课外拓展 维多利亚时期名词解释

课外拓展（维多利亚时期名词解释）

1.

English

critical

realism:

English

critical

realism

o

f

the

19th

century

flourished

in

the forties

and

in

the early fifties. The

critical

realists

described

with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and

criticized

the

capitalist

system

from

a

democratic

view

point.

The

greatest

English

realist

of

the

time

was

Charles

Dickens.

With

striking

force

and

truthfulness,

he

pictures

bourgeois

civilization,

showing

the

misery

and

sufferings of the common people. Another critical realist, William Makepeace

Thackeray,

was

a

no

less

severe

exposer

of

contemporary

society.

Thackeray

’

s

novels

are

mainly

a

satirical

portrayal

of

the

upper

strata

of

society. Other adherents to the method of critical realism were Charlotte and

Emily Bronte, and Elizabeth Gaskell. In the fifties and sixties the realistic novel

as represented by Dickens and Thackeray entered a stage of decline. It found

its reflection in the works of George Eliot. Though she described the life of the

laboring

people

and

criticized

the

privileged

classes,

the

power

of

exposure

became weaker in her works. She seemed to be more morally than socially

minded. The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical

portrayal

of

the

bourgeoisie

and

all

the

ruling

classes,

but

also

showed

profound sympathy for the common people.

2. Victorian period:

It refers to the era of Queen Victoria

’

s reign (1837~1901).

The period is sometimes dated from 1832 (the passage of the first Reform Bill),

a period of intense and prolific activity in literature, especially by novelists and

poets, philosophers and essayists. Dramatists of any note are few. Much of the

writing

was

concerned

with

contemporary

social

problems:

for

instance,

the

effects of the industrial revolution, the influence of the theory of evolution, and

movements of political and social reform. The following are among the most

not

able

British

writers

of

the

period:

Thomas

Carlyle,

Elizabeth

Barrett

Browning,

Alfred

Tennyson,

Charles

Darwin,

W.

M.

Thackeray,

Robert

Browning, Edward Lear, Charles Dickens, Anthory Trollope, Charlotte Bronte,

Emily

Bronte,

Anne

Bronte,

George

Eliot,

John

Ruskin,

Matthew

Arnold,

George

Meredith,

Dante

Gabriel Rossetti,

Christina

Rossetti, William

Morris,

Samuel

Butler,

Swinburne,

Thomas

Hardy,

Robert

Louis

Stevenson,

Henry

Arthur Jones, Oscar Wilde.

3.

Autobiography:

It is an account of a person

’

s life by him or herself. The

term

appears

to

have

been

first

used

by

Southey

in

1809.

In

Dr.

Johnson

’

s

opinion

no

man

was

better

qualified

to

write

his

life

than

himself,

but

this

is

debatable.

Memory

may

be

unreliable.

Few

can

recall

clear

details

of

their

early life and most are therefore dependent on other people

’

s impressions, of

necessity equally unreliable. Moreover, everyone tends to remember what he

or she wants to remember. Disagreeable facts are sometimes glossed over or

repressed, truth may be distorted for the sake of convenience or harmony and

the occlusions of time may obscure as much as they reveal.

4. Regional novel:

A regional writer is one who concentrates much attention

on a particular area and uses it and the people who inhabit it as the basis for