英美文学名词解释(1)

1puritanism清教主义

The dogmas 教条preached by Puritans. They believed that all men were predestined命中注定and the individual ‘s free will played no part in his quest for salvation. This was a rejection of the dogmas preached by the Roman Catholic Church and its rites仪式. The Puritans also advocated a strict moral code which prohibited many earthly pleasures such as dancing and other merry-makings.清教徒提倡严格的道德准则禁止如跳舞和其他许多世俗的快乐的气质。They stressed the virtues of self-discipline,自律thrift节俭and hard work as evidence that one was among the “elect” to be chosen to go to Heaven after death

2Romanticism

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, 残忍的stupidity, superstition,迷信的and barbarism. Instead, the Romantics asserted that reliance 依赖upon emotion and natural passions provided a valid and powerful means of knowing and a reliable guide to ethics 伦理and living. The Romantic movement typically asserts 声称，代言the unique nature of the individual, the privileged status 特权地位of imagination and fancy想象和幻想, the value of spontaneity over “artifice” and “convention”价值的理解“技巧”和“公约”，the human need for emotional outlets, the spiritual destruction 精神上的摧残of urban life.城市生活。Their writings are often set in rural, or Gothic settings and they show an obsessive 强迫性的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.

3Epic 史诗

An epic is a long oral narrative poem that operates on a grand scale大尺度and deals with legendary传奇or historical events of national or universal significance.意义Most epics deal with the exploits利用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.

4Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a philosophical and literary movement, flourishing in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.

It is the summit of American Romanticism.It is strongly against Rationalism and Materialism (物质享乐主义）.What is popularly called Transcendentalism among us is idealism, idealism as appears in 1842. Transcendentalism was a romantic idealism, or philosophical romanticism. It is also regarded as a considerable-scale ideological and cultural revolution after American people struggled to get free from the English colonial rule

5Realism

Realism is the trend, beginning with mid nineteenth-century French literature and

extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors, toward depictions描写of contemporary life当代生活and society as it was, or is. In the spirit of general "realism," realist authors opted 选择for depictions of everyday and banal平庸的activities and experiences, instead of a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation.

In England, the French realists were imitated consciously and notably 值得注意的是by George Edward Moore (1873-1958) and Arnold Bennett 1867-1931), but the English novel from the time of Defoe (18th cent.) had had its own unlabelled strain of realism, and the term is thus applied to English literature in varying senses and contexts,语境sometimes qualified as 'social' or Psychological' realism etc.

6lost generation

It is applied to the generation of American writers who came of age during or just after WW one and who fought in the war. The terms derives from Gertrude Stein’s comment to Ernest Hemingway, “you are all a lost generation”. Hemingway, himself a memeber of the lost generation, used the phrase as a motto and theme for his novel “the sun also rises’. Members of this lost generation, who fund themselves without emotional or cultural stability in a time of social upheaval and to whom the traditional values made mo sense as a result of the war, included F.Scott Fitzgerald , Louis Bloomfield, Hart Crane ,Malcolm Cowley and John Dos Passos. Although many of them spent much of their time in Paris, others lived and worked in New York and some remained in the middle west and the South. They constituted a group reacting against certain tendencies of older writers.

7Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal, political, economic, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women. Feminist theory, which emerged from these feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experience; it has developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of sex and gender.

Feminist activists campaign for women's rights – such as in contract law, property, and voting –while also promoting bodily integrity, autonomy, and reproductive rights for women. Feminism is mainly focused on women's issues, but because feminism seeks gender equality, bell hooks and other feminists have argued that men's liberation is a necessary part of feminism, and that men are also harmed by sexism and gender roles.

8 Modernism

Modernism is a general term that is applied to writing marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression in the first half of twentieth century. Modern when applied to literature is commonly taken to imply a historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, loss, cynicism, and despair. It rejects traditional values and assumptions, and elevates the individual and the inner being over the social human being and prefers the unconscious to the self-

conscious. The psychologies of Freud and Jung have been influential in the modern movement in literature. In many aspects it is a reaction against realism and naturalism. With existentialism as its philosophical base, although by no means can all modern writers be termed existentialists, the movement is profoundly experimental with language form, symbol, and myth.

