文学名词解释

1、Modernism(现代主义)

1)Modernism was a complex and diverse international movement in all creative arts, originating about the end of the 19th century、

2)rising out of skepticism and disillusionment of capitalism, which made writers and artists search for new ways to express their understanding of the world and the human nature、The French Symbolism, appearing in the late, 19th century, became the forerunner of modernism、

3)It provided the greatest renaissance of the 20th century、

4)It means a departure from the conventional criteria or established values of the Victorian age、It took the irrational philosophy and theory of psychoa/nalysis as its theoretical base、

5)Major themes: the distorted, alienated and ill relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man, man and himself、

6) It was made up of many facets, such as symbolism, surrealism, stream of consciousness , expressionism, futurism, etc、Alienation and loneliness are the basic themes of modernism、Modernism also touched upon visual arts, music, dance and the other fields of social life、

7)The major figures that were associated with this movement were Kafka, Picasso, Pound, Eliot, Joyce and Virginia Woolf, etc、

2、Streams of consciousness (意识流)

(1)is a term to describe the flow of thoughts of the waking mind、

(2)Now it is widely used to describe the unspoken thoughts and feelings of the characters, without resorting to objective description or conventional dialogue、

(3)It was adapted and developed by Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and others、

(4)The ability to represent the flux of a character’s thought, impressions, emotions, or reminiscences, often without logical sequence or syntax, marked a revolution in the form of novel at that time、

(5)The order of our study must be analytic、

(6)It begins the introspective study of the adult consciousness itself、

3、Renaissance (文艺复兴)

A、a great bourgeois cultural movement in Europe, which began in the 14th century and continued to the mid-17th century、

B、It first started in Italy, with the flowering of painting, sculpture and literature and then spread all over Europe、

C、the term means “rebirth” or “revival”、

D、Humanism is the essence of the renaissance、

E、representatives: Dante, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare

F、It marked the beginning of bourgeois revolution

4、Humanism(人文主义)

A、it is a system of beliefs upheld by writers and artists of the renaissance period in their fighting against medieval a/sceticism禁欲主义、

B、It states that man is able to find truth, goodness and beauty, and that man is in control of the present life rather than being controlled by God、

C、Briefly, humanism puts man at the center of their beliefs and takes man to be the