英美文学之文学术语

1、英美文学之文学术语英美文学之文学术语文学术语汇编1 .Literature of the absurd:荒诞派文学）The term is applied to a number of works in drama and p rose ficti on which have in com mon the sense that the huma n con diti on is esse ntially absurd, and that this con diti on can be adequately rep rese nted only in works of literature th

2、at are themselves absurd. The curre nt moveme nt emerged in France after the Sec ond World War, as a rebellio n aga inst esse ntial beliefs and values of traditi onal culture and traditi on al literature. They hold the belief that a huma n being is an isolated existe nt who is cast into an alie n un

3、i verse and the huma n life in its fruitless search for purp ose and mea ning is both an guish and absurd.2. Theater of the absurd:荒诞派戏居U） belongs to literature of the absurd. Two rep rese ntatives of this school are Euge ne Ion esco, French author of The Bald Soprano （1949）（此作品中文译名 秃头歌女 ）,and Samue

4、l Beckett, Irish author of Waiting for Godot (1954)(此作品是荒诞派戏剧代表作 等待戈多).They project the irratio nalism, helpl ess ness and absurdity of life in dramatic forms that reject realistic setti ngs, logical reas oning, or a cohere ntly evo Iving pl ot.3. Black comedy or black humor:黑色幽默）it mostly empioyed

5、to describe baleful, n a0e, or inept characters in a fan tastic or ni ghtmarish moder n world p lay ing out their roles in what Ionesco called a “ tragidarce ”in,which the events are often simultaneously comic, horrifying, and absurd. JosepIHeller atch-22 （美国著名作家约瑟夫海勒 二十二条军规 ）can be taken as an exam

6、ple of the employment of this tech nique.文学术语汇编24. Aestheticism or the Aesthetic Movemen（唯美主义）：it began to prevail in Europe at the middle of the 19th century. The theory of “ artor art ake ”was first put forward by some French artists. They declared that art should serve no religious, moral or soci

7、al purp ose. The two most imp orta nt rep rese ntatives of aestheticists inEn glish literature are Walt P ater and Oscar Wilde.5. Allegory （寓言）：a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities, such as JoBunyan The Pilgrim sP rogress. An

8、allegory is a story with two mea nin gs, a literal mea ning and a symbolic mea ning.6. Fable （寓言）：is a short narrative, in prose or verse, that exemplifies an abstract moral thesis or principle of huma n behavior. Most com mon is the beast fable, in which an imals talk and act like the huma n types

9、they rep rese nt. The fables in Western cultures derive mai niy from the stories attributed to Aes op, a Greek slave of the sixth cen tury B. C.7. P arable （寓言）：is a very short n arrative about huma n beings p rese nted so as to stress an alogy with a gen eral less on that the n arrator is trying to

10、 bring home to his audie nee. For exa mp le, the Bible contains lots of p arables empio yed by Jesus Christ to make his flock un dersta nd his p reach.（注意以上三个词在汉语中都翻译成语言，但是内涵并不相同，不要搞混）8. Alliteration （头韵）：the repetition of the initial consonant sounds. In Old English alliterative meter, alliterati o

11、n is the principal orga nizing device of the verse line, such as in Beowulf.9. Consonance is the rep etiti on of a seque nee of two or more consonants but with a change in the intervening vowel, such as “ liveand love ”10. Ass onance is the rep etiti on of ide ntical or similar vowel, esp ecially in

12、 stressed syllables, in a sequenee of nearby words, such a“ chilobf silenee ”.11. Allusi on（典故）is a refere nee without exp licit ide ntificatio n, to a literary or historical person, p lace, or eve nt, or to ano ther literary work or p assage. Most literary allusi ons are inten ded to be recog ni ze

13、d by the gen erally educated readers of the author me, but some are aimed at a special group.12. Ambiguity （复义性）：Si nee William Emp son （燕卜荪）p ublished Seven Types of Ambiguity （复义七型），the term has been widely used in criticism to identify a deliberate p oetic device: the use of a sin gle word or exp

14、 ressi on to sig nify two or more disti net refere nces, or to exp ress two or more diverse attitudes or feeli ng.文学术语汇编313. Antihero （反英雄）：the chief character in a modern novel or play whose character is totally differe nt from the traditi onal heroes. In stead of mani fest ing large ness.dig nity,

