英国文学名词解释大全(整理版)

名词解释

1.Epic(史诗)（appeared in the the Anglo-Saxon Period ）

It is a narrative of heroic action, often with a principal hero, usually mythical in its content, grand in its style, offering inspiration and ennoblement within a particular culture or national tradition.

A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated.

Epic is an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, like Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey. It usually celebrates the feats of one or more legendary or traditional heroes. The action is simple, but full of magnificence.

Today, some long narrative works, like novels that reveal an age & its people, are also called epic.

E.g. Beowulf （the pagan（异教徒），secular(非宗教的) poetry）Iliad 《伊利亚特》，Odyssey《奥德赛》Paradise Lost 《失乐园》，The Divine Comedy《神曲》

2.Romance （传奇）(Anglo-Norman feudal England)

?Romance is any imaginative literature that is set in an idealized world and that deals with heroic adventures and battles between good characters and villains or monsters.

?Originally, the term referred to a medieval (中世纪) tale dealing with the love and adventures of kings, queens, knights, and ladies, and including supernatural happenings.

Form:long composition, in verse, in prose

Content:description of life and adventures of a noble hero

Character:a knight, a man of noble birth, skilled in the use of weapons; often described as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournaments(骑士比武), or fighting for his lord in battles; devoted to the church and the king ?Romance lacks general resemblance to truth or reality.

?It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtues.

?It contains perilous (dangerous) adventures more or less remote from ordinary life.

?It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to a fair lady.

①The Romance Cycles/Groups/Divisions

Three Groups

●matters of Britain Adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table （亚瑟王和他的圆桌骑士）

●matters of France Emperor Charlemagne and his peers

●matters of Rome Alexander the Great and the attacks of Troy

Le Morte D’Arthur （亚瑟王之死）

②Class Nature (阶级性) of the Romance

Loyalty to king and lord was the theme of the romances, as loyalty was the corner-stone（the most important part基石）of feudal morality.

The romances were composed not for the common but for the noble, of the noble, and by the poets patronized （supported 庇护,保护）by the noble.

3. Alliteration（押头韵）: a repeated initial(开头的) consonant(协调,一致) to successive(连续的) words.

e.g. 1.To his kin the kindest, keenest for praise.

2.Sing a song of southern singer

4. Understatement（低调陈述）（for ironical humor）

not troublesome: very welcome

need not praise: a right to condemn

5. Chronicle《编年史》（a monument of Old English prose）

6. Ballads （民谣）（The most important department of English folk literature ）

①Definition:

A ballad is a narrative poem that tells a story, and is usually meant to be sung or recited in musical form.

An important stream of the Medieval folk literature

②Features of English Ballads

1. The ballads are in various English and Scottish dialects.

2. They were created collectively and revised when handed down from mouth to mouth.

3. They are mainly the literature of the peasants, and give an outlook of the English common people in feudal society.

③Stylistic （风格上）Features of the Ballads

1. Composed in couplets （相连并押韵的两行诗,对句）or in quatrains （四行诗）known as the ballad stanza （民谣诗节）, rhyming abab or abcb, with the first and third lines carrying 4 accented syllables （重读音节）and the second and fourth carrying 3.

2. Simple, plain language or dialect （方言，土语）of the common people with colloquial （口语的，会话的）, vivid and, sometimes, idiomatic （符合当地语言习惯的）expressions

3. Telling a good story with a vivid presentation around the central plot.

4. Using a high proportion of dialogue with a romantic or tragic dimension （方面）to achieve dramatic effect.

④Subjects of English Ballads

1. struggle of young lovers

2. conflict between love and wealth

3. cruelty of jealousy

4. criticism of the civil war

5. matters of class struggle

7. Heroic couplet （英雄双韵体）（introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer）

Definition:the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter; a verse form in epic poetry, with lines of ten syllables and five stresses, in rhyming pairs.

英雄诗体/英雄双韵体：用于史诗或叙事诗，每行十个音节，五个音部，每两行押韵。

8. couplet（两行诗，对句）: Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.A heroic couplet is an iambic pentameter couplet. During the Restoration period and the 18th C. it was a popular verse form.

9. iambic pentameter: A poetic line consisting of five Verse feet (penta- is from a Greek word meaning “five”), with each foot an iamb-- that is, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

10. Rhyme（韵，押韵）: the repetition (反复) of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem.E .g . river/shiver, song/long

11. meter (格律) （属于Prosody ['pr?s?d?]（韵文学;诗体学；(某语言的)韵律(学)））: A generally regular

pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables（音节）in poetry.

The meters with two-syllable feet are:

Iambic (x /)（抑扬格）: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

Trochaic (/ x)（扬抑格）: Tell me not in mournful numbers

Spondaic (/ /)（扬扬格）: Break, break, break/ On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

The meters with three-syllable feet are:

anapestic (x x /)（抑抑扬格）: And the sound of a voice that is still

dactylic (/ x x)（强弱格，长短格，扬抑抑格）: This is the forest primeval, the murmuring

pines and the hemlock

(a trochee replaces the final dactyl)

12. Rhythm（节奏，韵律）（属于Prosody ['pr?s?d?]（韵文学;诗体学；(某语言的)韵律(学)））：refers

to the regular recurrence（反复，重现）of the accent（重读）or stress in poem or song.

e.g. the rhythm of day and night, the seasonal rhythm of the year, the beat of our hearts, and the rise and fall of sea tides, etc.

basic patterns of rhythms

a) Iambic foot (iamb['ai?mb])（抑扬格）:an unstressed syllable followed by an stressed one as in the word “prevent” or “about”

It’s time the children went to bed.

