from an oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down.Sonnet十四行诗: abab cdcd efef gg A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter. It was introduced by Wyatt and developed by Surrey and was thereafter widely used, notably in the sonnet sequences of Shakespeare. A sonnet generally expresses a single theme or idea.Puritanism清教主义: Puritanism was the religious doctrine of the revolutionary bourgeoisie during the English Revolution. It stressed the virtue of self-discipline, thrift, hard work and unceasing labour. It advocated a strict moral code which prohibited many worldly pleasures.Naturalism自然主义: naturalism is a literary trend prevailing in Europe, especially in France and Germany, in the second half of the 19th century. According to the theory of naturalism, literature must be “true to life”and exactly reproduce real life, including all its details without any selection. Naturalism writers usually write life of the poor and oppressed, or the “slum life”, but by giving all the details of life without discrimination, they can only present the external appearance instead of the inner essence of real life. Humanism人文主义:Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance. According the humanists, both man and world are hindered only by external checks from infinite improvement. They emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life. Man could mould the world according his desire, and attain happiness by removing all the external checks by the exercise of reason.Aestheticism唯美主义: prevailing at the middle of the 19th century. Aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, not art imitate life. All art creation is absolutely subjective and should be free from any influence of egoism. Only when art is for art’s sake, can it be immortal. They believe art should be unconcerned with controversial issues.Sentimentalism感伤主义: Sentimentalism came into being as a result of a bitter discontent among the enlighteners with social reality. The representatives of sentimentalism continued to struggle against feudalism, but they sensed the contradictions in the process of capitalist development at the same time. Dissatisfied with reason, which classicists appealed to, they appealed to sentiment, “the human heart”.Critical Realism批判现实主义：critical realism is one of the literary genres that flourished mainly in the 19th century. 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. Hence the use of humor and satire in the realistic novels. But the trend of their works is not of revolution but rather of reformism.Neo-Romanticism新浪漫主义:a literary trend prevailing at the end of the 19th century. Dissatisfied with the drab and the ugly social reality and yet trying to avoid the positive solution of the acute social contradictions, the neo-romanticists laid emphasis upon the invention of exciting adventures and fascinating stories to entertain the readers.Modernist现代主义：prevailing during the 20s and 30s of the 20th century. It was a movement of experiments in new technique of writing. Modernist fiction put emphasis on the description of character s’psychological activities, and so has sometimes been called modern psychological fiction.Stream of Conscience意识流: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 the 20th century, under the influence of Freud’s theory of psychological analysis, a number of writers adopted the “stream of conscious” method of novel writing. The striking feature of these novelists is their giving precedence to the depiction of the characters’ mental and emotional reaction to external events, rather than the events themselves.。

英美文学名词解释英美文学是指英国和美国地区的文学作品和文学传统。

在这个领域中，存在着许多特殊的术语和概念，有助于我们理解和欣赏这些文学作品。

本文将解释和介绍一些常见的英美文学名词，以帮助读者深入理解和掌握这些文学作品。

一、1.文学流派（Literary Genre）：指文学作品按照特定主题、风格或结构的类别进行分类。

常见的文学流派包括小说、诗歌、戏剧、散文等。

不同的文学流派具有独特的特点和写作风格，反映了不同的文学趣味和审美观念。

2.现实主义（Realism）：是19世纪中期兴起的一种文学流派，强调对现实生活的逼真描写和展示。

现实主义文学追求真实、客观和可信的表达方式，通过描绘日常生活和社会环境来反映现实社会的不同层面。

3.自然主义（Naturalism）：自然主义是现实主义的一种延伸，强调环境和遗传因素对人的行为和命运的决定性作用。

自然主义文学突出了人类生存环境对人性的影响，对人类行为进行科学观察和探索。

4.浪漫主义（Romanticism）：浪漫主义强调个体情感、想象力和超验的体验，追求自由和独立的精神境界。

浪漫主义文学追求充满激情、抒发个人感受和探索内心世界的形式。

二、1.象征主义（Symbolism）：象征主义是19世纪末20世纪初出现的一种文学和艺术运动，强调使用象征性的意象和隐喻来表达深层的情感和思想。

象征主义文学倾向于表达个体的情感体验和心灵探索。

2.现代主义（Modernism）：现代主义是20世纪初兴起的一种文学和艺术运动，强调对传统形式和观念的挑战和颠覆。

现代主义文学追求形式上的创新和实验，探索自我意识、哲学思考和社会变革。

3.后现代主义（Postmodernism）：后现代主义是现代主义的继承和超越，强调文化多样性、相对主义和戏仿。

后现代主义文学打破传统的叙事和结构规则，以戏仿和颠覆的方式探索权力、真实性和历史观念。

4.现实主义小说（Realistic Novel）：现实主义小说以真实的描写和社会批判为特征，通过塑造现实人物的经历和命运来反映社会问题。

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 condemn5. Chronicle《编年史》（a monument of Old English prose）6. 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。

