英国文学复习总结

英国文学复习总结

2012级英语系张建红

Part one:Early and medieval English literature

1.Beowulf《贝奥武甫》------the national epic of the English people ,it is also the epic of the Anglo-Saxon.(P3)

2.The name of the terrible monster------Grendel(格伦德尔)(P3)

3.the most striking feature in its poetical form is the use of alliteration(头韵)，others are metaphor （暗喻）and understatement(保守陈述)(P5)

4The Norman Conquest （诺曼征服）marks the establishment of feudalism in England. (P6)

5.The romance(传奇文学)(P8)

The most popular of literature in fedual England was the romance. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero.

The hero of the romance was the the knight, a man of noble birth, skilled in the use of weapons.

It was written for the noble class(贵族的文学) Romances falls into three cycles : “matters of Britain”( adventures of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table),

“matters of France” (Emperor Charlemagne and his peers)

“matters of Rome”. (Ale xander the Great and so forth)

6. William Langland威廉·朗兰------ Piers the Plowman《耕者皮尔斯》(P11)

7.The ballads(民谣)(P17)

The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad.It is a story told in song ,usually in 4-line stanzas [ˈstænzə],with the second and fourth lines rhymed. It was written for common people(平民文学). The subjects of ballads are various in kind,as the struggle of young loves against their feudal-minded families,the conflict between love and wealth ,the cruelty of envy,the criticism of the civil war,and the matters of class struggle. The most famous ballads are the ballads of Robin Hood.

8. Geoffrey Chaucer’ Contributions

<1>Father of English poetry in 14th century.

Chaucer introduces from France the rhymed stanzas of various types instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse,especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter(the heroic couplet) to English poetry.(P26)

<2>Chaucer is the first great poet who wrote in the English language. His production of so much excellent poetry is an important factor in establishing English as the literary language of the country.He did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.(P26)

<3>the founder of English realism(P23)

The Prologue(序言)suppies a miniature of the English society of Chaucer’s time <4>. he forerunner of humanisim (P24 倒数第二行)

9. Geoffrey Chaucer died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey（威斯敏斯特教堂）thus founding the “Poets’ Corner”..(P20)

10.The Romaunt of the Rose(translated from Franch)《玫瑰传奇》

Troilus and Criseyde(adapted from the Italian)《特洛勒斯和克莱西》

10. Geoffrey Chaucer 杰弗里·乔叟------The Canterbury Tales《坎特伯雷故事集》

The tales of the Knight,the Pardoner（卖赎罪券者），the Nun’s Priest (尼姑的牧师)，the Wife of Bath,together with the Prologue,are the best of the whole collection.(P24)（了解一下）

Part two:The English renaissance

1.historical background

1.The Reformation(宗教改革)

2. the Authorized Version(钦定版圣经)

3. The Enclosure movement（圈地运动）4 The commercial expansion（贸易扩张）5 The war with Spain（与西班牙战争）6 Renaissance（文艺复兴）7 Humanism（人文主义）（P27-30）

2.Thomas More托马斯·莫尔Utopia《乌托邦》

Utopia is More's masterpiece, written in the form of a conversation between More and a returned sailor.It is divided into two books.(P37)

Book I of " Utopia" is a picture of contemporary social conditions of England.

BookⅡwe have a picture of an ideal commonwealth (Utopia )in some unknown ocean.(P37)

3. Thomas Wyatt(托马斯·韦阿特): He first introduced the sonnet into England from Italy.

Surrey(萨里)，in his tranlation Virgil’s Aeneid《埃涅伊德》,wrote the first English blank verse(无韵诗)，later masrerly handled by Shakepeare and Milton.

4 Philip Sidney(菲利普·锡德尼)Astrophel and Stella《爱星者与星星》Apology for Poetry《为诗辩护》

5.WalterRaleigh(华尔特·罗利) Discovery of Guiaana《发现圭亚那》,Historty of the world

6. "the poets' poet" of the period was Edmund Spenser.

The Shepherd’s Calendar《牧羊人日记》，Epithalamion《新婚颂歌》，masterpiece The Faerie Queen《仙后》

7. The Faerie Queen《仙后》（P42）

<1>Spenser’s grestest work,is a long poem planned in 12 books,he only finished 6.the work was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.

<2>each guest has a knight,each knight represents a virtue(美德),as Holiness（圣洁）,Temperance(温和)，Chastity(贞洁)，Friendship,Justice （正义）and Courtesy(谦恭).

<3>The knight as a whole symbolize England,the evil figures stand for his enemies,as King Philip of Spain,Mary Queen of Scots(both Catholics) or church of Rome.

<4>The thoughts of the poem are nationalism,humanism,puritanism

<5>The Faerie Queen is written in a special verse form ,consisits of 8 iambic pentameter lines followed by a ninth line of six iambic feet (an alexandrine亚历山大诗行),with the rhyme scheme abab bcbc c , the form called "Spenserian Stanza"(斯宾