名词解释
1.Epic (史诗)（appeared in the the Anglo-Saxon Period ）
It is a narrative of heroic action, often with a principal hero, usually mythical in its content, grand in its style, offering inspiration and ennoblement within a particular culture or national tradition.
A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated.
Epic is an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, like Homer’s Iliad & Odysy. It usually celebrates the feats of one or more legendary or traditional heroes. The action is simple, but full of magnificence.
Today, some long narrative works, like novels that reveal an age & its people, are also called epic.
E.g. Beowulf （ the pagan（异教徒），cular(非宗教的) poetry） Iliad 《伊利亚特》，Odysy《奥德赛》 Paradi Lost 《失乐园》，The Divine Comedy《神曲》
2.Romance （传奇）(Anglo-Norman feudal England)
•Romance is any imaginative literature that is t in an idealized world and that deals with heroic adventures and battles between good characters and villains or monsters.
•Originally, the term referred to a medieval (中世纪) tale dealing with the love and adventures of kings, queens, knights, and ladies, and including supernatural happenings.
Form: long composition, in ver, in pro
Content: description of life and adventures of a noble hero
Character: a knight, a man of noble birth, skilled in the u of weapons; often described as riding forth to ek adventures, taking part in tournaments(骑士比武), or fighting for his lord in battles; devoted to the church and the king
•Romance lacks general remblance to truth or reality.
•It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtues.
•It contains perilous (dangerous) adventures more or less remote from ordinary life.
•It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to a fair lady.
①The Romance Cycles/Groups/Divisions
Three Groups
●matters of Britain Adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table （亚瑟王和他的圆桌骑士）
●matters of France Emperor Charlemagne and his peers
●matters of Rome Alexander the Great and the attacks of Troy
Le Morte D’Arthur （亚瑟王之死）
②Class Nature (阶级性) of the Romance
Loyalty to king and lord was the theme of the romances, as loyalty was the corner-stone（the most important part基石）of feudal morality.
The romances were compod not for the common but for the noble, of the noble, and by the poets patronized（supported 庇护,保护） by the noble.
3. Alliteration（押头韵）: a repeated initial(开头的) consonant(协调,一致) to successive(连续的) words.
e.g. 1.To his kin the kindest, keenest for prai. 2.Sing a song of southern singer
4. Understatement（低调陈述）（for ironical humor）
not troublesome: very welcome
need not prai: a right to condemn
5. Chronicle《编年史》（a monument of Old English pro）
6. Ballads （民谣）（The most important department of English folk literature ）
①Definition:
A ballad is a narrative poem that tells a story, and is usually meant to be sung or recited in musical form.
An important stream of the Medieval folk literature
②Features of English Ballads
1. The ballads are in various English and Scottish dialects.
2. They were created collectively and revid when handed down from mouth to mouth.
3. They are mainly the literature of the peasants, and give an outlook of the English common people in feudal society.
③Stylistic （风格上） Features of the Ballads
1. Compod in couplets （相连并押韵的两行诗,对句） or in quatrains （四行诗） known as the ballad stanza （民谣诗节 ）, rhyming abab or abcb, with the first and third lines carrying 4 accented syllables （重读音节） and the cond and fourth carrying 3.
2. Simple, plain language or dialect （方言，土语） of the common people with colloquial （口语的，会话的）, vivid and, sometimes, idiomatic （符合当地语言习惯的） expressions
3. Telling a good story with a vivid prentation around the central plot.
4. Using a high proportion of dialogue with a romantic or tragic dimension （方面） to achieve dramatic effect.
④Subjects of English Ballads
1. struggle of young lovers
2. conflict between love and wealth
3. cruelty of jealousy
4. criticism of the civil war
5. matters of class struggle
7. Heroic couplet （英雄双韵体）（introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer）
