英美文学导论论文

Survey of British Literature

材控1102班付兰平2011010883

Abstract: As we all know,literature is a kind of arts and reflect social reality.For British literature,we can devided it into seven different periods.From these periods,we can understand about all the British literature.

Key words: Old and Medieval periods, Medieval periods, The Renaissance Period, The Neoclassical Period, The Romantic Period, The V ictorian Period, Twentieth Century Literature

1.Old and Medieval periods (450---1066)

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the withdrawal of Roman troops from Albion , the aboriginal Celtic population of the larger part of the island was soon conquered and almost totally exterminated by the Teutonic tribes of Angles , Saxons and Jutes who came from the continent and settled in the island , naming its central part Anglia , or England.

For nearly four hundred years prior to the coming of the English , Britain had been a Roman province . In 410 A.D. the Romans withdrew their legions from Britain to protect Rome herself against swarms of Teutonic invaders . About 449 a band of Teutons , called Jutes , left Denmark , landed on the Isle of Thanet .

W arriors from the tribes of the Angles and the Saxons soon followed , and drove westward the original inhabitants.

The literature of this period falls naturally into two divisions , ---Religious and Secular . In reading the earliest poetry of England it is well to remember that all of it was copied by the monks , and seems to have been more or less altered to give it a religious coloring.

The Song of Beowulf can be justly termed England’s national epic and its hero Beowulf ---one of the national heroes of the English people .

The only existing manuscript of The Song of Beowulf was written by an unknown scribe at the beginning of the 10th century and was not discovered until 1750 .The Song was composed much earlier , and reflects events which took place on the Continent approximately at the beginning of the 6th century , when the forefathers of the Jutes lived in the southern part of the Scandinavian peninsula and maintained close relations with kindred tribes , e.g. with the Danes who lived on the other side of the straits.

2.Medieval periods (1066---mid-14th century)

In the year 1066 , at the battle of Hastings , the Normans headed by William , Duke of Normandy , defeated the

Anglo-Saxons.

The Normans were originally a hardy race of sea rovers inhabiting Scandinavia . In the tenth century they conquered a part

of northern France , which is still called Normandy , and rapidly adopted French civilization and the French language . Their conquest of Anglo-Saxon England under William , Duke of Normandy , began with the battle of Hastings in 1066 .

The literature which they brought to England is remarkable for its bright , romantic tales of love and adventure , in marked contrast with the strength and somberness of Anglo-Saxon poetry . During the strength three centuries Anglo-Saxon speech simplified itself by dropping of its Teutonic inflection , absorbed eventually a large part of the French vocabulary , and became the English language . English literature is also a combination of French and Saxon elements .

3.The Renaissance Period (mid-14th ---mid-17th century)

The 16th century in English was a period of the breaking up of feudal relations and the establishing of the foundations of capitalism .

Manufactories were developing and the wool trade was rapidly growing in bulk . The enclosure of commons drove thousands of peasants off their lands and many of them settled in towns .

New social and economic conditions brought about great changes in the development of science and art .

Together with the development of bourgeois relationships and formation of the English national state this period is marked by a flourishing of national culture known as the Renaissance .

The greatest of all English authors , William Shakespeare belongs to those rare geniuses of mankind who have become landmarks in the history of world culture . The works of William Shakespeare are a great landmark in the history of world literature for he was one of the first founders of realism , a masterhand at realistic portrayal of human characters and relations .

His first original play written in about 1590 was King Henry Ⅵ,parts two and three , the first part having been written earlier by another dramatist and only retouched by Shakespeare . During the twenty-two years of his literary work he produced 37 plays , two narrative poems and 154 sonnets .

His literary work may be divided into three major periods : the first period from 1590 to 1600 , the second from 1601 to 1608 , and the third from 1609 to 1612 .

Hamlet is considered to be summit of Shakespeare’s art . It was written in 1602-1620 and first published in 1603 . Shakespeare took a certain story of Prince Amleth from old sources which can be

traced to the 12th century .

Under Shakespeare’s pen the medieval story assumed new meaning and significance . Danish names could not hide from the spectators and readers the fact that it was English which the great writer described in his play . The whole tragedy is permeated with the spirit of Shakespeare’s own time . Hamlet is the profoundest expression of Shakespeare’s humanism and his criticism of contemporary life .

A study of Bacon takes us beyond the limits of the reign of Elizabeth , but not beyond the continued influences of that reign . Bacon belongs with Sidney and Raleigh in that group of Elizabethans who aimed to be men of affairs , politicians , reformers ,explorers , rather than writers of prose or poetry . He was of noble birth , and from an early age was attached to Elizabeth’s court . Bacon was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon , Lord Keeper of the Seal , and of the learned Ann Cook ,sister-in-law to Lord Burleigh , greatest of the queen’s statesmen . From these connections , as well as from native gift , he was attracted to the court , and as a child was called by Elizabeth her “Little Lord Keeper” .

On a December day in 1680 , while Shakespeare was still writing his great plays , another great English poet was born in

London . He was John Milton.

Milton’s father made a business of preparing law papers , and was a prosperous man . He was a prosperous man .He was a Puritan , but not so harsh as most of the Puritans of his day , for he loved music and taught his boy to love it . He also loved books , and young John Milton began to show , when a very small boy , that he loved them , too . His father had a private teacher for him , and when scarcely more than ten years old the boy wrote good verses and sat up later than was good for him over his studies .

