Literature terms1Epic : a long narrative poem telling about the deedsof a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down.（史诗）2Romance:It was a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero.（传奇文学）3Heroic Couplet: the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter. (英雄双韵体)4Iambic Pentameter: is the most common Englishmeter, in which each foot contains an unaccentedsyllable and an accented syllable. (五音步抑扬格)meter 格律foot音步5ballad:is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.（歌谣）6Sonnet: It is a lyric poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme.（十四行诗）7Blank verse: is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme.（无韵诗）8Soliloquy: an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself/ herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present (often used as a device in a drama to disclose a character’s innermost thoughts); 2. theact of talking while or as if alone(独白)9Classicism: Aesthetic attitudes and principles manifested in the art, architecture, and literature of ancient Greece and Rome and characterized by emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, and restraint. Classicism was popular in Europe in the 18th century.（古典主义）10Neo-classicism: neo-classicism imitated the characteristics of Roman writers, including Horace, Virgil, Cicero, etc., in the days of Augustus. They tried to make English literature conform to rules and principles established by the great Roman and Greek classical writers. In writing plays, they used rhyme and couplet instead of blank verse, observed thetrinity --- the unity of time, place and action.（新古典主义）11An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and otherdocuments are sometimes used.（书信体小说）12Sentimentalism is one of the important trends in English literature of the middle and later decades of the 18th century. It justly criticized the cruelty of the capitalist relations and the gross social injustices brought about by the bourgeoisrevolutions. It embraces a pessimistic outlook and blames reason and the Industrial Revolution, marked by a sincere sympathy for thepoverty-stricken ,expropriated peasants.(感伤主义)Romanticism: Romanticism is a literary trend. It prevails in England during the period 1798-1832. romanticists expressed the ideology and sentiment of those classes and social strata who were discontent with and opposed to the development of capitalism. They split into two groupsbecause of the different attitudes toward the capitalist society.（浪漫主义）Ode is a lyric poem of some length that honors an individual, a thing, a trait dealing with a lofty theme in a dignified manner. The form dates back to classical times and is originally intended to be sung at festivals or in plays.Brief Outline of British Literature：works1. Early and Medieval English Literature1) The Anglo-Saxon Period (449-1066)National epic:The Song of Beowulf2) The Anglo-Norman Period (1066-1350)Arthurian Romance: Sir Gawain andGreen Knight3) Geoffrey Chaucer1340-1400：Messenger of HumanismThe first important realistic writer“Father” of English poetryThe Canterbury Tales the wife of Bath（巴斯夫人）,the Knight（骑士）,the Pardoner（卖赎罪卷者）,the Nun’s Priest（尼姑的教士）,the Prologue（序诗）.The Romaunt of the Rose 《玫瑰传奇》The Book of the Duchess 《悼公爵夫人》Troilus and Criseyde《特罗伊洛斯和克瑞西德》Thomas MaloryMorte d’Arthur (Death of Arthur)《亚瑟之死》William LanglandPiers the Plowman[Boccaccio薄伽丘：Decameron《十日谈》Ovid奥维德:《爱的艺术》《变形记》]2. The English Renaissance (16 century)Thomas MoreUtopiaChristopher Marlowe克里斯托弗·马洛First person used blank verseDeath of Arthur 《亚瑟之死》Tamburlaine the Great «帖木儿大帝»The Jew of Malta «马尔他岛的犹太人»The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus«浮士德博士的悲剧»Hero and Leander《海洛和利安得》The Passionate Shepherd to His Love《牧羊人的恋歌》William Shakespeareone of the founders of realism in world literature as well as in English literatureV enus and Adonis《维纳斯与安东尼斯》The Rape of Lucrece《鲁克里斯受辱记》Four tragedies：Hamlet《哈姆雷特》Othello《奥塞罗》King Lear《李尔王》Macbeth《麦克白》Four comedies：A Midsummer Night’s Dream《仲夏夜之梦》The Merchant of V enice《威尼斯商人》As You Like It《皆大欢喜》Twelfth Night《第十二夜》Ben Jonson本·琼森first poet- laureateafter Shakespeare the most eminent writer for the Elizabethan stagethe greatest dramatist after Shakespearethe founder of the so-called “Comedy of Humors”,Every Man in His Humor《人人高兴》Every Man Out of His Humor《人人扫兴》Volpone 《福尔蓬奈》the Fox《狐狸》The Alchemist《炼金术士》Sir Thomas Wyatt托马斯·怀亚特Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey 亨利·霍华德·萨里伯爵Sir Philip Sidney 西德尼Astrophel and Stella《爱星者和星星》Arcadia《阿卡狄亚》The Defence of Poetry《诗辩》Edmund Spenser埃德蒙·斯宾塞the Poet’s poet , a model of poetical artgreatest non-dramatic poet of his timefirst master of English verseThe Shepherd’s Calendar《牧人月历》Amoretti 《爱情小诗》The Fairy Queen《仙后》Francis Bacon 弗朗西斯·培根The father of experimental philosophyThe most important prose writer of the Elizabethan