英国文学选读名词解释

1、叮叮小文库1. epic 史诗An epic is a long oral narrative poem that operates on a grand scale and deals with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance .Most epics deal with the exploits of a single individual and also interlace the main narrative with myths, legends, folk tales and

2、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

3、 period of its history.2. caesura 停顿a break or pause in a line of poetry, dictated by the natural rhythm of the language and sometimes enforced by punctuation. In Old English verse, such as Beowulf, the caesura was used rather monotonously to indicate the half line.3. alliteration 头韵the repetition o

4、f the same sound or sounds at the beginning of two or more words that are close to each other. It is a feature of Beowulf and other Old English poems.4. alliterative verse 头韵诗poetry written in alliteration. Nearly all Old English verse, including Beowulf, is heavily alliterative, and the pattern is

5、fairly standard with either two or three stressed syllables in each line alliterating.5. kenning 隐喻语anda metaphor usually composed of two words and used for description and association. Beowulf is full of kennings, such as “helmet bearer ” for “warrior “swan road ” for “sea”.6. protagonist 主角the pri

6、ncipal character of a drama or fiction. Hamlet is the protagonist of WilliamShakespeare s draHmaamlet.7. antagonist 反角In drama or fiction the antagonist opposes the hero or protagonist. In HamletClaudius is antagonist to Hamlet.8. romance 传奇a type of literature that was popular in the Middle Ages, u

7、sually containing adventures and reflecting the spirit of chivalry. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was a great verse romance, but its author remains unknown.9. bob and wheel 诗节末尾的短行与叠唱a rhyming section of five lines that concludes a stanza in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The “bob”is a very shor

8、t line, sometimes of only two syllables, followed by the“wheel”r l,inloensgweith three stresses and internal thyme.10. poet s cornei人角a part of Westminster Abbey, London, which contains the tombs or monuments of some famous English poets, such as Geoffrey Chaucer and John Milton.11. heroic couplet 英

9、雄双韵体Two successive lines of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter. Geoffrey Chaucers masterpieceThe Can terbury Talewas writte n in heroic couplet.Named from its use by Dryde n and others in the heroic drama of the late 17th cen tury, the heroic couplet had bee n established much earlier by Chaucer as

10、a major En glish verse-form for n arrative and other kinds of non-dramatic portry: it dominated English poetry of the 18th century, notably in the couplets of Pope, before declining in importance in the early 19 century.12. ballad meter 民谣体traditi on ally a four-li ne sta nza containing alter nat in

11、g four-stress and three-stress lines, usually with a refrain and the rhyme scheme of abcb. Robert Burns Red Rose ” is a great love ballad.13. refrain 叠句，副歌a phrase, line or lines repeated at intervals during a poem and especially at the end of a sta nza. It is very ofte n found in En glish ballads,

12、such as Robert Bur ns“ ARed, Red Rose ”.14. English Renaissance 英国文艺复兴the literary flowering of England in the late 16th century and early 17th century, with humanism as its keynote. William Shakespeare Hamlet is considered the summit of this ren aissa nce.Renaissance仪艺复兴)The word “bnaissance means

13、rebirth or revival. It iscommonly applied to the movement or period in western civilization , which marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world . It sprang up first in Italy in the 14 century and gradually spread all over Europe, the date differing for differe nt coun tries. The Ren a

14、issa nce in dicates a revival of classical (Greek and Roma n) arts and scie nces after the dark ages of medieval obscura ntism. The study and propagation of classical learning and art was carried on by the progressive thinkers of the humanists. They held their chief interest not in ecclesiastical kn

15、o wledge, but in man, his en vir onment and doings and his brave fight for the emancipation of man from the tyranny of the church and religious dogmas. Because in the ancient Greek and Roma n mythology were found the ideas of universal love, respect to human beings and approval of manspower, ability