The following names will suffice to indicate the vitality, variety and artistic success of modern writing: T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, W.B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, to name just a few

9 American dream

Brode sense and narrow sense

For the former, American Dream is the equality freedom and democracy in the land of the Unites States. The later one means ,everyone in America if noly work hard and never give up, he could achieve his dream and could live a better life in this piece of land, that is to say, people should make their efforts, such as diligence, courage, and determination to realize dreams rather than depend on the help from others.

10 imagism

Imagism flourished in Britain and in the United States for a brief period that is generally considered to be somewhere between 1909 and 1917. And imagist poets looked to many sources to help them create a new poetic expression.

English writer T. E. Hulme is credited with creating the philosophy that would give birth to the Imagism movement. His ideas inspired Ezra Pound to organize the new movement. Pound defined the image as “that which presents an intellectual and emoti onal complex in an instant of time.” He also laid down three Imagist poetic principles:1.Direct treatment of the "thing," whether subjective or objective.2.To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.3.As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome(节拍器).

In the history of American poetry, Imagism was important in a number of ways in the development of modern poetry . Its literary theories and poetic forms have continued to exercise their influence on modern and contemporary poetry. It is this movement that helped to open the first pages of modern English and American poetry.

美国诗歌史上，意象是非常重要的在现代诗歌的发展途径。其文学理论和诗歌形式继续对现代诗歌运动的影响。正是这种运动，开创了现代英国和美国诗歌第一页。

英美文学名词解释(1)

Epic: A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecti ng the values of the society from which it originated. The style of epic is grand宏伟的 and elevated高尚的. John Milton wrote three great epics:Paradise Lost,Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. Sonnet(十四行诗 A sonnet is a lyric consisting of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter restricted to a definition rhyme scheme Renaissance the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival复活 of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition过渡from the medieval to the modern world.the essence of the Renaissance is Humanism The Renaissance Period A period of drama and poetry. The Elizabethan drama is the real mainstream of the English Renaissance. Humanism人文主义 Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. 2>it emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the impo rtance of the present life.Humanists voiced their belie fs that man was the center of the universe and man did not

英美文学史名词解释

英美文学史名词解释 TYYGROUP system office room 【TYYUA16H-TYY-TYYYUA8Q8-

英美文学史名词解释 1.English Critical Realism English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties. The realists first and foremost criticized the capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated (portrayed) the crying (extremely shocking) contradictions of bourgeois reality. The greatness of the English realists lies not only in their satirical portrayal of bourgeoisie and in the exposure of the greed and hypocrisy of the ruling classes, but also in their sympathy for the laboring people. Humor and satire are used to expose and criticize the seamy (dark) side of reality. The major contribution of the critical realists lies in their perfection of the novel. Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray are the most important representative of English critical realism. 2.The "Stream of Consciousness" The "stream of consciousness" is 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 late 19th century,

