早的作文英美文学中部分名词的解释

2021年1月2日发(作者：甄伟)

Ballad民谣: A story told in verse and usually meant to be sung. In many
countries, the folk ballad was one of the earliest forms of literature. Folk ballads have
no known authors. They were transmitted orally from generation to generation and
were not set down in writing until centuries after they were first sung. The subject
matter of folk ballads stems from the everyday life of the common people. Devices
commonly used in ballads are the refrain, incremental repetition, and code language.
A later form of ballad is the literary ballad, which imitates the style of the folk ballad.
Character人物: In appreciating a short story, characters are an indispensable
element. Characters are the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work. Forst
divides characters into two types: flat character, which is presented without much
individualizing detail; and round character, which is complex in temperament and
motivation and is represented with subtle particularity.
Classicism古典主义: A movement or tendency in art, literature, or music that
reflects the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Classicism
emphasizes the traditional and the universal, and places value on reason, clarity,
balance, and order. Classicism, with its concern for reason and universal themes, is
traditionally opposed to Romanticism, which is concerned with emotions and
personal themes.
Climax高潮: The point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense in a story’s
turning point. The action leading to the climax and the simultaneous increase of
tension in the plot are known as the rising action. All action after the climax is
referred to as the falling action, or resolution. The term crisis is sometimes used
interchangeably with climax.


Critical Realism批判现实主义: The critical realism of the 19th century
flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties. The realists first and foremost
set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint
and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a
way to eradicate social evils.
Renaissance文艺复兴: the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art,
literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the
17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
Symbol象征: A symbol is a sign which suggests more than its literal meaning.
In other words, a symbol is both literal and figurative. A symbol is a way of telling a
story and a way of conveying meaning. The best symbols are those that are believable
in the lives of the characters and also convincing as they convey a meaning beyond
the literal level of the story. If the symbol is obscure or ambiguous, then the very
obscurity and the ambiguity may also be part of the meaning of the story.
Symbolism象征主义: Symbolism is the writing technique of using symbols.
It’s a literary movement that arose in France in the last half of the 19th century and
that greatly influenced many English writers, particularly poets, of the 20th century. It
enables poets to compress a very complex idea or set of ideas into one image or even
one word. It’s one of the most powerful devices that poets employ in creation.
Stream of consciousness意识流: “Stream-of-Consciousness” or “interior
monologue”, is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing that
attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections,
memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in


1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. Those novels broke through the bounds of
time and space, and depicted vividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the
mind fast changing and flowing incessantly, particularly the hesitant, misted,
distracted and illusory psychology people had when they faced reality. The modern
American writer William Faulkner successfully advanced this technique. In his
stories, action and plots were less important than the reactions and inner musings of
the narrators. Time sequences were often dislocated. The reader feels himself to be a
participant in the stories, rather than an observer. A high degree of emotion can be
achieved by this technique.
Rhyme韵: It’s one of the three basic elements of traditional poetry. It is the
repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other
in a poem. If the rhyme occurs at the ends of lines, it is called end rhyme. If the
rhyme occurs within a line, it is called internal rhyme. Approximate rhyme is rhyme
in which only the final consonant sounds of the words are identical. A rhyme scheme
is the pattern of rhymes in a poem. Interlocking rhyme is a rhyme scheme in which an
unrhymed line in one stanza rhymes with a line in the following stanza. Interlocking
rhyme occurs in an Italian verse form called terza rima.
Poetry诗歌: The most distinctive characteristic of poetry is form and music.
Poetry is concerned with not only what is said but how it is said. Poetry evokes
emotions rather than express facts. Poetry means having a poetic experience.
Imagination is also an essential quality of poetry. Poetry often leads us to new
perceptions, new feelings and experiences of which we have not previously been
aware.


Plot情节: Plot is the first and most obvious quality of a story. It is the sequence
of events or actions in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem. For the reader, the
plot is the underlying pattern in a work of fiction, the structural element that gives it
unity and order. For the writer, the plot is the guiding principle of selection and
arrangement. Conflict, a struggle of some kind, is the most important element of plot.
Each event in the plot is related to the conflict, the struggle that the main character
undergoes. Conflict may be external or internal, and there may be more than one form
of conflict in a work. As the plot advances, we learn how the conflict is resolved.
Action is generally introduced by the exposition, information essential to
understanding the situation. The action rises to a crisis, or climax. This movement is
called the rising action. The falling action, which follows the crisis, shows a reversal
of fortune for the protagonist. The denouement or resolution is the moment when the
conflict ends and the outcome of the action is clear.
Nonfiction非小说文学: It refers to any prose narrative that tells about things as
the actually happened or that presents factual information about something. The
purpose of this kind of writing is to give a presumably accurate accounting of a
person’s life. Writers of nonfiction use the major forms of discourse: description (an
impression of the subject); narration (the telling of the story); exposition (explanatory
information); persuasion (an argument to influence people’s thinking). Forms:
autobiography, biography, essay, story, editorial, letters to the editor found in
newspaper, diary, journal, travel literature.
Narrator叙述者: One who narrates, or tells, a story. A story may be told by a
first-person narrator, someone who is either a major or minor character in the story.


Or a story may be told by a third-person narrator, someone who is not in the story at
all. The word narrator can also refer to a character in a drama who guides the
audience through the play, often commenting on the action and sometimes
participating in it.
Narration叙述: Like description, narration is a part of conversation and
writing. Narration is the major technique used in expository writing，such as
autobiography. Successful narration must grow out of good observation, to-the-point
selection from observation, and clear arrangement of details in logical sequence,
which is usually chronological. Narration gives an exact picture of things as they
occur.
Irony反讽: A contrast or an incongruity between what is stated and what is
really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.
Three kinds of irony are (1) verbal irony, in which a writer or speaker says one thing
and means something entirely different; (2) dramatic irony, in which a reader or an
audience perceives something that a character in the story or play does not know; (3)
irony of situation, in which the writer shows a discrepancy between the expected
results of some action or situation and its actual results.
Essay小品文: A piece of prose writing, usually short, that deals with a subject
in a limited way and expresses a particular point or view. An essay may be serious or
humorous, tightly organized or rambling, restrained or emotional. The two general
classifications of essay are the informal essay and the formal essay. An informal
essay is usually brief and is written as if the writer is talking informally to the reader
about some topic, using a conversational style and a personal or humorous tone. By


contrast, a formal essay is tightly organized, dignified in style, and serious in tone.
Enlightenment启蒙主义: With the advent of the 18th century, in England, as in
other European countries, there sprang into life a public movement known as the
Enlightenment. The Enlightenment on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the
then progressive class of bourgeois against feudalism. The social inequality,
stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all
branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual
deeds and requirements of the people.