1. Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements.

2. Romance （名词解释）a story of adventure--fictitious, frequently marvelous or supernatural--in verse or prose.

3，Ballad民谣（名词解释）

Popular Ballads 大众民谣 ：a story hold in 4-line stanzas with second and fourth line rhymed(笔记)

Ballads are anonymous narrative songs that have been preserved by oral transmission(书上). 4， 4，Heroic couplet (名词解释)

heroic couplet 英雄双韵体：a verse unit consisting of two rhymed(押韵) lines in iambic pentameter(五步抑扬格)

5 . Renaissance（名词解释）

Renaissance: the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.

555 humanism 人文主义： admire human beauty and human achievement

556 The Enlightenment was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of

bourgeoisie against feudalism

6，. Sonnet（名词解释）

The sonnet is a poem in 14 lines with one or the other rhyme schme,a form much in vogue in Renaissance Europe, expecially in Italy ,France and England.

7，Blank verse（名词解释）: written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

8，Spenserian Stanza（名词解释）

Stanza form developed by Edmund Spenser and almost certainly influenced by rhyme royal and ottava rima. Spenser's stanza has nine lines and is rhymed a-b-a-b-b-c-b-c-c. The first eight lines of the stanza are in iambic pentameter and the last line in iambic hexameter. He used this form in his epic poem The Faerie Queene. John Keats, a great admirer of Spenser, used this stanza in his poem The Eve of St. Agnes.

,9 Enlightenment (1650-1800)（名词解释）A revival of interest in the old classical works, order, logic, restrained emotion(抑制情感) and accuracy

Individualism--emphasized the importance of the individual and his inborn rights Rationalism-- the conviction that with the power of reason, humans could arrive at truth and improve the world.

Relativism-- was the concept that different cultures, beliefs, ideas, and value systems had equal merit.

Gothic novel(哥特式小说)：mystery, horror, castles(from middle part to the end of century)

10，Classicism（名词解释）

In the arts, historical tradition or aesthetic attitudes based on the art of Greece and Rome in antiquity. In the context of the tradition, Classicism refers either to the art produced in antiquity or to later art inspired by that of antiquity; Neoclassicism always refers to the art produced later but inspired by antiquity. 11 Sentimentalism（名词解释）Sentimentalism 感伤主义 no belief 没有信仰

The representatives of sentimentalism continued to struggle against feudalism but they vaguely sensed at the same time the contradictions of bourgeois progress that brought with it enslavement and ruin to the people.

12 Graveyard School / Poets: A term applied to eighteenth-century poets who wrote meditative poems, usually set in a graveyard, on the theme of human mortality, in moods which range from elegiac pensiveness to profound gloom.

13 Romanticism

14 Lake Poets（名词解释）

The Lake Poets all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century.

15 Aestheticism唯美主义（名词解释）

The Aesthetic Movement is a loosely defined movement in literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design in later nineteenth-century Britain. It represents the same tendencies that symbolism or decadence stood for in France and may be considered the British branch of the same movement. It belongs to the anti-Victorian reaction and had post-Romantic roots, and as such anticipates modernism. It took place in the late Victorian period from around 1868 to 1901, and is generally considered to have ended with the trial of Oscar Wilde.

16 Stream-of-consciousness（名词解释） The “stream of consciousness” is a psychological term indicating “the flux of conscious and subconscious thoughts and impressions moving in the mind at any given time independently of the person’s will”.

第二篇：英美文学名词解释总结

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.

传奇故事：指以理想化的世界为背景并且描写主人公的英雄冒险事迹和善与恶的斗争的想象文学作品。

Alliteration: The repetition of the initial consonant sounds in poetry. 头韵：诗歌中单词开头读音的重复。

Couplet: It is a pair of rhyming verse lines, usually of the same length; one of the most widely used verse-forms in European poetry. Chaucer established the use of couplets in English, notably in the Canterbury Tales, using rhyming iambic pentameters later known as heroic couplets

Blank verse: Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

素体诗：用五音步抑扬格写的无韵诗。

Conceit: A kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things. A conceit may be a brief metaphor, but it usually provides the framework for an entire poem. An especially unusual and intellectual kind of conceit is the metaphysical conceit.

新奇的比喻：将两种截然不同的食物进行对比的一种隐喻。它虽被视为是一种隐喻，但是它往往构建了整首诗的框架，最为奇特的应属玄学诗里面的。

Dramatic monologue: A kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose replies are not given in the poem. The occasion is usually a crucial one in the speaker’s personality as well as the incident that is the subject of the poem. 戏剧独白：在一种叙事诗里面，一个人物对其他的人物讲话但并没有交代他们的回答，这种场合往往对反映说话人的性格特征和诗歌的主题是至关重要的。 Epic: A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down.