美国文学名词解释

1. Transcendentalism The origin of it is a philosophical and literary movement centered in Concord and Boston, which marks the summit of American Transcendentalism. 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths. The major features of American Transcendentalism are:It emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. It stressed the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important element of society. It offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. 2.Romanticism The Romanticism period stretches from the end of the 18th century through the outbreak of the Civil War. It is a term associate with imagination boundlessness, and in critical usage is contrasted with classicism which is commonly associated with reason and restriction. The features of Romanticism are: American Romanticism was in a way derivative: American romantic writing was some of them modeled on English and European works. American romanticism was in essence the expression of "a real new experience "and contained"an alien quality".Representatives:William Cullen Bryant; Henry Longfellow and James Cooper, Washington Irving. 3.Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.The representatives are Howells, James, and Mark Twain. 4. Naturalism American naturalism was a new and harsher realism, it had come from Europe. Naturalism was an outgrowth of realism that responded to theories in science, psychology, human behavior and social thought current in the late nineteenth century. The background of naturalism are: In the last decade of the nineteenth century, with the development of industry and modern science, intelligent minds began to see that man was no longer a free ethical being in a cold, indifferent and essentially Godless universe. In this chance world he was both helpless and hopeless.Major Features of it are:Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment.The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires.Representatives of it such as Stephen Crane, Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser. 5.New Criticism The New Criticism as a school of poetry and criticism established itself in the 1940s as an academic orthodoxy in the United States. The school has its beginning in the 1920s. It focus on the analysis of the text rather paying attention to external elements such as its social background, its author's intention and political attitude, and its impact on society. Then it explores the artistic structure of the work rather than its author's frame of mind or its reader's responses. It also see a literary work as an organic entity, the unity of content and form, and places emphasis on the close reading of the text. These New Critics included T.S. Eliot,I.A.Richards,John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate and some other critics. The New Criticism has tended to divorce criticism from social and moral concerns, which was to become one salient feature of the movement. 6.Imagism: Between 1912 and 1922 there came a great poetry boom in which about 1000 poets published over 1000 volumes of poetry. Indeed ,to express the modern spirit, the sense of fragmentization and dislocation, was in large measure the aim of quite a few modern literary movements, of which Imagism was one.The first Imagist theorist, the English writer T.E.Hulme. Hulme suggests that modern art deals with expression and communication of momentary phases in the poet's mind. The most effective means to express these momentary impressions is through the use of dominant image.It is a literary movement launched American poets early in the 20th century that advocated the use of free verse, common speech patterns, and clear concrete images as a reaction to Victorian sentimentalism. The representatives are Ezra pound, William Carlos Williams and some other poets.

美国文学选读名词解释

1.Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. 1.simply speaking , American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans,who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions. 2.In content it means scrupulous ,moral rigor ,especially hostility to social pleasure and religion . 3.with time passing it became a dominant factor in American life , one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and literature.to some extent it is a state of mind,a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes ,rather than a set of tenets. 4.Actually it is a code of values,a philosophy of life and a point of view in American minds,also a two-faceted tradition of religious idealism and level -headed in common sense . 2.The American Romanticism(浪漫主义):a literary movement flourished as a cultural force the early period and the late period. associated with imagination and boundlessness, as an historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th centuries.(Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.) II.Features of American romanticism (1) It was the expression of “a real new experience(全新体验)”. (2) American Puritanism was a cultural heritage. Many American romantic writings intended to edify(启发) more than they entertained. (3) American Romanticism is full of “newness(新奇)” . Ideals：Individualism; political equality Dream：America: a new Garden of Eden (4)American romanticism was both imitative and independent. 3.Transcendentalism 超验主义 The major features of Transcendentalism: ① The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. 思想超灵宇宙 ② The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual is the most important element of Society. ③ The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s ove rwhelming presence. 自然+上帝 Ralph Waldo Emerson. American Transcendentalism:As a philosophical and literary

