【問題詳解】英國文學(xué)史名詞解釋

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1、word The Anglo-Saxon Period I. 1. _________________ can be termed England’s national epic and its hero Beowulf—one of the national heroes of the English people. 2. The literature of Anglo-Saxon period falls naturally into two divisions, --______ and ________. The former represents the poetry whi

2、ch the Anglo-Saxons probably brought with them in the form of _______, --the crude material out of which literature was slowly developed on English soil; the latter represents the _________ developed under teaching of the monks. 3. The Song of Beowulf reflects events which took place on the ______

3、approximately at the beginning of the 6th century, when the forefathers of the ____lived in the southern part of the _________. 4. The old English poetry can be divided into two groups: the __________poetry and the ______ poetry. (secular, religious) 5. ___________ is the oldest poem in the Englis

4、h language, and also the oldest surviving epic in the English language. (Beowulf) II. 1. _______ is the first important religious poet in English literature. A. John Donne B. George Herbert C. Caedmon D. Milton 2. In Anglo-Saxon period, Beowulf represented the ________ poetry. A. pag

5、an B. religious C. romantic D. sentimental III. Define the literary terms 1. Epic It is, originally, an oral narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style. Epics deal with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance, involving action of broad sweep and gra

6、ndeur. Most epics deal with the exploits of a single individual. The characteristics of the hero of an epic are national rather than individual. Typically, an epic includes several features: the introduction of supernatural forces that shape the action; conflict in the form of battles or other physi

7、cal bat; and stylistic conventions such as a n invocation to the Muse, a formal statement of the theme, long lists of the protagonist involved, and set speeches couched in elevated language. Examples include the ancient Greek epics by Homer, Iliad and Odyssey, The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser and

8、 The Paradise Lost by John Milton. 2. Alliteration A repeated initial consonant to successive words. The Anglo-Norman Period I. 1. In the year ________, at the battle of ______________, the Normans headed by William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the Anglo-Saxons. 2. The literature which N

9、ormans brought to England is remarkable for its bright, romantic tales of _____ and ______, in marked contrast with the ___________ and ___________ of Anglo-Saxon poetry. 3. The literature of the Anglo –Norman period was of three classes: the matter of _________; matter of __________________; matte

10、r of ___________. 4. after the __________ Conquest, feudal system was established in English society. (Norman) 5. The most prevalent kind of literature in feudal England was ___________. It was a long position, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventure of a noble h

11、ero. (romance) Geoffrey Chaucer I. 1. Geoffrey Chaucer, the “____________________〞 and one of the greatest narrative poets of England, was born in London in or about the year 1340. 2. Being specially fond of the great ____________ writer Boccaccio, Chaucer poses a long na

12、rrative poem____________, based upon Boccaccio’s poem __________. 3. Chaucer greatly contributed to the founding of the English literary language, the basis of which was formed by the _________ dialect, so profusely used by the poet. 4. Chaucer’s masterpiece is _____________, one of the most famou

13、s works in all literature. 5. The Prologue is a splendid masterpiece of ___________ portrayal, the first of its kind in the history of English literature. 6. In his greatest work, The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer created a strikingly brilliant and picturesque panorama of his ________________ and his

14、 _____________. 7. Chaucer’s work is permeated with buoyant free-thinking, so characteristic of the age of _____________ whose immediate forerunner Chaucer thus bees. II. Define the literary terms 1. Romance It is a literary genre popular in the Middle Ages, dealing, in verse or prose, with le

15、gendary, supernatural, or amorous subjects and characters. The term was applied to tales specifically concerned with knights, chivalry, and courtly love. Popular subjects for romances included the Macedonian King Alexander the Great, King Arthur of Britain and the knights of the Round Table, and Emp

16、eror Charlemagne. 2. Ballad It is a lyric poem generally of three eight-line stanzas with a concluding stanza of four lines called an envoy. With some variations, the lines of a ballad are iambic or anapestic tetrameter rhyming ababbcbc; the envoy, which forms a personal dedication to some person

