英国文学选读名词解释.doc

《英国文学选读名词解释.doc》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《英国文学选读名词解释.doc（2页珍藏版）》请在淘文阁 - 分享文档赚钱的网站上搜索。

1、Byronic hero： a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin，which is s a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Example: Don Juan by George Gordon ByronPost colonialism is a specifically postmodern intellectual discourse that consist

2、s of reactions to, and analysis of, the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Post colonialism is defined in anthropology as the relations between nations and areas they colonized and once ruled. Example: Heart of Darkness by Joseph ConradSymbolism is the practice of representing things by

3、 symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. A symbol is an object, action, or idea that represents something other than itself, often of a more abstract nature. Example:The Waste Land by T.S.EliotMysticism: refers to conceal or hidden in ancient times ,it can also be thoug

4、ht of as a constellation of distinctive practices, discourses, texts, institutions, traditions, and experiences aimed at human transformation, variously defined in different traditions. Example: A Vision by William Butler YeatsOde: it is a dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem of some leng

5、th, praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Example: Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats Dramatic monologue: A literary, usually verse composition in which a speaker reveals his or her character, often in relation to

6、a critical situation or event, in a monologue addressed to the reader or to a presumed listener.Dramatic monologue: a monologue is a lengthy speech by a single person. Dramatic monologue does not designate a component in a play, but a type of lyric poem that was perfected by Robert Browning. By usin

7、g dramatic monologue, a single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment. For example, Robert Brownings famous poem “My Last Duchess” was written in dramatic monologue.Naturalism: it first appeared in Fra

8、nce, there naturalists including Zola turned especially to “slum life”, in England flourished in the 2nd half of 19th century; naturalists argued that literature reflect life, be “true to life”, writer must reproduce in his writings life exactly as it is, (including all details without any selection

9、), theory of “a slice of life”; However, a fallacy, for impossible to include all the details in real life; only give the appearance of life but not its essence. In England, two outstanding writers in the last decades: George Gissing, George Moore.Naturalism: a movement in theatre, film, and literat

10、ure that seeks to repeat/copy a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalistic writers were influenced by the evolution theory of Charles Darwin. They believed that ones

11、heredity and social environment decide ones character. Major writers include Crane, Dreiser and Norris in America; Hardy and Gissing in England.Art for arts sake: It is the usual English version of a French slogan, from the early 19th century, and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of a

12、rt, and the only” true” art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function. The chief representative of the movement in England was Oscar Wilde, with his “picture of Dorian Gray”.Modernism: Around the two world wars, many writers and artists began to suspect and be discontent with the

13、 capitalism. They tried to find new ways to express their understanding of the world. It was a movement of experiments in techniques in writing. It flourished in the 20s and 30s in English literature.They turned their interest to describing what was happening in the minds of their characters. Becaus

14、e of their emphasis on the psychological activities of the characters, their writings are also called psychological novels. The Representatives are W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot,D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Foster, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.Modernism: Modernism describes a group of cultural movements rooted

15、 in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The term covers a series of reforming movements in art, architecture, music, literature and the applied arts which emerged during this period. At its most basic level, Modernism could be described as the experimen

16、tation and fragmentation of the human experience, characterized by deviations from the norms of society. James Joyce, T.S Eliot, Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner are the representative writers.Stream of consciousness: is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individuals point of view by givin

17、g the written equivalent of the characters thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions. Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a characters fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings. James Joyces “Ulysses” is a representative of this kind of novel.