英国文学史及选读第一册

英国文学史选读第一册
Part I The Anglo-Saxon Period(449-1066)
The literature: The literature of this period falls naturally into two divisions: pagan(异教徒文学) and Christian(基督徒文学)
Form: Alliterative verse
The coming of Christianity meant not simply a new life and leader for England; it meant also the wealth of a new language.
Caedmon(开德蒙) wrote a poetic Paraphrase of the Bible.
The great epic—The Song of Beowulf : 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.
Part II THE ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD (1066-1350) Background: the Normans headed by William, defeated the Anglo- Saxon.
The literature:
The literature is remarkable for its bright, romantic tales of love and adventure. English literature is also a combination of French and Saxon language.
Literary work: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Term explanation:
Romance(传奇): Romance was a type of literature that was very popular in the Middle Ages. It is about the life and adventures undertaken by a
knight. It reflected the spirit of chivalry. The content of romance: love, religion, chivalry. It involves fighting and adventures.
Part III GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1340?-1400)
Geoffrey Chaucer, the “father of English poetry” and one of the greatest
narrative poets of England. Chaucer’s creative work vividly reflected the changes which had taken root in English culture of the second half of the
14 century.
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Chaucer chose the metrical form(格律诗) which laid the foundation of the English tonico-syllabic verse. And also found the London dialect as the English literary language.
Works: The Canterbury Tales
Term explanation:
Popular Ballads：The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad. Ballads are anonymous narrative songs that have been preserved by oral transmission, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth line rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families. Bishop Thomas was among the first to take a literary interest in ballads. There are various kinds of ballads: historical, legendary, fantastical, lyrical and humorous. The paramount ballad is Robin Hood and Allin-a-Dale .
Comments on Robin Hood: Robin Hood is a partly historical and partly
legendary character. The first mention of Robin Hood in literature is in William Langland’s The Vision of Piers, the Plowman.
The character of Robin Hood is many-sided. Strong, brave and clever, he is at the same time tender-hearted and affectionate. His hatred for the cruel oppressors is the result of his love for the poor and downtrodden.
Works: Robin Hood and Allin-a-Dale
Get up and Bar the Door
Sir Patrick Spens
PART IV THE RENAISSANCE(1485-1603) an age of drama and lyrical poetry
The 16 century in England was a period of the breaking up of feudal th
relations and the establishing of the foundations of capitalism.
Term explanation:
Renaissance:
1) renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the
14 century to the 17 century. With the development of
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bourgeois relationships and formation of the English national state
this period is marked by a flourishing of nation culture known as
the Renaissance. The term renaissance originally indicated a
revival of classical(Greek and Roman) arts and sciences after the
dark ages of medieval obscurantism(蒙昧主义). The greatest of
the English humanists were Thomas More and William Shakespeare.
2) Theme: the expression of secular values with man instead of God
as the center of the universe. It emphasizes the dignity of man, values of man.
3) Two major types: drama and lyrical poetry.
It affirms the earthly achievement, man’s desire for happiness and pleasure.
Works:
1. Thomas More: humanist,
utopia (give a profound and truthful picture of the people’s sufferings and put forward his ideal of a future happy society.
2. Francis Bacon: scientist and philosopher;
his works may be divided onto three classes: the philosophical, the literary, and the professional
essays
3. Thomas Wyatt: the first to introduce the sonnet into English
literature.
4. Edmund Spenser: The Fairy Queen
5. John Lyly: Eupheus; gave rise to the term “euphuism”,
designating an affected style of court speech.
6. Christopher Marlowe: the greatest pioneers of English drama;
made bland verse the principal vehicle expression in drama.
7. Robert Greene: George Green, the Pinner of Wakefield
8. William Shakespeare: one of the first founders of realism, a
master hand at realistic portrayal of human characters and
relations.
Hamlet ( Hamlet is considered to be the
summit of Shakespeare’s art. The whole tragedy is permeat ed
with the spirit of Shakespeare’s own time. Hamlet is the
profoundest expression of Shakespeare’s humanism and his
criticism of contemporary life.)
PART V THE 17 TH CENTURY
THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION
Literary characteristics in this period:
The 17 century was one of the most tempestuous periods in English
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history. The contradictions between the feudal system and the bourgeoisie had reached its peak and resulted in a revolutionary outburst.
(1)The Puritan influence:
medieval standard of chivalry, the impossible love and romances perished. The Puritans believed in simplicity of life. They disapproved of the sonnets and love poetry. The Bible became now the one book of the
people.
(2) the exaggeration of the “metaphysical” poets
Poetry took new and startling forms. Prose became somber. The spiritual gloom sooner or later fastens upon all the writers of this age. This so- called gloomy age produced some minor poems of exquisite workmanship, and one great master of verse whose work would glorify any age or people---John Milton.
(3) The French influence is most marked in the drama.
Rimed couplets instead of blank verse;
The unities, a more regular construction, and the presentation rather than individual;
The comedies are coarse in language and their view of the relations between men and women is immoral and dishonest.
(4) restoration created a literature of its own, that was often witty and clever, but on the whole immoral and cynical. The most popular genre was that of comedy those chief aim was to entertain the licentious aristocrats. John Dryden, critic, poet and playwright was the most distinguished literary figure of that time.
John Donne:
His prose style, involuted and ornate, cumulative and Ciceronian, is one of the more glorious monuments to the spirit of the early seventeenth century.
Song (“ Go and Catch a Falling Star”)
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
Sonnet: Death be not proud
John Milton: poet, Puritan, fight for human rights; in 1652 became totally blind.
Paradise Lost: it is based on the biblical legend of the imaginary progenitors of the human race---Adam and Eve, and involves God and his eternal adversary, Satan in its plot. It presents the author’s views in an allegoric religious form, and the reader will easily discern its basic idea--- the exposure of reactionary forces of his time and passionate appeal for freedom.
Sonnet: On His Blindness\
Sonnet: On His Deceased Wife
John Bunyan: spiritual independence, gave us the only great allegory. He was imprisoned for preaching without a license.
The Pilgrim’s Progress: written in old-fashioned, medieval form of allegory and dream.
Bunyan speaks in terse, idiomatic prose, and his characters are living men and women.
PART VI THE 18 TH
CENTURY ( an age of prose and novel)
THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT IN ENGLAND
The theme: social reality, common people’s life.
The enormous amount of eighteenth century writing devoted to transient affairs, to politics, fashions, gossip.
Enlightenment: on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then
progressive class of bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people. The problem of man comes to the fore, superseding all other problems in literature.
1.Joseph Addison, Richard Steele: the publishers of a moralistic journal The Tatler and The Spectator
These two magazines are the first important recognitions by literature of the special of the special interests of women readers, and also brought literature down to everyday life and kept it clean and wholesome.
The essays and stories of Addison and Steele, devoted not only to social problems, but also to private life and adventures, gave an impetus to the
development of the 18 century novel.
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Sir Roger是Joseph Addison塑造的经典形象。

