英美文学中的戏剧drama

英美文学之文学术语文学术语汇编11.Literature of the absurd: (荒诞派文学) The term is applied to a number of works in drama and prose fiction which have in common the sense that the human condition is essentially absurd, and that this condition can be adequately represented only in works of literature that are themselves absurd. The current movement emerged in France after the Second World War, as a rebellion against essential beliefs and values of traditional culture and traditional literature. They hold the belief that a human being is an isolated existent who is cast into an alien universe and the human life in its fruitless search for purpose and meaning is both anguish and absurd.2.Theater of the absurd: (荒诞派戏剧) belongs to literature of the absurd. Two representatives of this school are Eugene Ionesco, French author of The Bald Soprano (1949) (此作品中文译名<秃头歌女>), and Samuel Beckett, Irish author of Waiting for Godot (1954) (此作品是荒诞派戏剧代表作<等待戈多>). They project the irrationalism, helplessness and absurdity of life in dramatic forms that reject realistic settings, logical reasoning, or a coherently evolving plot.3.Black comedy or black humor: (黑色幽默) it mostly employed to describe baleful, naïve, or inept characters in a fantastic or nightmarish modern world playing out their roles in what Ionesco called a “tragic farce”, in which the events are often simultaneously comic, horrifying, and absurd. Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (美国著名作家约瑟夫海勒<二十二条军规>) can be taken as an example of the employment of this technique.文学术语汇编24. Aestheticism or the Aesthetic Movement（唯美主义）: it began to prevail in Europe at the middle of the 19th century. The theory of “art for art’s sake” was first put forward by some French artists. They declared that art should serve no religious, moral or social purpose. The two most important representatives of aestheticists in English literature are Walt Pater and Oscar Wilde.5. Allegory（寓言）: a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities, such as John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. An allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.6. Fable（寓言）: is a short narrative, in prose or verse, that exemplifies an abstract moral thesis or principle of human behavior. Most common is the beast fable, in which animals talk and act like the human types they represent. The fables in Western cultures derive mainly from the stories attributed to Aesop, a Greek slave of the sixth century B. C.7. Parable（寓言）: is a very short narrative about human beings presented so as to stress analogy with a general lesson that the narrator is trying to bring home to his audience. For example, the Bible contains lots of parables employed by Jesus Christ to make his flock understand his preach.(注意以上三个词在汉语中都翻译成语言，但是内涵并不相同，不要搞混)8. Alliteration（头韵）: the repetition of the initial consonant sounds. In Old English alliterative meter, alliteration is the principal organizing device of the verse line, such as in Beowulf.9. Consonance is the repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants but with a change in the intervening vowel, such as “live and love”.10. Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar vowel, especially in stressed syllables, in a sequence of nearby words, such as “child of silence”.11. Allusion （典故）is a reference without explicit identification, to a literary or historical person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage. Most literary allusions are intended to be recognized by the generally educated readers of the author’s time, but some are aimed at a special group.12. Ambiguity（复义性）: Since William Empson（燕卜荪）published Seven Types of Ambiguity（《复义七型》）, the term has been widely used in criticism to identify a deliberate poetic device: the use of a single word or expression to signify two or more distinct references, or to express two or more diverse attitudes or feeling.文学术语汇编313. Antihero（反英雄）：the chief character in a modern novel or play whose character is totally different from the traditional heroes. Instead of manifesting largeness, dignity, power, or heroism, the antihero is petty, passive, ineffectual or dishonest. For example, the heroine of Defoe’s Moll Flanders is a thief and a prostitute.14. Antithesis（对照）：(a figure of speech)An antithesis is often expressed in a balanced sentence, that is, a sentence in which identical or similar syntactic structure is used to express contrasting ideas. For example, “Marriage has many pains, but celibacy（独身生活）has no pleasures.” by Samuel Johnson obviously employs antithesis.15. Archaism（拟古）：the literary use of words and expressions that have become obsolete in the common speech of an era. For example, the translators of the King James Version of Bible gave weight and dignity to their prose by employing archaism.16. Atmosphere（氛围）: the prevailing mood or feeling of a literary work. Atmosphere is often developed, at least in part, through descriptions of setting. Such descriptions help to create an emotional climate to establish the reader’s expectations and attitudes.文学术语汇编417. Ballad（民谣）：it is a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story. It originated and was communicated orally among illiterate or only partly literate people. It exists in many variant forms. The most common stanza form, called ballad stanza is a quatrain in alternate four- and three-stress lines; usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme. Although many traditional ballads probably originated in the late Middle Age, they were not collected and printed until the eighteenth century.18. Climax：as a rhetorical device it means an ascending sequence of importance. As a literary term, it can also refer to the point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense in a story’s turning point. The action leading to the climax and the simultaneous increaseof tension in the plot are known as the rising action. All action after the climax is referred to as the falling action, or resolution. The term crisis is sometimes used interchangeably with climax.19. Anticlimax（突降）：it denotes a writer’s deliberate drop from the serious and elevated to the trivial and lowly, in order to achieve a comic or satiric effect. It is a rhetorical device in English.20. Beat Generation（垮掉一代）：it refers to a loose-knit group of poets and novelists, writing in the second half of the 1950s and early 1960s, who shared a set of social attitudes – antiestablishment, antipolitical, anti-intellectual, opposed to the prevailing cultural, literary, and moral values, and in favor of unfettered self-realization andself-expression. Representatives of the group include Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. And most famous literary creations produced by this group should be Allen Ginsberg’s long poem Howl and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.