simple什么意思英国文学史名词解释

2021年1月19日发(作者：espy)
名词解释
Old English
: the language of Anglo and Saxon people during 5and 11
th
century
Epic
:
A long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes. In a grand ceremonious style .The hero, usually protected
by or even descended from gods, performs superhuman exploits in battle or in marvelous voyages, often saving or founding a nation.
Romance
:the most popular literary form in the Middle Ages in Europe; A tale (in verse or prose) that deals with knightly adventures or other heroic
deeds or supernatural or amorous subjects, and usually emphasizes the chivalric love.
Ballad
:A folk song or orally transmitted poem telling in a direct and dramatic manner some popular story usually derived form a tragic incident in
local history or are normally composed in quatrains with alternating four-stress and three- stress lines ,the second and fourth lines
rhyming.
Couplet
(
双行体
)a pair of rhyming verse lines of the same length. Chauser established the use of couplet in his Canterbury Tales, using rhymed iambic
pentameters later known as heroic couplet
The Renaissance
refers to the period between the 14th and 17th centuries
.
The rebirth of literature, art, and learning that progressively transformed
th
th
European culture from the mid-14
century in Italy to the mid-17
century in England, strongly influenced by the rediscovery of classical Greek and
Latin literature. The Renaissance is commonly held to mark the close of the middle Ages, and the beginning of the modern western world. The term
th
th
normally refer to the combined intellectual and artistic transformation of the 15
16
centuries, including the emergency of humanism, protestant
individualism, Copernican astronomy, and the discovery of America
Humanism:
it stands for devotion to human values represent in classical is the keynote or the dominate ideology during the Renaissance
Sonnet
：
A lyric of fourteen lines usually in iambic pentameter.
1. Shakespearean sonnet
: Also called English sonnet or Elizabethan Sonnet. It is
structured of 3 quatrains and a final couplet with the rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
2. Petrarchan Sonnet
: Also called
Italian sonnet
. It contains
an octave with the rhyme pattern abba abba and a sestet of various rhyme Patterns such as cdecde or cdcdcd.
3. Spenserian sonnet
: comprising 3 quatrains and a couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abab bcbc cdcd ee
Ode
is a dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem of some length, praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event or describing
nature intellectually rather than emotionally.
Elegy
Formal lyric poem lamenting the death of a friend or a public figure, or reflecting seriously on a solemn subject.

Pastoral
: a highly conventional mode of writing that celebrates the innocent life of shepherds or shepherdesses in poems, plays, and prose romance.
Tragedies
were concerned
with the
harshness
and
apparent
injustice
of
life.
They involved
the
trials
and
eventful
death
of
a
hero
who
was
an
important
person and whose death led to the downfall of others.
a
. the central characters are always people of importance, like kings, queens, prince, general,
nobles.
b
. a tragic hero often a flawed good man; often the hero’s fall from happiness was due to a weakness in his character, by some
great error
in his part.
c.
supernatural beings are often involved in the conflict of human beings, like gods, spirits, witches, ghosts.
d.
sadness is mixed with
horror, murder, treachery, and blood-shedding.
Catharsis
or
Cathartic
effect
of
tragedies:
Tragedies
give
an
outlet
for
such
emotions
as
greed,
hatred,
lust,
fear
and
pity.
The
audience
feel
relieved
or purged when they leave the theatre.
Comedy
deals with ordinary people in everyday situations, it deals with ordinary people in a humble style, usually beginning with misfortune and
ending with joy. The purpose of comedy is chiefly to entertain people, but some have moral and corrective purposes, to ridicule and satirize human
weaknesses.
Comedy
of
humor
according
to

the

comedy
of
humor,
each
of
characters
in
the
play
has
some
dominating
passion
or
peculiar
quality
such
as
jealousy,greedy
and comedy of humor mainly satires these humours demonstrated the characters in the play. Ben Jonson has been chefly known for his comedy of humors
Soliloquy
is the act of talking to oneself, whether silently or aloud. In drama it denotes the convention by which a character, alone on the stage,
utters his or her thoughts aloud. Playwrights have used this device as a convenient way to convey information about a charact
er’s motives
and state
of mind, or for purpose of exposition, and sometimes in order to guide the judgments and responses of the audience.
Allegory
: is a fictional narrative or artistic expression that conveys a symbolic meaning parallel to but distinct from and more important than the
literary meaning.
Dramatic
irony

involves
the
reader
(or
audience)
knowing
something
about
what's
happening
in
the
plot,
about
which
the
character(s)
have
no knowledge.
Dramatic irony can be used in comedies and tragedies, and it works to engage the reader, as one is drawn into what is happening. The audience may
sympathize with the character, who does not know the true situation. Or, the reader may see the character as blind or ignorant (as with Oedipus).
The clues may be rather obvious, but the character may be unwilling to recognize the truth.
The term

“
metaphysical
”

indicates a common poetic style, use of figurative language, and way of organizing the meditative process or the poetic
argument.

