英美文学史名词解释

1、英美文学史名词解释1. English Critical RealismEnglish critical realism of the 19 th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties. The realists first and foremost criticized the capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated (portrayed) the crying (extremely shocking) contradictions of bourgeois reality. The greatness of the English realists lies not only in their satirical portrayal of bourgeoisie and in the exposure of the greed and hypocrisy of the ruling classes, but also i

2、n their sympathy for the laboring people. Humor and satire are used to expose and criticize the seamy (dark) side of reality. The major contribution of the critical realists lies in their perfection of the novel. Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray are the most important representative of English critical realism.2. The Stream of ConsciousnessThe stream of consciousness is a psychological term indicating the flux of conscious and subconscious thoughts and impressions moving in the mi

3、nd atany given time independently of the persons will. In late 19th century, the literary device of interior monologue was originated in France as anapplication of modern psychological knowledge to literary creations. In the 20th century, under the influence of Freud s theory of psychological analysis, a number of writers adopted the stream of consciousness method of novelwriting. The striking feature of these novelists is their giving precedence to the depiction of the characters mental and emo

4、tional reactions to external events, rather than the events themselves. In doing so, the novelists abandoned the conventional usages of realistic plot structure, characterization and description, and their works became successions of fleeting images of the external world mingled with thoughts and half-thoughts and shadows of thought attached to the immediate present or moving back and forth in memory. James Joyce and Virginia Woolf are the two best known novelists of the stream of consciousness.

5、3. TranscendentalismTranscendentalism is the summit of the Romantic Movement in the historyof American literature in the 19 th century. Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively. Transcendentalists place emphasis on the importance of the Over-soul, the individual and Nature. The most important representatives are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.4. RenaissanceRenaissance in European history refers to the p

6、eriod from 14th century to17th century. Renaissance means revival, the revival of interest in Ancient Greek and Roman culture and getting rid of conservatism in feudalist Europe and introducing new ideas that express the interests of the rising bourgeoisie. It started in Italy and ended in England and Spain. Renaissance has two strikingfeatures. One is a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature; the other is the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Humanism is the key-note of the

7、 Renaissance. Thomas More and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanists.5. Passive RomanticismEnglish romanticism began when Lyrical Ballad was published in 1798 and ended in 1832. It in effect is a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason. The romanticists who saw both the corruption of the feudal societies and the inhumanity of capitalism and felt that the society denied people their essential human needs. They were discontented with, an

8、d opposed to the development of capitalism. Some romantic writers reflected the thinking of classes ruined by the bourgeoisie, and by way of protest against capitalism development turned to the feudal past, ., the merry old English, as their ideal, or, frightened by the coming of industrialism and the nightmare towns of industry, they were turning to nature to nature for protection. These were the elder and sometimes called passive or escapist romantics, represented by Wordsworth and Coleridge.6

9、. ImagismImagism is a Movement in . and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. It grew out of theSymbolist Movement in 1912 and was initially led by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and others. The Imagist manifesto that came out in 1912 showed three Imagistpoetic principles: direct treatment of the “thing (no” fuss, frill or ornament), exclusion of superfluous words (precision and economy of expression), the rhyme of the musical phrase rather than the sequenceof a metronome (free verse form and music).7. The Local Color MovementThe local color movement came into particular prominence in America a

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