16、 and kno wledge. And at the same time worldly enjo yme nt on the earth was affirmed. In short, man became the cen ter of the world in stead of God as upheld in the Middle Ages. The Renaissance Movement is a great revolution carried out in the fourtee nth to the mid-seve ntee nth cen tury Europe. It

17、broke the cha in and bon dage of feudal and theological ties and brought human wisdom and capacity into full play.15. Elizabethan literature 伊丽莎白时代的文学literature written in the Elizabethan Age (1558-1603). William Shakespeare s Romeo and Julietwas a masterpiece of this period.16. sonnet十四行诗a fixed fo

18、rm consisting of fourteen lines of 5-foot iambic verse. It first flourished in Italy in the 14 th century. William Shakespeare was a great English sonnet writer famous for his 154 sonn ets.17. iambic pentameter 五步抑扬格the basic line in English verse, with five feet in a line, usually an unaccented syl

19、lable followed by an acce nted syllable. It was probably in troduced by Geoffrey Chaucer and certai nly established by him irThe Can terbury Tales18. meter 格律the pattern of stressedand unstressedsyllables in verse. In English verse a line may have a fixed nu mber of syllables and yet have a vary ing

20、 nu mber of stresses; the com mon est meter is iambic. William Shakespeare on nets are writte n in iambic.19. foot 音步a group of syllables forming a metrical unit. We measure feet in terms of syllable variati on: long and short syllables, stressed and un stressed. The com mon est foot in En glish ver

21、se is iamb; the com mon est line is five-foot line, called pen tameter. William Shakespeare s “ Sonnet 18 ” contains fourteen iambic pentameter lines.20. rhyme scheme 押韵格式the pattern of en d-thymes in a sta nza or poem, gen erally described by using letters of the alphabet to denote the recurrenee o

22、f rhyming lines. For example, heroic couplets are“aabbcc ” and so on.21. quatrain 四行诗节a sta nza of four lin es, rhymed or un rhymed. It is the com mon est of all sta nzaic forms in English poetry. Robert Burns“A Red, Red Rose ” has four quatrains.22. image 意象a concrete representation of an object or

23、 sensory experienee. Typically, such a representation helps evoke the feelings associatedwith the object or experienee itself. Many images are conveyed by figurative Ianguage. An image may be visual, olfactory, tactile, auditory, gustatory, abstract and kin aesthetic. The rose in Robert Bur ns poem

24、“ A Red, Red Rose ” is a beautiful image.23. poetic license 诗的破格the liberty allowed to the poet to wrest the Ianguage according to his needs in the use of figurative speech, archaism, rhyme, strange syntax, etc. An example is the last sentence of “A Red, Red Rose ” by Robert Bhons it were ten thousa

25、nd mile! ”24. verse drama 诗剧drama written in the form of verse. It was most widely used in the Elizabethan Age. William Shakespeare s dramas are all verse drHamast being the most famous.25. blank verse 无韵诗，素体诗unrhymed iambic pentameter, the most widely used of English verse forms and usually used in

26、 English dramatic and epic poetry. William Shakespeare play Hamlet is written in blank verse.26. Globe Theatre 环球剧场One of the most famous of all theatres, it was built in 1599, with three stories. The roof was thatched, with the centre open to the sky. Many of William Shakespeare s plays were perfor

27、med in it. It was destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt the n ext year and fin ally demolished in 1644. Aga in it was rebuilt in 1997.27. essay 散文a compositi on, usually in prose, which may be of only a few hun dred words or of book len gth and which discusses, formally or in formally, a topic or a var

28、iety of topics. It is one of the most flexible and adaptable of all literary forms. Fran cis Bac on is a great essayist; his“ Of Stodeisof godd essay.28. English Romanticism 英国浪漫主义a literary movement that aimed at free expression of the writerfeelings s ideas andand flourished in the early 19 cen tu

29、ry En gla nd. A great represe ntative of this moveme nt is Percy Bysshe Shelley, the author of“ Ode to the West Wind ”.29. lake poets湖畔诗人are a group of En glish poets who all lived in the Lake District of En gla nd at the turn o f the nin etee nth cen tury. They are con sidered part of the Roma ntic