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。

TERMS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE1.Allegory寓言；讽喻A narrative in which the characters and the setting stand for abstract qualities and ideas. The writer of an allegory is not primarily trying to make the characters and their actions realistic, but to make them representative of ideas or truths.2. Alliteration (头韵)The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants or consonant clusters, in a group of words . Some-times the term is limited to the repetition of initial consonant sounds.3. Assonance（腹韵，半谐音）The repetition of similar vowel sounds , especially in poetry . Here is an example of assonance from John Keat s’s Ode on a Grecian Urn : “Thou foster ch i ld of s i lence and slow t i me .”4. Ballad民谣；叙事诗歌A story told in verse and usually meant to be sung .5. Blank Verse无韵诗，素体诗（不押韵的五音步诗行）Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.6. Byronic Hero拜伦的，拜伦风格的，冷笑而浪漫的The hero with the characteristic of Lord Byron or the hero in his poetry, who is contemptuous of and rebelling against conventional morality, or defying fate, and who is a mixture of good and evil, selflessness and sin, isolated, rebellious, passionate and self-reliant, etc.7. Characterization特性描述；（对书或戏剧中人物的）刻画，塑造The personality a character displays; also, the means by which a writer reveals that personality. Generally, a writer develops a character in one or more of the following ways:1)through the character’s actions;2)through the character’s thoughts and speeches;3)through a physical description of the character;4)through the opinions others have about the character;5)through a direct statement about the character telling what the writer thinks of him or her.8. Classicism古典主义，古典风格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 .9. ClimaxThe point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense in a narrative . The climax usually marks a story’s turning point.10. ComedyIn general, a literary work that ends happily with a healthy, amicable armistice between the protagonist and society.11. Comedy of MannersA term most commonly used to designate the realistic, often satirical comedy. In the stricter sense of the term, the type is concerned with the manners and conventions of an artificial, highly sophisticated society. The fashions, manners and outlook on life of this social group are reflected. The characters are more likely to be types than individualized personalities. Plot, though ofteninvolving a clever handling of situation and intrigue, is less important than atmosphere, dialogue and satire, The dialogue is witty and finished, often brilliant. Satire is directed against the deficiencies of typical characters.12. Conceit (文学中)巧妙的比喻，别出心裁的对比A kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things.13. Consonance（谐辅音）The repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words . Sometimes the term refers to the repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words, as in this line from Thomas Gray’s “ Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ”: “ And a ll the air a so l emn sti ll ness ho l ds . ”Sometimes the term is used for slant rhyme (or partial rhyme) in which initial and final consonants are the same but the vowels different : l itter/l etter , gree n/groa n .14. Couplet相连并押韵的两行诗，对句Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.15. Dramatic MonologueA poem in which there is an imaginary speaker, at some specific and critical moment, addressing an imaginary, silent but identifiable audience, thereby unintentionally revealing his or her essential personality or temperament. In Browning’s My Last Duchess,for example, he penetrates to the depth the psychology of his characters and through their own speeches, he analyzes and reveals the innermost secret of their lives.16. Heroic Couplet（两行相互押韵、每行分五音节的）英雄偶句诗An iambic pentameter couplet.17. Elegy悲歌;挽歌;挽诗A poem of mourning, usually over the death of an individual.18. Epic叙事诗；史诗；史诗般的作品A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated.19. Fable寓言A story with a moral lesson, often employing animals who talk and act like human beings.20 The Graveyard SchoolA group of 18th-century poets, and among them are Thomas Gray, Robert Blair, Thomas Parnell, and Edward Young, who wrote on funeral subjects.21. Iambic Pentameter五音步抑扬格A poetic line consisting of five verse feet (penta-is from a Greek word meaning “five”), with each foot an iamb—that is, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter is the most common verse line in English poetry.22. ImageryWords or phrases that create pictures, or images, in the reader’s mind .23. LyricA poem, usually a short one, that expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts or feelings. The elegy, ode, and sonnet are all forms of the lyric.24. Metaphysical PoetryThe poetry of John Donne and other seventeenth-century poets who wrote in a similar style. Metaphysical poetry is characterized by verbal wit and excess, ingenious structure, irregular meter, colloquial language , elaborate imagery , and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas .25. MeterA generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.26. Narrative PoemA poem that tells a story .One kind of narrative poem is the epic, a long poem that sets forth the heroic ideals of a particular society. Beowulf is an epic. The ballad is another kind of narrative poem.27. NarratorOne who narrates, or tells, a story. A story may be told by a first-person narrator, someone who is either a major or a minor character in the story. Or a story may be told by a third-person narrator, someone who is not in the story at all.28. NaturalismAn extreme form of realism. Naturalistic writers usually depict the sordid side of life and show characters who are severely limited by their environment or heredity, two forces beyond man’s control.29. NeoclassicismA revival in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of classical standards of order, balance, and harmony in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major exponents of the neoclassical school.30. OctiveAn eight-line poem or stanza. Usually the term octave refers to the first eight lines of an Italian sonnet. The remaining six lines form a sestet.31. OdeA complex and often lengthy lyric poem, written in a dignified formal style on some serious subject.32. ParadoxA statement that reveals a kind of truth, although it seems at first to be self-contradictory and untrue .33. Point of viewThe vantage point from which a narrative is told. There are two basic points of view: first-person and third person. In the first-person point of view, the story is told by one of the