This term is now applied to a group of 17th century poets who, whether or not directly influenced by Done, employ similar poetic procedures
and
imagery,
both
in
secular
poetry(
Cleveland,
Marvell,
Cowley)
and
in
religious
poetry(Herbert,
Vaughan,
Crashaw,
and
Traherne).
The
term
was
coined
by John Dryden (1693):

Metaphysical Conceit
In
general,
the
metaphysical
conceit
will
use
some
sort
of
shocking
or
unusual
comparison
as
the
basis
for
the
metaphor.
When
it
works,
a
metaphysical
conceit has a startling appropriateness that makes us look at something in an entirely new way. Draws upon a wide range of knowledge, mainly using
highly intellectual analogies; its comparisons are elaborately rationalized
Heroic
drama:

A
kind
of
tragedy
or
tragicomedy
that
came
into
vogue
with
the
Restoration
of
the
English
monarchy
in
1660.
Influenced
by
French
classical
tragedy and its dramatic unities (time, place, action), it aimed at epic (heroic) grandeur, usually by means of bombast, exotic settings and lavish
scenery. The noble hero would typically be caught in a conflict between love and patriotic duty, leading to emotional scenes presented in a manner
close to opera. The leading English exponent of heroic drama was John Dryden: hid the conquest of Granada (1670-1) and Aureng-Zebe (1675) were both
written in heroic couplets.
the Enlightenment movement

A general term applied to the movement of the intellectual liberation that developed in Western Europe from the late 17th century to the late 18th
century( the age of reason)
。

Neo- classicism:

the literary principle according to which the writing and criticism of poetry and drama were to be guided by rules and precedents derived from the
best
ancient
Greek
and
Roman
authors.
In
a
more
general
sense,
in
contrast
with
Romanticism,
the
term
has also
been
used
to
describe
the
characteristic
world- view
or value
system of the
age of reason,
denoting
a preference for
rationality, clarity, restraint, order and
decorum, and
for
general truths
rather than particular insights. The central assumption of neo-classicism was that the ancient authors had already attained perfection; the modern
author's
chief
task
was
to
imitate
them.
Accordingly,
the
approved
genes
of
classical
literature
---epic,
tragedy,
comedy,
elegy,
ode,
epistle,
eclogue,
epigram, fable, and satire--- were adopted as the favored forms in this period.
Mock- epic,
a
poem using
the lofty style
and the
conventions
of
epic poetry to describe
trivial or undignified
series
of
events:
thus a
kind
of
satire
that mocks the subject by treating it in an inappropriately grandiose manner, usually at some length. The outstanding example is Alexander
Pope’s
“
The Rape of the Lock
Novel
is a highly stylized prose account of fictional reality in the form of story with profundity for the purpose of changing the readers
’
mind
by the aid of the reader
’
s active involvement while providing entertainment and superior truth of life.
Sentimentalism
: is a literal movement in the middle of the 18th century in England which concentrates on the distressed of the poor unfortunate and
virtuous people and demonstrates that effusive emotion was evidence of kindness and goodness. It reveals grief, pains and tears. It came into being
as a result of a better discontent on the part of certain enlighteners in social reality.
Elegy
The term was usually used in classical times for love poetry written with a specific meter, and in the Renaissance it kept this sense with
some variation. However, since the 17th century it has come to mean a formal poem of lament and consolation concerning a particular person's death,
or reflection on death in general. Milton's
Lycia’s

shepherds. A less formal and lengthy form of elegy is the dirge, which is usually sung.
The Graveyard School
refers to a group of C18 poets whose writings frequently touched on themes of death, mortality, religion, and melancholy. Often
elegiac in tone (and title) their poems make frequent use of funereal or gloomy imagery; they were often very Christian writers who used the imagery
of night, death, and gloom in spiritual contemplations of human mortality and our relation to the divine.
Picaresque novel
a humor novel in which the plot consist of a young
knave’
s adventures and escapades narrated in comic or satiric scenes. It is
usually in nature and realistic in its presentation of the all around aspects of society,eg, Defoe
’
s Robinson Cruse
Gothic novel
emphasizes the grotesque, mysterious and desolate .this novel is filled with scenes of terror and gloom in the medical setting.
Burns stanza or Burns Meter

A six- line
﹡

stanza
rhyming aaabbb, the first three lines and the fifth having four
﹡
stresses, and the fourth and sixth having two stresses.
Ottawa rima
A form of verse
﹡
stanza
consisting of eight lines rhyming abababcc, usually employed for
﹡
narrative verse
but sometimes used in
﹡
lyric poems
.
Rhyme royal
A
﹡
stanza form consisting of seven 5-stress lines (iambic pentameters)rhyming ababbcc, first used by Chaucer and thus also known as the Chaucerian
stanza.
th
Romanticism
，
it is the modern term applied to the profound shift in western attitude to art and human creativity that dominated much of 19
century.
Its chief emphasis was on freedom or individual self- expression, sincerity, spontaneity.


