英美文学选读笔记

英美文学选读笔记

Part one English literature

1.Beowulf,a typical example of Old English poetry, is regarded today as

the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons.《贝奥武甫》是古代英国政治的典型代表，今天被认为是盎格鲁-撒克逊人的民族史诗。

2.Romance which uses narrative verse or prose to sing knightly

adventures or other heroic deeds is a popular literary form in the medieval period.在中世纪，以叙事诗或散文歌颂骑士冒险或其他英雄事迹的浪漫文学是一种流行的文学形式。

3.However ,it is Chaucer alone who,for the first time in English

literature,presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life in his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales.然而，在英国文学中，只有乔叟第一次向我们展示了他那个时代英国社会的全面的现实主义图景，并在他的杰作《坎特伯雷故事集》中创造了一大批来自各行各业的生动人物。

4.Edmund Spenser paid tribute to him as his master;many of

Shakespeare’s plays show thorough assimilation of Chaucer’s comic spirit.埃德蒙·斯宾塞称赞他为自己的大师;莎士比亚的许多剧作完全吸收了乔叟的喜剧精神。

Chapter 1 The Renaissance Period

5.The Renaissance marks a transition from the medieval 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 and literature.From Italy the movement went to embrace the rest of Europe. 文艺复兴标志着中世纪向现代世界的过渡，一般指14世纪到17世纪中期。它最早起源于意大利,伴随着绘画、雕塑和文学的繁荣,而后文艺复兴浪潮席卷整个欧洲。

6.The Renaissance ,which means rebirth or revival,is actually a

movement stimulated by a series of historical events,such as the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture,the new discoveries on geography and astrology,the religious reformation and economic expansion.文艺复兴，即重生或复兴，实际上是一系列历史事件所激发的运动，如古罗马和希腊文化的重新发现，地理和占星术的新发现，宗教改革和经济扩张。

7.The Renaissance,therefore ,in essence,is a historical period in which

the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe,to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie,and to recover the purity of early church from the corruption of Roman Catholic Church. 因此,文艺复兴时期,从本质上说,是欧洲人文主义思想家和学者试图摆脱旧的封建思想，推行代表新型城市资产阶

级利益的新思想，并恢复早起宗教的纯洁性，原理腐败的罗马天主教廷的一场运动。

8.The Renaissance was slow in reaching England not only because of

England’s separation from the Continent but also because of its domestic unrest.文艺复兴之所以迟迟未能到达英国，不仅因为英国脱离了欧洲大陆，还因为英国国内动荡不安.

9.But it was not only the reign of Henry VIII ( from 1509 to 1547 ) that

the Renaissance really began to show its effect in England.With Henry VIII’s encouragement, the Oxford reformers,scholars and humanists introduced classical literature to cation,based upon the classics and the Bible,was revitalized,and literature,already much read during the 15th century, became even more popular.但是，直到在亨利八世统治时期(1509年到1547年)，文艺复兴才真正开始在英国产生影响。在亨利八世的鼓励下，牛津的改革者、学者和人文主义者把古典文学引进了英国。以经典著作和《圣经》为基础的教育重新焕发了生机，15世纪时就已被广泛阅读的文学作品变得更加流行。

10.T hus began the English Renaissance,which was perhaps England’s

Golden Age,especially in literature.Among the literary giants were Shakespeare,Spenser,Jonson,Sidney,Marlowe,Bacon,and Donne.The English Renaissance had no sharp break with the past .Attitudes and feelings which had been characteristic of the 14th and 15th centuries