文学术语汇编521. Biography（传记）：a detailed account of a person’s life written by another person, such as Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets and James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.22. Autobiography（自传）：a person’s account of his or her own life, such as Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography.23. Blank verse（无韵体）: Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is the verse form used in some of the greatest English poetry, including that of William Shakespeare and John Milton.24. A parody（模仿）imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work, or the distinctive style of a particular author, or the typical stylistic and other features of a serious literary genre, and deflates the original by applying the imitation to a lowly or comically inappropriate subject.文学术语汇编625. Celtic Revival also known as the Irish Literary Renaissance （爱尔兰文艺复兴）identifies the remarkably creative period in Irish literature from about 1880 to the death of William Butler Yeats in 1939. The aim of Yeats and other early leaders of the movement was to create a distinctively national literature by going back to Irish history, legend, and folklore, as well as to native literary models. The major writers of this movement include William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, John Millington Synge and Sean O’Casey and so on.26. Characters（人物）are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from the dialogues, actions and motivations. E. M. Forster divides characters into two types: flat character, which is presented without much individualizing detail; and round character, which is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity.27. Chivalric Romance (or medieval romance) （骑士传奇或中世纪传奇）is a type of narrative that developed in twelfth-century France, spread to the literatures of other countries. Its standard plot is that of a quest undertaken by a single knight in order to gain a lady’s favor; frequently its central interest is courtly love, together with tournaments fought and dragons and monsters slain. It stresses the chivalric ideals of courage, loyalty, honor, mercifulness to an opponent, and elaborate manners.28. Comedy:（喜剧）in general, a literary work that ends happily with a healthy, amicable armistice between the protagonist and society.29. Farce （闹剧）is a type of comedy designed to provoke the audience to simple and hearty laughter. To do so it commonly employs highly exaggerated types of characters and puts them into improbable and ludicrous situations.30. Confessional poetry（自白派诗歌）designates a type of narrative and lyric verse, given impetus by Robert Lowell’s Life Studies, which deals with the facts and intimate mental and physical experiences of the poet’s own life. Confessional poetry was written in rebellion against the demand for impersonality by T. S. Elliot and the New Criticism. The representative writers of confessional school include Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath and so on.31. Critical Realism:（批判现实主义）The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the fouties and in the beginning of fifties. The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils. Representative writers of this trend include Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray and so on.32. Drama:（戏剧）The form of composition designed for performance in the theater, in which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the indicated action, and utter the written dialogue. (The common alternative name for a dramatic composition is a play.)文学术语汇编733. Dramatic Monologue:（戏剧独白）a monologue is a lengthy speech by a single person. Dramatic monologue does not designate a component in a play, but a type of lyric poem that was perfected by Robert Browning. By using dramatic monologue, a single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment. For example, Robert Browning’s famous poem “My Last Duchess” was written in dramatic monologue. 34. Elegy（哀歌或挽歌）：a poem of mourning, usually over the death of an individual. An elegy is a type of lyric poem, usually formal in language and structure, and solemn or even melancholy in tone.35. Enlightenment（启蒙运动）：The name applied to an intellectual movement which developed in Western Europe during the seventeenth century and reached its height in the eighteenth. The common element was a trust in human reason as adequate to solve the crucial problems and to establish the essential norms in life, together with the belief that the application of reason was rapidly dissipating the remaining feudal traditions. It influenced lots of famous English writers especially those neoclassic writers, such as Alexander Pope.36. Epic（史诗）：it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race.37. Epiphany:（顿悟）In the early draft of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce employed this term to signify a sudden sense of radiance and revelation that one may feel while perceiving a commonplace object. “Epiphany” now has become the standard term for the description, frequent in modern poetry and prose fiction, of the sudden flare into revelation of an ordinary object or scene.38. Epithet（移就）: as a term in criticism, epithet denotes an adjective or adjectival phrase used to define a distinctive quality of a person or thing. This method was widely employed in ancient epics. For example, in Homer’s epic, the epithet like “the wine-dark sea” can be found everywhere.39. Essay:（散文）any short composition in prose that undertakes to discuss a matter, express a point of view, persuade us to accept a thesis on any subject, or simply