英国文学选读
名词解释
1. Byronic hero拜伦式英雄
(1)The Byronic hero is an idealized （理想化的）but flawed (有缺陷的)character exemplified in the life and writings of Lord Byron, characterized by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as being \"mad, bad, and dangerous to know\".[1] The Byronic hero first appears in Byron's semi-autobiographical epic narrative poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-18).
(2)It refers to a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies. 1812-1818 George Gordon Byron “Manfred” Manfred 2. Conceit
Conceit is a far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things. Conceit is extensively employed in John Donne’s poetry.
metaphysical poetry玄学派诗歌
(1) Metaphysical poetry is commonly used to name the work of the 17th-century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. With a rebellious spirit, the metaphysical poets tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry. The diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan of the Neoclassical periods, and echoes the words and cadences of common speech. The imagery is drawn from actual life.
(2) It is the name given to a diverse group of 17th century English poets whose work is notable for its ingenious use of intellectual and theological concepts in surprising conceits, strange paradoxes and far-fetched imagery. The leading Metaphysical poet was John Donne, whose colloquial, argumentative abruptness of rhythm and tone distinguishes his style from the conventions of Elizabethan love lyrics. 17世纪，英国，John Donne “The Flea” 3. Renaissance 文艺复兴
The word “Renaissance” means “rebirth”, it meant the reintroduction into western Europe of the full cultural heritage of Greece and Rome. The essence of the Renaissance is Humanism. Attitudes and feelings, which had been characteristic of the 14th and 15th centuries, persisted well down into the era of Humanism and reformation. The real mainstream of the English Renaissance is the Elizabethan drama with William Shakespeare being the leading dramatist.
14-17世纪 英国，起源于意大利，William Shakespeare Hamlet 4. English Romanticism
In the mid-18th century, a new literary movement called Romanticism came to Europe and then to England. It was characterized by a strong protest against the bondage of neoclassicism, which emphasized reason, order and elegant wit. Instead, romanticism
gave primary concern to passion, emotion, and natural beauty. Romantic literature is characteristic by such qualities as a deep love of nature, an indulgence in the self and the individual, and a overwhelming interest in the supernatural, the mysterious and the gothic. The English Romantic period is an age of poetry. Romanticism prevailed in England from 1798 to 1837.
1798-1837 William Blake “The Lamb” 5. Dramatic monologue戏剧独白
Dramatic monologue is a type of lyric poem that was perfected by Robert Browning. Dramatic monologue is a kind of poem in which a single fictional or historical character other than the poet speaks to a silent “audience” of one or more persons. Such poems reveal not the poet’s own thoughts but the mind of the impersonated character, whose personality is revealed while the implied presence of an auditor distinguishes it from a soliloquy, have also been called Dramatic monologue. But to avoid confusion it is preferable to refer to these simply as monologues or as monodramas.
The Victorian period represented the high point of the dramatic monologue in English poetry. Robert Browning “My Last Duchess” 6. Stream of Consciousness 意识流
In literary criticism, Stream of consciousness denotes a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes. Stream of consciousness writing is strongly associated with the modernist movement. Its introduction in the literary context, transferred from psychology, is attributed to May Sinclair. Stream of consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing as they do a character’s fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings.
It is a literary technique that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they occur without any clarification by the author. It is a narrative mode. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. 1922-21st century James Joyce Finnegans Wake 7. Epiphany 顿悟
A moment of illumination, usually occurrs at or near the end of a work. It was taken over by James Joyce to denote secular revelation in the everyday world, in an early version of his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) later published as Stephen Hero (1944). 8. Critical Realism
It means the tendency of writers and intellectuals in the period between 1875 and 1920 to apply the methods of realistic fiction to the criticism of society and the
examination of social issues. Realist writers were all concerned about the fate of the common people and described what was faithful to reality.
It is a term applied to the realistic fiction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities
