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1、Renaissance: The period in European history that began at late 14th century in Italy through 15th century and 16th century，Following Middle Ages;It is the dividing line between the Middle Ages and the Modern Ages. European culture reached eminence; came to England in 16th centuryWars of Roses (royal
2、 power, noble houses of York and Lancaster)Establishment of Tudor dynasty (1485-1603)Renaissance humanism:It is an approach in study, philosophy, or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. It is a philosophy that places faith in the dignity of humankind and rejects the medieval perceptio
3、n of the individual as a weak, fallen creature.FeaturesNew learning：Greek knowledge, printing; cultivated Renaissance aristocracy, “The Courtier”New religion: Martin Luther challenging Roman Catholic church, direct transaction with GodNew world: Columbus; economic exploitationNew cosmos: Copernicus,
4、 the center being the sun, not the earth; Descartes (Give me extension and motion, and I will construct the universe); EnlightenmentWomen of the Renaissance (Margaret L. King)Elizabethan AgeThis is a period of the flowering time of English literature.University Wits: A group of people wrote for the
5、stage of the time and survive by writing skillsChurch and theatres: morality plays; attacks on theatres by church (breeding grounds for infection)Elements of Drama: Protagonists:Antagonists,Exposition,Suspense,Rising Action,Climax,Falling action:Aside独白: inaudible to other characters TragedyRepresen
6、tations of serious actions which eventuate in a disastrous conclusion for the protagonist (the chief character)ComedyIt is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse and to interest.SonnetIt is one of several forms of lyric poetry originating in Europe. A fourteen-line poem usually composed
7、in iambic pentameter, employing one of several rhyme schemes. In Shakespeares sonnets, the rhyme pattern is abab cdcd efef gg, with the final couplet used to summarize the previous 12 lines or present a surprise ending.An iamb is a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable and one unstressed
8、 syllable as in dah-DUM, dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM.five of these in each line, which makes it a pentameter.Lyric poetryIt is a form of poetry with rhyming schemes that express personal and emotional feelings.SoliloquyA monologue in a drama used to give the audience information and to develop t
9、he speakers character. It is typically a projection of the speakers innermost thoughts. Usually delivered while the speaker is alone on stage, a soliloquy is intended to present an illusion of unspoken reflection.Rhyme: This term generally refers to a poem in which words sound identical or very simi
10、lar and appear in parallel positions in two or more lines.Alliteration: A poetic device where the first consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in words or syllables are repeated.Meter: The repetition of sound patterns creates a rhythm in Poetry. The patterns are based on the number of syllables and th
11、e presence and absence of accents. The unit of rhythm in a line is called a Foot. Types of meter are classified according to the number of feet in a line.Foot: The smallest unit of rhythm in a line of Poetry.ImageryImaginary: uses of language in a literary work that evoke sense-impressions by refere
12、nce to concrete objects, scenes, actions, or states.Appeal to sensesMetaphor: one idea is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting another thing, idea so as to suggest some common quality shared by the two.Imaginary identity rather than directly stated as a comparison. He is a pig. He i
13、s like a pig. (simile)Ode Elaborately formal lyric poem Address to a person or entity Serious and elevated in tone Greek choral odes: praise of athletes Horaces privately reflective odes in Latin Horatian odes: same form of stanza is repeated regularly Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nighti
14、ngaleHeroic Couplet: A rhyming couplet written in iambic pentameter (a Verse with five iambic feet).Stanza:A stanza consists of a grouping of lines, set off by a space that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme.The Middle Ages: a period of enormous historical, social, and linguistic changeThe
15、 Protestant Reformation: It is a movement which emphasis on the authority of scripture and salvation by faith alone (Henry VIIIs insistence on divorcing his wife, Catherine of Aragon, against the wishes of the Pope)Restoration It refers to the restoration of Charles II to his realms across the Briti
16、sh Empire.1660-1785Epic It is a long narrative poem about the adventures of a hero of great historic or legendary importance. Epics are typically written in a classical style of grand simplicity with elaborate metaphors and allusions that enhance the symbolic importance of a heros adventures.Paradox
17、悖论It is a statement that appears illogical or contradictory at first, but may actually point to an underlying truth.HyperboleIt is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech.Valediction告别辞It is a statement made as a farewell.Novel It is a long fictional prose work.Picaresque
18、novel It is a series of loosely strung episodes about an adventurer or a lovable rogue.Novel of sentiment It is a moral tale of romance and tears.Novel of manners: witty society tales.Tone It is the authors implicit attitudes toward people.Irony It is the effect of language in which the intended mea
19、ning is the opposite of what is stated. It reveals reality different from what it appears to be.Symbol ：Anything that stands for something else beyond itan idea conventionally associated with it. Evocative image; concrete object with further significance; differing from metaphor in that its applicat
20、ion is left open as an unstated suggestion.Allusion: A reference to a familiar literary or historical person or event, used to make an idea more easily understood.Classicism Admiration of the qualities of formal balance, proportion, decorum, and restraint attributed to the major works of ancient Gre
21、ek and Roman literature. Condemned romantic self-expression as eccentric self-indulgence. Doctrines of Matthew Arnold and more especially of T. S. Eliot are classicistNeoclassicismCodified form of classicism that dominated French literature in the 17th and 18th centuries, with a significant influenc
22、e on English writing, especially from 1660 to 1780In contrast with Romanticism- “Age of Reason”It is emerged from rediscovery of Aristotles Poetics (4th century BC) by Italian scholars in the 16th century.Etching: a method of making prints from a metal plate, usually copper, into which the design ha
23、s been incised by acid.Etching: a unity of the corporeal and the spiritualthe contraries: creatively opposite and necessary / complementary to form a united wholeTetrameter Line: eight syllables. Trochaic Foot抑扬格诗句: a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Catalexis: absence of a syll
24、able in the final foot in a line. In Blakes poem, an unstressed syllable is absent in the last foot of each line. Thus, every line has seven syllables, not the conventional eight. Alliteration头韵: A poetic device where the first consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in words or syllables are repeated.
