英国文学名词解释

The University wits: is a phrase used to name a group of late-16th-century and pamphleteers who were educated at the universities ( or ) and who became popular secular writers. Prominent members of this group were , , and from , and , , from . is also sometimes included in the group, though he is not believed to have studied at university. Others who have been identified as University Wits include and , likely both Oxford men.

This diverse and talented loose association of London writers and dramatists set the stage for the theatrical Renaissance of Elizabethan England. They are identified as among the earliest professional writers in English, and prepared the way for

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Renaissance: a revival or rebirth of the artistic and scientific revival which originated in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. It has two features: a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature and keen interest in activities of humanity.

Sonnet: 14-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter.

Neoclassicism: the Enlightenment brought about a revival of interest in Greek and Roman works. This tendency is known as Neoclassicism. In literature, neoclassicists thought that all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers and those of the contemporary French ones. They held that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity Sentimentalism: it was one of the important trends in English literature of the later decades of the 18th century. It concentrated on the free expression of thoughts and emotions, and presented a new view of human nature which prized feeling over thinking, passion over reason.

English Romanticism 英国浪漫主义

a literary movement that aimed at free expression of the writer’s ideas and feelings and flourished in the early 19th century England. A great representative of this movement is Percy Bysshe Shelley, the author of “Ode to the West Wind”.

Imagination, emotion and freedom are certainly the focal points of romanticism. The particular characteristics of the literature of romanticism include: subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; freedom from rules; solitary life rather then life in society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason; and love of and worship of nature.

Gothic Novel/Romance: Gothic novel is a type of romantic fiction that predominated one phase of the Romantic Movement. Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural. They are so named because “Gothic” architecture such as castles or monasteries equipped with subterranean passages, dark battlements, hidden panels, and trapdoors dating from the middle ages is invariably the setting for the elements of horror in them. The first genuine Gothic romance in 18th century English literature is Horace Walpole s the Castle of Otranto, which is believed to have begun the tradition of gothic romance in English literature.