Agethe first English essayistthe founder of English materialist philosophy.The Advancement of Learning《学术的进展》The Novum Organum (The New Instrument)《新工具》The New Atlantis《新大西岛》The Essays 《散文集》(Of Studies)3. The Period of The English Bourgeois Revolution (17 century)John Milton约翰·弥尔顿the smartest man in Europea master of the blank verseParadise Lost《失乐园》Paradise Regained《复乐园》Samson Agonistes《力士参孙》Lycidas 《利西达斯》Comus《科玛斯》a masque《假面剧》John Bunyan约翰·班扬Pilgrim’s Progress《天路历程》Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinner 《功德无量》The Life and Death of Mr. Badman《恶人先生的生平和死亡》《贝德曼先生的一生》The Holy War《神圣战争》John Donne约翰·邓恩Founder of Metaphysical poetry选学派诗人Songs and Sonnets《歌与短歌》Holy sonnet《圣十四行诗》Divine poem《神圣诗歌》Elegies and Satire《挽歌与讽刺诗》Meditations《冥想》/《沉思》4. The Age of Enlightenment (18 century)Alexander Pope亚历山大·蒲柏Essay on Criticism《论批评》The Rape of the Lock《夺发记》Joseph Addison约瑟夫·艾狄生andRichard Steel理查德·斯蒂尔The Tatler and The SpectatorDaniel Defoe丹尼尔·笛福18世纪启蒙时期现实主义小说的奠基人Robinson CrusoeCaptain Singleton《辛格顿船长》Colonel Jacque《杰克上校》Moll Flanders《茉尔·弗兰德丝》A Journal of the Plague Year《瘟疫记事》Jonathan Swift乔纳森·斯威夫特One of the greatest masters of English prosea master satiristGulliver’s TravelsA Tale of a Tub 《一个木桶的故事》The Battle of Books《书的战争》The Drapier’s Letters《一个麻布商的书信》A Modest Proposal《一个小小的建议》Samuel Richardson 塞谬尔·理查逊Pamela 《帕美勒》Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady《克拉丽莎》The History of Sir Charles Grandison《查尔斯·葛兰底森爵士传》Henry Fielding亨利·菲尔丁最早的现实主义小说理论家现实主义小说奠基人Tom Jones《汤姆˙琼斯》Don Quixote in England《唐吉诃德在英国》Pasqin《巴斯昆》The Historical Register for the Year 1736《一七三六年历史记事》The Tragedy of Tragedies or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great 《悲剧的悲剧：或伟人汤姆传》Joseph Andrews《约瑟夫˙安德鲁斯的经历》Jonathan Wild the Great《大伟人乔纳森˙魏尔德》Amelia《阿米丽亚》Samuel Johnson塞缪尔·约翰逊As Lexicographer or The Dictionary of the English Language英语词典Oliver Goldsmith戈德史密斯Ano velist and poet belongs to the school of Sentimentalism She Stoops to Conquer《屈伸求爱》The Vicar of Wakefield 《威克菲尔德牧师传》The Traveler and The Deserted VillageThe Citizen of the World《世界公民》Richard Brinsley Sheridan 谢里丹The School for Scandal 《造谣学校》Comedy of Manners风尚喜剧Thomas Gray 格雷-------- sentimentalismOn the Death of a Favorite Cat 《爱猫之死》Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 《墓园挽歌》The Progress of Poetry 《诗的发展》The Correspondence of Thomas Gray《格雷书信集》William Blake威廉布莱克Tiger 《老虎》Songs of Innocence《天真之歌》Songs of Experience《经验之歌》The Marriage of Heaven and Hell《天堂与地狱的婚姻》Robert Burns-罗伯特彭斯--- pre-romanticismthe most famous poets of the peasants in the worldA red red rose《我的爱人像朵红红的玫瑰》5. Romanticism in England (19 century)PoetryWilliam Wordsworth华兹华斯The prelude《序曲》Lyrical Ballads《抒情歌谣集》I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud《我好似一朵流云独自漫步》To the 《咏水仙》S. T. Coleridge柯林律治The Rime of the Ancient Mariner《古舟子咏》《古水手谣》Kubla khan 《忽必烈汗》George Gordon Byron乔治戈登拜伦One of the most excellent representatives of English Romanticismone of the most influential poets of the timeHours of Idleness《闲暇时刻》Child Harold’s Pilgrimage《恰尔德·哈罗德游记》.Don Juan《唐璜》She Walks in BeautyPercy Bysshe Shelley雪莱Prometheus Unbound《解放了的普罗米修斯》Queen Mab 《仙后麦布》Address to the Irish People《告爱尔兰人书》The Revolt of Islam《伊斯兰的反叛》The Masque of Anarchy《暴政的行列》The Cenci《钦契一家》A Defence of Poetry《诗辩》The Necessity of Atheism《无神论的必要性》Ode to the West Wind10. To a Skylark《致云雀》John Keats济慈Lamia《莱米亚》Endymion《恩底弥翁》On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer《初读查普曼译荷马史诗》Isaabella 《伊莎贝拉》The Eve of St. Agnes《圣·爱格尼斯节前夕》Hyperion《赫坡里昂》On a Grecian Urn 《希腊古瓮颂》To Autumn《秋颂》On Melancholy《忧郁颂》To a Nightingale 《夜莺颂》Prose fictionWalter Scott司各特the first novelist to recreate the pastWaverleyOld MoralityRob RoyThe Heart of MidlothianIvanhoe《艾凡赫》Rob RoyNovelJane Austen 简·奥斯丁Northanger Abbey《诺桑觉寺》Sense and Sensibility《理智与情感》Pride and Prejudice《傲慢与偏见》Mansfield Park《曼斯菲尔德花园》Emma《爱玛》Persuasion 《劝告》Romantic essayCharles Lamb查尔斯·兰姆Tales from Shakespeare《莎士比亚戏剧故事集》Album VersesEssays of Elia《伊利亚随笔》William Hazlitt威廉·赫列特Thomas De Quincey托马斯·德·昆西6. The Victorian Age --- Critical Realism in England (19 century)NovelCharles Dickens查尔斯·狄更斯Oliver Twist《雾都孤儿》The Old Curiocity Shop《老古玩店》The Pickwick Papers《匹克威克外传》fill in the BlanksBeowulf is a folk legend brought to England by the Anglo-Saxons from their primitive Northern Europe.Beowulf was passed down from mouth to mouth.Beowulf was written down in the 10th century.Humanism refers to the literary culture in the Renaissance.Humanism became the central theme of English Renaissance. Thomas More and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanistsHumanism 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.The Renaissance is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, such as the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture, the new discoveries in geography and astrology, the religious reformation and the economic