25、Blank Verse: unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.Ballad: A short poem that tells a simple story and has a repeated refrain. Ballads were originally intended to be sung. Early ballads, known as folk ballads, were passed down through generations, so their authors are often unknown. Later ballads compo
26、sed by known authors are called literary balladsRhymed couplet A rhyming couplet written in iambic pentameter (a Verse with five iambic feet).Enlightenment: Age of Reason, late 17th century to late 18th century especially in France and Switzerland. Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Locke, human reason to cl
27、ear away superstition. Faith in human progress brought about by propagation of rational principlesEdward Burke, Thomas Paine “Negative Capability”the ability to bask in the beautiful without questioning either it or his methods of description. In other words to take beauty simply as it is.Theme(1) t
28、he abstract concept explored in a literary work; (2) frequently recurring ideas, such as enjoy-life while-you-can; (3) repetition of a meaningful element in a work, such as references to sight, vision, and blindness in Oedipus Rex. Sometimes the theme is also called the motif. A theme in Keatss Ode
29、to a Nightingale is the difficulty of correlating the ideal and the real.Metaphysical Poetry It is a complex, highly intellectual verse filled with intricate and far-fetched metaphors. The body of poetry produced by a group of seventeenth-century English writers called the Metaphysical Poets. The gr
30、oup includes John Donne and Andrew Marvell. The Metaphysical Poets made use of everyday speech, intellectual analysis, and unique imagery. They aimed to portray the ordinary conflicts and contradictions of life. Their poems often took the form of an argument, and many of them emphasize physical and
31、religious love as well as the fleeting nature of life. Elaborate conceits are typical in metaphysical poetry.Metaphysical Poets: a group of 17th century English poets whose work is notable for its ingenious use of intellectual concepts in surprising conceits, strange paradoxes, and far-fetched image
32、ry.Oedipus Complex: A sons amorous obsession with his mother. The phrase is derived from the story of the ancient Theban hero Oedipus, who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother.Tragic Flaw悲剧性缺陷: In a tragedy, the quality within the hero or heroine which leads to his or her downfall. E
33、xamples of the tragic flaw include Othellos jealousy and Hamlets indecisiveness, although most great tragedies defy such simple interpretation.Unities: (Also known as Three Unities.) Strict rules of dramatic structure, formulated by Italian and French critics of the Renaissance and based loosely on
34、the principles of drama discussed by Aristotle in his Poetics. Foremost among these rules were the three unities of action, time, and place that compelled a dramatist to: (1) construct a single plot with a beginning, middle, and end that details the causal relationships of action and character; (2)
35、restrict the action to the events of a single day; and (3) limit the scene to a single place or city. The unities were observed faithfully by continental European writers until the Romantic Age, but they were never regularly observed in English drama. Modern dramatists are typically more concerned w
36、ith a unity of impression or emotional effect than with any of the classical unities.RomanticismIt, as a literary movement, took place in Britain and then throughout the whole Europe roughly between 1770 and 1848, emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the person
37、al, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.Omniscience: The narrator is capable of knowing, seeing, and telling whatever he wishes in the story. Characterized by freedom in shifting from the exterior world to the inner selves of a number of characters and by a freedom
38、in movement both in time and place. What is irony? A subtly humorous perception of inconsistency, in which an apparently straightforward statement or event is undermined by its context so as to give it a very different significanceessay: short composition that discusses its subject in nontechnical fashion; persuades us to accept a thesis on any subject.