英国文学史-名词解释

名词解释

Heroic Couplet: a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter, and written in an elevated style.

1．Renaissance: a revival or rebirth of the artistic and scientific revival which originated in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. It has two features: a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature and keen interest in activities of humanity.

2．Sonnet: 14-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter.

3．Blank verse: poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

4．Neoclassicism: the Enlightenment brought about a revival of interest in Greek and Roman works. This tendency is known as Neoclassicism.

5．Sentimentalism: it was one of the important trends in English literature of the later decades of the 18th century. It concentrated on the free expression of thoughts and emotions, and presented a new view of human nature which prized feeling over thinking, passion over reason. 6．Romanticism: imagination, emotion and freedom are certainly the focal points of romanticism. The particular characteristics of the literature of romanticism include: subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; freedom from rules; solitary life rather then life in society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason; and love of and worship of nature.

7．Lake Poets: the English poets who lived in and drew inspiration from the Lake District at the beginning of the 19th century.

8．Byronic Heroes: a variant of the Romantic heroes as a type of character( enthusiasm, persistence, pursuing freedom), named after the English Romantic Poet Gordon Byron. 9．Realism: seeks to portray familiar characters, situations, and settings in a realistic manner. This is done primarily by using an objective narrative point of view and through the buildup of accurate detail.

10．Aestheticism: an art movement supporting the emphasis of aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, music and other arts.

11．Stream-of-Consciousness: it is a literary technique that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they occur without any clarification by the author. It is a narrative mode. 12．Dramatic Monologue: a kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose replies are not given in the poem.

13．Iambic Pentameter: a poetic line consisting of five verse feet, with each foot an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, that is, with each foot an iamb.

14．Epic: a long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated.

15．Elegy: a poem of mourning, usually over the death of an individual; may also be a lament over the passing of life and beauty or a meditation of the nature of death; a type of lyric poem. 16．Canto: a section of a long poem. The cantos can be a great poem

17．Ode: a complex and often lengthy lyric poem, written in a dignified formal style on some lofty or serious subjects. Odes are written for a special occasion, to honor a person or a season or to commemorate an event.

Spenserian Stanza: a nine-line stanza made up of 8 lines of iambic pentameter ending with an Alexandrine. Its thyme scheme is ababbcbcc. This stanza was common to travel literature. 18．Metrical Pattern: a lyric poem of five 14-lined stanzas containing four tercets and a closing couplet. The rhyme scheme is aba bcb cdc ded ee.