expansion.Early Plays in Middle Ages include The Miracle Play奇迹剧The Morality Play道德剧The Interlud幕间休息剧The Classical Drama古典剧The immediate predecessors of Shakespeare were a group of men from the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge, who were generally known as the University WitsThe key-note of Hamlet’s character is melancholy，and there can be no Hamlet without melancholyHamlet is a hero of the RenaissanceHamlet’s learning , wisdom, noble nature,limitation and tragedy are all representative of the humanists at the turn of the 17th and the 16th centuries.Shakespeare was skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the sonnet, the couplet, and the dramatic blank verse;He was a great master of English language;He was the summit of the English Renaissance and one of the great writers all over the world.Adam and Eve embody Milton’s belief in the powers of man, craving (longing) for knowledge.Satan is a rebel against tyranny and Satan and his followers resemble a republican ParliamentEnglish enlighteners believed in the power of reason. That is why the 18th century has often been called “the age of rea son” or “the kingdom of reason”.Most of the enlighteners believed that social problems could be solved by human intelligence.this period was characterized by the so-called neo-classicism of which theleading figure was Alexander Pope.The representative of Periodical Literature in Early 18th Century England: Addison and SteeleThe best part of Robinson Crusoe is the realistic account of the successful struggle of Robinson alone against the pitiless forces of nature on the island.A social fable consists of four books. The hero of the novel is Lemuel Gulliver, a doctor. telling about his fantastic visits to some unbelievable places, in which the inhabitants are Lilliputians,the giants Brobdingnagians, Yahoos, and Houyhnhnms.The features of the Romantic writings a dissatisfaction with the bourgeois society.Romantic writings are filled with strong-willed heroes or even titanic images, formidable events and tragic situations, powerful conflicting passions and exotic picturesThe romanticists paid great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of manPersonified nature plays an important role in the pages of Romantic writingsThe publication of the “Lyrical Ballads” marked the break with the conventional poetical tradition of the 18th centuryi wandered lonely contains four six-lined stanzas of iambic tetrameter.The poem is about The beauty of natureQuestion1What is Literature？Literature refers to the practice and profession of writing. It comes from human interest in telling a story, in arranging words in artistic forms, in describing in words some aspects of human experiences.2What is Renaissance?1. DefinitionThe Renaissance (14th – mid-17th century), which means rebirth and revival. The renaissance, therefore, in essence, is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars tried to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests rising bourgeoisie, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church(罗马天主教堂).It is characterized with the growth of a more scientific outlook, major development in art and literature, new invention and overseas discoveries and a general assertion of human value and emancipation(解放) of the human intellect and power.3Summarize the periods of Shakespeare’s literary career and achievements？Shakespeare’s Literary Career⏹Four successive periods with increasing maturity◆1588-1593, the Period of Experiment and Preparation●Richard III, a melodramatic chronicle-history play, largely imitative of Marlowe and yet showing striking power●At the end of this period Shakespeare issued two rather long narrative poems on classical subjects, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece◆1594-1601, the second period Shakespeare’s work, filled with chronicle-history plays and comedies●Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, etc.●Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It●Romeo and Juliet◆1601-1609, the third period of Shakespeare’s literary career, in which appeared Shakespeare’s great tragedies and certain cynical plays●In these plays, Shakespeare sets himself to grapple with the deepest and darkest problems of human characters and life●Shakespeare’s four great tragedies⏹Hamlet: the struggle of a perplexed and divided soul/self⏹Othello: the ruin of a noble life/ man by an evil one through the terrible power of jealousy⏹King Lear: unnatural ingratitude working its hateful will and yetthwarted at the end by its own excess and by faithful love⏹Macbeth: the destruction of a large nature by material ambition◆After 1609, the fourth period of Shakespeare’s literary career, a periodof romance-comedies●Shakespeare did not solve the insoluble problems of life, but having presented them as powerfully, perhaps, as is possible for human intelligence, he turned in his last period to the expression of the serene philosophy of life●Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest(1) Shakespeare is one of the founders of realism in world literature. He maintains that the purpose of dramatic performance is "to hold, as it were, the mirror up to nature". In his works, he paints the decline of the old feudal nobility and the vice of the new Tudor monarch. Besides,his plays have good plots and life-like characters too. His drama is an expression, a monument of the English Renaissance since he wrote about his own people for his own time.