英国文学术语

1. Allusion: A reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion. In Act One of Macbeth, Ross praises Macbeth‟s valor and skill in battle by referring to him as “Bellona‟s bridegroom.” In Roman mythology Bellona was the goddess of war.1. Epic: A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down. Two of the most famous epics of Western civilization are Homer‟s Iliad and Odyssey. The great epic of the Middle Ages is the Divine Comedy by the Italian poet Dante.The two mostfamous Englishepics are theAnglo-SaxonBeowulf and JohnMilton‟s ParadiseLost, which employssome of theconventions of theclassical epic.1.Irony: A contrastor an incongruitybetween what isstated and what isreally meant, orbetween what isexpected to happenand what actuallyhappens. Threekinds of irony are (1)verbal irony, inwhich a writer orspeaker says onething and meanssomething entirelydifferent; (2)dramatic irony, inwhich a reader or anaudience perceivessomething that acharacter in thestory or play doesnot know; (3) ironyof situation, inwhich the writershows a discrepancybetween theexpected results ofsome action orsituation and itsactual results.1. Sonnet: Afourteen-line lyricpoem, usuallywritten in rhymediambic pentameter.A sonnet generallyexpresses a singletheme or idea.Sonnets vary instructure and rhymescheme, but aregenerally of twotypes: the Italian orPetrarchan sonnetand the English orShakespeareansonnet.2. ‘Art For Art’sSake’:The basicposition ofaestheticism.According to thisdoctrine, art is itsown excuse forbeing that its valuesare aesthetic and notmoral, political,social, or utilitarian.Oscar Wilde, theauthor of ThePicture of DorianGray, was a writerand spokesman forthe school.3.Ballad: A storytold in verse andusually meant to besung. In manycountries, the folkballad was one ofthe earliest forms ofliterature. Folkballads have noknown authors.They weretransmitted orallyfrom generation togeneration and werenot set down inwriting untilcenturies after theywere first sung.4. Blank Verse:Verse written inunrhymed iambicpentameter. Blankverse is the verseform used in someof the greatestEnglish poetry,including that ofWilliamShakespeare andJohn Milton.5.Classicism: Amovement ortendency in art,literature, or musicthat reflects theprinciplesmanifested in the artof ancient Greeceand Rome.Classicismemphasizes thetraditional and theuniversal, and placesvalue on reason,clarity, balance, andorder. Classicism,with its concern forreason and universalthemes, istraditionallyopposed toRomanticism, whichis concerned withemotions andpersonal themes.6. English CriticalRealism: English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties. The critical realists described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint. The greatest English realist of the time was Charles Dickens.7. The Enlightenment: A philosophical and intellectual movement of the 18th century, particularly in France but effectively over much of Europe and America. The Enlightenment advocated reason or rationality, the scientific method, equality and human beings‟ ability to perfect themselves and their society. The movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works. 8. Euphuism:Euphuism takes itsname from themoralistic proseromance Euphueswritten by John Lilyin 1578. The style issententious, reliespersistently onsyntactical balanceand antithesis,reinforces thestructural parallelsby heavy andelaborate patterns ofalliteration andassonance, exploitsthe rhetoricalquestion, and isaddicted to longsimiles and learnedallusions which areoften drawn frommythology and thehabits of legendaryanimals.9.Humanism: Itrefers to a generalityoften used tooloosely, as HowardMumford Jones hasobserved for…humaneness‟ andfor …the humanities‟,that is, for studies inliterature and thearts. There was amovement ofenlightenmentchampioned byDesiderius Erasmusand others inreaction to medievalscholasticism. Incontemporaryliterature andthought, humanismis a kind of secularexistentialism.10.IambicPentameter: Apoetic lineconsisting of fiveverse feet (penta isfrom a Greek wordmeaning “five”),with each foot aniamb—that is, anunstressed syllablefollowed by astressed syllable.Iambic pentameteris the most commonverse line in Englishpoetry. Thefollowing lines fromParadise Lost arewritten in blankverse—unrhymediambic pentameter:11. LakeSchool/Lake Poet:Terms applied to thethree poets:Coleridge,Wordsworth, andSouthey, whoresided in theneighborhood of theEnglish Lakes.