考研英美文学名词解释

英美文学名词解释 1. Allegory: A tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. An allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. 2. Alliteration: The repetition of the initial consonant sounds in poetry. 3. Allusion: A reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion. 4. American Naturalism: American naturalism was a new and harsher realism. American naturalism had been shaped by the war; by the social upheavals that undermined the comforting faith of an earlier age. America’s literary naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity. In presenting the extremes of life, the naturalists sometimes displayed an affinity to the sensationalism of early romanticism, but unlike their romantic predecessors, the naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death. Although naturalist literature described the world with sometimes brutal realism, it sometimes also aimed at bettering the world through social reform. 5. American Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them. They were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace form God. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind. American Puritanism also had a enduring influence on American literature. 6. American Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience. 7. American Romanticism: The Romantic Period covers the first half of the 19th century. A rising America with its ideals of democracy and equality, its industrialization, its westward expansion, and a variety of foreign influences were among the important factors which made literary expansion and expression not only possible but also inevitable in the period immediately following the nation’s political independence. Yet, romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man’s societies a source of corruption. Romantic values were prominent in American politics, art, and philosophy until the Civil War. The romantic exaltation of the individual suited the nation’s revolutionary heritage and its frontier egalitarianism. 8. American Transcendentalism: Transcendentalists terroras from the romantic literature of Europe. They spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of Americagogopirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the Universe. They stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society. They offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. Transcendentalism is based on the belief that the most fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of the senses. Emerson’s Nature has been called the “Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” and his The American Scholar has been rightly regarded as America’s “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”. 9. Analogy: (a figure of speech) A comparison made between tow things to show the similarities between them. Analogies are often used for illustration or for argument. 10. Anapest抑抑扬: It’s made up of two unstressed and one stressed syllables, with the two unstressed ones in front. 11. Antagonist: A person or force opposing the protagonist in a narrative; a rival of the hero or heroine. 12. Antithesis: (a figure of speech) The balancing of two contrasting ideas, words phrases, or sentences. An antithesis is often expressed in a balanced sentence, that is, a sentence in which identical or similar grammatical structure is used to express contrasting ideas. 13. Aphorism: A concise, pointed statement expressing a wise or clever observation about life. 14. Apostrophe顿呼法: A figure of speech in which an absent or a dead person, an abstract quality, or something nonhuman is addressed directly. 15. Argument: A form of discourse in which reason is used to influence or change people’s idea or actions. Writers practice argument most often when writing nonfiction, particularly essays or speeches. 16. Aside: In drama, lines spoken by a character in an undertone or directly to the audience. An aside is meant to be heard by the other characters onstage. 17. Assonance: The repetition of similar vowel sounds, especially in poetry. Assonance is often employed to please the ear or emphasize certain sounds. 18. Atmosphere: The prevailing mood or feeling of a literary work. Atmosphere is often developed, at least in part, through descriptions of setting. Such descriptions help to create an emotional climate for the werrors to establish the reader’s expectations and attitudes. 19. Autobiography: A person’s account of his or her own life. An autobiography is generally written in narrative form and includes some introspection. 20. Ballad: A story told in verse and usually meant to be sung. In many countries, the folk ballad was one of the earliest forms of literature. Folk ballads have no known authors. They were transmitted orally from generation to generation and were not set down in writing until centuries after they were first sung. The subject matter of folk ballads stems from the everyday life of the common people. Devices commonly used in ballads are the refrain, incremental repetition, and code language. A later form of ballad is the literary ballad, which imitates the style of the folk ballad. 21. Ballad stanza: A type of four-line stanza. The first and third lines have four stressed words or syllables; the second and fourth lines have three stresses. Ballad meter is usually iambic. The number of unstressed syllables in each line may vary. The second and fourth lines rhyme. 22. Biography: A detailed account of a person’s life written by another person. 23. Blank verse: Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. 24. Caesura诗间休止: A break or pause in a line of poetry. 25. Canto: A section or division of a long poem. 26. Caricature: The use of exaggeration or distortion to make a figure appear comic or ridiculous. A physical characteristic, an eccentricity, a personality trait, or an act may be exaggerated. 