英国文学名词解释

1.(1) Modernism (现代主义)

A movement of experiment in new techniques in writing. Modernist fiction represented a trend drifting

away from the tradition of the 19th century realism. It put emphasis on the description ogoometimes it is call

ed modern psychological fiction. Lawrence is a typical representative of it

Realism（现实主义）

Realism was a loosely used term meaning truth to the observed facts of life （especially when they are

gloomy）。 Realism in literature is an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or

romantic subjectivity.

Realism现实主义: An elastic and ambiguous term with two meanings. (1) First, it refers generally to

any artistic or literary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner, unclouded by false ideals, literary

conventions, or misplaced aesthetic glorification and beautification of the world. It is a theory or tendency in

writing to depict events in human life in a matter-of-fact, straightforward manner. It is an attempt to reflect

life "as it actually is"--a concept in some ways similar to what the Greeks would call mimesis. (2) Secondly

and more specifically, realism refers to a literary movement that developed out of naturalism in the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although realism and the concern for aspects of verisimilitude have been

components of literary art to one degree or another in nearly all centuries, the term realism also applies more

specifically to the tendency to create detailed, probing analyses of the way "things really are," usually

involving an emphasis on nearly photographic details.These writers include such diverse artists as Mark

Twain, Tolstoy, &Thomas Hardy.

Modernism（现代主义）: Around the two world wars, many writers and artists began to suspect and be

discontent with the capitalism. They tried to find new ways to express their understanding of the world. It

was a movement of experiments in techniques in writing. It flourished in the 20s and 30s in English

literature.They turned their interest to describing what was happening in the minds of their characters.

Because of their emphasis on the psychological activities of the characters, their writings are also called

psychological novels. The Representatives are W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot,D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Foster,

James Joyce and Virginia Woolf

Modernism: 1) The rise Of modernism movement Modernism rose out of skepticism and

disillusionment of capitalism, which made writers and artists search for a new ways to express their

understanding of the world and the human nature. The French symbolism was the forerunner of modernism. The First World War quickened the rising of all kinds of literary trends of modernism, which,

toward the 1920s, converged into a mighty torrent of modernist movement. The major figures associated

with the movement were Kafka, Picasso, Pound, Eliot, Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. Modernism was

somewhat curbed in the 1930s. but after World War II, Varieties of modernism, or post-modernism, rose

again with the spur of Sarter’s existentialism. However, they gradually disappeared or diverged into other

kinds of literary trends in the 1960s. 2) The characteristics of modernism ●Modernism marks a strong

and conscious break with the past, by rejecting the moral, religious and cultural values of the past.

●Modernism emphasizes on the need to move away from the public to the private, from the objective to the

subjective. ●Modernism upholds a new view of time by emphasizing the psychic time over the

chronological one. It maintains that the past, the present and the future are one and exist at the same time in

the consciousness of individual as a continuous flow rather than a series of separate moments.

●Modernism is, in many respects, a reaction against realism. It rejects rationalism, which is the theoretical

base of realism; it excludes from its major concern the external, objective, material world, which is the only

creative source of realism; it casts away almost all the traditional elements in literature like story, plot,

character, chronological narration, etc., which are essential to realism. As a result, the works created by the

modernist writers can often be labeled as anti-novel, anti-poetry or anti-drama

[22] Realism:（写实主义） A term used in literature and art to present life as it really is without

sentimentalizing or idealizing it. Realistic writing often depicts the everyday life and speech of ordinary

people. This has led, sometimes to an emphasis on sordid details.

Critical Realism (批判现实主义) Critical realism is one of the literary genres that flourished mainly

in the 19th century. It reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature. Here lies the