(2)Shakespeare is amazingly prolific Within 22 years, he produced 37 plays, 154 sonnets,and 2 long poems. No two of his play invoke the same feeling or image among the audience. He is a master-hand for every form of drama-comedy, tragedy, and historical plays. He gives us a world of full-blooded people who live and struggle, suffer and rejoice-representing all the complexitiesand implications of real life.(3)Shakespeare was skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the sonnet, the couplet, andthe dramatic blank verse. And he is a great master of the English language. He used a vocabulary larger than any other English writersMany of his new c oinage and turns of expressions havebecome every-day usage in English life. Shakespeare and the Authorized Version of the EnglishBible are the two great treasures of the English language.(4)Hence, Shakespeare has been universallyacknowledged to be the summit of theEnglish Renaissance, and one of the greatest writers the world over. 3Chaucer’s Contribution？1. He introduced from Italy and France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter (heroic couplet) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.2. He was the first great poet who wrote in English language (Middle English), thus establishing English as the literary language.3. He did much in making the London dialect the foundation for modern English language4What is the Enlightenment Movement?The 18th century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe, known as the Enlightenment, which was, on the whole, an expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism.What is romanticism? What about its feature?1. The general feature is a dissatisfaction with the bourgeois society.2. Their writings are filled with strong-willed heroes or even titanic images, formidable events and tragic situations, powerful conflicting passions and exotic pictures.3. The romanticists paid great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man.Personified nature plays an important role in the pages of their works.文学赏析Beowulf:---national epic(1) Goodness conquers evil. (Beowulf stands for all that is good, brave and proper, while the monsters stand for evil.)(2) Men against nature (The poem presents a vivid picture of how the primitive people wage heroic struggles against the hostile forces of the natural world under a wise and mighty leader.)(3) Judge the greatness of a human being by the greatness of his deeds and his noble ancestry.(4) Help thy neighbor. (Beowulf risks his life to help a neighbor, King Hrothgar, in trouble.)(5) Forces of darkness—irrational, menacing—are always at work in society.The writing features of Beowulf1). The most important is in alliterative(头韵的) verse and in artistic form.2). Another is the frequent use of metaphors and understatements(暗含的意义) for ironical humor.The Faerie(Fairy) Queene and Commentsa long poem1 The dominating thoughts of it: nationalism, humanism and Puritanism2 The Spenserian stanza: a verse form consisting of 8 iambic pentameter lines followed by a ninth line of 6 iambic feet with the rhyme scheme ababbcbcc.3 The Faerie Queene is the first national epic of England in the age of the Renaissance. It expresses the poet’s patriotic feelings of national greatness, and voices the moral ideals of the English aristocracy as embodied in the noble, virtuous and brave knight.The Image of Hamlet1. He is a humanist free from medieval prejudice and superstition. He has love for the world rather than heaven, he cherishes a firm belief inman’s power and destiny.2. He loves good and hates evil. He adore his father, loves Ophelia and greets his school-fellows with hearty welcome, while he is disgusted with his uncle’s drunkenness and shocked by his mother’s shallowness3. His intellectual genius is outstanding. He is a close observer. He can easily see through people. His quick perception drives him to penetrate below the surface of things and question what others take for granted. He is scholar, soldier and statesman. His image reflects the versatility of the men of the Renaissance.The Merchant of VeniceThe traditional themeTo praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty, and to expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew.The modern interpretationTo regard the play as a satire of the Christians’hypocrisy and their false standards of friendship and love, their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice against Jews, here represented by ShylockParadise lost1. The theme of the poem is a revolt against God’s authority.2. God: selfish despot暴君,cruel, unjust3. Adam and Eve embody Milton’s belief in the powers of man, craving (longing) for knowledge4. God’s angels are foolish, resembling the court of an absolute monarch.5. Satan is a rebel against tyranny(专制，暴行) and Satan and his followers resemble a republican ParliamentThe Image of Satan1. Satan is the real hero of the poem.2. He is firmer than the rest of the angels.3. He has an invincible(战无不胜的) heart.4. Satan remains superior in nobility and welcomes his defeat and his torments as a glory, a liberty and a joy;5. Satan is the spirit questioning the authority of God.6. Milton makes Satan as his own mouthpiece(代言人).The Pilgrim’s ProgressB unyan’s language1.Bunyan’s language is chiefly plain and colloquial and quite modern in comparison with that of the writers of the Renaissance.2. His language is clear, vivid, natural, homely (朴实的), fluent, musical and powerful.3. He paved the way not only in language style but also in writing technique of novels, for the novelists of the 18th century as Swift and Defoe.The image of Robinson Crusoe1.One of the representative of the rising bourgeoisie2. An enterprising Englishman3. A laborer, a hard-working industrious and intelligent man.4. A typical colonizer, explorer, and a foreign trader.5.He is alert, vigorous and resourcefulBlake’s poems such as tiger 《老虎》and comments on Blank(1) Blake’s poems seem easy but difficult to understand for his m mysterious images and symbols, unless versed in ( skilled at )religious knowledge.(2) Blake’s poems are full of emotion and apparent presentation of his progressive democratic idea in symbolismComments1) Blake was opposed to the classicism of the 18th century.2) His poems were full of romantic spirit, imagery symbolism and revolutionary spirit.3) He was a Pre-Romanticist or forerunner of the romantic poetry of the 19th century.Comments on Burns & His Poems1. Burns was one of the most famous poetsof the peasants in the world.2. He obtained the characteristic of all old Scottish songs: simplicity, vividness, humor, directness and optimism, with anew spirit of romanticism.Explanation William Wordsworth poem i wandered lonely【赏析】：这首诗写于诗人从法国回来不久。
文学术语Terms in English Literature1.Allegory (寓言)A tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities.寓言，讽喻：一种文学、戏剧或绘画的艺术手法，其中人物和事件代表抽象的观点、原则或支配力。
2.Alliteration (头韵)Alliteration is the repetition of the same initial consonant sound within a line or a group of words.头韵：在一组词的开头或重读音节中对相同辅音或不同元音的重复。
3.Allusion (典故)A reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to.典故：作者对某些读者熟悉并能够做出反映的特定人物，地点，事件，文学作品的引用。
4.Analogy (类比)A comparison made between two things to show the similarities between them.类比：为了在两个事物之间找出差别而进行的比较。
5. Antagonist (反面主角)The principal character in opposition to the protagonist or hero or heroineof a narrative or drama.反面主角：叙事文学或戏剧中与男女主人公或英雄相对立的主要人物。
6. Antithesis (对仗)The balancing of two contrasting ideas, words, or sentences.对仗：两组相对的思想，言辞，词句的平衡。
英美文学术语terms1.alliteration：It is the repetition of the same sound or sounds at the beginning of two or morewords that are next to or close to each other. It is a form of initial rhyme, or head rhyme.2.caesura：a pause in a line of verse, often coinciding with a break between clauses orsentences. It is usually placed in the middle of the line, but may appear near the beginning or towards the end.3.Sonnet - a lyric poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns. It usually expresses a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment.4.Free verse: a kind of poetry that does not conform to any regular metre: the length of its lines is irregular, as is its use of rhyme.5. heroic couplet: a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poetry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines.6. Paradox: a statement or expression so surprisingly self-contradictory as to provoke us into seeking another sense or context in which it would be true.7. Conceit: An unusually far-fetched or elaborate metaphor or simile presenting a surprisingly apt parallel between two apparently dissimilar things or feelings.8. Mock epic: a poem employing the lofty style and the conventions of the epic poetry to describe a trivial or undignified series of events; thus a kind of satire that mocks its subject bytreating it in an inappropriately grandiose manner, usually at some length. One of the outstanding examples in English is Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock.9. Satire: a mode of writing that exposes the failings of individuals, institutions or societies to ridicule and scorn. Satire is often an incidental element in literary works that may not be wholly satirical, especially in comedy. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a bitter satire on the policy of the English government towards the Irish people.10. Epigram：a short poem with a witty turn of thought, or a wittily condensed expression in prose. Originally a form of monumental inscription in ancient Greece, the epigram was developed into a literary form by poets.11. Allegory:Allegory is a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. The principal technique of allegory is personification, whereby abstract qualities are given human shape.12. Simile:A figure of speech in which two things, essentially different but thought to be alike in one or more respects, are compared using “like,” “as,” “as if,” or “such” for the purpose ofexplanation, allusion, or ornament.13. metaphor: the most important and widespread figure of speech, in which one thing, idea, or action is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting another thing, idea, or action, so as to suggest some common quality shared by the two. In metaphor, this resemblance is assumed as an imaginary identity rather than directly stated as a comparison.14. verbal irony: it involves a discrepancy between what is said and what is really meant, as in its crude form, sarcasm..15. dramatic irony:the audience knows more about a character’s situation than the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character’s expectations, and thus ascribing a sharply different sense to some of the character’s own statements.。
Iambic pentameter is a commonly used type of metrical line in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm that the words establish in that line, which is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". The word "iambic" refers to the type of foot that is used, known as the iamb, which in English is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "feet".Iambic rhythms come relatively naturally in English. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry; it is used in many of the major English poetic forms, including blank verse, the heroic couplet, and some of the traditional rhymed stanza forms. William Shakespeare used iambic pentameter in his plays and sonnets.Allegory Allegories are typically used as literary devices or rhetorical devices that convey hidden meanings through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, and/or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey.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 .Most epics deal with the exploits of a single individual and also interlace the main narrative with myths, legends, folk tales and past events; there is a composite effect, the entire culture of a country cohering in the overall experience of the poem . 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.简史P39Blank verse is poetry written in regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always iambic pentameters.[1] It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century"[2] and Paul Fussell has estimated that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."[3]Christopher Marlowe was the first English author to make full use of the potential of blank verse. The major achievements in English blank verse were made by William Shakespeare. Blank verse, of varying degrees of regularity, has been used quite frequently throughout the 20th century in original verse and in translations of narrative verse.Ode(颂歌) Long, often elaborate formal lyric poem of varying line lengths dealing with a subject matter and treating it reverently. It aims atglorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Conventionally, many odes are written or dedicated to a specifie subject. For instance,Ode to the West Wind is about the winds that bring change of season in England. Ode to the Nightingale is about the nightingale that lures the poet temporarily away from his great misery. The earliest English odes include the Epithalamion and the Prothalamion,or marriage hymns by poet Edmund Spenser.Metaphysical poetry（玄学诗） a derogatory term invented by John Dryden(1631-1700 ) and later adopted by Samuel Johnson(1709-1784) 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 themes of metaphysical poets are love,death,and religion.According to them,all things in the universe, no matter how dissimilar they are to each other,are closely unified in God.The chief representative of this school was John Donne.Byronic belonging to or derived from Lord Byron(1788-1824)or his works. The Byronic hero is a character-type found in his celebrated narrative poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage(1812-18),his verse drama Manfred(1817),and other works:he is a boldly defiant but bitterly self –tormenting outcast,proudly contemptuous of social norms but suffering for some unnamed sin. Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights(1847)is a later example.Heroic couplet a rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines:Let Observation with extensive ViewSurvey Mankind, from China to Peru (Johnson)Named from its use by Dryden and others in the heroic drama of the late 17th century,the heroic couplet had been established much earlier by Chaucer as a major English verse-form for narrative and other kinds of non-dramatic portry: it dominated English poetry of the 18th century,notably in the couplets of Pope,before declining in importance in the early 19th century.Soliloquy a dramatic speech uttered by one character speaking aloud while alone on the stage (or while under the impression of being alone).The soliloquist thus reveals his or her inner thoughts and feelings to the audience,either in supposed self-communion or in a consciously direct address. Soliloquies often appear in plays from the age of Shakespeare, notably in his Hamlet and Macbeth. A poem supposedly uttered by a solitaryspeaker,like Robert Browning’s‘Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister’(1842),may also be called a soliloquy. Soliloquy is a form of monologue,but a monologue is not a soliloquy if (as in the dramatic monologue) the speaker is not alone.简史P39 Sonnet a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length:iambic pentameters in English,alexandrines inFrench,hendecasyllables in ltalian. The rhyme schemes of the sonnet follow two basic patterns.①The Italian sonnet②The English sonnetSpenserian stanza （宾塞诗体）an English poetic stanza of nine iambic lines, the first eight being pentameters while the ninth is a longer line known either as an iambic hexameter or as an alexandrine.The rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc. The stanza is named after Edmund Spenser,who invented it------probably on the basis of the ottava rima stanza-----for his long allegorical romance The Faerie Queene (1590-6). It was revived successfully by the younger English Romantic poets of the early 19th century: Byron used it for Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage(1812,1816), Keats for‘The Eve of St Agnes’(1820),and Shelley for The Revolt of Islam (1818)and Adonais (1821).Lake poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey became known as the Lake Poets, because they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England. According to the critics, such as, Francis Jeffrey, Thomas De Quincey, the Lake Poets shared only friendship and brief periods of collaboration, not similar philosophies or poetic styles.Wordsworth used his imaginative powers to idealize nature, Coleridge explored the philosophical aspects of poetry,Southey's Romantic efforts centered on travel and adventure.Stream of Consciousness(意识流) Stream of Consciousness(意识流)：Stream of consciousness, which presents the thoughts of a character in the random, seemingly unorganized fashion in which the thinking process occurs, has the following characteristics. First, it reveals the action or plot through the mental processes of the characters rather than through the commentary of an omniscient author. Second, character development is achieved through revelation of extremely personal and often typical thought processes rather than through the creation of typical characters in typical circumstances. Third, the action of the plot seldom corresponds to real, chronological time, but moves back and forth through present time to memories of past eventsand drams of the future. Fourth, it replaces narration, description, and commentary with dramatic interior monologue and free association.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 essentially democratic and humanistic character of critical realism. 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. In their best works, they used humor and satire to contrast the greed and hypocrisy of the upper classes with the honesty and good-heartedness of the obscure “simple people” of the lower classes. Humorous scenes set off the actions of the positive characters, and the humor is often tinged with a lyricism which serves to stress the fine qualities of such characters. At the same time,bitter satire and grotesque is used to expose the seamy side of the bourgeois society. The critical realists, however, did not find a way to eradicate the social evils they knew so well. They did not realize the necessity of changing the bourgeois society through conscious human effort. Their works do not point toward revolution but rather evolution or reformism. They often start with a powerful exposure of the ugliness of the bourgeois world in their works, but their novels usually have