We’ll learn a poem by Keats.

b) Trochaic [tr?u'keiik] foot (trochee ['tr?uki:])（扬抑格）:a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one as in “football”, “never”, “happy” or “English”

William Morris taught him English.

Double, double, toil and trouble.

Fire burns and cauldron bubble.

c) Anapestic foot (anapest [??n?pi:st] )（抑抑扬格）: two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one as in “comprehend” or “intervene”

I’ve been working in China for forty years.

d) Dactylic foot (dactyl)（强弱格，长短格，扬抑抑格）: a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones as in “dangerous”, “cheerfully”, “yesterday” or “merrily”

13．Common line lengths:

number of feet per line

?one foot m onometer [m?'n?mit?] (rare)（单音部）

?two feet dimeter ['dimit?] (二步)

?three feet trimester ['trimit?](三步)

?four feet tetrameter [te'tr?mit?](四步)

?five feet pentameter [pen't?mit?](五步)

?six feet hexameter [hek's?mit?]

?seven feet heptameter [hep't?mit?] (rare)

?eight feet octameter [?k't?mit?] (rare)

14．Line patterns:

Couplet（相连并押韵的两行诗,对句）: 2 lines rhyming with each other

? A heroic couplet is an iambic pentameter couplet.

Tercet ['t?:sit]（三行押韵诗句,三拍子）: 3 lines, terza rima (aba, bcb, cdc, ded)

Quatrain ['kw?trein]（四行诗）: 4 lines, ballad stanza (abcb)

Octave ['?kt?v, -,te?v]（八行诗）: 8 lines, ottava rima (abababcc)

Spenserian stanza （斯宾塞诗节）: 9 lines (ababbcbcc) （The Faerie Queene（仙后））

Sonnet （十四行诗）: 14 lines (Shakespearean: ababcdcdefefgg)

Example:

She walks in beauty, like the night

of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellow’d to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies

1. Foot and length: Iambic tetrameter

2. Rhyme (scheme): ababab

15．Humanism

1) Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. According to humanists, human beings were glorious creatures capable of individual development in the direction of perfection and the world can be questioned, explored and enjoyed.

2) By emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life, in contrast to the medieval emphasis on God and contempt for the things of this world, they voiced their beliefs that man did not only have the right to pursue happiness of this life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wanders.

16. Drama

1. Definition

?Drama is “a composition in prose or verse, adapted to be acted upon a stage, in which a story is related by means of dialogue and action, and is represented with accompanying gesture, costume, and

scenery, as in real life.”

2. The Development of Drama

1.Religious Period

1) Mystery plays presented stories from the Old and New Testament of the Bible.

?Creation of the World, the Fall, the Great Flood, Redemption, Final Judgment, etc.

?The birth of the Christ—child symbolized hope in the darkness of winter; Christ’s resurrection（复活）accorded with the earth’s renewal in spring, and the promise of harvest at

midsummer.

2) Miracle plays（奇迹剧）

?Dramatizing（将-改编成剧本）the lives and miracles of saints, or divine intervention (神的干预，介入) in human affairs, that is, stories from the lives of saints.

?Often focused on blessed virgin Mary

3) Morality plays （道德剧）

?Presenting stories containing abstract（抽象的）virtues and vices （美德和恶习）as characters.

?They were plays which had a moral message: Good and Evil fight for domination（统治）of the human soul.

?Everyman, the best example, is the story of a character representing mankind.

2. Artistic Period

The first Comedy, Ralph Roister Doister《拉尔夫·罗伊斯特·多伊斯特》written by the schoolmaster, Nicholas Udall between 1550 and 1553

The first English tragedy, Gorboduc written in 1561 by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton

3. Elements of drama

1. Plot (情节)

The structure of a play’s action, the order of the incidents, their arrangem ent and form.

2. Character(人物): the vital center of a play

How they look, what they say and in what manners they say; what they do and how their actions reveal who they are and what they represent

The human qualities are the most engaging feature.

3. Dialogue(对白)

Drama is described as “persons moving about on stage using words.”

Major functions of Dialogue: to advance the plot, to establish setting, and to reveal character.

4. Staging(舞台设计)

Things like positions of actors, nonverbal gestures and movements, scenic background, props and costumes, lighting and sound effects

5. Theme(主题): the central idea of the play.

4. Dramatic Terms

1. Script(脚本): the written work from which a drama isproduced. It contains stage directions and

Dialogue

2. Stage Directions(舞台指导): notes provided by the playwright to describe how something should be

presented or performed on stage

3. Monologue(独白): a long speech given by an actor

4. Soliloquy(独白): a speech given by a character who is alone (or thinks he is alone) on stage

5. Aside(旁白): a statement intended to be heard by the audience or by a single other character but not by all

the other characters on stage

6. Act(幕): a major division of a drama

7. Scene(场): a division of an act. A scene typically begins with the entrance of one or more characters and

ends with the exit of one or more characters.

https://www.sodocs.net/doc/443039698.html,edy(喜剧)（Drama form）

A play written chiefly to amuse its audience by appealing to a sense of superiority over the characters

depicted. A comedy will normally be closer to everyday life than a tragedy, and will explore common human failings rather than tragedy’s disastrous crimes. Its ending will usually be happy for the leading characters.

