文艺复兴时期英国文学

Part Two The English Renaissance
(later 15th century - early 17th century)
I. Historical background
1. Politically, a centralized monarchy (the Tudor Dynasty) was established after the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) and the War of Roses (1455-1485).
2. Economically, stimulated by the Enclosure Movement, the wool trade was rapidly growing and manufactories were developing, which paved the way for the overseas commercial expansion.
3. Socially, many peasants were forced to leave the land and settled down in towns because of the enclosure movement. The two opposite classes came into being, the capitalist and the laboring class. Therefore, the 16th century in England was a period of the breaking up of feudal relations and the establishing of the foundation of capitalism.
4. Religiously, the Church of England was re-established, ending the long time religious strife. The Protestant Reformation was in essence a political movement in a religious guise, a part of the long struggle of the bourgeois class for power.
5. Culturally, together with the development of bourgeois relationships and formation of the English state, this period is marked by a flourishing of national culture know as Renaissance.
II. Renaissance
1. The Renaissance: an intellectual movement sprang first in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. People had a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature. People showed the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.
The Renaissance, therefore, is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholar tried to get rid of those old feudalistic ideas in Medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that express the interests of the rising bourgeoisie and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman catholic church.
2. The English Renaissance: stretched from later 15th century to early 17th century. From the first half of the 16th century, the English Renaissance began to develop into a flowering of literature. The highest glory of the English Renaissance is drama.
名词解释Humanism: Humanism emphasized the dignity and potential of individual and the worth of life in this world. Man is the measure of all things. Man has ability to perfect themselves, to develop the individual. Man should enjoy the present life.
III. Literary features in this period
1. Translation occupied on important place in the English Renaissance; classical works of Greek and Latin, Italian and French were translated into English.
2. A large amount of books describing discoveries and adventures.
3. Poetry flourished; sonnet and blank verse were introduced to England.
4. The highest glory of English Renaissance is drama.
IV. Major writers and works
A. Essays:
1. Thomas More —Utopia (Latin: nowhere)
A Utopia is an ideal society in which the social, political, and economic evils afflicting human k
2. Francis Bacon —Essays (the first English essayist)
B. Poetry
1. Thomas Wyatt —the first to introduce the Sonnet into English literature
2. Edmund Spenser —“The Fairy Queen”
C. Drama
1. William Shakespeare
2. Christopher Marlowe —made “Blank Verse” the principle vehicle of expression in drama for the first time in history.
IV. Thomas More & Francis Bacon。