英国文学名词解释【整理后】

1.

epic

史诗

:a long narrative poem,

grand in

style, about

heroes and heroic deeds, embodying heroic

ideals of a nation or race in the making.

Beowulf

is the English national epic that was passed from

mouth to mouth and written down by many unknown hands.

2.

Conceit:

a

kind

of

metaphor

that

makes

a

comparison

between

two

startlingly

different

things.

A

conceit

usually

provides

the

framework

for

an

entire

poem.

An

especially

unusual

and

intellectual

kind of conceit is the metaphysical conceit, used by certain 17th-century poets, such as John Donne..

3.

Epiphany(

顿悟）

: a sudden revelation of truth about life inspired by a seemingly trivial incident

4.

Metaphysical poetry:

玄学诗派

the poetry of John Donne and other 17th-century poets who wrote

in

a

similar

style.

It

is

characterized

by

verbal

wit

and

excess,

ingenious

structure,

irregular

meter,

colloquial language, elaborate imagery, and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas .

5.

Stream

of

consciousness

意识流

:

a

kind

of

writing

technique

in

which

a

character's

perceptions,

thoughts,

and

memories are presented in an apparently random form, without regard for logical sequence, chronology, or syntax.

Often such writing makes no distinction between various levels of reality--such as dreams, memories, imaginative

thoughts or real sensory perception.

6.

heroic couplet

英雄双韵体

two

successive

lines

of

rhymed

poetry

in

iambic

pentameter.

Geoffrey

Chaucer’s

masterpiece

The

Canterbury Tale

was written in heroic couplet.

7.

ballad meter

民谣体

traditionally a four-line stanza containing alternating four- stress and three-stress lines, usually with a

refrain and the rhyme scheme of abcb. Robert Burns’ “A Red, Red Rose” is a great love ballad.

8.

sonnet

十四行诗

a fixed form consisting of fourteen lines of 5-foot iambic verse. It first flourished in Italy in the 14

th

century. William Shakespeare was a great English sonnet writer famous for his 154 sonnets.

9.

iambic pentameter

五步抑扬格

the basic line in English verse, with five feet in a line, usually an unaccented syllable followed by an

accented syllable. It was probably introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer and certainly established by him in

The Canterbury Tales

.

10.

image

意象

a concrete representation of an object

or sensory

experience. Typically,

such a

representation

helps

evoke

the

feelings

associated

with

the

object

or

experience

itself.

Many

images

are

conveyed

by

figurative

language.

An

image

may

be

visual,

olfactory,

tactile,

auditory,

gustatory,

abstract

and

kinaesthetic. The rose in Robert Burns’ poem “A Red, Red Rose” is a beautiful image.

11.

“Dramatic

monologue”

戏剧独白

that is a lyric poem which reveals

“

a soul in

action”

through the conversation of one character in a dramatic situation. T

he character is speaking to an identifiable but silent listener at a dramatic

monent in the

speaker’s

life.

12.

blank verse

无韵诗，素体诗

unrhymed

iambic

pentameter,

the

most

widely

used

of

English

verse

forms

and

usually

used

in

English dramatic and epic poetry. William Shakespeare’s play

Hamlet

is written in blank verse.

13.

Sonnet

is

a verse form of fourteen lines, in English characteristically in iambic pentameter and most often in one of

the two rhyme schemes: the Italian(or Petrarchan) or Shakespearean

14.

essay

散文

a composition, usually in prose, which may be of only a few hundred words or of book length and

which discusses, formally or informally, a topic or a variety of topics. It is one of the most flexible

and adaptable of all literary forms. Francis Bacon is a great essayist; his “Of Studies” is a model of

good essay.

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