happy endings or an impotent compromise at the end. Here are the strength and weakness of critical realism.Classicism（古典主义）: A movement or tendency in art, music, and literature to retain the characteristics found in work originating in classical Greece and Rome. It differs from Romanticism in that while Romanticism dwells on the emotional impact of a work, classicism concerns itself with form and discipline.Romanticism(浪漫主义) The term refers to the literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and early 19th century. Romanticism rejected the earlier philosophy of the Enlightenment, which stressed that logic and reason were the best response humans had in the face of cruelty, stupidity, superstition, and barbarism. Instead ,the Romantics asserted that reliance upon emotion and natural passions provided a valid and powerful means of knowing and a reliable guide to ethics and living.The Romantic movement typically asserts the unique nature of the individual, the privileged status of imagination and fancy, the value of spontaneity over “artifice” and “convention”, the human need for emotional outlets, the rejection of civilizedcorruption, and a desire to return to natural primitivism and escape the spiritual destruction of urban life Their writings are often set in rural, or Gothic settings and they show an obsessive concern with “innocent”characters----children, young lovers, and animals. The major Romantic poets included William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats , Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Gordon Byron.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, the most important critical writer of the late 19th century. The chief representative of the movement in England was Oscar Wilde,with his Picture of Dorian Gray. Aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, not art imitate life. 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. This was 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.Neoclassicism The term mainly applies to the classical tendency which dominated the literature of the early period. It was, at least in part, the result of a reaction against the fires of passion which had blazed in the late Renaissance, especially in the metaphysical poetry. It found its artistic models in the classical literature of the ancient Greek and Roman writers like Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, etc. and in the contemporary French writers such as Voltaire and Diderot. It put the stress on the classical artistic ideals of order, logic, proportion, restrained emotion, accuracy, good taste and decorum.Such elegant styles were found in almost all the writings of the period, especially in those of John Dryden, Alexander Pope，Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Henry Fielding, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edward Gibbon , the man who wrote the famous history The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire(1776―1788) , and other neoclassicist writers. They were careful imitators. Their approach was thoroughly professional. Their works, mostly refined and perfect, are conscientiouscraftsmanship and often highly didactic. Neoclassical poetry , as represented by Dryden, Pope, and Johnson, reached its stylistic perfection during the period, although to the modem readers it seems to lack in imagination and energy. The neoclassical poetry is one of the most significant phenomena in the literature of the age, to which it has given its name.Naturalism（自然主义）: it first appeared in France, there naturalists including Zola turned especially to “slum life”, in England flourished in the 2nd half of 19th century; naturalists argued that literature reflect life, be “true to life”, writer must reproduce in his writings life exactly as it is, (including all details without any selection), theory of “a slice of life”; However, a fallacy, for impossible to include all the details in real life; only give the appearance of life but not its essence. In England, two outstanding writers in the last decades: George Gissing, George Moore.Neo-Romanticism（新浪漫主义）: it appeared at the end of 19th century and represented by Robert Louis Stevenson; it protests against the ugly social reality of their day but taking no positive steps about it，in a sense another form of escapism; dissatisfied with the contemporary reality, but at best a mild dissatisfaction; tried to find interest or enjoyment out from sheer imagination and fancy by creating exciting events and romantic characters that can hardly exist in reality，indulge in the description of exciting adventures in distant lands to deal with the heroic, to lay emphasis on the complexity and sensationalism of the material, Treasure Island, the representative in this school.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.。