17、 of importance or to a personification. The ballad became popular in England in the late 14th century . Renaissance I. plete the following statements with a proper word or a phrase according to the textbook. 1. The 16thcentury in England was a period of the breaking up of ________ relations and

18、 the establishing of the foundations of ____________. 2. The 16th century was a time when, according to Thomas More, “_________〞. 3. The term ____ originally indicated a revival of classic Greek and Roman arts and sciences after the dark ages of obscurantism. (Renaissance) 4. ________ broke off w

19、ith the Pope, dissolved all the monasteries and abbeys in the country, confiscated their lands and proclaimed himself head of ___________. 5. The old English aristocracy having exterminated in the course of _________, a new nobility, totally dependent on the king’s power, came to the fore. 6. At t

20、he beginning of the 16th century the outstanding humanist ________ wrote his Utopia in which he gave a profound and truthful picture of the people’s sufferings and put forward his ideal of a future happy society. 7. Edmund Spenser was the author of the greatest epic poem of the time, ______. 8. Th

21、e greatest of the pioneers of English drama was _________ who reformed that genre in England and perfected the language and verse of dramatic works. 9. William Shakespeare was born on the 23rd of April, _____, in _______, Warwickshire. 10. _________ speaks the famous “To be, or not to be〞 11. Sha

22、kespeare’s sonnets fall into two series: The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man, and the rest (except the last two ones) are addressed to _____. (dark lady) 12. The four great tragedies in Shakespeare’s mature period are _____, __________, _______ and __________. (Hamlet, Othello, King

23、Lear, Macbeth) 13. Pope describe ______ as “the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind〞. 14. Of Bacon’s literary works, the most important are the _________. II. Define the literary terms listed below. 1. Renaissance: Renaissance, meaning “rebirth〞 or “revival〞, marks a transition from the med

24、ieval to the modern world. Generally, it refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries. It first started in Italy, with the flowering of painting, sculpture, architecture, and literature. From Italy the movement spread to the rest of Europe.It is a movement stimulated by a series of h

25、istorical events, such as the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture, the new discoveries in geography and astrology, the religious reformation and the economic expansion. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. The Renaissance humanist thinkers found that human beings were glorious cr

26、eatures capable of individual development in the direction of perfection, and that the world they inhabited was theirs not to despise but to question, explore, and enjoy. To them, nothing was impossible to acplish. Thus, by emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present li

27、fe, they voiced their beliefs that man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of this life, but had the ability to perfect himself and perform wonders. 2. Sonnet It is a lyrical poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme. Traditionally, when writing sonnets, English poets

28、 usually employ iambic pentameter.One of the best-known sonnet writers is Shakespeare, who wrote 154 of them. A Shakespearean sonnet consists of 14 lines, and each line is written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, in which the last two lines are a

29、 rhymed couplet. 3. Allegory: a tale in verse or prose in which characters, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. An allegory is a story with two meanings : a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning 4. Humanism: Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. It emphasizes the dignit

30、y 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 perform wonders III. Literary prehension and Analy

31、sis Shall I pare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold plexion dimmed,And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chan

32、ce, or nature's changing course untrimmed:But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,???So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,???So long lives this, and this gives

33、 life to thee. Questions: 1. By means of what parison does the author achieve this movement from tangible to intangible? Trace his logic to show his movement 2. What does “this〞 refer to in the last line? What is the speaker’s purpose in writing his “eternal lines〞 and what conditions are nec

34、essary for his purpose to be carried out? 1. The author first pares the youth with a summer day, but then says that the youth is more gentle than a summer day. He explains that the summer can be imperfect with the destructive wind and the hot sun, which will be dimmed by overcast and clouds. Then h

35、e announces that the youth will possess eternal beauty and perfection, thus achieves his movement from the tangible natural objects to the intangible youth. 2. “This〞 refers to the poem written by the author. He wants to dedicate this poem to the person described in the poem. The condition is that

36、as long as humans live and breathe on earth with eyes that can see, this is how long these verses will live. And these verses celebrate the youth and continually renew the youth’s life. IV. Answer the following questions briefly. 1. Can you say something about Shakespeare’s characterization?Shake

37、speare is particularly good at character portrayal. During his long dramatic career, he has created a variety of lifelike characters. The major characters in his plays are not simply type ones representing certain group or class of people, but are individuals with strong and distinct personalities.