美国文学名词解释

1. Transcendentalism—it is a philosophic and literary movement that flourish in New England, as a reaction against rationalism and Calvinism. It stressed intuitive understanding of god without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind. 超验主义，它是一个蓬勃发展的新英格兰的哲学和文学运动，反对理性主义和加尔文主义的反应。它强调直观地了解上帝没有教会的帮助下，主张心灵的独立性。 2. Romanticism had appeared in England in the last years of the eighteenth century. It spread to conti nental Europe and then came to America early in the nineteenth century. It came into being as a re action against the prevailing neoclassical spirit and rationalism during the Age of Reason. 浪漫主义曾经出现在英国，在过去几年的十八世纪。它蔓延到欧洲大陆，然后来到美国在十九世纪初。它应运而生作为理性的时代中针对当时新古典主义精神和理性的反应。 3. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puritans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the Church of England. 清教主义，它是清教徒，谁曾打算净化和简化英国教会的宗教礼仪的宗教信仰。 4. Imagism is to present an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. An imagistic poem must present the object exactly the way the thing is seen. And the reader can form the image of the object through the process of reading the abstract and concrete words. Imagism 意象派：is a poetic movement of England and the United States, flourished from 1909-1917. Its credo, expressed in Some Imagist Poets, included the use of the language of common speech, project matter, the evocation of images in hard, clear poetry, and concentration. 英国是与美国的诗意动作，从1909-1917蓬勃发展。它的信条，在表达意象的一些诗人，包括使用共同的讲话，不管项目，图像的硬盘，明确诗歌和浓度唤起的语言。 5、Realism：（现实主义）appeared in the United States in the literature of local color, an amalgam of romantic plots and realistic descriptions of things was immediately observable. the dialects, customs, sights.现实主义有浓厚的美国本土特色，是浪漫主义故事情节和现实主义描写相结合的产物：美国风味的方言、风俗、各种观点 6.Naturalism：自然主义 a new and harsher realism, 新型的更为冷峻的现实主义，产生悲观的流派，产生于the end of the century 十九世纪末，因为Perception of society’s disorders 对社会无序的感知。Presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were dominated by their environment and heredity. 设法尽力客观真实地展现出受环境与出身局限的下层人民和各种经济阶层人物的真正生活。The naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that their lives were controlled by heredity and the environment, the religious “truths” were illusory, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death. 强调世界的非道德性，人们没有意志的自由，宗教上的真理是虚幻的，现实生活是痛苦的。Deterministic 决定论，宿命的， 代表作家：Stephen Crane 史蒂芬.克莱恩, Frank Norris 弗朗克.诺里斯, Jack London 杰克.伦敦, Theodore Dreiser 西奥多.德莱塞. 6. The naturalists tend to depict the dark side of the socity, and always take the low classes as their heros or heroes. Compare to the realism and romanticism, they have a more pessimistic view toward the society, the life. Take Theodore Dreiser for example, his Sister Carrie or American Tragedy reveal that man can not control themselves, and is at the mercy of the nature, the heredity, the society and instinct.博物学家倾向于描绘社会的阴暗面,总是以低类为他们的英雄和英雄。比较现实主义和浪漫主义,他们对社会有更悲观的观点,生活。以西奥多·德莱塞为例,他的嘉莉妹妹还是美国的悲剧表明,男人不能控制自己,自然的摆布,遗传,社会和本能。

英美文学名词解释

1. In the medieval period ， it is Chaucer alone who ， for the first time in English literature ， presented to usa comprehensive __picture of the English society of his time and created a whole galery of vivid ___ from all walks of life in his masterpiece “the Canterbury Tales ”。 A. visionary / women B. romantic /men C. realistic / characters D. natural / figures 2. Although ____ was essentially a medieval writer, he bore marks of humanism and anticipated a new era of literature to come. A. William Langland B. John Gower C. Geoffrey Chaucer D. Edmund Spenser 3. Humanism spume from the endeavor to restore a medieval reverence for the antique authors and is frequently taken as the beginning of the Renaissance on its conscious ，intellectual side ，for the Greek and Roman civilization was based on the conception that man is the ____ of all things . A. measure B. king C. lover D. rule 4. The essence of humanism is to ______. A. restore a medieval reverence for the church B. avoid the circumstances of earthly life C. explore the next world in which men could live after death D. emphasize human qualities 5. Many people today tend to regard the play “ The Merchant of Venice ” as a satire of the hypocrisy of ___ and their false standards of friendship and love ， their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice against _________ . A. Christians / Jews B. Jews / Christians C. oppressors / oppressed D. people / Jews 6. In “ Sonnet 18 ”， Shakespeare has a profound meditation on the destructive power of _________ and the eternal __________ brought forth by poetry to the one he loves . A. death/ life B. death/ love C. time / beauty D. hate / love 7.In The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan describes The Vanity Fair in a ______ tone. A. delightful B. satirical C. sentimental D. solemn 8. The religious reformation in the early 16th-century England was a reflection of the class struggles waged by the _____. A. rising bourgeoisie against the feudal class and its ideology B. working class against the corruption of the bourgeoisie C. landlord class against the rising bourgeoisie and its ideology D. feudal class against the corruption of the Catholic Church 9. The ______ was a progressive intellectual movement throughout western Europe in the 18th century . A. Renaissance B. Enlightenmrent C. Religious Reformation D. Chartist Movement 10.The 18th century witnessed a new literary form -the modern English novel, which, contrary to the medieval romance, gives a ______ presentation of life of the common English people. A. romantic B. idealistic C. prophetic D. realistic 1. The title of the novel “ A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ” written by James Joyce suggests a character study with strong _________ elements .