27. Character: In appreciating a short story, characters are an indispensable element. Characters are the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work. Forst divides characters into two types: flat character, which is presented without much individualizing detail; and round character, which is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity. 28. Characterizatiogogoo, the means by which a writer reveals that personality. 29. Classicism: A movement or tendency in art, literature, or music that reflects the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Classicism emphasizes the traditional and the universal, and places value on reason, clarity, balance, and order. Classicism, with its concern for reason and universal themes, is traditionally opposed to Romanticism, which is concerned with emotions and personal themes. 30. Climax: The point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense in a gogotory’s turning point. The action leading to the climax and the simultaneous increase of tension in the plot are known as the rising action. All action after the climax is referred to as the falling action, or resolution. The term crisis is sometimes used interchangeably with climax. 31. Comedy: in general, a literary work that ends happily with a healthy, amicable armistice between the protagonist and society. 32. Conceit: A kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things. A conceit may be a brief metaphor, but it usually provides the framework for an entire poem. An especially unusual and intellectual kind of conceit is the metaphysical conceit. 33. Conflict: A struggle between two opposing forces or characters in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem. Usually the events of the story are all related to the conflict, and the conflict is resolved in some way by the story’s end. 34. Connotation: All the emotions and associations that a word or phrase may arouse. Connotation is distinct from denotation, which is the literal or “ dictionary” meaning of a word or phrase. 35. Consonance: The repetition of similar consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words. 36. Couplet: Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme. A heroic couplet is an iambic pentameter couplet. 37. Critical Realism: The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the fouties and in the beginning of fifties. The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils. 38. Dactyl扬抑抑: It’s made up of one stressed and two unstressed syllables, with the stressed in front. 39. Denotation: The literal or “dictionary” meaning of a word. 40. Denouement结局: The outcome of a plot. The denouement is that part of a play, short story, novel, or narrative poem in which conflicts are resolved or unraveled, and mysteries and secrets connected with the plot are explained. 41. Description: It is a great part of conversation and of almost all writing. It is a part of autobiography, storytelling. With description, the writer tries terror, feel, and hear by showing rather than by merely telling. It’s through the use of specific details and concrete language that abstract ideas and half-formed thoughts are make vividly real. We have objective and subjective description. 42. Diction: A writer’s choice of words, particularly for clarity, effectiveness, and precision. 43. Dissonance: A harsh or disagreeable combination of sounds; discord. 44. 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. The occasion is usually a crucial one in the speaker’s personality as well as the incident that is the subject of the poem. 45. Elegy: A poem of mourning, usually over the death of an individual. An elegy is a type of lyric poem, usually formal in language and structure, and solemn or even melancholy in tone. 46. Emblematic image: A verbal picture or figure with a long tradition of moral or religious meaning attached to it. 47. Enlightenment: With the advent of the 18th century, in England, as in other European countries, there sprang into life a public movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeois against feudalism. The egogo inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. The attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people. 48. Epic: A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down. 49. Epigram: A short, witty, pointed statement often in the form of a poem. 50. Epigraph: A quotation or motto at the beginning of a chapter, book, short story, or poem that makes some point about the work. 51. Epilogue收场白: A short addition or conclusion at the end of a literary work. 52. Epiphany主显节: A moment of illumination, usually occurring at or near the end of a work. 53. Epitaph: An inscription on a gravestone or a short poem written in memory of someone who has died. 54. Epithet称号: A descriptive name or phrase used to characterize someone or something. 55. Era of Modernism: The years from 1910 to 1930 are often called the Era of Modernism, for there seems to have been in both Europe and America a strong awareness of some sort of “break” with the past. The new artists shared a desire to capture the complexity of modern life, to focus on the variety and confusion of the 20th century by reshaping and sometimes discarding the ideas and habits of the 19th century. The Era of Modernism was indeed the era of the New. 56. Essay: A piece of prose writing, usually short, that deals with a subject in a limited way and expresses a particular point or view. An essay may be serious or humorous, tightly organized or rambling, restrained or emotional. The two general classifications of essay are the informal essay and the formal essay. An informal essay is usually brief and is written as if the writer is talking informally to the reader about some topic, using a conversational style and a personal or humorous tone. By contrast, a formal essay is tightly organized, dignified in style, and serious in tone. 57. Exemplum说教故事: A tale, usually inserted into the text of a sermon that illustrates a moral principle. 