英美文学名词解释(共享)



101.        Nonet: the nine-line stanza. Spenserian stanza: ababbcbcc.

102.        Nonfiction: It refers to any prose narrative that tells about things as the actually happened or that presents factual information about something. The purpose of this kind of writing is to give a presumably accurate accounting of a person’s life. Writers of nonfiction use the major forms of discourse: description (an impression of the subject); narration (the telling of the story); exposition (explanatory information); persuasion (an argument to influence people’s thinking). Forms: autobiography, biography, essay, story, editorial, letters to the editor found in newspaper, diary, journal, travel literature.

103.        Novel: A book-length fictional prose narrative, having may characters and often a complex plot.

104.        Octava: the eight-line stanza. 2 quatrains/ 2 triplets + 1 couplet.

105.        Ode: A complex and often lengthy lyric poem, written in a dignified formal style on some lofty or serious subject. Odes are often written for a special occasion, to honor a person or a season or to commemorate an event.

106.        Onomatopoeia: The use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning.

107.        Oxymoron: a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory ideas or terms. An oxymoron suggests a paradox, but it does so very briefly, usually in two or three words.

108.        Paradox: A statement that reveals a kind of truth, although it seems at first to be self-contradictory and untrue.

109.        Parallelism: (a figure of speech) The use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning. Parallelism is a form of repetition.

110.        Parody: The humorous imitation of a work of literature, art, or music. A parody often achieves its humorous effect through the use of exaggeration or mockery. In literature, parody can be make of a plot, a character, a writing style, or a sentiment or theme.

111.        Pastoral: A type of poem that deals in an idealized way with shepherds and rustic life.

112.        Pathos: The quality in a work of literature or art that arouses the reader’s feelings of pity, sorrow, or compassion for a character. The term is usually used to refer to situations in which innocent characters suffer through no fault of their own.

113.        Persuasion: It’s the type of speaking or writing that is intended to make its audience adopt a certain opinion or perform an action or do both. Persuasion is one of the major forms of discourse.

114.        Pictorialism: It’s an important poetic device characterized by efforts to achieve striking visual effects. Among its features are irregularity of line, contrast or enchantment of light, color and image. Other means of pictorialism include personification, juxtaposition and the matching of colors with verbs of action.

115.        Plot: Plot is the first and most obvious quality of a story. It is the sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem. For the reader, the plot is the underlying pattern in a work of fiction, the structural element that gives it unity and order. For the writer, the plot is the guiding principle of selection and arrangement. Conflict, a struggle of some kind, is the most important element of plot. Each event in the plot is related to the conflict, the struggle that the main character undergoes. Conflict may be external or internal, and there may be more than one form of conflict in a work. As the plot advances, we learn how the conflict is resolved. Action is generally introduced by the exposition, information essential to understanding the situation. The action rises to a crisis, or climax. This movement is called the rising action. The falling action, which follows the crisis, shows a reversal of fortune for the protagonist. The denouement or resolution is the moment when the conflict ends and the outcome of the action is clear.

116.        Poetry: The most distinctive characteristic of poetry is form and music. Poetry is concerned with not only what is said but how it is said. Poetry evokes emotions rather than express facts. Poetry means having a poetic experience. Imagination is also an essential quality of poetry. Poetry often leads us to new perceptions, new feelings and experiences of which we have not previously been aware.

117.        Point of view: The vantage point from which a narrative is told. There are two basic points of view: first-person and third-person. In the first-person point of view, the story is told by one of the characters in his or her own words. The first-person point of view is limited. In the third-person point of view, the narrator is not a character in the story. The narrator may be an omniscient. On the other hand, the third-person narrator might tell a story from the point of view of only one character in the story.

118.        Pre-Romanticism: It originated among the conservative groups of men and letters as a reaction against Enlightenment and found its most manifest expression in the “Gothic novel”. The term arising from the fact that the greater part of such romances were devoted to the medieval times.

119.        Protagonist: The central character of a drama, novel, short story, or narrative poem. The protagonist is the character on whom the action centers and with whom the reader sympathizes most. Usually the protagonist strives against an opposing force, or antagonist , to accomplish something.

120.        Psalm: A song or lyric poem in praise of God.

5楼  121.        Psychological Realism: It is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities of characters’ thoughts and motivations. Henry James is considered the founder of psychological realism. His novel The Ambassadors is considered to be a masterpiece of psychological realism.

122.        Pun: The use of a word or phrase to suggest tow or more meaning at the same time. Puns are generally humorous.

123.        Quatrain: Usually a stanza or poem of four lines. A quatrain may also be any group of four lines unified by a rhyme scheme. Quatrains usually follow an abab, abba, or abcb rhyme scheme.

124.        Quintain: the five-line stanza.

125.        Realism: The attempt in literature and art to represent life as it really is, without sentimentalizing or idealizing it. Realistic writing often depicts the everyday life and speech of ordinary people. This has led, sometimes, to an emphasis on sordid details.

126.        Refrain: 叠句: A word phrase, line or group of lines repeated regularly in a poem, usually at the end of each stanza. Refrains are often used in ballads and narrative poems to create a songlike rhythm and to help build suspense. Refrains can also serve to emphasize a particular idea.

127.        Renaissance: The term originally indicated a revival of classical (Greek and Roman) arts and sciences after the dark ages of medieval obscurantism.

128.        Rhyme: It’s one of the three basic elements of traditional poetry. It is the repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem. If the rhyme occurs at the ends of lines, it is called end rhyme. If the rhyme occurs within a line, it is called internal rhyme. Approximate rhyme is rhyme in which only the final consonant sounds of the words are identical. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes in a poem. Interlocking rhyme is a rhyme scheme in which an unrhymed line in one stanza rhymes with a line in the following stanza. Interlocking rhyme occurs in an Italian verse form called terza rima.

129.        Rhythm: It is one of the three basic elements of traditional poetry. It is the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables into a pattern. Rhythm often gives a poem a distinct musical quality. Poets also use rhythm to echo meaning.

130.        Romance: Any imagination literature that is set in an idealized world and that deals with a heroic adventures and battles between good characters and villains or monsters.

131.        Romanticism: A movement that flourished in literature, philosophy, music, and art in Western culture during most of the 19th century, beginnigogom.

132.        Satire: A kind of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and wrongdoings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general. The aim of satirists is to set a moral standard for society, and they attempt to persuade the reader to see their point of view through the force of laughter.

133.        Scansion诗的韵律分析: The analysis of verse in terms of meter.

134.        Sentimentalism: Sentimentalism came into being as a result of a bitter discontent on the part of certain enlighteners in social reality.

135.        Septet: the seven-line stanza. Chaucerian stanza: ababbcc.

136.        Sestet: the six-line stanza. 3couplets/ a quatrain + a couplet/ 2 triplets.

137.        Setting: The time and place in which the events in a short story, novel, play or narrative poem occur. Setting can give us information, vital to plot and theme. Often, setting and character will reveal each other.

138.        Short Story: A short story is a brief prose fiction, usually one that can be read in a single sitting. It generally contains the six major elements of fiction—characterization, setting, theme, plot, point of view, and style.

139.        Simile: (a figure of speech) A comparison make between two things through the use of a specific word of comparison, such as like, as than, or resembles. The comparison must be between two essentially unlike things.

140.        Skaz: It’s a Russian word used to designate a type of first person narration that has the characteristics of the spoken rather than the written word. In this kind of novel, the narrator is a character who refers to himself as “I” and addresses the reader as “you”. He or she uses vocabulary and syntax characteristic of colloquial speech, and appears to be relating the story spontaneously rather than delivering a carefully constructed and polished written account.

141.        Soliloquy: In drama, an extended speech delivered by a character alone onstage. The character reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings directly to the audience, as if thinking aloud.

142.        Song: A short lyric poem with distinct musical qualities, normally written to be set to music. In expresses a simple but intense emotion.

143.        Sonnet: A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter. A sonnet generally expresses a single theme or idea.

144.        Speech: It was defined by Aristotle as the faculty of observing all the available means of persuasion.

145.        Spenserian stanza: A nine-line stanza with the following rhyme scheme: ababbabcc. The first eight lines are written in iambic pentameter. The ninth line is written in iambic hexameter and is called an alexandrine.

146.        Spondee扬扬: It consists of two stressed syllables.

147.        Sprung Rhythm: A term created by the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins to designate a variable kind of poetic meter in which a stressed syllable may be combined with any number of unstressed syllables. Poems with sprung rhythm have an irregular meter and are meant to sound like natural speech.

148.        Stanza: It’s a structural division of a poem, consisting of a series of verse lines which usually comprise a recurring pattern of meter and thyme.

149.        Stereotype: A commonplace type or character that appears so often in literature that his or her nature is immediately familiar to the reader. Stereotypes, also called stock characters, always look and act the same way and reveal the same traits of character.

150.        Stream of consciousness: “Stream-of-Consciousness” or “interior monologue”, is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space, and depicted vividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing incessantly, particularly the hesitant, misted, distracted and illusory psychology people had when they faced reality. The modern American writer William Faulkner successfully advanced this technique. In his stories, action and plots were less important than the reactions and inner musings of the narrators. Time sequences were often dislocated. The reader feels himself to be a participant in the stories, rather than an observer. A high degree of emotion can be achieved by this technique.

英美文学名词解释