史诗：讲述英雄事迹并反映出这些英雄事迹的社会价值观的长篇叙事诗。在成为之前，很多史诗都来自于口头传统并通过歌唱和背诵流传。

Free Verse: Verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern.

自由诗：按照语言的抑扬顿挫和意象模式，而不是按照固定韵律写出的诗。它的韵律建立在音素、语词、短语、句子和段落等形式的基础上，而不是建立在音步传统格律单位上。因此，自由诗消除了很多不自然的成分和诗体表现的某些审美差距。20世纪初，在英国诗法中自由诗已经流行。

Iamb: It is the most commonly used foot in English poetry, in which an unstressed syllable comes first, followed by a stressed syllable.

抑扬格：在英语诗歌中使用最广泛的一种音步，抑扬格往往是一个非重度音节后跟一个重度音节。

Irony: A contrast or an incongruity between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.

反讽：反讽指所叙述的事情和真正的所指之间或期待发生的事情和实际发生的事情之间的对比或不一致

Lyric: A poem, usually a short one, that expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts or feelings. The elegy, ode, and sonnet are all forms of the lyric.

抒情诗：一种比较短小的用来表达作者个人思想或感情的诗。挽歌、颂歌、和十四行诗都是

抒情诗。

Metaphor: A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things that are basically dissimilar. Unlike simile, a metaphor does not use a connective word such as like, as, or resembles in making the comparison.

隐喻：在修辞中把两种不同的食物进行对比的一种方法，与明喻不同，隐喻不会使用像“like”、“as”、或“resemble”这样的词。

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.

颂诗：一种风格优雅、诗节复杂且通常篇幅较长的抒情诗，以崇高或严肃的事物为主题。颂诗通常都是为某个特殊的场合而作，为了赞美某个人或事物，或某个季节或纪念某个事件。 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.

四行诗：四行诗通常是四行成段的诗或诗节。四行诗通常是通过押韵组合成的四行诗节的诗，亚运形式一般为abab, abba,或abcb。

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.

以取笑或蔑视某个个人、团体、组织、或全人类的弱点或错误行为的一种文学作品。批评的目的是为了为社会树立一种道德标准，他们也是为了劝读者通过笑声理解他们的观点

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. 独白：独白是戏剧中一个人物单独做的台词，这个人物通过他或她直接跟观众说话来表白自己的心声，就好像是自己在大声的思考。

Enlightenment: With the advent of the 18th century, in England, as in other European countries, there sprang into life a public movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeois against feudalism. The social inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people.

启蒙主义：启蒙主义是在18世纪在英国发生的。总体上，启蒙主义是当时的资产阶级对封建主义，社会的不平等、死寂、偏见和其他的封建残余的一种反对。通过将科学的各个分支与人民的日常生活和需要联系起来，启蒙主义者们努力将他们变成为人民大众服务的工具 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. 现实主义：在文学和艺术中按照生活的本来面目去反映生活，不把它感伤化也不把它完美化，现实主义文学作品往往展现日常生活和普通大众，这就会导致了现实主义文学通常会反映社会的阴暗面。

Symbolism: Symbolism is the writing technique of using symbols. It’s a literary movement that arose in France in the last half of the 19th century and that greatly influenced many

English writers, particularly poets, of the 20th century. It enables poets to compress a very complex idea or set of ideas into one image or even one word. It’s one of the most powerful devices that poets employ in creation.

象征主义：使用象征来写作的一种技巧。象征主义在19世纪后半页在法国兴起，对英国作家产生了很大的影响，尤其是在20世纪诗歌方面。它让诗人把非常复杂的思想浓缩成一个意象甚至一个词。它是诗人在创作中使用的最有力的手段

Critical Realism: The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties. The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils.

批判现实主义：批判现实主义在19世纪xx年代达到高潮。批判现实主义作家们往往把从民主的角度批评和揭露资本主义社会的丑恶视为己任，但他们并没有找到治疗社会弊病的良方。

Humanism（人文主义）Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. it emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life. Humanists voiced their beliefs that man was the center of the universe and man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of the present life， but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.

Renaissance（文艺复兴）The word “Renaissance”means “rebirth”， it meant the reintroduction into westerm 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.