? E.g.（莎士比亚）Romantic Comedies（the overcoming the obstacle of love）: As You Like It(皆大欢喜), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Twelfth Night, & The Merchant of Venice（威尼斯商人）

18. Tragedy（Drama form）

? A serious play or novel representing the disastrous downfall of a central character, the protagonist. According to Aristotle, the purpose is to achieve a catharsis through incidents arousing pity and terror. The tragic effect usually depends on our awareness of admirable qualities in he protagonist, which are wasted terribly in the fated disaster.

? E.g. （莎士比亚）Great Tragedies（四大悲剧）（explores the faults/weaknesses of humans）: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear& Macbeth

19. dramatic Romance (tragi-comedy)（悲喜剧）（莎士比亚）（Drama form）:

?Romances focus on the separation and reunion of families rather than love and marriage.

?Endings were characterized by homecoming, recognition, reconciliation, and forgiveness.

?The romances are set in mythical worlds where supernatural and magic and unlikely coincidences are

commonplace.

E.g. Pericles《波里克利斯》, Cymbeline《辛柏林》, The Winter’s Tale《冬天的故事》, The Tempest《暴

风雨》

20. Monologue（长篇独白）

?An extended speech uttered by one speaker, either to others or alone. Significant varieties include the dramatic monologue(a kind of poem in which the speaker is imagined to be addressing a silent audience), and the soliloquy(in which the speaker is supposed to be “overheard（偷听，无意中听到）” while alone).

21. Soliloquy

? A dramatic speech delivered by one character speaking aloud 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（自我反省）or in a consciously direct address（演说，演讲）. It is also known as interior monologue.内心独白

22. The basic plot of the play (Freytag’s pyramid )

1. Exposition (阐述，讲解，说明): provides the background information needed to properly understand the story,

such as the protagonist, the antagonist, the basic conflict, and the setting.

2. Rising action（发展）: during rising action, the basic internal（内部）conflict is complicated（复杂）by

the introduction of related secondary conflicts, including various obstacles that frustrate the protagonist's

attempt to reach his goal.

3. Climax（高潮）: the turning point, which marks a change, for the better or the worse, in the protagonist’s

affairs. If the story is a comedy, things will have gone badly for the protagonist up to this point;

now, the tide, so to speak, will turn, and things will begin to go well for him or her. If the story is a

tragedy, the opposite state of affairs will ensue, with things going from good to bad for the

protagonist.

4. Falling action:during the falling action, or resolution, which is the moment of reversal（反向，倒转，转变，

颠倒）after the climax, the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels, with the

protagonist winning or losing against the antagonist. The falling action might contain a moment of

final suspense, during which the final outcome of the conflict is in doubt.

5. Dénouement, resolution, or catastrophe: comprises events between the falling action and the actual

end of the drama or narrative and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved,

creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for

the reader.

The comedy ends with a dénouement (a conclusion) in which the protagonist is better off than at the story's outset. The tragedy ends with a catastrophe in which the protagonist is worse off than at the beginning of the narrative.

In Shakespeare's tragedies, the dénouement is usually the death of one or more characters.

23. Dramatic irony (戏剧性讽刺)

Dramatic irony: the words or acts of a character may carry a meaning unperceived by the character but under-stood by the audience.

Examples of dramatic irony in Romeo and Juliet

?Before Romeo drinks the poison, he observes that Juliet looks as though she were alive.

?Romeo is cheerful because of a dream, but his h opes are quickly dashed by Balthasar’s news of Juliet’s death.

24. Blank Verse （无韵诗）

?Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. It is a very flexible English verse form which can attain rhetorical grandeur（雄伟，壮观）while echoing the natural rhythms of speech. It was first used by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and soon became a popular form for narrative and dramatic poetry. Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Stevens and Robert Frost are fond of this form.

25. Sonnet

A sonnet is a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length: iambic pentameter in English, hendecasyllables [hen,dek?'sil?bl]（十一音节）in Italian, and alexandrines.[??liɡ?zɑ:ndrain]（亚历山大诗行）in French.

1. The Italian/Petrarchan（彼得拉克）sonnet

It is named after Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), the Italian poet. The 14 lines break into an octave(or octet) of 2 quatrains, rhymed abbaabba(rhymed sometimes abbacddc or even abababab); and a sestet, usually rhymed cdecde or cdcdcd.

2. The English/Shakespearean sonnet

It was introduced into English poetry in the early 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542). It consists of 3 quatrains and a final couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.

An important variant is the Spenserian sonnet,which links the 3 quatrains by rhyme, rhyming abab bcbc cdcd ee.

（quatrain: 四行诗(每节四行,韵律一般为abab或abba)）

26. Allegory（寓言）

? A story with a double meaning: a primary or surface meaning, and a secondary or under-the-surface meaning

? A story that can be read, understood and interpreted at two levels

Two levels of allegory

?One level examines the moral, philosophical and religious values and is represented by the Red Cross Knight, who stands for all Christians.

?The second level is the particular, which focuses on the political, social, and religious conflicts in the then English society.

27. Types of poetry

1) Narrative poetry

epic, romance, and ballad

The stress is on action,

e.g. to tell stories and describe actions;

2) Lyric poetry

Elegies ['el?d?i:]（挽歌）, odes（颂诗，颂歌）, sonnets, epigraphs ['epiɡrɑ:f]（铭文, 碑文）, etc.

To combine speech and song to express feelings in varying degrees of verbal（口头的，言语的）music.

