1、北鼎教育-2014北外考研英美文學名詞解釋1. Allegory: A tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. An allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.2. Alliteration: The repetition of the initial consonant sounds in poet

2、ry.3. Allusion: A reference to a person, a place, an event, or a literary work that a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion.4. American Naturalism: American naturalism was a new and harsher realism. American n

3、aturalism had been shaped by the war; by the social upheavals that undermined the comforting faith of an earlier age. Americas liter ary naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and

4、 economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity. In presenting the extremes of life, the naturalists sometimes displayed an affinity to the sensationalism of early romanticism, but unlike their romantic predecessors, the naturalists emphasized that the world was amoral, that

5、men and women had no free will, that lives were controlled by heredity and environment, that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and oblivion in death. Although naturalist literature described the world with sometimes brutal realism, it sometimes also aimed at bettering the world through soci

6、al reform.5. American Puritanism: Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of the Puritans. The Puritans were originally members of a division of the Protestant Church. The first settlers who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them. They were a group of serious, re

7、ligious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles. As the word itself hints, Puritans wanted to purity their religious beliefs and practices. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace form

8、God. As a culture heritage, Puritanism did have a profound influence on the early American mind. American Puritanism also had a enduring influence on American literature.6. American Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into exi

9、stence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather

10、than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience.7. American Romanticism: The Romantic Period covers the first half of the 19th century. A rising America with its ideals of democracy and equality, its industrialization, its westward expansion, and a variety of foreign influences were amo

11、ng the important factors which madeliterary expansion and expression not only possible but also inevitable in the period immediately following the nations political independence. Yet, romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in value of individualism and i

12、ntuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and mans societies a source of corruption. Romantic values were prominent in American politics, art, and philosophy until the Civil Wa r. The romantic exaltation of the individual suited the nations revolutionary

13、heritage and its frontier egalitarianism.8. American Transcendentalism: Transcendentalists terroras from the romantic literature of Europe. They spoke for cultural rejuvenation and against the materialism of Americagogopirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the Universe. They stresse

14、d the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society. They offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, alive, filled with Gods overwhelming presence. Transcendentalism is based on the belief that the mos

15、t fundamental truths about life and death can be reached only by going beyond the world of the senses. Emersons Nature has been called the “Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” and his The American Scholar has been rightly regarded as Americas “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”.9. Analog

16、y: (a figure of speech A comparison made between tow things to show the similarities between them. Analogies are often used for illustration or for argument.10. Anapest抑抑揚: Its made up of two unstressed and one stressed syllables, with the two unstressed ones in front.11. Antagonist: A person or for

17、ce opposing the protagonist in a narrative; a rival of the hero or heroine.12. Antithesis: (a figure of speech The balancing of two contrasting ideas, words phrases, or sentences. An antithesis is often expressed in a balanced sentence, that is, a sentence in which identical or similar grammatical s

18、tructure is used to express contrasting ideas.13. Aphorism: A concise, pointed statement expressing a wise or clever observation about life.14. Apostrophe頓呼法: A figure of speech in which an absent or a dead person, an abstract quality, or something nonhuman is addressed directly.15. Argument: A form

19、 of discourse in which reason is used to influence or change peoples idea or actions. Writers practice argument most often when writing nonfiction, particularly essays or speeches.16. Aside: In drama, lines spoken by a character in an undertone or directly to the audience. An aside is meant to be he

20、ard by the other characters onstage.17. Assonance: The repetition of similar vowel sounds, especially in poetry. Assonance is often employed to please the ear or emphasize certain sounds.18. Atmosphere: The prevailing mood or feeling of a literary work. Atmosphere is oftendeveloped, at least in part

21、, through descriptions of setting. Such descriptions help to create an emotional climate for the werrors to establish the readers expectations and attitudes.19. Autobiography: A persons account of his or her own life. An autobiogra phy is generally written in narrative form and includes some introsp

22、ection.20. Ballad: A story told in verse and usually meant to be sung. In many countries, the folk ballad was one of the earliest forms of literature. Folk ballads have no known authors. They were transmitted orally from generation to generation and were not set down in writing until centuries after

23、 they were first sung. The subject matter of folk ballads stems from the everyday life of the common people. Devices commonly used in ballads are the refrain, incremental repetition, and code language. A later form of ballad is the literary ballad, which imitates the style of the folk ballad.21. Bal

24、lad stanza: A type of four-line stanza. 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.22. Biography: A detai

25、led account of a persons life w ritten by another person.23. Blank verse: Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.24. Caesura詩間休止: A break or pause in a line of poetry.25. Canto: A section or division of a long poem.26. Caricature: The use of exaggeration or distortion to make a figure appear co

26、mic or ridiculous. A physical characteristic, an eccentricity, a personality trait, or an act may be exaggerated.27. Character: In appreciating a short story, characters are an indispensable element. Characters are the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work. Forst divides characters into

27、two types: flat character, which is presented without much individualizing detail; and round character, which is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity.28. Characterizatiogogoo, the means by which a writer reveals that personality.29. Classicism: A movemen

28、t or tendency in art, literature, or music that reflects the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Classicism emphasizes the traditional and the universal, and places value on reason, clarity, balance, and order. Classicism, with its concern for reason and universal themes, is

29、 traditionally opposed to Romanticism, which is concerned with emotions and personal themes.30. Climax: The point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense in a gogotorys turning point. The action leading to the climax and the simultaneous increase of tension in the plot are known as the rising action. All action after the climax is referred to as the falling action, or resolution. The term crisis