词语词典英国文学术语

2021年1月22日发(作者：googol)
英国文学术语解释

1.

Sentimentalism
：
Sentimentalism
stresses
on
material
senses
as
being
spiritual
and/or
considers
soul
to
be
material,
thus
anything
done
on
sentimental
level
is
more
or
less
materialistic
rather
than
spiritual/transcendental.
2.

Ode
：
a complex lyric poem of some length, dealing with a noble theme in a
dignified manner and originally intended to be sung. Odes are often written
for a special occasion, to honor a person or a season or to commemorate an
event.


3.

Romance
：

is the prevailing literary form and prospered for about 300 years
(1200-1500).
It
was
a
long
composition,
sometimes
in
verse,
sometimes
in
prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero.
（

It
is
a popular
term
in
the
medieval
England.
It
is
concerned
with
knights,
chivalry
and
courtly love.
）
^_^

4.

Realism
：
is a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording life as it
really
is
without
sentimentalizing
or
idealizing
it.
It
may
be
found
as
an
element in the works of Chaucer or Defoe prior to the 19
th
century, but as a
dominant
trend
in
the
novels
of
the
middle-
or
lower
class
life
in
the
19
th

century.


5.

Sonnet
：
is a lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of 14 iambic pentameter
lines linked by an intricate rhyme scheme.
（
A lyric consisting of 14 lines,
usually
in
iambic
pentameter,
restricted
to
a
definite
rhyme
scheme.
Shakespeare’s are well known.
）


6.

Shakespeare sonnet
：
(named after its greatest practitioner) comprises three
quatrains
and
a
final
couplet,
rhyming
ababcdcdefefgg.
The
‘turn’
comes
with the final couplet, which may sometimes achieve an epigram.
7.

Spenserian stanza

（英国诗人）
斯宾塞诗体：
Created by Edmund Spencer.
It refers to a stanza of nine lines, with the first 8 lines in iambic pentameter
and
the
last
line
in
iambic
hexameter,
rhyming
ababbcbcc.
The
Fearie
Queene was a representative.

8.

Enlightenment
：
The
Enlightenment
was

a
progressive
intellectual
movement
throughout
the
Western
Europe
in
the
18
th

century.
It
greatly
influenced
the
English
social
life
and
literature.
Generally
speaking,
the
Enlightenment
movement
was
an
expression
of
struggle
of
the
bourgeoisie

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英国文学术语解释

against feudalism.

9
.
Allegory
:
A story told to explain or teach something. It used extended metaphors to
convey moral meanings. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

10.
Soliloquy
: A character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts loudly.

Soliloquy
is a speech, often of some length, in which a character, alone on the stage,
expresses his thoughts and feelings. In classical drama the soliloquy is rare, but the
playwrights
of
Elizabethan
and
Jacobean
period
used
it
extensively
and
with
great
skill.
The
soliloquy’s
advantages
are
inestimable
because
it
enables
a
dramatist
to
convey
directly
to
audience
important
information
about
a
particular
character:
his
state
of
mind
and
heart,
his
most
intimate
thoughts
and
feelings,
his
motives
and
intentions.
1
1
.
The Enlightenment Movement
: Flourished in France and swept through Western
Europe in the 18
th
century. Its purpose is to enlighten the whole world with the light
of philosophical ideas. It celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science.
Enlightenment
: is a term used to describe the trends in thought and letters in Europe
and the American colonies during the 18
th
century prior to the French revolution. The
phrase was frequently employed by writers of the period itself, convinced that they
were emerging from centuries of darkness and ignorance into a new age enlightened
by reason, science, and a respect for humanity. The enlighteners believed in the power
of reason, and that is why the 18
th

century in England has often been called “th
e age
of reason “.

12
.
Neoclassicism
: The writers took the ancient Greek and Roman classical works as
the literary models. Poetry was held to be an imitation on human life. They tried to
control literary creation by some fixed rules. It is elegant in diction and structure.
They stressed rules, reasons. Harmony, balance and an appeal to the intellect rather
than emotion.
13
.
Gothic Novel
: It is story of terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old castle.
Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical),
mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles,
darkness, death, decay.
Gothic
novel

or
romances,
which
enjoyed
much
popularity
in
England
in
the
last
decades
of
the
18th
century,
are
novels
of
terror
that
employ
medieval
background
and contain gloomy sentiment, superstitious horror and much supernaturalism. They

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英国文学术语解释

have
been
so
named
because
“Gothic”
architecture
dating
from
the
middle
ages
is
invariably the setting for the elements of horror in them. According to these writers
evil
forces
reign
in
the
world,
and
it
is
useless
to
struggle
against
one’s
fate.
The
mysterious element plays an enormous role in the Gothic novel; it is so replete (full)
with bloodcurdling scenes and unnatural f
eelings that it is justly called an “a novel of
horrors”