28. essay（散文，随笔）

As a form of literature, the essay is a composition of moderate length, usually in prose, which deals in an easy way with the external conditions of a subject, and, in strictness, with that subject, only as it affects the writer.

1. Purpose:

Essays is intended for the ambitious Elizabethan and Jacobean youth of upper class, to tell them how to be efficient and make their way in public life.

2.Writing style:four prominent qualities:

preciseness, directness,

tenseness, forcefulness

3. Bacon’s essays

Bacon offers his views on a whole smorgasbord of topics ranging from Truth, Death, Adversity, Marriage & the Single Life, Love, Boldness, Superstition, Friendship, Health, Ambition, Youth, Beauty to Anger & Fame.

4. Features of Bacon’s essays

Bacon’s essays a re the first example of that genre in English literature and have been recognized as an important landmark in the development of English prose. The essays are famous for the pithy aphoristic style, which he had defended in principle in The Advancement of Learning as proper for the expression of tentative opinions.

E.g. Essays ?培根论文集?“Of Studies”“Of Wisdom”“Of Death”“Of Friendship”“Of Travel”, etc.

29. Metaphysical(形而上学，超自然，纯哲学) Poets

METAPHYSICAL POETS refer to a school of poets at the beginning of the 17th century England who wrote under the influence of John Donne. The works of the Metaphysical poets are characterized, generally speaking, by mysticism in content and fantasticality in form.

The most eminent poets are John Donne, George Herbert & Andrew Marwell.

30. Metaphysical Poetry

Metaphysical poetry is concerned with the whole experience of man, especially about love, romantic and sensual; about man's relationship with God, and about pleasure, learning and art.

Metaphysical poems are lyric poems of brief but intense meditations, characterized by the striking use of wit, irony and wordplay. Beneath the formal structure (of rhyme, metre and stanza) is the underlying structure of the poem’s argument. In “To His Coy Mistress,” th e explicit argument (Marvell's request that the coy lady yield to his passion) is a stalking horse for the more serious argument about the transitoriness of pleasure.

Rise & Fall of Metaphysical Poetry

?Metaphysical poetry was rarely read in the 17th, 18th and early 19th century.

?In the late 19th century and early 20th century, there was a renewed interest in metaphysical poetry.

?The modernist poets T.S. Eliot, John Ransom and Allen Tate claimed their influence by John Donne. So John Donne became a cult figure in the early 20th century English-speaking countries.

31. Conceit （巧妙的词语；别出心裁的比喻）

A conceit is a figure of speech which makes an unusual and sometimes elaborately sustained comparison between

two dissimilar things.

Metaphysical conceit

This type of conceit draws upon a wide range of knowledge, and its comparisons are elaborately（苦心经营地，精巧地）rationalized.

For instance, Donne’s “The Flea” compares a flea bite to the act of love; and in “A Va lediction: Forbidding Mourning” separated lovers are likened to the legs of a compass, the leg drawing the circle eventually returning home to "the fixed foot."

32. Cavalier[,k?v?'l??] Poets（保皇党派诗人）

Cavalier poets are, more often than not, knights and squires, who side with the king against the parliament and the puritans in the English revolution. They mostly deal in short songs on the flitting joys of the day, but underneath their lightheartedness lies some foreboding of impending doom.

? 1. Writing on the courtly themes of loyalty, love, and beauty, the cavalier poets produced finely finished verses.

? 2. The common factor that binds the cavaliers together is their use of direct and colloquial language expressive of a highly individual personality, and their enjoyment of the casual, the amateur（外行的，业余的）, the affectionate（充满深情的）poem written by the way.

? 3. They are “cavalier” in the sense, not only of being Royalists, but in the sense that they distrust the over-earnest, the too intense.

? 4. The leading cavalier poets were Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Sir John Suckling, and Thomas Carew.

Most were admirers of Ben Jonson.

33. neoclassicism（新古典主义）

–It found its artistic models in the classical literature of the ancient Greek and Roman writers like Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid.

– A partial reaction against the fires of passion blazed in the late Renaissance, especially in the Metaphysical poetry.

--- Prose should be precise, direct, smooth andflexible.

--- Poetry should be lyrical（抒情的）, epical（叙事的）, didactic（教导的）, satiric or dramatic, and each class should be guided by its own principles.

--- Neo-classical writers are: John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Henry Fielding, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edward Gibbon, etc.

34. Bourgeoisie[,b???wɑ:'zi:]（中产阶级）(the 18th Century Age of Bourgeoisie

35. Enlightenment Movement(启蒙运动)

Under the influence of scientific discoveries (Newton) and flourishing of philosophies, French enlightenment started.

Enlightenment thinkers such as V oltaire伏尔泰, Montesquieu孟德斯鸠, Locke洛克, Hobbes霍布斯, and Rousseau卢梭believed that the world was an object of study and that people could understand and control the world by means of reason and empirical（以观察或实验为依据的）research.

?an intellectual movement beginning in France and then spread throughout Europe

? a continuation of Renaissance in belief in the possibility of human perfection through education

?the guiding principle or slogan（标语，标号）is Ration（定量？）/Reason, natural right and equality (American Independence War in 1776; French Revolution in 1789)

?Ration became standard for measurement of everything.