15、 po wer, or heroism, the an tihero is p etty, p assive, in effectual or dish on est. For example, the heroine ofDefoe Moll Flanders is a thief and a prostitute.14. An tithesis （对照）：（a figure of sp eech）A n an tithesis is ofte n exp ressed in a bala need senten ce, that is, a sentence in which ide nt

16、ical or similar syn tactic structure is used to exp ress con trast ing ideas. For exa mp le：Marriageias many pains, but celibacy （独身生活）has nopleasures. by Samuel Johnson obviously employs an tithesis.15. Archaism （拟古）：the literary use of words and expressions that have become obsolete in the com mon

17、 sp eech of an era. For exa mple, the tran slators of the KingJames Versio n of Bible gave weight and dig nity to their p rose by employing archaism.16. Atmosphere （氛围）：the prevailing mood or feeling of a literary work.Atmos phere is ofte n devel op ed, at least in p art, through descri ptio ns of s

18、ett ing. Such descriptions help to create an emotional climate to establish theeader expectations and attitudes.文学术语汇编417. Ballad（民谣）：it is a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story. It originated and was com muni cated orally among illiterate or only p artly literate peop le. It exists in man

19、y varia nt forms. The most com mon sta nza form, called ballad sta nza is a quatra in in alter nate four- and three-stress lin es; usually only the sec ond and fourth lines rhyme. Although many traditi onal ballads p robably orig in ated in the late Middle Age, they were not collected and prin ted u

20、n til the eightee nth cen tury.18. Climax: as a rhetorical device it means an ascending sequenee of importanee. As a literary term, it can also refer to the point of greatest inten sity, in terest, or sus pense in a story us ning point. The acti on lead ing to the climax and the simulta neous in cre

21、ase of tension in the p lot are known as the risi ng actio n. All actio n after the climax is referred to as the falli ng acti on, or resoluti on. The term crisis is sometimes used in tercha ngeably with climax.19. Anticlimax （突降）：it denotes awriter eliberate drop from the serious and elevated to th

22、e trivial and lowly, in order to achieve a comic or satiric effect. It is a rhetorical device in En glish.20. Beat Generatio（垮掉一代）：it refers to a loose-knit group of poets and novelists, writ ing in the sec ond half of the 1950s and early 1960s, who shared a set of social attitudes -an tiestablishme

23、 nt, antip olitical, an ti-i ntellectual, opp osed to the p revaili ng cultural, literary, and moral values, and in favor of un fettered self-realizatio n and self-ex pressi on. Rep rese ntatives of the group in clude Alle n Gin sberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. And most famous literary cre

24、atio ns p roduced by this group should be Allen Ginsberg osg poem Howl and JackKerouac On the Road.文学术语汇编521. Biography（传记）：a detailed account of aperson life written by another person, such as SamueJohnson Lives of the English Poets and JameBoswell Life ofSamuel Joh nson.22. Autobiography （自传）： a p

25、erson account of his or her own life, such asBenjamin Franklin aiSobiogra phy.23. Blank verse （无韵体）：Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is the verse form used in some of the greatest En glish po etry, in clud ing that of WilliamShakes peare and Joh n Milt on.24. A parody （模仿）imitates the

26、 serious manner and characteristic features of a p articular literary work, or the disti nctive style of a p articular author, or the typ ical stylistic and other features of a serious literary genre, and deflates the orig inal by applying the imitatio n to a lowly or comically inapprop riate subjec

27、t.文学术语汇编625. Celtic Revival also known as the Irish Literary Renaissanee （爱尔兰文艺复兴）iden tifies the remarkably creative p eriod in Irish literature from about 1880 to the death of William Butler Yeats in 1939. The aim of Yeats and other early leaders of the moveme nt was to create a disti nctively n a

28、ti on al literature by going back to Irish history, lege nd, and folklore, as well as to n ative literary models. The major writers of this moveme nt in clude William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, Joh n Milli ngto n Synge and SeanO Casend so on.26. Characters 人物）are the persons represented in a dramat

29、ic or narrative work, who are in terpreted by the reader as being en dowed with p articular moral, i ntellectual, and emoti onal qualities by inferen ces from the dialogues, acti ons and motivati ons. E. M.Forster divides characters into two typ es: flat character, which is p rese nted without much

