英国文学名词解释

1．Romance: a long composition, in verse or in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, especially for the knight. The most popular theme employed was the legend of King Arthur and the round table knight.

2．Ballad民谣: a story told in song, usually in four-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.

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

4．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.

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

6．Blank verse无韵诗: poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

7．Enlightenment启蒙运动: a revival of interest in the old classical works, logic, order, restrained emotion and accuracy.

8．Neoclassicism新古典主义: the Enlightenment brought about a revival of interest in Greek and Roman works. This tendency is known as Neoclassicism.

9．Sentimentalism感情主义: it was one of the important trends in English literature of the later decades of the 18 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. 10．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.

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

12．Byronic Heroes拜伦式英雄: a variant of the Romantic heroes as a type of character( enthusiasm, persistence, pursuing freedom), named after the English Romantic Poet Gordon Byron.

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

14．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. 15．Dramatic Monologue戏剧独白

16．Iambic Pentameter抑扬格五音步: 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.

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

18．Elegy挽歌: 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. 19．Spenserian Stanza斯宾塞诗体: 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.

1.(杰弗里乔叟）：the Father of English Poetry; The Canterbury Tales《埃特伯雷故事集》（24stories)