?In religion, it was against superstition（迷信）, intolerance（心胸狭窄）, and dogmatism（教条主义，独断，武断）; in politics, it was against tyranny（暴政，苛政）; and in society, it was against prejudice, ignorance, inequality, and any obstacles to the realization of an individual’s full intellectual and physical well-being. At the same time, they advocated（提倡）universal education. In their opinion, human beings were limited, dualistic （二元的）, imperfect, and yet capable of rationality（合理性，合理的行为见解）and perfection through education.

The great enlighteners:

?Alexander Pope,

?Joseph Addison,

?Jonathan Swift, and

?Samuel Johnson

36. Prose

1) Biography（传记）: James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson

2) Journalism/Periodicals（期刊）: Steels and Addison’s literary journals

3) Realist novel（现实主义小说）: bourgeois in essence

--- subject matter,

--- readership,

--- didactic purpose,

--- form (prose, comic epic);

37. Gothic novel (from mid-18th century)

--- Devoted to tales of horror and the darker

supernatural forces

--- Derives its name from similarities to

Medieval(中古的,中世纪) Gothic architecture

--- Gothic Horror: A thriller designed not only to

terrify or frighten the audience, but to convey a

sense of moral failure or spiritual darkness.

--- The Gothic in England begins with The Castle of Otranto in 1760, by Horace Walpole, which emphasized the supernatural mixed with the grotesque in a medieval setting.

--- Anne Radcliffe in Mysteries of Udolpho perfected the sentimental gothic in the 1790s.

--- Frankenstein(1817) by Mary Shelley

---influenced the later generations: Coleridge, Keats, Dickens, Bronte sisters, etc.

38. Sentimentality literature伤感文学

--- It was a partial reaction against that cold, logic rationalism which dominated people’s life since the last decades of the 17th century.

--- A ready sympathy and an inward pain for the misery of others became part of accepted social morality and ethics.

--- started by Samuel Richardson’s Pamela

and Clarissa

--- represented in novel form by Laurence Sterne’s A

Sentimental Journey through France and

Italy (1768)

--- represented in poetry by “The Graveyard School”:

Thomas Gray, Edward Young

--- emphasizing the emotion/heart instead of ration

---gradually merged into Romanticism

39. Satire: A literary manner which blends humor with criticism for the purpose of instruction or the improvement of

humanity.

The necessary ingredients

--- Humor

--- Criticism, either general criticism of humanity or human

nature or specific criticism of an individual or group.

--- Some kind of moral voice: simply mocking or criticism

is not “satire.”

The best and most representative works are found in those written by Pope and Swift.

Alexander Pope

?Mock epic: “The Rape of the Lock”

?Literary Satire: “The Dunciad”

?Jonathan Swift

?“A Modest Proposal”

?Gulliver’s Travels

40. The Realistic Novel

The English middle-class people were ready to cast away the aristocratic romance and to create a new and realistic literature of their own to express their ideas and serve their interests.

The whole life in its ordinary aspects of the middle class became the major source of interest in literature.

Major novelists: Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias George Smollett…

41. Elements of Fiction

1. Theme: the central idea or statement about life that unifies and controls the total work

Identifying the theme

?To avoid confusing a work’s theme with its subject or situation.

?The statement of theme does the work full justice.

?It is fully and completely supported by the work’s other elements.

?The title of the work often su ggests a particular focus or emphasis for the reader’s attention.

2. Plot :The action in fiction, the arrangement of events that make up a story.

?Plots turn on a conflict, or struggle between opposing forces, i.e. how one action leads into another.

?Structure is the design or form of the action, i.e. patterns and the shape of content.

?The classic pattern: exposition, complication, crisis, falling action, and resolution

3. Character：Characters are imaginary people that writers create.

?Concerned with being able to establish the personalities of the characters and to identify their intellectual, emotional, and moral qualities.

?Concerned with the techniques to create and develop characters.

?Concerned with whether the characters are credible and convincing.

The major, or central, character of the plot is the protagonist (主角).

The opponent, the character against whom the protagonist struggles or contends, is the antagonist (反角).

Flat characters are those who embody or represent a single characteristic, trait, or idea, or at most a

very limited number of such qualities. (type characters, one-dimensional characters) Round characters are just the opposite. They embody a number of qualities and traits, and are

complex multi-dimensional characters of considerable intellectual and emotional depth.

Most importantly, they have the capacity to grow and change.

4. Setting

Setting is both the physical locale that frames the action and

the time of day or year, the climatic conditions, and the

historical period during which the action takes place.

The functions of setting:

?Setting as a background for action.

?Setting as antagonist

?Setting as means of creating appropriate atmosphere.

?Setting as a means of revealing character.

?Setting as a means of reinforcing theme.

5. Point of view

The method of narration that determines the position, or angle of vision from which the story is told.

Commonly used points of view

?Third-person point of view omniscient

?Third-person point of view limited

?First-person point of view

6. Language and style

Style consists of diction (the individual words an

author chooses) and syntax (the arrangement of those

words) , as well as such writing devices as rhythm

and sound, allusion, ambiguity, irony, paradox, and

figurative language.

Each writer’s style is unique. It constitutes his

“signature” in a way that sets his work apart.

42. Methods of Characterization

?Characterization through the use of names.

?Characterization through appearance.

?Characterization by the author.

?Characterization through dialogue.

?Characterization through action.

43. Diction（措辞）: the type and quality of the individual words that comprise an author’s basic vocabulary.

?The denotative meaning of words,

?The connotative meaning;

?The degree of concreteness or abstractness;

?The degree of allusiveness;

?the parts of speech they represent;

?The length and construction;

?The level of usage they reflect (standard or nonstandard; formal, informal, or colloquial);

?The imagery they contain;

?The figurative devices (simile, metaphor, personification, etc) they embody;

44. Syntax['s?n,t?ks] 句法;句法规则〔分析〕:

The ways the author arranges words into phrases, clauses, and finally whole sentences to achieve particular effects.