38、To achieve this, Shakespeare makes frequent use of parisons and contrasts by portraying the characters in pairs or setting them against one another. He also individualizes his characters by emphasizing each one’s dominant and unique qualities, such as the melancholy of Hamlet, the wickedness of Clau

39、dius, the honesty of Othello, the ambition of Macbeth, and the beauty and wit of Portia. In addition, Shakespeare had made profound psycho-analytical studies of his characters by revealing the intricate inner workings of their minds through the full use of soliloquies, from which we can see the brea

40、dth and depth of the characters’ thoughtful feelings. 2. What is the central theme of The Merchant of Venice? The central theme of the play is the triumph of love (between Portia and Bassanio) and friendship (between Antonio and Bassanio) over insatiable greed and brutality (as represented by Shy

41、lock). And the play exalts the ingenious heroine Portia and the two great friends who she eventually saves from the barbarous clutches of the villain (Shylock). A pletely happy ending is brought about when the villain is punished, the merchant’s ships all e about home and the three pairs of lovers l

42、ive happily ever after. Such a conclusion was natural for the playwright as well as for his Elizabethan audience, when anti-semitic sentiments was prevailing in London. Yet even in such an environment, in Shylock’s vociferous plaints of his sufferings resulting from racial discrimination and religio

43、us persecution, we can hear quite unmistakably Shakespeare’s own voice speaking on the Jew’s behalf, and with great vehemence sympathizing with the oppressed Shylock while condemning racial persecution in general. That Shakespeare should sometimes condemn Shylock and sometimes sympathize with him ha

44、s led to much confusion for Shakespearean scholars and critics and the general reading public, and hence the play has been regarded as not a pure edy but a tragic-edy. 3. What do the four heroes in Shakespeare’s great tragedies have in mon?All of them face the injustice of human life and are caugh

45、t in a difficult situation and their fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation. Each hero has his weakness of nature: Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind; the old King Lear who is unwilling to totally give up his power makes himself suf

46、fer from treachery and infidelity; Macbeth’s lust for power stirs up his ambition and leads him to incessant crimes; and Othello was a brave man, but outside the battlefield he had insecurities. 4. The Renaissance period of British Literature. The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic m

47、ovement in England dating from the early 16th century to the 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians were believed originated in northern Italy in the 14th century. The essence of the Renaissance is humanism, which sprang from the endeavor to r

48、estore a medieval reverence for the ancient authors. It is frequently taken as the beginning of the Renaissance on its conscious, intellectual side, for the Greek and Roman civilization was based on such a conception that man is the measure of all things. This era in English cultural history is som

49、etimes referred to as “the Age of Shakespeare〞 or “the Elizabethan Era〞. Playwrights, such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, poses theatrical representations of the English. Poets such as Edmund Spenser and John Milton produces works that demonstrates an increased interest in understan

50、ding English Christian beliefs, such as the allegorical representation of the Tudor Dynasty in The Faerie Queene and the retelling of mankind’s fall from paradise in Paradise Lost. Nearing the end of the Tudor Dynasty, philosophers like Sir Thomas More and Sir Francis Bacon published their own ideas

51、 about humanity and the aspects of perfect society, pushing the limits of metacognition at that time. The 17th century Exercise I. plete the following statements with a proper word or a phrase according to the textbook. 1. The 17th century was a period when absolute monarchy impeded the further

