文学用语小集(a glossary of literary terms).doc

1 A Glossary of Some Useful Literary Terms Selected Readings from American Literature, a Course For Students of Grade 2009, SFL absurdism or theater of the absurd: A play that emphasizes life's meaninglessness, the decline of religious faith, and other aspects of man's existence. allusion: A reference in a text to a passage or figure from literary, popular, or religious traditions. climax: The moment of greatest emotional tension in a narrative. Usually, after events lead up to this point, they are resolved in the denouement (大团 圆、结局、收场). couplet: A pair of rhyming lines. diction: The choice of words in prose, fiction, poetry, and drama. drama: A composition that is intended for representation by one or more performers to an audience. explication: A critical interpretation of a text. foot: A unit of poetic meter consisting of stressed and unstressed syllables. formalism: A kind of literary analysis that emphasizes using elements of form to interpret meaning. free verse: A kind of poetry that varies in length, typography, rhythms, and stanza patterns to fit the particular style and content of the work at hand. image: A suggestion of sensory phenomena. imagery: The use of language to evoke sensory experience. literary movement: A set of ideas formulated by authors and critics about what literature should do and how it should be done. mood: The atmosphere or feeling produced in a text, usually through descriptive language of places, people, and events. motif: Any significant repetition of images, symbols, language, actions, or other elements of a literary work. narrator: The voice of the person telling the story. naturalism: A literary movement in which writers sought to render a realistic or scientific view of the human species. protagonist: A character that serves as the primary actor in a literary work and with whom readers are often invited to sympathize.2 script: The written text of a play, including the dialogue, stage directions, notes from the director, and so on. symbol: A concrete image, word, or thing, that refers to an abstract idea or condition. For instance, a wedding ring is a symbol of marriage. stanza: A unit or grouping of poetry lines that have the same or similar patterns of meter, rhythm, and end rhyme. style: The distinctive manner of expression an author uses in a literary text. theme: The central idea or ideas suggested by a literary work. tone: A literary concept analogous to the tone of voice in spoken language. tragic hero: The protagonist of a tragedy. tragedy: A narrative in which the central character or protagonist suffers a fall, often death.。