entertain. The essay can be divided as the formal essay and the informal essay (familiar essay).40. Euphemism（委婉语）: An inoffensive expression used in place of a blunt one that is felt to be disagreeable or embarrassing, such as “pass away” instead of “die”41. Expressionism（表现主义）：a German movement in literature and the other arts which was at its height between 1910 and 1925 – that is, in the period just before, during, and after WWⅠ. The expressionist artist or writer undertakes to express a personal vision – usually a troubled or tensely emotional vision – of human life and human society. This is done by exaggerating and distorting. We recognize its effects, direct or indirect, on the writing and staging of such plays as Arthur Miller’s Death ofa Salesman as well as on the theater of the absurd.42. Free verse（自由体诗）：Like traditional verse, it is printed in short lines instead of with the continuity of prose, but it differs from such verse by the fact that its rhythmic pattern is not organized into a regular metrical form – that is, into feet, or recurrent units of weak and strong stressed syllables. Most free verse also hasirregular line lengths, and either lacks rhyme or else uses it only occasionally. Walt Whitman is a representative who employed this poem form successfully.文学术语汇编843. Gothic novel:（哥特式小说）It is a type of prose fiction. The writers of this type of fictions mostly set their stories in the medieval period and in a Catholic country, especially Italy or Spain. The locale was often a gloomy castle. The typical story focused on the sufferings imposed on an innocent heroine by a cruel villain. This type of fictions made bountiful use of ghosts, mysterious disappearances, and other supernatural occurrences. The principle aim of such novels was to evoke chilling terror and the best of this type opened up to the fiction the realm of the irrational and of the perverse impulses and nightmarish terrors that lie beneath the orderly surface of the civilized mind. Some famous novelists liked to employ some Gothic elements in their novels, such as Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.44. Graveyard poets（墓园派诗歌）: A term applied to eighteenth-century poets who wrote meditative poems, usually set in a graveyard, on the theme of human mortality, in moods which range from pensiveness to profound gloom. The vogue resulted in one of the most widely known English poems, Thomas Gray’s“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”.45. Harlem Renaissance（哈莱姆文艺复兴）：a period of remarkable creativity in literature, music, dance, painting, and sculpture by African-Americans, from the end of the First World War in 1917 through the 1920s. As a result of the mass migrations to the urban North in order to escape the legal segregation of the American South, and also in order to take advantage of the jobs opened to African Americans at the beginning of the War, the population of the region of Manhattan known as Harlem became almost exclusively Black, and the vital center of African American culture in America. Distinguished writers who were part of the movement included Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. The Great Depression of 1929 and the early 1930s broughtthe period of buoyant Harlem culture – which had been fostered by prosperity in the publishing industry and the art world – effectively to an end.46. Heroic Couplet（英雄双韵体）refers to lines of iambic pentameter which rhyme in pairs: aa, bb, cc, and so on. The adjective “heroic” was applied in the later seventeenth century because of the frequent use of such couplets in heroic poems and dramas. This verse form was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer. From the age of John Dryden through that of Samuel Johnson, the heroic couplet was the predominant English measure for all the poetic kinds; some poets, including Alexander Pope, used it almost to the exclusion of other meters.47. Hyperbole（夸张）:this figure of speech called hyperbole is bold overstatement, or the extravagant exaggeration of fact or of possibility. It may be used either for serious or ironic or comic effect.48. Understatement（轻描淡写）：this figure of speech deliberately represents something as very much less in magnitude or importance than it really is, or is ordinarily considered to be. The effect is usually ironic.49. Imagism（意象派）：it was a poetic vogue that flourished in England, and even more vigorously in America, between the years 1912 and 1917. It was planned and exemplified by a group of English and American writers in London, partly under the influence of the poetic theory of T. E. Hulme, as a revolt against the sentimental and mannerish poetry at the turn of the century. The typical Imagist poetry is written in free verse and undertakes to be as precisely and tersely as possible. Meanwhile, the Imagist poetry likes to express the writers’ momentary impression of a visual object or scene and often the impression is rendered by means of metaphor without indicating a relation. Most famous Imagist poem, “In a Station of the Metro”, was written by Ezra Pound. Imagism was too restrictive to endure long as a concerted movement, but it influenced almost all modern poets of Britain and America.50. Irony（反讽）：This term derives from a character in a Greek comedy. In most of the modern critical uses of the term “irony”, there remains the root sense of dissembling or hiding what is actually the case; not, however, in order to deceive, but to achieve rhetorical or artistic effects.51. Local Colorism（地方色彩）was a literary trend belonging to Realism. It refers to the detailed representation in prose fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of thinking and feeling which are distinctive of a particular region. After the Civil War a number of American writers exploited the literary possibilities of local color in various parts of America. The most famous representative of local colorism should be Mark Twain who took his hometown near the Mississippi as the typical setting of nearly all his novels.52. Lyric（抒情诗）：in the most common use of the term, a lyric is any fairly short poems consisting of the utterance by a single speaker, who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought and feeling.。