52、 development of _____________ in England and the bourgeoisie could no longer bear the sway of __________. 2. There are religious division and confusion and a long bitter struggle between the people’s Parliament and the Throne--________fighting against the ________ who helped the king. 3. In 1653,

53、Oliver Cromwell imposed a military dictatorship on the country; after his death monarchy was again restored. It was called the period of the __________. 4. in _____, the Glorious Revolution took place. 5. The Glorious Revolution meant three things: the supremacy of _____________, the beginning of

54、_________, and the final triumph of the principle of ________. 6. The puritans believed in _____ of life. 7. Restoration created a literature of its own, that was often __________ and _____________, but on the whole __________ and __________. The most popular genre was that of __________ whose chi

55、ef aim was to entertain the licentious aristocrats. 8. The first thing to strike the reader is Donne’s extraordinary frankness and penetrating _____________. The next is the _________ which marks certain of the lighter poems and which represents a conscious reaction from the extreme __________ of w

56、oman encouraged by the Petrarchan tradition. 9. The poems of John Donne belong to two categories: the youthful love lyrics, and the latter________. (sacred verses) 10. Milton opposed the ________ and gave all his energies to the writing of ___________ dedicated to the people’s liberties. 11. Par

57、adise Lost tells how ____ rebelled against God and how Adam and Eve were driven out of _________. 12. Paradise Lost presents the author’s views in an _________ form. 13. Paradise Lost consists of ________ books. It is based on the ________ legend of the imaginary progenitors of the human race--___

58、_______ and _________. 14. John Milton’s Paradise Lost ends with the departure of _________ from the Garden of Eden. (Adam and Eve) 15. Paradise Lost is a long epic divided into 12 books, the stories of which are taken from ______. (The Old Testament) 16. Milton gave us the only __________ since

59、Beowulf, and Bunyan gave us the only great _________. 17. Bunyan’s most important work is _______, written in the old-fashioned, medieval form of ___________ and _________. 18. _________ is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. (The Pilgrim’s Progress) 19. The Pilgrim’s

60、Progress begins with a man called _______ setting out with a book in his hand a great load on his back from the city of _________. 20. _________is famous for his metaphysical conceit, that is, a parison between the two strikingly resembling objects. (John Donne) 21. Samson Agoniste was written by

61、______. (John Milton) 22. “If thou be’est he—but oh how fallen! How unchanged /From him!—who in the happy realms of light,/clothed with transcendent brightness,/did’st outshine/Myriads, though bright…〞 are the lines from Milton’s ________ spoken to Beelzebub by ______. (Paradise Lost, Satan) II. D

62、efine the literary terms listed below 1. Metaphysical poetry The term “metaphysical poetry〞 is monly used to designate the works of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. Pressured by harsh, unfortable, and curious age, the metaphysical poets sought to shat the tradi

63、tions and replace them with new philosophies, new sciences, new worlds and new poetry. Thus, with a rebellious spirit, they tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, in particular the Petrarchan tradition, which is full of refined language, polished rhyming scheme

64、s and eulogy to ideal love, and favored in poetry for a more colloquial language and tone, a tightness of expression and the single-minded working out of a theme or argument. Their poetry offers logical reasoning of the objects, psychological analysis of the emotions of love and religion, prefers th

65、e novel and the shocking, uses the metaphysical conceits, and ignores the conventional metric devices. Since John Donne links up a wide range of ideas, explores a plex attitude of the mind, and uses his wit and ingenious conceits to put human experiences into poetry, he is generally regarded as the

66、leading member of the school. 2. Carpe Diem; A tradition dating back to classical Greek and Latin poetry and particularly popular among English Cavalier poets. Carpe Diem means literally “seize the day〞, that is, “l(fā)ive for today〞 3. Genre: A literary species or form, e.g., tragedy, epic, edy, novel, essay, biography, lyric poem. III. IV. Answer the following questions. 1. ment on John Donne’s style. Most of Donne’s poems employ a central speaker who takes effort to argue, to persuade, to