30、 Moveme nt. The thr ee main figures of what has become known as the Lakes School are William Wordswo rth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey.30. poet laureate 桂冠诗人A poet honored for his artistic achieveme nt or selected as most represe ntative of his country or era; in En gla nd, a court of

31、ficial appo in ted by the sovereig n, whose origi nal duties in cluded the composition of odes in honor of the sovereign birthday and in celebration of state occasi ons of importa nee. William Wordsworth became poet laureate in 1843.31. Humanism（人文主义） Broadly, this term suggests any attitude which t

32、ends toexalt the huma n eleme nt or stress the importa nee of huma n in terests, as opposed to thesuper natural , divine eleme nts -or as opposed to the grosser, ani malelements.In a more specific sense, humanism suggests a devotion to those studies supposed to promote human culture most effectively

33、-in particular, those dealing with the life,thought, Ianguage, and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. It proclaimed that man is the most important noble creature in the world; the goal of life is to enjoy on eself in this prese nt world in stead of afterlife. Accord ing to the humanists ; both m

34、an and world are hindered by external checks from infinite improvement. Man could mould the world according to his desires, and attain happ in ess by rem oving all exter nal checks by the exercise of reas on. In literary history the most important use of the term is to designate the revival of class

35、ical culture which accompa nied the Ren aissa nee.32. Ode（颂歌） Long, often elaborate formal lyric poem of varying line lengths dealing with a subject matter and treating it reverently. It aims at glorifying an in dividual, commemorati ng an eve nt, or describ ing n ature in tellectually rather tha n

36、emoti on ally. Conven ti on ally, many odes are writte n or dedicated to a specifie subject. For in sta nee,Ode to the West Windis about the wi nds that bring cha nge of seas on in England. Ode to the Nightingale is about the nightingale that lures the poet temporarily away from his great misery. Th

37、e earliest English odes include the Epithalam ion and theProthalam ion,or marriage hymns by poet Edm und Spe nser.33. Romanticism（浪漫主义） The term refers to the literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and early 19th cen tury. Roma nticism rejected the earlier philosophy of the Enlightenment,

38、which stressed that logic and reason were the best response huma ns had in the face of cruelty, stupidity, superstiti on, and barbarism. In stead ,theRomantics asserted that relianee upon emotion and natural passions provided a valid and powerful means of knowing and a reliable guide to ethics and l

39、iving.The Roma ntic moveme nt typically asserts the unique n ature of the in dividual, the privileged status of imagination and fancy, the value of spontaneity overartifice ” and convention”，the human need for emotional outlets, the rejection of civilized corruption, and a desire to return to natura

40、l primitivism and escape the spiritual destructi on of urba n life Their writi ngs are ofte n set in rural, or Gothic sett in gs a nd they show an obsessive concern with innocent” characters-children, young lovers, and animals. The major Romantic poets included William Blake, William Wordsworth, Joh

41、 n Keats , Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Gordon Byro n.34. Aestheticism（ 美学主义） The basic theory of the Aesthetic movement- “ art for art sake” -was set forth by a French poet, Theophile Gautier. The first En glishma n who wrote about the theory of aestheticism was Walter Pater, the most important c

42、ritical writer of the late 19th century. The chief representative of the moveme nt in En gla nd was Oscar Wilde,with hisPicture of Doria n Gray. Aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, not art imitate life. According to the aesthetes, all artistic creation is abso

43、lutely subjective as opposed to objective. Art should be free from any in flue nee of egoism. On ly whe n art is for art sake,can it be immortal They believed that art should be unconcerned with con troversial issues, such as politics and morality, and that it should be restricted to con tribut ing

44、beauty in a highly polished style. This was one of the react ions aga inst the materialism and commercialism of the Victoria n in dustrial era, as well as a reacti on aga inst the Victoria n conven ti on of art for morality sake, or art for moneys sake.35. Stream of Consciousness意识流） （psychol organi