戏剧（drama）[drama;play] 旧时专指戏曲,后用为戏曲、话剧、歌剧、舞剧、诗剧等的总称。

希腊戏剧戏剧，指以语言、动作，舞蹈，音乐，木偶等形式达到叙事目的的舞台表演艺术的总称。

文学上的戏剧概念是指为戏剧表演所创作的脚本，即剧本。

戏剧的表演形式多种多样，常见的包括话剧、歌剧、舞剧、音乐剧、木偶戏等具体含义】综合艺术的一种。

有两种含义：狭义专指以古希腊悲剧和喜剧为开端，首先在欧洲各国发展起来继而在世界广泛流行的舞台演出形式，英文为drama ，中国称之为话剧。

广义还包括东方一些国家、民族的传统舞台演出形式，如中国的戏曲、日本的歌舞伎、印度的古典戏剧、朝鲜的唱剧等。

【戏剧本质】公元前4世纪，亚里士多德在《诗学》中已经表述了对戏剧本质的认识。

他认为：一切艺术都是模仿，戏剧是对人的行动的模仿。

2个世纪以后，印度的第一部戏剧理论著作《舞论》也指明：“戏剧就是模仿。

”19世纪以后，对戏剧本质的研讨出现了众说纷纭的局面，主要有观众说，冲突说，激变说，情境、实验室说等。

观众说：认定观众是戏剧的必要条件，也是戏剧的本质所在。

法国戏剧理论家F.萨赛是这种观念的代表，他断言：不管是什么样的戏剧作品，都是为了给观众看的。

“没有观众，就没有戏剧”，因而，戏剧的一切器官都必须与观众的欣赏相适应。

冲突说：以法国戏剧理论家布伦退尔为代表。

19世纪末，布伦退尔指出：舞台乃是人的自觉意志发挥的场所，人物的自觉意志的发挥必定会遇到阻碍，主体为克服阻碍就要与之斗争，这就构成“意志冲突”，戏剧的本质就在于此。

美国戏剧理论家J.H.劳森则把戏剧的本质归之为“自觉意志在其中发挥作用的社会性冲突”。

他认为：由于戏剧是处理社会关系的，而人的自觉意志又必须受社会必然性的制约，因而，真正的戏剧性冲突必须是社会性冲突。

这种观念可以一句话来表述：“没有冲突就没有戏剧。

”激变说：英国戏剧理论家W.阿契尔否定布伦退尔的“冲突”说，他把小说与戏剧相比较，认为小说是“渐变”的艺术，而戏剧是“激变”( crisis ，又译危机 )的艺术，戏剧所处理的是人的命运和环境的一次激变，这就是戏剧本质的所在。

