英美文学名词解释

Allegory: a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions or settings represent abstract ideas or moral

qualities. Thus, an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. The most

famous allegory in English literature is John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Heroic couplet: a pair of successive lines in iambic pentameter (regularly 5 feet, or 10 syllables)

Ballad stanza: is a type a four-line stanza (quatrain) rhyming abcb. 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.

Alliteration is the repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of nearby words. The term is usually applied only

to consonants, and only when the recurrent sound begins a word or a stressed syllable within a word.

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.

Kenning: a kenning is a metaphor usually composed of two words, which becomes the formula for a special

object.

Ballad is also known as the folk ballad or tradition ballad. It is a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story.

Ballads are thus the narrative species of folk songs, which originate, and are communicated orally, among

illiterate or only partly literate people.

Spenserian stanza: It is a longer form devised by Edmund spenser for the Faerie Queene---nine lines, in which

the first eight lines are iambic pentameter and the last iambic hexameter, rhyming ababbcbcc

Soliloquy is the act of talking to oneself, whether silently or aloud. In drama it denotes the convention by which

a character, alone on the stage, utters his or her thoughts aloud.

blank verse: Verse without rhymes. It is typically in iambic pentameter, the dominant verse form of English

dramatic and narrative poetry since the mid-16th century. The first practitioner of English dramatic blank verse

is Christopher Marlowe.

Romances: is the prevailing form of literature in the Middle Ages. It is a long composition, sometimes in verse,

sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of knights.

Myth: a myth is an anonymous traditional story with its roots in culture and folk belief that relies on the

supernatural to explain the mystery of the world.

Legend: a legend is also a traditional story handed down from generation to generation. But unlike a myth, a

legend is believed to be based on historical truth. Usually a legend celebrates the heroic qualities of a national

leader, eg. Arthurian legend.

Meter is the recurrence, in regular units, of a prominent feature in the sequence of speech-sounds of a

language.

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.

Sonnet: a lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of fourteen iambic pentameter lines linked by an intricate

rhyme scheme. There are two major patterns of rhyme in sonnets written the English language:(1)the Italian of

Petrarchan sonnets (named after the fourteenth century Italian poet Petrarch) falls into two main parts: an

octave( eight lines) rhyming abbaabba followed by a sestet (six lines) rhyming cdecde or some variant, such as

cdccdc.(2) the Earl of Surrey and other English experimenters in the 16th century also developed a stanza form

called the English sonnet, or the Shakespearean sonnet. This sonnet falls into three quatrains and a concluding

couplet: ababcdcdefefgg. There was one notable variant, the Spenserian sonnet, in which Spenser linked each

quatrain to the next by a continuing rhyme:abab bcbc cdcd ee

Imagism in Poetry: Imagism is the name given to a movement in poetry, originating in 1912 and represented

by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and others, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual

images. (when speaking of images in poetry we generally mean a word or sequence of words that refers to any

sensory experience. Often this experience is a sight, but it may be a sound or a touch. It may be an odor or a

state or perhaps bodily sensation such as pain, or the perception of something cold.

Features of the Victorian novels: the plot is unfolded against a social background which is broader than what it had been in

previous novels. The cause-effect sequence is much more striking than in previous novels. most of the Victorian novels were

first published in serial form, that is , by installment, before they were fully published in a single book. the Victorian novels

were tainted by the spirit of Puritanism of the Victorian age. The Victorian novels were characterized by their moral purpose.

Characteristic features of the romantic movement: subjectivism/ spontaneity/ singularity/ worship of nature/

simplicity/ there is a dominating note of melancholy in the poems of the romantic poets/ it was an age of poetry

by which the poets outpoured their feelings and emotions

Metaphysical Poets: refer to a group of religious poets in the first half of the 17th century whose works were

characterized by hold and ingenious conceits, incongruous imagery, complexity of thought, frequent use of

paradox, and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression./ the main themes of metaphysical poets are

loves, death, and religion. According to them, all things in the universe, no matter how dissimilar they are to

each other, are closely unified in God. The chief representative of this school was john Donne.

Cavalier Poets: cavalier poets were royalists, whose poetry was marked by courtliness, urbanity, and polish.

They were lyrical poets, and dealt chiefly with the theme of love and the theme of carpe diem. Their poetry

flourished in the early and middle periods of the 17th century at the court and reflected the extravagance and

moral looseness of court life. The chief representative of the cavaliers was Ben Jonson.

Robinson Crusoe:

Ode to the West WindIn the poem, the autumn wind, becomes an image of Shelley himself as he wants to

be,in its freedom, its destructive constructive potential, its universality.

The whole poem has a logic of feeling, that leads to the triumphant, hopeful and convincing conclusion.” If

winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Which brought us a hopeful, optimistic attitude to the coming future.

Sonnet 18The poem is a sonnet which use the form of”abab cdcd efef gg” as and three lines end

with /ei/; two and four lines end with /eit/; five and seven lines and with /aiz/; six and eight lines end with /imd/;

nine and eleven lines end with/eid/; ten and twelve lines end with /əust/; thirteen and fourteen lines end with /i/.

Each line have five foot. For example: the first line: Shall I’ compare’ thee to’ a sum’mer’s day”.” Shall

I”、”compare”、”thee to”、”a sum”、”mer’s day” are the five foot. In each foot the former syllable need lighten

and the latter need stress. The poem contains two themes: first to appreciate has friend beauty; second to

eulogize the power of artistic creation.

What are the stylistic features of Hemingway’s novels海明威小说的文体特点(1)Hemingway’s novels are

mainly concerned with “tough” people, known for the Hemingway hero of athletic prowess and masculinity and

unyielding heroism, whose essential courage and honesty are implicitly contrasted with the brutality of civilized

society. In the general situation of his novels, life is but a losing battle; however, it is also a struggle man can

demonstrate in such a way that loss becomes dignity; man can be physically destroyed but never defeated

spiritually.

(2)Typical of this “iceberg” analogy is Hemingway’s style: Hemingway’s economical writing style often seems

simple, but his method is calculated. In his writing, Hemingway provided detached descriptions of action, using

simple nouns and verbs to capture scenes precisely. By doing so he avoided describing his character’s emotions

and thoughts directly. Hemingway was deeply concerned with authenticity in writing. Besides, Hemingway

develops the style of colloquialism initiated by Mark Twain. The accents and mannerisms of human speech are

well presented, and the use of short, simple words and sentences has an effect of clearness, terseness and great

care.