英国文学 名词解释

1.(1) Modernism (现代主义)A movement of experiment in new techniques in writing. Modernist fiction represented a trend drifting away from the tradition of the 19th century realism. It put emphasis on the description ogoometimes it is call ed modern psychological fiction. Lawrence is a typical representative of itRealism（现实主义）Realism was a loosely used term meaning truth to the observed facts of life （especially when they are gloomy）。

Realism in literature is an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity.Realism现实主义: An elastic and ambiguous term with two meanings. (1) First, it refers generally to any artistic or literary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner, unclouded by false ideals, literary conventions, or misplaced aesthetic glorification and beautification of the world. It is a theory or tendency in writing to depict events in human life in a matter-of-fact, straightforward manner. It is an attempt to reflect life "as it actually is"--a concept in some ways similar to what the Greeks would call mimesis. (2) Secondly and more specifically, realism refers to a literary movement that developed out of naturalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although realism and the concern for aspects of verisimilitude have been components of literary art to one degree or another in nearly all centuries, the term realism also applies more specifically to the tendency to create detailed, probing analyses of the way "things really are," usually involving an emphasis on nearly photographic details.These writers include such diverse artists as Mark Twain, Tolstoy, &Thomas Hardy.Modernism（现代主义）: Around the two world wars, many writers and artists began to suspect and be discontent with the capitalism. They tried to find new ways to express their understanding of the world. It was a movement of experiments in techniques in writing. It flourished in the 20s and 30s in English literature.They turned their interest to describing what was happening in the minds of their characters. Because of their emphasis on the psychological activities of the characters, their writings are also called psychological novels. The Representatives are W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot,D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Foster, James Joyce and Virginia WoolfModernism: 1) The rise Of modernism movement Modernism rose out of skepticism and disillusionment of capitalism, which made writers and artists search for a new ways to express their understanding of the world and the human nature. The French symbolism was the forerunner of modernism. The First World War quickened the rising of all kinds of literary trends of modernism, which,toward the 1920s, converged into a mighty torrent of modernist movement. The major figures associated with the movement were Kafka, Picasso, Pound, Eliot, Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. Modernism was somewhat curbed in the 1930s. but after World War II, Varieties of modernism, or post-modernism, rose again with the spur of Sarter’s existentialism. However, they gradually disappe ared or diverged into other kinds of literary trends in the 1960s. 2) The characteristics of modernism ●Modernism marks a strong and conscious break with the past, by rejecting the moral, religious and cultural values of the past.●Modernism emphasizes on the need to move away from the public to the private, from the objective to the subjective. ●Modernism upholds a new view of time by emphasizing the psychic time over the chronological one. It maintains that the past, the present and the future are one and exist at the same time in the consciousness of individual as a continuous flow rather than a series of separate moments.●Modernism is, in many respects, a reaction against realism. It rejects rationalism, which is the theoretical base of realism; it excludes from its major concern the external, objective, material world, which is the only creative source of realism; it casts away almost all the traditional elements in literature like story, plot, character, chronological narration, etc., which are essential to realism. As a result, the works created by the modernist writers can often be labeled as anti-novel, anti-poetry or anti-drama[22] Realism:（写实主义） A term used in literature and art to present life as it really is without sentimentalizing or idealizing it. Realistic writing often depicts the everyday life and speech of ordinary people. This has led, sometimes to an emphasis on sordid details.Critical Realism (批判现实主义) Critical realism is one of the literary genres that flourished mainly in the 19th century. It reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature. Here lies the essentially democratic and humanistic character of critical realism. The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people. In their best works, they used humor and satire to contrast the greed and hypocrisy of the upper classes with the honesty and good-heartedness of the obscure “simple people” of the lower classes. Humorous scenes set off the actions of the positive characters, and the humor is often tinged with a lyricism which serves to stress the fine qualities of such characters. At the same time,bitter satire and grotesque is used to expose the seamy side of the bourgeois society. The critical realists, however, did not find a way to eradicate the social evils they knew so well. They did not realize the necessity of changing 4 the bourgeois society through conscious human effort. Their works do not point toward revolution but rather evolution or reformism. They often start with a powerful exposure of the ugliness of the bourgeois world in their works, but their novels usually have happy endings or an impotentcompromise at the end. Here are the strength and weakness of critical realism. 批判现实主义是盛行于19世纪的文学流派之一，揭示了金钱控制一切对人性的恶劣影响，这正是19世纪批判现实主义民主和人文特点的根源。