Elizabethan drama是指16世纪英国伊丽莎白一世统治时期的戏剧作品和戏剧表演形式。

这一时期的戏剧创作和表演活动在英国戏剧史上具有重要意义，对后世英国戏剧和世界戏剧产生了深远的影响。

一、伊丽莎白一世时期伊丽莎白一世在位期间是英国文艺复兴的黄金时期，也是伟大的文学和戏剧作品层出不穷的时期。

在这个时期，戏剧成为了当时社会的一种主要文化娱乐活动，得到了贵族和平民的广泛关注和喜爱。

许多杰出的戏剧作家如莎士比亚、克里斯托弗·马洛、本·琼森等，都是在这一时期涌现出来的。

二、戏剧主题伊丽莎白时代的戏剧主题多样，既有历史剧，如莎士比亚的《理查三世》、《亨利四世》，又有喜剧，如《仲夏夜之梦》、《威尼斯商人》，还有诸如《奥赛罗》、《哈姆雷特》等悲剧。

这些戏剧作品涉及到政治、爱情、婚姻、家庭、名利等人类普遍关注的主题，体现了当时社会的多样性和矛盾性。

三、戏剧表演形式伊丽莎白时代的戏剧表演形式以剧场表演和宫廷表演为主。

剧场表演一般是在伦敦的剧院进行，如莎士比亚环球剧场、罗斯剧院等，这些剧院成为了当时戏剧表演的主要场所。

而宫廷表演则是在王宫内举行，是贵族和王室成员们的专场演出。

这两种表演形式共同构成了当时戏剧表演的主流。

四、戏剧艺术特点伊丽莎白时代的戏剧艺术具有鲜明的特点，包括：1. 语言丰富多彩，表现力强。

伊丽莎白时代的戏剧作品以其优美的语言和独特的表现形式著称，其中尤以莎士比亚的作品最为著名。

2. 剧情复杂，人物丰满。

伊丽莎白时代的戏剧作品在情节设置和人物塑造方面非常讲究，角色性格鲜明，情节曲折离奇。

3. 舞台布景精美，服装华丽。

当时的戏剧表演注重舞台效果和视觉效果，舞台布景和服装都非常精美，给人留下深刻的印象。

五、戏剧影响伊丽莎白时代的戏剧产生了深远的影响，不仅对英国戏剧史产生了重要影响，也对世界戏剧产生了一定的影响。

伊丽莎白时代的戏剧作品和表演形式在后世的戏剧创作和表演实践中仍然具有重要的地位，成为了后世戏剧艺术的宝贵遗产。

英国文学(English Literature)一、Old and Medieval English Literature中古英语文学(8世纪-14世纪)1) The Old English Period / The Anglo-Saxon Period古英语时期 (449-1066)A. Pagan poetry(异教诗歌): Beowulf《贝奥武甫》- 最早的诗歌；长诗(3000行) heroism & fatalism & Christian qualitiesthe folk legends of the primitive northern tribes; a heroic Scandinavian epic legend; 善恶有报B. Religious poetry:Caedmon(凯德蒙 610-680): 《赞美诗》（Anthem）,大多取材余《圣经》（Bible）故事。

