1、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. Allusio
2、n: 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
3、 been shaped by the war; by the social upheavals that undermined the comforting faith of an earlier age. Americas literary naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic clas
4、ses 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
5、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. A
6、merican 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
7、, 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 cult
8、ure 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 ca
9、me 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 ideal
10、istic 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 import
11、ant factors which made literary expansion and expression not only possible but also inevitable in the period immediately following the nations political independence. Yet, romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in value of individualism and intuitive per
12、ception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and mans 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 nations revolutionary heritage and
13、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 importa
14、nce 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 Gods overwhelming presence. Transcendentalism is based on the belief that the most fundamental
15、 truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of the senses. Emersons Nature has been called the “Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” and his The American Scholar has been rightly regarded as Americas “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”.9. Analogy: (a figure
16、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: Its made up of two unstressed and one stressed syllables, with the two unstressed ones in front.11. Antagonist: A person or force opposing
17、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
18、 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 discour
19、se in which reason is used to influence or change peoples 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
20、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
21、descriptions of setting. Such descriptions help to create an emotional climate for the werrors to establish the readers expectations and attitudes.19. Autobiography: A persons account of his or her own life. An autobiography is generally written in narrative form and includes some introspection.20.
22、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
23、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:
24、 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
25、 of a persons 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 ridic
26、ulous. 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: f
27、lat 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 tendenc
28、y 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 traditional
29、ly opposed to Romanticism, which is concerned with emotions and personal themes.30. Climax: The point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense in a gogotorys turning point. The action leading to the climax and the simultaneous increase of tension in the plot are known as the rising action. All a
30、ction 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 t
31、hat 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 cha
32、racters 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 storys end.34. Connotation: All the emotions and associations that a word or phrase may arouse. Connotation is distinct from deno
33、tation, 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: Th
34、e 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
35、 a way to eradicate social evils.38. Dactyl扬抑抑: Its 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 na
36、rrative 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
37、hear by showing rather than by merely telling. Its 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 writers choice of words, particularly for clarity, effectivenes
38、s, 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 speakers personality a
39、s 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 lo
40、ng 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
41、 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 narrativ
42、e 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
43、 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
44、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
45、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
46、 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 g
47、eneral 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 o
48、rganized, 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
49、 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, oft
