英国文学史复习资料

1.Classicism(古典主义):A movement or tendency in art, literature, or music th at reflects the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Cl assicism emphasizes the traditional and the universal, and places value on reas on, clarity, balance, and order.2. Critical Realism 批判现实主义: Realism is a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully an a ctual way of life. The term refers, sometimes confusingly, both to a literary meth od based on detailedaccuracy1of description (i. e. verisimilitude) and to a more gene ral attitude that rejects idealization, escapism, and other extravagant qualities of roma nce in favor of recognizing soberly the actual problems oflife.4. Enlightenment 启蒙主义: Enlightenment is an intellectual movement in Europe in 18th century. It w as an expression of the struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlightener s fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other feudal survivals. I t was so called because it considered the chief means for the betterment of the societ y was the enlightenment or—educationof the people. 5. Renaissanee文艺复兴：Re naissance marks a transition from the medieval to the modern world. Generally, it ref ers to the period between the 14th and mid 17th centuries. It first started in Italy, wit h the flowering of painting, sculpture and literature. From Italy the movement went t o embrace the rest of Europe. Twofeatures are striking of this movement. The one i s a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature. Another feature of the Renaissance i s the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Hence, humanism, which reflected th e new outlook of the rising bourgeois class, is the key-note of the Renaissance. The gr eatest of the English humanists were Thomas More and William Shakespeare.6 Soliloquy( 独白)： Soliloquy, in drama, means a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud.. 7. Neoclassicism 新古典主义:th e Enlightenment brought about a revival of interest in Greek and Roman works. This t endency is known as Neoclassicism.8. Romanticism 浪漫主义: imagination, emoti on and freedom are certainly the focal points of romanticism. The particularcharacteri stics of the literature of romanticism include: subjectivity and an emphasis on individu alism; freedom from rules; solitary life rather then life in society; the beliefs that imag ination is superior to reason; and love of and worship of nature9. . Sentimentalism 感伤主义:it came into being as a result of a bitter discontent on thepart of certain En lighteners in social reality. (The representatives of sentimentalismcontinued to strug gle against feudalism but they vaguely sensed at the same time the contradictions of b ourgeois progress that brought with it enslavement and ruinto the people. ) The phil osophy of the enlighteners, through rational and materialistic in its essence, did not ex clude senses, or sentiments, as a means of perception and learning. Moreover, the cul tof nature and, a cult of a "natural man" whose feelings display themselves in a mos t human and natural manner, contrary to the artful and hypocritical aristocrats1.0. So nnet 十四行诗:Sonnet is a type of poem consisting of one single fourteen-line stanz a. It was perfected by the Italian poet in the 13th century and introduced into Englan d in the early 16th century. English sonnets in terms of structure, largely fall into tw o classes: Italian form (It consists of 14 iambic pentameterlines: the first 8 lines for m the octet, which rhymes, the remaining 6 lines) and the Shakespearian (or English f orm) form. The former divides its 14 lines of iambic pentameters into two parts: one o ctet--- abbaabba and the other sestet--cdecde; while the latter consists of three quatrai ns （abab cdcd efef） and afinal coupl（et gg）. The three quatrains develop thepoem's s ubject consistently and the couplet condenses the emotion into an epigram. Shakespea re and Milton are very good at sonnet1.1.Heroic couplet （英雄双韵体） A heroic coup let is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poet ry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentame ter lines. Traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic andnarrative p oetry, a sequence of rhyming paris of iambic pentamete1r.1. Metaphysical poetry 玄学派: Metaphysical poetry is a kind of realistic, oftenironic and witty, verse combi ning intellectual ingenuity and psychological insight written partly in reaction to the c onventions of Elizabethan love poetry by such seventeenth-century poets as John Don ne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, ThomasTraherne, and Andrew Marvell. One o f its hallmarks is the metaphysical conceit, a particularly arresting and ingenious typ e of metaphor. The features of the school: philosophical poems, complex rhythms an d strange images.12. The Victorian period（维多禾U亚时期）In this period, the novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging express ion of progressive thought. While sticking to the principle of faithful representa tion of realist novel, novelistsin this period carried their duty forward to critic ism of the society and the defense of the mass. They were all concerned abou t the fate of the common people. They were angry with the inhuman social in stitutions, the decaying social morality, and the widespread misery, poverty andinjustice.3>Their truthful picture of people 'lisfe and bitter and strongcriticis m of the society had done much in awakening the public consciousnessto the social problems and in the actualim provement of the society.4> Charles Dick ens is the leading figure of the Victorian period. 13. University Wits（大学才子） :refer to a group of scholars during the Elizabethan Age who graduated fr om either oxford or Cambridge. They came to London with the ambition to be come professional writers. Some of them later became famous poets and playw rights.They were called ”niversity Wits ”4. Gothic novel（哥特式小说）:Gothi c novel, a type of romantic fiction that predominated in the late eighteenth century, w as one phase of the Romantic movement. It is futile to struggle against one's fate. Th e mysterious element plays an enormous rolein the Gothic novel; it is so replete wit h bloodcurdling scenes and unnatural feelings that it is justly called "a novel of ho rror". Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatura1l.5. Historical novel（历史小说）：A novel in which the action takes place during a specitic hi storical well before the time of writing. And in which some attempt to make t o depict accuratlly the customs and mentality of the period. The central charac ter---real or imagined--- is usually subject to divided loyalties within a larger h istoric conflict of which readers know the outcome, the pioneers of this genre were walter scott and cooper. 16.Dramatic monologue （戏居U独白）is a typeof poe m writing style in which a character, at some specific and critical moment, addresse s an identifiable but silent audience, thereby unintentionallyrevealing his or her essen tial temperament and personality.3. ChaucerHis career can be divided into several periods：The Canterbury tales <坎特伯雷故事集>He got his stories from various sources, Greek authors, Roman authors, Italian, Frenc h, but there is no doubt about Chaucer's originality. He retells the stories in his own w ay. The stories are told by a group of people on their way to and back from Canterbur y. Pilgrims tell stories to pass the time. Thejourney is used as a kind of device to unit e the various tales。