45、zed by William James） in dividual con scious experie nee regarded as con ti nu ously moving forward in time in an uneven flow. In creative writing the interior monologue makes use of this to reveal character and comment on life.（由威廉詹姆士创立的心理学）个人的内心体验以不平衡的方式不断流动着。创作中，内心独白技巧利用这种意识的流动揭示人 物心理，点评生活。36. Cr

46、itical Realism （批判现实主义） Critical realism is one of the literary genres that flourished mai nly in the l9h cen tury. It reveals the corrupti ng in flue nee of the rule of cash upon human nature. Here lies the essentially democratic and humanistic character of critical realism. The English critical re

47、alists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profo und sympathy for the com mon people. In their best works, they used humor and satire to contrast the greed and hypocrisy of the upper classes with the honesty and good-

48、heartedness of the obscuresimple people of the lower classes. Humorous scenes set off the actions of the positive characters, and the humor is often tin ged with a lyricism which serves to stress the fine qualities of such characters. At the same time,bitter satire and grotesque is used to expose th

49、e seamy side of the bourgeois society. The critical realists, however, did not find a way to eradicate the social evils they knew so well. They did not realize the necessity of changing the bourgeois society through con scious huma n effort. Their works do not point toward revolution but rather evol

50、ution or reformism. They often start with a powerful exposure of the ugliness of the bourgeois world in their works, but their novels usually have happy endings or an impotent compromise at the end. Here are the stre ngth and weak ness of critical realism.37. Gothic(哥特式) As a word Gothic on the one

51、hand means 6f or in a style of buildi ng com mon in Western Europe betwee n the 12T cen tury and 16h cen turies,with pointed arches,tall pillars, and tall thin pointed windows often with colored glass in them”nd on the other hand it means of or like a style of writing popular in the late 18th centur

52、y which produced stories set in Ionely frightening places ”. It is now gen erally applied to literature deali ng with the stra nge, mysterious, and super natural designed to invoke suspenseand terror in the readers. Gothic literature invariably exploits ghosts and mon sters and sett ings such as cas

53、tles, dungeons, and graveyards, which imparts a suitably sinister and terrifying atmosphere. The term Gothic ” derived from the frequent setting of the tales in the ruined, moss-covered castles of the Middle Ages, but it has been extended to any novel which exploits the possibilities in a kind of fr

54、ightening and mysterious situation in which the central story centers upon a beautiful maide n persecuted by an obsessed and haggard villa in. The Gothic novels have opened up to later fictions the dark, irrational side of human nature the savage egoism, the perverse impulses, and the ni ghtmarish t

55、error that lie ben eath the con trolled and ordered surface of the con scious mind. Gothic no vels have exerted sig nifica nt in flue nce on the literature of later gen erati ons and on every Europea n literature. The Gothic novels have exerted great effect on the American literature,Hawthorn and Al

56、le n Poe in particular. Furthermore, they also in flue need the surrealism literature moveme nt in the 2“ cen tury.38. Byronic belonging to or derived from Lord Byron(1788-1824)or his works. The Byronic hero is a character-type found in his celebrated narrative poem Childe Harold Pilgrimage(1812-18)

57、,his verse dramaManfred(1817),and other works:he is a boldly defiant but bitterly self -ormenting outcast,proudly contemptuous of social norms but suffering for some unnamed sin. Emily Bronte s Heathcliff Wuthering Heights(1847)is a later example.39. Comedy of Manners a kind of comedy representing t

58、he complex and sophisticated code of behaviour curre nt in fashi on able circles of society, where appearances count for more than true moral character. Its plot usually revolves around in trigues of lust and greed,the self- in terested cyni cism of the characters being masked by decorous prete nce.

59、 Un like satire, the comedy of manners tends to reward its cleverly unscrupulous characters rather than punish their immorality. lts humour relies chiefly upon 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( notablyThe Country Wife1675),a nd Con greve;it was revived ina mor