英美文学复习资料

英美文学复习资料

英美文学

I. 本期讲过的所有名家名作

II．名词术语:

Ode

——in ancient literature, 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.

Alliteration

——It is a form of initial rhyme, or head rhyme.

It is the repetition of the same sound or sounds at the

beginning of two or more words that are next to or close to each

other.

e.g. He came on under the clouds, clearly saw at last

Rage-inflamed, wreckage-bent, be ripped open

Kenning

——a figurative language in order to add beauty to ordinary

objects. It is a metaphor usually composed of two words, which

becomes the formula for a special object.

e.g. Helmet bearer—— warrior

Swan road——the sea

The world candle—— the sun

Repetition &Variation

e.g. Grendel / The spoiler / warlike creature /

the foe / horrible monster

A host of young soldiers / a company of

Kinsmen / a whole warrior-band

Caesura ——every line consists of two clearly separated half lines

between which is a pause, called caesura.

e.g. Grendel stalking; God’s brand was on him.

the gold-hall of men, the mead-drinking place

nailed with gold plates. That was not the first visit

Ballad

——is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads

were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of

the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19th

century and used extensively across Europe and later the

Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many ballads were written

and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by

poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce

lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century it took on the meaning of

a slow form of popular love song and the term is now often used

as synonymous with any love song, particularly the pop or rock

power ballad.

Epic

——is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a

serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events

significant to a culture or nation. The first epics are known as

primary, or original, epics. One such epic is the Old English story

Beowulf. Epics that attempt to imitate these like Milton’s

Paradise Lost are known as literary, or secondary, epics.

The six main characteristics:

1. The hero is outstanding. He might be important, and

historically or legendarily significant.

2. The setting is large. It covers many nations, or the known

world.

3. The action is made of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage.

4. Supernatural forces—gods, angels, demons—insert

themselves in the action.

5. It is written in a very special style.

6. The poet tries to remain objective.

Sonnet (Italian Sonnet, Shakespearean Sonnet, Spenserian

Sonnet, Miltonic Sonnet)

①Italian sonnet

created by Giacomo da Lentini, head of the Sicilian School.

Petrarch (1304-1374) most famous early sonneteer

It falls into two main parts:

an octave rhyming “abbaabba” (set up a problem ) + volta

followed by a sestet rhyming “cdecde” or some variant,

such as “cdccdc” (answer)

②English / Shakespearean sonnet

The greatest practitioner: William Shakespeare

three quatrains followed by a couplet

often presents a repetition-with-variation of a statement in

each of the three quatrains ?The final couplet in the English

sonnet usually imposes an epigrammatic turn at the end.

——a fourteen-line poem of iambic pentameters. This form

is made up of 3 quatrains and a couplet, rhyming：ababcdcdefefgg

③Spenserian sonnet

A variant on the English form is the Spenserian sonnet,

named after Edmund Spenser

three quatrains connected by the interlocking rhyme scheme

and followed by a couplet ?the rhyme scheme is abab, bcbc, cdcd,

ee

——has the rhyme scheme ababbcbccdcdee and no break between the octave (an eight line stanza) and the sestet( a six line

stanza). It is named after the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser.

④Miltonic Sonnet

Conceit

——in literature, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a

complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. By

juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in

surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader into a more

sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison.

Extended conceits in English are part of the poetic idiom of

Mannerism, during the later sixteenth and early seventeenth

century. Simile

—is a figure of speech which makes a comparison between

two unlike elements ha ving at least one quality or characteristic

in common.Simile is almost always introduced by

the following words:like,as,as…as,as it were,as if,as though,be

something of,similar to, etc.