英国文学作品名字名词解释

Part One: Early and Medieval English Literature

What’s epic?

Epic is one of the ancient types of poetry and plays a very important role in early development of literature and civilization. An epic is a long narrative poem of great scale and grandiose style about the heroes who are usually warriors or even demigods. It deals with noble characters and heroic deeds.

Basically, it is a story about hero, more significantly, it reflects national history.

The significance of Beowulf:

It sings of the exciting adventures of a great legendary hero whose physical strength demonstrates his high spiritual qualities, i.e. his resolution to serve his country and kind folk, his true courage, courteous conduct, and his love of honor. In the poem, Beowulf is strong, courageous, selfless, and ready to risk his life in order to rid his people evil monsters.

Geoffrey Chaucer杰佛利•乔叟1340-1400

长诗：The House of Fame声誉之堂;Troilus and Criseyde特罗勒斯与克丽西德

小说：Canterbury Tales坎特伯雷故事集----英国文学史上现实主义第一部杰作

（他是最早有人文主义思想的作家，现实主义文学的奠基人Father of English poetry & Founder of English realism）(Boccacio 薄伽丘The Decameron十日谈)

The significance of The Canterbury Tales is as follows:

1.It gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucer‟s time.

2.The dramatic structure of the poem has been highly commended by critics.

3.Chaucer‟s humour: Humour is a characteristic feature of the English literature.

4.Chaucer‟s contribution to the English language.

Heroic couplet英雄双行体

Part Two: The English Renaissance (1550-1642)

Renaissance is commonly applied to the movement or period in western civilization, which marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world. It first started in Florence and V enice.

Humanism

According to them it was against human nature to sacrifice the happiness of this life for an after life. They argued that man should be given full freedom to enrich their intellectual and emotional life.

In religion, the H thinking was a relation against the narrow mindedness of the Catholic Church; they demanded the information of the church.

In art and literature, instead of singing praise to God, they sang in praise of man and of the pursuit of happiness in this life. H shattered the shackles of spiritual bo ndage of man’s mind by the Roman Catholic Church and opened his eyes to “a brave new world” in front of him.

Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599) The Fearie Queene仙后

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) They were predecessors to Shakespeare and were later called the University Wits（大学才子派）.

William Shakespeare莎士比亚1564-1616

“He was not of an age, but for all time.”

Shakespeare’s achievements: