整理英国文学史bysummer

Chapter1 Early and Medieval Literature

Three stages of English literary development:

The Roman Conquest（55BC——410AD）

The Anglo-Saxon Period（410——1066AD）

Three tribes：Jutes，the Angles，and the Saxons

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle盎格鲁撒克逊编年史

The greatest literary achievement during this period is Beowulf。Beowulf贝奥武甫——epic，alliteration

★Epic: a long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down. ★The whole epic is divided into two parts and tells of two major events in the life of Beowulf.①He kills a monster;②He fights a dragon.

The Norman Conquest(1066-------1350AD)

下层：ballad民谣（ballads which are the most important parts of English folk literature）

上层：chivalry骑士文学：Sir Gawain and the Green Knight （alliteration verse）

★Most of the English romances deal with three major themes: Ⅰ.The Matter of Britain——which is about the adventures of King

Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table

Ⅱ.The Matter of France——which is about Emperor Charlemagne and his peers

Ⅲ.The Matter of Rome——which is about tales of antiquity

Geoffrey Chaucer

★The Father of English Poetry

时代：The Middle Ages

作品：Ⅰ.The Canterbury Tales坎特伯雷故事集（The prologue is a splendid masterpiece of realistic portrayal, the first of its kind in the history of English literature.The structure of the Canterbury Tales indebted to Boccaccio’s Decamer十日谈）

作品特点：Chaucer was one of the first English poets to use the five-stress line, a decasyllabic cousin to the iambic pentameter, in much of his work.The couplet:It refers to the poem which has the rhyme in pairs and each line in the iambic pentameter.

影响：Ⅰ.Chaucer praised man’s energy, intellect, wit and love of life.

Ⅱ.He exposed, satirized and lashed the evils of the time.

Ⅲ.He was the first great poet to write in the English language and exerted great influence on making the dialect of London the standard for modern English speech.

Ⅳ.He is one of the first English poets to use couplet and each line in

the iambic pentameter.

Chapter2 English Literature of the Renaissance

1.Humanism emphasized the dignity and potential of the individual and the worth of life in this world.

2.People no longer looked upon themselves as living only for God and they preferred life on the earth to life after death. Humanism expressed their admiration for human beauty and human achievement. Man could mould the world according to his will and attain happiness by removing the external checks.

3.Among the giants of the Renaissance were Thomas Moore, Francis Bacon,Edmund Spenser,Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare.

Thomas Moore

作品：Utopia乌托邦

Utopia：an ideal country. A dream “From whom according to whom according to his needs”按需分配。

Edmund Spenser

地位：poet's poet

作品：The Shephearde's Calender牧羊人日历

The Faerie Queene仙后

Christopher Marlowe

流派：university wits大学才子派