Cynewulf(基涅武甫 9C): 《十字架之梦》（Dream of the Rood）C. Anglo-Saxon prose: Venerable Bede(673-735)《英吉利人教会史》（Historian Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum）Alfred the Great(848-901)Father of English Prose《盎格鲁-撒克逊编年史》（Anglo-Saxon Chronicle）2) The Medieval Period中世纪 / 1500):Cavalier literature骑士文学A.Romance中世纪传奇故事 (1200-1500): the Middle Ages; 英雄诗歌Sir Gawain and the Green Knight《高文爵士与绿色骑士》: Celtic legend; verse-romance; 2530 linesGeoffrey Chaucer(1340-1400): the father of English poetry; Heroic couplet(英雄双韵体)The Canterbury Tales; The Parliament of Fowls；The Book of the DuchessThe House of Fame; Troilus and Criseyde; The Romaunt of the Rose《玫瑰罗曼史》William Langland(朗兰 1332-1400)：The Vision of Piers Plowman《农夫皮尔斯之幻象》B.English ballads（15th C）Thomas Malory(1395-1471) :Morte d’Arthur《亚瑟王之死》- 圆桌骑士二、The Renaissance Period英国文艺复兴 (1500-1660):人文主义humanism; 十四行诗Sonnets; 无韵诗Blank verse; 戏剧Drama; 斯宾塞诗体Spenserian；University Wits 大学才子派1) 诗歌a. Thomas Wyatt(怀亚特1503-1542): the first to introduce the sonnet into English literatureb. Sir Philip Sidney(雪尼爵士 1554-1586)：代表了当时的理想 - “the complete man”Defense of Poetry《为诗辩护》Astrophel and Stella《爱星者与星》;Arcadia《阿卡狄亚》: a prose romance filled with lyrics; a forerunner of the modern worldc. Edmund Spenser(斯宾塞1552-1599): the poets’ poetThe Shepherd Calendar《牧人日历》；Amoretti《爱情小唱》The Faerie Queen《仙后》：long poem for Queen Elizabeth; Allegory - nine-line verse stanza/ the Spenserian StanzaSpenserian Stanza(斯宾塞诗体): Nine lines, the first eight lines is in iambic(抑扬格) pentameter(五步诗),and the ninth line is an iambic hexameter(六步诗) line.2) 散文a. Thomas More(莫尔 1478-1535): 欧洲早期空想社会主义创始人Utopia《乌托邦》: More与海员的对话b. John Lyly (黎里 1553-160，散文家，剧作家&小说家)：Eupheus《尤菲绮斯》Euphuism(夸饰文体): Abundant use of balanced sentences, alliterations(头韵) and other artificial prosodic(韵律) means.The use of odd similes(明喻) and comparisonsc. Francis Bacon (培根 1561-1626)：Essays(论说文集)：Of Studies, Of Love, Of Beauty: the first true English prose classicPhilosophical: New Instrument《新工具》New Atlantis《新大溪岛》Advancement of Learning《学术的推进》Professionals: Maxims of the Law《法律格言》3) 戏剧a. Christopher Marlowe: University Wits 大学才子派First made blank verse(无韵诗：不押韵的五步诗) the principle instrument of English dramaThe Jew of Malta《马耳他的犹太人》The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus《浮士德博士的悲剧》：根据德国民间故事书写成; 完善了无韵体诗。

戏剧（drama）[drama;play] 旧时专指戏曲,后用为戏曲、话剧、歌剧、舞剧、诗剧等的总称。

希腊戏剧戏剧，指以语言、动作，舞蹈，音乐，木偶等形式达到叙事目的的舞台表演艺术的总称。

文学上的戏剧概念是指为戏剧表演所创作的脚本，即剧本。

戏剧的表演形式多种多样，常见的包括话剧、歌剧、舞剧、音乐剧、木偶戏等具体含义】综合艺术的一种。

有两种含义：狭义专指以古希腊悲剧和喜剧为开端，首先在欧洲各国发展起来继而在世界广泛流行的舞台演出形式，英文为drama ，中国称之为话剧。

广义还包括东方一些国家、民族的传统舞台演出形式，如中国的戏曲、日本的歌舞伎、印度的古典戏剧、朝鲜的唱剧等。

【戏剧本质】公元前4世纪，亚里士多德在《诗学》中已经表述了对戏剧本质的认识。

他认为：一切艺术都是模仿，戏剧是对人的行动的模仿。

2个世纪以后，印度的第一部戏剧理论著作《舞论》也指明：“戏剧就是模仿。

”19世纪以后，对戏剧本质的研讨出现了众说纷纭的局面，主要有观众说，冲突说，激变说，情境、实验室说等。

观众说：认定观众是戏剧的必要条件，也是戏剧的本质所在。

法国戏剧理论家F.萨赛是这种观念的代表，他断言：不管是什么样的戏剧作品，都是为了给观众看的。

“没有观众，就没有戏剧”，因而，戏剧的一切器官都必须与观众的欣赏相适应。

冲突说：以法国戏剧理论家布伦退尔为代表。

19世纪末，布伦退尔指出：舞台乃是人的自觉意志发挥的场所，人物的自觉意志的发挥必定会遇到阻碍，主体为克服阻碍就要与之斗争，这就构成“意志冲突”，戏剧的本质就在于此。

美国戏剧理论家J.H.劳森则把戏剧的本质归之为“自觉意志在其中发挥作用的社会性冲突”。

他认为：由于戏剧是处理社会关系的，而人的自觉意志又必须受社会必然性的制约，因而，真正的戏剧性冲突必须是社会性冲突。

这种观念可以一句话来表述：“没有冲突就没有戏剧。

”激变说：英国戏剧理论家W.阿契尔否定布伦退尔的“冲突”说，他把小说与戏剧相比较，认为小说是“渐变”的艺术，而戏剧是“激变”( crisis ，又译危机 )的艺术，戏剧所处理的是人的命运和环境的一次激变，这就是戏剧本质的所在。