英美文学名词解释总结.doc

英美文学名词解释总结 Romance:Anyimaginationliteraturethatissetinanidealizedworldandth atdealswithaheroicadventuresandbattlesbetweengoodcharactersandvi llainsormonsters.传奇故事：指以理想化的世界为背景并且描写主人公的英雄冒险事迹和善与恶的斗争的想象文学作品。 Alliteration:Therepetitionoftheinitialconsonantsoundsinpoetry.头韵：诗歌中单词开头读音的重复。 Couplet:Itisapairofrhymingverselines,usuallyofthesamelength;oneoft hemostwidelyusedverse-sinEuropeanpoetry.Chaucerestablishedtheus eofcoupletsinEnglish,notablyintheCanterburyTales,usingrhymingiam bicpentameterslaterknownasheroiccoupletsBlankverse:Versewritteni nunrhymediambicpentameter.素体诗：用五音步抑扬格写的无韵诗。 Conceit:Akindofmetaphorthatmakesacomparisonbetweentwostartlin glydifferentthings.Aconceitmaybeabriefmetaphor,butitusuallyprovid estheframeworkforanentirepoem.Anespeciallyunusualandintellectual kindofconceitisthemetaphysicalconceit.新奇的比喻：将两种截然不同的食物进行对比的一种隐喻。 它虽被视为是一种隐喻，但是它往往构建了整首诗的框架，

美国文学名词解释

Allegory is a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor. Allegories are written in the form of fables, parables, poems, stories, and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has characters, a setting, as well as other types of symbols, that have both literal and figurative meanings. One well-known example of an allegory is Dante’s The Divine Comedy.In Inferno, Dante is on a pilgrimage to try to understand his own life, but his character also represents every man who is in search of his purpose in the world. Alliteration is a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds. The repetition can be located at the beginning of successive words or inside the words. Poets often use alliteration to audibly represent the action that is taking place. Aside is an actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage. An aside is usually used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking. Asides are important because they increase an audience's involvement in a play by giving them vital information pertaining what is happening, both inside of a character's mind and in the plot of the play. Gothic is a literary style popular during the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. This style usually portrayed fantastic tales dealing with horror, despair, the grotesque and other “dark” subjects. Gothic literature was named for the apparent influence of the dark gothic architecture of the period on the genre. Also, many of these Gothic tales took places in such “gothic” surroundings. Other times, this story of darkness may occur in a more everyday setting, such as the quaint house where the man goes mad fro m the "beating" of his guilt in Edgar Allan Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart.”In essence, these stories were romances, largely due to their love of the imaginary over the logical, and were told from many different points of view. CATHARSIS is an emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety. According to Aristotle, catharsis is the marking feature and ultimate end of any tragic artistic work. IMAGERY: A common term of variable meaning, imagery includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature. It signifies all the sensory perceptions referred to in a poem, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor. Surrealism is an artistic movement doing away with the restrictions of realism and verisimilitude that might be imposed on an artist. In this movement, the artist sought to do away with conscious control and instead respond to the irrational urges of the subconscious mind. From this results the hallucinatory, bizarre, often nightmarish quality of surrealistic paintings and writings. Sample surrealist writers include Frank O'Hara, John Ashberry, and Franz Kafka.