2.Alexander Pope: “ whatever is, is right.(存在即是合理)”highest authority in matters of literature. He elaborated certain regulations for
the style of poetical works and made popular the so-called heroic couplets(five foot iambics rhymed in couplets)
3.Daniel Defoe丹尼尔.笛福
Robinson Crusoe: this book was one of the forerunners of the English
18 century realistic novel. But it was Henry Fielding and Tobias
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George Smollet who became the real founders of the genre of the bourgeois realistic novel
The features of his works: he is anti-romantic, anti-feudal realistic writer.He often use long sentences without strong paused to give his style an immediate quality, but the units of meaning are small and clear with frequent repetition so that the writing gives an impression of simple lucidity.明朗
4.Jonathan Swift乔纳森.斯威夫特
1）He was the most outstanding of the epoch of Enlightenment, and the most remarkable satirist讽刺家in the 18
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century who criticized the new bourgeois-aristocratic贵族的society of his age with mercy.宽容，he supports the conservative Tory. He ruthlessly exposed the dirty mercenary essence of bourgeois relationships.
2）works:
the tale of a tub木桶的故事is a satire on religion.
Gulliver’s Travels格列弗游记：he typified the bourgeois world, drew ruthlessly pictures of the depraved aristocracy and satirically
portrayed the whole of English State system. The plot of the book comprises the extraordinary adventures of Gulliver, descriptions of fantastic lands visited by him, their social systems, ways and customs of their inhabitants.
A modest proposal一个小小的建议：is made to English
government to relieve the poverty of Irish people。

强烈谴责了英国对爱尔兰人民的剥削和压迫。

The bitter irony of the pamphlet expresses swift’s great sympathy for the oppressed and hungry peasants of Ireland and his anger at English landlords.
5.Henry Fielding亨利.菲尔丁：the greatest novelist of the 18 century.
th works：
Joseph Andrews( first novel)
Jonathan Wild乔纳森.威尔德
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling弃婴汤姆琼斯的故事
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The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
Amelia阿米莉亚
Henry Fielding is direct, vigorous, hilarious and coarse to the point of vulgarity. He is full of animal spirits, he tells story of a vagabond life, not for the sake of moralizing, or for emphasizing a forced repentance, but simply because it interests him, and his only concerns is “ to laugh men out of their follies”. So his story, though it abounds in unpleasant incidents, generally leaves the reader with the strong impression of reality.
6.Thomas Gray托马斯.格雷：浪漫主义运动的先驱。

work：Elegy written in a country churchyard墓园挽歌：表达了对农
民贫苦遭遇的同情，歌颂了他们的质朴品质。

7.Oliver Goldsmith奥利弗.歌尔德斯密斯：He was born in Ireland. As an essayist散文家，he is among the best in the century. As a poet, he makes the riming couplets英雄双行体as natural and simple as his prose.
Works:
novel：the Vicar of Wakefield维克菲德尔的牧师
comedy: She Stoops to Conquer委曲求全
essay: The Citizen of the World世界公民
poems: The Traveler旅行者and The Deserted Village.荒村
8.Richard Brinsley Sheridan理查德.布林斯里.谢里丹：
Works:
The Rivals对手
The School for Scandal造谣学校：
The Critic
9.William Blake
Of all the romantic poets of the eighteenth century, Blake is the most independent and the most original. Blake is called a pre-romantic or a
forerunner of the Romantic poetry of the 19 century.
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Works:
Songs of Innocence天真之歌→first show the musical cast of his mind. Songs of Experience经验之歌→contrast with The Songs of Innocence They show two contrary states of human souls
London
The Tiger
The Chimney-Sweeper扫烟囱的孩子
10. Robert Burns罗伯特.彭斯：the greatest Scottish poets. Under paternal influence he learned how to teach himself(self-improvement). Love, humor, pathos, the response to nature, ---all the poetic qualities that touch the human heart are here; and the heart was touched as it had not been since the days of Elizabeth. Burns’ poetry is bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh of the Scottish common people
works：
My Heart’s in the Highlands我的心呀在高原，
John Anderson, My Jo
A Red, Red Rose
To a Mouse
Auld Lang Syne。