characters in his or her own words. In the third-person point of view, the narrator is not a character in the story. The narrator may be an omniscient, or “all-knowing” observer.34. PunThe use of a word or phrase to suggest two or more meanings at the same time. Puns are generally humorous.35. RealismThe 19th century literary movement that reacted to romanticism by insisting on a faithful, objective presentation of the details of everyday life.36. The RenaissanceThe period in Europe between the 14th century and the 17th century. During this period, the classical arts and learning were discovered again and widely studied, so the term originally indicates a revival of classical(Roman and Greek) arts and learning after the dark ages of Medieval obscurantism, it also marked the beginning of the bourgeois revolution.In the Renaissance period, scholars and educators called themselves humanists and began toemphasize the capacities of the human mind and they held their chief interest in man’s values and his environment and doings. So humanism became the keynote of the English Renaissance.37. RomanceAny 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 tale dealing with the loves and adventures of kings , queens , knights , and ladies , and including unlikely or supernatural happenings . Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the best of the medieval romances.38. RomanticismRomanticism is a literary movement which came into being in England early in the latter half of the 18th century and prevailed in the first half of the nineteenth century . This literary trend began with the publication of Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads(抒情歌谣集) and ended with Walter Scott’s death. It is a reaction against the classicism or Neoclassicism of the 18th century. Romantic writing emphasizes emotions and feelings instead of reason and logic. It also focuses on the life of common people and encourages an appreciation of nature instead of society. The subject matters of Romanticism can be listed: sensibility, love of nature, interest in the past ,mysticism , individualism , exotic pictures , strong-willed heroes , sometimes resort to symbolism39. SestetA six-line poem or stanza. Usually the term sestet refers to the last six lines of an Italian sonnet . The first eight lines of an Italian sonnet form an octave.40. SentimentalismThe middle of the 18th century in England sees the inception of a new literary current---that of sentimentalism, which came into being as a bitter discontent in social reality on the part of certain enlighteners who found the power of reason to be insufficient in dealing with social injustices, and therefore, appealed to sentiment as a means of achieving happiness and justice.The term is used in two senses in the study of literature. The first is overindulgence in emotion, especially the conscious effort to induce emotion in order to analyze or enjoy it and the failure to restrain or evaluate emotion through the exercise of the judgement. The second is optimistic overemphasis of the goodness of humanity. Sentimentalism is concerned with the development of primitivism. In the first sense given above, sentimentalism is found in the melancholy verse of the Graveyard School.41. SoliloquyIn drama, an extended speech delivered by a character alone onstage. The character reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings directly to the audience, as if thinking aloud.42. SonnetA fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter.43. Stream of ConsciousnessA method of telling a story in which a writer lets the reader know every thought that enters a character’s mind. This method tries to imitate the way in which people actually think. Therefore , the character’s thoughts are presented in the order in which they occur , and this order is not necessarily logical . When the stream-of-consciousness technique is used, the story is always written from the first-person point of view.44. Spenserian StanzaA nine-line stanza with the following rhyme scheme: ababbcbcc. The first eight lines are written iniambic pentameter. The last line is written in iambic hexameter . The Spenserian Stanza was invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Fairie Queen.45. StyleAn author’s characteristic way of writing, determined by the choice of words, the arrangements of words in a sentence, and the relationship of sentences to one another. Style is the total qualities and characteristics that distinguish the writings of one writer from those of another.46. TragedyIn general, a literary work in which the protagonist meets an unhappy or disastrous end. Unlike comedy, tragedy depicts the actions of a central character who is usually dignified or heroic. Through a series of events, this main character, or tragic hero , is brought to a final downfall .47. ForeshadowingA device by means of which the author hints at something to follow.48. Understatement(轻描淡写的陈述)A figure of speech that consists of saying less than what one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants.49. University WitsA name given to a group of Elizabethan playwrights who had studied at the universities of Oxford or Cambridge. John Lyly and Thomas Lodge were at Oxford; Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe and Christopher Marlowe came from Cambridge.50. The Wessex NovelsThe Wessex Novels : novels by Hardy of describing the characters and environment of his native countryside. These novels have for their setting the agricultural region of the Southern counties of England. Hardy truthfully depicts the impoverishment and decay of small farmers who became hired fieldhands and roam the country in search of seasonal jobs. These laborers are mercilessly exploited by the rich landowners. The author is pained to see the decline of the idyllic life in rural England. This is one of the reasons for Hardy’s pessimistic tone throughout his novels. His pessimistic philosophy seems to show that mankind is subjected to human life. Determinism is a tendency in his writings. The major Wessex Novels include:1. Under the Greenwood Tree2. Far from the Madding Crowd3. The Return of the Native4. The Mayor of Casterbridge5. Tess of the D’Urbervilles6. Jude the Obscure。

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 me ant 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 fromactual 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 andcommercialism 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 Victorianperiod.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 whic h 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’sfragmentary 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。