英美文学术语解释(12)

Theme means t he unifying point or general idea of a literary work. 2>it provides an answer to such question as “what is the work about” 3>each literary work carries its own theme or themes. 03. First-person narrative(第一人称小说)

First person narrative is also called first person point of view. Which is used in the analysis and criticism of fiction of describe the way in which the writer presents the reader with the materials of the story.

04. Harlem Renaissance(哈姆莱复兴)

Harlem Renaissance refers to a period of outstanding literary vigor and creativity that occurred in the United states during the 1920s.

2> the Harlem Renaissance changed the images of literature created by many black and white American writers. New black images were no longer obedient and docile. Instead they showed a new confidence and racial pride.

3> the center of this movement was the vast black ghetto of Harlem. In New York City. 4> the leading figures are Langston Hughes, James W. Johnson、etc 05. Black humor(黑色幽默)

Black humor is also known as black comedy. It is a kind of writing that places grotesque elements side by side with humorous ones in an attempt to shock the reader, forcing him or her to laugh at the horrifying reality of a disordered world. it is humor out of despair and laughter out of tears. 2> black humor conveys anguish and fury at conditions in which institutionalized absurdity gets the upper hand. It intends to satirize hypocrisy, materialism, racial prejudice, and above all, the dehumanization of the individual by a modern society. Black humor prevails in Modern American literature.

06. Theatre of the Absurd(荒谬剧)

The absurd is a kind of drama that explains an existential ideology and presents a view of the absurdity of the human condition by the abandoning of usual or rational devices and the use of nonrealistic form.

2>the most original playwright of the theater of absurd is Samuel beckett, who wrote about human beings living a meaningless life in a alien, decaying world. 07. Darwinism(达尔文主义)

Darwinism is a term that comes from Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory.

2> Darwinists think that those who survive in the world are the fittest and those who fail to adapt themselves to the environment will perish. They believe that man has evolved from lower forms of life. Humans are special not because God created them in his image. But because they have successfully adapted to changing genetically.

3> influenced by this theory, some American naturalist writers apply Darwinism as an explanation of human nature and social reality. 08. American Dream(美国梦)

American Dream refers to the dream of material success. In which one, regardless of social status, acquires wealth and gains success by working hard and good luck.

2> in literature, the theme of American Dream recurs in The Great Gatsby comes from the west to the east with the dream of material success. the novel tells the shattering of American Dream rather than its success. 09. Anti-novel(反小说)

A term coined by French critic J.P. Sartre. It refers to any experimental work of fiction that avoids certain traditional elements of novel-writing like the analysis of characters’ states of mind.

2> the anti-novel usually fragments and distorts the experience of its characters, forcing the reader to construct the reality of the story from a disordered narrative. 10.Vorticism(漩涡派)

Vorticism is a short-lived 20th century art movement related to futurism. Its members sought to simplify forms into machinelike angularity. 11. Metafiction(元小说)

Metafiction, fiction about fiction; or more especially a kind of fiction that openly comments on its own fiction status. The term is normally used for

works that involve a significant degree of self-consciousness about themselves as fictions, in ways that go beyond occasional apologetic addresses to the reader. A notable modern example is john fowles’s The French lieutenant’s woman, in

which Fowles interrupts the narrative to explain his procedures, and offers the reader alternative endings. 元小说就是关于小说的小说,即小说公开开它自身的文学地位.它既沿用小说这种体裁的现实主义原则,同时又竭力破坏这些原则,

它以彻底的自我观照形式,关注小说自身的虚构和纪实的过程而非其结果.著名的现代例子是约翰.福尔斯的<法国中尉的女人>,在这部小说中福尔斯就打破了小说叙事.其间穿插解释他的写作过程,让读者选择不同的结局.