58. Exposition: (1) That part of a narrative or drama in which important background information is revealed. (2) It is the kind of writing that is intended primarily to present information. Exposition is one of the major forms of discourse. The most familiar form it takes is in essays. Exposition is also that part of a play in which important background information is revealed to the audience. 59. Fable: A fable is a short story, often with animals as its characters, which illustrate a moral. 60. Farce: A type of comedy based on a ridiculous situation, often with stereotyped characters. The humor in a farce is largely slapstick—that is, it often involves crude physical action. The characters in a farce are often the butts of practical jokes. 61. Figurative language: Language that is not intended to be interpreted in a literal sense. By appealing to the imagination, figurative language provides new ways of looking at the world. Figurative language consists of such figures of speech as hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron矛盾修饰法, personification, simile, and synecdoche. 62. Figure of speech: A word or an expression that is not meant to be interpreted in a literal sense. The most common kinds of figures of speech—simile, metaphor, personification, and metonymy—involve a comparison between unlike things. 63. Flashback: A scene in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem that interrupts the action to show an event that happened earlier. 64. Foil衬托: A character who sets off another character by contrast. 65. Foot: It is a rhythmic unit, a specific combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. 66. Foreshadowing: The use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest what will happen later. Writers use foreshadowing to create interest and to build suspense. Sometimes foreshadowing also prepares the reader for the ending of the story. 67. Free Verse: Verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern. 68. Hyperbole: A figure of speech using exaggeration, or overstatement, for special effect. 69. Iamb抑扬格: It is the most commonly used foot in English poetry, in which an unstressed syllable comes first, followed by a stressed syllable. 70. Iambic pentameter: A poetic line consisting of five verse feet, with each foot an iamb—that is, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter is the most common verse line in English poetry. 71. Image: We usually think with words, many of our thoughts come to us as pictures or imagined sensations in our mind. Such imagined pictures or sensations are called images. 72. Imagery: Words or phrases that create pictures, or images, in the reader’s mind. Images can appeal to other senses as well: touch, taste, smell, and hearing. 73. Imagism: It’s a poetic movement of England and the U.S. flourished from 1909 to 1917.The movement insists on the creation of images in poetry by “the direct treatment of the thing” and the economy of wording. The leaders of this movement were Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell. 74. Incremental repetition: The repetition of a previous line, or lines but with a slight variation each time that advances the narrative stanza by stanza. This device is commonly used in ballads. 75. In medias res: A technique of plunging into the middle of a story and only later using a flashback to tell what has happened previously. In medias res is Latin for “in the middle of things”. 76. Inversion: The technique of reversing, or inverting, the normal word order of a sentence. Writers may use inversion to create a certain tone or to emphasize a particular word or idea. A poet may invert a line so that it fits into a particular meter or rhyme scheme. 77. Invocation: At the beginning of an epic (or other poem) a call to a muse, god, or spirit for inspiration. 78. Irony: A contrast or an incongruity between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Three kinds of irony are (1) verbal irony, in which a writer or speaker says one thing and means something entirely different; (2) dramatic irony, in which a reader or an audience perceives something that a character in the story or play does not know; (3) irony of situation, in which the writer shows a discrepancy between the expected results of some action or situation and its actual results. 79. Kenning代称: In Old English poetry, an elaborate phrase that describes persons, things, or events in a metaphorical and indirect way. 80. Local Colorism: Local Colorism or Regionalism as a trend first made its presence felt in the late 1860s and early seventies in America. It may be defined as the careful attegogoms in speech, dress or behavior peculiar to a geographical locality. The ultimate aim of the local colorists is to create the illusion of an indigenous little world with qualities that tell it apart from the world outside. The social and intellectual climate of the country provided a stimulating milieu for the growth of local color fiction in America. Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They tended to idealize and glorify, but they never forgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life. They formed an important part of the realistic movement. Although it lost its momentum toward the end of the 19th century, the local spirit continued to inspire and fertilize the imagination of author. 81. Lost Generation: This term has been used again and again to describe the people of the postwar years. It describes the Americans who remained in Paris as a colony of “ expatriates” or exiles. It describes the writers like Hemingway wh