Lake poets,
wordsworth,Coleridge and Southey have often been mentioned as the lake poets, because they lived in the lake district in the northwest
part of three traversed the same path in politics and in poetry, beginning as radicals and closing as conservatives.

诗歌鉴赏（
Thomas Gray
）
Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard
墓园挽歌

1. Theme
:
reflections on death, the sorrows of life, and the mysteries of human life with a touch of his personal melancholy.
2. The sure control of language, imagery, rhythm, as well as his subtle moderation of style and tone give the poem a unique charm of its own.
3. The well- conceived structure and the metrical beauty of the poem won Gray the fame as one of the master poets of the 18th century, and the poem
has been considered as one of the best short poems in English literature.
Form
4. Form: a. Iambic pentameter quatrains with alternative rhymes
b. No enjambment: Often lines are miniature clauses with balanced subject and predicate, such as line 1:
of parting day
c. Alliteration ties successive lines together:
tow'r
d. Parallel syntactic construction across line and stanza boundaries
三
The Merchant of Venice
Theme:
praising true friendship, true love, exposing social evils: greed, malice, racial prejudice, money worship, injustice.
Analysis of major characters:
Shylock
: Mean, greedy, cunning, cruel, vengeful, and merciless; a sophist, but also a victim of racial discrimination and religious persecution.
An obstacle and an epitome of selfishness, he serves both functions. A Jew of pride and deep religious instincts; suffered more than suffering; loud
protest against Antonio’s arrogant treatment.

Portia:
beautiful, cultured, learned, witty, courageous, and prudent. She is a new woman of the Renaissance, who not only frees herself from the
usual feudal fetters for women but even outshines many men in many ways
Hamlet


The character of Hamlet
Hamlet as a typical tragic hero:Good qualities: noble-minded, brave, intelligent, learned, with a strong sense of justice,
loved
and
respected
by
his
sses:
rash,
impulsive,
indecisive,
sometimes
can
be
cruel,
harsh
and

tragic
flaw
is
lack
of
emotional
balance; either acts rashly, without thinking, or doesn’t act quickly and firmly enough. His indecisiveness, his inability to
act when action is
needed, is one of the major causes for his downfall.
The Rivals
（
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
）

1. It is a satire on the sentimental and pseudo-romantic fancies of many young women of the day, who fell victim to the sentimental novels and to
the illusion of harmony between romantic dreams and the real bourgeois world of practical money concerns.
2. Here we find Sheridan following the tradition of Ben Jonson
’
s comedy of humors, with the exaggeration of a single trait in each of the characters
for the purpose of satire.
3.
As
a
whole,
it
was
a
purified
and
moralizing
play,
or
a
contrasting
study
of
two
brothers
and
rivals,
one
a
man
of
principle
and
the
other
a
hypocrite,
and it showed the neoclassical outlook of Sheridan.
The School of Scandal

1.
It
is a
sharp satire
on
the
moral
degeneracy
of the aristocratic-bourgeois
society
in
18th-century
England,
on
the
vicious
scandal-mongering
among
the idle rich, and above all on the immorality and hypocrisy behind the mask of upright living and high-sounding moral principles.
2.
The
dialogue
in
the
play
is
brilliantly
witty
throughout.
The
plot
is
not
loosely
hung
together,
but
is
carefully
worked
out
and
shows
the
playwright
’
s perfect mastery of stagecraft in his expertly manipulation of disguise and mistaken identity and dramatic irony.
Sheridan vivified the English drama of his day, for which he has been praised as the greatest English playwright of the 18th century.
Conclusion
1. Sheridan vivified the English drama of his day, for which he has been praised as the greatest English playwright of the 18th century.
2. In fact, his two plays serve as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Show, as true classics in English
comedy.
Analysis of
Paradise Lost

Theme and Characterization
The theme of the poem is a revolt against God
’
s do the main characters resemble?1. God: selfish despot,cruel, unjust2. Adam and
Eve embody Milton
’
s belief in the

powers of man craving (longing) for knowledge 3.
God’s angels are foolish, resembling the court of an ab
solute
monarch.
4. Satan is a rebel against tyranny and Satan and his followers resemble a

republican Parliament
The Image of Satan
1. Satan is the real hero of the poem.
2. He is firmer than the rest of the angels.
3. He has an invincible heart.
4. Satan remains superior in nobility and welcomes his defeat and his torments as a glory, a liberty and a joy;
5. Satan is the spirit questioning the authority of God.
6. Milton makes Satan as his own mouthpiece.
r, Satan
’
s image as a glorious rebel is short-lived. He becomes more and more vicious, treacherous and debased, and finally is transformed
into a crawling snake consuming dust and ashes. Milton
’
s attitude also changed from admiration to condemnation. Satan spirit: defiance of authority
and capable of evil doing.
The Image of Adam and eve