?The length—whether they are short, spare, and

economical or long and involved;

?The form—whether they are simple, compound, or

complex;

45. Construction of sentence

?Loose sentences that follow the normal subject-verb-object pattern, stating their main idea near the beginning in the form of an independent clause,

?Periodic sentences工整句that deliberately（故意地，慎重地）withhold（扣留，保留，抑制）or suspend（暂停，终止，悬，吊）the completion of the main idea until the end of

the sentence,

?Balanced sentences（对杖句）in which two similar or antithetical ideas are balanced. 46. Historical novel

? A novel where fictional characters take part in actual historical events and interact with real people from the past.

?Examples:

?Sir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe, Waverly

?James Fennimore Cooper:

The Last of the Mohicans

47. Romanticism

?politically: a reaction against industrial revolution and the social system

?literarily: a reaction against Neo-classicism; concerned with imagination and personal feeling instead of the power of ration / reason

?philosophically: It stresses individualism（个人主义）instead of social order.

①Artistic feature

verse form: lyrics, odes（颂，赋）, sonnets, ballads

diction（措辞）: fresh, simple, commonly used colloquial language

themes: the beauty and mysticism of nature; simple, common rural life; facts and ideas of revolution ?浪漫主义是对新古典主义的反驳：诗歌内容不再是对现实的反映或道德说教，而是诗人内心涌出的真实感情；诗歌语言不是模仿经典作家去追求高雅精致，而是要贴近普通人的日常用语。浪漫主义诗人崇尚自然，主张返朴归真。浪漫主义是一个比较笼统的概念，每个诗人各有其特征。

②Definition

?Romanticism: a movement in art and literature in the 18th and 19th centuries in revolt against Neoclassicism of the previous centuries.

?Friedrich Schlegel defined it as “literature depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form.”

?Victor Hugo’s phrase "liberalism in literat ure" is also apt.

③Characteristics

?Imagination, emotion, and freedom are the focal points of romanticism. Any list of its particular characteristics includes subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; spontaneity; freedom from rules; solitary life rather than social life; beliefs that imagination is superior to reason and devotion to beauty; love of and worship of nature;

and fascination with the past, especially the myths and mysticism of the middle ages.

④English romantic poets:

William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats

American romantic poets:

Ralph W. Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry D. Thoreau, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman

⑤Romantic Literature

a negative attitude toward the existing conditions of political, economic, and social life under the firm rule

of the bourgeoisie, though such an attitude came from writers of quite different class stands:

--- some speaking for the feudal aristocracy;

--- some for the patriarchal peasantry;

--- some for the new industrial proletariat.

?Lakers/ Lake Poets (The Passive Romantic Poets): Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey

?–criticized industrial capitalism by advocating the return to the patriarchal society of the past

?Active Romantic Poets: Byron, Shelley, Keats

?--attacked the tyranny and exploitation of both feudalism and capitalism and called on the oppressed people to rise against their earthly tyrants

The conflict between the two camps was not simply one of personal hatred, but in a way stood for the broad social struggle between the landed aristocracy and the oppressed multitude of the English people.

48. Differences between the 18th & the 19th century; between Neoclassicism & Romanticism:

?reason vs passion

?reason vs imagination

?commercial vs natural

?industrial vs pastoral（田园生活的，农村生活的）

?present vs past

?society vs individual

?order and stability（稳定，稳固）vs freedom

?decorative expression vs simple and spontaneous（天真的，率性的，自发的，无意识的）expression

49. Lakers/Lake Poets:

(Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey) radical youth; conservative（保守的，传统的）old age

?--had radical inclinations in their youth but later turned conservative and received favors from the great.

?–criticized industrial capitalism （资本主义）by advocating the return to the patriarchal society (男权社会) of the past

?--attacked by Byron

文学名词解释 整理版教学文稿

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英国文学名词解释

Allegory is a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. Thus, an allegory is a story with two meaning, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Bildungsroman: a novel that traces the initiation, development, and education of a young person. Examples are Dickens’s David Copperfield and James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Byronic hero is a character-type found in Byron’s narrative Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. He is a boldly defiant but bitterly self-tormenting outcast, proudly contemptuous of social norms but suffering for some unnamed sin. Emily Bronte’s Heath cliff is a later example. Conceit: a kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things. A conceit usually provides the framework for an entire poem. An especially unusual and intellectual kind of conceit is the metaphysical conceit, used by certain 17th-century poets, such as John Donne.. Comedy of manners is a kind of comedy representing the complex and sophisticated code of behavior current in fashionable circles of society, where appearances count for more than true moral character. Its humor relies chiefly on elegant verbal wit and repartee. In England, the comedy of manners flourished as the dominant form of Restoration comedy in the works of Etheredge, Wycherley and Congreve. It was revived in a more subdued form in the 1770s by Goldsmith and Sheridan, and later by Oscar Wilde. An epic is a long narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating and celebrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation. Epiphany(顿悟）: a sudden revelation of truth about life inspired by a seemingly trivial incident Heroic couplet is the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter. Intrusive narrator: an omniscient narrator who, in addition to reporting the events of a novel’s story, offers further comments on characters and events, and who sometimes reflects more generally upon the significance of the story. Iambic pentameter: a poetic line consisting of five verse feet, with each foot an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter is the most common verse line in English poetry. Metaphysical poetry: the poetry of John Donne and other 17th-century poets who wrote in a similar style. It is characterized by verbal wit and excess, ingenious structure, irregular meter, colloquial language, elaborate imagery, and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas . Metaphysical Poetry Metaphysical Poetry is commonly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. With a rebellious spirit, the metaphysical poets try to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry. They are characterized by mysticism in content and fantasticality in form. John Donne is the lead ing figure of the “metaphysical school.” Naturalism: a post--Darwinian movement of the late 19th century that tried to apply the laws of scientific determinism to fiction. The naturalists went beyond the realists’ insistence on the objective presentation of the details of everyday life to insist that the materials of literature

