英国文学名词解释及问答题

1、名词解释： 1, Humanism: a variety of ethical theory and practice that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world and often rejects the importance of belief in God. It focuses on human values and concerns, attaching prime importa nce to huma n rather tha n divi ne or

2、 super natural matters. 2, Ren aissa nce: the period of Europea n history at the close of the Middle Ages and the rise of the modern world; a cultural rebirth from the 14th through the middle of the 17th cen turies.The ren aissa nce was a cultural moveme nt that profo un dly affected Europea n in te

3、llectual life in the early modern period. Beg inning in Italy, and spread ing to the rest of Europe by the 1t6 cen tury, its in flue nce was felt in literature, philosophy, art, music, politics, scie nce, religi on, and other aspects of in tellectual inquiry. Ren aissa nce scholars employed the huma

4、 nist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art. 3, Spen seria nsta nza: a fixed verse form inven ted by Edm und Spen ser for his epic poem The Faerie Queene. Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single Alexandrine line in

5、iambic hexameter The rhyme scheme of these lines is ababbcbcc. 4, Metaphysical poets: The metaphysical poets is a term coined by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and

6、 by speculati on about topics such as love or religi on. 5, Lake Poets: The Lake Poets are a group of En glish poets who all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century. The three main figures of what has become known as the Lakes School are William Wordsworth, Samuel

7、 Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey 6, Beowulf: It is the oldest poem in the English Ianguage and the most important specime n of An glo-Saxon literature. The mai n stories are based on the folk lege nds of the primitive northern tribes. It is a pagan poem, which presents us an all-round picture o

8、f the tribal society. 7, Byronic hero: The Byronic hero is a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in reve nge, yet capa

9、ble of deep and strong affect ion 8, Roma nticism: Roma nticism is a literary and artistic moveme nt, which prevailed in En gla nd from 1798 to 1832. It is concerned with the expressi on of the in dividuals feeli ng and emoti ons and stressed strong emoti on as a resource of aesthetic experie nce. 9

10、, Ode: a lyrical verse writte n in praise of, or dedicated to some one or somethi ng which captures the poets in terest or serves as an in spirati on for the ode. 10, Un iversity Wits: The Uni versity Wits were a group of late 16th cen tury En glish playwrights who were educated at the uni versities

11、 and who became playwrights and popular secular writers. Prominent members of this group were Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, and Thomas Nashe from Cambridge, and Joh n Lyly, Thomas Lodge, George Peele from Oxford. 11, Sen time ntalism: Sen time ntalism stresses on material sen ses as being spir

12、itual an d/or con siders soul to be material, thus any thi ng done on sen time ntal level is more or less materialistic rather than spiritual/transcendental. 12, Alliteration: Alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases. Allitera

13、ti on has developed largely through poetry, in which it more n arrowly refers to the repetiti on of a consonant in any syllables that, according to the poems meter, are stressed. Alliteration is commonly used in many Ian guages, especially in poetry. 13, Glorious Revoluti on: the n ame of the overth

14、row of Ki ng James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland) by a union of En glish Parliame ntaria ns withtheDutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange). Williams successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending the English t

15、hrone as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England. in 1688, William of orange Ianded at torbay and marched upon London. This takeover was smooth, with neither bloodshed, nor any execution of the King, which became known as the glorious revolutio n. 14, Norman Conquest: the inv

16、asion and conquest of England by an army of Norma ns and French led by Duke William II of Norma ndy. William, who defeated King Harold II of England on 14 October 1066 at the Battle of Hastings, was crowned as king on Christmas Day 1066. He the n con solidated his con trol over En gla nd and settled

17、 many of his followers in En gla nd, in troduc ing a nu mber of gover nmen tal and societal cha nges to medieval En gla nd. 15, Ballad: A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of the British Isles from the l

18、ater medieval period un til the 19th cen tury and used exte nsively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many ballads were written and sold as sin gle sheet broadsides.The form was ofte n used by poets and composers fromthe 18th cen tury on wards to produce lyrical balla

19、ds. In the later 19th cen tury it took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and the term is now often used as synonym ous with any love song, particularly the pop or rock power ballad. 问答题： 1. Huma nism was a study first done in the ren aissa nee. in stead of leanning on ly about god a

20、nd religion, people, for the first time, started to just think about ourselves as people characteristics of huma nism in clude an atomy, classicism, n ature, realism, reas on and lear nin g, religi on, in dividualism, youth, and perspective. 2, Sonnet 18 theme of man and the natural world. On one le