30、in dividualiz ing detail; and round character, which is complex in temp erame nt and motivati on and is rep rese nted with subtle p articularity.27. Chivalric Roma nee （or medieval roma nee）（骑士传奇或中世纪传奇）is a type of n arrative that devel oped in twelfth-ce ntury Fran ce, sp read to the literatures of

31、 other coun tries. Its sta ndard plot is that of a quest un dertake n by a sin gle kni ght in order to gain a lady favor; frequently its central interest is courtly love, together with tourn ame nts fought and drag ons and mon sters sla in .It stresses the chivalric ideals of courage, loyalty, honor

32、, mercifu In ess to an opponent, and elaborate manners.28. Comedy:（喜居U） in general, a literary work that ends happily with a healthy, amicable armistice betwee n the p rotag onist and society.29. Farce （闹剧）is a type of comedy designed to provoke the audienee to simple and hearty laughter. To do so i

33、t com monly employs highly exaggerated types of characters and puts them into imp robable and ludicrous situati ons.30. Con fessi onal p oetry（自白派诗歌）desig nates a type of n arrative and lyric verse, given impetus by Robert Lowell Life Studies, which deals with the facts and intimate mental and physi

34、cal experiences of the）oet osn life. Confessional poetry was writte n in rebelli on aga inst the dema nd for imperson ality by T. S. Elliot and theNew Criticism. The rep rese ntative writers of con fessi onal school in clude RobertLowell, Anne Sext on and Sylvia P lath and so on.31. Critical Realism

35、:（批判现实主义）The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the fouties and in the beg inning of fifties. The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticiz ing cap italist society from a democratic view point and deli neated the crying con tradict ions of bourgeois reality. But

36、 they did not find a way to eradicate social evils. Rep rese ntative writers of this trend in clude CharlesDicke ns and William Make peace Thackeray and so on.32. Drama:（戏居U） The form of composition designed for performanee in the theater, in which actors take the roles of the characters, p erform t

37、he in dicated acti on, and utter the writte n dialogue. （The com mon alter native n ame for a dramatic comp ositi on is a play.）文学术语汇编733. Dramatic Monologue:（戏剧独白）a monologue is a lengthy speech by a single person. Dramatic mono logue does not desig nate a component in a p lay, but a type of lyric

38、p oem that was p erfected by Robert Brow ning. By using dramatic mono logue, a sin gle person, who is p ate ntly not the po et, utters the sp eech that makes up the whole of the p oem, in a sp ecific situati on at a critical mome nt. For exa mp le, RobertBrowning famous poem “ MyLast Duchess”was wri

39、tten in dramatic monologue.34. Elegy（哀歌或挽歌）：a poem of mourning, usually over the death of an in dividual.An elegy is a type of lyric p oem, usually formal in Ian guage and structure, and sole mn or eve n mela ncholy in tone.35. Enlightenment（启蒙运动）：The name applied to an intellectual movement which d

40、evel oped in Wester n Europe duri ng the seve ntee nth cen tury and reached its height in the eightee nth. The com mon eleme nt was a trust in huma n reas on as adequate to solve the crucial p roblems and to establish the esse ntial norms in life, together with the belief that the app licati on of r

41、eas on was rapi dly diss ip at ing the rema ining feudal traditi on s. It in flue need lots of famous En glish writers esp ecially those n eoclassic writers, such as Alexa nder Pope.36. Epic （史诗）：it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and cen tered on

42、 a heroic or quasi-di vine figure on whose acti ons depends the fate of a tribe, a n ati on, or the huma n race.37. Epip ha ny:（顿悟）In the early draft of A P ortrait of the Artist as a You ng Man,James Joyce empio yed this term to sig nify a sudde n sense of radia nee and revelati on that one may fee

43、l while p ercei ving a com monp lace object. “E piphanyri”w has become the sta ndard term for the descri pti on, freque nt in moder n p oetry and p rose ficti on, of the sudde n flare into revelati on of an ordinary object or sce ne.38. Epithet （移就）：as a term in criticism, epithet denotes an adjecti

44、ve or adjectival p hrase used to defi ne a dist in ctive quality of a person or thi ng. This method was widely empioyed in ancient epics. For example, inHomespic, the epithet like “ the win e-dark sea ” ca n be found everywhere.39. Essay:（散文）any short composition in prose that undertakes to discuss