现代文学名词解释

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英国文学名词解释及课后答案

名词解释 Renaissance:The Renaissance indicates a revival of classical (Greek and Roman) arts and sciences in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world. Sonnet: A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter and most often in one of the two rhyme schemes: the Italian(or Petrarchan) or Shakes pearean ( or English ). A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme and meter .It has two main forms :the shakespearean sonnet and the Italian sonnet. Shakespeare Sonnet: a lyric with three quatrains and one couplet, rhyming ababcdcdefefgg, consisting of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter restricted to a definition rhyme scheme. A Shakespearean sonnet consists of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is repeated five times. The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g; the last two lines are a rhyming couplet. Enlightenment: the movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centries, a progressive intellectual movement, reason (rationality), equality & science (the 18th century) The Age of Enlightenment (also called the Age of Reason) refers to the 18th_ century England.The Enlightenment was a progressive intellectual movement.It celebrated reason (rationality), equality, science and human beings’ ability to perfect themselves and their society and it aimed to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern ,philosophical and artistic ideas. Romanticism: it flourished in literature, philosophy, music, and art in Western culture during most if the nineteenth century, beginning as a revolt against classicism. In it, emotion over reason, spontaneous emotion, a change from the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit, poetry should be free from all rules, imagination, nature, commonplace. Dramatic monologue: A kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose replies are not given in poem. The occasion is a crucial one in the speaker’s life, and the dramatic monologue reveals the speaker’s personality as

英国文学名词解释

课件上找的 1)classicism 2)realism 3)sentimentalism 1.Epic: 史诗 A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral form and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down. 2.Alliteration: 头韵 A rhetorical device, meaning some words in a sentence begin with the same consonant sound（头韵）. 3.Kenning:比喻的复合辞(=metaphor) A figurative, usually compound expression used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry; for example, storm of swords is a kenning for battle. 4.Understatement: expressing something in a controlled way. 5.Romance:传奇 A long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. 6.Renaissance文艺复兴（欧洲14至16世纪） Renaissance in European history, refers to the period between 14th century to 17th century. “Renaissance” means “revival”, the revival of interest in and getting rid of conservatism in feudalist Europe and introducing new ideas that express the interests of the rising bourgeoisie. The Renaissance, which means “rebirth” or “revival”, is actually an intellectual

(完整版)英国文学名词解释

①Beowulf: The national heroic epic of the English people. It has over 3,000 lines. It describes the battles between the two monsters and Beowulf, who won the battle finally and dead for the fatal wound. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero. The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use if alliteration. Other features of it are the use of metaphors(暗喻) and of understatements(含蓄). ②Alliteration: In alliterative verse, certain accented(重音) words in a line begin with the same consonant sound(辅音). There are generally 4accents in a line, 3 of which show alliteration, as can be seen from the above quotation. ③Romance:The most prevailing(流行的) kind of literature in feudal England was the Romance. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse(诗篇), sometimes in prose(散文), describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, usually a knight, as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournament(竞赛), or fighting for his lord in battle and the swearing of oaths. ④Epic:An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significantly to a culture or nation. The first epics are known as primacy, or original epics. ⑤Ballad: The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad which is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas(诗节), with the second and fourth lines rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters and class struggle. The paramount(卓越的) important ballad is Robin Hood(《绿林好汉》). ⑥Geoffrey Chaucer杰弗里?乔叟: He was an English author, poet, philosopher and diplomat. He is the founder of English poetry. He obtained a good knowledge of Latin, French and Italian. His best remembered narrative is the Canterbury Tales(《坎特伯雷故事集》), which the Prologue(序言) supplies a miniature(缩影) of the English society of Chaucer’s time. That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism”. Chaucer affirms men and women’s right to pursue their happiness on earth and opposes(反对) the dogma of asceticism(禁欲主义) preached(鼓吹) by the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life. Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic(抑扬格) meter(the “heroic couplet”) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. ⑦【William Langland威廉?朗兰: Piers the Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》】

