英美文学作者作品

Epic: An Epic is a long narrative poem in elevated style presents characters of high relation to a central figure of heroic proportions and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race.

Ballad: A ballad is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the 2nd and 4th rhymed.

Romance: was a type of literature that was very popular in the Middle Ages.It was for the upper class and a long composition in verse or prose, about knights—adventures. Th subject matters is about the matter of Britain, the mater of France, the matter of Rome.

Allegory: An allegory is a story or descriptionin which the characters and events symbolize some deeper underlying meaning, and serve to spread moral teaching. Humanism: Humanism refers to the literary culture in the Renaissance. In the Renaissance Period, scholars and educators who called themselves Humanist began to emphasize the capacities of the human mind and the achievements of human culture in contrast to the medieval emphasis on God and contempt for the things of this world.

Sonnets: A sonnet is a short song in the original meaning of the word. Later it became a poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter with various rhyming schemes. Soliloquy: is a dramatic speech uttered by one character speaking aloud while alone on the stage.

Renaissance: is a cultural movement（the 14th to the 17th century）, beginning in Florence, Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe.

1.Goeffrey Chaucer ( 1340-1400)

the father of English poetry

The Book of Duchess《悼公爵夫人》, Troilus and Cryseyde, The Parliament of Fowls, The House of Fame, The Canterbury Tale

2. John Wycliff (1324-1384)

Father of English prose

Reform the church to away with the corruption and rottenness; translate Bible into standard English; maintain church must not interfere in temporal matters; fixes a national standard for English prose to replace various dialects.

3. William Langland (1330-1400)

poet

The Vision of Piers Plowman (takes form of allorgory but gives realistic picture of 14th century)

The Fifteenth Century

4. Sir Thomas Malory

poet

Le Morte d'Arthur/The Death of Arthur

Renaissance

5. Edmund Spenser

“the poet’s poet”

The Shepheard's Calender; The Faerie Queene

6. Christopher Marlowe

The greatest of pioneers of English drama in Renaissance

Plays Tamburlaine, «铁木儿»

The Jew of Malta, «马耳他岛的犹太人»

Dr. Faustus, «浮士德博士的悲剧»

Poems The Passionate Shepherd to His Love《痴情的牧羊人致意中人》

7. William Shakespeare

Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanism.

History: Henry IV (1-2) The Great Comedies

The Great Comedies：Mid-summer Night’s Dream 《仲夏夜之梦》

The Merchant of Venice《威尼斯商人》

As You Like It《皆大欢喜》

Twelfth Night 《十二夜》

The Great Tragedies: Hamlet 《哈姆雷特》

Othello 《奥赛罗》

King Lear《李尔王》

MacBeth《麦克白》

17th century

8. Francis Bacon

The first important essayist and the founder of modern science in England 1）philosophy: Advancement of Learning《学术的推进》;New Instrument《新工具》2）professional: Maxims of the Law

3）essays: Essays《随笔／培根论文集》

9. John Donne

Representetive of Metaphysical poet s Songs and Sonnets

10. Robert Herrick

Poet Hesperides

11. John Milton

Lycidas 《利西达斯》1638

Areopagitica 《论出版自由” 》

Defense of the English People

Second Defense of the English People

Paradise Lost (masterpiece)

Paradise Regained Samson Agonistes

12. John Bunyan

The Pilgrim's Progress（allegory and dram a）;the Vanity Fair

13. John Dryden

The most distinguished literary figure of the 17th century .

a critic, poet, and playwright

An Essay of Dramatic Poesy