45、a matter, exp ress a point of view, p ersuade us to acce pt a thesis on any subject, or simply en tertai n. The essay can be divided as the formal essay and the in formal essay （familiar essay）.40. Euphemism（委婉语）：An inoffensive expression used in place of a blunt one that is felt to be disagreeable

46、or embarrass ing, such a“p asaway” in stead of “ die ”41. Expressionism （表现主义）：a German movement in literature and the other arts which was at its height betwee n 1910 and 192that is, in the p eriod just before, during, and after WWI . The expressionist artist or writer undertakes to express a perso

47、nal vision -usually a troubled or tensely emotional vision -of human life and huma n society. This is done by exaggerat ing and distort ing. We recog nize its effects, direct or in direct, on the writ ing and stagi ng of such p lays as ArthurMiller Death of a Salesma n as well as on the theater of t

48、he absurd.42. Free verse （自由体诗）： Like traditi onal verse, it is prin ted in short lines in stead of with the continu ity of p rose, but it differs from such verse by the fact that its rhythmic pattern is not organized into a regular metrical form -that is, into feet, or recurre nt un its of weak and

49、 stro ng stressed syllables. Most free verse also has irregular line len gths, and either lacks rhyme or else uses it on ly occasi on ally. WaltWhitma n is a rep rese ntative who empio yed this p oem form successfully.文学术语汇编843. Gothic novel:（哥特式小说）It is a type of prose fiction. The writers of this

50、type of ficti ons mostly set their stories in the medieval p eriod and in a Catholic country.esp ecially Italy or Spain. The locale was ofte n a gloomy castle. The typ ical story focused on the sufferi ngs impo sed on an innocent heroine by a cruel villa in. This type of fictions made boun tiful use

51、 of ghosts, mysterious disa pp eara nces, and other supern atural occurre nces. The princip le aim of such no vels was to evoke chilli ng terror and the best of this type opened up to the fictio n the realm of the irrati onal and of the p erverse impu Ises and ni ghtmarish terrors that lie ben eath

52、the orderly surface of the civilized mind. Some famous no velists liked to emp loy some Gothic eleme nts in their novels, such as Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights.44. Graveyard po ets（墓园派诗歌）：A term app lied to eightee nth-ce ntury p oets who wrote meditative po ems, usually set in a graveyard, on the

53、theme of huma n mortality, in moods which range from pen sive ness to profound gloom. The vogue resulted in one of the most widely known English poems, ThomasGray s ElegyWritten in aCountry Churchyard ”45. Harlem Ren aissa nee（哈莱姆文艺复兴）：a p eriod of remarkable creativity in literature, music, dan ce,

54、 pain ti ng, and scu Ip ture by Africa n-America ns, from the end of the First World War in 1917 through the 1920s. As a result of the mass migratio ns to the urba n North in order to esca pe the legal segregati on of the America n South, and also in order to take adva ntage of the jobs opened to Af

55、rica n America ns at the beg inning of the War, the popu lati on of the regi on of Man hatta n known as Harlem became almost exclusively Black, and the vital cen ter of Africa n America n culture inAmerica. Disti nguished writers who were part of the moveme nt in cluded Lan gst onHughes and Jea n To

56、omer. The Great Dep ressi on of 1929 and the early 1930s brought the Period of buoyant Harlem culture -which had been fostered by prosperity in the p ublishi ng in dustry and the art world -effectively to an end.46. Heroic Couplet（英雄双韵体）refers to lines of iambic pentameter which rhyme in p airs: aa,

57、 bb, cc, and so on. The adjective heroic was app lied in the later seve ntee nth cen tury because of the freque nt use of such coup lets in heroic po ems and dramas. This verse form was in troduced into En glish po etry by Geoffrey Chaucer.From the age of Joh n Dryde n through that of Samuel Joh nso

58、n, the heroic coup let was the p redo minant En glish measure for all the p oetic kin ds; some p oets, in clud ingAlexa nder Pope, used it almost to the exclusi on of other meters.47. Hyperbole（夸张）:this figure of speech called hyperbole is bold overstatement, or the extravaga nt exaggerati on of fac

59、t or of p ossibility. It may be used either for serious or ironic or comic effect.48. Un derstateme nt（轻描淡写）：this figure of sp eech deliberately rep rese nts someth ing as very much less in magn itude or imp orta nee tha n it really is, or is ordin arily con sidered to be. The effect is usually ironic.49. Imagism （意象派）：it was a poetic vogue th