4.The Neoclassical Period(1660-1700)

The 17th century was one of the most tempestuous periods in English history . It was a period when absolute monarchy impeded the further development of capitalism in English and the bourgeoisie could no longer bear the sway of landed nobility . The contradictions between the feudal system and the bourgeoisie had reached its peak and resulted in a revolutionary outburst .

To Defoe is often given the credit for discovery of the modern novel ; but whether or not he deserves that honour is an open question . Even a casual reading of Robinson Crusoe (1719), which generally heads the list of modern fiction , shows that this exciting tale is largely an adventure story , rather than the study of human character which Defoe probably intended it to be .

The drama of the eighteenth century was extensive , but very little of it has permanent literary or acting value . W e have noted the dramatic work of Addison and Steele in the early part of the century . Within the Age of Johnson several men tried their hands at dramatic work . Thomson , the poet , wrote dramas which are now all but forgotten . Y oung produced a tragedy called The Revenge . Johnson , who appears in all forms of literature , was the author of a cold and stately classical tragedy named Irene . Fielding wrote a number of comedies before he found his true vocation as a novelist , but none of them would have preserved his fame to posterity . Of the many minor dramatists there is no occasion to speak . Only two men , Goldsmith and Sheridan , produced works which are of high literary quality and which still retain their interest upon the stage . Goldsmith’s two comedies The Good-Natured Man and She Stoops to Conquer, having already received due attention , and it only remains to speak briefly of the dramatic works of Sheridan.

5.The Romantic Period (1798---1832)

Romanticism as a literary movement came into being in English early in the latter half of the 18th century . It first made its appearance in English as a renewed interest in medieval literature . The movement was ushered by Thomas Percy , James Macpherson and Thomas Chatterton . William Blake and Robert Burns

represented the spirit of what is usually called Pre-Romanticism .

George Gordon , Lord Byron , was born in 1788 , of a noble family notorious for their passionate temper , their amatory adventures , and their thriftlessness . To his extraordinary physical beauty , his lameness added a touch of pathos . Personal fascination was his from the first . He mastered his little world of school-fellows at Harrow with the same power of personality which later took captive the imagination of Europe . His first volume of poems , Hours of Idleness, an immature little book , was mercilessly ridiculed in the Edinburgh review . Byron nursed his revenge , and in 1809 he published a vigorous onslaught upon his critics , entitled English Bards and Scotch Reviewers .This poem is written in the manner of Pope , for whom Byron always professed admiration , and is not unworthy of his school , either in mastery of the heroic couplet or in energy of satire . It is significant that Byron’s first performance should have been conceived in a satiric vein , and educed by a blow to his personal pride.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1972 , just when the eyes of all Europe were fixed in hope and fear upon France , and the stars fought in their courses for the triumph of a new order . The short remainder of his life is marked by many great poems , some of considerable length , like the Sensitive Plant and Adonais; others

shorter , among them the wonderful Old to the W est Wind , and the best known of all Shelley’s lyrics , To a Sky Lark .

6.The Victorian Period (1836---1901)

The precisian may limit the V ictorian period to the years between the Queen’s accession in 1837 and her dearth in 1901 , but a new era really began with the passage of the Reform Bill in 1832 and closed at the end of the Boer W ar in 1902 . The seven decades between these two dates are often divided into three phrases of national life , what is called the “Mid-V ictorian”period being considered as embracing the years 1855 to 1879 from the ascendancy of Palmerston to the great economic depression .

Out of the vast host of V ictorian novelists , the three greatest , Dickens , Thackeray , and George Eliot , will be selected for special study . The first of these to achieve fame was Charles Dickens . This man , who was to become a great portrayer of child life , had a sad , painful childhood . His industry was tremendous , and before Pickwick was finished , Oliver Twist , 1837—1838 , began to appear in a monthly magazine .

Charlotte and Emily Bronte were born in Thornton , Y orkshire , but they were undoubtedly of Celtic blood , for their mother came from Cornwall and their father was born in Ireland . Charlotte set to work on a new novel , Jane Eyre , which was published in August ,

1847 . This poetic , imaginative story of the love of a young governess for her married employer also has undoubted connections with Charlotte’s experiences in Brussels . It was an immediate success with both readers and most of the critics . Emily and Anne had been more successful in getting their first novels accepted , and in December , 1847 , a joint book appeared , containing Anne’s Agnes Grey and Emily’s only novel , Wuthering Heights ; neither work attracted much attention . Like Jane Eyre , they were published under the sister’s pseudonyms .

7.Twentieth Century Literature

The long and progressive reign of Queen V ictoria came to a climax in the Diamond Jubilee Y ear , a time of peace and plenty when the British Empire seemed to be at the summit of its power and security . Of the discord that soon followed we shall here note only two factors which had large influence on contemporary English literature .

Only a nation that enters on a dangerous course with eyes wide open has any chance of a safe way out , and the imperialistic nations were all alike blind . An inevitable result was the First World W ar and the greater horror of a Second W orld W ar , the two calamities being different acts of the same tragedy of imperialism , separated only by a breathing spell .

Another factor that influenced literature for the worse was a widespread demand for social reform of every kind ; not slow and orderly reform , which is progress , but immediate and intemperate reform , which breeds a spirit of rebellion and despair .