英美文学常用术语及解释下面是店铺整理的一些英美文学常用术语及解释，希望对大家有帮助。

01. Allegory(寓言)Allegory is a story told to explain or teach something. Especially a long and complicated story with an underlying meaning different from the surface meaning of the story itself.2>allegorical novels use extended metaphors to convey moral meanings or attack certain social evils. characters in these novels often stand for different values such as virtue and vice.3>Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Melville’s Moby Dick are such examples.02. Alliteration(头韵)Alliteration means a repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a line or group.2>alliteration is a traditional poetic device in English literature.3>Robert Frost’s Acq uainted with the Night is a case in point:” I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet”03. Ballad(民谣)Ballad is a story in poetic from to be sung or recited. in more exact literary terminology, a ballad is a narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimester.(抑扬格四音步与抑扬格三音步诗行交替出现的四行叙事诗)2>.ballads were passed down from generation to generation.3>Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 19th century English ballad.04. epic(史诗)Epic, in poetry, refers to a long work dealing with the actionsof goods and heroes.2>Epic poems are not merely entertaining stories of legendary or historical heroes; they summarize and express the nature or ideals of an entire nation at a significant or crucial period of its history.3>Beowulf is the greatest national Epic of the Anglo-Saxons.05. Lay(短叙事诗)It is a short poem, usually a romantic narrative, intended to be sung or recited by a minstrel.06. Romance(传奇)Romance is a popular literary form in the medic England.2>it sings knightly adventures or other heroic deeds.3>chivalry is the spirit of the romance.07. Alexandrine(亚历山大诗行)The name is derived from the fact that certain 12th and 13th century French poems on Alexander the Great were written in this meter.2>it is an iambic line of six feet, which is the French heroic verse.08. Blank Verse(无韵诗或素体广义地说)Blank verse is unrhymed poetry. Typically in iambic pentameter, and as such, the dominant verse forms of English dramatic and narrative poetry since the mid-16th century.09. Comedy(喜剧)Comedy is a light form of drama that aims primarily to amuse and that ends happily. Since it strives to provoke smile and laughter, both wit and humor are utilized. In general, the comic effect arises from recognition of some incongruity of speech, action, or character revelation, with intricate plot.10. Essay(随笔)The term refers to literary composition devoted to the presentation of the writer’s own ideas on a topic and generally addressing a particular aspect of the subject. Often brief in scope and informal in style, the essay differs from such fomal forms as the thesis, dissertation or treatise.11. Euphuistic style(绮丽体)Its principle characteristics are the excessive use of antithesis, which is pursued regardless of sense, and emphasized by alliteration and other devices; and of allusions to historical and mythological personages and to natural history drawn from such writers as Plutarch(普卢塔克), Pliny(普林尼), and Erasmus(伊拉兹马斯).2>it is the peculiar style of Euphues(优浮绮斯)12. History Plays(历史剧)History plays aim to present some historical age or character, and may be either a comedy or a tragedy. They almost tell stories about the nobles, the true people in history, but not ordinary people. the principle idea of Shakespeare’s history plays is the necessity for national unity under a mighty and just sovereign.13. Masques or Masks(假面剧)Masques (or Masks) refer to the dramatic entertainments involving dances and disguises, in which the spectacular and musical elements predominated over plot and character. As they were usually performed at court, often at very great expense, many have political overtones.14. Morality plays(道德剧)A kind of medic and early Renaissance drama that presents the conflict between the good and evil through allegorical characters. The characters tend to be personified abstractions of vices and virtues, which can be named as Mercy. Conscience, etc. unlike a mystery or a miracle play, morality play does notnecessarily use Biblical or strictly religious material because it takes place internally and psychologically in every human being.15.Sonnet(十四行诗)It is a lyric poem of 14 lines with a formal or recited and characterized by its presentation of a dramatic or exciting episode in simple narrative form.2>it is one of the most conventional and influential forms of poetry in Europe.3>Shakespeare’s sonnets are well-known.16. Spenserian Stanza(斯宾塞诗节)Spenserian Stanza is the creation of Edmund spenser.2>it refers to a stanza of nine lines, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter(五音步抑扬格) and the last line in iambic hexameter(六音步抑扬格),rhyming ababbcbcc. 