…Lake School‟ firstappears in this sensein the …EdinburghReview‟, August1817, which forseveral yearsadopted a verycontemptuousattitude toward thepoets. There was,properly, no …school‟in the sense of thethree all working forcommon objectives,but it is true thatColeridge andWordsworth hadcertain convictionsin common and onoccasion workedtogether.12. Modernism: Ageneral term appliedretrospectively tothe wide range ofexperimental andavant-garde trendsin literature of theearly 20th century,includingSymbolism,Futurism,Expressionism,Imagism, Victorism,Dada, andSurrealism, alongwith the innovationsof the unaffiliatedwriters.13. Naturalism: Anextreme form ofrealism. Naturalisticwriters usuallydepict the sordidside of life and showcharacters who areseverely, if nothopelessly, limitedby theirenvironment orheredity.14. Neoclassicism:A revival in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of classical standards of order, balance, and harmony in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major exponents of the neoclassical school.15. Oedipus Complex: A term of psychoanalysis which refers to a libidinal feeling that develops in a child, especially a male child, between the ages of three and six, for the parent of the opposite sex. This attachment is generally accompanied by hostile attitude towards the parent of the child‟s own sex. The Oedipus complex is usually repressed. In instances when it persists, it can work emotional havoc. 16. Onomatopoeia: The use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning. The names of some birds are onomatopoetic, imitating the cry ofthe bird named:cuckoo,whippoorwill, owl,crow, towhee,bobwhite. Someonomatopoeticwords are hiss,clang, rustle, andsnap. In these linesfrom The Rime ofthe Ancient Mariner,Coleridgereproduces thefearful sounds of theland of ice:17. Parallelism:The use of phrases,clauses, or sentencesthat are similar orcomplementary instructure or inmeaning.Parallelism is a formof repetition.Parallelism is usedextensively in Biblepsalms, where thethought of one lineis often repeatedwith some variationin the next line.18. Post—Modernism: A termreferring to certainradicallyexperimental worksof literature and artproduced afterWorld WarⅡ. Muchof post-modernistwriting reveals andhighlights thealienation ofindividuals and themeaninglessness ofhuman existence.Postmodernist breakaway from traditionsthroughexperimentationwith new literarydevices, forms, andstyles.19.Post—Structuralism: A term referringto the generalattempt to contestand subvertstructuralism and toformulate newtheories regardinginterpretation andmeaning. It wasinitiated particularlyby deconstructorsbut also associatedwith certain aspectsand practitioners ofpsychoanalytic,Marxist, cultural,feminist, and gendercriticism.20. Realism: Theattempt in literatureand art to representlife as it really is,withoutsentimentalizing oridealizing it.Realistic writingoften depicts theeveryday life andspeech of ordinarypeople. This has led,sometimes, to anemphasis on sordiddetails.21. Renaissance:The great floweringof art and letters,under the influenceof classical models,which began in Italyin the 15th century,culminating in theHigh Renaissance atthe end of thecentury andspreading tonorthern Europe inthe 16th and 17thcenturies. The word…Renaissance‟ means…rebirth‟. It iscommonly appliedto the movement orperiod marking thetransition from themedieval to themodern world inWestern Europe.22. Sentimentalism:The term is used intwo sensesimportant in thestudy of literature.The first isoverindulgence inemotion, especiallythe conscious effortto introduce emotionor order to analyzeor enjoy it and thefailure to restrain orevaluate emotionthrough the exerciseof the judgment.Thesecond is optimisticoveremphasis of thegoodness ofhumanity, representing a reaction against orthodox Calvinistic theology, which regarded human nature as depraved.23. Romanticism: A movement that flourished in literature, philosophy, music, and art in Western culture during most of the nineteenth century, beginning as a revolt against classicism. There have been many varieties of Romanticism in many different times and places. Many of the ideas of English Romanticism were first expressed by the poets William Words worth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.。