英国文学-名词解释

Literary Terms

1.allegory a story which teaches a lesson because the people and places in it stand for other ideas. an example is john bunyan’s pilgrim’s progress (see page 67).

2.alliteration repeating a sound or a letter, especially at the beginning of words, in poetry: e.g. “five miles meandering with a mazy m otion…” (see page 8).

3.assonance repeating a vowel sound, often in the middle of words, in poetry: e.g. pale/brave.

4.autobiography the written account of a person’s own life (see page 136)

5.ballad originally a song for dancers, then in mediaeval times a simple poem with short stanzas telling a story. some romantic poets of the 19th century also wrote ballads (see page 91).

6.biography the written account of someone else’s life (see page 61).

7.blank verse any verses, especially iambic pentameters (see metre), that do not rhyme. used by marlowe, shakespeare, milton and many other

poets, this is the most characteristic english form (see page 23).

8.caricature a way of drawing or writing which makes the special features of a person or group stronger, so that they are ridiculous.

9.chorus in greek drama the chorus watched the action of the play and told the story. the modern meaning can be simply a group of people other than the hero or heroine.

10.chronicle a history of events year by year

11.classic a. work as a great work b. ancient greek and latin literature

c. writing influence by ancient greek and latin

edy something that is funny

13.couplet two lines of verse that rhyme

14.crisis the most important part of a play

15.diary a written record of daily life

16.drama a. any kind of work to be performed on the stage .

b. something exciting or important

17.edition the printing of the book

18.elision leaving out a vowel or a syllable, or running 2 vowels together

19.ellipsis leaving out words which give the full sense

20.epic a long narrative poem in the grand style

21.elegy a poem of mourning for someone

22.epigram a short, funny, sharp poem or remark

23.epilogue an ending, or an extra part after the end of a book or a play

24.epitaph sth. written on a tombstone

25.essay a short prose work

26.fantasy an imaginative work , no basis in the real life

27.farce a comedy, with ridiculous plot

28.fiction a work invented by the writer, with characters and events are imaginary

29.fairy tale(story) a popular story told to children

30.foot a unit of sound in verse, in which there is on stressed syllable, one or more unstressed syllables

31.free verse verse in which the lines can vary in length without strict metre

32.heroic couplet a pair of lines in iambic pentametre that rhyme

33.heroic play a grand play in restoration period

34.hexametre a line of verse with 6 metrical feet

35.iambic抑扬格