3>Spenser’s the Faerie Queen was written in this kind of stanza.17. Stanza(诗节)Stanza is a group of lines of poetry, usually four or more, arranged according to a fixed plan.2>the stanza is the unit of structure in a poem and poets do not vary the unit within a poem.18. Three Unities(三一原则)Three rules of 16th and 17th century Italian and French drama, broadly adapted from Aristotle’s Poetics<诗学>:2>the unity of time, which limits a play to a single day; the unity of place, which limits a play’s setting in a single location; and the unity of action, which limits a play to a single story line.19. Tragedy(悲剧)In 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.20.Conceit(奇特比喻)Conceit is a far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things.2>conceit is extensively employed in John Donne’s poetry.21.Metar(格律)The word”meter” is derived from the Greek word”metron” meaning”measure”.2>in English when applied to poetry, it refers to the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.3>the analysis of the meter is called scansion(格律分析)22. University Wits(大学才子)University Wits refer to a group of scholars during the Elizabethan Age who graduated from either oxford or Cambridge. They came to London with the ambition to become professional writers. Some of them later became famous poets and playwrights. They were called” University Wits”23.Foreshadowing(预兆)Foreshadowing, the use of hints or clues in a novel or drama to suggest what will happen next. Writers use Foreshadowing to create interest and to build suspense.method used to build suspense by providing hints of what is to come.24. Soliloquy(独白)Soliloquy, in drama, means a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud..2>the line“to be, or no t to be, that is the question”, which begins the famous soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.25.Narrative Poem(叙述诗)Narrative Poem refers to a poem that tells a story in verse,2>three traditional types of narrative poems include ballads,epics, metrical romances.3>it may consist of a series of incidents, as John Milton’s paradise lost.26.Robin Hood(罗宾.豪)Robin hood is a legendary hero of a series of English ballads, some of which date from at least the 14th century.2>the character of Robin Hood is many-sided. Strong, brave and intelligent, he is at the same time tender-hearted and affectionate.3>the dominant key in his character is his hatred for the cruel oppression and his love for the poor and downtrodden.4>another feature of Robin’s view is his reverence for the king, Robin Hood was a people’s hero.27. Beowulf(贝奥武甫)Beowulf, a typical example of old English poetry, is regarded as the greatest national epic of t he Anglo-Saxons. 2>the epic describes the exploits of a Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, in fighting against the monster Grendel, his revengeful nother, and a fire-breathing dragon in his declining years. While fight against the dragon, Beowulf was mortally wounded, however, he killed the dragon at the cost of his life, Beowulf is shown not only as a glorious hero but also as a protector of the people.28. Baroque(巴罗克式风格)This is originally a term of abuse applied to 17th century Italian art and that of other countries. It is characterized by the unclassical use of classical forms, in a literary context; it is loosely used to describe highly ornamented verse or prose, abounding in extravagant conceits.这原本是用来指17世纪的意大利艺术和其他国家艺术滥用的一个术语.这种风格主要是指对古典形式的非古典运用.在文学领域,这种风格松散地用来指十分雕饰的,大量运用奇思妙想的诗歌或散文.29. Cavalier poets(骑士派诗人)A name given to supporters of Charles I in the civil war. These poets were not a formal group, but all influenced by Ben Jonson and like him paid little attention to the sonnet. Their lyrics are distinguished by short lines, precise but idiomatic diction, and an urbane and graceful wit.30. Elegy(挽歌)Elegy has typically been used to refer to reflective poems that lament the loss of something or someone, and characterized by their metrical form.31. Restoration Comedy(复辟时期喜剧)Restoration Comedy, also the comedy of manners, developed upon the reopening of the theatres after the re-establishment of monarchy with the return of Charles II.. Its predominant tone was witty, bawdy, cynical, and amoral. Standard characters include fops, bawds, scheming valets, country squires, and sexually voracious young widows and older women. The principle theme is sexual intrigue, either for its own sake or for money.复辟时期的喜剧,又称社会习俗讽刺喜剧,是在查理二世君主复辟后剧院重新开业的基础上发展起来的,其主要的基调是诙谐,淫秽,挖苦和非道德.标准的角色包括花花公子,鸨母,诡计多端的仆人,乡绅,性欲旺盛的年轻寡妇和老女人.主要的主题是奸情,有的是为了性,有的是为了钱.。