21、vel, Sonnet 18 is clearly concerned with the relati on ship betwee n man and the eve ntual, i nescapable death he encounter in nature. On another level, the poet also seems fascinated by the relati on ship betwee n seas onal weather and pers on al, i ntern al weather and bala nee. Sonnet 18 Theme of

22、 Literature and Writ in gLike much of Shakespeare s work, Sonnet 18 is all about writ ing and express ingone self through Ian guage. This is, at its clearest, a poem about the power of the written word over death, fate, and possibly eve n love. Sonnet 18 Theme of Time The speaker of Sonnet 18 is abs

23、olutely fixated on fate and mortality, but believes he come up with an effective time machine: poetry. Sonnet 18 is addressed to a frie nd, not to a woma n! Shakespeare compares his friendship to a summers day. Friendship is unlike summer not changing and it is everlasting. Friendship is like a mild

24、 and eternal summer. 3 The historical issues and developments of the time played a major role in provoking and shap ing the new literary moveme nt of Roma nticism. The In dustrial Revolutio n, its urbanization of English life, and its abuses against the working class called for a change in literary

25、concerns and style. The basis aims of romanticism were various: a return to nature and to belief in the goodness of man; the rediscovery of the artist as a supremely in dividual creator; the exaltati on of sen ses and emoti ons over reas on and in tellect. 4, In this novel, Charlotte Bronte pours a

26、great deal of her own experiences, such as the life at Lowood School and life as a governess. One of the central themes of the book is the criticism of the bourgeois system of educati on. Ano ther problem raised by Charlotte in the novel is the position of woman in society. Jane Eyre is an orphan ch

27、ild with a fiery spirit and a longing to love and be loved. She is poor and plain but she dares to love her master, a man superior to her in many ways. As a little governess, she is brave eno ugh to declare to the man her love for him. She cuts a completely new wome n image. She represe nts those mi

28、ddle-class worki ng wome n who are struggli ng for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being. 5, metaphysical poetrycomplex, highly intellectual verse filled with intricate and far-fetched metaphors. John Donne is considered the greatest of the metaphysical poets. 6 Ano ther im

29、porta nt feature of Swifts prose is that he uses the com mon touch. In other words, everybody can un dersta ndhis Ian guage that is why eve n childre n can read his books with so much enjoyment. Also, Swift addresses people as rational and political bein gs, mak ing them his equals. Swift wrote in a

30、 very pla in and dow nright style. He did nt use any embellishme nt. At times, whe n Swift was writi ng serious stuff this same plain style appears dry but whe n writ ing humorously, this same pla inn ess gives his wit a sin gular edge. Swift did nt use orn ate or rhetorical la nguage. 7 After the N

31、orma n Conq uest, the gen eral relati on of Norma ns and Saxons was that of master and serva nt. One of the most strik ing mani festati ons of the supremacy of the conq uerors was to be see n in the Ian guage. The Norma n lords spoke Fren ch, while their English subjects retained their old tongue. F

32、or a long time the scholar wrote in Latin and the courtier in French. There was almost no written literature in English for a time. Chronicles and religious poems were in Latin. Romances, the prominent kind of literature in the Anglo-Norman period, were at first all in French. By the end of the four

33、tee nth cen tury, whe n Norma ns and En glish in term in gled, En glish was once more the dominant speech in the coun try. But now it became somethi ng differe nt from the old An glo-Saxo n. The structure of the Ian guage rema ined En glish, and the com mon words were almost all retai ned, though of

34、te n somewhat modified in form. But many terms employed by the Norma ns were adopted in to the En glish Ian guage. 8 The character Shylock, in Shakespeares The Mercha nt of Veni ce, is portrayed as a beastly mon strosity, with a lust for An ton ios life.Shylock is clearly a villai n in the sense tha

35、t he takes repeatedly takes advantage of people in vulnerable economic situati ons and makes a han dsome livi ng in this way. He is not an in here ntly likable character throughout“ The Merchant of Venice ” by Shakespeare; he avoids friendships, he is cranky, and he is steadfast in his beliefs to th

36、e point of being rigid. Shylock is also a man who is un reas on able and self-th inking, dema nding Shylock is a man who is hardly likable in all aspects throughout “ The Mercha nt of Ven ice”. 9 Robinson Crusoe is one of the protagonists drawn most successfully in English novels. Through his characterization of Crusoe, Defoe describes him as a he