英国文学选读术语

一．Local ColorismIt is said that Bret Harte was one of the first realists to introduce local color into American literature. His “The Luck of Roaring Camp”(1868)marked a significant development in the brief history of local color fiction.It was the result of historical & aesthetic forces.1.historical2.aesthetic forceLocal Color:Term applied to literature which emphasizes its setting, being concerned with the character of a district or of an era, as marked by its customs, dialects, costumes, landscape or other peculiarities that have escaped standardizing cultural influences. The local color movement came into particular prominence in Am after the Civil War, perhaps as an attempt to recapture the glamour of a past era, or to portray the sections of the reunited country.In local color literature one finds the dual influence of romanticism and realism since the author frequently looks away from ordinary life to distant lands, strange customs, or exotic scenes, but retains through minute detail a sense of fidelity and accuracy of description.二．Beat GenerationThe Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspiredCentral elements of "Beat" culture included experimentation with drugs, alternative forms of sexuality, an interest in Eastern religion, a rejection of materialism, and the idealizing of exuberant, unexpurgated means of expression and bein g三．symbolA symbol is an object that represents, stands for, or suggests an idea, belief, action, or material entity. Symbols take the form of words, sounds, gestures, or visual images and are used to convey ideas and beliefs. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for numbers. Personal names are symbols representing individuals. A red rose symbolizes love and compassion四．Code HeroThe Code Hero is typically an individualist and free-willed. Although he believes in the ideals of courage and honor he has his own set of morals and principles based on his beliefs in honor, courage and endurance. A code hero never shows emotions; showing emotions and having a commitment to women shows weakness. Qualities such as bravery, adventuresome and travel also define the Code Hero五．Free verseFree verse is an open form (see Poetry analysis) of poetry. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.另free verse (or, in French, vers libre), a kind of poetry that does not conform to any regular metre: the length of its lines is irregular, as is its use of rhyme—if any. Instead of a regular metrical pattern it uses more flexible cadences or rhythmic groupings, sometimes supported by anaphora and other devices of repetition. Now the most widely practised verse form in English, it has precedents in translations of the biblical Psalms and in some poems of Blake and Goethe, but established itself only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with Walt Whitman, the French Symbolists, and the poets of modernism. Free verse should not be confused with blank verse, which does observe a regular metre in its unrhymed lines.六．NaturalismNaturalism is "the idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world; (occas.) the idea or belief that nothing exists beyond the natural world."Adherents of naturalism (i.e. naturalists) assert that natural laws are the rules that govern the structure and behavior of the natural universe, that the universe is a product of these laws.naturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories, and plays, usually involving a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France by Jules and Edmond Goncourt with their novel Germinie Lacerteux (1865), but it came to be led by Émile Zola, who claimed a ‘scientific’ status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjec ted to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects in Thérèse Raquin (1867), Germinal (1885), and many other novels. Naturalist fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society七．American PuritanismAmerican Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them. They were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace form God. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind. American Puritanism also had a enduring influence on American literaturePuritan Beliefs1. Original SinThrough Adam and Eve's fall, every person is born sinful.2. PredestinationOnly a few are selected by God for salvation.3. Limited Atonement (赎罪)Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone.4. Irresistible GraceGrace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God.Puritanism1. Idealism - both religious and political.2. Pragmaticism - practicality and purposiveness八．ExpositionThe exposition is the portion of a story that introduces important background information to the audience; for example, information about the setting, events occurring before the main plot, characters' back stories, etc.[1] Exposition can be conveyed through dialogues, through a character's thoughts, through background details, through in-universe media such as newspaper clippings, trial reports and letters, or through a narrator telling a back-story or by establishing scenes where a character is followed. Exposition is considered one of four rhetorical modes of discourse, along with argumentation, description, and narration九．ImageryImagery may be defined as the representation through language of sense experience. Poetry indirectly appeals to our senses through imagery. Imagery is more incidental to a poem than metaphors, symbols and theme and they are often confused. Nevertheless, an image should conjure up something more than the mere mentioning of the object or situation. A mistake often made is to take every image as though it were a symbol or metaphor。