英国文学中的名词解释

Part One: Early and Medieval English Literature 1. Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements 3. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: a famous roman about King Arthur’s story 4. Ballad（名词解释） 5. Character of Robin Hood 6. Geoffrey Chaucer: founder of English poetry; The Canterbury Tales (main contents; 124 stories planned, only 24 finished; written in Middle English; significance; form: heroic couplet) 7. Heroic couplet (名词解释) Part Two: The English Renaissance 8. The Authorized Version of English Bible and its significance9. Renaissance（名词解释） 10.Thomas More??Utopia 11. Sonnet（名词解释） 12. Blank verse（名词解释） 13. Edmund Spenser “The Faerie Queene”; Amoretti (collection of his sonnets) Spenserian Stanza（名词解释） 15. Christopher Marlowe (“Doctor Faustus” and his achievements) Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th[1] to the early 11th century,[2] and relates events described as having occurred in what is now Denmark and Sweden. Commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf has been the subject of much scholarly study, theory, speculation, discourse, and, at 3182 lines, has been noted for its length. 3 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The "Green Knight" offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time 4 A ballad is a poem usually set to music; thus, it often is a story told in a song[1]. Any myth form may be told as a ballad, such as historical accounts or fairy tales in verse form. It usually has foreshortened, alternating four-stress lines ("ballad meter") and simple repeating rhymes, often with a refrain 5

英国文学名词解释大全(整理版)

名词解释 1.Epic(史诗)（appeared in the the Anglo-Saxon Period ） It is a narrative of heroic action, often with a principal hero, usually mythical in its content, grand in its style, offering inspiration and ennoblement within a particular culture or national tradition. A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Epic is an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, like Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey. It usually celebrates the feats of one or more legendary or traditional heroes. The action is simple, but full of magnificence. Today, some long narrative works, like novels that reveal an age & its people, are also called epic. E.g. Beowulf （the pagan（异教徒），secular(非宗教的) poetry）Iliad 《伊利亚特》，Odyssey《奥德赛》Paradise Lost 《失乐园》，The Divine Comedy《神曲》 2.Romance （传奇）(Anglo-Norman feudal England) ?Romance is any imaginative literature that is set in an idealized world and that deals with heroic adventures and battles between good characters and villains or monsters. ?Originally, the term referred to a medieval (中世纪) tale dealing with the love and adventures of kings, queens, knights, and ladies, and including supernatural happenings. Form:long composition, in verse, in prose Content:description of life and adventures of a noble hero Character:a knight, a man of noble birth, skilled in the use of weapons; often described as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournaments(骑士比武), or fighting for his lord in battles; devoted to the church and the king ?Romance lacks general resemblance to truth or reality. ?It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtues. ?It contains perilous (dangerous) adventures more or less remote from ordinary life. ?It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to a fair lady. ①The Romance Cycles/Groups/Divisions Three Groups ●matters of Britain Adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table （亚瑟王和他的圆桌骑士） ●matters of France Emperor Charlemagne and his peers ●matters of Rome Alexander the Great and the attacks of Troy Le Morte D’Arthur （亚瑟王之死） ②Class Nature (阶级性) of the Romance Loyalty to king and lord was the theme of the romances, as loyalty was the corner-stone（the most important part基石）of feudal morality. The romances were composed not for the common but for the noble, of the noble, and by the poets patronized （supported 庇护,保护）by the noble. 3. Alliteration（押头韵）: a repeated initial(开头的) consonant(协调,一致) to successive(连续的) words. e.g. 1.To his kin the kindest, keenest for praise. 2.Sing a song of southern singer 4. Understatement（低调陈述）（for ironical humor）

英国文学史名词解释

1. Ballad(民谣) A ballad originally is a song intended as an accompaniment to a dance or a popular song. In the relatively recent sense, now most widely used, a ballad is a single, spirited poem in short stanzas, in which some popular story is graphically narrated. The ingredients of ballads usually include a refrain, stock descriptive phrases, and simple, terse dialogue. 2. Alliteration(头韵) It refers to a repeated initial consonant to successive words and it is the most striking feature in its poetic form. In alliterative verse, certain accented words in a line begin with the same consonant sound. There are generally 4 accents in a line, three of which show alliteration, and it is the initial sound of the third accented syllable that normally determiners the alliteration. In old English verse, alliteration is not an unusual or expressive phenomenon but a regular recurring structural feature of the verse. 3. Sonnet (十四行诗) It is a poem of 14 lines (of 11 syllables in Italian and 10 in English), typically in rhymed iambic pentameter. Sonnets characteristically express a single theme or idea. The sonnet was introduced to England by Sir T. Wyatt and developed Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey) and was thereafter widely used notably in the sonnet sequences of Shakespeare, Sidney, and Spenser. 4. Tragedy(悲剧) The word is applied broadly to dramatic works in which events move to a fatal or disastrous conclusion. It is concerned with the harshness and apparent injustice of life. Often the hero falls from power and his eventual death leads to the downfall of others. The tragic action arouses feelings of awe in the audience. 5. Lyric(抒情诗) As a genre, it was the tradition of popular song flourishing in all the medieval literatures of Western Europe. In England lyric poems flourished in the Middle English period, and in the 16th century, heyday of humanism. This tradition was enriched by the direct imitation of ancient models. During the next 200 years the links between poetry and music was gradually broken, and the term “lyric” came to be applied to short poems expressive of a poet’s thoughts or feelings. 6. Epic(史诗) It is a poem that celebrates in the form of a continuous narrative the achievements of one or more heroic personages of history or tradition. Among the great epics of the world may be mentioned the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and Paradise Lost. 7. Renaissance(文艺复兴) The word “renaissance” means rebirth or revival. It is commonly applied to the movement or period of great flowering of art, architecture, politics, and the study of literature, usually seen as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern worn world. It came about under the influence of Greek and Roman models. It began in Italy in the late 14th century, reached the highest development in the early 16th century, and spread to the rest of Europe in the 15th century and afterwards. Its emphasis was humanist: that is , on regarding the human figure and reason without a necessary relating of it to the superhuman.