14.
Sentimentalism
: A direct reaction against the cold, hard commercialism and
rationalism. Dissatisfied with reason, they appeal to sentiment to the human heart,
particularly pity and sympathy. Sentimentalism turns to the countryside for its
material.
15
.
Romanticism
: It occurred in the middle 18
th
century. It strongly protests against
neo-classism, which emphasized reason and order. The general features are:
expressiveness, imagination, individual, worship of nature and freedom.
Romanticism
is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated
in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength in
reaction to the Industrial Revolution.[1] In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic
social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the
scientific rationalization of nature,[2] and was embodied in the visual arts, music, and
literature.
16.
Critical realism
: It occurred in the 1840s. The writers criticized the capitalist
system from a democratic viewpoint. They are concerned about the fate of the
common people and described what was faithful to reality. Charles Dickens
.
Critical Realism

The Victorian Age is an age of realism rather than of romanticism-a
realism
which
strives
to
tell
the
whole
truth
showing
moral
&
physical
diseases
as
they are. To be true to life becomes the first requirement for literary writing. As the
mirror
of
truth,
literature
has
come
very
close
to
daily
life,
reflecting
its
practical
problems & interests & is used as a powerful instrument of human progress
17.
Dramatic monologue
: A single speaker speaks to a silent audience. Such poems
reveal not the poet’s own thoughts but the mind of the impersonated character
. .
.Dramatic monologue: A kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one
or more listeners whose replies are not given in the poem. The occasion is usually a
crucial one in the speaker’s personality as well as the incident that is the subject
of the
poem.

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英国文学术语解释

18
.Psychological nove
l: A kind of novel that dwells on a complex psychological
development and presents much of the narration through the inner workings of the
character’s mind.

19.
Naturalism
: A post-Darwinism movement of the 19
th
century that tried to apply
the laws of scientific determination of fiction. A person is controlled by environment
and heredity. Most of the works are pessimistic and detachment from the story
20.
Modernism:
Began in the late 19
th
century and flourished until 1950s. It takes the
irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base. The
major themes are the distorted, alienated and ill relationships between men and men,
men and society, man and himself. They are more concerned with the inner world of
an individual. They move from the objective to the subjective. It also include:
alienation, loss of identity, loneliness, meaningless life, absurdity of the world,
dehumanization of the society. Frequent techniques: juxtaposition and multiple points
of view.
21.
Steam of consciousness
: It is used to depict the mental and emotional reactions of
characters to external events, rather than the events themselves. It adopts the
psycho-analytic approach to explore the existence of unconscious and unconscious
elements in the mind. The action is presented in terms of images and attitudes within
the mind of one or more figures, often to get at the psychic nature of the character.
22.
Bildungsroman:
A novel of the youthful development of a hero or a heroine. It
describes the process by which maturity is achieved through various steps.
23
.Feminist criticism
: Occurred in the late 1960s. It is an attempt to describe and
interpret women’s experience as depicted in various kinds of novel. It attacks male
notions of value in literature and challenges the accepted male ideas about the nature
of women. Thus, it questions prejudices and assumptions about women made male
writers.
24.
Post-modernism
: Refers to certain radically experimental works of literature and
art after WW
Ⅱ
. Much of the works reveals and highlights the alienation of
individuals the meaningless of human existence. They use new devices, forms.
25
.Post-structuralism
: An attempt to subvert structuralism and to formulate new
theories. It was initiated by deconstructors. Each word exists in a complex web of
language and has a variety of denotation and connotation that no one meaning can be
final, stable to substitution.

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英国文学术语解释

26. The Spenserian stanza
is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser 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 iambic hexameter. The
rhyme scheme of these lines is
Spenserian stanza:

Spenserian stanza was invented by Edmund Spenser. It is a stanza of nine lines, with
the first eight lines in iambic pentameter & the last line in iambic hexameter, rhyming
ababbcbcc.


sonnet
is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetry from
Europe. The term
sonetto, both meaning
poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. The
conventions associated with the sonnet have evolved over its history. The writers of
sonnets are sometimes referred to as
derisively. One of the best-known sonnet writers is William Shakespeare, who wrote
154 of them (not including those that appear in his plays). A Shakespearean, or
English, sonnet consists of 14 lines, each line containing ten syllables and written in
iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unemphasized syllable followed by an
emphasized syllable is repeated five times. The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean
sonnet is ababcdcdefef gg; the last two lines are a rhyming couplet.
Traditionally, English poets employ iambic pentameter when writing sonnets. In the
Romance languages, the hendecasyllable and Alexandrine are the most widely used
metres.

Sonnet
:
A sonnet is a 14-line poem in iambic pentameter with a carefully patterned
rhyme scheme.
28

Romance
: it was a long composition, sometimes sin verse, sometimes in prose,
describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. The central character of romance
was knight and the reasons for their adventures could be love, religious faith, or the
mere desire for excitement.
29.
Renaissance
: in essence, was a historical period in which the European humanist
thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of conservatism in feudalist Europe and
introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, to lift the
restrictions in all areas placed by the roman church authorities.
30.
Iambic
pentameter:

is
a
verse
form
in
which
aone
line
of
poem
contains
10
syllables, which could be divided into five feet. Two syllables in one feet are stressed
syllable followed by a unstressed one.


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